Ahead of the November general election, the Southern California News Group compiled a list of questions to pose to the candidates who wish to represent you. You can find the full questionnaire below. Questionnaires may have been edited for spelling, grammar, length and, in some instances, to remove hate speech and offensive language.
MORE: Read all the candidate responses in our Voter Guide
Name: Jillian Burgos
Current job title: Small Business Owner
Political party affiliation: Non-Partisan
Incumbent: No
Other political positions held: NoHo Neighborhood Councilmember
City where you reside: Council District 2
Campaign website or social media: www.jillianforthevalley.com/
What top two priorities would you focus on if elected? What specific actions would you take to achieve your objectives? (Limit response to 250 words.)
Housing: It is imperative that we end the eviction to homelessness pipeline. We need to lock in rent increases at no more than 3%, create a tenants’ right to an attorney in eviction court, and pass the improved version of the Tenants Anti-Harassment Ordinance. On top of all this, we need to build more affordable housing.
Homelessness: While we work to slow the number of people becoming homeless, we also need to help people currently on our streets. We must end these ineffective and inhumane sweeps that cause people to lose their property, including legal documents and prescriptions. Ineffective policies don’t get us any closer to housing people. We will support our frontline service providers to bring people into supportive housing.
What do you bring to the table that’s different or that would make you an asset not only to residents in your district but to the City Council as a whole? (Limit response to 250 words.)
I’m a lifelong renter. I have lived through many of the same struggles that our constituents face. I know what it’s like to work multiple jobs to try and survive. I know what it’s like to choose between paying rent or paying the growing pile of medical bills. I have had to fight evictions and struggle to get landlords to fix life-threatening issues like mold. This is personal to me. I have lost family members because of these issues. This is why as a neighborhood council member I fought for grants to help our local non-profits feed people facing food-insecurity in our community and helped create a Tenants’ Rights Workshop. For too long, our needs have been ignored and income inequality has continued to grow. I will be a champion for the workers and renters that are the backbone of this city. I want to see the people of district 2 and Los Angeles not just survive but truly thrive.
Given the numerous scandals at L.A. City Hall, including some that put councilmembers in prison, why should voters trust you? (Limit response to 250 words.)
Simply put: I am not part of the political machines that have produced these scandals. I am a small business owner who decided to get involved as a member of my community. Despite being outspent by other candidates by hundreds of thousands of dollars, our community work and our commitment to our values carried us through the primary. That has not changed one iota. We had one of the smallest per-donor average across all city candidates, which shows that it is not big donors that are funding us, but the people. We were the only campaign that showed up to defend our LGBTQ+ siblings when Proud Boys arrived to hurl homophobic slurs and be violent at an elementary school in NoHo last year. We were the only campaign that walked the picket lines for WGA and SAG-AFTRA not just once, but every week of both strikes until they received a contract. We also organized solidarity nights for strike captains during that time. We proudly claim our LGBTQ+ siblings and strike captains who’ve since joined our team. You don’t have to take my word for it; their commitment to this campaign should speak volumes enough.
Do you support the package of city charter reform measures on the November ballot? Which ones do you support or don’t support and why? (Limit response to 250 words.)
These reforms are necessary. Our district was one of the districts gerrymandered in the last round of redistricting. They talked about us on that L.A. Fed tape. Taking the redistricting process out of the hands of the City Council is absolutely necessary. We also need these ethics reforms and the amendment to give our controller and city attorney more investigative powers. More transparency is a necessity given the current political climate. My only concern is that we had this opportunity to create ethics reform and perhaps we didn’t go far enough; perhaps the fines for ethics violations aren’t large enough. There is still much uncertainty around how the ethics and redistricting boards members will be appointed. However, we can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good; these are necessary reforms that we can build on in the future.
Do you support Mayor Bass’ goal of building the police force back up to 9,500 sworn officers? Should the city redirect money from the LAPD to other programs? (Limit response to 250 words.)
LAPD has been unable to hire to capacity. Financial incentives from base pay raises to benefits for new recruits have failed to address LAPD’s staffing shortages, with no reasonable indication that it will improve from budget to budget. Further wage increases would put a massive strain on our city finances, which would cut services and put public safety at risk. Our safety is about more than just the number of police officers we have. When we can’t make safety improvements to our streets, install street lights, or invest in alternatives to policing, we put constituents at risk. We could’ve expanded our Unarmed Model of Crisis Response Program, which would free up police officers to answer more emergency calls instead of non-emergency calls. Instead of investing in what hasn’t been working, we had a unique opportunity to invest in a whole variety of tools to address systematic problems in our city.
One of the most frequent complaints about copper wire thefts is the resulting street light outages and other safety issues. What’s your solution for addressing these safety issues and, more broadly, for combating copper and other metal thefts? (Limit response to 250 words.)
We already have the technology to have a solar-powered, copper-less street light, a pilot program which began in Van Nuys earlier this year. Not only does this make copper wire thefts of these lights irrelevant, it also works to build a more sustainable energy future for Los Angeles. The Valley has the ability to become a leader within the city for sustainable energy, and we can do so while reducing the problems within our current city infrastructure.
Everyone agrees that L.A. needs more affordable housing. But there is debate as to whether multi-story affordable housing developments should be allowed in traditionally single-family residential neighborhoods. What do you think? What else should the city do to provide more affordable housing or tenant protections? (Limit response to 250 words.)
Currently around 70-75% of land in our state is zoned for single-family residential neighborhoods. This is at a time when our city needs to be building 23,000 affordable units a year for the next ten years in order to address our housing crisis. We’re going to have to change zoning restrictions and build more density in parts of the district and the city that haven’t been building their fair share of affordable units. Solving this crisis is going to be a big lift and we need all angelenos and all neighborhoods doing their part. However, our doors will always be open and we look forward to having robust conversations about where exactly to build new housing.In addition to building new housing, we need to lock in rent increases for rent-controlled apartments at 3%, pass a stronger, more enforceable Tenants’ Anti-Harasssment Ordinance, and create and fund a tenants’ right to an attorney in eviction court.
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