Sea level rise and climate change go hand in hand, and planning for them shouldn't happen in isolation. As the smallest jurisdiction on the Ventura County coast, I believe Port Hueneme should align its planning with other coastal jurisdictions — the County, Oxnard, Ventura, and Naval Base Ventura County — to ensure our approach is coordinated and to identify potential partnerships, rather than duplicating work or going it alone.

Honestly, I don't think it's adequate today. The average one-way commute in Ventura County is about 27 minutes, meaning most residents live and work in different communities, yet bus service intervals are too infrequent to reliably depend on. Part of this is a funding question — Ventura County is one of the few counties in California without a dedicated transportation sales tax — but it also reflects development patterns across the county that don't make it easy to walk to work or to local businesses, let alone rely on transit. One of my priorities is building a genuinely bicycle-friendly transportation system for Port Hueneme. With vehicle and gas prices at record highs, the city should actively plan for alternative forms of transportation beyond cars and buses — bikes, e-bikes, scooters, skateboards, and motorized wheelchairs and scooters. People should be able to safely use whatever form of transportation best suits their needs.

Growth doesn't have to mean losing the character of the community. I support responsible development and preserving public spaces as part of that growth, guided by real data and genuine community input rather than a one-size-fits-all development plan.

Smarter land use and stronger commercial activity directly support the sales and property tax base that fund city services — this priority connects directly to fiscal sustainability, not just aesthetics or planning preferences.

Yes — for the environmental planning process, for public transit, and frankly for most of these questions. There's no reason for a small city like Port Hueneme to solve every problem from scratch when nearby and comparable coastal communities have already tested approaches we can learn from.