FOUR MEN AND one woman are competing to represent District 1 on the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors in the upcoming March 5 election.
Currently, board chair Miguel Villapudua represents District 1, which covers South Stockton and unincorporated areas near the city, but he is restricted by term limits from seeking the office again.
On the ballot are San Joaquin County native and third-generation firefighter Mario Gardea; Lilliana Udang, who is a Stockton native and is district director for state Sen. Susan Talamantes Eggman; Terence West, a San Joaquin County community services director; businessman and electrical contractor Mark Stebbins, and Chris Rouppet, who currently serves as chief of staff for Villapudua.
Mario Gardea
Gardea, president of the Stockton Firefighters Local 456 union, was born and raised in the county and has only ever lived in District 1, he said.
If elected, his top priorities will be crime, homelessness, blight, fixing city infrastructure and finding activities for youths, such as community centers to be run by retired people.
“Let’s open our youth centers and expose them to the trades: fire departments, police departments, any skilled labor trades,” Gardea said.
With 20 years of firefighting experience, he believes he could bring a different outlook to the board — one from the standpoint of public safety from the front lines.
“When it comes to the needs of the community, from a first responder perspective, and dealing with some of our homeless issue problems, I’m usually one of the first ones to respond,” he said.
Gardea said a lot of the crime is caused by the unhoused population due to factors such as drug addiction, which also ties into the problem of blight.
“The amount of trash, the amount of pollution in our waterways and our sloughs, damaging businesses with their fires, all those different things,” Gardea said.
When dealing with crime, he said he would work with experts such as the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office, San Joaquin County District Attorney Ron Freitas, and other firefighters.
“I believe Ron Freitas has really set the tone to wanting to get some stuff done when it comes to crime here in the city of Stockton,” Gardea said. “His prosecution rate over the last four or five years has increased because there’s been an increase of crimes, especially violent crimes. I believe working with him, working with our sheriffs, coming up with ideas that can help will benefit the community from a public safety viewpoint.”
Before voters cast their vote, Gardea said he wants people to know he is not a politician, he is a member of the community who does not plan to leave.
“A lot of people are using this as a stepping stone to go to bigger and better things. That’s not my intention,” Gardea said.
Lilliana Udang
Udang, as district director for Talamantes Eggman, is in charge of all constituent outreach and management for services and connections to state agencies.
“Part of my work requires just continuous contact with folks in and out of the community, and then reaching local elected officials’ priorities with state priorities,” Udang explained in an interview.
Her priorities, if elected to the board, include housing affordability, homelessness, water resources, upward mobility for youth to make people want to stay in the county and government accountability.
When it comes to attempting to create solutions for homelessness issues, Udang said the county needs long-term strategies with short-term solutions in between.
Additionally, she said the county does not have enough multifamily housing or entryways for first-time homebuyers or homebuyers who want to downsize.
As someone who works with the state, she said she thinks the county needs to be more proactive with its money.
In her first year on the job, she approached elected officials in the county to ask what assistance they needed, but said she didn’t get many responses.
“The only person who said they have a couple of ideas was at that time, Kathy Miller, and her chief of staff,” Udang said.
She alleged that she had approached the District 1 chief of staff, who is Rouppet, one of her opponents in the race, about the district’s needs.
“When I realized that the response was ‘Well, I don’t know if we need anything right now,’ it didn’t sit well with me.”
She said if she’s elected, she will maintain the relationships she has created on the state and federal level because knowing when and how to advocate for dollars is just as important as knowing what to advocate for.
When asked how she would preserve time during meetings to avoid unnecessary bickering, she said, “The work that we do is not meant to be personal about us. It’s meant to be personal about you, the constituents.”
Udang said, “I think there is room to work with folks that you disagree with on the things that you can make move forward and then there are ways to be able to agree to disagree, but not derail everything else in this process.”
Udang said she believes what sets her apart from other candidates is that she is running for a future, for her kids and the next generation and is accessible to the community.
Terence West
West said on his campaign page that his professional journey is over three decades long and consists of public service and community activism that has taken part in South Stockton.
