Turlock’s District 1 voters will not lack for candidates with varying backgrounds when they pick their city council member in the Nov. 6 election.
The choices are Jon Boulos, a former CPA and now controller at Central Catholic High School; Nicole Larson, a recent graduate and student body president of Stanislaus State; Autumn Salazar, executive director of Sponsored Research Services at UC Merced; and Forrest White, a former Turlock councilman and retired CEO of the San Joaquin County Fair.
Logan Sisco also qualified for the race but since has dropped out and is supporting Larson.
The district covers east Turlock and its boundaries include East Tuolumne Road, North Daubenberger Road and South Golden State Boulevard.
District 1 Councilman Matthew Jacob is not running for re-election and plans on leaving the area to attend law school in fall 2019. He said he has not endorsed a candidate.
Boulos, 26, said his campaign is focused on three themes: family, fiscal competency and responsibility, and community empowerment.
He said as a councilman he would consider issues through the perspective of how they affect young families. He said Turlock needs to do what it can to attract and keep young families because of what they bring to the community.
Boulos has a bachelor’s degree in accounting and said that would let him take complex financial information and present it in an accurate and understandable way the public can easily understand.
Turlock is having to spend down its general fund reserves to pay for City Council spending decisions, including hiring more public safety employees and approving labor agreements. The roughly $42 million general fund primarily pays for public safety, and its reserves could be depleted in about three years.
Boulos said that “deserves deliberate attention,” and some of the steps he would support is to ensure the city manager is able to fill critical vacancies at City Hall so Turlock has the right professionals in place to help the council make good budget decisions.
He said while it’s important Turlock provides competitive pay for its public safety employees it also needs to live within its means.
He said because he works for a nonprofit organization, he understands the challenge of compensating employees while having limited resources. He said the council needs to work with the Police and Fire departments to find creative solutions to make the departments attractive workplaces for employees.
Boulous said while the city has many dedicated, hardworking employees, he has heard too many stories of residents having to fight City Hall to open a business or do something that benefits the community. He said City Hall needs to understand it serves the community.
Boulous had raised $10,770 for his campaign as of Sept. 22, according to campaign disclosure forms filed with the city.
Larson, 23, graduated from Stanislaus State in 2017 and was elected twice as Stanislaus State Associated Students Inc. president, serving from 2015-17. She also is vice chairwoman of the city’s Parks, Arts and Recreation Commission.
She said as student body president she oversaw a nonprofit with a $1.2 million annual budget and that was valuable experience as she seeks to serve on the council that will need to find answers for the general fund budget.
Larson said as student body president she worked to create closer ties between the university and city, including a program in which Associated Students pays for Stanislaus State students to ride city buses for free.
She said the ongoing initiative provides the city’s transit system with funding and gives students the opportunity to explore and learn about Turlock.
That ties into one of her major issues: Finding ways to keep Stan State graduates in Turlock, instead of leaving for jobs elsewhere. She said that includes the city pursuing economic development initiatives that create good jobs while maintaining its existing economic base, especially the food processing industry.
“This generation will be the next generation of leaders and (our) work force,” Larson said. “It’s our future.”
She had been working as a fundraiser but is taking a break from that as she runs for City Council. Larson said she is considering attending a local law school or going to Stanislaus State to earn a master’s degree in public administration.
Larson had raised $14,204 for her campaign as of Sept. 22. That includes $5,292 she lent her campaign.
As executive director of Sponsored Research Services, Salazar oversees the UC Merced office that reviews and submits the university’s proposals for research funding from federal and state agencies, foundations, industry and other institutions that fund university research.
Salazar, 43, also administers the grant funding UC Merced receives.
She said it was the poor condition of her street that initially motivated her to run for council. “It’s full of potholes,” Salazar said. “It’s pretty much falling apart. It’s not great. It’s been patched here and there, but it needs continual patching.”
She said she has heard from others about the poor condition of city streets as she campaigns. Turlock is using its Measure L funding to fix its most used roads that are in the worst condition first, like West Main Street, before taking on other streets and roads. (Measure L is the half-cent transportation tax voters throughout the county approved in November 2016.)
Salazar said she does not think that is a bad strategy but said streets in other parts of the city also need attention.
She said voters are telling her they don’t believe City Hall listens to them about their concerns. Salazar said she doesn’t necessarily believe City Hall is not listening but that there is a communication gap that needs to be fixed.
Salazar said as a councilwoman she would work at looking at how Turlock can get more grants and other funding to provide more equipment, training and other resources for public safety. “People are worried about not having enough police officers on the street,” she said.
She said the condition of the roads and other infrastructure and whether residents feel safe affects Turlock’s quality of life and people’s decisions on whether they want to live here. And Salazar said her job has given her the skills to help the city look at its general fund budget and find long-term strategies.
“I have decades of financial experience that gives me an in-depth understanding of budgets and funding sources,” Salazar wrote in her Bee candidate questionnaire.
Salazar has raised about $2,000 for her campaign.
White, 71, served on the City Council from 2010 to 2014 and did not succeed in his November 2014 re-election bid. White had raised $9,655 for his current campaign as of Sept. 22.
He is concerned about how the council has spent general fund dollars, including the use of reserves for ongoing expenses, such as employee salaries.
“They keep spending money, and no one on the council says, ‘No,’ ” White said. “No one says, ‘What does this mean a year from now or two years from now?’ ... Reserves are for emergencies and not for regular expenses.”
White said he is not against public safety and understands the need to pay competitive wages but questions whether the city has provided employees with the long-term picture of what Turlock can afford.
He said there is no quick solution. He said the council needs to trust city staff and let them do their jobs, including looking at expenses and potential new revenues to reverse the spending trend.
“To me that’s the approach,” he said. “We cannot do it overnight. ... I’m not a pessimist. Things can happen that will generate new revenues.”
But he said it’s been a challenge at times to help voters understand the city’s financial predicament.
He said some voters tell him Turlock has plenty of money, but then he explains a lot of that money has restrictions. For instance, the city can spend the money it receives from water customers only for its water system and nothing else, like helping the financially stressed general fund, which he called the city’s “bread and butter fund.”
This story was originally published October 18, 2018 4:30 PM.