Kristen Brown to Run For Supervisor

By Jondi Gumz

On Aug. 7, Capitola Vice Mayor Kristen Brown declared her candidacy for the Second District seat on the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors, currently held by Zach Friend, who is not running for another term.

Brown, 36, is a two-term City Council member who has been involved in government since 2012, when she became an aide to U.S. Rep Sam Farr for four years.

A fourth-generation Santa Cruz County resident, she has a bachelor’s degree from CSU Monterey Bay and a master’s degree in public administration from CSU Northridge.

She joined the Silicon Valley Leadership Group in 2019, and is currently vice president of government relations.

She has deep roots in Capitola, where her grandfather Herb Ross spent 28 years with the Capitola Police Department and is remembered every year when the Herb Ross Community Achievement Award is presented.

“The top issues I see in the 2nd District, and throughout the County, are housing,

“High School Construction” from page 6

“Everyone I looked up to highly suggested the class,” Caput said, “and it was one of the best decisions I have made. That class showed me more about the real world than any other.”

Caput credits teacher David Patino with giving him the foundation to secure his internship in the Small Tools Program at Granite, where he will work while attending Cabrillo College.

Granite’s Ashley Stinson said partnering with CTE benefits local businesses and industries by ensuring students have the opportunities, resources, and experiences they need to succeed in their chosen careers.

“We are helping to advance new options in education and work-based transportation, and climate change,” she said. “These are interrelated issues that we need to address comprehensively. Being the most expensive housing market in the Country is driving more people away from our area, causing more people to commute further to get to where they need to work and play, and leading to increased greenhouse gas emissions. These issues are impacting the quality of life in our otherwise ideal community.”

Housing is an issue that affects her personally.

“I am a renter in Capitola Village,” she said. “In the last 7 years that I have been on Capitola City Council, I have had to move twice. Both times, I felt the concern that comes with wondering if you will be able to find housing within your price range, especially since I had to find a place within the small footprint of Capitola city limits in order to stay on City Council.”

She added, “I have seen my parents, my sister and her family, and several learning that ready students for the highskill jobs that we and other employers are eager to fill here in the Pajaro Valley,” she said.

Julie Edwards, CTE coordinator for PVUSD, said the program will soon be reaching out to seek more partners.

“Local companies and organizations who become CTE partners not only enrich student learning, they gain connections to talented, motivated young people who may one day be their employees,” she said. n •••

For more about Pajaro Valley Education Foundation see https://pvef.net/

For more about Granite Construction see www.graniteconstruction.com

For more about CTE, contact Julie Edwardsb at julie_edwards@pvusd.net friends, relatives, and neighbors move hours away in order to find a more affordable housing market. I want to work towards advancing solutions that allow our locals to remain local.”

As for ideas, she said, “I am interested in focusing on increased affordable housing production, preservation of current affordable housing stock, safeguarding rental assistance, and other housing protections, investing in our transportation and transit systems, and mitigating the impacts of climate change that impact all areas of our region.”

She began these efforts with her election to the Capitola City Council in 2016.

She is vice chair of the Santa Cruz Metro Transit District, which this summer began outreach to the public to “reimagine” service and double ridership in five years.

She is vice chair of the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission, which in April broke ground for auxiliary lanes and a bus-on-shoulder program (with an overcrossing for Mar Vista) in an effort to reduce Highway 1 congestion for 100,000 vehicles.

During her time as chair of the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments, she led the Regional Housing Needs Assessment process by which each local government is given quotas for housing production.

She also is an active member of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Foundation Advisory Committee. She supports voluntary vessel speed reduction programs in the underwater national park to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“Encouraging young people, especially young women, to get involved in local government is incredibly important to me,” she said. “In my first year on City Council, I successfully advocated for adding student seats to our city boards and commissions. I’d like to see more student involvement on county commissions also.”

“Kristen Brown” page 11

Plenty of Free Customer Parking

Wilder Associates Inc.

Property Management Specialists 662-0291

Kumon Math & Reading Center

Learning for the Long Run 508-8200

Village Liquors

For All Your Beverage Needs 688-5691

Epicenter Cycling

Trek Bicycles for All Types of Riders 662-8100

Dentistry

“Mountain Lions” from page 5

In California, “hobby farmers” or landowners with small numbers of livestock are considered the primary threat to mountain lions (Benson et al., 2024) due to inadequate protective measures against predation from wildlife. This emphasizes the need for proactive measures to safeguard domesticated animals and promote coexistence.

Protect pets like cats and small dogs by keeping them indoors at night, when mountain lions are most active. For small livestock such as sheep and goats, predator-proof pens provide a secure space during the night.

While mountain lions are primarily nocturnal, the level of risk may vary depending on location, habitat, and specific threats.

Collaboration between organizations like True Wild and Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue has resulted in innovative solutions, such as the development of automated pen systems that enable people to secure their farm animals remotely.

With these efforts, we can foster harmonious coexistence between humans and wildlife in the San Francisco North Bay region.

Puma-proof pen

Sonoma County Wildlife Rescur has created a 3-minute video at https:// scwildliferescue.org/puma-proof-pen to show how to build a puma-proof pen.