He has also worked in Escalon’s city manager’s office, the Stanislaus Regional Housing Authority and in the San Joaquin County Human Services Agency.
“Stockton, California is where I found my purpose. It’s where I finally put my ideas about community service, activism, and social change to the test,” West said in an emailed statement.
According to his campaign page, he believes the city is a great place to live and thrive but has serious concerns such as homelessness, disenchanted youth, infrastructure failings, environmental concerns, and high rents.
He said he is running in the election to be a supervisor because “for the unincorporated areas of south and southeast Stockton, the need for someone who is driven by getting results and a history of proven leadership is at its most high.”
West also stated, “I’m running for County Supervisor because the people should support someone who lives in their community who shares their plight of neglect, under-representation, disinvestment, poverty, homelessness, poor air quality, poor health, lack of youth programs and activities, and rising crime.”
He said he is committed and will stand firm on eliminating the rise of crime, will enforce laws and will make sure to work for the people of the county, not special interests or political favors.
Mark Stebbins
Stebbins is not a stranger to Stockton or elections in the city.
He said he has lived in Stockton for 56 years and has volunteered and participated in community work for years such as working on community gardens, creating a neighborhood credit union and getting streetlights added in the city when there weren’t any.
He said he is running because he believes there is a possibility to make improvements in South Stockton and the community.
Some priority issues Stebbins believes are important are the prices of housing, homelessness and looking at the “tremendous anxiety that is present in people from the economic situation.”
He said he believes about 70 percent of the unhoused population has mental health issues, which is an area he thinks needs more focus.
If elected, he wants San Joaquin Delta College to expand their agricultural program and have a wider offering to be a full baccalaureate institution, particularly in agriculture.
He also wants to see the county fairgrounds turned into an agricultural-themed amusement park so children can experience agriculture and animals.
“Probably 34 percent of all jobs in the county relate to agriculture,” Stebbins said.
In 1983, Stebbins ran and won a Stockton City Council election, but ultimately lost the council seat in a recall election when an opponent pointed out that Stebbins had identified himself as being Black when he was actually white.
According to Stebbins, he continues to identify his race as Black just as he did all those years ago.
“I was Black then and I’m Black now,” Stebbins said. “However, the issue of race is, in fact, the issue not of race but of racism.”
Stebbins said voters should vote for him if they want someone who will think beyond the categories, someone who will stand for what is right and if they would like someone who has a vision on how the county might develop in the future.
Chris Rouppet
Rouppet, who was born and raised in San Joaquin County and has been the chief of staff for Villapudua for seven years, has also been involved in the community through athletic coaching.
He said in an interview that his heart has always been about the community and he wants to be elected to continue investing dollars into the community so residents see a change.
Rouppet said his top priorities if elected would be housing affordability, keeping neighborhoods safe for kids, and homelessness.
He said he has already been working on helping residents with their housing needs with projects he has taken part in with Villapudua such as having housing where people stay based on their income.
“The bottom line is we need more housing, this will alleviate the housing shortage while lowering costs,” Rouppet stated on his campaign page.
Additionally, he said his assistance with the homeless issues began prior to running to become a supervisor.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Rouppet and other community partners went to where unhoused people were located and gave them food and connected them to services and resources to receive help.
During his campaigning time, Rouppet did make headlines last year after being charged in connection with a hit-and-run crash.
The California Highway Patrol said that on the night of Sept. 29, Rouppet was driving his vehicle in the area of Sonoma and Delaware avenues in the Country Club neighborhood near Stockton when he crashed into two parked vehicles.
CHP spokesperson Officer Ruben Jones said the second car that was hit crashed into a third car that was also parked. According to Jones, a report for the crash indicated that its cause was due to an unsafe turning movement.
Following the crash, Rouppet allegedly left the scene and went back to his home, where CHP officers attempted to contact him. Officers tried for an hour to get Rouppet to exit the residence and gave verbal commands but ultimately, he did not come out of the home, Jones said.
It was not until the following day that CHP officers were able to get in touch with him.
Rouppet said he had received head trauma and had been hospitalized.
“It was just an accident that unfortunately happened,” Rouppet said.
According to the candidate, the case was brought down to a misdemeanor.
