City Council Candidate for District 2
Ursula Reed
A. Experience and History
1. How long have you lived in San Leandro?
I have lived in San Leandro for 14 years.
2. What is your current job and place of work, if any?
I am the Oakland Unified School District Coordinator of Truancy, Attendance, School Security and 504 (Reasonable Accommodations) plans.
3. What community, professional, and advocacy groups are you a member of?
I am a Commissioner on the Library Historical Commission, I am a member of Assumption Parish, United Administrators of Oakland, California Teacher’s Association, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., California Association of Supervisors for Child Welfare and Attendance, California Association of Library Trustees and Commissioners, Association of California School Administrators, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
4. With what political party, if any, are you registered?
I am registered with the Democratic Party.
5. In a one sentence answer, why are you running for office?
I want to bring a fresh, new voice to the San Leandro City Council one that is responsive to and reflective of the community.
6. What are the relevant skills, experience, or education that qualify you?
I have a college degree in a Speech Pathology and Audiology and have worked as an Educator in schools with parents, students and communities for 20 years. I have developed the ability to listen, build community networks and look for solutions that work for all involved.
7. What are your top five accomplishments of the past 2 years?
1. I worked with the Library Historical Commission to open the Manor Branch Library.
2. I successfully run the first all day classroom-based Truancy Center in Oakland, which often includes young people from San Leandro This effort coordinates the city services and the school district services to encourage school attendance, and reduce crime against and by juveniles.
3. I have written more than 50 plans for families of students with medical needs for reasonable accommodations to access the regular education classroom.
4. For the past two years and more, I continue to serve the children of Assumption Parish as a teacher, and a layleader.
5. I organized and led the parents of African-American students at Jefferson Elementary to form a new parent group, The African-American Parent’s Association (AAPA) with the goal of bringing up student’s test scores with tutoring for the students and educating the parents on State education standards.
B. Goals
8. What are your top 3 priorities, and what resources or programs would you advance to support them?
- I want to work with the police department to prevent and reduce crime. I would advocate for additional resources to be given to the police including a grants writer to locate federal funding for hiring more police officers, additional personnel and increased equipment.
- I want to create an open dialog between the City Council and the citizens of San Leandro that ensures that all of the issues are shared in an open forum and the community is made to feel welcomed into the Council proceedings.
- Though we are in difficult economic times, I would like to see a continuation of economic growth and development in San Leandro. With developers looking at beginning work in several different locations in the city; I would want to insure that growth is inclusive of the community as a whole.
9. Do you have any big ideas or visions for the future of the city?
San Leandro is a jewel that gets taken for granted because it is surrounded by larger cities like Oakland and San Francisco. I would like San Leandro to make a name for itself by enhancing the Marina, revitalizing our downtown and creating a sense of safety within our city limits. This would bring tourists here because we are a family-oriented town that people can come to and feel safe and at home.
C. Opportunities for Public Participation
10. How will you improve communications between residents and city government, and improve public participation in city government?
I believe that City Council meetings should be alternately hosted by each council member at a location in their district to increase participation and allow for residents in each district to be more involved and understand what is discussed in those meetings. I believe that a translator should be utilized for same time translation during the meetings. Also currently the city has “ACCESS San Leandro” which should be re-introduced to the public because people can get direct on-line ACCESS to City Council and other City staff. Concerns can be reported; from illegally parked vehicles, to damaged street lights and the public would be able to track how long it takes for the City to respond.
11. What will you do to get City Council meetings—and city boards and commissions—televised and online, including transcripts, for public access?
I would want to build a relationship with San Leandro High School and have the students work in conjunction with local media to get credit to work on a weekly broadcast of the City Council meetings.
12. What steps will you undertake to improve the transparency and quality of decision-making by the City of San Leandro?
I think there needs to be a streaming web cast of the council meetings with the ability to allow citizens to set up neighborhood web casts in various locations around the city.
D. Campaigning
13. List your top five endorsements.
Vice Mayor Surlene Grant, OB Badger, Former Councilmember, Denise Bownds Kaplan, Library-Historical Commissioner, Barbara Hamrick, Senior Commissioner and Leon Glaster. (For a complete list of endorsements please view on my web page www.ReedforSanLeandro.com which is currently under construction).
14. List your top five (in dollar amount) campaign contributors to-date.
$500 Rodney Reed; $500 Vernell Reed;$200 David Lozada; $100 Anthony Stratton; $100. Rosemarie Santillano.
15. What is your position regarding changing City Council elections from city-wide elections to district-wide elections?
I believe that city-wide elections ensure that the Council is looking out for the interest of the entire City and not just their district. I would like to see the elections remain city-wide.
