Chula Vista Councilmember Steve Castaneda Running for Mayor: Putting Neighborhoods First

February 14, 2010 at 5:38 PM

Castaneda Promises to Fight Special Interests’ Grip of City Hall

Chula Vista—As the 2010 California primary election draws near, a variety of local offices are up for grabs, ranging from City Attorney to City Councilmember to Mayor. Although, each candidate is a harbinger of their own message, it appears that there is one notion that transcends political ideology-- the need to change the culture of City Hall.

Councilmember Steve Castaneda, who announced that he running for Mayor at the Chula Vista Civic Association’s February 11th Board of Directors meeting, declared: “…I’m running because the culture in this city has to change from being controlled by special interests that doesn’t care about the community to a culture where neighborhood needs are more important than a new city hall…when we talk about doing cutting budgets, we don’t give city executives raises.”

With the exception of a response to why the entire city council, with the exception of Councilmember John McCann, did not speak up for reform proposals brought forward  by McCann and the Chula Vista Civic Association, Castaneda did not shy away from offering straight forward responses. “We were told in 2006 that all we had to do to fix city hall was elect a new mayor…We were told that our city government would be more responsive, that we would have tighter grip on fiscal matters on city and what did we get? We went from a city staffer taking pictures of the mayor at a fundraising party to city staffer making 200, 000 running his own consulting corp out of city hall running city equipment on city time.” stated Castaneda.

When engaged further on the need for change by one Chula Vista Civic Association member, Councilmember Castaneda said: “This city needs truth in advertising: Tell us what you are going to do and do it.  Don’t go do another thing and lose credibility.”

Elaborating further on special interests and restoring credibility, Castaneda recounted for the audience how he personally took up a matter where a Chula Vista community’s long-promised park was in threat of not coming into fruition. “I called HOA and said I’d like to meet with them. The current mayor goes out and tells them that the City Manager says we don’t have any money, but I went out and said: You paid for it we owe it to you and we are going to get it done. And guess what that: park is open…Some of the priorities in this city need to be changed.” said Castaneda.

When asked what motivates him, Councilmember Castaneda put it plain and simple: “I care about people.”


Chula Vista Civic Association is a non-partisan, business and community non-profit organization. This report/release is offered to members for educational purposes. All candidates have been invited to participate in  the series of Open Session Board of Director meetings featuring City Candidates.