Republican Chula Vista Mayor Vows ‘Common Sense’ Change in Supervisor Bid

Read our series of Q&As with candidates vying to replace recently resigned Board Chair Nora Vargas. Click here.  

Chula Vista Mayor John McCann proposed a novel location for a recent interview about his candidacy for a vacant seat on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors. 

His car. 

McCann drives a Tesla. He’s a self-described “early adopter” of electric cars and solar panels. He and his wife, Myllissa, are now on their “second round” of rooftop solar panels, he said. And he relished the memory of outrunning muscle cars in his first electric car, a Honda Fit. (“I wouldn’t go over the speed limit,” he hastened to add.) 

McCann, 56, chose his car because he wanted to drive around his hometown, where he was born in 1964, raised his own family of four and has held various local government offices since 2002, and point out landmarks that he said exemplify his pragmatic, “consensus”-oriented approach to governing as a Republican in a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly two to one. 

“Whether you’re Democrat, Republican or independent, I’ve had a proven record of [prioritizing] public safety, decreasing homelessness by getting the homeless off the streets and decreasing the cost of living for residents,” he said. “I want to support every citizen.” 

Such bipartisan aims notwithstanding, the landmarks McCann chose for his driving tour – a waterfront luxury high-rise hotel, a fire station, Chula Vista’s police headquarters and a market-rate home development project on the city’s more affluent east side – reflect a distinct political vision that, if brought to the Board of Supervisors, would represent a sharp break from the priorities of the Board’s recent Democratic majority. 

McCann is one of seven candidates running to replace former District 1 County Supervisor Nora Vargas, who resigned abruptly late last year for unexplained reasons. Four of those candidates, including McCann, currently hold elected office in various South San Diego County cities. The other three have not held office in the county and are mostly unknown to voters. 

Vargas’ election to the Board in 2020 broke Republicans’ generations-long hold on county government. If McCann prevails in the upcoming special election to replace Vargas, he would flip the board back to Republican control. 

In his interview, McCann gave a preview of what such a shift could mean for several high-profile issues in the county, including law enforcement, immigration, homelessness, housing and transportation. The Board, he said, had become “hyper-partisan” on certain issues (he singled out immigration), and McCann vowed to steer the county back toward what he called “common-sense…solutions for our citizens.” 

Editor’s note: The following interview, the third in Voice of San Diego’s series of in-depth conversations with candidates seeking to represent District 1 on the Board of Supervisors, has been condensed and edited for clarity: 

Q: What would be your top priorities if elected to the Board of Supervisors? 

A: My number one priority is public safety. We need to fully fund our sheriff’s department and properly recruit and retain our deputy sheriffs and fully fund our deputy district attorneys. I have proven results for public safety as the mayor of the city of Chula Vista by fully funding our police department. 

I also would immediately remove the county’s sanctuary policy [which limits county government cooperation with federal immigration authorities]. We have to protect our immigrant community, which is a very important community. But allowing convicted murderers, convicted rapists and violent felons to go back into those immigrant communities and victimize our immigrant communities and our general public is unacceptable. And with so many other law enforcement issues, we need to be able to communicate with the federal agencies to protect our citizens from human trafficking and fentanyl. 

Q: Some advocates say relying solely on law enforcement does not improve public safety but instead fosters fear in low-income communities and monopolizes funding that could be used for social services. What’s your view about that? 

A: We opened our new police headquarters in 2004. It was controversial because of the cost. It was larger than our previous headquarters and included a helicopter landing pad, which we now use for drone surveillance flights, and expanded jail facilities. But it’s amazing, everybody is so happy now that we have a quality, high-tech police department.  

I think we need to fully fund the police. We’ve seen a challenge in the county for recruiting and retaining high quality deputy sheriffs because of financial reasons and benefits reasons. I believe that the county can do a better job at recruiting and retaining our deputy sheriffs. And we need to fully support our Sheriff, Kelly Martinez, in how she wants to be able to fight crime. 

Q: On the related issue of homelessness, do you support the county’s current policy, or would you advocate a different approach? 

A: The county seems to have millions and millions of dollars of funding, but nobody seems to be able to see where the results are going. They’ve left it to the cities to fight homelessness. As mayor, I led the city of Chula Vista to become a regional solution-maker in fighting homelessness. I helped to champion the creation of a homeless outreach team that includes non-profits and police officers who find ways to get homeless people off the streets. We created an innovative tiny homes bridge shelter that has gotten more than 100 people off the streets and into permanent housing. We need the county to make sure that they’re spending money effectively in getting the homeless off the streets. And if the homeless do not want to get off the streets, then they need to be held accountable if they are on drugs and doing criminal activity. 

Q: “Held accountable” sounds like a change from the county’s current focus on permanent housing for those lacking shelter and harm reduction for drug users. 

A: We need to be able to provide quality wraparound services for our unhoused with tough love. Because to truly be able to get back on your feet, you need to address the addiction problem. When you can help somebody get clean and sober, there is more of an opportunity to be able to get them off the streets. 

One reason our tiny home shelter is successful is because you have to be clean or sober and non-violent when you go into the shelter. If you want to go into the shelter and you are using drugs, you have the opportunity to go to a detox center to get clean before you go into the shelter. 

