MAYOR WELLS SHARES VIEWS FOR FUTURE IN EXCLUSIVE ECM INTERVIEW

Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly version Share this

 

Update October 27: Jonathan Wright has now participated in an interview with ECM, which you can read here.

By Janis Russell

October 7, 2014 (El Cajon)- Mayor Bill Wells is up for re-election this November against challengers Allen Theweny and Jonathan Wright. Wells participated in an exclusive interview with East County Magazine below.  We invited all three candidates to be interviewed, but only Wells responded by deadline. In the interview, he discusses the city's achievements during his tenure on Council and as Mayor, the issues facing El Cajon, and his goals for the future.

Wells has been Mayor for a year, appointed to fill the vacancy left by former Mayor Mark Lewis’ resignation.  Wells served on the city’s planning commission for four years and then on City Council for six years.  He has a background in mental health, primarily hospital administration, and also works as a professor at Kaplan University. 

Asked why he decided to run for reelection, he replied, “The things we’ve been doing for the past six years have been very positive for the city--and I want to continue doing what we’ve been doing.”  Asked to name those achievements he listed “a balanced budget, 10% set aside for emergencies (reserve fund), enacted pension reform, business base growing hugely, signed papers to build the first four star hotel in East County, Kaiser is in the process of building a new hospital here, crime is down 39% over the past decade, roads are getting the highest rating, being up to date with paving and maintenance projects. The downtown’s looking great.”

His goals, if re-elected, are: “I want to continue to bring in new businesses and work harder on cleaning up Second Street and Broadway. I plan to set aside, over the course of several years, $10 million in emergency reserve funds for the next recession by focusing on auto sales, building in the new Marriott hotel and at least a couple more hotels, re-open the performing arts center, and reduce the sales tax, which will happen in March.” For cleaning up Second Street and Broadway, Wells added that Council has created the business improvement district, which has worked downtown and should work elsewhere.

Issues that El Cajon is facing are, in Wells’ view:  “1) maintaining fiscal solvency- Some people cut down on staff and spending. To make up for it, they hire more people and spend more. We can’t afford to do that.  Build up the revenue base. I want to see El Cajon be the number one in auto sales in the country. 2) We need to rebrand the city. People don’t realize how nice things have been getting here… It’s a lot better than it used to be. That’s why we’re so involved in putting community events (like America on Main Street and Jimmy Johnson Day among others), to bring people into the community and see what we’ve done, so they can re-adjust their attitude about El Cajon. 3) Homeless issues- We have to be creative… We got 170 people off the street in the East County Transitional Living Center.” Wells says he likes to provide leadership in all these areas.

Accomplishments he is most proud of are: 1) balanced budget, 2) becoming a charter city, 3) getting rid of red light cameras, and 4) lowering taxes.

Asked how he would address the high poverty rate in El Cajon and bringing better paying jobs, Wells said, “By bringing in new hotels, dealerships and restaurants, all those translate into jobs… We can bring in new jobs. The reason we have a high poverty rate is because of low income housing and a lot of low income people live in that housing.” “We try to provide a better quality of life for them [like] providing job growth opportunities,” he added.

El Cajon faces challenges with many refugees and immigrants from Iraq and possibly more to come given the situation in Iraq and ISIS. As far as ideas to help newcomers transition to life in America and how the city will cope with the influx, Wells responded, “We’ve been working closely with Congressman [Duncan D] Hunter, Congresswoman [Susan] Davis, as well as Supervisor [Dianne] Jacob to try to get funding to help. We’ve already been involved in providing training from the police and fire departments to access safety services,” as well as how to let people know they shouldn’t be afraid of government because government here can help them, he added.

He also talked about his efforts to form a partnership with car dealerships. “About a year ago, we brought in car dealers into the city to talk about ways to help them. As a result, we launched a trade group called ‘The Valley of Cars (derived from the city’s new logo ‘The Valley of Opportunity’).”  Wells said that four sales are planned this year. “Hopefully, we can brand the organization with commercials and signs, so people know the name of ‘The Valley of Cars.’”

Regarding his views on the East County Performing Arts Center and the city’s controversial proposed deal with the lease to the Rock Church,  Wells had this to say. “I think the theater will be re-opened in 2015 no matter what’s happened. Doing this is expensive- five and a half million dollars in renovations and $600,000 a year in subsidies. If we were to partner with the Rock Church, they would pay much of the renovations and would give the city $250,000 a year to help pay for the subsidy, plus there’s the cost of not using it on Sunday and Tuesday nights and one Friday a month. Several times, we have tried to run the center with various organizations and were unable to sustain it financially. By getting involved in a public/private partnership, we have a much better chance to sustain it in the future.”

Regarding City Beat’s quotes from theater managers who said a professional theater manager should be hired before locking in large blocks of time with any church or organization, Wells stated, “We will hire a theater manager, but not until we’re closer to opening… It’s very expensive to have a theater manager.”

Also, Ray Lutz has threatened legal action if the city proceeds, claiming church-state separation issues. Wells dismissed the concern.  “It’s silliness. Cities rent out buildings to church organizations all the time,” he said. “There’s been no problem. We’re just leasing it...We put a bid for any organization, and the Rock Church put in a bid. They put the best one in.”

His endorsements include El Cajon Police Department and Fire Department, Deputy Sheriff’s Association, San Diego Association of Realtors, Apartment Association, Lincoln Club, Republican Party of San Diego County, Senator Joel Anderson, Supervisor Dianne Jacob, Assemblyman Brian Jones, and all El Cajon city council members among others.

Wells’ last thoughts are: “I really enjoy doing this job and I’m very honored” to serve the city.

For more information, visit his website: http://www.votebillwells.com/.


Error message

Support community news in the public interest! As nonprofit news, we rely on donations from the public to fund our reporting -- not special interests. Please donate to sustain East County Magazine's local reporting and/or wildfire alerts at https://www.eastcountymedia.org/donate to help us keep people safe and informed across our region.