Chula Vista City Councilman Steve Padilla is looking to remain at City Hall for another term serving District 3. Reelected to the council in 2016, Padilla served as mayor from 2002-2006, and on the City Council from 1994-2002. The 53-year-old Democrat said he wore many hats regionally during his time in and out of office.
As mayor, Padilla was in the U.S. Conference of Mayors, SANDAG board of directors and executive committee, and served on the California Coastal Commission. While out of office he represented Chula Vista on the San Diego Unified Port District board. He is the current chair of the California Coastal Commission, elected in December 2019. Padilla serves as the vice-chairman of San Diego Community Power, the community choice aggregator.
While not working in government, Padilla worked as a consultant with commercial property owners and non-profits advocating for changes in policy around environmental sustainability, transportation and access. He worked with cross-border regional binational economic development and served on a task force in 2008 on the Council of Foreign Relations that dealt with U.S. immigration policies.
“My professional background is in law and public policy and in my early years worked in law enforcement as a detective investigating child abuse and domestic violence,” he said. “I went to the police academy right out of high school before I went to college and law school.”
Padilla said District 3 has been a dynamic growing community for decades. He said as a child growing up in Chula Vista, most of District 3 did not exist. He said there are major projects he worked with for more than 20 years in planning.
“Certainly the Chula Vista bayfront project is very key, even though it is not in my district,” he said. “When I was mayor, City Council member that was my baby and we should be seeing some groundbreaking happening on a big component of that as early as the first quarter of next year.”
Padilla said the opportunity for a four-year institution of higher learning has been ongoing in his district and it a high priority as well as bringing new business into the city.
“We have made a lot of progress with that in terms of having the land, entitling the land, working with private sector and academic partners that were actively in conversations about trying to establish a presence of an institute of higher learning here,” he said. “I want to see progress on and continue to see commerce and jobs here. There is plenty of housing, but we need employment centers here as well. I am concerned that part of our portfolio is not as developed as it needs to be. And the COVID crisis does not help that.”
Padilla said he believes the City had done well stepping up to the COVID-19 epidemic and made access to information, testing, tracing, care top priorities, particularly with the underrepresented and underprivileged areas of the city.
“We have worked very hard to coordinate with the county to make sure that testing is available particularly because South County and parts of Chula Vista have some of the highest records of infection and transmission and hospitalization of COVID,” he said. “We have worked really hard with the business community by waiving fees and timelines allowing people to take their businesses out into the streets onto sidewalks and public right of ways for them to keep operating. Creating grant programs so small businesses can meet some of their short-term expenses and losses and really advocating to the county, state and federal government for CARES Act money that needs to strategically spent. For a while, the county was distributing money on a per capita basis and they were not putting that money to use in parts of the community that were harder hit and affected.”
Padilla was the first elected official in California diagnosed with COVID-19 in March. He said he was fortunate that he had some of the best care in the world at Jacobs Medical Center at USC.
“Not to be cliché, but it is very true in my case I was very lucky,” he said. “I ended up in intensive care for nearly two weeks and was on a ventilator for 11 days. I almost did not come home. In my experience it was an incredible intense emotional experience. It is very true that when you come close to leaving this world your really do reflect very deeply about what it all means and what you are doing with your life.”
Padilla said in getting a second chance it made him more determined to be a louder voice and make a larger impact. Not only in Chula Vista, but the region, the state, and around the country.
“It really gave me a sense of urgency and sense of importance to make every moment count because it can be gone very quickly,” he said.
Padilla said the county was a little slow to start in dealing with the pandemic, but overall believes they are doing a good job. He said supervisor’s Nathan Fletcher and Greg Cox were instrumental in coordinating the community, state and federal people in dealing with an understanding that standards, protocols, and getting information out to the community.
“They have been very open and out front,” he said. “There is always more as a region that we can do. I am a little concerned as a survivor about the coming fall and winter.”
Padilla said that he is not a supporter of the president, but the point is that the pandemic is not going to get better without leaders that believe in the science and follow the recommendations of medical professionals.
“I think it is sad and ironic that we have a president that has done the opposite and now he personally is potentially very seriously impacted by this,” he said. “It is very sad. It is going to get worse unfortunately unless we do the right thing before it gets better. We need to keep to the advice of the medical professionals and take care of one another.”
Padilla said he is “pondering” running for state senate in 2022. He said as a boy scout, he remembers the motto to be prepared and had a number of people tell him that he should consider the opportunity in the event it becomes a possibility.
“I want to emphasize that it is exploratory and there are a lot of things well beyond our control that would have to happen before I would decide about that,” he said. “It is important to look beyond the horizon and be prepared for eventualities. It is a possibility and I am being transparent about it. But my focus right now is helping Chula Vista deal with this medical and economic crisis and continue to push for the things that need to be done for this community.”
Padilla said the last thing the city needs is someone with some pretty extreme ideas about many things, including COVID-19, and has no experience in government in the middle of a crisis.
“I find the criticism that somehow, I am not committed, laughable,” he said. “I have given my entire adult life to this city and this region and will continue to do so.”
Padilla said the city needs to continue to find ways to help businesses by helping food providers and retailers get out into the public right of ways so they can operate at some extent, find more grant opportunities, provide information on best practices, and help provide personal protection equipment.
“We have to keep as many of our folks operating at some level until we get to a point where we can start getting back to a point of approaching normal operations in a way that is safe,” said Padilla.
