I think a good city councilor above all else needs to be able to Listen. If you can’t listen to your constituents, you can’t understand their concerns. If you can’t listen to your fellow council-members, you don’t know what their goals and concerns are, or what their objections might be to your goals and concerns. If there’s any one thing I’ve learned from working as a home healthcare aide, it’s how to listen. Listening isn’t just about hearing the words that are said, though that’s definitely important. Body language, tone, which words in particular are used, and what is not said are all important parts of listening as well.
Second, you need to be Persuasive. You need to be able to persuade the electorate to be elected at all, of course, but you also need to be able to persuade your fellow Council-members and anyone you’re working with on the various boards you’re assigned to. If you can’t persuade people, you can be a great listener and problem solver and have exactly the right vision- but you won’t be able to use those strengths to accomplish your vision. It’s difficult to prove that you’re persuasive in the abstract, so I’ll refer to my speech on the Library at the May 15th meeting (video, go to 1:09 for the core of the argument).
Third, you need to be a good problem solver. This is relatively broad- you need to be open-minded, to have access to the broadest possible range of ideas, be good at analyzing things, so you can get rid of the ideas that don’t work, and be able to implement your chosen solution. You also need to be able to learn things quickly. Some of these attributes I’ll only be able to demonstrate over time, through actions- but I’ve already demonstrated them in one instance. I went to the University of Chicago and graduated with a BA in Political Science with general honors. I did that by learning ideas from a broad range of sources- ancient writers, modern ones, activists, and through my work in a community non-profit; synthesizing them together in various different ways as the situation required, and implementing my understanding of those ideas through writing and action.
Fourth, you need to be Dedicated. I have demonstrated and will continue to demonstrate this dedication by attending city council meetings, and urge my fellow candidates to join me. Being on the city council is a significant ongoing time requirement. You are, at a minimum going to be spending ten hours a month at city council meetings, and at least that much again on various committees and regional boards. Based on my discussions with city staff, being on the City Council, if you don’t interact with the community at all outside of meetings, is a 40-hour workweek at below minimum wage levels. If elected, my work as a home healthcare aide allows me schedule flexibility to meet the needs of the city, above and beyond the minimum requirement. As I’ve stated in my platform, I intend to do outreach on social media and via flyers to make the city’s information more accessible to the general public- both before and after the election.
Finally, you need to have a vision. Your job as a city council member isn’t to do nuts and bolts implementation of city policy- that’s the city staff’s job. Your job is to provide direction. My vision for Pinole is a city where there’s a thriving community that is engaged with its government, which in turn provides the services and spaces to help the community thrive.
Rafael's thoughts 