Tasha Williamson Discusses Her Bid For San Diego Mayor

Speaker 1: 00:00 This March, voters in the city of San Diego will go to the polls to pick a new mayor. There are four major candidates in the race so far. We've heard from two establish candidates, council members, Barbara, Brie and Scott Sherman. Today we're going to hear it from an outsider, Democrat, Tasha Williamson. She is a community activist from Southeast San Diego. And while she may not have a lot of experience in public office, she has a voice in the community. Tashia Williamson joins me now. Tasha, welcome. Speaker 2: 00:27 Thank you. Thank you so much. I'm glad to be here. Why aren't you here? Why do you want to be San Diego mayor? Yeah. I want to be San Diego mayor because I want a corruption free city. I want to end homelessness. I want to make sure that people understand. Uh, a mayor does not have to be, uh, someone who is wealthy. Uh, someone who is middle class that, uh, people who qualify to do the job of the mayor, uh, should come from all walks of life. Uh, should have all different types of diverse cultural backgrounds. Uh, and that we can have a city that believes in everyone. What would your top three priorities be as mayor? Top three priorities, uh, would be housing. Uh, we are in a housing crisis that is also, um, uh, considered a homelessness crisis, but we are forgetting about, uh, people that are the working class, uh, that fall in both. Uh, and I also think that we need to look at, uh, how we have economic growth. Um, how we are having the environmental issues that we're having. Everybody keeps saying we're doing studies on, we know that we have the climate action plan that has not been implemented. Uh, we have a green new deal, uh, and we keep waiting for things. Uh, I think that we need to have somebody who is going to be action oriented and get it done. We have not. And so I'm in the race, you know, Speaker 1: 01:52 longtime community organizer and activist. You've helped organized protest after Earl McNeil died in the national city police custody. How does your experience as a community activist and organizer translate into the job of mayor? Speaker 2: 02:05 So, before I did all that, I actually, um, help to create programs. Uh, I ran a, uh, community center, uh, in Southeast and I've helped people to write grants, um, develop programs, uh, help them to organize and communities to create their own plans for thriving communities. I've helped people, not just with criminal justice but with education, uh, with work, um, justice as well, employment. Uh, so I have a wealth of experience, uh, in making sure that people and services actually work. I have experience in creating real budgets and I have experienced and making sure that, uh, the right people are hired, uh, for the right job so that they can get the work done. Speaker 1: 02:51 And let's go back and talk about some of those major issues facing the city. A, you mentioned homelessness. If you were elected, what sort of solutions would you propose Speaker 2: 03:00 to address the homeless crisis? So we already have, uh, four cities that have ended homelessness. One of the things that I want to look at is built zero. A built zero has been, uh, one of the things that has assisted with, uh, the four cities in, uh, or at least three of the four cities, uh, in ending homelessness. I want to dive more into that. Uh, I want to make sure that we're putting people into permanent housing, not, uh, temporary shelters and transitional housing that has been ineffective and has wasted a lot of money. I want to make sure we're providing wraparound services for people that don't know what that is. It means that we are providing services based on the need of the individual and not putting everybody in a box. However, when you have homeless camps around the city, is there any room for increased enforcement? Speaker 2: 03:48 I don't think that for someone who has dealt with police in the levels that I have dealt with police, that police should be used, uh, to criminalize the poor. I think if we go back and we look at how that has been used, uh, we've wasted money. We've placed them into a jail cell that costs us more money. And then we have the highest in custody death. Uh, and so I don't think that criminalizing people in arresting them and putting them in jail. It has helped. Now on housing, there's a new report about how San Diego lost out on $14 million in state grant money for affordable housing. What would your approach be to the state housing crisis? Yeah, I think that, um, as as far as fees, fines or taxes, um, and, and the money we need to sit down and change the way the state, uh, the local city, uh, the County and the federal government look at collaboration. Speaker 2: 04:53 We don't do that well. I think that the state says here you can get this money if you do X, Y, and Z, but the city is not prepared for X, Y, and Z. And so, Nope, you can't get it. Let's move on. I think that we need to contort your funding, uh, to the different areas. All areas are very different. I don't think that we should be losing money, but figuring out ways how to develop policy and, and services so that it actually meets the needs of the people. You've been critical of the San Diego police department, and you're not a fan of chief in his light. What would you change about the department and how would you go about doing that? The first change would be chief needs light. Uh, he is, uh, a chief who was a assistant chief before he became chief. Speaker 2: 05:37 He was a part of, uh, the disproportionate rate of stops. Um, he believes in the, uh, chokehold, uh, or carotid restraint, as they call it. Uh, I questioned his ability to understand cultural diversity, uh, because he hasn't readily admitted that there is a problem within his own department. So his time is up. One of the things I want to do for the police department is called it's police reform. Looking at the police records of all officers, uh, and making sure that we don't have rogue officers. We don't have clansmen uh, in our, uh, SDPD that people who do not believe in diversity, who do not believe that, uh, people should be treated with dignity no matter who they are, uh, should not be police officers. Uh, so we should also be providing training deescalation, how to call and cover what that means, how to save a life, uh, when we respond to scenes, especially scenes when there's mental health issues. Speaker 2: 06:37 And then also looking at who we hire and how we hire. Uh, so that we have a commission board that has firing, hiring as well as charging. So it's going to be a little bit different. The latest San Diego union Tribune 10 news poll shows you're behind with less than 5% support among likely voters. And when you look at the latest fundraising data, you're struggling there too with no cash on hand. How do you plan to get around that? Yeah, so it's pretty hard. I'm a brand new, a person stepping into the race and um, I don't take it lightly. And as the outreach has just been connecting with people, uh, doing it in a very different way, in a, in a grassroots way, uh, getting close to the people where they are, uh, and making sure that they know me. Showing up at the forums, showing up at, uh, stores, parking lots in the streets and neighborhoods, um, making sure that I get, uh, everywhere I can. I'm one person. Uh, I don't have one point $5 million. I don't have $500,000, but I am the realest candidate, uh, and the candidate that is educating the community everywhere I go. I have been speaking with Tasha Williamson, community activist and candidate for San Diego. Mayor Tasha. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. Always. Speaker 3: 08:03 [inaudible].