Tag: Podcast

[Special Episode]: The San Diego Union-Tribune County Supervisor Endorsement Interview

[Special Episode]: The San Diego Union-Tribune County Supervisor Endorsement Interview


 
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Part of the process of running for elected office involves seeking endorsements from various trade organizations, labor unions, business groups, community and advocacy groups, and news publications. Most of the organizations that endorse political candidates provide questionnaires of varying lengths to get candidates to explain their positions on issues important to the organizations.  For example, I was endorsed by Bike San Diego, it published all of the candidates’ completed questionnaires on its website here.

For the Union-Tribune, the editorial board interview included several journalists who write about various aspects of San Diego politics and civic affairs.  The discussion was pretty conversational, but was intentionally designed to help provide the editorial board with a real picture of where I stand as a candidate, what my background is, and what I intend to push for if elected.

The Union-Tribune also published each candidates’ answers to the board’s questionnaire, you can find my answers here.

Episode 6: Elevating senior services – a crisis whose time has come

Episode 6: Elevating senior services – a crisis whose time has come


 
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My foster/adoptive parents were much older than most parents because they started foster care after their own children were grown.   When my mother broke her hip a few years ago, I witnessed firsthand how fragmented and difficult our system of care for senior citizens in the San Diego region can be.  As a poor senior on a fixed income, my mother found it difficult to identify and access supportive services, and had to rely on her children’s help.  But what about seniors without family close by?

In this episode, I discuss ways that our region can and should increase focus on senior care and housing affordability issues.  I touch on elements of the domains of livability that senior advocacy organizations have identified as critical to providing for a dignified life in one’s later years, and point to solutions that can better advance the care and inclusion of our senior population.  The County of San Diego runs an Office of Aging and Independence Services that administers programs and services primarily funded from federal and state sources, but I think it can and should do more.

The critical takeaway is that our population is aging and, with limited incomes and crushing housing costs, we run the risk of creating a wave of severely challenged older adults that have significant and prolonged impacts on our region’s economic and social well-being.

[Special Episode]: Tony – Abuse, AIDS, and Compassion

[Special Episode]: Tony – Abuse, AIDS, and Compassion

(click the button below to play the Special Episode – run time 14 minutes)

 
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Growing up in a home with six foster brothers and sisters who regularly rotated in and out of my life influenced my comfort in fluid environments.  Over the course of my young life I shared a house with dozens of brothers and sisters, for varying periods of time.  Many of them experienced trauma and attempted as best they know how to cope with its effects while we lived together – that had a profound impact on me.  One of my foster brothers was a little boy named Tony, and his life left an imprint that shaped why I am fighting so hard for system change to support – and protect – our children.

In this episode I depart from the usual question and answer format to tell a story about Tony’s life.  I explain the growing pains of grappling with physical deformities that made every interaction for him very different than what most children experience.  Tony’s life was both bright and full of life, and unbearably sad and tragic. Having a brother who dealt with so much, who needed so much care from such an early age, implanted a desire in me to fight for a society that is more nurturing and more protective of our young people.

As I have grown up and reflected on the formative experiences created by having a brother like Tony, I also realize that we must step in and be intentional about breaking cycles of poverty and violence in the home if we are to take seriously a commitment to giving every person real opportunity. My life experiences created in me a desire for system change from the earliest moments before a child is even born. Tony’s best chance at a different life started with supporting his parents before he was born and we have proof that early intervention can prevent the life he was forced to lead. Tony’s life was an important lesson for me as I’ve become an advocate for children, but he was also just my little brother.

Episode 4: Your child, OUR future – Why the economy, homelessness & health all depend on a strong early start

Episode 4: Your child, OUR future – Why the economy, homelessness & health all depend on a strong early start

(Click the play button below to listen to Episode 4 – 15:17 min)


 
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The County of San Diego supported me from birth – literally.  I was born 10 weeks premature and the County’s emergency care for the poor kept me alive. When my biological mother couldn’t care for me, the County placed me in foster care, where I got nutrition, a speech pathologist, a child psychologist, and quality support. Now, I am a successful lawyer with a professional background in public health and I am able to give back to this community.

I am living proof that early investment in young people works.  Most foster children end up struggling, failing to graduate from high school, homeless or incarcerated. This is a cycle – for all children not just those in foster care – that the County of San Diego can break.

Our StrongStarts4All plan envisions a broad system change that starts with parental education through expanded home visits for expectant parents and goes all the way through mental health and nutrition support, subsidized transportation for internships and education and focus on helping young people move into the world of work.  The plan recognizes that the path to a strong workforce requires greater investment in our young people. We make the bold assertion that the County must set an example by providing its employees with 4 months of paid family leave, because parents are a child’s first teacher and those early bonds are critical. What is more, paid family leave better enables gender equality so that women can more easily ascend to leadership roles in the workforce and any parent can elect to care for their children.

