Santee Councilmember Laura Koval, R, was elected to City Council in 2018, and for the second election in a row, is running unopposed. Kaval was born and raised in East County, grew up in Lakeside, graduated from El Capitan High School, lived in El Cajon and moved to Santee in 1991 where she married and raised her two daughters. After graduating college, Koval worked for the Boys & Girls Club in El Cajon, becoming the director for the Santee Branch. During this time, since high school, she also worked for the San Diego Padres.
“I always had that part-time job, and it was helpful when I had my daughters and could stay at home and work games at night,” she said. “In the mid-90s, I had the opportunity to work full-time for them, and that is where my Major League Baseball career took off.”
After retiring from the Padres in 2011, she worked for the Padre Dam Municipal Water District as a customer service manager, getting her back to Santee and close to home. After a couple of years, she was promoted as park director of Santee Lakes, retiring summer 2023.
‘The only job I do now is City Council,” she said. “It is nice because I can allocate more time, which I love to do. It has been a nice change this almost last year being retired being able to enjoy that.”
Koval said working with nonprofits, private, and the public sector set her up for working in government, giving her the ability to look at public needs from all three perspectives.
“I first ran in 2018 with no plans working in local government, but the opportunity and need was there,” she said. “I ran unopposed in 2020, and now I am unopposed in 2024. Hopefully that means that I am doing a great job and people appreciate it. It is a nonpartisan job, but sometimes people take sides. I try to approach it through the eyes of everyone in the community and what is best for Santee. What I feel is important is that people want to live in a city that is safe and clean. That has been my personal mission, safety and cleanliness around the city. I hope that is reflected when people come here. I think it is reflected in the fact that businesses want to come here.”
Koval said every city has a need, and she supports Measure S, the half-cent sales tax increase that would be used for infrastructure improvements, including the construction of fire stations, and additional firefighter positions, which received enough votes for the November ballot, initiated by the Santee Firefighters Association.
“For me, whenever any type of sales tax measure is on a ballot, because bond measures come on ballots for schools, I really try to take a deep dive into why,” she said. “There is definitely the need. I’ve only been on council since 2018, but when first elected the fire chief took me on a tour of the two fire departments, and the station off Mission Gorge Road, I could not believe how old it was.”
Koval said the building was built in the 1960s, and that while working at Santee Lakes had building that old, that you can only defer maintenance for a building that old for so long, then it is obsolete. She said being tall, when she toured the building, her feet would not even fit on the stairs, and wondered how the firefighters safely performed their work. “It is outdated,” she said.
“With more research, since the city was incorporated, there were two fire stations then, and there are two fire stations now,” she said. “They do they best to serve the population, but clearly, we have needs. We definitely have needs in my district, the southwest side of Santee. There is a high level on senior population, it has eleven of the 14 mobile home parks, and it takes the fire engines longer to get to my district.”
Koval said Council is trying to be as creative as possible, but that there is not a “bucket of money” of $50 to $60 million to refurbish the old building and build another.
“With taxes, many tax measures, such as road management, the monies from those go into general funds and alternately can be used for anything. They are not earmarked for roads,” she said. “The difference with the ballot measure is one, it has an expiration date after 15 years, it can only be designated for fire stations, and fire station needs. This city council here is not going to be the same city council in 15 years. We want to make sure that the intent of this ballot measure today stays the intent of this ballot measure 15 years from now. And there is an oversight committee that will monitor the use of this money, independent of whomever may be on council. For the need we have, and those three reasons, I support the half-cent sales tax. Those are the four reasons I support it.”
Koval said another reason, unlike when the state took away redevelopment agency funds from cities in 2012, that with this measure, the state cannot step in and take away the funds dedicated for upgrades to the fire department if the measure passes.
Koval said if she had an opponent, one thing she would point out is that Santee was ranked as the second safest city in the region, and 11th safest city in the state according to FBI crime statistics that came out in April.
“That is something I am very proud of, because that is something we all focus on in Santee,” she said.
Koval said what most people do not understand about housing is that there is a need. She said people do not want more traffic, and more people.
“I think about my two daughters who are 29 and 30. They both have good jobs and make enough money that they should be able to afford to buy a home, and they just cannot,” she said. “They might be able to afford multiple roommate situations. They cannot afford to live here. They do, but more of their income goes to housing that most people would not understand. If you are locked into a mortgage of even 10 years ago, you are in a better situation than most millennials and Gen Zs could ever hope to be in San Diego. We have not built enough housing in the state. We have a housing crisis. We are trying to house all the people that are already here, so for me it is not a traffic issue. For 30-year-olds should not be living with four more 30-year-olds because. It does not add traffic, it just distributes it to places where people can live independently with hopes to start a family.”
Koval said the thing that ties it all together is the cost of housing. She said it is a shame when she hears of young people moving out of state, as they are our “brightest talents.”
“Both my daughters have talked about moving out of state. I do not want that to happen. But at a point, they must do something. This is not sustainable for our middle class who pay taxes for our local schools. It also creates a decline in children. My generation, I am 59, my husband 67, and we do not need our single-family home with a big backyard. But we cannot afford to move out of it. We are trapped in it. We would love to downsize, but there is not even an opportunity for us to move out so a family could move in.”
Koval said the big hot button for decades in Santee is Fanita Ranch.
“I know people have been conflicted. There have been several iterations of it. But the latest iteration saves 70% of it for parkland and open space preserve forever,” she said. “And 30% for housing. It is not what I describe as stack-and-pack with no transit. It has 55 and older housing. Townhomes and single-family housing, different price points, with many needs being met. For me, that made sense, versus six-stories downtown Santee. I think that through the decades and listening to people in Santee of what they really wanted, it was good. But what is going to happen is that the state is demanding housing, and if you will not do it through your own locally, the state will do it directly through developers. And they will not have to go through cities and get approval anymore. You need to meet these state minimums, which include you do not have to provide parking spaces. If they scratch the Fanita Ranch plan that they have right now, and decide to follow state mandates, they could actually build more housing units. I hope people my age understands that their children and grandchildren, if we want to keep them here, we need to build reasonable housing.”
Koval said for the next four years her priorities are pub¬lic safety, road infrastructure, fiscal responsibility, economic development, and community amenities.
