Meet Marisol Rubio, Candidate For San Ramon City Council

SAN RAMON, CA — Learn more about Marisol Rubio, who is running to represent City Council District 4.

1. Why are you running for City Council District 4?

I am running for San Ramon City Council District 4, because I love our community and see a lot of potential for our city. There are many untapped resources and opportunities in human capital, economic growth, transportation, and development that would greatly improve our quality of life. Paired with my vision are my varied skills, science background, elected and wide-ranging experience serving San Ramon, Contra Costa County, the Bay Area, and California at large that will enable me to create a vibrant, truly innovative, model city that feels like home for our diverse community.

2. What do you think is the biggest challenge facing your constituents?

Our residents are greatly concerned about how we will meet our Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) goals without causing additional traffic congestion and without drastically changing the face, charm, and small town feel of San Ramon.

3. How do you intend to address it?

First and foremost, we are required by the state to meet our RHNA goals. However, if
carried out in a timely, responsible manner, we can thoughtfully create a beautiful, robust downtown core that will encourage residents in these new homes to walk or bike to their favorite destinations rather than jump into their cars by pursuing a mixed-use development in the core. Secondly, to make the best use of available space, we must pursue infill development. Lastly, we can provide affordable housing for those who work in San Ramon, but currently cannot afford to live here, such as our first responders, teachers, and essential workers, by developing a variety of homes such as studios, apartments, condominiums, and townhouses.

4. What should be done to solve the affordable housing crisis?

Affordable Housing through Housing Diversity: Create more mixed-use space and develop a
variety of housing such as studios, apartments, condominiums, and townhouses in the
downtown core for those who work in San Ramon but cannot afford to live here, such as our
first responders, essential workers, and teachers. This provides our employees within the city
with a better work-life balance, reduces traffic and greenhouse gas emissions, and encourages residents to use our local public and alternative forms of transportation (bussing, biking, walking) over driving and to buy in San Ramon, which drives up our sales tax revenues and strengthens our budget.

5. What do you think the city can do to conserve water?

We should encourage residents to convert their lawns into drought-resistant landscapes and educate our community about how they can conserve water in their daily lives and keep forever chemicals and compounds, such as PFAs, PFOAs, and microplastics out of our drinking water and single-use wipes out of our recycled water. Higher density housing also helps to conserve water.

6. What can the city do to help its downtown and small businesses?

The city can attract small businesses into our downtown by incentivizing their reasons to do
business here and by making sure that commercial property managers are not overpricing or acutely spiking rental rates for small businesses. We can also accomplish this by creating
a mixed-use space in the downtown core where local residents will be motivated to spend
in San Ramon because their frequented shops, such as a coffee shop or restaurant, will be
easily accessible and within walking or biking distance. Small businesses know that when it
is convenient for consumers to get to their stores, consumers will frequent their stores
more often and spend more.

7. What other issues are important to you?

Developing A Smart, Green Infrastructure to Support A Green Economy: To ensure we make a smooth, timely transition to a green economy, we must invest in green infrastructure, such as additional charging stations, green hydrogen refueling infrastructure, and installing more solar energy panels, not only in new developments or homes, but incentivizing retrofitting homes, schools, and other older buildings. I support developing a smart city with smart grids that optimize and enhance assets and services and better manage resources such as utilities, urban transportation, crime detection, and community services to improve our residents’ quality of life.

Protect Our Open Spaces & Reduce Traffic: Investing in smart growth through infill and mixed- use development in the downtown core to prevent urban sprawl, connecting walking and nonmotorized biking trails contiguously along key businesses throughout the city to encourage alternative forms of transportation, expanding our County Connection and school TRAFFIX transportation during peak hours to reduce traffic and converting traditional gasoline-based school buses to green buses.

