Hearing all the voices: Fort Bragg’s Latino and senior residents

This five-part series of Q&As with Fort Bragg City Council candidates runs across this week. Each installment presents a key question alongside responses from the seven candidates who responded to the Mendocino Voice. Today’s question:

26% of Fort Bragg’s population is over age 65 and 30% is Latino. How can the city reach and serve these groups?

Mary Rose Kaczorowski

Go where older residents and the Latino/Latina community members live and gather, listen directly to their needs, and plan with them—not just for them.

For seniors, create options that allow seniors to remain in the community as their needs change.

The city could use bulk mail fliers, printed notices, local media and radio, and through community organizations to reach residents. Vital information should be clear and easy to understand, with key notices, applications, emergency information, and public meeting materials available in Spanish. Stream council meetings live with Spanish interpretation and ASL interpretation or captioning.

Transportation is essential to participating in community and cultural events and public meetings. The City should collaborate with regional providers to improve options for seniors, workers, young people, and people with disabilities who do not drive and during weekends and evenings.

The City can strengthen connections with residents whose voices should be at the table—including youth, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+ residents. City staff and Council members can hold

listening sessions in neighborhood and community spaces, creating ongoing opportunities for residents to share concerns and ideas. Community engagement should be continuous—not limited to when a project or problem comes before the Council.

Richard Ulveling The first step is simple: listen to people and make sure they have a meaningful opportunity to participate.

For seniors, the city should continue looking at accessibility, pedestrian safety, transportation, housing, emergency preparedness, and opportunities for seniors to remain active and connected within the community.

For our Latino community, communication and accessibility are important. The city should make sure important public information is available in both English and Spanish when appropriate and work with local community organizations, businesses, families, and residents to understand their needs.

We should also make it easier for residents who may not normally attend City Council meetings to participate and provide feedback.

Fort Bragg is made up of people from many different backgrounds and generations. I want to represent the entire community—not just the people who already know how to navigate city government.

A healthy community is one where people feel heard, respected, and included in the decisions that affect their daily lives.

Marcia Rafanan First of all, those numbers probably significantly underrepresent Latinos. 30% might be the official census count, but we all know that a much larger percentage of our town is Latino because many people aren’t included in the official counts because they are undocumented and fearful of what might happen to them if they are counted. This has gotten worse under the current political climate and mass deportation efforts by ICE, which has even come here to the Coast this year. Latino members of our community are our friends and neighbors, and their voices need to be heard in all City decision-making. The City has made a lot of progress in outreach to the Latino and Hispanic members of our community in recent years due to focused and sustained efforts like publishing our City materials in Spanish as well as English, and my personal outreach to Latinos, encouraging their participation and representing their opinions and needs when they aren’t comfortable being directly involved themselves. I will continue to be a bridge between them and the City until they feel comfortable advocating for themselves. 

The City is already reaching a lot of seniors based on who comes to our City Council and other meetings. People 65 and older are far more than 26% of the voices we hear as Councilmembers when we are asked to make decisions on the town’s behalf. That said, outreach is key, and we need to be sure we hear from everyone, not just the loudest voices and most frequent participants.

To serve seniors, as well as other groups, we need to spread the word about all the programs and support the City has to offer. For example, as a Councilmember I supported our successful grant applications to fund important City programs like rental assistance for those of us who need help paying rent and our utility bill assistance program that helps people pay for their utilities when they are having trouble affording them. Seniors and Latino members of our community benefit from them, and I make it a priority to publicize these incredible programs. 

 Scott Mayberry The city should begin by making its services and public participation processes accessible to everyone. For older residents, that means offering information in both printed and digital formats, maintaining accessible public facilities, providing convenient ways to participate without attending evening meetings, and supporting transportation and emergency-preparedness programs that address their needs.

For Latino residents, the city should provide important notices, emergency information, meeting materials, and explanations of city services in both English and Spanish. Interpretation should be available when needed, and the city should work with trusted local schools, churches, community organizations, and Spanish-language media to reach residents who may not regularly interact with City Hall.

For both groups, outreach must involve more than translating a notice or holding a single meeting. City representatives should meet people where they already gather, invite them to serve on committees and commissions, and provide several ways to offer input. The city should also regularly evaluate whether residents are using and benefiting from its programs.

Good local government should be accessible, responsive, and respectful. Every resident should be able to understand how the city operates, obtain services, and have a meaningful voice in decisions affecting the community.

Tess Albin-Smith To clarify, I think you mean 30% of the overall city population is Latino and that 25% of the overall city population is over 65. These numbers are significant. These two groups have diverse interests and needs. For example, since 40% of the school district is Hispanic, you can surmise that many of the city’s Hispanics are young families.

Young families in any ethnic group need good paying jobs, recreational outlets, and good schools. The city recently upgraded Bainbridge Park and installed high speed internet. The new internet will go a long way to improving educational and job opportunities in this city. The city can ask what else is needed to support young families.

What can the city do for the older population? I’ve heard a lot of retirees move to Fort Bragg because it’s safe, beautiful, has restaurants, a symphony, a hospital and other basic necessities. I doubt if affordable housing and jobs are their priority list, but rather they came here for quality of life.

The city can help its older citizens have a good quality of life by supporting services, helping businesses grow, ensuring public safety, maintaining our basic infrastructure, providing parks and supporting healthy recreational facilities and programs for all ages.

Jason Godeke Regardless of what demographic subset of our community, it’s on the City to be proactive in talking with residents, and making it easy for them to weigh in on issues. It’s essential that our policy takes everyone into account, including those who aren’t active participants in the local political dialogue. It’s one of the reasons the City has been an energetic presence at community events like National Night Out, Earthday, the Farmers’ Market, and many others. It’s why the City has made frequent use of surveys in English and Spanish, distributed through the water bill, on social media, and the press. Recently City Interns created a survey to get input from teens, now being used at the high school. I see it as my job to reach out personally to residents. It’s why I set up a table at the Farmers’ Market monthly to sit down with constituents. Walking the neighborhoods and checking in with people is the most valuable part of campaigning. It’s when I get to hear people’s concerns and discuss their priorities as well as mine.

Mary Ann Schmidt By honoring the wisdom each group has to share and reaching out through surveys and interviews to discover their wants and needs. Giving each group agency by including them in the implementation.

Building elder housing near children’s facilities so elders can easily be nourished by helping little ones and little ones can be nourished by their wisdom is a win-win solution. Research has shown multigenerational care benefits both the elderly and the children. Loneliness is the greatest epidemic of our time. Creating elder care preschools in a food forest becomes win-win-win. 

The number of Spanish speaking students in Fort Bragg schools is a perfect situation to create successful dual language programs. All children can become bilingual, which increases their learning and earning potential. Learning Spanish as a second language has enriched my life in so many ways. Having a translator available for city council meetings invites Latino participation in local governance.

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Levi Cooke did not respond to requests to participate.