Chula Vista Councilmember Brings ‘Business’ Perspective to Supervisor Bid

Read our series of Q&As with candidates vying to replace recently resigned Board Chair Nora Vargas. Click here. 

Chula Vista City Councilmember Carolina Chavez, a Democrat, is running to fill a vacant seat on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors. The election is April 8. 

Asked why voters should choose her over six other candidates in the race, Chavez told a story about a pivotal meeting she attended two decades ago. 

She was in her 20s at the time, she said, working as an economic development liaison for a string of mayors in Baja California cities. One of her responsibilities was representing the interests of border cities in meetings of the San Diego Association of Governments, where decisions about transportation and other issues have profound effects south of the U.S.-Mexico border. 

“I was already involved in creating…regional solutions,” Chavez said of her liaison work. “Like when the Cross Border Xpress [a skybridge connecting the Tijuana International Airport with a terminal in San Diego] came to be, right? I was in those initial meetings.” 

Born in Tijuana in 1983, Chavez said she has straddled the U.S.-Mexico border for most of her professional life. That cross-border experience, she said, combined with jobs in both the public and private sector, make her uniquely qualified to lead an international and economically interdependent region. 

Chavez spoke with Voice of San Diego recently in the last of our in-depth conversations with major candidates running to replace former south San Diego County Supervisor Nora Vargas, whose unexpected resignation from the Board late last year upended local politics and threw leadership of San Diego’s border region up for grabs.  

South San Diego County “is such a unique, unique region that produces $60 billion in international trade,” Chavez said. “And people don’t factor that uniqueness into their policymaking.” 

Chavez started her career as a reporter for the Mexican broadcaster Televisa before pivoting to a series of government and private sector jobs. She worked for the mayor of Tijuana and other border cities, for a health insurance company that offers cross-border health coverage and as an economic development staffer in the office of San Diego City Councilmember Stephen Whitburn. 

She also chaired the International Business Affairs Committee at the San Diego Chamber of Commerce and served on the Chamber’s board of directors. On the Chula Vista Council, she represents neighborhoods on the northern and eastern sides of the city, where she said many of the business leaders she’s worked with live. 

It was those leaders, she said, who were among people urging her to run for the Board of Supervisors following Vargas’ resignation, despite her relative lack of experience in elected office. 

“Some of them called me up and they’re like, ‘Hey, we saw the candidates or the possible people that were going to run,’” Chavez said. “They really don’t understand the [economic] factor of what this region is.” 

If elected, Chavez said she would seek to leverage her relationships with San Diego’s business leaders to solve regional problems. She frequently proposed the same approach to a range of pressing issues, including housing, transportation, the Tijuana River sewage crisis and immigration: “I think there is nothing better than bringing the good actors to the table,” she said. 

Who are the good actors? “The people that are developing, that want to invest in this county, that have good paying jobs, good local paying jobs,” she said. “And we need to help hear from the community as well.” 

Editor’s note: The following interview, the fourth in Voice of San Diego’s series of in-depth conversations with candidates seeking to represent District 1 on the Board of Supervisors, has been condensed and edited for clarity:  

Q: Why are you running for supervisor? 

A: It’s very, very important that we have a representative that understands this very unique region. We produce over $60 billion in international trade annually that goes to the federal and state government. And we need to assure that someone that occupies that seat [on the board] really does understand the uniqueness of the region. That uniqueness can’t have policy or legislation like the rest of the country. Because we have a [cross-border] population and we share a workforce that we can’t house here. So, we have around 100,000 people crossing through that border that have to live in Baja because they can’t afford to live here locally. We have a retired community that also cannot afford to live here locally. We have students. We have veterans, a large community of veterans that have retired in Mexico. 

By the end of Covid, in meetings I had with [business leaders], they told me we are actually hurting because people with tourism visas could not cross [the border]. And that made our restaurants, our [healthcare facilities], our hotel owners lose millions. People don’t understand how much the [cross-border traffic] from Baja brings to us. And not just Baja, right, but all over. We are a very desirable city. 

Q: What would you do differently from other candidates to foster the economic development you’re talking about? 

A: Permitting reform, to start. I’ll give you an example. I’m not going to mention the names of the businesses, but they say to me, “I applied for my permits in the city of Chula Vista and it’s been two years and I haven’t gotten a response.” And I went and asked city staff about it, and they said that the person that was managing this permit process was no longer there, so they don’t have access to these emails and they don’t have other materials for the applications. 

