My top priority on Metro is constructing the (soon-to-be-renamed) West Santa Ana Branch. This is a new light rail line that will connect the Gateway Cities and Southeast L.A. communities to Downtown Los Angeles. Not only will this finally provide a high-quality public transportation option to some of the most underserved communities in Los Angeles County, but it will also create thousands of jobs in the process.

There are people who have lived on the streets for years and have resisted services because of severe untreated mental illness and severe drug addiction. I worry they will die on the streets because for too long, our hands were tied in how to serve them. That is why I have championed two reforms. The first is CARE Court, which we launched in early December and allows family members to petition a court for care for their loved one with severe mental illness. The second is legislation that recently passed which expands the definition of gravely disabled to include people with severe drug addiction and will allow us to bring more people into conservatorship.

We can create affordable housing quickly by taking advantage of existing buildings and converting them into housing. Across my district, we have purchased existing motels and have converted them into apartment buildings with wraparound services for formerly unhoused residents. Each one of these buildings can be done in one-third the time and at half the cost of a traditional development.

I am also on a crusade to save mobile home parks. They are the last bastion of affordable housing, but corporations have begun buying these parks up and hiking up the land rent for residents. As a member of the newly created Los Angeles County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency, I am pushing for the development of better strategies and housing to preserve this affordable housing resource.

Our system of buses and trains has to be safe for our drivers and our riders. I believe increased law enforcement visibility on our trains and at our stations must be part of the puzzle and that is what I have been working on as a Member of the Metro Board of Directors. I also think that we should adopt what I call the Philadelphia model.

I recently visited Philadelphia to see their “Hub of Hope” — a center built into their metro system where unhoused residents can go to get services and get connected with housing. Too many unhoused residents who have nowhere to go resort to riding Metro trains all day, only to be kicked off at closing at the end of the line in one of our cities. This is a recipe for disaster for everyone involved and we need a more robust outreach program to reach unhoused riders and get them into shelters.

One of my top priorities is building the SELA Cultural Center. We are going to transform a County-owned lot along the L.A. River in South Gate into a world-class arts and culture center for the Southeast Los Angeles community. For too long, this region has not had the access to arts institutions that the Westside and Downtown Los Angeles have enjoyed and that needs to change. I think our libraries are some of the most important resources our neighborhoods have so I have been working to invest millions of dollars into upgrading public libraries around my district and will soon announce plans to remodel five more libraries in the coming year.

Lastly, I think every community needs a high-quality public pool. Public pools are important not only because they are where children can learn to swim and decrease drowning deaths, they are a place where people of all ages, including our seniors, can exercise. I recently opened the Greater Whittier Regional Aquatic Center and am working with Pico Rivera to build their new public aquatic center.

There are no surprises with me. You get what you see.

Our trains and buses need to be safe and clean. Most rely on our cars, so I want to find ways to reduce traffic congestion. Finally, we need to reduce gas prices.

Eliminate the housing first policy. Bring back conservatorships to get the mentally ill the real help they need. Reduce inflation so the number of people becoming homeless is eliminated. Provide housing for those who seek 12-step treatments or will receive job retraining.

The government solutions have failed. We need to allow the free market to work by eliminating rent controls, eviction moratoriums, and other failed policies. Allow apartments to be converted to first-time-buyer condominiums and promote flexible zoning so vacant buildings can become housing units.

We need to make crime illegal again. Build more humane jails and take every criminal off the street. Promote our sheriff’s departments so they can hire and have the right number of officers. Push back against Sacramento and their pro-criminal laws.

I am a civil engineer and a longtime business owner, so I know what it is like to take risks. Our current Board of Supervisors do not have the experience to make the tough decisions now needed in Los Angeles County. I will work with all 32 cities in the 4th district to make sure they can pursue their goals and visions.

I love 80s music, played clarinet in the USC Trojan Marching Band and got married to my sister's best friend .

This is pretty basic. The MTA is a TRANSIT system, not a sanctuary or a social experiment. The suffering of passengers needs to end, which means we have to enforce the law fairly, restrict use of the system to paying passengers. Homeless outreach should be the responsibility of municipal and county government, not the MTA.

Straightforward: Build the capacity to provide residential treatment facilities for those suffering from mental illness. This includes tearing down Men's Central Jail and building a Mental Health Treatment Center in its place. Reopen St. Vincent Medical Center and LA County USC Medical Center as psychiatric hospitals, all with step down and outpatient capacity. Build substance abuse treatment facilities and emergency shelters. Move everyone off the streets into corresponding treatment/shelter options, and REGULATE PUBLIC SPACE again. We also need to repeal Prop. 47 and reestablish the carrot-and-stick method that got people into treatment and off the streets. Right now we're losing 5-6 people a day on the streets, primarily to fentanyl overdose. We have to stop fiddling while Rome burns.

Scrap the current regulatory system and opt for one that is one-stop shopping, shield projects from CEQA review that are NOT anywhere near sensitive environmental areas, and focus on permitting infill development near transit corridors. That is the future.

This is easy. Get a D.A. in office who will prosecute for starters. Rebuild the LASD after it was gutted by the defunding movement, and again repeal Prop. 47. Leave prosecutorial discretion in the hands of those who make decisions, not politicians who think they know better — they don't.

I plan on reintroducing sanity into deliberations on the Board of Supervisors. I will challenge false information and unethical actions by the board, and insist on accurate information being used in all deliberations. I will work to support good governance across county government, represent taxpayers at the table, and hold accountable those who abuse the public's trust.

I started training in pole vaulting back in 1977, and was a competitive athlete in high school and college. I continued vaulting and doing decathlons in the Police Olympics, earning 10 gold medals in age group competition until injuries sidelined me. I rehabilitated with cycling and now Crossfit to stay in shape.