Leticia Mungia is running for Chula Vista City Council District 3 against Michael Inzunza being vacated by Councilmember Alonso Gonzalez who was appointed after former councilmember Steve Padilla was elected to State Senate District 18 in the March primaries. Mungia, D, 53, said her interest in running for office is to protect Chula Vista’s quality of life. Mungia is the daughter of immigrant parents from Mexico, and said she saw how hard they worked to giver her and her sisters a better life. She said their struggles and sacrifices inspired her to advocate for working families, expand healthcare access, support small businesses, and foster economic development in Chula Vista.
“When I got my home here in 2010, the reason I got my home in Chula Vista is because I found the community to be a beautiful place to live, found it safe to be here as part of my community, and the resources that were being allocated to our community were something that I was interested in participating in. I am buying in the newer part of Chula Vista, so I want to make sure that our infrastructure and resources mirror the needs of our community, and we continue to maintain the quality of life,” she said.
Mungia said her philosophy is to make certain that everyone has a voice and is included in the decision-making of city government.
“As of November, we had over 5,000 newly registered in District 3,” she said. “That mirrors the number of new voters and residents in the city of Chula Vista in our new incoming communities, such as Escaya, Montecito, and Cota Vera. I believe every community in District 3 needs to be engaged and involved in city government, and that your voice really matters, and we are an inclusive government in Chula Vista.”
Mungia said she is endorsed by two of the “most incredible” women in South County, former mayor Mary Casillas Salas and Board of Supervisor Chair Nora Vargas, along with Councilmember Jose Preciado.
Mungia said with her priorities, the most important she finds when talking with her neighbors is that Chula Vista continues to be a safe place to live.
“That has been a common denominator when knocking on doors,” she said. “They want to be able to feel safe not only in their homes, but that we have the resources of fire and police staff available to be responsive when there is a need,” she said.
Another priority is acquiring more green spaces, said Mungia.
“That are available not only for us to use, but enjoy,” she said. “I was walking by Veterans Elementary School, and those are brand new homes in the sense of the past 20 years. That park, the tot lot is deteriorated, facilities are not being maintained, and my residents, my neighbors, are saying this is a perfect reason why they need me on city council. We cannot forget our parks. I am dedicated to support the park structure that the city has had. I know we have an allocation of parks built in, and more to come with the new developments in the Cota Vera community. But we must make sure that we are dedicating city resources to the upgrade and maintenance of our city parks. That is absolutely critical. Our youth, our toddlers, our children, need to access to safe green spaces and trails.”
Mungia said affordable housing in Chula Vista is critical.
“Chula Vista has been diligent in having its allocation of affordable housing and affordable housing components. That has already been established. You can see it in the master plan. You see it in the housing that is set, built, and planned for until 2025. My concern is that the infrastructure that has been currently dedicated is not mirroring the needs of our current community. Service streets and offloading vehicles redirecting traffic from our primary arteries of La Media, Olympic, East Palomar, these streets are overly saturated. As a council member for this district, I want to work with our SANDAG partners in making sure that the CA-125 is made available to residents in our community at no fee. We have paid for this road, me personally for 17 years in my career in the Miramar area, and paid for access coming and going, trying to regain 45-minutes of a better quality of life,” she said.
Mungia said many residents cannot use the CA-125 due to economics, access points, and is dedicated to having the conversation to ensure that all people have access, and it relieves the congestion in District 3’s primary arteries, providing all Chula Vistans with easier access to all the major freeways around Chula Vista. She said just the commute from communities in Chula Vista to major freeways are 20 to 45 minutes in high traffic hours.
Mungia said Chula Vistans have been shortchanged Mello-Roos Tax.
“One of the key things that my neighbors talk about here as I go from community to community, there are families that came to Chula Vista based on elementary, middle, and high schools’ statistics to schools, and being able to attend schools that had student-teacher ratio, ultimately provided by real estate platforms,” she said. “Residents have emphasized to me the lack of the middle school. We are owed in District 3. The Sweetwater Union High School District has been holding on to the resources and has failed to meet its commitment in building a middle school. Sept. 2, there was a horrific story about students at Rancho Del Rey Middle School had no access to bathroom for multiple days. As a longtime advocate for classified employees, I was most outraged that there were no plumbers, maintenance workers, or no custodian on site to create reasonable access to bathrooms until parents became outraged. The administration failed our students and our community on their promise. This is something I am passionate about. As an advocate, education has been an equalizer of access for me. I find it completely unacceptable that SHUSD has not met their commitment in building our middle school. I will continue to make this issue known because District 3 deserves to have a middle school. We have paid for it on our Mello-Roos.”
Mungia said based on her research on the records of the Republic Services Otay Landfill and Compost Facility, which has had numerous complaints about the smell from residents, her understanding is that the contract is in place until 2027.
“Cathedral Oaks Road is one of the roads that I walk and talk to the neighbors. They shared how horrible the scents are that dissipate on the wind factor and based on the time of day. I look at community organizations that do this work and analysis, so in trying to get resources to address this, I reached out to the Environmental Health Coalition and got on the radar to talk about getting analysis done, or redirection, to find a way to make this a better quality of life for my neighbors. I want to make sure that we are doing everything we can to be responsible neighbors and are able to provide any resources that we can locally to our residents who are impacted. I am willing to continue to look at this issue because the additional homes coming in that area, they literally just opened around 300 homes right by the landfill. There is a lot more work to be done in working with Republic Services and to help our neighbors in Chula Vista.”
Mungia said she is excited about University City.
“I believe in higher education,” she said. “My abilities are all rooted back in my education. I truly believe in and support University City university project. I think it is important. For us, it will be an opportunity to create jobs locally. I am also appreciative of Southwestern College’s Superintendent Dr. Mark Sanchez and his staff. They have done some great analysis. Their emphasis of careers and technology and work accessible to local attendees, it was the top 25 careers in the next 25 years here in Southern California. It is great if you are going down the university track, but if you are not, and going to pursue a trade, I am very supportive of that. These are good middle-class jobs that afford an opportunity for folks who live in San Diego and Chula Vista to be able to contribute back into our local economy, and provides opportunities not only to college age students, but our veterans, and those looking to change, or update their careers.”
Mungia said with her work with her juris doctorate, representing workers, working in human resources, one thing that shocked her is that west Chula Vista has all the educational development centers offered through the Employment Development Department, and east Chula Vista has none. She said she went to the city, the planning group meeting, and participated in public comment.
“It is wonderful that we have resources on the left, but we need resources on the right in District 3,” she said. “We have a changing workforce. We have folks that are retiring, transitioning out of the military. We want to make sure that our service men and women that served our country also have a job opportunity that they can transition into. It is an exciting time to keep jobs local here in Chula Vista, but also to be able to have the opportunity to provide jobs. It will minimize impacts to our environment, to make sure there are less cars on the road and create a better quality of life to our families. This is a wonderful opportunity all around.”
