Rafael Menis (Pinole City Treasurer, California, candidate 2024)

Rafael Menis

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Nonpartisan

Candidate, Pinole City Treasurer

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 5, 2024

Education

Bachelor's

University of Chicago, 2011

Personal

Birthplace

Palo Alto, Calif.

Religion

Agnostic

Profession

Healthcare

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Campaign Instagram

Rafael Menis ran for election to the Pinole City Treasurer in California. Menis was on the ballot in the general election on November 5, 2024.^[source]

Menis completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Rafael Menis provided the following biographical information via Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey on October 18, 2024:

• Birth place: Palo Alto, California
• High school: Pacific Collegiate School
• Bachelor's: University of Chicago, 2011
• Religion: Agnostic
• Profession: Healthcare
• Incumbent officeholder: No
• Campaign slogan: Protect Pinole's Future
• Campaign website
• Campaign Facebook
• Campaign Instagram

Elections

General election

General election for Pinole City Treasurer

Incumbent Roy V. Swearingen and Rafael Menis ran in the general election for Pinole City Treasurer on November 5, 2024.

		Candidate
	Submit photo	Roy V. Swearingen (Nonpartisan)
	Submit photo	Rafael Menis (Nonpartisan)

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined.
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

Endorsements

Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Menis in this election.

Campaign themes

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Rafael Menis completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Menis' responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

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Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I am autistic. That means my brain is wired differently- I am better at identifying patterns, focusing on details and completing repetitive tasks than most people. It also means that I see the world differently- it underlies my commitments to justice, integrity and community.

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I wear tie-dye to symbolize this, as the rainbow is a symbol of autism. I believe that these traits would make me a better treasurer, as the core duties of the role require attention to detail in comparing and verifying warrants, and identifying patterns in the city’s investments to determine more optimal allocations.

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I've shown this through using that attention to detail in my work, education, and commission work. I have categorized and combined thousands of entries yearly in bookkeeping for Flourishing Daylilies. It has also helped me in my education, both in earning a BA in Political Science with General Honors from the University of Chicago and in further education in accounting since then. Finally, as a planning commissioner, I have significantly improved our housing element through my detailed inquiries and comments in the drafting process, and have helped make the planning process more transparent to the public and applicants in several projects through my questions.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• Accessibility

  Knowing what's in our budget is important! However, I acknowledge that most Pinole residents don’t have the time to track and study our budget in-depth. As your City Treasurer, I will keep you fully informed by:

  
  

     Showing you where we make money
  

     Where we're losing money
  

  How we are fixing it
• Accountability Government should work for you — not the other way around. As a Pinole resident, you should have a say in how your taxpayer dollars are used and have the authority to hold our elected officials accountable for their spending decisions. I will: Report where we are spending your money at meetings Show whether our investments are earning the returns they should Publicize and create community engagement events with the budget, like the Balancing Act
• Action We need a City Treasurer that shows up for Pinole. I will transform the Treasurer’s Office by: Having monthly community engagement events Accepting no contributions from corporations or developers Advocating for a regular treasurer's report at City Council meetings

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Public Finance, Democracy, Legitimacy, Urban Planning, Sustainability.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

Integrity. Above all else, you need to trust that an elected official will honor their word and their oath of office. Without that any other characteristic is meaningless- how do you know they would uphold it?

What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?

I listen to people. I have demonstrated this for years in my work as a community service commissioner and planning commissioner, and my professional work as a home healthcare aide.

I pay attention to detail, and routinely catch details that others miss. This is a critical skill for the Treasurer's role in particular.

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

Make sure that all funds received by the city are kept safe. Ensure receipt, deposit, disbursement and investment of city funds are governed by city policy and generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).

In other words, make sure that all the warrants match and that the city's investments are reasonable (even though the treasurer does not have control over the city's investments, just an advisory role).

What legacy would you like to leave?

As someone who has made my city better, by leaving it on a solid financial foundation. Ideally, with every single person in the city knowing enough about the budget to be able to form an opinion on it, at the very least.

What is something that has been a struggle in your life?

Developing my physical skills. I was born 15 weeks prematurely, as one of triplets (my brother and sister both died). While I was in the hospital, I suffered cerebral palsy, making it much more difficult for me to develop motor skills. It took me a month to learn how to ride a bicycle, and I spent years while I was growing up training so I could do things like walk normally. It's not noticeable now, for the most part- but it's still hard for me to learn new physical skills, in the same way it's hard for many people to learn math. Part of my brain has to be rewired to bypass the damaged parts.

Do you believe that it's beneficial for holders of this office to have previous experience in government or politics?

Yes, to understand what is supposed to be allocated and why. Strictly speaking it isn't necessary to make the comparisons necessary to confirm the warrants. Pragmatically speaking it helps a great deal to know what the council allocated and for what purposes.

What kind of skills or expertise do you believe would be the most helpful for the holders of this office to possess?

A background in accounting, to understand the GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) and the city's finances. Knowledge of the city, through review of the city's budgets and warrants. Engagement with the community, to explain how the city's finances work.

What qualities does this office possess that makes it a unique and important part of the local government?

It is an elected office, so it advises but is not subordinate to the city council. As such, it can act as a check against political pressure in a way that it would be unreasonable to ask of city employees (as they are hired by the city manager, who in turn serves at the will of the council). It has a duty to secure the city's finances, which can be interpreted in several ways. I would argue that it should include greater transparency into those finances, through reporting to the community and creating better lines of communication.

What organizations or individuals have endorsed your campaign?

Democratic Party of California, Democratic Party of Contra Costa County, West County Democratic Club, Contra Costa Young Democrats, Our Revolution East Bay, Pinole 4 Fair Government, IAFF Local 1230, Older Adult Education Forever, Pinole Progressive Alliance, Devin Murphy, Anthony Tave, Cameron Sasai, Vincent Salimi, Jamela Smith-Folds, Jovanka Beckles, Anthony Caro, Alex Walker-Griffin, Claudia Jiminez, John Bender, Tamiko Huey, Franke Martinez, Christy Lam-Julian, Gabriel Sandoval, Andrew Uch, Adam Benzuly, Irma Ruport, Jeremy Levine, Stephen Tilton, Ivette Ricco, Alfred Twu

What are your views on financial transparency and government accountability?

I think that fiscal transparency is fundamentally linked to government accountability. If you don't know what your government is spending money on, you don't know what it is doing. Sure, it could pass laws saying it will do all sorts of things- but if none of those things are ever funded, or if the funds are not spent as they were allocated, none of those things will happen. That's why the treasurer's role is important- because it shows the community exactly how the city has used its funds and ensures that those funds were used in the way we said they should be.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

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