While my life experiences shape my values and my belief that every child has a right to strong start and support, the scholar in me also appreciates that the economics research supports that this is the smartest investment we can make as a region.

Episode 3: The rent is killing us! Explaining Housing4All and our plan to address the housing crisis

Episode 3: The rent is killing us! Explaining Housing4All and our plan to address the housing crisis

(Click the play button below to listen to Episode 3 – 15:03 minutes)


 
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Summary of Episode 3

San Diego is a beautiful place to live. The weather is great, the people are friendly, and there is plenty of year-round outdoor fun to be had.  Add to that one of the top life sciences regions in the world, fun and economically impactful craft beer and hospitality sectors, and world class higher education, and San Diego is a highly desirable city to call home.  One problem. We have a finite amount of land, too much climate-crippling sprawl, and a growing population of residents. The result? Really, really expensive housing.

In this podcast episode, we explore the basic mechanics of how our high cost of living is driven by the housing market, and  specific policy steps identified in our Housing4All plan that we can take to change this.  San Diego will always have a weather advantage over most of the country. We can’t rest on that advantage because if more people in the middle class cannot afford to live here, there will be no one to build new homes, no one to work in our local industries, and no one to teach our children or care for our seniors.  A top-heavy economic structure hurts our long-term economic competitiveness.

You’ll hear in this podcast how I believe that specific steps, like overhauling County zoning, streamlining building processes and investing in youth construction workforce and paid internships can bring down the cost of entry level homes.  My campaign was also the first of any candidacy in the region to call for a long-term, local source of affordable housing funding because we recognize that the market simply cannot solve all our housing needs on its own – no matter what the textbooks might suggest.

As a construction and land use attorney, I have spent much of my career focused on helping get things built in the public and private sectors – so I understand the challenges and our Housing4All plan reflects my background and perspective. Thanks for listening!

Episode 2: Give me the basics – what does the County actually do?

Episode 2: Give me the basics – what does the County actually do?

(Click play button below to listen to Episode 2 – 17:07 minutes)


 
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Summary of Episode 2

The first question most people ask me when I tell them I am running for the San Diego County Board of Supervisors is “what does the County do?”  Now that I’ve given a little background about myself and my reasons for running in Episode 1 this episode is a basic conversation about what the County government does.

The County has many roles in our region.  One major role is in the social safety net and the region’s health. This includes:

  • Public Health (e.g. Hepatitis A, Flu Outbreak),
  • Mental Health (e.g. homeless support, youth support, psychiatric care),
  • Community Health (e.g. disease prevention, public safety), and
  • Social Health (e.g. early childhood development, senior care & support, etc.).

One of the largest parts of the County’s budget is in Health & Human Services – almost $2 Billion.  To put this number in perspective, in 2015 the City of San Diego’s entire budget was $2.6 Billion.

The County is organized kind of like a company. It is led by a Chief Executive, called a Chief Administrative Officer (her name is Helen Robbins-Meier), five business groups that function like divisions of a company, and a five member Board of Directors, called the Board of Supervisors.

The Board of Supervisors sets the direction for the County’s $5.8 Billion budget to impact everything from homelessness to land use (where you can and can’t build), mental health and social services, child and senior welfare, and a range of public safety and criminal justice issues.  It is a very big job that is well-served to have leaders with technical knowledge and experience in the key areas of the government.

The purpose of this episode is to give listeners a quick overview to understand what areas the County operates in and how it does the people’s business.  I will talk more about specific substantive areas in later episodes. Thanks for listening!

Episode 1: [Introduction] From foster care to attorney – luck, love, and the law

Episode 1: [Introduction] From foster care to attorney – luck, love, and the law

(Click Play Button Below to Listen to Episode 1 – 16:24 minutes)


 
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Episode Summary

The miracle of modern medicine means that a child born 10 weeks premature today in America has an incredibly strong chance of survival. In 1975, when I was born 10 weeks premature (at 2 pounds, 8 ounces), the chances were not so high.  It didn’t help that I was born to a mother with a disability and mental illness, who grew up poor in the segregated south, and lost her own mother at age four.

What saved me was the love of an incredible couple named Tom and Phyllis Passons, my foster parents (who later adopted me), the support of the San Diego County child welfare system, hard work and a bit of luck.  In this first episode of my podcast series I open up a little about what life was like having over 100 foster siblings.  I talk about how I ended up getting a Master’s Degree in Public Health – public health and human services is almost 40% of the County of San Diego budget – and then found my way to a legal career in a subject, land use, that is a major part of the County’s responsibilities.

From being inspired by my biological mother’s own bouts with homelessness on San Diego’s streets to being deeply committed to fighting for every child to have a strong start in life, this first episode helps explain who I am. It also explains why I’d leave the law and seek to improve the lives of millions of San Diego County residents.