Mayor Dennis Donohue observes about a dozen middle-school age kids as they paint Christmas tree ornaments and snack on tortilla chips in the East Salinas Family Center. It’s an ordinary scene of after-school activity at the center, based at the United Methodist Church on North Madeira Street. Donohue greets a student, who asks him how his new mayor job is going.  Although he is white and grew up in south Salinas, Donohue is a regular at the Hispanic church.

Donohue says the center was a kind of a “laboratory” for him when he started tutoring here several years ago. The radicchio grower, elected to his first term in November, says the program helped him come up with his concept for a gang prevention network called a community safety alliance. The Weekly sat down with Donohue on Dec. 20 at the church to discuss his political game plan.

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WEEKLY: You are a devout Catholic and at one time you wanted to be a priest. You also have a master’s degree in religious education. As mayor, how do you see your faith and politics interplaying?

DONOHUE: Well, I think it probably speaks more to my personal motivation for getting involved in the community. Part of my religious background is I am Jesuit educated, that whole shining city on the hill concept, that you really do live your faith out in the world.

I don’t think the civic arena is a place where you proselytize per say. I certainly think it’s okay to approach that with a faith-based motivation. That’s one of the areas I developed my appreciation for public service—a belief that that was a noble enterprise. I inherited that from my dad.

But I am also very, very serious, when I talked about wanting to be the mayor for all of Salinas.

One of the things that drew me to being the mayor from a policy standpoint is the fact it’s non-partisan. To me that’s appealing, in terms of what cities do. Regardless if you’re Republican or Democrat, if you’re growth, no growth, whatever those divides are in our society, at the city level if you’re a taxpayer, you’re a customer. It kind of politically simplifies things. My job is to be everybody’s mayor. There is a whole array of things that people disagree on. Between 8am and 5pm, people may compete, they may lobby for and against, but after 5pm everyone goes home. The mayor’s job, certainly symbolically and practically, is to ensure home: the library, the parks, the streets.

“I am simply a guy who got off the couch in the early ‘90s and said, ‘I am going to get involved in my community,’ and I ended up here.”

I don’t view myself as a political person in a sense that this is a beginning of a political career. For me it begins and it ends here. I am simply a guy who got off the couch in the early ‘90s and said, “I am going to get involved in my community,” and I ended up here. I am, at some level, as surprised as anyone.

WEEKLY: Now that you’re elected, what new policies are on the top of your list to implement?

DONOHUE: I am certainly not going to suggest to anyone that I’ve got new policies and I’ve discovered fire. Obviously I think one of the reasons I was elected is people do want to imagine a great city. There are really four essential elements to that. And as I begin my term in office, I view it in that kind of Kennedyesque, 100 days fashion. And I certainly understand, based on what I was talking about “imagine a great city,” that it had to be more than rhetoric. It had to be actionable.

What the 100 day process is, it’s a practical acknowledgment that you also have to temper ideas, envision working with your colleagues, and not becoming realistic. As I told a number of people if, in two years from now, I run for reelection and I tell people “I am more realistic,” don’t vote for me. Run me out of town. Because I was hired to talk about imagine a great city, but I think I was also hired to be a change agent.

I think the essential elements of imagine a great city are this notion of economic vitality. Yes we need to go get jobs, but we also need to be a prosperous community. So I made it a point to talk about economic development in the traditional sense but it has to lead to economic vitality, to opportunity, to wealth generation.

This is a city concerned about crime and gang prevention, as we should be. But there is a bigger notion. This is a city that wants to imagine a city without gangs wants to imagine a city with peace. Now everyone understands it’s hard. But that’s the vision that I think people are interested in. And the trick is to make that actionable.

Fundamentally, those are two old political concepts: peace and prosperity. They are obviously packaged a little bit differently, and it wasn’t meant to be packaging in a slick sense.

I have always believed that one of the reasons that I got involved in all these tax measures was I recognized what I viewed as a structural flaw, that if the essential platform of city services and quality of life were in jeopardy, that would have an impact on the quality of life, the social fabric here. To me Measure V is kind of heads—you spend a number of years working toward some measure of fiscal stability. But the other side of the coin is you got to have an economic platform for prosperity or the fiscal stability won’t hold.

WEEKLY: Can you explain the first 100 days concept?

DONOHUE: What I am doing in the first 100 days is getting familiar with my colleagues. I am obviously learning what it means to be a mayor from all levels.  There is a really humbling element about being the mayor, in the sense that the mayor is one of the symbols of the city. [Former San Jose Mayor] Tom McHenry put it a little less eloquently. He said, “Mayors wear many hats. Often they are even a mascot.” I think it’s a little more noble than that, but I also think there is an element of truth to that.

