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3 newcomers, political veteran vie to represent northeast Modesto on City Council

Modesto Bee - 10/2/2020

Oct. 2--Voters in northeast Modesto will choose among three political newcomers and a former council candidate in the November election to represent them on the City Council.

The newcomers are Jessica Gonzalez, a 23-year-old office manager; Kelsten Obert, 31 and the owner of Knock-Out Landscape Services; and Hunter Sauls, a 23-year-old Army veteran and Willey Printing employee.

David Wright, 68, is the owner of the Wright Insurance Agency. He serves on Modesto'sCitizens Housing & Community Development and Housing Rehabilitation Loan committees and on the board of Teen Challenge's Ceres facility. The international nonprofit provides Christian-based drug and substance abuse treatment.

The four are running for City Council District 6.

The incumbent, Councilman Doug Ridenour, is not seeking re-election. He is among the six candidates challenging Mayor Ted Brandvold in the Nov. 3 election. Ridenour defeated Wright when the two ran for District 6 in November 2015. Modesto's council members and the mayor are getting an extra, fifth year in office as the city moves from odd- to even-year elections.

Jessica Gonzalez

Gonzalez is the office manager for Gonzalez Radiator, her family's auto repair business. She said she wants to take the people skills she has learned from work and apply them to elected office. She said in a Sept. 16 Bee editorial board candidate forum that she is "determined to learn this new field of politics as well as I've learned the automotive industry. ... My goal is to listen to them (residents) and help them the same way I was determined to help my customers."

Gonzalez said in an interview that City Hall needs to do a better job listening to all its residents and that is what she will do.

She supports forming an independent citizens review board of the Police Department. She said the issue is not necessarily that people of color are treated differently by officers but more of a socioeconomic problem. She said it is poorer residents, regardless of their race or ethnicity, who often call the police the most but who can encounter officers who may be verbally aggressive or worse in their treatment of these residents.

Gonzalez said in an interview it also is important to have a third party like a review board to look at the Police Department instead of relying on law enforcement to police its own.

She said Modesto needs to do more to enforce the new coronavirus pandemic restrictions to ensure all residents are safe. "COVID-19 (the disease caused by the virus) is a public health issue. Not enough people are taking it seriously."

Kelsten Obert

Obert said he wants to give back to the city that has given him so much. He said he met his wife in Modesto, they are raising their four children here, and this is where he started his business.

His top priorities, according to his candidate questionnaire, include providing more housing and services to deal with homelessness and the drug addiction that can accompany it and providing more positive outlets for young people, such as renovating the city's skate park and opening a second one.

He said while officials have addressed homelessness, more needs to be done, including an inpatient treatment center. Obert said Modesto's strength is in its families but too many are leaving because of the problems created by homelessness and addiction.

He said Modesto needs to do everything it can within the state's new coronavirus restrictions to help business. For instance, he supports the city reducing several blocks of J Street in downtown to two lanes to create space for restaurants to offer more outdoor dining.

Obert said the majority of residents he has spoken with during his campaign support an oversight board for the Police Department. Obert said while he supports this he does not believe the department has systemic problems. He envisions a review board with limited power and one that would help forge stronger ties between the police and the community.

Hunter Sauls

Sauls also supports an oversight board and agrees with Obert that Modesto has good officers and sees the board as a way to deepen trust between police and residents.

Sauls said in his candidate questionnaire that his "most important priority will be to help Modesto recover from the Covid pandemic that has taken away so many jobs from Modestans. I will do everything ... that I can and work with the council and mayor to try and bring jobs back to the city and help bring new business back to Modesto."

He said the City Council should look at what it can do on its own or working with Stanislaus County or California to help reopen more of the economy provided it is done safely.

Sauls said he wants to bring his youth to the City Council but he also respects the city's roots. For instance, his grandfather Jerry Sauls was part of the 2019 class inducted into the Modesto Historic Graffiti Cruise Route Walk of Fame.

He serves in the California National Guard and plans on continuing his studies at Modesto Junior College once in-person instruction resumes. Sauls works at his family's Willey Publishing. He said the Army taught him the value of hard work, of getting up early and going to bed late, and said he wants to bring that ethos to the council.

David Wright

Wright points to his 35 years of running a successful insurance brokerage, serving on nonprofit boards and city commissions, including chairing Modesto's blue ribbon commission on homelessness about a decade ago, as giving him the experience to serve on the City Council.

His primary focus, according to his candidate questionnaire, is the basics: streets and roads, public safety, jobs and housing, the city budget, and the city continuing to work with the county on homelessness. Wright does not support an oversight board because of the good work by Police Chief Galen Carroll in reaching out to the community and District Attorney Birgit Fladager in reviewing officers' conduct.

Wright said Modesto has jobs and can attract more, but needs to make sure job seekers have the skills employers need. He pointed to the VOLT Institute -- a partnership among the Stanislaus County Office of Education, MJC and Opportunity Stanislaus -- as one example addressing that. The institute trains maintenance mechanics.

Wright said he wears a mask at the grocery store and other public spaces. But Facebook tagged an Aug. 5 post on Wright's account about COVD-19 survival rates as "false information."

Wright shared a post that listed countries' survival rates, including a rate of 99.9832 percent for the United States. That's a mortality rate of .017 percent. But Johns Hopkins University reports a mortality rate of 2.9 percent among confirmed cases cases in the United States.

Wright responded to Facebook determining the post was false with this comment: "So Facebook says they Fact check this with independent people. But I want to know who PAYS those independent people."

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