To serve and represent

Earlier this year Steve Stenberg was lounging around his house enjoying the life of a recently retired firefighter.

Then one February day Stenberg received a call from Bud McLeory, a firefighter friend and an officer in the Republican Party of San Diego County.

McLeroy asked Stenberg to run for Chula Vista City Council District 2. A district that mainly covers central Chula Vista, Terra Nova and the downtown business district.
With no prior political experience Stenberg,63, took a week to contemplate the decision. He said he sought the advice of his closest friends and pastor, met with the union heads in Chula Vista’s police and fire unions, and consulted with political insiders seeking their input on his potential candidacy.

“Everybody said ‘You’re a first-timer, you’re not going to get past (the primary election), nobody passes (the primary) the first time, you’re going to fail,” Stenberg said he was told by skeptics. “They said ‘You’re probably going to come in fourth of fifth out of six people, just expect it and run next time in four years, you’ll do better.”
Stenberg ended up being the top vote getter in the District 2 race during the June Primary beating out Jill Galvez, Patrick MacFarland, Steve Castaneda, Jesse Navarro and Max Zaker.

The Republican candidate received 25.8 percent of the vote, making him one of two candidates –Galvez being the other — moving to a November runoff to represent Northwest Chula Vista.

Stenberg, who co-owns The Third Avenue AleHouse in downtown Chula Vista, said he ultimately made the decision to run for city council because he felt the district could use more small businesses like his. He said he has the knowledge and expertise to bring brick and mortar type businesses to Chula Vista, and if elected he said he will aim at doing so.

He said the type of small businesses he would like to bring to Chula Vista are ones that have about seven to 10 employees and that will help increase the city’s sales tax revenue.

Throughout the campaign trail, Stenberg was the only candidate out of six in the District 2 council race who did not publicly support Measure A, a half-cent general sales tax increase that voters approved in June to help with hiring more police officers and firefighters.

Stenberg did not oppose the measure, either. Instead, the retired firefighter took a neutral stance and said he wanted the voters to decide for themselves whether or not to support the measure.

“I felt that Measure A was a good measure but it would have been a better measure if it would have gone to a special fund and not the general fund,” he said.
When asked how he voted for Measure A, Stenberg initially said he voted in favor of it, however, he later clarified that he in fact did not vote on the measure and remained neutral.

Now that Measure A has passed, Stenberg said if elected, he would do everything in his power to make sure that the revenue generated from Measure A gets allocated to public safety as the measure states it would, and nothing else.

A priority Stenberg said he would have is to regulate marijuana dispensaries while properly taxing them.

“The city needs money and the marijuana businesses are here so we might as well regulate and tax them,” he said. “I’d like to see them get taxed and pay their fair share. Not gouge them, not under tax them, just whatever their fair share is.”
He said he wants to ensure a four-year university in Chula Vista becomes a reality, a project the city has long been working on.

Stenberg said helping the homeless situation is another item of importance to him. He said he will partner with nonprofit groups to assist the homeless.

The Stenberg name goes back more than 50 years in Chula Vista. Steve’s dad Sherman Stenberg was the city’s assistant city manager from 1964 to 1968.

Stenberg said he remembers as a child listening to the police scanner late at night with his father as he got updated with all of the recent public safety activity around the city.
However, Stenberg said he never envisioned following in his father’s footsteps of public service. Stenberg instead chose to enlist in the Airforce where he served for four years. After the service, Stenberg worked in federal law enforcement for the Department of Defense, Department of Justice and the Treasury Department before becoming a firefighter.

When Stenberg is not campaigning, he works seasonally for CalFire as a Defensible Space Inspector where talks to home and business owners from Jamul to Jacumba in taking a proactive approach in protecting their homes and businesses from a wildfire fire.

If elected, Stenberg said he would not continue working for CalFire on a seasonal basis.

Stenberg said the Chula Vista Police Department should not work closely with the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
On his free time, Stenberg likes to ride motorcycles, spend time with his grandkids and his wife of 28 years, Melinda.

Stenberg, a Republican, said if elected, he will do what’s right for the city, not what the party or special interests want him to do.

“I want to do what’s good for Chula Vista,” he said. “I don’t want to be drawn into the public line, I don’t want to be drawn to the union line, I want to do what’s good for the citizens and the city.”

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