Two candidates aim to represent largest district in San Mateo County

In the race for District 3 of the Board of Supervisors, Menlo Park City Council Member Ray Mueller and San Carlos City Council Member Laura Parmer-Lohan are competing to represent the largest district by area. District 3 includes seven cities and 20 unincorporated areas, ranging from Pacifica south almost to Santa Cruz on the coast and as well as inland communities including Atherton, Portola Valley, Woodside and West Menlo Park. Mueller and Parmer-Lohan finished in the top two in the June primary and moved on to compete in the Nov. 8 general election.

Parmer-Lohan, who describes herself as a lifelong Democrat, graduated from the University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, and is a small business owner. She serves on the San Carlos City Council and the Peninsula Clean Energy Board, and her wife Kathy Parmer-Lohan serves as the executive director of the San Carlos Education Foundation. Parmer-Lohan says that her top three priorities are addressing the effects of drought and wildfire and protecting abortion rights.

Mueller is in his third term as a Menlo Park City Council member. He attended the University of California, Berkeley for his undergraduate degree and received his law degree from its Hastings College of Law. Mueller’s wife, Kristen Shima, is a principal in Portola Valley. Mueller says that his top three priorities are affordable housing, stabilizing the coastal economy and equity in education. Before joining the council, Mueller served as chief of staff for Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian.

Housing

Both Mueller and Parmer-Lohan say that housing is vital to the progress of the Bay Area.

Mueller asserts that one of his priorities is addressing housing in the various jurisdictions throughout District 3.

“A partnership with the county for affordable housing isn’t just giving money,” Mueller said. “It’s actually sitting down with city council members, sitting down with the community and figuring out, okay, what is that key thing that is causing this project not to work, that’s causing people to become inflamed and knocking that down.”

Mueller says that the Half Moon Bay City Council requested that he speak with the Diocese of San Francisco to negotiate affordable housing on a lot owned by the church. After explaining that building on the lot would bring in revenue, the church agreed to use of the land for housing, he said. While he says the county could also step in to bring county money to the project, it’s about “knocking down obstacles” first.

While Parmer-Lohan didn’t list housing in her top three priorities, she said it’s still a prime concern for her. She said that San Carlos has made housing a priority through her advocacy. Parmer-Lohan said that she would want to draw attention to the programs San Carlos has in place to progress housing as well as continue work on the Home for All program created by outgoing Supervisor Don Horseley and current Supervisor Warren Slocum. Parmer-Lohan has served on the steering committee of Home for All.

Measure V

Both candidates oppose Menlo Park’s controversial ballot initiative Measure V. If it passes Nov. 8, the ballot initiative strips the Menlo Park City Council of its ability to rezone any single-family property, forcing any development proposals requiring such zoning changes to win voter approval in a regular election. The measure directly affects plans to build housing at the former James Flood Magnet School site in Menlo Park.

Parmer-Lohan said she came out early in opposition to Measure V.

“We just have not kept pace in the last couple of decades with the housing needs,” Parmer-Lohan said.

She believes that the measure creates undue stress on a housing approval process that already has several steps. Parmer-Lohan said adding two years onto a process that residents may defeat at the ballot box would make it harder to build needed housing. She also expressed fears that the measure could be duplicated across the state.

Parmer-Lohan said that San Carlos loses 30% of its teachers annually due to high cost of housing, and she is concerned about the effect of initiatives such as Measure V.

“As somebody who has sat and served on the Home for All steering committee for the last several years trying to find ways that we can create more housing in our community for all income levels in ways that will fit into our communities and accelerate that, this feels like a step backwards.”

Mueller said that if the county had intervened early enough to assist the Menlo Park City Council in brokering a compromise on the Flood School site by opening a second access road, Measure V would not be on the ballot. He recently announced he is voting against Measure V.

He said that he doesn’t believe in “zoning by ballot box,” and that absent a compromise between all interested parties, he is opposed to the measure.

“I cannot vote in good conscience for Measure V,” Mueller said.

Despite voting no, Mueller maintains that the ideal outcome would have been a compromise between those who introduced the initiative and stakeholders such as the Ravenswood City School District that could have kept the initiative off the ballot.

Broad communities

Mueller says one of the top priorities is the coastal economy. District 3 encompasses a large portion of San Mateo County’s coast, including many unincorporated districts that have the Board of Supervisors as their only representation.

Mueller says that addressing the coastal economy requires a multifaceted approach, from addressing the drought to the creation of farmworker housing and agricultural distribution centers.

“We’ve got, really, seven to eight years left (to stabilize the farming economy) because there’s a generation of farmers that are old enough that they aren’t going to be continuing,” and their kids don’t want to carry on working in farming, Mueller said.

Mueller is also focused on coastal infrastructure. He says he aims to create a regional infrastructure plan across the county, where critical projects can be easily prioritized in the event of a budget surplus.

Mueller said if election, he would open an office on the coast, going there several days a week, so residents can meet with him. He wants to prioritize personal interactions with residents if elected.

“One of the things I love about serving on the Menlo Park City Council is I live on Santa Cruz Avenue, and people show up on my doorstep,” Mueller said. “And there’s something about personal relationship and service that’s really incredibly important.”

Mueller wants to have grant writers and planners in the Coastside office, where he says that coastal residents would get access to services on par with those available in the inland cities.

Another issue that Mueller said needs to be addressed is a lack of health care services along the coast. He said that the region is a health care desert that lacks an emergency room, and that the issue was brought to the forefront by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Parmer-Lohan said that she plans to put together an action plan if elected, starting with the quick turnaround issues that she can fix immediately. Parmer-Lohan plans to do this in conjunction with community members and third party partners throughout the district to receive regional expertise on the different communities.

