Ahead of the March primary, The Orange County Register compiled a list of questions to pose to the candidates who wish to represent you. You can find the full questionnaire below. Questionnaires may have been edited for spelling, grammar, length and, in some instances, to remove hate speech and offensive language.
MORE: Read all the candidate responses in our Voter Guide
Name: Janet Nguyen
Current Job Title: State senator
Political Party Affiliation: Nonpartisan
Incumbent: No
Other political positions held: Assemblymember, 72nd District; Senator, 34th District; County Supervisor, 1st District; Garden Grove City Councilmember
City where you reside: Huntington Beach
Campaign website or social media: Website: www.JanetForSupervisor.com; Facebook: www.facebook.com/JanetNguyenCA; Instagram: @janetnguyenca; Twitter: @janetnguyenca
What experiences and priorities do you bring to the table? What have you learned in prior leadership roles that make you the person for this job?
Having served as supervisor, and as the current state senator who represents the First District, I have the experience to work with our state and cities to restore good governance in Orange County.
The county isn’t upholding its duties to our taxpayers. We need to get back on track toward improving the quality of life and ensuring effective county services. On day one, I will open the books and audit our county spending, especially within the Health Care Agency, CalOptima and the no-bid contract process where the current supervisor has been accused of self-dealing.
I’ve lived in this district for over 30 years. I met my husband here, and our two boys go to public school here. My experience has earned me the endorsement of the majority of the local elected officials in the district, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and OCTax, and top ratings from the California Chamber of Commerce.
Where in the county are we effectively putting money toward solutions to tackle homelessness? Where are the gaps in care when it comes to the homelessness issue? Are all communities being served or doing their fair share?
We need to focus on getting the homeless off the streets. While in the state legislature, we passed a law enabling mental health courts to open for our homeless population and increased funding for counties to implement their own homeless programs. Our county has the tools and funding it needs, but we are not using those tools properly.
The county must come in as a service provider and partner with the cities to assist their homeless populations and help the cities create and expand their own homeless programs.
In addition, the county needs to centralize homelessness data and facilitate communication between cities and local law enforcement to get a clearer picture of where our homeless are and what services they are receiving. The county also needs to work better with our local non-profit and faith-based organizations to take inventory of what services are being provided so that we can properly assess the needs of each community. We will get a handle on the homeless crisis when we have an approach to identify and help each homeless individual.
Looking at the county’s yearly budget, is there a department or project that has not received the attention it needs? How would you make sure those needs are addressed?
Public safety must always be a priority in the county. Retail theft and home invasions have increased in recent years. Our law enforcement needs the tools to partner with our local public agencies to share data and protect our community.
A recent grand jury report determined that the county animal shelter must be open to the public to allow residents an opportunity to bond with the animals before adopting. The strict rules currently in place discourage residents from adopting which leads to violent animals and higher euthanization rates.
The Health Care Agency and CalOptima have the funding and authority to directly support our homeless population and provide healthcare and housing services for our low-income communities. These agencies are rapidly spending money without success and clear performance metrics. It’s time to audit these programs, identify which work and don’t work and provide more oversight to ensure funds are effectively spent.
The public expects full transparency from public leaders. How can this be achieved? How can the county do better in this area?
Transparency and public trust are critical to good governance, and to build that trust, we as a county need to make county information more accessible. The public needs readily available information to know who is receiving our county contracts and where our county dollars are being spent.
Transparency can be accomplished by simply posting the no-bid county contracts and contractors online. In addition, where public dollars are being spent, clear goals must be outlined and met so that the public always knows where we stand and we can know where to make improvements.
The county oversees unincorporated territories where it can encourage housing, how else can it stimulate the development of affordable rent/housing in Orange County?
Last year alone, 30,000 residents left our county in search of more affordable housing.
If we want to attract economic investment and create opportunities for families to thrive, the county must step in and partner with cities to enable affordable housing and housing that is affordable. This can be done by opening up county land for development, reducing costly county and local regulations and working with our neighboring communities to update state laws that will empower the free market to fulfill the housing need. If we can stabilize the demand for housing with adequate supply, we can provide the best opportunities for our residents to transition from rentals to homeownership.
