Candidates debate the issues in Amcan

By KERANA TODOROV
Register Staff Writer

Traffic congestion, growth, and how to boost the local economy were among the issues American Canyon City Council candidates tackled at a recent debate.

The two mayoral candidates — Morris Curry, a community activist and the Protestant chaplain at San Quentin State Prison, and Leon Garcia, the incumbent mayor — spoke Thursday at a forum at American Canyon’s Marriott-Fairfield Inn. Whoever wins in November will serve a two-year term.

The American Canyon Chamber of Commerce and Impact 94503, a group of resident activists, also organized a debate for the four candidates running for two City Council seats.

The four candidates, all of whom are running for four-year terms, are incumbents Joan Bennett and Cindy Coffey; Matt Pope, an American Canyon planning commissioner; and James Walker, a Napa Valley College student and grocery clerk.

Garcia, 65, a semi-retired nurse who now works at the Veterans Home of California at Yountville and Curry, 62, shared similar ideas and differed on others.

Both expressed their support for the Town Center project, a commercial and residential development on the former basalt plant site east of Highway 29. The candidates also spoke in favor of a senior center, the need to bring county social services to American Canyon so that residents would not have to travel to Napa and boost local business.

Their approach to solving problems such as traffic congestion and their vision for the future of the city, however, differed.

Curry, who believes a toll road should be built around the city to divert traffic from Highway 29, said that he’s ready to stand in the middle of residential streets to slow traffic down. Garcia, for his part, reiterated one of the city’s solutions — extend Newell Drive to relieve traffic congestion on Highway 29.

While Garcia believes in tourism to bring more tax dollars to his community, noting that up to 60,000 cars travel on Highway 29 every day, Curry said he  is more concerned about residents “who can’t afford a bottle of wine.”

Curry said the city should spend its money on a full-time city attorney instead of paying a consultant, but Garcia said City Attorney Bill Ross has done a good job for the city.

Garcia became the first elected mayor of American Canyon in 2006.

The four candidates running for two four-year terms then took their seats at the table. Like the mayoral candidates before them, each gave an outline of what they hope for the future of American Canyon before answering written questions from the public.

Coffey, the city’s vice mayor, said she wanted to continue her work for the city, saying she has been a bridge builder on the City Council. The city needs to be run like a business and mentioned her opposition to spending money on a new City Hall, she said. “I didn’t feel it was the right time for that,” she said. Coffey, 47, supports the construction of a desalination plant to solve the city’s ongoing water shortage problems and the rail line proposed by the developer of Napa Pipe, a 3,200-townhome development south of Napa. She also wants to support businesses.

Pope, like Bennett, expressed optimism for American Canyon’s future. Bennett, 69, cited the city’s fire department, future high school and open space among American Canyon’s assets and said the city needs to focus on economic development.

Pope, 37, a member of the Democrats of Napa Valley and a writer, said he is running to maintain the city’s quality of life. His goals include building consensus,  promoting new urbanism and business.

Walker, 20, a Napa Valley College student and retail clerk who lost two City Council bids in 2006, said the city’s future hotels need to have rates that keep tourists in town.

Like the mayoral candidates, the four city council candidates expressed support for the Town Center development and the need for a senior center. Bennett said she leaned toward renovating the former police station on Elliott Drive into a senior center while Coffey said the city should lease space at Canyon Plaza.

The candidates also said that Highway 29 needs to be made more pedestrian friendly.

“It’s like a wound in our community that we’re divided,” Pope said.

The two candidates for supervisor in District 5 — Keith Caldwell and Gary Simpson — spoke earlier in the evening. The debates’ moderator was Dan Donahue, chairman of the American Canyon’s Chamber of Commerce’s governmental affairs committee.

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