Breanna Reeves |
This interview has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
Ulises Cabrera, the youngest member elected to Moreno Valley’s City Council, announced his bid to run for mayor of Moreno Valley. Cabrera currently represents the city’s 4th District.
Cabrera was born in Los Angeles but made his move to the Inland Empire to attend college at the University of California, Riverside where he earned his degree in Political Science: Law and Society. A council member and small business owner, Cabrera hopes to add mayor to his biography.
The IE Voice and Black Voice News spoke with Cabrera about his future plans for Moreno Valley if he is elected.
Q: When and how did you decide to run for the office of Mayor of Moreno Valley?
A: It’s something that I’ve known for a few years now, that one day, I wanted to run for mayor. Once I got elected [to the city council], and I let some people know, some of my colleagues know that ‘hey, one day, I will be running for mayor, just to give you a heads up.’ And so right now, it’s going to be an open seat.
Our current mayor is going to leave that seat and I think that it’s time for someone new, a new leader to step up and lead the city. I officially decided to run in February.
Q: Do you think your work and experience as a council member prepared you to run for this position? If yes, how so?
A: Yes, absolutely, it has prepared me. There’s work that the public gets to see, that the residents get to see firsthand whether that’s through things like volunteering at food banks and food pantries or doing Reading Across America and going to the schools and interacting with other public agencies. So people see that first, but then there’s also a lot of things that happen outside of the public arena, if I can say — things that you do at City Hall, all the meetings that you have, whether that’s talking to the city staff, or talking to private sector partners, or nonprofit organizations, or the clergy, there’s a lot of work that happens behind the scenes that people don’t get to see. It’s a little bit more of the day-to-day operation.
Q: What do you believe is the role of mayor? What unique qualities would you bring to that role?
A: There’s several responsibilities and roles that a mayor has to fulfill. It’s kind of difficult to pinpoint one as being the most important. But if I had to, if I had to identify one, it would be the role of a representative. You are the face of the city as the mayor and you’re representing all the residents within your jurisdiction. And so, we have to make sure that we’re representing the city in the best viable way and that goes on through our actions, through our words, how we present ourselves, how we present ourselves to other cities. When people interact with the mayor, they interact with all the residents of the city. That’s the most important thing, making sure that we have the most positive image that we possibly can.
Some of the unique qualities that I would bring, obviously, I’m on the younger side, for an elected official. I was elected at 22 years old, which I’m extremely proud of (as) the youngest elected official ever in the city of Moreno Valley. I also happen to be Mexican American, the son of Mexican immigrants. I was born and raised in Compton, so I don’t come from money, I don’t come from politics. I’m a father as well. I’m firsthand experiencing what it is to raise a child in this world and making sure that as a father, I do everything I can to provide for my family.
Moreno Valley is a very young city demographically and another unique thing that I bring as a millennial is that I grew up with technology. That’s not something that a lot of your typical elected officials can say, but I can say that.
Q: What other personal/professional experiences or attributes do you have that make you qualified to be the Mayor of Moreno Valley?
A: I’ve studied a lot when it comes to policy making, and how to run different types of government and systems of government and how to interact with the public, how to interact with your constituency. So, not only am I experiencing that firsthand, but my education also gave me a background in that, in addition to an emphasis on law. That’s something as an official we have to be prepared for as well because different issues come up and you must be able to face those issues head on and know what to do in those situations.
I’m also a small business owner. I run a small business. I have for several years now. It’s a family business in residential general contracting. My company has been published in multiple magazines as a top contractor in the Inland Empire.
We’re a small operation, but you can look up our reviews online and it’s all five stars. At the very front [as a business owner], and as an elected official, is customer service.
Q: As we enter another year of the pandemic, what are some pressing issues you think need to be addressed in Moreno Valley?
A: There’s a lot of tough decisions that we (city council) had to make. As I mentioned earlier, a lot of people lost their jobs, a lot of people got sick (and) unfortunately, many passed away. And so, there were a lot of tough decisions that the council had to make over the past two years or so, to make sure that we were taking care of our city and taking care of our residents. And I’ll provide you with some concrete examples.
Just yesterday at our council meeting that ended at like 11 o’clock at night last night, we approved additional funding for utility systems for those residents who are struggling to pay their electric bills.
We also approved a million dollars — this is something that I’ve been pushing for, and finally we got it. We approved a million dollars to work with the Salvation Army and find homeless folks temporary shelter, whether that’s hotels or motels, while we find them permanent housing.
I’m also very vocal…open, and vocal about creating temporary housing for the homeless. In Moreno Valley we have zero shelter beds, zero, we have none for the homeless. Riverside has hundreds.