So, that red tape stops us from creating jobs, from bringing good money, good investments locally. And that’s the story for many issues, right? For housing, for markets, for restaurants, for everything and anything you can imagine, that creates and keeps good paying jobs locally and contributes to the housing stock as well.  

The first week I was in office, I had a meeting with [Chula Vista’s] economic development department. And I realized that we weren’t being a partner to the community. Coming from the city of San Diego, we had a response time of a day or two to respond and connect with the heads of departments for any kind of issue that our community needed or our constituents needed, and we had a response time of about a week to resolve the issue. And I didn’t see that in Chula Vista. 

I want to say it’s getting better. I’m not saying it’s completely better, but I’m saying it’s getting better. There were a few structural changes in the department. Before, you would arrive and leave your paperwork and your layouts for the houses in a little box outside the department. And now they migrated everything to be online, and you get a response time online. That by itself is something Chula Vista had never done. 

Q: Do business leaders have the same complaints about working with county government? 

A: They say the permit process takes forever. I think the number one thing that we’re not focusing enough on is bringing good actors to the table. And when you’re creating policy, when you’re creating initiatives, listen to that [private sector expertise]. In Chula Vista, I proposed several things. One of them was creating a liaison between the Chula Vista Chamber of Commerce and the city. Because that’s the voices of the business representatives. Unfortunately, that proposal was shot down by other Councilmembers. 

I think we need to be inclusive of everyone [in policymaking]. When I talk to constituents, they always say, we don’t feel like we’re heard. Many of the policy decisions feel like a one-way street. 

I can’t say I know everything about housing, right? Why not bring the good partners to the table that are knowledgeable, that this is their bread and butter? Why are we not bringing them to have these important conversations and to create policies that work for them as well as for the community? I think the Chamber of Commerce should be at the table, homebuilders. 

Q: Pivoting to another issue. Voice of San Diego and some partners recently took a close look at the November 2024 vote. Two things that stood out to us were a swing toward Republicans in border communities and a shift to the right in Latino voters’ attitudes toward immigration. What’s your approach to this issue, and what are you hearing from voters? 

A: These tariffs [proposed by the Trump administration on a range of industries involved in cross-border trade with Mexico] are killing a lot of the local business industries here. And just in my district alone, I have like 15 people that are crying bloody murder about this. And they’re like, “I literally lost millions with these new tariffs. I lost clients.” 

Q: Did those people vote for Donald Trump and now regret it? 

A: Yes. 

Q: What’s your view of the county’s so-called “super sanctuary” policy, which prohibits county employees from assisting federal immigration authorities, including in cases involving people convicted of violent felonies? 

A: I can be very clear on that. And this is a conversation that I’ve had with many different organizations and groups that I talk with. I am never in favor of anyone that’s committing crimes. Let’s be clear. I am not in favor of [Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents] going into schools. I’m not in favor of the emotional aspect and the persecution. Because we have to be mindful about the world right now. All that pain and suffering and persecution, the reason why many people are fleeing their country. We need to recognize that with compassion. 

But people committing crimes? I’m in favor of that deportation. If you commit a crime, you shouldn’t be here. You shouldn’t be treated the same as a good actor, a good community member that contributes to society. 

Q: You have a professional background in healthcare, working for many years for SIMNSA, an HMO licensed in California that provides healthcare and health insurance in Baja California. San Diego County faces numerous healthcare-related challenges, including possible cuts in federal funding and the recent departure of the county’s behavioral health chief. What would be your top healthcare policy priorities as supervisor? 

A: You mentioned behavioral health. One of the main issues I hear about from constituents is homelessness. The number one priority when we’re talking about the unsheltered community should be helping them get to a better state of mind so they can make better decisions for themselves. We don’t have enough mental health resources for the unsheltered community. 

Q: Do you mean help for people struggling with mental illness? Or drug addiction? Or both? 

A: They go hand in hand. I’m always talking about detox programs and offering more of them. I think it’s crucial because I’m going to be dead honest. When I talk to [unsheltered people], when I talk to their mothers, they say, I really wanted to get my kid that was living on the streets into a detox program or substance abuse program. And they’re not available. And so, in unincorporated areas, the sheriffs are being overwhelmed because they’re understaffed and overworked, and they’re covering many, many issues. 

