As Californians we enjoy living in one of the most beautiful places in the world. Yet our state and region continue to suffer from the severe impact of climate change, wildfires, drought, and floods.

During my time on City Council, Concord has instituted a first-of-its-kind special financing program for homeowners interested in energy savings renovations and drought-resistant landscaping A similar state-wide program is worthy of consideration.

We must work with partners in agriculture to ensure the strong innovation we have seen in recent years continues and that the industry is responding to increasing limitations and changes by the state with new technology and renewed strategies to managing more limited water supply. We also need greater accountability by state agencies that are responsible for tracking water usage and ensuring that partners who have rights to water usage are following the law.

In addition to continuing conservation efforts, we must seek long-term solutions to stalling the impact of climate change. We must further the proliferation of electric vehicles to improve air quality and combat climate change. I support measures to incent further use of this emerging technology.

I am proud of the changes I have seen in my community and we need to continue to encourage residents to change their lifestyles to save water every day through education and public service programs.

We’ve come a long way in the last few years but we’re still facing serious issues. Without question addressing the issue of nearly $400 billion in unfunded liabilities has to be a top fiscal priority. It’s going to take a lot of work, but with responsible budgeting we can start to pay down these liabilities while still fulfilling our responsibilities. I balanced Concord’s $90 million budget every year with a 30% reserve for emergencies and spearheaded the Fiscal Sustainability Ordinance which mandated using all extra one-time funds to pay down our unfunded liabilities at the city level, so I know how hard it is, but I also know it can be done.

We also need to be responsible with spending and make sure that there actually is a balance between the state’s income and its spending. The 2014-15 budget was technically balanced but California still ended that fiscal year $175 billion in the red. We can’t continue to spend wildly and recklessly today and continue to literally pass the bill to future generations.

We need to make sure that the money the state is spending is being spent wisely and prudently. The State Auditor reported that Caltrans lacked accountability and wasn’t operating efficiently, and in a separate report the State Auditor found the University of California has been passing over academically qualified Californians in favor of out-of-state and foreign students who will pay more in tuition. We’ve also seen two UC Chancellors - with salaries of over $400,000 each - resign after reports of questionable or imprudent use of taxpayer dollars. Taxpayers aren’t a spigot to be turned on at the demand of state agencies for their whimsical desires.

 We can best deal with the high cost of living in the Bay Area by promoting job creation, higher wages, and a robust economy. This was the goal of the “Concord First” policy I authored on the Concord City Council. That required certain developers on specific Concord projects to pay a living wage, hire local workers, and purchase a percentages of their building materials from local businesses.

They’re often over shadowed by San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland, but there’s no reason why Contra Costa and Solano counties can’t be part of an East Bay economic hub. As Mayor and Councilmember in Concord, I’m proud the city has been able to create more than 1,700 news jobs in our community, and we’ve seen a 7.1 percent increase in jobs from 2012 - 16. Living wage jobs need to be plentiful for our residents, and to make that happen we have to not only keep current businesses in California but attract new ones as well.

As Mayor and Councilmember in Concord I regularly hear from members of my community who are making $10 an hour. They have a difficult and often impossible time paying for housing, transportation, food, and other costs of living. Many have to take second and sometimes even third jobs to help make ends meet.

I am a proponent of raising California’s minimum wage, and during my time on Concord’s City Council I authored a policy that required developers on certain projects pay workers living wages. I believe we can pay responsible living wages while also ensuring a business friendly climate that enables job growth.

I am alarmed by the increasing influence of money in politics and I believe we need to demand greater transparency on all levels, starting with ending the effects of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. This is a nonpartisan issue that we must take action on in order to restore confidence in our government. We can take steps to tighten the laws surrounding contributions, like we did when I was on the Concord City Council.

I believe that corporations should not be treated like people in the eyes of campaign finance law. We need to secure strong, fair contribution limits, demand greater transparency and make use of live reporting technology and ensure that this information is shared with the public.

California has the second-highest number of roads in “poor” condition in the entire nation. Parts of BART’s infrastructure, including its main fleet, are 40 years old. We cannot salvage our state’s economic future without improvements to our roads, highways, railways, and other modes of public transportation, but many areas throughout the state haven’t seen infrastructure improvements for over 30 years.

But we can’t just throw money at the problem. That’s a 20th Century “solution” to a 21st Century problem. We need to ensure we are directing appropriate and sufficient assets to the region’s infrastructure while also ensuring we are spending responsibly and efficiently. Caltrans needs to be held accountable for their inefficient spending decisions on road maintenance programs, and we need to rein in administrative costs so more can be spent on actual road and highway repairs and expansion. If there’s going to be a BART bond, it should include a requirement that the money be used for infrastructure upkeep and upgrades, not increases in executive salaries. But before that happens BART should be forced to review and rein in spending and improve the efficiency of services.

Reviewing current practices to find ways to increase efficiencies and better monitoring state spending on transportation should happen before there is any discussion of, let alone actually, increasing the gas tax and other taxes linked to transportation.

