JOVANKA BECKLES

I am Jovanka Beckles. I live and work in Richmond and I am a candidate for the Richmond City Council in the November 2008 election.

My candidacy for the Richmond City Council is based on my conviction, shared with many, that the building of a better and healthier Richmond requires from every elected representative an unequivocal defense of all our progressive community values and aspirations.

Richmond has great potential. We must change the image that has become associated with Richmond – that it is a city ridden with crime, bad streets, and the worst pollution in the Bay Area. In order to change that image, we must have leaders who think creatively and who represent the interest of the people of Richmond. We must insist that our elected officials think forward and not backwards.

In order for our city to prosper, we need better and faster solutions. We have great people, but the needed changes have not materialized. The solutions we need can only materialize when our residents bring Richmond back from being a city run by an oil company to a city run by the community; a city where the City Council listens and responds to the concerns of its residents, rather than the interests of an oil company. This has kept Richmond stagnant and in some instances threatens to take us backwards. I represent a new generation of responsive, resident-focused leadership.

At the same time, we are experiencing a nationwide shift of minds. A new wave of change is emerging, and I know that it touches many of us in Richmond -- those who have felt tired and hopeless for so long have gotten a spark. I see it in their faces, in their smiles, in their conversations and questions: Can it get better? I say, absolutely !

I stand in Richmond as a candidate of real and positive change and progress. I share the sense of urgency experienced by many – families of victims of homicide and victims of violent crime, kids with asthma and depressed parents of depressed teenagers. I will represent each and all of the diverse people of Richmond. I will work very hard during my tenure as a City Council member to advance policies that make this city better, healthier and more just. I will be a true representative of the interests and aspirations of the people of Richmond.

Here are more details about me and my positions:

As a member of Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin’s Environmental Health and Environmental Justice Task Force, I have worked for a healthier environment for all Richmond, with particular attention to those neighborhoods suffering the brunt of industrial and non-industrial pollution. In addition to advising Mayor McLaughlin, the EHEJ task force constitutes a gathering place of community based environmental thinkers and doers, to share analyses and work together in raising environmental awareness in Richmond. I am privileged to work with great advocates from the Sierra Club, the North Richmond Open Space Shoreline Alliance, Communities for Better Environment, West County Toxics Coalition and others.

As a member of the General Plan Advisory Committee, I support a progressive direction for our City at the same time that I reaffirm and advocate for the interests and aspirations of the African American community of Richmond as well as those of all immigrants. I actively support the open space “option one” for Richmond’s shoreline, and I am opposed to building a casino in Point Molate.

As a Commissioner for Economic Development, I have worked on the Economic Development Element of the General Plan for the City of Richmond, and defend and promote the “Greening of Richmond.” Green-Collar jobs and Green Technology is the wave of the future. This new technology will create greater opportunities for our community members through training and increased long-term job availability. I also support more of our community being labeled “Enterprise Zones” in order for our small businesses to utilize those resources that can help improve and grow their businesses.

As an educator and counselor in Richmond, I have guided young people into transforming their lives in powerful and meaningful ways that have benefited them and the community. I have also taken my role as an elder in the community, seriously and have lead by example. I like to roll up my sleeves and work side-by-side with Richmond youth in clean-up and restoration projects such as Wild Cat Creek in North Richmond on Earth Day, or Baxter Creek at Booker T Anderson Park with the Watershed Project.

As a member of the Richmond Progressive Alliance (www.richmondprogressivealliance.net) I share with Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, alliance founders and members, the goals of restoring Democratic health, developing economic health, regaining environmental health and safety, opposing mega-developments on toxic brownfields like the Zeneca site, supporting smart growth and in-fill housing and neighborhood character preservation, and keeping both the shorelines and the hills of Richmond open and public, and strengthening social justice and transforming Richmond to a place of joy and pride. Additional background:

I am a Latina immigrant of African-Caribbean descent. I was born in Panama City, Panama in 1963, where I grew-up in a bilingual, multicultural family and country. My parents moved to the U.S. in 1972 and I went through the challenging process of immigration and cultural adjustment. At home, my parents taught me the critical values of respect for self and others, along with hard work and integrity. I can bridge many barriers. I attended Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, Florida on a full basketball scholarship, and graduated cum laude in 1988 with a BA degree in Psychology. I later earned a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Phoenix.

I moved to the Bay Area in 1989 and have worked as a counselor, youth educator, team builder and strategist, client advocate, housing case manager for the homeless, and mental health specialist for 18 years. For the last ten years I have worked in Richmond. I am also a small business owner in the City of Richmond, and I spearheaded the ongoing efforts to create an Association of Richmond Merchants of San Pablo Ave (ARMSPA).

As a Richmond resident I have been both the victim of crime and an advocate of solutions that prevent it. I support the Tent Cities Peace Movement and a variety of local community responses such as Mothers Against Senseless Killings (MASK), and the Not Today Movement in opposing violence and promoting peace. I resent and protest the slow pace of implementation of the solutions demanded by our community. I will work with our City Council and City managers to do much better.

As the Vice-president of the Richmond Heights Neighborhood Council, I promoted strengthening local livable and walk-able communities, developing stronger connections and loyalties with businesses in local corridors (like on San Pablo Ave) and surrounding communities.

As a member of Concilio Latino and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), I have collaborated with West Contra Costa County School District members, and community health providers to share information on best practices to meet the need of community members. I worked with the Latina Center and others in organizing the Children’s March Against Violence. I oppose anti-immigrant raids, and I support a comprehensive and just immigration reform with path to legalization for all immigrants.

As a member of the Black Women Organized for Political Action (BWOPA-Richmond), the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP-Richmond), and the Richmond African American Round Table, I strongly affirm and promote the historical contributions of African Americans to Richmond and our nation, and I advocate for further equity in the distribution of resources and for an expanded African-American community presence in our city. I have compiled in a booklet for distribution, the history of the Gary family of Richmond, who in 1952 fought for civil rights and housing integration with the support of progressives, unions, churches and Black organizations. The Gary’s story was honored by Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin during Black History month 2008, and a copy can be downloaded from www.RichmondBlackHistory.org

As a member of the UPE-Local #1, I believe in strong, independent, and pro-active unions that assert and protect member rights and benefits. I was selected by my colleagues to be the strike captain during the last strike in which we workers fought management for fair compensation. I worked hand-in-hand with the shop steward organizing and coordinating labor dialogs with peers as well as management.

As a citizen of the United States, I see our nation in a very deep moral and economic crisis. We need to continue the process of rethinking and redefining ourselves as a nation and our participation in the world.

As a Richmond voter and a registered Democrat, I know that there are needs in our city that cannot be postponed. We need to take immediate action to stop the bloodshed, and to preserve the viability of a Richmond that is healthy, fair, diverse, inclusive, peaceful, green, and prosperous. No one will do it for us, we must do it ourselves

We need a City Council that supports the People’s priorities.

My priorities will be to work on:

• Preventing crime and violence with jobs, programs and public safety Developing and diversifying our economy with new green technologies and more support for small business Defending Richmond’s health with less toxins and more open spaces
• Building unity from our diversity, embracing our differences and pulling Richmond together
• Better utilization of the City funds to reduce the bureaucracy, expand services, and fix our streets.

To remain independent, and only represent the interests of the voters, I pledge to not take any corporate donations for my campaign.

In a common path,

Jovanka Beckles

JOVANKA BECKLES for RICHMOND CITY COUNCIL
P.O. Box 5299
Richmond, CA 94805

510-496-271
Email: jovanka@jovankabeckles.org
www.JovankaBeckles.org