Q: The Board of Supervisors recently debated adopting a countywide encampment ban. Would you favor that policy? 

A: Yes, as long as we had adequate shelter space to offer people. I also think, again, we need to bring more people to the table to address this issue. In a recent candidates’ forum, other candidates were saying we often have no power to clean up encampments because they’re on land managed by Caltrans or some other agency. No, we have the responsibility to work with those agencies and make sure they follow through. And we should be involving the business community, the business improvement districts, like I did when I worked for [San Diego City Councilmember] Stephen Whitburn. 

I’ll tell you something very important. The first week in office, I’m going to ask for an audit [of county spending]. I need to see what programs we are investing in, what’s being proven to work, and what has not. Because with an $8.5 billion budget, and heading into a deficit, we need to inform our community why we’re going into this deficit. 

Q: Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer recently proposed exploring the possibility of tax increases to shore up county finances. What’s your view? 

A: How can we come back to the community and ask them for more if we don’t have accountability for what we’re spending right now? If we’re not being completely transparent into why we’re going into this deficit, does that even make sense? 

Q: I’m noticing that on many of the issues we’re talking about, you sound more like a Republican than a Democrat. Why are you a Democrat? 

A: Here’s the thing with me. I care about people. And in many of these issues, I’m telling you right now that the community doesn’t care about parties anymore. They care about results. 

Q: Okay, here’s an issue on which voters want results: Housing. What will you do to increase the availability of affordable housing? 

A: We have to bring everyone to the table, right? There’s a lot of talk around the environmental aspect [of building houses in undeveloped parts of the county] and the Vehicle Miles Traveled policy [a county policy that evaluates building proposals based in part on how much driving they would generate]. And we have to have a discussion where we bring everyone to the table: The developers, the people that are advocating for the VMT. And we need to hear from the community as well. 

Q: Do you favor or oppose the VMT policy? 

A: I’m inclined to be against that because of the housing shortage that we have. I think that we need to be very clear that we can’t just have towers and towers of small spaces for whole families. People still have the dream of a white picket fence. And we need to be mindful of that and step out of our mindset of, I hate to say this, privilege. 

I myself only recently became a homeowner two years ago. I’m 42 and it took me this long to be able to afford to buy a house. We’re driving good people out of our community because we can’t create policy and get it together. In Chula Vista, we approved more housing so far this year than the county did all of last year. That lack of housing in the county creates a huge problem in our housing stock. 

Q: What did you mean when you used that word “privilege?” 

A: I’m not talking about anyone in particular, but sometimes people say, “Well, we have to keep development in the already-developed areas because of transportation and the impact on the environment.” But we also need to think that there’s whole families living in reduced spaces. And they also deserve that dream of owning a home, of having a yard. And we need to do better when we create this policy. 

I sometimes get in trouble for speaking my mind. But as someone that grew up in this region, my grandfather was a strawberry field picker. At age 14, he would work 16-hour days with no child protections. I don’t come from privilege. I rode the trolley downtown [early in my career] and I came back at 9 or 10 p.m. because, you know, you’re a hard worker and you always feel the need to prove yourself. And I was always seeing that we didn’t have enough [Metropolitan Transportation Service] staff on the trolley. And I felt very vulnerable. And when I had the opportunity to sit on the Board of Directors for MTS, we had a focus group where more than 90 percent of people on the trolley said they felt unsafe. But when I said we need more safety personnel, other people on the board said they were concerned about racial profiling. And I’m the person who supposedly would be profiled. And I’m proposing the policy! It’s a lack of common sense. Because a lot of the people that are creating the policies haven’t lived it. I’ve lived it. 

Q: Last question. What’s your bottom-line pitch to voters? 

A: I’ve been working on these issues for 22 years. Twenty years ago, I sat as an observer in the Board of Directors meetings. I was already involved in MTS. I was already involved in being part of the process. I’ve had the discussions with state and federal officials in Mexico. I am the only one who can work with all levels of government on both sides of the border. 

We don’t have enough leadership that has common sense, that has lived in this region without privilege and has struggled with rent and understands that even if you’re doing well today, you can be unemployed tomorrow and you will struggle with housing. We need someone that goes back to the basics. Public safety. Food on the table. People don’t care about political parties anymore. They care about how well they’re being taken care of, how safe they feel. The prices of food. The prices of gas. School programs. We need to talk about that and health care. I can go on and on. That’s the uniqueness to me.