SMDJ - Millbrae council race revolves around District 2

Millbrae council race revolves around District 2

Candidates focus on budgets, future development and policing efforts

• Nicholas Mazzoni Daily Journal staff
 
• Sep 28, 2022

Two seats are available on the Millbrae City Council this November but only one contested race as the city transitions to district elections.

The vote for residents in District 4 — the west side of Millbrae that is bordered by Millbrae Avenue, Laurel Avenue and Helen Drive — has been made easy with a single candidate, Maurice Goodman, a San Mateo County Community College District trustee. On the other hand, District 2 voters — including residents around St. Dustin’s, Lomita School, Landing Lane and part of downtown — will have a choice between Angelina Cahalan, a nonprofit director, and former mayor Wayne Lee.

Whoever is elected will have an array of issues they inherit — the city’s budget challenges, future downtown development, supporting merchants, building relationships with outside agencies and policing efforts.

Amid the pandemic, the city has been running on a deficit for two consecutive years. The city’s hotel tax, which typically brings in close to $8 million annually and accounts for more than a quarter of the city’s general fund revenue, fell to less than $2.3 million in the 2020-21 fiscal year when travel plummeted, requiring the city to dip into its savings. With that in mind, both candidates are offering solutions to the city’s budgeting challenges.

Lee said the biggest challenge is the city’s inability to pay for services and provide a good quality of life for everybody. Millbrae is mostly a bedroom community that has issues with infrastructure, roads and basic life values.

“We are going to swell to three times the size during the day because we are adding 800,000 square feet of office and lab space, so that’s going to be very taxing on our citizens and it’s going to be a traffic and parking nightmare,” Lee said.

He said he is already developing ways of mitigating those issues for the residents on the east side, which he represents.

Cahalan said that bringing in revenue is the biggest issue for the city but as it furthers development there is a lot more revenue that will be coming in. However, she feels that her experience working with a nonprofit can help the city stretch the budget further and bring her problem solving and creativity to the table.

“I’d love to learn more about how we are spending,” Cahalan said.

The area that surrounds Millbrae Avenue and El Camino Real near the BART station had some issues during development. To make things better going forward, Cahalan believes community involvement is the key.

Cahalan wants to ensure that as Millbrae develops its commercial sectors that it is also focusing on traffic, roads, schools and how the community will be affected by development that could bring in more residents to Millbrae.

Lee’s view is that there was a lot of participation in the redevelopment of the area. The city needs to raise money so the cost burden won’t just be on residents, he added.

Downtown Millbrae was busy even during the pandemic, and both candidates offered ways the city can support its restaurants and merchants in the future. Lee said that was the reason he started the Millbrae Cultural Committee.

“When I was mayor, I brought the music program downtown instead of a park. I tried to revitalize downtown, close the street and get people to spend more downtown shopping and eating,” Lee said.

Cahalan said unlike its neighboring city Burlingame, Millbrae doesn’t have as much outdoor activity and believes there is still room for growth.

“I think we can be more creative with either event getting people downtown or activities with the Chamber of Commerce,” Cahalan said.

Too much repetition can steer residents into other activities and increasing the diversity of the retail is also a focus, she added.

In the next 10 years, both candidates would like to see a change in how the homeless population in the city is treated, with more involvement in nonprofits like Life Moves and focusing on safety issues with hate crimes rising, especially against AAPI residents that make up 40% of Millbrae’s residents.

Cahalan would like police officers to receive mental health training. Lee said he would like social services and trained professionals to work with the police agencies on mental illness crises.

Because of Millbrae’s intermodal station, there is a lot of collaboration with outside agencies that has been strained over the years. Lee believes that his reputation and network-building skills can help bridge the gap of compromise between these agencies and the city.

“I have a really good rapport because of my reputation in the Bay Area, I am able to use my network and goodwill to advocate for Millbrae,” Lee said.

Cahalan believes building relationships is the key to working with agencies such as BART and the High-Speed Rail Authority that can benefit from her fresh perspective and can help with finding a mutual compromise that will benefit both the agencies and the city.

“Another piece of relationship building is finding a common ground,” Cahalan said.

Both Cahalan and Lee believe that Millbrae’s diversity and sense of community are what they love about the city. Cahalan feels that affordable housing is still something that can be improved upon.

Race relations and managing the influx of employees that are anticipated to come into the city also needs to be managed carefully, Lee added.

nick@smdailyjournal.com

(650) 344-5200 ext. 105

Source: https://www.smdailyjournal.com/news/local/millbrae-council-race-revolves-around-district-2/article_8caf3b36-3ee8-11ed-8b19-3bd12e09af59.html