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Chula Vista City Council candidates for District 4, Mike Diaz, left, and Rudy Ramirez, right, at a forum held at SWC on September 8.

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Chula Vista City Council candidates for District 3, Jason Paguio, left, and Steve Padilla, right, at a forum held at SWC on September 8.

For 105 years Chula Vista voters elected their city council members at large. That is changing this year as The City of Trees is holding its first-ever district elections.

Two new districts will elect council representatives this year. Three more councilmembers will be elected in new districts in 2018.

Southwestern College hosted a City Council forum for candidates from the 3rd and 4th districts. Steve Padilla and Jason Paguio are squaring off in district 3. Mike Diaz and Rudy Ramirez are facing off in district 4.

Paguio is a small business owner and chief of staff to Deputy Mayor Steve Miesen. He said it is important to have open dialogue between local business and the council.

“Nothing makes me more proud than to call Chula Vista my home,” he said. “Working as chief of staff in city hall gave me a great opportunity to find my experiences. Reaching out to over 1,000 businesses asking what’s working for them, how we can make it better by listening to issues.”

Padilla is the former mayor of Chula Vista. He ran for a council seat in 2014, but lost to John McCann by two votes. Padilla said he will focus on job creation and environmental equity.

“I’m seeking the seat of the council and return to public service because of the love I have for this community,” he said. “I’ve spent most of my adult life working to advance this community to move forward.”

Padilla said he is an advocate for clean energy jobs and the Bayfront Plan, which focuses on commercializing the Chula Vista Harbor and redeveloping older areas.

“Chula Vista is not a stand-alone bedroom community anymore, it cannot survive as a bedroom community,” he said. “It is going to need leaders that will stand and take on the fight and I am one of those leaders.”

Ramirez and Diaz agreed that the homelessness in Chula Vista is a problem, but offered different solutions. Ramirez said homelessness is a public health issue. Ramirez previously worked with the homeless population, and said he has developed a plan to deal with the situation if elected.

“Public health is not a law enforcement issue,” he said. “It’s a two part plan. One it addresses the humanitarian needs of people and the second part where we address the issues and impacts to the community of a homeless population. They both need to work together, they go hand in hand.”

Diaz said he would tackle the issue in a different way. He focused more on the individual rather than the homeless collective.

“I think what we need to do is work on the mental health side,” he said. “We also need to make sure we start working on temporary housing.”

Diaz said many San Diego County tax revenue needs to go to public health.

“(Homelessness) is a regional problem,” he said. “About two cents of the eight cents that you pay in taxes goes to the county for public health and mental health services, so the county needs to take a huge role in this position. The way we fight fires in California is we have a unified command. So that everybody that fights those fires and disasters knows what’s going on. I don’t believe we have that in San Diego County. What I would do is work to collaborate and get all these folks to put the fire out.”

SWC ASO President Mona Dibas said the forum was well attended by students.

“I think it shows dedication and how much (students) care about the community,” she said. “Some people might think that students wouldn’t ask such well-thought-out questions.”

Dibas said local candidates are very important because they can more directly affect students than national candidates.

“It’s important to know who you’re voting for and to know who we are picking,” she said. “(We need to know) if they will help us as students, as community members and citizens of the United States to become better students and have better education.”

Voting for the Chula Vista City Council seats is November 8.