Economic Growth & Development Tailored to Our Community: 39.3% of commuters in San
Ramon spend 45 minutes or more driving to work each way compared to 17.6% nationally.
With Chevron selling Chevron Park and relocating within San Ramon, this is an opportune time to introduce jobs in emerging industries, such as biotechnology and renewable and alternative energy, that better align with our community’s skills and talents and provide well-paying jobs and improved work-life balance for our residents.

Improved Public Safety: In addition to creating a smart city to improve crime detection, we
should provide more collaborative opportunities for community engagement between our first
responders, businesses, and residents. This is vital to ensuring that our public services are
meeting our community’s needs and that our community, in turn, is aware of our first
responders needs and the services they provide.

Afterschool & Community Programs That Serve All of Our Community’s Needs: As a parent of a child with lifelong disabilities, I experienced firsthand the importance of having strong, diverse community programs that reflect San Ramon’s varied needs, foster our resident’s interests, and support our children’s educational and physical development regardless of their economic or disability status. I will advocate for comprehensive, accessible family, child and adolescent, and senior programs that bring our community together across all ages and demographics and that support the educational and developmental goals, interests, and needs of our residents.

8. What differentiates you from the other candidates?

As the fourth largest city in Contra Costa County, San Ramon is at a critical juncture about which course it will take over the next few years. Will we remain a bedroom community holding onto the past that clearly is no longer sustainable or will we embrace the inevitable challenges of the present and future with confidence and good leadership? I believe that we need to pursue the latter. As such, we need the most qualified people with governance experience across various sectors who have the professional knowledge and relationships with neighboring cities to be ready to lead San Ramon in the right direction on day one. I am that candidate. And, in addition to completing the San Ramon Government 101 Academy, I am the only candidate currently elected to serve across San Ramon and within District 4, in my capacity as Chair of the DSRSD-EBMUD Recycled Water Authority (DERWA) and as Director of the Dublin San Ramon Services District (DSRSD). As Vice President of DSRSD, my District earned the 2022 Special District Leadership Foundation District of Distinction Award for our commitment to good governance and to ethical and sound operating practices. I will bring that same level of leadership, transparency, and accountability to our San Ramon City Council.

Of great interest and concern to our residents are the sustainability of our small businesses,
reducing traffic, and protecting our environment. As Director of Government Relations for the San Francisco Bay Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, I will leverage my relationships fostered across various government agencies to help ensure that our small businesses remain solvent and that we drive businesses and jobs of interest to San Ramon. My science background and strong environmental policy foundation are essential to our water and wildlife conservation efforts, protecting our open spaces, reducing traffic and greenhouse gas emissions, and developing a smart city with smart growth. I have championed these issues not only as an elected official at DSRSD and as Chair of DERWA, but as an elected Executive Committee Member at the Sierra Club San Francisco Bay Chapter and Tri-Valley Group. I am also serving on a national and state leadership council at Elected Officials to Protect America, which trains lawmakers and connects elected officials to support bold environmental initiatives. It is well known that, for our environmental goals to be achieved in a timely manner, we must implement a framework for a green economy and infrastructure. That is why as Co-Chair of a Contra Costa County Labor-Climate Task Force, I am leading a joint effort between various labor and environmental groups across the Bay Area to begin to map our path towards Just Transition.

I have accomplished all of this and more in six short years out of the 8.5 years that I have lived in San Ramon and my efforts have benefitted not only San Ramon, but our county, the Bay Area, and California as a whole. We need someone with good governance experience, policy background, forward-looking vision, foundational knowledge of San Ramon and District 4, and established working relationships with neighboring cities to achieve our goals here in San Ramon and I am the only candidate who possesses all of these qualifications.

9. If applicable, what is your political party?

Democrat

10. How long have you lived in San Ramon?

8.5 years

11. If you didn’t grow up there, what brought you to the city?

What attracted me to move to San Ramon was its open spaces, cleanliness, and safety,
especially as the parent of a young adult who is a childhood brain cancer survivor and living
with disabilities.

