One of the most contentious local election races is for District 2 Supervisor in Santa Cruz County, where longtime incumbent Zach Friend opted against seeking a fourth term. Running to replace him are Capitola Mayor Kristen Brown and Kimberly De Serpa, a Pajaro Valley Unified School District board member.
Reporter Jesse Kathan of Santa Cruz Local, who has interviewed both candidates and surveyed voters in the district, spoke with KAZU's Scott Cohn about the race.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
Scott Cohn: Tell me a little bit about the district, and what some of the issues are at stake.
Jesse Kathan: District 2 spans a pretty wide area. It comes up to Capitola and then it's going across Aptos, Rio Del Mar and then into the northern portion of Watsonville. And we did some surveys and interviews about what are the important issues for people in this election. And we heard that people want affordable housing. They want to know how people are going to help make rents more affordable for people. They want to know how we're going to have more alternative transportation for bike paths and sidewalks. And they wanted to know what supervisors are going to do to address homelessness. Watsonville, as of the most current homelessness count, had a 60% increase over last year. So I think that's at the top of a lot of people's minds.
SC: So, let’s talk about the two candidates, both of whom have some relevant experience. Who are they and how might they differ?
JK: Kristen Brown is the Mayor of Capitola and she has sat on city council since 2016. And in that capacity, she's also sat on a number of advisory boards that affect various issues around the county. And she's sat on the Regional Transportation Commission, which sets policy on things like spending money for alternative transportation and for the rail trail.
Kim De Serpa is a longtime (board) member of the Pajaro Valley Unified School District. She also is a social worker that works in a nearby hospital. And so, I asked both of these candidates what they see as the major differences between them. And what Brown said is, she has all this policy work that De Serpa may not have, getting really deep into the housing issues, the transportation issues, the homelessness issues in a really deep sense.
When I talked to De Serpa, the quote was something like, Brown knows all this stuff about policy. I know how policy affects people in the real world. And from her experience in education, her experience as a social worker, helping connect people to health care and to affordable housing, and as a rural resident, she told me, I have firsthand experience with power outages and home insurance and all of these issues that affect rural residents in this district.
Brown is endorsed by Santa Cruz YIMBY, Yes In My Backyard, which is a pro-housing group. So, they believe that she will promote the building of more housing. And she's also been endorsed by SEIU, and a couple of other local unions. And Kim De Serpa has been endorsed by a couple of former mayors of Capitola, Sam Storey, Gayle Ortiz and former supervisor John Leopold.
SC: This district was represented for a long time by Zach Friend, who's not standing for reelection. Do either of these candidates align more with Friend or differ in any way?
JK: Zach Friend has not endorsed either of these candidates. What I will say is that a major flash point for a lot of people is around the Santa Cruz branch rail line, and whether or not, or to what extent, the county is pursuing a train or passenger rail along that line. And Zach Friend, because of where he owns property, has had to recuse himself from all votes related to that line. His successor will not have to recuse herself. So that would be a big change to the dynamic of the board of supervisors, potentially.
SC: And their views on that particular issue, which is, as you said, a big flash point in the county and in this district in particular, their views differ quite a bit, don't they?
JK: When I asked De Serpa about this, she did not say she was against the rail altogether, but she said she had major concerns about the viability of the project in terms of the spending on it, the environmental impacts and whether people would actually use a train.
By contrast, Kristen Brown, earlier in her tenure on the Capitola City Council, she was more critical of a train. But in recent years, she's become a full-fledged supporter of it. She attributed that to the 2021 Measure D, in which the county resoundingly voted down a measure that would have essentially signaled the county's opposition to a rail line. And so she said the voters want this, and so I'm going to support this. And that has major significance for District 2, specifically because, in the city of Capitola, the Capitola trestle, which goes across Soquel Creek, would have to be replaced in order to support a train. And people have a big attachment to that trestle, and many of them don't want to see that replaced. So that is a pretty contentious issue.
SC: Suffice it to say that there are a lot of pivotal issues on the County Board’s plate, and this becomes a pivotal position, District 2, that hasn’t been open in quite awhile.
JK: Yeah, I mean, the Board of Supervisors really has such a big role in where the county is going. Housing, homelessness policy—you know, they are the body that’s directing where all this state funding is going. They are responsible for all the road repair, which is a huge issue, especially in the rural parts of the county. And so, yeah, I think whoever is in this seat is going to have a huge hand in what that district looks like over the coming years.
Read Santa Cruz Local's complete profile of the District 2 race here.
Correction: A previous version of this article misstated Kimberly De Serpa's position on affordable housing. De Serpa told KAZU that while she believes there are adequate protections for tenants already in place, she supports California Proposition 33 on the November ballot, which would allow local governments to enact rent control measures.
