FREMONT — Mayor Lily Mei, Fremont’s first woman and first Asian American mayor, is seeking a second term, facing a field of five political newcomers who have accused the city of a lack of transparency and criticized her handling of homelessness, as well as questions from residents about her response to protests over police brutality.
Opposing Mei, 50, are: Chris Hampton, 48, a data analyst; Naz Mahika Khan, 47, a radio host and former bank manager; Marlene Santilli; Justin Sha, 27, a VP at an IT company; and Vik Bajwa Singh, 60, who works in the development of senior care homes.
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Mei said she has “well-rounded experience and lots of relationships” built over 12 years serving in local government between the Fremont school board and the City Council that will serve residents well over the next four years.
Under Mei, Fremont recently opened its first homeless navigation center, established one of the region’s first free COVID-19 testing centers in April, and built hundreds of new affordable housing units with more on the way.
However, plenty of challenges still remain as homelessness is growing, and the city is far from meeting its regional affordable housing needs.
“I’m pretty proud of the fact that we opened up our navigation center to get people housed and connected to services,” Mei said.
The center, which is made up of portable buildings located behind city hall, is aimed at housing homeless people temporarily, while case workers help them find a permanent living quarters.
The center was originally slated to help a maximum of about 90 people a year, but it has been reduced temporarily to about 50 a year due to the coronavirus pandemic. The center is expected to cost the city almost $9.5 million total between startup costs and operations over the next three years with a mix of state, city, and county funds, the city said.
The city has yet to create a safe parking program for homeless people living in cars or RVs, even though the council has discussed doing so since July 2018. Meanwhile, the city has swept homeless people off a road shoulder near Tesla and placed boulders to keep them from returning.
Mei noted the city established a mobile hygiene unit last year for homeless people’s showering and laundry needs, and sanitization stations were placed near encampments during the pandemic.
Khan and Singh both criticized the navigation center as a waste of taxpayer money that doesn’t fully address the problem, as the city has over 600 homeless people as of January 2019.
Khan wants to use vacant city land in an industrial area to set up shipping containers that can be converted to enough housing units for about 500 homeless people, a project that would need state funding, but she thinks the costs would be comparable to the center.
Singh, meanwhile said he thinks the city should issue homeless people vouchers for hotels now, and use city bonds to build a tower of residential units where the navigation center currently sits, to eventually house all of the city’s homeless people.
“Then everyone has a place and they are off the street and not in parking lots,” he said of his ambitious plan.
Hampton and Sha both said the city was not transparent in selecting a site for the navigation center, frustrating residents, with Sha adding that Mei was not effective in defending the need for the center against critics.
“We need to make the argument that perhaps it’s worth it because people are worth it,” Sha aid.
Hampton said money spent for the navigation center would have been better used to buy a hotel to house more homeless people at one time, create a safe parking program, or even “bus (homeless) people out to Stockton” and pay for lower-cost lodging there.
Fremont is more than 2,800 units short of affordable residences it’s needs to have built or permitted by 2023, based on regional housing goals intended to address the housing crisis.
Meanwhile, Fremont has seen more than 5,100 pricier homes built or permitted since 2015, about 3,300 more than required by the regional housing targets.
Mei acknowledged the city’s need for more affordable housing, but said the state must play a larger role in helping to funding projects in a state where construction costs are spiking, so cities can keep up infrastructure and parks.
“You have to have a balance,” she said.
Sha said the city should “strategically upzone” the area near the Warm Springs BART station, to allow for many more homes to be built quickly.
“As long as you build denser, smaller, and more mixed use, inherently the price will go down,” he said.
Khan said the city needs to build “smaller units in special zoning areas.” She also supports rent control and would like to see the city’s minimum wage increase to $20 an hour by 2022.
Singh, meanwhile, said the city should offer developers incentives to build affordable housing by waiving some city fees and offer up city-owned vacant land for the homes.
Fremont, like many cities in the Bay Area, also saw unprecedented protests this year in response to the police killing of George Floyd, with hundreds taking to the streets, and many calling into council meetings telling officials to reduce the police department’s $96.5 million annual budget — accounting for nearly half of the city’s general fund — and put more funding into mental health and safety net services.
Mei caused a stir by refusing to kneel in solidarity with demonstrators during one of the protests in front of the Fremont Police Department, triggering protests in front of Mei’s home.
None of the candidates interviewed for this story thought the city should outright reduce the police budget, though most agreed on the need to expand services for mental health.
Mei she wants more mental health and safety net services funding from the county.
“I am proud of our police department, I’m proud of our responsiveness,” Mei said.
She pointed to the department’s series of town halls on policing and race during the summer as underscoring the city’s willingness to listen to concerns, though some, including Sha, criticized those forum discussions as ineffectual because they were coordinated by police employees.
The city is currently being sued over two separate police shootings in 2017, both stemming from covert operations, one in which officers fatally shot 16-year-old pregnant teen Elena Mondragon, who was not a suspect in any crimes.
The head of the Fremont Police Association — the union that represents the city’s officers — Sgt. Jeremy Miskella, was one of the officers who fired his rifle in that incident.
“I think that Fremont has a problem where politicians fear the police association” and their political weight, Sha said.
“We never really have true accountability from our leadership” with regard to the department, Sha said, such as when the council approved the changing of a city policy in 2018 to allow the police department to destroy decades worth of records covering police misconduct and internal affairs investigations.
Hampton thinks “most officers in Fremont do a fairly good job,” though he’d like to see better de-escalation training.
Singh said if elected, he would want to expand the Human Relations Commission’s duties to include independent police department oversight.
Santilli did not respond to multiple interview requests for this story.
