Bishop City Council Candidates Square Off

Bishop City Council Candidates Square Off 

INYO350 hosted a Candidate Forum for the five locals running for three seats on the Bishop City Council on Wednesday. The following is an abbreviated version of the questions and answers. 

Intros and how do you view the job of City Council 

Dennis Freundt: Compares running a city to running a business: you pay bills, hire, budget, work with department heads and prioritize. Been in retail, owns Grocery Outlet. Most important— talks to customers. 

Sterling Schat: Jack of all trades, held different jobs. Wants to give back to the community.

Tyler Beadle: Sees role as determining policy and projects. Lived half his life in Bishop, BUHS and Cero Coso graduate, holds a degree in business, works for a title company. Primary concern: affordable housing.

Erik Schat: Determine what people need and want and get it done. Main concern: spend tax dollars properly. 

Jose Garcia: Council’s role is shaping the community, been on the Council four years. Council is bridge between the City and the community. He’s a 35-year resident of Bishop, has a doctorate in dental surgery. Originally from Mexico, has worked at Northern Inyo Hospital for 20 years. He has worked with local non-profits and been on the Planning Commission for seven years. 

Karen Kong: A 30-year resident, Kong ran for Council in 2020 “without an agenda.” Goal: be of benefit to City, talk to constituents, find best solutions for residents, consider long- and short-term impacts. After decisions made—go out and make sure constituents understand. City Council should be pro-active and look to the future. 

Housing

Beadle: No housing in works. Cites Silver Peaks, an affordable housing project that seems to have disappeared. Mammoth Lakes Housing is now involved. Wants to see zoning changes, retail/residential mix. 

Erik Schat: If can’t get things done, find people who can. Cited Las Vegas’ “vision of growth.” 

Garcia: Challenges: We were told years ago we needed 118 units by 2018. New units are scheduled, but the challenges include funding. 

Kong: The cost of living is high here. We have to look at what the City of Los Angeles owns and encourage them to sell. We need low and medium income housing—need all kinds of homes. Empty buildings within city limits—trying to get owners to sell. 

Freundt: It’s our responsibility to figure out how to fix housing situation hand-in-hand. Dealing with LADWP is a slow process. 

Infrastructure

Beadle: Grants, FEMA, loans. City is upgrading now. 

Erik Schat: Get the right people involved, talk to the Town of Mammoth Lakes.

Garcia: We can drink our own tap water. Cited Bishop Public Works efforts—W. Line Street project. City needs a new sewer plant, costs $5 mil. just to plan. The City is working through the Bishop Area Water Authority on sewer issues.  

Kong: City pipes were laid in the early 1900s; sewer built in 1976. BAWA working on one sewer plant to replace the two sitting side by side with the U.S. Rural Development. We have a preliminary engineering report. 

Freundt: Go through the levels of planning: what can do now, in five years, in ten years. 

Sterling Schat: Cited work being done on Line Street “it boils down to money.” 

Raising Taxes

Erik Schat: Not the answer. Has talked to people in the private sector. Increasing revenue is the answer. 

Garcia: Who wants to pay more taxes? Raise your hands. We have to try other things. Rents are high, owners don’t want to sell their property. Facing challenges. 

Kong: We’ve raised our sales tax. Can’t raise other taxes, has to go through voters. We’ve registered empty building owners. Charge fee? Oakland tried that and got sued. 

Freundt: No blanket answer. Businesses with DWP leases who want to sell, can’t. We end up with abandoned buildings. 

Sterling Schat: against raising taxes. DWP is holding us hostage. 

Beadle: no tax increase.

Replacing invocation with moment of silence—bring back prayer

Garcia would be open to bringing back.

Kong: No. We did the hard work, tried to get the groups together and failed. 

Freundt: Missed those meetings. Okay with moment of silence. 

Beadle: Yes.

Erik Schat: Separate church and state, reflection is good. 

Homeless near the Park

Kong: We thought we were immune, we’re not. City can’t do anything. Law enforcement can. Bishop PD working on the problem. We need to do our best. Last year, 73 homeless kids at BUSD. 

Freundt: Need to help, understand, be humane. We’ve lost a lot of our humanity. 

Sterling Schat: Some choose that way of life. Safety issue. Don’t want our kids to see that. Have to be compassionate. 

Beadle: Big issue, getting worse. Offer transit back to where they came from. 

Garcia: City needs to work with NGOs, private entities, and the County. 

Revitalize downtown

Freundt cited the Small Business Resource Center 

Beadle: Wave start-up fees,  

Eric Schat: Looked at codes and policies. Need to fast track policies 

Garcia: Worked with Chamber, work with County. BID (Business improvement District). City can’t do this alone. 

Kong: Find out why businesses leaving? Noted the 16 properties on DWP leases. Can’t transfer the leases. 

Parks & Rec programs

Sterling Schat: Wants to see a deep pit BBQ.

Beadle: More sports.

Garcia: Support what we have in place now. Wish we had more space for more programs. 

Kong: Park IS under-utilized. We had a city park master plan but the meetings badly attended. 

Freundt: Loves the Park. Kids sports programs are expensive. Figure out how to open up those programs. 

Since declared, how many meetings have you attended

Incumbents Kong and Garcia: all of them.

Beadle: Watched; attended a lot after decided to run.

Eric Schat: none.

Freundt: Five.

Sterling Schat has been watching meetings.

Deb Murphy