16. What is your position regarding changing representation to be by race rather than by geographic location?
I am unsure about what is being asked with this question.
E. Schools
17. How will you promote joint collaboration projects between the city and public schools?
I would work with the School Site Councils, the PTAs and the Neighborhood Associations to identify projects in the district that have direct community benefits for both the city and the schools. I would seek grants and other funding sources that would require a collaborative effort from the City and the schools.
18. What do you see as the city's responsibility for the impact of new housing developments on schools?
The City must insure that the School District is aware of any and all proposed new housing developments. There are development impact fees that a developer pays to mitigate the impact of additional housing on the schools and community. Ideally these funds would go into building another school somewhere. It is becoming apparent that a new school may be needed in the near future. The City and Schools should work together to identify potential sites and plan for future development using the impact fees and other funds.
19. What was your position on instituting a parcel tax to help pay for ongoing costs for the San Leandro Unified School District?
I believe that a parcel tax that would benefit both the public schools and the City to positively affect citizens of all ages would be ideal. But, ultimately as a council member it would be my job to defend and define parcel taxes levied by the City and not by the schools.
F. Local Issues
20. Briefly state your ideas on how to encourage and protect local businesses development, including your position on enacting limits on chain businesses, and actions you would propose to accomplish your vision.
Local business development is market-driven . The Council can weigh in on the placement and location. The development of planning goals and objectives should be driven by working with the city staff to survey the community to find out what is desired. My vision would be to have a balance between businesses that are quaint and those that are trendy.
21. How would proposed to implement the Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) vision, given the insufficient resources and interest?
This is a complicated question with many different components. This covers an issue of housing, transit, schools, retail stores, etc. I would do everything in my power to insist that the developers have a mixture of affordable and market-rate housing available. This would insure the continual diversity in our ever growing San Leandro.
22. What are your thoughts and plans about getting a quality business in the old Albertson’s site?
I believe that the current plan of the Council to have a mixed use space with retail and commercial businesses on the bottom and offices on the top will bring quality businesses to the site.
23. John Jermanis has intimated that he wants to retire. How would you go about appointing a new City Manager?
I would propose an open interviewing process that allows for internal and external candidates to have equal opportunity to interview using non-biased committee comprised of City Council members, City staff and community members.
24. What would you do in office to address poverty and homelessness in San Leandro?
I would continue to strengthen and support the relationships that have been established with the non-profit and church-based organizations. Ensuring that the organizations that assist the homeless -- like Building Futures (Women’s Shelter) and April Showers are not forgotten and are included in City decision making processes.
25. What would you do to improve public transportation and make San Leandro more conducive to walking?
I would work more closely with our AC Transit representatives to make sure that key routes continue to be serviced. In addition, while the Links Service has been under scrutiny, in concept it offers what I think this city needs - an intra city owned bus service . We could broaden the service area of the LINKS to make sure all of our service and population centers are served. In addition, I would like to work more on the improvement proposed for E. 14th Street that would make it more “walkable” with the safer crossings, bulb outs and the like. The plans are there, now we have to get them implemented.
26. How would you promote opportunities within San Leandro for minorities and other historically-disadvantaged populations?
As a member of the Library Commission I have been in the position to be a part of culturally diverse programs and literacy programs. These are programs that acknowledge the language needs of the ethnic minorities of San Leandro and celebrate the diversity. I would ensure that San Leandro was living up to its pledge to be an equal opportunity employer, with open recruitments, and that all communication regarding jobs and community news was available in the majority languages used in the city.
27. Do you think the City Council should ban the use of styrofoam containers and plastic shopping bags in San Leandro? Why or why not?
Based on the fact that Styrofoam containers and plastic shopping bags are not biodegradable and are bad for the ecology, I would find value in banning them.
28. What would you do to decrease crime in San Leandro?
I would empower the community to increase the neighborhood watch program within homeowners associations and then to branch out by streets. I would encourage the addition of police officers for patrol shifts and I would look into grants from the Federal government to educate the community on gang awareness, bring back the DARE curriculum to the schools, fund additional school resource officers and additional equipment for the police department.
29. Briefly state your position on the use of eminent domain.
It should only be used for public benefit, not for the benefit of private enterprise.
G. Summary
Please state why San Leandrans should vote for you.
I believe that San Leandrans would be pleased to have a fresh new voice on the City Council. I have not been in the political arena all of my life, I have been in the trenches, working with the people and I understand what the citizens are asking for. I am the type of person that looks for new angles, new ways to get the job done with a different perspective, with the perspective of the average everyday community member that often asks the question "Why not?”
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