Santa Cruz mayoral candidates Ami Chen Mills and Ryan Coonerty recently met for one of their last public forums together before Election Day. The mood was cordial, but you could tell they’d been campaigning against one another for the better part of a year.
The pair emerged as the top two vote-getters from a crowded primary in the spring.
Coonerty had stepped away from politics in 2022 after 16 years at both the city and county levels. But he returns now, he said, because, “ I do believe that the next four years will have generational impacts—positive or negative—and the mayor is in a unique position to pull together all parts of our community.”
Chen Mills also believes the stakes are high, but she brings a different vision and background to the race. She is a writer and local advocate and said she wants to demystify government and reinject a progressive voice into city politics.
“We haven't had someone who will talk about progressive taxation or someone who will talk about renters' rights or someone who will talk about, you know, Israel, Palestine, Gaza," she said. "I mean, it's not like this has to be the central conversation, but we're just not hearing that voice.”
Chen Mills led the local Get The Flock Out campaign that pushed the city of Santa Cruz to end its automatic license plate reader contract after the data was accessed by out-of-state agencies. The incident sparked concern about access and abuse by federal authorities.
“We're in an interesting and very challenging historical moment where we have an authoritarian government," she added. "It takes a different kind of governing."
Coonerty agrees that with the current Trump administration—which he said has acted "unconstitutionally"—the Santa Cruz City Council did the right thing. But unlike his opponent, he still thinks the license plate readers, or ALPRs, have a time and place.
“If we get a different administration, if we can have data privacy, I think ALPRs in and of themselves are not a bad tool; not a bad technology," he said.
The pair also differ when it comes to homelessness.
Coonerty thinks the city should strive to eliminate encampments by offering people shelter, treatment or a bus ticket to family or friends.
"We have an obligation to offer that," he said. "They have an obligation to accept."
Chen Mills said those approaches are part of the overall solution. But harm reduction and managed encampments also need to be in the mix.
“You can have management from the city or from the county with leaders within the unhoused community," she said.
When it comes to housing construction, both candidates have come out against a development proposed on the corner of Seabright and Soquel avenues.
They both want new housing that aligns with a neighborhood’s character and said they will push state lawmakers to reclaim more local control.
Each candidate has also made a point of highlighting their differences and the debate has gotten heated at times. Chen Mills has criticized Coonerty’s ties to large developers and his previous work in predictive policing. Coonerty has knocked Chen Mills for her history opposing the Downtown Library and Affordable Housing Project and he has accused her of spreading false information.
“This campaign has been extraordinarily nasty and full of disinformation in a way that I have never seen in local politics before," said Coonerty.
Chen Mills said, “I feel like I'm just talking about facts that are important to people and things that have actually happened and not 'he's desperate' or 'he's prevaricating.'”
Yet even amid the ongoing disputes, some voters have made up their minds.
Santa Cruz High School teacher Mike Polhamus, who attended the candidate forum, said he likes Coonerty’s ideas for increasing the vibrancy downtown, like streamlined business permitting and free two-hour parking.
But he also thinks Coonerty is right for the moment.
“At this point in time, with everything that's going on with national and state politics, we need experience and hope in that position," said Polhamus. "I think that's what Ryan represents.”
At the downtown Santa Cruz Farmers Market, retired Cabrillo College theater instructor Dawn Grube said he’ll cast his vote for Chen Mills. He thinks she’ll make progress on homelessness and finds her to be transparent.
“I know when someone's telling the truth and when they're not," he said. "And it's really obvious to me that Ami Chen Mills is a truth teller.”
Coonerty won the June primary by a wide margin. But that was a five-way race. On Nov. 3, Santa Cruzans will have just two options and only one will be given the mayor’s gavel.
