Kevin Dawson was a candidate for Ward 2 representative on the Riverside City Council in California. Dawson was defeated in the general election on June 6, 2017.
Biography
Dawson earned a B.A. in history from the University of California-Riverside. He has worked as a substitute teacher, restaurant manager, and cafe owner.[1]
Elections
2017
- See also: Municipal elections in Riverside, California (2017)
Incumbent Andy Melendrez defeated Kevin Dawson and Jon Scott Harris in the general election for the Ward 2 seat on the Riverside City Council.[2]
2017
Dawson's campaign website included the following themes for 2017:
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Leadership
- Researched Ag Park contamination and presented concerns to Congressman Takano and Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice. Retesting resulted in discovery of PCBs and dioxins on lands slated for family housing construction.
- Councilman Melendrez supported quit-claiming a city park to an apartment owner; Kevin successfully lobbied against the city gifting of public land to a private property owner.
Commitment
- Will work relentlessly to oppose any high-density housing development between Blaine and Big Springs on lands adjacent to Islander Park.
- Opposes mega-warehouses in Ward 2.
- Negotiated legal settlement with UCR over Arroyo Student Housing/Glen Mor I project to mitigate impacts on the surrounding neighborhood.
- Leader in imposing moratorium on building permits and then helped develop new rules to limit ‘cut-ups’, conversions of single-family residences into boarding houses for students.
Tenacity
- Relentlessly pursued illegal practices of the city attorney who hired outside legal services worth millions of dollars without city charter mandated council approval and written contracts. When, as a result of Kevin’s perseverance, an audit confirmed these practices, the city was forced to put in place new policies.
- When the city wouldn’t take action, personally moved boulders to block illegal vehicular access destroying Islander Park.
Accessibility
- Proposes creation of a Ward 2 Community Empowerment Committee where community members will serve as guides for proposed development projects, and work to identify unmet needs of the community. Developers should not have more influence with city leadership than the citizens of Riverside.
- Councilman Melendrez has held office for over a decade, and is unresponsive to emails from his constituents. He is unable to represent the community on many issues before the city council because of conflicts of interest.
- Since 2010, Councilman Melendrez has recused himself 59 times from council deliberations because of financial conflicts of interest. That’s 59 times Ward 2 wasn’t represented. For example, Councilman Melendrez recused himself from the controversial Main Library/Discovery issue. Ward 2 was not represented.
Integrity
- Currently working with the city and county on a legacy project to provide a safe pedestrian crossing from the city Islander Park, over the Perris Valley Metro link rail line, into the county Box Springs Mountain Park, and restoring access to the historic “C” trail.
Good Governance
- Helped negotiate legal settlement with RCTC to mitigate the impact of Metrolink extension in Ward 2 neighborhood. This agreement lead to an additional 80 residences being offered sound mitigation. Originally, RCTC only offered mitigation to only five of the 200 residences studies had identified as being impacted.
- Negotiated legal agreement with UCR to include surrounding community members early enough in the planning process to give meaningful input on all future projects.
- Instrumental in getting proposal before the voters to strengthen city charter and hold city manager accountable to elected leaders.
- Kevin has worked to defeat two attempts by city councilmembers to change how we elect our city council. In both instances, these city councilmen were attempting to rig the system, to make it easier for incumbents to keep their seats.
- In the interest of good governance, Kevin was a member of the Riverside County Election Observer Panel, and worked with the citizens group, Save Our Vote, to reform local practices, switching back to paper ballots from un-auditable, fraud-prone electronic voting machines.
- Relentlessly pursued and made public the secret use of city funds to defend a sitting city councilman’s housing development from a lawsuit.[3][4]
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| —Kevin Dawson (2017)
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See also
External links
- ↑ Elect Kevin Dawson for City Council Ward 2, "About Kevin," accessed May 4, 2017
- ↑ City of Riverside, "June 6, 2017 Regular Election - Wards 2, 4, and 6
- ↑ Elect Kevin Dawson for City Council Ward 2, "Home," accessed May 4, 2017
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
Andy Melendrez Incumbent