12. What is your day job, and how will that prepare you to serve on the council?

I am a Home Care Provider, Translator, and Learning Coach. COVID impacted the latter
position. I have also worked in a variety of positions as a K-5 Bilingual Science Teacher,
Original Research Mentor, Health Promotion Officer, and Student Disability Advisor.
Collectively, I have in-depth understanding of the needs of our children and our most often
overlooked members within our community –people with disabilities and the elderly. I also
have a deep understanding about human health, psychology, and the environment based
on my academic, volunteer, and professional background.

13. What experience do you have serving the community?

CURRENT ELECTED & VOLUNTEER WORK
• Vice President, Elected Division 1 Director, Dublin San Ramon Services District
• Chair, DSRSD-EBMUD Recycled Water Authority (DERWA)
• San Ramon Government 101 Academy
• President, Diablo Valley Democratic Club
• Elected San Francisco Bay Chapter Executive Committee At-Large Member, Sierra Club
• National and State Leadership Council Member, Elected Officials to Protect America
o EOPA connects elected officials to bring about strong environmental policy.
• Co-Chair, Contra Costa Labor Council Labor – Climate Task Force
o A collaboration between the Contra Costa Labor Council and various Bay Area
environmental organizations to identify points of intersectionality in order to lay the
groundwork for Just Transition.

• Director of Government Relations, San Francisco Bay Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
o Bringing government, community, and commerce together across the Bay Area.
• Founding Executive Board Member, The Natalie Project
o Fund advocacy group for individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities.
• Founding Executive Board Member, FemTruth YouthTM
o Nonprofit based in Danville that advocates for reproductive health education.
• Co-Chair, Justice, Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion Committee, California Democratic Party
• Co-Chair, Rules Committee, Contra Costa County Central Committee
• Elected Assembly District 16 Delegate
• SEIU 2015 Delegate, Contra Costa Labor Council

PAST VOLUNTEER WORK
• Elected Tri-Valley Group Executive Committee Member, Sierra Club
• Organizational and Operations Manager & Government Outreach, United Latino Voices
• Issues Committee Co-Chair, Contra Costa County Central Committee
• Ad Hoc Educational Committee Co-Chair, Contra Costa County Central Committee
• Educational Committee, California Democratic Party Disability Caucus
• Patient- & Family-Centered Care, Guest Lecturer, Samuel Merritt University FACES Summer Medical Academy
• Pediatric Oncology Clinic Volunteer, Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago

14. Of which accomplishments are you most proud?

Getting my education in Molecular and Cell Biology with an emphasis in Neurobiology and,
in turn, using that knowledge to help my daughter overcome her learning disabilities and,
ultimately, attend college and pursue her dreams.

15. What is your education?

• B.A., Molecular and Cell Biology, Neurobiology emphasis from the University of
California at Berkeley where I was the recipient of the PEO Women's Leadership Award
and a member of the Biology Scholars' Program.
• A.A., German, French, Italian at Diablo Valley College (4.0 GPA)
• Recipient of the President’s Scholar Award, American Mathematical Association of Two-
Year Colleges (AMATYC) Honorable Mention Award (Top 10% Nationally), and Phi Theta

Kappa Honors Society at Oakton Community College.

16. Tell us about your family.

My daughter is a student at Diablo Valley College with a transfer major in Psychology and
Spanish.

17. What is the best advice you ever received?

No one can take away your education, so pursue it relentlessly. And, if you are going to do
something, do it well or don’t do it at all. As a result, I am passionate about education and
public service and work hard to provide our community with the best possible outcomes.

18. Is there anything else you would like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

I am running a campaign that is solely funded by individual, small donor contributions and
by our workers. I do not accept money from any other entities, because I am a true people’s
candidate and my door will always be open to listen to our community.

19. Please provide links to websites and social media.

Campaign website: www.marisolrubio.com
Facebook: @MarisolforSanRamon
Instagram: @MarisolforSanRamon
Twitter: @Rubio4SanRamon