At the county, we continue to hear about all the state funding and the different revenue streams, yet, when we turn around, many of the programs don’t seem to stop homelessness. They’re just giving homeless people vouchers and they don’t get the wraparound services that will get them permanent housing. It just continues to allow them to stay on the streets or get off the streets for a couple days. The county needs to work with all the cities and become the umbrella leader in making sure that we can find effective solutions so that nowhere in the county will we have people who can’t get help and get off the streets. 

Q: One reason cited by experts for the rise in homelessness is lack of affordable housing. How would you seek to resolve that issue? 

A: The county says that there is a housing crisis. Yet they implement bureaucracy and regulations that have substantially decreased the number of housing permits that they’ve been able to issue. In 2023, the county issued fewer than 60 housing permits. When you look at other counties, they’re issuing thousands and when we’re under a housing crisis, we should be looking for ways to streamline the process and decrease the costs so we can provide quality housing at an affordable rate. 

Q: One recent priority at the county has been encouraging denser development closer to job centers to reduce pollution. How would you balance housing construction with environmental concerns? 

A: I think that we should be able to allow people to have a choice of where they would like to live. Not everybody would like to live in highly dense areas. Some people would like to live in the country. By not allowing permits to be issued for single family homes on the outskirts of the county, it has decreased our housing stock tremendously. 

My biggest issue that I’ve had proven results on is home ownership in the city of Chula Vista. We’ve seen a tremendous growth in home ownership in [master-planned communities in the Chula Vista community of] Eastlake, in the Otay Ranch Villages and in two projects that I’m very proud of that will create 244 entry-level, for-sale, market-rate town homes. That one is under construction now. We have struck a great balance in the city of Chula Vista by making sure that we have open space parks in our planning, but with the opportunity for people to live in quality housing that they can own. 

Q: Environmental advocates say the downside of sprawling master-planned communities is increased reliance on cars. What about public transit? 

A: People deserve choice. Over 90 percent of people drive cars, and the technology is becoming even more innovative with electric cars that do not pollute. When you create highly dense housing, you just create more congestion. We need to make sure that we’re improving our roads so that people can get to work from where they are without having to sit in traffic where they’re polluting because they’re waiting instead of getting there quicker.  

When I was a member of the Metropolitan Transportation Service board of directors, we expanded the frequency of trolley service in the morning and evening hours, so people can get to work and back and enhance our workforce. But we need to make sure that when we are spending money on public transit, it’s efficient and effective and does not negatively affect our car transportation. We need to find out where the need is and then make sure that we’re putting in an efficient program for public transit that would get a positive return on investment for our tax money and for the people who use the public transportation. 

People get so strung up on one way or the other. And I believe that you need to look at the entire issue. In some areas, we want to expand our trolley. In some areas, we need to expand the roads. It can’t be just one or the other. You can’t have “everybody has to get out of their car and use public transportation.” It is unrealistic and we need to be able to make sure that we’re maximizing our transportation dollars in an effective and efficient way. 

Q: One of your opponents [San Diego City Councilmember Vivian Moreno] has proposed eliminating the toll on State Route 125. Is that a priority for you? 

A: My goal is to be able to make the 125 a [toll-free] freeway. But we have to find an efficient way to pay off the [bond] debt [used to build the highway, which is currently paid off by toll revenue]. You can’t just suddenly renege on debts that you owe. 

Q: You opposed a recent countywide sales tax measure for transit projects supported by the San Diego Association of Governments, which could have created revenue that might have helped speed up removal of the toll. Why? 

A: The challenge is that when [a previous] sales tax [earmarked for transit] was passed, it was to pay for freeways and local roads. And it’s been diverted away from many of the projects that were promised to the voters. That’s why the recent SANDAG sales tax failed, because the community realized that SANDAG was not delivering on the prior taxes. 

I fought against the SANDAG sales tax increase because sales taxes are the most regressive form of taxes because they affect our low-income communities that have to pay for gas and necessities and groceries. They affect them more than somebody who’s wealthy. 

Q: You’re a Republican running in a supervisorial district where Democrats outnumber Republicans more than two to one. How would you convince a Democratic voter that you can represent them in county government? And why do you expect to prevail in an election where voter registration numbers are heavily stacked against you? 

A: I’ve been elected successfully six times in the city of Chula Vista in South County. And I care about everybody who lives in the South County. I have a record of proven results and finding solutions for people — creating a world-class bay front in the city of Chula Vista, bringing San Diego State University nursing programs to Chula Vista, building the first new library since 1995, creating thousands of jobs and making the city one of the safest cities in the entire country. My results show themselves. In the words of the former chair of the Democratic Party, I am a “moderate Republican.” And I’m a consensus builder. My main job is to look after my constituency, and I am here to find solutions for everyone. 

Q: I’ll end with something you said you want readers to know about you more than anything else: Your military service. You enlisted in the Navy and served as a contracting officer in Mosul, Iraq from 2009 to 2010, working with various agencies to ensure military units in northern Iraq had the supplies they needed. How did that time in Iraq affect your approach to politics? 

A: In that part of Iraq, there were Shiite Muslims, Sunni Muslims and Kurds. And they all hated each other. I had to coordinate supplies to get them to military units when they needed them. And at the time, we were trying to implement an “Iraqi First” program, employing young Iraqis so they wouldn’t become part of the insurgency. First of all, it cemented for me that we are very blessed to live in the United States because we can have civil debate. And I learned how we can get things done and provide for the needs of soldiers and Marines even when we disagree.