Vallejo supervisor candidates stake out positions on public safety, homelessness, Fairgrounds site

VALLEJO – Solano County Supervisor candidates Cassandra James and Michael Wilson showed that they are not afraid to agree on some issues but key differences emerged in their responses to questions on public safety and homelessness in a forum at Sir Winston Financial Center Monday night. 

The two candidates are running for the District 1 seat vacated by Supervisor Erin Hannigan, who declined to run again this year. 

James, a senior community development strategist for San Francisco Mayor London Breed, took a decisive stance on several questions regarding public safety and police staffing. She said that although the issue is nuanced, it is also personal to her because she is raising two Black sons. She said that she would use her influence as supervisor to pressure the Vallejo Police department to complete long overdue state Department of Justice reforms. 

Special coverage: March 5 primary election in Solano County

A statewide primary election will be held on March 5, which could decide the winning candidates for three seats on the Solano County Board of Supervisors, will determine the fate of a Benicia school bond and two tax measures and will narrow the field of candidates for state senate and

The Vallejo SunScott Morris

An audience member asked whether each candidate would vote to support an oversight body for the Solano County Sheriff’s Office to monitor concerns over use of force and deputy connections to far-right groups. 

Wilson, a former Vallejo City Council member and district representative in Hannigan’s office, noted that the sheriff is an elected position and said, “the Board of Supervisors has a role to represent the community and all the employees of the county, including the public safety officers.”

“We need to have opportunities and rules and systems in place so that people feel safe, so that there's not racism and hatred coming from the sheriff's department or from any department of the county,” he said. “But, I think between the Sheriff and the Solano County Board of Supervisors, we should address those situations through those mechanisms.”

In contrast to Wilson, James said that she would vote for an oversight body. “There should be sheriff’s oversight in our county, because we need to make sure that they're accountable to who they're supposed to protect and serve,” James said. “And it's not for the few, it's all of us that they're supposed to protect and serve. No citizen, no resident here, should have to hesitate to call the sheriff or call the police.”

Several questions addressed homelessness and behavioral health. While both candidates agreed that services in these areas should be prioritized, the two candidates highlighted different aspects of the issue.

“We need to balance homelessness solutions so that the homeless aren't reducing the value of people's homes in Vallejo,” Wilson said. “We can't just have our city taken over by people living on the street and leaving garbage on the streets, we need to find a way to help them to meet these homeless people where they are to provide them the services they need and help them find a place [with a roof] over their head.”

James advocated for aggressively pursuing housing and behavioral health grants “to make sure that we have addressed our housing solutions and it's not just people laying in the streets.” 

“It has to be the partnership between county staff and city staff to apply for the dollars,” James said. “But when we do apply, when we get those dollars, we need to make sure that we have the organization within the county that has the capacity in order to implement how those dollars are going to be used.”

Moderator Tara Beasley-Stansberry asked the candidates to describe their vision for the Solano County fairgrounds, which the county has been seeking to develop for years. Both candidates supported the idea of a library and a hub for reliable, effective transit in the area but James said she has concerns as a resident of the Country Club Crest neighborhood, which lies just across Highway 37 from the fairgrounds.

“I want to make sure that the majority Black and brown neighborhoods there stay intact, and that there is no displacement of that community,” James said. “A lot of people in the immediate neighborhood do not even get to enjoy [Six Flags Discovery Kingdom]. We enjoy the traffic, we enjoy the decrease in pedestrian safety. We don't get to enjoy the fun parts.”

James said that she supports accessible open space at the location and that she would work to ensure that there is robust community input on any projects in the area.  

Wilson said that he would like to see “opportunities for business innovation, food trucks, space where someone could open a restaurant and grow clientele.” He envisioned restaurants alongside an open space, a community multipurpose room open year-round and a transit center with routes connecting to locations across Solano County as well as within the city of Vallejo. 

Regarding California Forever, the controversial plan to build a new city between Fairfield and Rio Vista, Beasley-Stansberry asked the Candidates to describe how they see the district benefiting from California Forever if a voter initiative passed and the project were to go forward. 

Wilson said he would not support the project if it was in any way going to affect the mission of Travis Air Force Base. “We in Vallejo know what it's like to lose Mare Island,” he said. “Losing Travis Air Force Base would be a detriment to every citizen of this county.” 

Wilson said he opposed creating a Silicon Valley look-alike that attracts wealthy people and displaces the county’s residents, but was open to the project if it enhances the cities in Solano County. 

James also said that she wouldn't rule out the proposal but she was even less optimistic about potential benefits.

“They came into this project with the lack of transparency and a lack of accountability,” she said. “I just want to make sure that everyone in the county, including our generational farmers, including our agriculture, including our urban folks, just have access to equal resources here in this county and with the California Forever project – it wouldn't be a benefit, I don't see [one] right now for Vallejo.”

The forum was organized by the non-partisan group Voter’s Voice of Solano County which is a collaboration of labor, business, and community leaders, according to construction labor representative Walter Robinson, who is a member of the group.

On Feb. 17, Voter’s Voice will hold a forum with candidates for the District 11 seat in the California State Assembly. The group also plans to hold a discussion of Benicia’s hotel occupancy tax measure and public safety and essential services sales tax measure but the date of that event is not yet set.  

Those interested in further updates can go to the Voters Voice of Solano County Facebook page. A full video of last night's forum can be viewed on the facebook page and future events will be livestreamed on the Voters Voice YouTube channel.