 | | | Gina Dawson Photo provided | | | | | | In the upcoming Nov. 5 election, Lafayette voters will be choosing four City Council members, three for a full four-year position and one for a partial two-year position. Four candidates are running for the four-year term position: John McCormick, Carl Anduri, Lauren McCabe Herpich, and Gina Dawson. (The candidates for the two-year position were discussed in the Sept. 25 issue of Lamorinda Weekly.)
John McCormick joined the City Council in 2024 after seven years on the Chamber of Commerce Board and 20 years in the Lafayette Partners in Education. The co-founder of Lamorinda Music with his wife Colleen, McCormick states that he is deeply invested in keeping Lafayette a welcoming community for everyone.
His priorities are supporting Lafayette's local businesses and downtown, creating more open spaces and parks, improving and expanding fire safety, increasing Lafayette's sustainability, keeping Lafayette safe, supervising the new housing developments, and ensuring the City's budget is balanced.
Carl Anduri has served 14 non-consecutive years on the City Council, with three of these years as Mayor. He wants to be part of the process of bringing new ideas to Lafayette and making it a better place.
Anduri wants to maintain Lafayette's high quality of life and aims to do so though reducing wildfire risk, making Lafayette's roads safer and friendlier to bicycles and pedestrians, supporting the downtown through local businesses, expanding parks and open spaces, improving inclusivity and sustainability, and adopting the Age-Friendly Action Plan.
Lauren McCabe Herpich feels her experience as a small business owner and the only candidate who lives downtown means she provides key representation and insight. She has served on the Parks, Trails and Recreation Commission and wants to be a voice for change.
Herpich is interested in improving how the City prioritizes and spends its budget, feeling that more should go to projects that positively impact citizens and less to property investments. She also wants to increase community spaces, improve City communications, and streamline City Council meetings.
Gina Dawson is the mayor of Lafayette and has served on the City Council for the last four years. She wants to preserve what makes Lafayette wonderful while improving where needed.
Dawson is passionate about increasing affordable housing, feeling that it will make Lafayette stronger and more inclusive. She wants to continue supporting Lafayette's efforts to become more sustainable, preserve financial stability and responsibility, have safer multi-modal travel, improve wildfire safety, and help local businesses through better parking, a strong police force, and retail crime legislation.
These candidates have given Lamorinda Weekly responses to written questions about their plans if they become a councilmember.
Affordable housing: Dawson wants Lafayette to increase its affordable housing, follow state mandates, become more inclusive for residents of all incomes, and diversify its businesses and customer base. Anduri feels that Lafayette should make its best efforts to increase affordable housing and make existing housing affordable. McCormick points out the demands from state mandates limit Lafayette's choice, but feels that affordable housing should be increased not only through multi-story buildings but also ADUs, duplexes, and triplexes. Herpich feels Lafayette should stay within its original housing plan and that increasing affordable housing beyond that requires funding and infrastructure that the City doesn't have.
Lafayette's Housing Element: Anduri states that the City Council updated the Housing Element to the State's specifications, placing most development downtown to reduce traffic. Herpich wants Lafayette to zone where logical but states, "We need a city council that will push back on Sacramento." Dawson intends to work with City Staff and residents to keep Lafayette's character while complying with state law to make development smart and sustainable. McCormick is proud of the work the Council did, making the best of the State assigning too many units to Lafayette.
Developing 949 Moraga Road: Herpich prefers not develop the site but, if necessary, she would want to use it for a community center or affordable housing. McCormick wants an affordable housing development at the site and notes that the location means residents might drive less. Anduri supports an affordable housing development, saying, "A project for seniors or for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities (a great need in our community) would have lower parking needs." Dawson supports the development as it complies with state law and fulfills Lafayette's Housing Element.
Improving traffic congestion: McCormick wants to explore reducing traffic through better bike lanes, using e-bikes, a pedestrian/bike lane parallel to Mt. Diablo Road, and distributed commercial zones. Dawson is interested in addressing traffic congestion but states, "I stand by Council prioritization of traffic safety." Herpich wants new initiatives, like one she presented to the Lafayette School District for carpool technology platforms, to be used to reduce traffic during rush hours. Anduri wants the City to consider how new and old residents can travel around Lafayette without cars.
Loss of fire insurance: Herpich wants Lafayette to join the League of California Cities and demand the State Insurance Commission tackle this problem, then commit to local action. McCormick notes fire insurance is a statewide problem that can be helped with education and fire safety, but emphasizes, "It is incumbent upon us to continue to pressure our state lawmakers to work with insurance providers to come up with a solution." Dawson plans to support wildfire preparedness activities and programs as well as working with Insurance Commissioner Lara's office to return fire insurance to Lafayette. Anduri suggests that Lafayette reduce fire risks, improve wildfire detection, study evacuation routes, and base the Regional Housing Needs Allocation on Fire Hazard Severity Zones.
Public oversight of the city budget: Dawson, Anduri, and McCormick all emphasize that all of Lafayette's budget is transparent, through publicly available documents and public meetings, and that the City has received the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting for nine years in a row. Herpich states that she thinks large amounts of money are given to initiatives without the specific goals or metrics of success necessary for accountability and transparency.
Measure H: Anduri, Dawson, and McCormick all voted for Measure H as Councilmembers and feel that it is necessary to keep Lafayette's standard of living. In contrast, Herpich is against it, believing that it gives the city a blank check when they have not shown responsible spending.
The Lafayette Homeowners Council will be hosting a Candidates Night on Wednesday, Oct. 9, at 7 p.m. at the Lafayette Library.
More about McCormick can be found at www.mccormickforlafayette.com. More about Anduri can be found at www.anduriforlafayette.com. More about Herpich can be found at www.laurenforlafayette.org. More about Dawson can be found at www.ginadawson2024.com. |
Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA