The runoff election for the District 8 City Council seat is a contest between former executive director of the Puente Movement Carlos Garcia and former three-term Councilman Mike Johnson. The election is set for May 21, but in the meantime get to know your candidates. Here’s a look at each nonpartisan candidate’s background and where they stand on the issues:
Backgrounds:
Carlos Garcia has been the director of Puente Arizona for just under a decade. The group, whose name translates to ‘bridge’ in English, advocates for the lives of undocumented Phoenix residents. Garcia took 4290 votes, 28.9 percent of the total vote, in the first round of the election held on March 12.
Mike Johnson began his career as a police detective and was the councilman for District 8 from 2002 to 2013. Since then he has co-founded the Johnson-Neely Public Strategies firm with former City Council colleague Peggy Neely, and is a member of many Valley civic and business associations.
Light Rail
Garcia is opposed to the upcoming light rail initiative, which calls for reducing Central Avenue along the South Central extension to a two-lane road. Garcia said he does not believe City Hall’s dialogue and outreach efforts with the South Phoenix community were effective enough.
“I would never stand against infrastructure and funds coming into our district,” Garcia said. “The community was not asked what they wanted or asked for their input.”
However, Garcia said he does not support the activists who have recently brought the extension back to the ballot, which will be voted on in August. He said the fact the controversy has reached this point demonstrates the distance between South Phoenix residents and city hall.
“It shows that the city’s inability to have that conversation with the community pushed the community to demand no train,” Garcia said. “I think that’s something that could have and should have been prevented if community input was actually taken in.”
Johnson was a councilman when the light rail originally came to Phoenix, and he pointed to the fact that voters have approved multiple sales tax initiatives to fund transportation improvements, including light rail, in the past.
Johnson said he’s against the ballot initiative and added that he would try to assuage community concerns by supporting a South Central extension plan that would maintain four lanes along Central Avenue.
Civilian Review Board for Phoenix Police Department
Garcia was unabashed in his support for a civilian review board to add additional oversight to the Phoenix Police Department.
RELATED: City Council hears debate over civilian review of police department
“I would absolutely support a civilian review board,” he said. “And beyond that, the civilian review board must have subpoena power and the ability to fire an officer that they deem was unjust.”
Johnson was more hesitant to give outright support to the immediate formation of a civilian review board but did say he would support the city conducting research into one.
“Across the country, there are different citizen review boards,” he said. “I would really want to know more details about the structure of a citizen review board that we want to put together before I would make a decision yes or no.”
Affordable Housing
Both candidates expressed their concern about affordable housing across District 8. Garcia and Johnson both praised downtown’s development over the last two decades but said there is still work to do to ensure it remains an affordable place to live.
Garcia said while the new growth is exciting, it has to benefit the people who already live in Phoenix the most.
“There must be in any development deal a large portion of affordable housing that must be mandated of the developers,” Garcia said.
Johnson said the focus should be on how to keep housing affordable after it is built given fluctuations in the real estate market, citing Roosevelt Row as an area that began as an affordable place to live but has now gotten more expensive as the years have gone by.
“Not only do we have to work with developers to build affordable housing but we have to also work to make sure we maintain affordable housing.”
Contact the reporter at dmperle@asu.edu.