As the Chairwoman of both the Friends of the Delta Trail and a Board Member of the Ambrose Recreation and Parks District, I have spent much of my life fighting for the preservation and protection of California’s environment. Now, especially with the troubles our state is facing with this endless drought, we Californians must band together and pass comprehensive, long-lasting solutions to ensure that future generations of Californians will be able to enjoy the same access to natural resources that we have today.

We have a serious water shortage, and I believe we need to take big steps to ensure the future of our water supplies and the quality of our drinking water across California. California’s drought is related to climate change, but not entirely. Large portions of our water supply and water quality problems fundamentally come from policy decisions. We need to cut back water usage on all fronts from personal conservation efforts, to agricultural innovation that reduces water usage, to increases in efficiency. We need a balanced approach between agricultural and municipal water conservation to meet our state’s water needs. We also need to increase groundwater management, water recycling, rainwater capture, and implementation of greywater solutions.

I understand the importance of stimulating economic growth and creating good paying jobs for Californians. A healthy job market will help expand economic prosperity to our local communities and enable families to lift themselves out of poverty. That being said, we need to cut waste and ensure that taxpayer dollars are being used wisely. This means restoring funding to vital public programs and services that were cut during the 2008 financial crisis. Primarily, we must increase funding for our public education, healthcare, and safety systems as well as allocate additional finds for water conservation efforts and preserving parks and open space.

If elected, my top three fiscal priorities will be making sure that businesses and the ultra-wealthy pay their fair share of taxes, ensuring that our state can further maintain a budget surplus, and making sure that our state has enough money saved in case of a future economic downturn. While dealing with fiscal matters is always a contentious affair, it is absolutely essential for our state to work out long-term fiscal solutions to better ensure the integrity and solvency of our state, so that any future economic downturns do not cause fiscal disasters like we all experienced in 2008.

As the cost of living in the Bay Area continues to skyrocket, many hardworking Californians are finding themselves unable to find a home to rent, let alone buy. Owning a house represents one of the fundamental parts of the American Dream, and I fully believe that all Californians should have a realistic chance at being able to afford a home of their own. Thus, we must take immediate action to expand affordable housing, increase funding for programs that offer permanent supportive housing, offer additional rent subsidies to those who are at risk of becoming homeless, and protect social security for our seniors so that they can receive increased benefits.

I most definitely support increasing California’s minimum wage, and am very pleased to see our Governor sign a bill that will incrementally raise California’s minimum wage to $15 an hour over the next few years. I firmly believe that if someone works full time and earns minimum wage, they should not have to live in poverty. This change will help provide economic opportunities to hard working men and women and create a pathway to the middle class for thousands of families. The extended timeline for the wage increase will give businesses the time they need to adjust to the new policy. Moreover, increasing the minimum wage also addresses the inequality gap between men and women because a majority of people earning minimum wage are women.

The influence of money in politics, which has only grown worse since the Supreme Court’s Citizen’s United decision, has proven to be an extremely corrupting influence on all levels of politics. Rather than keeping politicians responsive to the people, the current structure allows politicians to only listen and respond to the needs of small, wealthy interest groups instead of addressing the needs of all California residents. I firmly believe we must take steps to ensure that politicians are responsive to their constituents, not vested interests. Thus, I will fully support legislative actions to overturn Citizens United. I will not be swayed by special interests; that's why Walmart, the oil industry, and payday lenders have spent over 400,000 dollars to defeat me. It’s time we increase transparency and accountability and help put power back into the hands of the people.

California must have a modern and well -funded transportation system. California’s transportation needs are enormous. How many millions of hours are wasted while stuck in traffic congestion? What is the true price tag for having one of the very worst highway systems out of 50 states in terms of the conditions on the roads themselves?

Traffic and congestion cost our state’s residents over $30 billion per year. For the poor conditions of our roads, the cost alone for front end alignments and tire wear is over $500 per driver per year –way over what the average is among other states. The backlog of needed improvements and the maintenance to fix our highways and roads is over $100 billion.

There are no easy answers to getting the revenue needed. But somehow we must find ways to invest. I believe we should go to the voters and see if they are willing to invest in measures where they had a chance to vote on their priorities and where strong oversight committees are created to guarantee the money is spent well.

Voter approved Measure C and Measure J in Contra Costa County helped greatly - widening 680, SR 4, extending BART and finishing the fourth bore of the Caldecott Tunnel. Major projects and major improvements were constructed in a responsible and well managed way. The Contra Costa County Transportation Authority is currently working on another ½ cent plan to bring to the voters to generate another $2 to $3 billion in improvements.

Solano County cities and the Board of Supervisors are planning a measure for their voters to consider this June. Funds would be under local control and would be targeted to invest in local road needs.

I say we should look first at all efficiencies and money saving ideas we can generate through improved use of current transportation dollars.

After achieving the maximum efficiency, we should then give voters the choice to decide whether to invest in additional revenue streams that will get us to work on time, and home faster, and to have safer roads and improvements in our transit systems.

I see the gigantic needs and believe we must do more. I am supportive of the idea of exploring new or expanded revenue sources if the plans and priorities are brought to the voters to decide, and include strong independent oversight and third-party audits.