Parmer-Lohan also says she wants to stay accessible to residents, giving out her phone number. She also plans to set up regular meetings with community members and groups to stay up to date on issues facing the district and progress on initiatives.

“I plan to take a very hands-on role and I plan to go to where the community members are,” Parmer-Lohan said. “So I expect to spend a lot of time out in the field, because that’s where I know, and I can learn and understand what the issues are and work with community members.”

Parmer-Lohan said that she could be interested in satellite offices if the community showed interest, but it comes at a cost. Since transportation is an issue in the district, she says she wants to go where people live and work.

COVID-19 recovery

Parmer-Lohan served on the economic subcommittee of the San Mateo County Overall Recovery Plan.

She says that small businesses have been deeply affected by the pandemic, especially by businesses that still haven’t returned to a fully in-person workforce. Work from home and hybrid work are preventing small local businesses from full recovery, according to Parmer-Lohan.

Parmer-Lohan says the county needs to provide small business owners with the support necessary to recover economically.

“We need to reimagine and support those small businesses and help them figure out how to how to repurpose their business,” Parmer-Lohan said. “As a small business owner myself, adapting is really important, but providing people with the tools and the know-how to try to figure out how to do that is really important.”

Parmer-Lohan also said that she believes there is a racial divide in recovery, and that the pandemic exacerbated existing racial divides. Parmer-Lohan is in support of the plan laid out by the county’s chief equity officer to combat racial disparity.

Parmer-Lohan says that even though it may take a little time, she sees residents wanting to come back together socially, despite some reluctance.

Mueller said that he thinks the way to fully recover from COVID-19 is to reopen socially, which will help the county recover economically. He said recovery begins with resident interaction services, while still monitoring levels of the virus by watching emergency rooms. Mueller said that Menlo Park’s reopening process has gone slower than he would’ve liked.

Other than social reopening, economic recovery means bringing residents back into the workforce in person, according to Mueller, as that helps to revitalize the economy surrounding the workplaces. He also said that mental health services are vital to the recovery of the county, particularly in youth.

Mueller said he opposed higher taxes as a recovery technique, particularly in light of higher gas prices and inflation.

Mueller said that he also believes the coast has specific needs, namely the lack of a distribution center. The distribution center would help offset shipping costs that are harming the Coastside economy as farmers can’t afford to ship their produce. Mueller added that child care is expensive across the Bay Area, but that El Granada along the coast has the highest cost of child care, and that it’s critical to create more affordable options.

Mueller said bureaucracy should be cut down so that it doesn’t kill projects before they get off the ground, and he commented specifically on the county planning department, where he said staff turnover has led to uneven interpretations of planning rules that can make outcomes unpredictable.

Environmental concerns

Mueller sees a variety of environmental concerns facing District 3, including but not limited to drought, wildfire, sea level rise, wind, heat and heat deserts.

Mueller said that one of the largest problems is during heat waves, many residents don’t have access to air conditioning, and on the coast many have poor ventilation. He said that the county needs to work with the Resource Conservation District (RCD) as well as water districts and local government to face these threats to residents.

Mueller named graywater recapture methods as one way to offset water usage, but he said that it’s only one element of a multifaceted approach that would need to be taken to address drought in the county.

For wildfire, Mueller said that there should be a focus on mitigating the effects, including limited escape routes in coastal cities as well as sheltering centers. Mueller said that the county has great Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT), and there needs to be a focus on giving them the necessary resources.

To address sea level rise, Mueller said that the county needs to contribute to the creation of sea walls and reinforce those that exist. To address heat, he said that under-served areas need to be identified and that there is a groundwater contamination problem on the coast for farm workers. Mueller said that there need to be cooling centers as well as a method of providing water to those who need it.

Parmer-Lohan is focused on the effects of drought and wildfire in the community. She says that recycled and reclaimed water should be used in irrigation, landscaping, agricultural areas, public spaces and farming.

“I want to make sure that we’re planning for future generations to think about our precious resource, water, which is life, and make sure that we’re taking steps to, you know, reuse, recycle what we have,” Parmer-Lohan said.

Parmer-Lohan says that she’s also highly focused on wildfire management, as she says that 70% of San Mateo County is open space and most of that open space is in District 3. San Carlos has used goats in the past to clean parks of fuels. There is also a wood chipper program in place that Parmer-Lohan wants to extend to other parts of the district to clear parks of flammable debris.

Endorsements

Mueller is endorsed by 11 state elected officials, including Gov. Gavin Newsom and Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, 13 county elected officials, including Rep. Anna Eshoo and current Supervisors Dave Pine and Warren Slocum. Mueller is also endorsed by a number of other elected officials, including fellow council member Drew Combs and a number of coastside council members.

Several organizations, including the San Mateo County Coastside Democrats, SEIU – United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW), San Mateo County Farm Bureau, and The Sierra Club – Loma Prieta Chapter. See his website at raymuellerforsupervisor.com for a full list of endorsements.

Parmer-Lohan is endorsed by a multitude of elected officials and residents, including State Board of Equalization Chair Malia Cohen, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, and former State Assemblymembers and San Mateo County Supervisors Rich Gordon and Ted Lempert, and outgoing San Mateo County Supervisor Don Horsely.

Parmer-Lohan is also endorsed by Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, San Mateo County Stonewall Democrats, Peninsula for Everyone and CAL FIRE local 2881. See her website at lauraforsupervisor.com for a full list of endorsements.

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