The video points out that a mountain lion can jump 15 feet high, and advises people keep their sheep and goats in an enclosure at night.

While mountain lions are primarily nocturnal, the level of risk may vary depending on location, habitat, and specific threats.

The recommendation is to wrap the pen with shade cloth and top it with corrugated roofing, filling in gaps with hardware cloth. n

“Friend” from page 8

“We should always strive to amplify our voice at the state and federal level,” Friend said. “We have local challenges of national importance and local solutions with national impacts — the more we can create our future rather than react to it the better off our region will be.”

Locally, Friend led efforts to remodel Seascape Park and Hidden Beach Park, build and provide bike and skate opportunities at Seacliff Village Park and Pinto Lake Park and add new fully-accessible park features to multiple parks throughout the Second District.

This year, the largest investment in over 20 years will be made in the baseball fields at the Polo Grounds in Aptos, providing better playing opportunities for youth and sports teams.

During the Covid-19 pandemic emergency, he hosted weekly virtual town halls with experts to provide information for constituents and answer their questions.

He spearheaded the effort to upgrade and rename Willowbrook Park in honor of Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller, who died on duty in 2020, with regular updates in Aptos Times on the fundraising efforts to pay for the project. Major work is now underway.

Thoughtful and Inclusive

Michael Watkins

He also pushed to create Seacliff Village Park and was a major supporter to upgrade libraries in La Selva Beach, Capitola, and Aptos, where the newly built library is about to open.

Friend prioritized investments in parks and youth activities and to improve public spaces like the not yet open government center in West Marine’s former headquarters in Watsonville.

“Whether it was the creation of the new Mid-County Public Safety Service Center in Aptos, working to save Watsonville Hospital from closure or the construction of the new South County

Government Center, my goal has been to ensure that areas of historic underinvestment in county services — like the Mid and South County — received equitable access and resources,” Friend said.

Friend is on state and national commissions. He chairs the California State Association of Counties Health and Human Services Committee, with responsibility for advocating on behalf of California’s 58 counties on issues related to behavioral health services, public health and homelessness.

He’s on the National Association of Counties Executive Committee where

A Person Who Sees the Big Picture

John & Karen Hibble he has advocated in Washington, DC, for transportation, rural broadband and flood-protection.

Regionally, he chairs the Monterey Bay Air Resources Board, the Pajaro Regional Flood Management Agency, and co-chairs the Oral Health Access Santa Cruz County board.

He is on the Criminal Justice Council, Library Financing Authority, Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission, Santa Cruz County Sanitation District, Santa Cruz Mid-County Water Agency, Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO), and Santa CruzMonterey-Merced Managed Medical Care Commission.

Before his election as supervisor, Supervisor Friend spent eight years as a crime analyst and spokesman for the Santa Cruz Police Department.

His 2013 book “On Message: How a Compelling Narrative Will Make Your Organization Succeed” was an Amazon. com best-seller in the marketing category.

“We have a lot of great things left to accomplish in the next 17 months,” Friend said. “I am excited to stay actively engaged locally and keep contributing to our community in any way possible, well beyond my term.” n

Seacliff, the installation of the roundabout in the Rio Del Mar flats and pushed for solutions to the flooding in that area.

Retired superintendent, county Office of Education

Ihavehad the pleasure of working with Zach even before he was elected to the Board of Supervisors representing the 2nd district. I’ve always found him to be both thoughtful and inclusive. He handled controversy with grace and class and always listened to both sides of controversial issues before making a decision.

He was strong advocate for public education and Juvenile Justice reform both here and in Sacramento. I had the honor of representing him in the 2020 redistricting process and saw firsthand how he created space for all points of view.

I found him to be courageous and passionate about tackling and solving environmental issues, the unhoused population dilemma and creating and equitable education for all students.

His leadership and national recognition will leave a void in our county. n

Aptos Chamber of Commerce

Zach Friend has been tireless in trying to improve the lives of Second District residents and Santa Cruz County as a whole.

He was able to move the Aptos Village project forward after decades of planning and establish a Mid-County Public Safety Service Center in the Village and he helped to establish the South County Government Center in Watsonville. He was instrumental in working on transportation solutions and expanding broadband to underserved areas of the county.

His experience at all levels of government allowed him to assist in saving Watsonville Hospital from closing also in securing funds to rebuild the Pajaro River levee, and in bringing President Joe Biden and Gov. Gavin Newsom here to expedite relief from this year’s winter storms and the CZU fires.

He oversaw the undergrounding of utilities in

Zach worked to improve Seascape Park and Hidden Beach Park. He helped establish a skate park in Seacliff. He oversaw the remodel of Willowbrook Park in honor of fallen officer Sgt. Damon Gutzweiller and helped establish the first all-inclusive playground.

Zach helped in the remodeling of the Capitola and La Selva Beach Libraries and found additional funding to build the new Aptos Library. He had the foresight to include rotating exhibits from the Aptos History Museum in the new Library.

During Covid, Zach instigated town hall meetings on Zoom to bring us the most accurate and up to date information from the best and the brightest people.

Zach is a person who sees the big picture and has worked on policies that will benefit our community now and in the future.

Zach has been an outstanding Supervisor and we wish him well in the future. n