Moreno Valley being the second largest city in the county, we can’t just expect someone else to solve the problem for us and we just do the bare minimum. Riverside has these pilot homes or tiny homes, some people call them. Basically [it is just] a small room for bridge housing where we can provide the wraparound services for mental health, drug addiction, health care and all of that. That’s one of the things I will continue to advocate for.
The city has just grown exponentially and with that has come a lot of developments, both residential, and a lot of industrial development–a lot of warehouses. I bring this up because I want to talk about jobs. Moreno Valley is ready to take that next step when it comes to the types of jobs that we bring to our city.
We need to put emphasis or more focus on the quality, the kind of jobs that we’re bringing to our city. I think that we have reached that point where we have enough entry level, minimum wage kinds of starting jobs. We are ready to bring in more of the higher wage, higher quality career opportunities such as in the technology sector. At Moreno Valley College, they have a very extensive cybersecurity program. They have a makerspace with 3D printers, additive manufacturing, bio printing, coding. The city is in a good position with all the logistic centers we have here, to capitalize on that. So how do we bring in those private sector partners?
In addition to that, we have two major hospitals [here]. The county hospital (and) we have Kaiser as well. The county, just earlier this year, completed its expansion and Kaiser is currently expanding. Those are high-paying jobs [at the hospitals], from the janitor all the way up to the surgeon. Those are high-paying and in many cases, union jobs, as well. That’s more of what we need, that’s what Moreno Valley residents deserve.
Another area is education. I have recurring conversations with the college about how do we not only work together to bring in those higher quality jobs from out of town, but how do we also create an incubator? How do we foster those entrepreneurs?
We know throughout the country small businesses are the ones that create the most jobs. So, this issue with ‘brain drain’ that Moreno Valley has had for a long time, where our college students are getting their degrees, getting their certificates, and then leaving for San Francisco, Silicon Valley, or they’re going to Boston or Austin or Phoenix to get those jobs because that’s where they are. How do we give them the opportunity to not only get their education, but how do we give them the opportunity to stay in Moreno Valley, (and) create the next Amazon or create the next Tesla?
Those are things that I’m very passionate about.
Q: What would be your first priority, if elected (*like measuring the first 100 days of the presidency)?
A: I would make sure that on the education side, we continue expanding what we’re already doing, helping to pay for more tuition for the students, for sure. I would like to do at the beginning of my tenure as mayor as well, is making sure that the city, together with the college district and the private sector, creates a pipeline for our residents to get training and certificates and jobs in things like electric vehicles, renewable energy, whether that’s solar or electric vehicle charging stations, or cybersecurity.
The California Air Resources Board opened a new facility in the city of Riverside, just outside of Moreno Valley, and this is a major opportunity for the city to capitalize on. They’re making electric vehicles in our city. And not only do we have Karma, but the same building has AYRO, they make electric utility vehicles or smaller little vans. That’s one area I want to put more emphasis and focus on and [direct] more resources toward because those are the things that pay higher wages.
Q: If elected, how do you plan to involve residents in the decision-making process in the city?
A: I will continue building on things that I’ve already done and implement some new things. One of the techniques I implemented in the past is having town halls. I know it sounds cliché but having town halls at public spaces like the Lasselle Sports Park. I’m going to have another one in the next couple of months to give residents an opportunity to come out, ask questions, and voice their concerns. Also, I can give them updates on what’s happening around the city. So, hosting more town halls. And I know some elected officials do what’s called telephone town halls. Our own mayor has one coming up. I think that’s a really good idea. Our superintendent was the one who first started the telephone town halls [here] because it provides easier access for more residents to interact.
Those are things that I would absolutely love to do.
I recently started a newsletter, as well, for my district and (it’s) something I have not done before. I started it just to update my constituents so that people know what’s going on. That’s one of the most important things in a democratic republic. We have to have a well-informed public. Also, if we don’t give the residents an opportunity to give their input and share their opinions with us, we’re doing them a grave disservice.
Q: What is one thing you believe the current mayor is doing well?
A: When it comes to education, you definitely cannot take that away from him. He’s an educator himself. He has been for a long time and he’s very, very supportive of increasing educational attainment, as am I. He brings that unique perspective to the table. He sees through the lens of a teacher.
Q: Is there one thing you believe needs to be addressed that the current mayor may not have addressed?
A: When it comes to industrial development, the growth of the logistics industry in Moreno Valley, I tend to be a little bit more aggressive [about] asking for environmental mitigations to make sure that developers are implementing certain construction standards like LEED certification, to make sure they’re reducing air pollution, water usage, and using the best possible technology they can like air filtration, and reducing the number of trucks that come to the city. All those things. That’s one area where I’ve been a little bit more vocal. I care a lot about the environment. We don’t have the best air quality. We actually have very bad air quality in the Inland Empire.