Susan Jakubowski and Calvin Lo declared themselves candidates in the race to fill three seats on the five-member San Marino City Council in the November 2017 election.
In an exclusive interview with the San Marino Tribune, Jakubowski – the vice chairperson of the San Marino Planning Commission – and Lo – an alternate member of the San Marino Traffic Advisory Committee – shared their top priorities if elected.
Jakubowski listed fiscal responsibility—stressing attention to the City of San Marino’s aging infrastructure and growing pension liability—as her primary goal.
She stated that she addressed these issues and others as one of five citizen advisors to the city council’s Ad Hoc Committee reviewing city administration and parks and public works, an experience that she described as insightful.
Jakubowski, a member of San Marino City Club and former trustee on the San Marino Schools Foundation, said that her recent experience as a citizen advisor on the city’s Ad Hoc Committee has her “excited at the possibility of doing so much more.”
Also included in her list of goals are “enhanced community safety through more developed citizen volunteerism” and “character retention of residential areas and improvement of some business areas to become more welcoming.”
She added that a “careful review and study of the impact of increased traffic within [the] city” and “a closer partnership with the San Marino Unified School District” would also be among her goals.
Lo, a San Marino Rotarian and former president of the Chinese Club of San Marino, stated that preservation of San Marino’s architecture and history would be his main goal.
Next, he shared that he would work to increase community involvement, noting that volunteering is the fastest way to integrate newcomers into the community.
Thirdly, Lo expressed his intent to support a modernization of the city’s information technology, or IT, system, suggesting the development of a smartphone application similar to the one provided by the school district.
Lastly, he noted that city government should be more cost effective, but not in a way that would “compromise” the city’s “premium” services.
Jakubowski and Lo explained that they would not run a joint campaign for office.
“To be up on as many issues as possible,” Jakubowski clarified as the purpose for the collaborative effort. Some campaign events would be held jointly, they added.
Mayor Richard Sun, Vice Mayor Richard Ward and Council Member Allan Yung are all eligible to run for reelection, but have not publicly declared their intentions.
Elections for council seats currently held by Council Members Steve Talt and Steven Huang are scheduled for November, 2019.
