Paso Robles mayor Steve Martin is up for re-election - being challenged by conservative Michael Rivera.
The candidates spoke with KSBY about the city’s most pressing issues and how they set themselves apart from their competition.
“I’ve done two different tours on the Paso Robles city council - about half of that as mayor,” said Steve Martin, Paso Robles mayor.
Incumbent Steve Martin is looking to keep his seat as Paso Robles mayor - going up againt conservative and longtime Central Coast resident, Michael Rivera.
“I'm a proud conservative. I'm a proud God-fearing, America-loving person and I just want the best for all Roblans - and I hope that we can achieve that goal - and I will work very hard to get that done,” said Michael Rivera, Paso Robles mayoral candidate.
Both candidates say they plan to focus on - what they believe - are the community’s concerns.
“The communities priorities are public safety, road maintenance and repair, and economic development," said Martin. "So I’ve worked very hard to keep the goals of the community in front of me and in front of our council, so that we are always pursuing what the people want and need from their government.”
“We lack leadership here, and we’re experiencing some not good things and I want to develop plans and strategies to get back on course," said Rivera. "the wine industry, the hospitality industry is doing just fine, we don’t really need to be involved in that. We need to focus on very unsexy things, like infrastructure and providing affordable housing.”
Martin is looking to advance the city’s economic development by ensuring a spaceport license for the airport and creating a new tech corridor.
“My goal is to diversify the city’s economic base so that we have a greater variety of high paying jobs, makes us more resilient in the future to the upturns and downturns of the economy and also provides a lot more opportunities for our citizens and their children,” said Martin.
Rivera says other issues should not be set aside to keep the quality of life in Paso Robles.
“Of course, this homeless problem has doubled under this current mayor," said Rivera. "We’ve had other challenges related to various types of infrastructure. We are building 2,000 homes just east of where we are sitting right now and we are already having problems with gridlock and getting onto the 101 freeway. And we need to start addressing those otherwise our quality of life is going to deteriorate. And it's not going to be the beautiful place that Roblans have embraced for so many years.”
