Poway and SANDAG<\/strong><\/p>\nVaus said the secret to his success as mayor of Poway is \u201cbeing accessible.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll never forget a couple years in, once I became mayor, I got a letter from a little girl that they needed a stop sign in her neighborhood. She was worried about her friends being safe from cars,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I just went down and knocked on their door \u2014 the look of shock on her mother\u2019s face that the mayor would show up at the door.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re all elected to be public servants,\u201d he continued. \u201cBut far too many people in office focus on the public part \u2014 I prefer to focus on the servant part. I had all the public acclaim back in my entertainment days, I\u2019m here to serve the people.\u201d<\/p>\n
As proof of Vaus\u2019 record of serving the people, he points to a list of Poway\u2019s strengths as a city \u2014 raked as safest in the county; ranked best to raise a family; safe roads; and strong fiscal standing with paid-down pension obligations and significant reserves.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now we\u2019re building a brand new senior and community center. It\u2019s been talked about for 20 years. we\u2019re finally getting it done and we\u2019re paying cash,\u201d he said, adding that the city recently completed a revitalization of its downtown and also has added around 490 acres of open space.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll together, I think that offers a great blueprint for the rest of the county,\u201d he said. \u201cBeing a supervisor is like being a super mayor. Day in and day out I\u2019m taking care of the people here in Poway and that\u2019s what you got to do as supervisor.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Transporte<\/strong><\/p>\nIn addition to being mayor of Poway, Vaus is also chair of SANDAG, having been voted by fellow members unanimously in 2018.<\/p>\n
Transportation issues are of major concern to District 2 residents, especially in the back country. Vaus said he would continue the \u201cbalanced\u201d approach he has taken as SANDAG chair if he is elected to board of supervisors, by promoting mass transit in urban areas and funding roads in rural areas.<\/p>\n
At SANDAG, Vaus said he has already prioritized roads projects in District 2.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwenty years ago SANDAG made commitment to widen road from Ramona to Lakeside to four lanes. That\u2019s been ignored,\u201d he said. \u201cI was able to lead a coalition of Democrats and Republicans to reprioritize the expansion of the 67 and completion of the 94\/125 interchange; improvements or expansion to the 52 and improvements or expansion to the 78.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vaus said the coalition has budgeted $90 million to start the work.<\/p>\n
When it comes to urban area, Vaus said there needs to be more options, but added that he sees a challenge getting people back on mass transit because of the pandemic. One way to meet the county\u2019s transportation goals, he said, would be to encourage telecommuting by exploring countywide broadband WiFi \u2014 a proposition he added could also solve distance learning issues for families that lack internet connection.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got a lot of opportunities to do big things, we just got to make sure they are the right big things,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
COVID response<\/strong><\/p>\nWhen it comes to dealing with the pandemic, Vaus said he supports being cautious about reopening because he doesn\u2019t want to see mandatory shutdowns again.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat the county is doing right is they\u2019ve been acting very fact-based. We can\u2019t have rules and regulations that are like a light switch \u2013 on, off, on, off,\u201d he said. \u201cI know it\u2019s frustrating to a lot of people, but safety has to come first.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vaus said Poway was one of the first in the county to offer small business long-term loans.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat has been incredibly helpful to our small businesses,\u201d he said, adding that Poway was also one of the first to adopt a plan to allow businesses and churches to operate in outdoor public spaces.<\/p>\n
Poway also started program where city purchased 100 picnic tables to loan to restaurants while restrictions are in place.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter we get through with the pandemic, all the picnic tables can go into our parks,\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Housing developments<\/strong><\/p>\nWith fires currently threatening homes in District 2\u2019s back country, Vaus said it is important for the Board of Supervisors to listen to locals and especially fire departments before approving any new housing developments in the district.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou got to listen to your community planning boards. You got to make sure something fits with the character of the community and isn\u2019t going to present fire challenges,\u201d he said, adding that he is against developers using the ballot initiative process to circumvent locals stopping developments in their backyards.<\/p>\n
\u201cI worry about when these things go to the ballot,\u201d he said. \u201cShould someone in San Ysidro be voting on whether or not a new project goes in Fallbrook? I don\u2019t think that\u2019s appropriate. Are folks going to take the time to really understand what the challenges are, what the problems are? No, that\u2019s going to come down to an advertising war.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vaus said he sees housing opportunities that \u201cmake a lot more sense\u201d along the I-15 heading north, rather than in East County.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mental health, homelessness<\/strong><\/p>\nOne of the biggest issues facing the county \u2014 the homeless crisis \u2014 is a personal one for Vaus. When he was a teenager, his older sister was diagnosed with schizophrenia.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce she turned 18, they couldn\u2019t keep her any longer in the treatment facility, so they just turned her out and she wasn\u2019t ready for that,\u201d Vaus said. \u201cShe didn\u2019t have the ability to take care of herself. She lived a rough and tumble life in the streets at times. We can do better than that. We have to do better than that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vaus said he thinks the county has taken important strides in dealing with mental health and gives credit to Supervisor Nathan Fletcher who helped start a program to fund putting homeless into hotel rooms in the unincorporated areas of the county.<\/p>\n
\u201cHomelessness doesn\u2019t respect city boundaries and we need to treat it that way,\u201d Vaus said. \u201cLook at Lamar Park out in Spring Valley. It gets cleaned out and tons of trash and tents removed but they keep coming back because there isn\u2019t anywhere else to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although the county program is a \u201cglimmer of hope,\u201d Vaus said, there is still work to be done.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a now problem and it\u2019s a longer-term problem. Let\u2019s get them into those hotel rooms, but we need to solve the longer-term problem of transitional housing and then permanent housing, but I think we\u2019re headed in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n
One plan he said he would look at would be to repurpose county-owned buildings into homeless shelters.<\/p>\n
Ideas like that will take building support from across the county and across the political spectrum. Vaus said he is poised to do just that and pointed to his endorsements, which include mayors and city council members past and present from both sides of the aisle, as well as fire and law enforcement associations.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s because they all know that as supervisor I would put people before politics and I\u2019ll get things done,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m driven by people, not by politics. I\u2019m not endorsed by a political party, I\u2019m endorsed by people.\u201d<\/p>\n
- Comun\u00edquese con el editor Jeff Clemetson en jeff@sdnews.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By JEFF CLEMETSON |\u00a0La Mesa Courier Steve Vaus is banking that his record leading the city of Poway will convince voters on Nov. 3 that he is best to represent District 2 on the County Board of Supervisors. The District 2 race is one of the tightest in the county. In the March 3 primary, […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":778,"featured_media":227195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11548","_seopress_titles_title":"Vaus points to Poway record in District 2 race","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11548,11551,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-227194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-la-mesa-courier","category-news","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/778"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Vaus](\"https:\/\/lamesacourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Decision-2020-copy.jpg\")
<\/a>\u201cThat had always been a passion of mine,\u201d he said. \u201cI wanted to try my hand at it and ended up getting the highest awards in the industry and being reasonably successful.\u201d<\/p>\n