I attended the District 1 candidates meet and greet tonight at the Natomas Community Center, which was sponsored by the Natomas Community Association.  Three candidates are currently vying for the Council seat which is currently held by Ray Tretheway.

The candidates are Angelique Ashby, Lisa Kaplan and incumbent Ray Tretheway.

Each of the candidates gave a five minute presentation and then split up and answered individual questions from community members. I asked each of the three candidate’s the following three questions.

1. Do you support the City’s plan to annex thousands of acres of farm land to the North of North Natomas? (This is known as the Natomas Joint Vision, some simply call it urban sprawl)

TRETHEWAY: “Yes…I helped write the Joint Vision.”

KAPLAN: “I don’t have enough information yet, to make an informed decision”

ASHBY: “Not at this time, I support infill and finishing current projects first.”

2. What do you believe is the reason for the increase in crime in Natomas over the last 8 years?

TRETHEWAY: “I disagree that crime has increased, it has actually gone down”

KAPLAN: “A lack of public safety… a lack of empowering neighborhoods with programs like neighborhood watch”

Ashby “A lack of police presence and allocation of police resources”

3. Given the recent revelation that City employees in the Planning Department issued building permits in violation of federal law, do you believe that these individuals should be terminated?

TRETHWAY: “yes”

KAPLAN: “Yes”

ASHBY: “Yes of course, if this was in the private sector wouldn’t we lose our jobs?”

For me tonight was a test, I did not attend this event planning on asking questions and posting them on Sac Press, but I believe that I will continue to do this throughout the campaign season and possibly in other district races. I definitely have many more questions of the D1 candidates, post more in the future.