CHULA VISTA MAYORAL CANDIDATE JILL GALVEZ
Chula Vista District 2 Council member Jill Galvez is running for mayor, the seat being vacated by Mayor Mary Casillas Salas. Galvez, 55, a self-described fiscally conservative Democrat, was elected to the city council in 2018. Prior to Galvez worked at AT&T, before being recruited by an internet company as executive vice president, then to another internet company in a partnership role, retiring from that firm in 2011.
“I have been a very good council member. I know what I am doing. I publish a monthly, very informative newsletter to educate all of Chula Vista. What we are voting on. What City Council is doing. I have the knowledge to do this job. The motivation to get the job done. After the November 2022 election we will have a new council. A brand new District 1 representative, District 2 representative. Our District 3 representative Steve Padilla is running for State Senate. We will have a new mayor and the most senior person on the council will be Council member Andrea Cardenas. There is not a training program to be a council member or a mayor. You must learn on the job. Be self-motivated, and self-driven. The mayor position is not a glamorous one. It is a position of hard work and tremendous responsibility. I am ready. I am prepared to do the job and I intend on being the mayor that Chula Vista deserves.”
Galvez said living in west Chula Vista, and walking around her district, she sees many young people moving into the neighborhoods and are raising their families there.
“Some say it is gentrification. I say it is working families wanting to own a home, have a backyard, live in a nice community, and raise their families here,” she said. “Yes, the price of real estate has gone up. I do not think it is because of the bayfront. I think it is because a lot of folks left San Francisco, or Los Angeles, wanting a better place to live. And Chula Vista is an ideal place to live.”
Galvez said with the university land in place, she believes an endowment needs to be formed, and work on using infrastructure funds, and federal grants, to take care of infrastructure needs.
“The most challenging part of a university is the funding and the academic program and accreditation of a university,” she said. “I truly believe the future should be a new university and the best way to start that effort is with an endowment. That is something that I am determined to do.”
Galvez said the infrastructure to support a university is vital.
Galvez said her future plans and hopes for Chula Vista is to ensure the city hires 40 additional police officers and that the city is on track to do so.
“But we have a long way to go in order to provide police patrols throughout Chula Vista and ensuring that we are responding to all calls,” she said.
Galvez said another priority is to get the SR-125 paid for by SANDAG.
“The only toll road in the county acts like a clogged artery,” she said. “And it impacts everybody. Not just Chula Vistans. It is imperative that that toll road become a free road as it will alleviate traffic on the I-5, the I-805 and our surface streets.”
Galvez said she would like to see grade separation at the trolleys, moving the trolley above or below E, H and L streets and Palomar because the trollies driving north and south are stopping traffic every seven minutes during the business day causing traffic congestion, driving safety, and air quality.
Galvez said one of her largest priorities is to keep neighborhoods safe and to improve transportation. She said the city sold several parking lots to pay back redevelopment debt to the state, and that northwest and southwest Chula Vista is getting denser as the state has allowed more accessory dwelling units to be built without local control, and the 2008 General Plan allowed Broadway to go to seven stories, and parts of Third and Fourth avenues to go four-story residential with extremely limited parking.
“I knew we were going to be transportation challenged in northwest Chula Vista, in particularly for our seniors,” she said. “The Norman Park Senior Center has very few parking spaces on site, so folks had limited resources to attend activities. Before I was sworn in, I contacted Circuit and asked them about their program. Then after I joined Council, I asked them for a formal quote for what it would cost to provide door-to-door free transportation in northwest Chula Vista.”
Galvez said she began looking for funding outside the city for the $1 million project, resulting in one of the six shuttles on the premises now, with the other five electric vehicles are at the dealership awaiting delivery with the service date set for June 13.
“When we start in a couple of weeks, everyone 55 and older in the service area, whether you live here, work here, or visit here, you can call a free door-to-door shuttle to drive you to your location by using an app.”
The shuttle program covers north of L Street to the SR-54, west of the I-805 to the bayfront.
“I am very excited for this program,” she said. “People are ready. People are excited, and I know this is going to end senior isolation.”
Galvez hopes are to extend this program throughout Chula Vista and eventually include students into the program. She said as the bell schedule changes next year, parents will be challenged to get their children to school safely, and this program would greatly benefit working families.
Galvez said in her first year of office, northwest Chula Vista was “covered head to toe in graffiti,” with 30 illegal cannabis shops, parks were run down and dilapidated with unsheltered individuals living in every one of them, and the city’s budget was broken with $350 million in unfunded pensions, and the city was facing balloon payments that were alarming.
“That is unsustainable when your discretionary budget at the time was less than $200 million in the general fund,” she said. “I realized immediately upon being sworn in that anything I was hoping to accomplish in the city of Chula Vista had to be done with grant funding. At the same time, we really had to tighten our belts and make a lot of painful decisions to restructure that debt.”
Galvez said due to the debt, the city was not hiring the number of police officers that she was expecting, which was disappointing, and that the Measure A tax promised more “boots on the ground.” Galvez said with the help of all the Chula Vista local labor unions, they all accepted a zero percent one-year salary increase.
“So, we could put our best, most conservative face forward to Wall Street as we refinanced $350 million worth of debt,” she said. “Because of all the belt tightening we did, excellent financial practices on the backend, the strong rigorous policy we built into our bond, and because we financed for 24 years rather than the full 30 years, we got a bond rate of 2.54% net. We are saving a minimum of $116 million.”
Galvez said now the city is doing quite well, tucking away funding into its reserves.
“Overall, our financial picture has dramatically turned around,” she said. “When you have a well run city that pays its bills and gets things done, you can deliver what residents expect. Safe neighborhoods, safe streets and sidewalks, and more police.”
Galvez said even with a limited budget she wanted to make improvements to northwest Chula Vista, so she independently sought out a source of funding to renovate Eucalyptus Park.
“It is a gateway park as you come into Chula Vista,” she said. Galvez said she was tipped with an upcoming state grant and with the Parks & Recs Department, applied and received a $7.2 million to renovate Eucalyptus Park and another $1.9 million to create Patty Davis Park.
Galvez said using Measure P funds, the deck expansion of the Civic Center Library was created, created a leash-free, fence-free dog park in Memorial Park. Work for Hope program painted the restrooms in Memorial Park and renovated and restored Hilltop Park restrooms and facilities and parks throughout Chula Vista.
An ethics complaint was filed against Galvez by Chula Vista resident Delia Dominquez Cervantes on Jan. 11. Cervantes accused Galvez of misusing city resources for personal gain by sending two newsletters from her city email address with links to her mayoral candidate campaign. Galvez stated in an earlier interview that the complaint was politically motivated, and she had done everything by the book. At the time of publication, the Board of Ethics audio of the May 12 meeting was not available, but in an email correspondent with Chula Vista Deputy City Attorney Megan McClurg, she stated “all Board of Ethics members present on May 12 voted to dismiss the complaint based on a finding that probable cause does not exist.”
UPDATE: Since the publishing of this article, Council member Galvez confirmed a firm date of June 13 for the start of the community shuttle program. In the original version, she stated a start date of May 8.
