Three hard-working incumbents deserve to be re-elected to the Rocklin City Council | Opinion
Rocklin residents have an easy choice this November when considering who deserves their votes for Rocklin City Council.
We recommend voters re-elect three incumbents, Mayor Greg Janda, Councilman Ken Broadway and Councilman David Bass. They have our endorsements.
Elected to the city council in 2012, Janda works for a Rocklin-based family business after working 37 years in the technology sector. Long-time Rocklin resident Broadway, who has served on the city council since 2016, retired from the United Parcel Service last year after a 28-year career. Bass, elected to the city council in 2022, is a special investigations and fraud attorney in the Sacramento District Attorney’s Office. He has two children currently enrolled in the Rocklin Unified School District.
The three are smart leaders in touch with the community’s needs. They have experience with managing difficult problems.
For years, Rocklin leaders have worked hard to explore options that would make it possible for the city to leave PG&E. That’s because a PG&E customer’s costs can be up to 40% higher in a given month than a monthly bill from nearby Roseville Electric. The problem is that moving toward eminent domain would be costly.
A legal battle with PG&E is not in the best interest of Rocklin taxpayers. But city council members haven’t given up: Bass said he and his colleagues have been called into the California Public Utilities Commission to testify about high customer rates. They’ve implored the League of California Cities to take up the issue and even drafted legislation for Asm. Joe Patterson, who previously served as mayor of Rocklin.
This is the kind of leadership Rocklin needs. What it doesn’t need is Matthew Oliver, who previously ran unsuccessfully for Rocklin City Council and offers little beyond conservative hot takes. Oliver is the fourth candidate running for three open seats on the city council and we hope Rocklin voters reject his candidacy again.
Meanwhile, Broadway, Bass and Janda are right to be proud of the work they have done in office. Broadway. They led the council’s decision to purchase a former golf course and turn it into the Sunset Whitney Recreation Area.
The city council just approved a bike pump track that will break ground later this year after a group of citizens approached the board with the idea.
Broadway, for example, also shouted out the city’s Community Oriented Policing and Problem Solving team, which works on issues related to homelessness and retail theft. They connect with unhoused individuals to find them housing. And, as a result, Rocklin has seen a reduction in crime rates and its rate of homelessness.
Regionally, Placer County is undergoing a period of growth. Whereas in nearby Roseville, housing developments are expanding out in the western part of the city, Rocklin is effectively built out. One of the biggest challenges facing the city council is that developers aren’t interested in building affordable housing, meaning young people and folks hoping to move to the area are being priced out of Rocklin.
“We’re literally doing the best we can to get affordable housing numbers up,” Bass said. “Builders don’t want to do that. That’s the battle at the local level.”
Re-electing Bass, Janda and Broadway is in the best interest of the community.
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This story was originally published October 3, 2024 at 11:57 AM.