Chula Vista leaders appointed two residents to the City Council after the seats became vacant: one left for a higher office and the other faced felony charges. Come November, voters will choose who represents them and whether to renew a half-cent sales tax. The ballot features two elections: one for District 3, home to new housing developments, the Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Center and the University and Innovation District, a 383-acre university and technology park in Otay Ranch the city has long envisioned developing. Alonso Gonzalez was appointed to the seat early last year after Steve Padilla became a state senator. The other is District 4, which includes portions of the bayfront, the city’s first homeless bridge shelter and has the largest concentration of Latino residents. Rachel Morineau was appointed earlier this year after former Councilmember Andrea Cardenas relinquished her seat. In February, Cardenas pleaded guilty to two felony grand theft charges for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal relief funds and state unemployment. She is serving two years of probation. District 3 candidates: Michael Inzunza, 52, is a public affairs and community engagement representative for the California School Boards Association and a former high school teacher. He serves on the Chula Vista Charter Review Commission. He came out on top in the five-person contest in the March primary, earning 49 percent of the vote. Courtesy of Michael InzunzaMichael Inzunza Since the primary, he’s been busy knocking on thousands of residents’ doors and what they want the most is better public safety and to preserve “the South Bay’s middle class,” he said. He wants a police substation in the Otay Ranch area because “there’s an imbalance right now.” Police officers are rarely seen ticketing people speeding and “a lot of that has to do with drug and crime elements in west Chula Vista,” he said. Renewing Measure P, the half-cent sales tax that helped rebuild the Loma Verde Recreation Center and other public facilities, would be one way to start. Inzunza also wants a more unified approach to addressing homelessness between all cities, the county and the San Diego Association of Governments. He will push to establish multiple safe sleeping zones. Additionally, Inzunza said one way to attract a major university is to bring more housing and job opportunities. “We should be incentivizing developers to help bring biotech and AI (artificial intelligence) jobs,” he said. Leticia Munguia, 53, is a human resources manager for Sweetwater Authority who previously served on an elementary school independent oversight committee. She came in second during the primary, earning 17 percent of the vote. Courtesy of Leticia MunguiaLeticia Munguia She agrees that police presence is lacking in District 3 and wants quicker response times from first responders. But she doesn’t see prioritizing funds for a substation, especially since the Otay Ranch mall has a satellite station. She wants gradual hiring of more police officers and to improve the department’s recruitment and retention. Munguia also wants to see the city’s homeless outreach team expand its outreach efforts in her district and perhaps dedicate a team to the region. “If you see panhandling or when we have a situation where we find somebody on a corner really early in the morning, folks call it in right away,” she said. “But I would like to see city resources the way you see in D2 and D4 where an identified team is out there doing their assessment.” District 4 candidates: Courtesy of Cesar FernandezCesar Fernandez Cesar Fernandez, 51, is a Chula Vista Elementary School District trustee and oversees before- and after-school programs for the Sweetwater Union High School District’s middle and high schools. His school district role, to which he was appointed, expires December 2026. He feels he could do more for the community at large, while still prioritizing youth development at the City Council level. Fernandez said job creation is high on his list of priorities. He will work closely with school and college districts and labor organizations to create pathways for residents to get jobs in Chula Vista, especially as the bayfront resort and convention center sets to open next summer. “We have the highest concentration in D4 of union members, the working class. That’s who’s building the Gaylord hotel right now,” he said. “I want Chula Vistans to have first access to those jobs. We built it; it’s ours.” Fernandez also wants to see more people at parks. He thinks added youth sports facilities and programming can help. He is open to having a reasonably sized recreation center built at Harborside Park, which is slated to reopen later this year after the city closed it in August 2022 because of illicit activities and a surge in homeless encampments. He came in first, earning 23 percent of the vote in the seven-person race in March. Rudy Ramirez, 64, is not new to Chula Vista city hall. He served on the City Council between 2006 and 2015. He also ran for mayor in 2022. In March, he trailed Fernandez with 19 percent of the vote. Courtesy of Rudy RamirezRudy Ramirez District 4 has the largest population of homeless people and its the area where most resources are based. Ramirez said residents want the city to better address homelessness, particularly in clearing encampments that have often blocked the public right of way. And while the city just passed its camping ban, Ramirez believes a different approach is needed. He supports the Sunbreak Ranch concept, which is an all-in-one homeless campus proposal espoused by the late Bill Walton and George Mullen. Ramirez also wants to work on improving civic engagement as a way to address issues such as homelessness and housing. “Our issues are political and all our options are at the grassroots level, with rigorous civic engagement … and helping the community understand what can be done and what we can do together,” he said. “This is one of the ways that you might address NIMBY (not in my backyard) reactions.” He has a vision for a “digital lab” for civic engagement, which would be “a place where you can bring experts together on all variety of issues or sprinkle expertise from unbiased people … to participate in coming up with solutions and political will to act.” Measure P Voters will also decide whether to renew Measure P, the half-cent sales tax that Chula Vista approved in 2016 to repair and replace aging infrastructure. It expires in 2027. The tax has generated more than $190 million to date and has been projected to produce about $245 million by 2027. According to a city report, Measure P has funded thousands of infrastructure projects, including upgrading more than 7,000 sidewalk segments and 300 residential streets, replacing nearly 140 police and fire vehicles and repairing 20,000 linear feet of storm drain pipes to prevent sinkholes. Chula Vista, tied with Del Mar, Imperial Beach, National City and Solana Beach, has the highest sales tax in San Diego County.