Meet Healdsburg City Council Candidate Mathew Lopez

HEALDSBURG, CA — Patch reached out to all the candidates for Healdsburg City Council.

Two active candidates are running for Healdsburg City Council District 2. Alex Wood qualified for the ballot but has withdrawn from the race.

We sent out questionnaires and reprinted their answers verbatim. Below, read the responses of Mathew Lopez, a candidate for a seat representing District 2 on the Healdsburg City Council.

Mathew Lopez is running for a seat representing District 2 on the Healdsburg City Council. In the questionnaire, Lopez identified affordability and public transit that better serves residents as priorities.

What is your educational background?

After graduating from Healdsburg High School in 2017, I attended UC Merced and earned Physics degree, with an emphasis in Math, and a minor in Education.

What is your professional background?

I eventually returned home to become a much more active member of the community. For several years now I have volunteered across Sonoma County: the Healdsburg Museum, Redwood Empire Food Bank, Northwestern Pacific Historical Society, regional libraries, and more.

Have you ever held public office, whether appointive or elective?

Yes, in March I applied to be part of the newly created Train Station Area Plan Advisory Commission, in which I was elected as the vice-chair.

What are the top three issues facing your district right now?

1) Affordability: We're all stuck in the same stagnant economy. I want the city to do what it can do return a sense of ease to residents. That means following up on maintenance projects that get too expensive to fix when we delay them too long; providing an improved transit service that can get people out of their cars to save gas money or time looking for parking; looking at how we finance our water security so residents aren't unfairly punished for doing the right thing by conserving water; and supporting our community services for the youth so families don't have to worry as much about what their children are doing after school or during the summer.

2) Infrastructure: Potholes affect all of us. Even myself as someone who doesn't own a car because I feel those potholes when I'm on the bus. I want to take initiative on innovative ways to fund infrastructure repairs by attaching these projects to public transit, art, equity, and historical preservation. When infrastructure is attached to other industries, they can qualify for grants that allows these projects to do more than just be functional.

3) Transparency: Barriers to being involved in community meetings, combined with the communication crisis, have made the average, normal Healdsburg resident feel forgotten. I can't afford to eat at many restaurants downtown. I look around as see a city that is headed in a direction that panders to wealthy tourists.

What is one specific policy you would implement in your first 100 days?

Fixing our local shuttle so it actually serves resident's needs to visit downtown, complete errands, and visit friends in the community. I want to see a reliable transit service that provides special shuttles to plaza events, has extended hours beyond 3:30pm, and takes residents to the places they actually want to go.

What is your plan to enact this plan and how would you measure success after one year?

I have already started working on this by reaching out to the new director of Sonoma County Transit to discuss how the routes could be improved. I presented some ideas earlier in the year to residents at Enso village, who are currently not served by the local shuttle. When grant money starts opening up from the Saggio Hills development, I will work with the council and SCT to negotiate an improved route that could serve the Depot, post office, and community at Kennedy Lane.

What is one specific change you would make to improve livability in your district?

I want to follow up on the work we've done so far with the purple pipeline to ease the burden on residents for their water use. The next step from here, in my view, is to continue advocating for the underground aquifer storage project so we can store water when it's plentiful in the winter and distribute it to residents when it's scarce in the summer. Water security is important to me, and relying on a constantly changing climate to provide what we need is a gamble I do not want to take.

How would you improve transparency or accountability in your local government?

As a teacher, people know where I am almost every day of the week: teaching math at the high school. Being an established member of the community keeps me accountable. Seeing families in the classroom, then seeing them again when I shop at Safeway, and then one more time when I visit the plaza reminds me why I'm even running for city council: to contribute to a community that I will be proud to live in 20, 30, 40... years from now.

What makes you a better choice than your opponents?

I've been involved and invested in the community for years. Public service isn't something new that I'm doing for fun. I've put in the work all across town, and even in places across the county, for my hometown. I understand its stories, its changes, and its people through my involvement everywhere: the library, the museum, at Corazon, the food bank, the community center. And if elected, this isn't the end of any of those. It's the next step.