District 4 City Council candidates answer questions | Local News Stories | #citycouncil

One of them will represent District 4, which encompasses the city’s southern stretch, from Kelly Avenue south to the city line and largely west of Highway 1. The area includes some of the city’s most expensive real estate as well as landmarks like the Johnston House and Cameron’s Restaurant and Inn.

Balson may be the least well-known to city voters. He is a Navy veteran who is an investor with degrees from Stanford and Georgia Tech, including a doctorate in engineering. He is on the board of the Pacific Skyline Council of Boy Scouts of America and is the president of the Ocean Colony Association, the homeowners association serving Ocean Colony.

Eblovi ran once before for council and has been involved in many civic endeavors including efforts to save the Main Street Bridge and the formation of the Main Street Bridge Preservation Act, and an attempt to re-envision the relationship between the city and the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office. He and his family successfully lobbied for the city to support the Black Lives Matter movement, which led the city to paint the slogan on a wall of City Hall.

Ruddock has been involved in local politics for more than 30 years. She was first elected to the council in 1991 and, after an 11-year hiatus, again in 2014 and 2018. She has represented the city on the Sewer Authority Mid-coastside board, for the Association of Bay Area Governments and other regional authorities. She was once an alternate member of the California Coastal Commission. Ruddock recently retired after a 21-year career as a legislative analyst for the state’s Coastal Conservancy.

Here are the questions and a distillation of their responses:

▸ Across the globe, people are worried about the planet they are leaving their children and grandchildren. What concrete, meaningful steps can the Half Moon Bay City Council take to address climate change here at home?

Ruddock said she was proud of the city’s electrification ordinance, which will require new construction to be all-electric in the future. She said she would have liked to have gone further but worried the electric grid and other aspects of the infrastructure necessary may not be in place. She also said not everyone was ready to go further. “You kind of have to meet people where they are,” she said. She also noted concerns about coastal erosion and said studies that project future consequences of climate change can be unreliable in a complex, ever-changing system.

Eblovi saidhe wants the city to do more in relation to climate change. “We have to set the standard we want the rest of the world to follow,” he said. He said he thinks the city can do more to encourage the use of solar and electronic vehicle adoption and criticized the final version of the electrification ordinance for giving the city’s largest agricultural business, Rocket Farms, longer to adopt requirements.

Balson said he would tackle what he called “low-hanging fruit.” He suggested the city encourage rather than mandate changes in energy use, noting savings that could be found in more energy-efficient heat pumps as an example. He criticized the city’s electrification ordinance, calling it an “abject failure” and thinks people will try to cheat the system to keep their natural gas appliances.

▸ Many Coastsiders would say traffic is the most pressing problem in and around Half Moon Bay. That has been true for some time. Are there innovative, achievable solutions to mitigate traffic here?

Eblovi began by saying, somewhat tongue in cheek, “My usual answer to the traffic question is we live in paradise, get over it.” By which he means he thinks traffic snarls are a fact of life on the coast. He noted Caltrans controls highways 1 and 92 and, while the city can influence what becomes of them, it can do very little with them. He does not think more lanes would help. Instead, he favors a protected path for e-bikes and other bikes as well as pedestrians that would run from Moonridge to Montara.

Balson said he would not push for more lanes on the Coastside’s two state highways. He does think the city could work toward a “full shoulder” on Highway 92 so that cars could pull over in the event of a mishap.

Ruddock: “I think we need a comprehensive approach,” she said, suggesting more work could be done to fine-tune existing signals and add bike lanes. She is optimistic that Samtrans can be part of the solution with “micro-transit” options. And she said there is growing interest in investigating the possibility of an air tram that could ferry visitors over the hill.

▸ Now that Half Moon Bay has gone to district elections, some are concerned that council members will be more concerned about their own neighborhood voters and re-election in that district than about the needs of the city at large. Is that a concern of yours, and how can voters be sure you will work for the good of all, beyond your district borders?

Balson was the only candidate who said he would eventually like to see the city return to at-large races. He also said he understands the benefits of running in one district. He said he thinks it’s less expensive to run for a single area in the city and easier to meet a majority of voters.

Ruddock noted that all of the issues that have come up in this race are citywide and that all citizens and candidates are concerned about the same things. She also thought she might have an advantage having won at-large races before and long been interested in the entire city.

Eblovi said he doesn’t think it’s an issue at all and that all candidates will have the best interests of the entire city at heart.

▸ We know government has a formula for determining when housing becomes technically “affordable.” Can you articulate what the term means to you and how the city can make strides to house people whose income might be too little — or too much — to qualify?

Ruddock said she would look at what teachers and hospitality workers and other can actually afford. “You have to tackle your housing issue that way rather than following some formula,” she said. Ruddock said the city was talking to partners like the school district about teacher housing at Kelly Avenue and Highway 1 and similar efforts with partners could be fruitful.

Eblovi, a longtime City Council watcher, says he’s seen well-meaning elected officials fail to move the needle on affordability and recognizes “this is not a trivial problem to solve.” He said there were “thousands of infill lots” in the city that could be restricted for various price points. He would also ask the water district to buy back water hookups that are now available on the private market at prices that drive up the cost of development.

Balson: The challenger said he knew the official definition related to a household’s percentage of average income, but said the real answer as to what is affordable was in the eye of the beholder. He said elected officials should actively work to approve affordable plans that comport with the city’s Land Use Plan and notes elsewhere private development must build 20 percent of new housing to affordable standards.

▸ When the city contracted with the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office for police services, in many ways it ceded its ability to influence law enforcement operations in Half Moon Bay. Are you satisfied with the Sheriff’s Office contract? If not, what can be done to make it better or to take another approach to law enforcement entirely?

Eblovi has been a strong critic of Sheriff’s Office policies and worked to bring transparency in incidents like the 2020 deputy shooting of Sandra Harmon. He said the city by law must employ a police chief who would oversee the administration of Sheriff’s deputies and is remiss to leave that authority to the sheriff. Eblovi was integral to a proposal floated by current City Council members Juaquin Jimenez and Harvey Rarback that sought to reduce harm deputies can cause. He also thinks the city’s Latino population feels at risk as a result of current police strategies. “This is why I’m running,” he said.

Balson supports the Sheriff’s contract, saying it saves the city money. He also supports the city’s CARES program that seeks

to de-escalate tensions by providing trained counselors to respond during some stressful calls that involve mental health challenges. He notes that deputies are trained to follow orders and says he has read the training procedures.

Ruddock, as a current council member, defended the move to dissolve the city’s police force and contract with the Sheriff. “I still think it was a good idea,” she said. She noted the Sheriff’s Office has more programs and initiatives than a standalone police force and has held down pension obligations. She looks forward to a new sheriff in January and thinks more can be done to reach out to the Hispanic community, and in terms of citizen oversight. ▪