OAKLEY — Three candidates are vying for one seat in the upcoming Oakley City Council race, with two newcomers and an incumbent campaigning to represent District 5.
Initially, Oakley had three races on the November ballot. But in August, the City Council canceled the District 1 and District 3 contests and appointed two incumbents, Aaron Meadows and Anissa Williams, after no one else qualified to challenge them for the seats.
District 5 incumbent George Fuller faces Cristina Pena Langley, a classroom teacher, and Oleksii Chuiko, who chairs the planning commission.
Fuller says he’s proud of the council’s accomplishments in public safety, as the city has managed to increase the number of police officers. He added that Oakley has a good ratio of officers to residents.
“It’s always nice to say ‘oh, we’re going to hire more (officers),’ but we don’t need to,” Fuller said. “We’ve done the same for fire protection too.”
Langley, however, believes that the ratio of police officers to residents is inadequate and hopes to see an increase in the law enforcement agency’s staffing. Langley is also a big advocate for hiring resource officers for Oakley’s middle schools.
“It’s definitely needed,” Langely said.
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Chuiko believes that public safety is the foundation for the city’s economic development. He says adequate first responders are important to make residents feel safe and, in turn, attract new businesses.
Chuiko, who is also the president of the Oakley Chamber of Commerce, said the city needs to grow its revenue through sales tax instead of heavily relying on property taxes.
“I think it’s important for us to have different revenue streams coming in,” he said.
Fuller believes Oakley is not doing enough to attract businesses and often loses out to neighboring cities like Brentwood. He said the city’s is dependent on fees from developers to balance its budget.
Langley, meanwhile, said Oakley has enough car washes and gas stations but lacks forms of big businesses such as retail outlets.
“I’d love to see a Trader Joe’s or Sprouts, just to give people options of where they can do grocery shopping,” she said.
Langley is also a big advocate of open space, such as a long-planned 55-acre regional park, and improving infrastructure, including the Oakley Library inside Freedom High School, which she said has outgrown the space.
However, the third-grade teacher understands that other infrastructure upgrades, such as the East Cypress Road expansion project, which will widen the road and improve infrastructure to accommodate increased traffic, need immediate attention.
“I understand that we’re focusing our budget to make that happen because safety should always be a priority.
Fuller believes the city has often marginalized development in District 5, which starts at Main Street and East Cypress Road. He said he would like the city to hire a consultant to determine what can be done to help the district.
“I know very well from running in the general election that the southeast corner of District Five, east of Main Street, down to the Delta, has been ignored for years, and nobody says anything,” he said. “Now that we are in districts, we need to take care of that.”
According to Chuiko’s candidate website, all the Oakley City Council members except Fuller endorse him. Planning commission members Diego Verduzco, Leonard Price and Jeanne Krieg have also endorsed Chuiko.
