Courtney Hall is running for El Cajon City Council District 3 against incumbent Councilmember Steve Goble. Hall, D, 35, said from a political perspective, there is no way to fix a pothole or a street, so she takes a pragmatic approach. Hall said she decided to run for City Council because she believes she can help make the city’s services more efficient and effective.
“I have more than 15 years of experience working in local government and data analytics. By working for the state of New Mexico, and currently working for the county as a principal data research analysist, I have a lot of experience on the ground with data analysis to provide local leadership about what we can do to make services better and spend money more efficiently. I also have experience in advising mayors of cities. I have worked with hundreds of mayors from around the world, helping them think differently in using data in making decisions in improving quality of life for residents. I am hoping to bring all that experience to El Cajon to help address homelessness, boost the local economy, and to make it easier for people in the city to communicate their needs back to City Hall and have that two-way communication with the city,” she said.
Hall is relatively new to El Cajon, moving there during the pandemic, and said she sees that as an asset because she has no preconceived notions about what El Cajon should be.
“But I do have tons of ideas of what El Cajon could be. I see that as an opportunity to ensure that I am talking to as many people as possible so that I will actually be representing people in my district rather than making assumptions on my experience if I had lived here since I was born,” she said.
Hall said homelessness is an obvious large issue in El Cajon as it is in the rest of the region.
“El Cajon because it has the largest population of homeless folks in the county, and it has been getting worse over the past few years. I want to take a regional approach where we work with other cities and the county to focus on prevention so that folks do not fall into homelessness in the first place. Also, to provide services to those in need, while making sure that our whole community feels safe and proud of where we live. We must take this regional approach so folks are not just moving around between cities, and so we can split the costs fairly between cities, so El Cajon does not end up being unduly burdened by the costs,” she said.
Hall said on a smaller scale, she wants to start things that are meaningful right away but do not cost much.
“El Cajon really prides itself on being a very fiscally conservative city, and I think that is extremely important. We can do little things like making sure there are crosswalks at every intersection, which currently there are not. I want to make sure we are keeping people safe on the street,” she said.
Hall said she wants to make it easier for people to feel they are represented by the city.
“I think we have a real lack of representation for young people, women, people who rent their apartment and have fulltime jobs. I want to be able to bring more representation to the council, and that is one of the main things I think I can really address on council,” she said.
Hall said El Cajon has a thriving immigrant community, with many folks coming into El Cajon over the past 30 years.
“Primarily from the Middle East. We have a thriving Chaldean community who are an integral part of our community. You go through Main Street and half of our restaurants are Middle Eastern influence, and I would say we have the best food in the entire region. I would love to see more people coming and spending more time in El Cajon and embrace the culture that we have here. We need to make sure that we are keeping everyone safe, and everyone can feel they can exist in the community and be part of it. And also, making sure that we are not just taking in a ton of people without being able to provide them with homes and services, so that people can become part of the El Cajon community and not feeling like outsiders,” she said.
Measure J in El Cajon is a half-cent sales tax originally passed in 2008 and set to expire in 2019. If passed, the measure would be extended another 20 years, expiring in 2049. Hall said she supports the continuation of the sales tax.
“It is a big part of the city’s budget. It is important to keep the lights on in the city. It takes in about $13 million. I think it could have been designed better to not have such an impact on working families, like excluding everyday items like laundry detergent and over the counter medications and focus on places where we can get the sales tax without the people’s grocery bills getting higher. I also think this is an opportunity for the city to look at how we spend money. Right now, the budget for the city is about 75% allocated to police and fire. While I fully support our police department and fire department, I think we need to make sure funding them at an appropriate level to keep people safe. I think there is an opportunity because in looking at this potential $13 million to continue, we need to think about whether we are spending money on things that actually work, or overspending on our police and fire, which potentially limiting our ability to provide other services that people also need. Like economic development, infrastructure, and homeless services. I believe police and fire need to be funded well enough to do their jobs to keep people safe, but I also do not want to be wasting money on things that are not effective,” she said.
Hall said local government is where the “real work gets done” that impacts people daily.