Very frankly there is a difference between theory and reality. I think I have plenty of experience. I have hit the gourd running reasonably well. But you also have to temper some of your ideas with how do we do that.

What I intend to do at the end the hundred days, in early march, is basically say, “Here’s the game plan in the four basic areas. Here is what I understand my social contract to be with the community.” I think people want change. People are ready for opportunity rather than crisis.

I was elected to help facilitate that change. I think people are concerned about the business climate and they want me to spearhead a change in direction there. That despite our improving homicide rate, people still don’t feel safe. Whether they should or they shouldn’t, they don’t. And I think people are concerned about the physical appearance of the city and the image of the city.

What I told people is, “Look, it’s no longer a question of priorities. These four things are independent. The ability to move forward economically depends on people feeling safe and what the city looks like. They are interdependent.”

WEEKLY: In your platform you said the city doesn’t have the resources to fix its major problems of crime, loss of businesses and a lack of affordable housing. Given the city’s fiscal restraints, how do you propose tackling these issues?

DONOHUE: The city certainly has some resources. The city has been run in some areas much better than people realize. And with my colleagues on the council today, Jyl [Lutes], Sergio [Sanchez], Gloria [De La Rosa], I know there is a high level of frustration on their part at times, “Boy we’ve done everything we’ve could and people still aren’t satisfied,” and that’s always tough. I’ve acknowledged hey, tough times, but moving forward it’s a different day. If we end up in this situation again before Measure V expires and we don’t tell people the financial consequences of that happening that will be a failure of political leadership.

The bottom line is if we are going to do economic development and job creation, we have to set up shop. We simply don’t do that. Other than a commercial realtor who is trying to put together a deal, name the person in town who’s to-do list is to work on getting jobs for the city. It’s not happening. The reality is people leave. And they leave for reasons beyond our control perhaps.

WEEKLY: What do you mean by that?

DONOHUE: If you are looking at a Schilling [McCormick & Co.] or a Smuckers [J.M. Smucker Co.], these are larger companies with no formal ties to the community. Then it’s pretty easy to let shareholder concerns or bottom line concerns [take precedent] and go well, that dot on a map out there in California, it has the highest labor costs. It has the highest housing costs. If on the other hand you’ve got more homegrown industries, they are more tied to the community. They are more likely to make it work.

We’ve got to set up an economic development apparatus. However we do that, whether it’s the model that many communities use, a freestanding nonprofit economic development corporation, or whether it’s an office of economic development, we’ve got to get in the game.

WEEKLY: The Salinas Valley Chamber of Commerce has retained economist Joel Kotkin to conduct an economic needs analysis for Salinas. What is the significance of Kotkin’s work and how will it dictate your economic development policies?

DONOHUE: I’m the guy who got Kotkin here. I read his work. I liked it. I was influenced by his thinking. I am a fan of public private collaboration. His work will be influential in a sense that represents one of the critical things in pursuing an economic development strategy—understanding where you are in a playing field. If we are going to get in the game I think we need to be strategic, we need to understand what our opportunities are, and I don’t think the deal ought to be ready, fire, aim. I think it ought to be ready, aim and fire.

What Kotkin represents is the front end of that process. Let’s do a thorough and realistic assessment of strengths, weaknesses. See if we can build opportunities and use that as a bit of a blueprint to get started.

The Chamber has launched that thing. They have provided some initial funding. Then we are reaching out to the public sector to hopefully chip in a little bit. And I hope when it’s all over the City and perhaps the County has thrown in a few dollars as legitimate stakeholders, and they’ll benefit from the process. So you need a blueprint or a game plan or a place to start.

Another thing I am doing, I have an economic advisory group. They have a real understanding of the industry. I had a talk today with the assistant to the president of Cal Poly. We were vetting that whole issue of alternative energy, talking about this whole notion of crops for energy or crops for pharmaceuticals. It was interesting after talking to him because every state is talking about biotechnology everyone is trying got figure out how to play in this alternative energy game. And frankly, given our medical resources here, after our conversation I got more intrigued by crops for pharmaceuticals and then going after R and D [research and development] elements because that might make more sense.

What’s very clear as you talk to people is that this is a city that ought to be thinking about R and D, application research and then certainly as the mayor I want to promote whatever manufacturing opportunities that might come of that or industry opportunities.

One of the things I do bring to the party because I am in business and relatively well traveled, I have a sense of this can work and here’s how you connect it—particularly if we are playing off of ag-related opportunities. We can go and try for any of these energy deals, the problem is, it’s a math problem. We can grow sugar beets, but it doesn’t pencil in terms of our production costs and necessary return to the ranch. We can grow them, but unless we are getting subsidized by Congress, like corn producers or sugar beet producers in other parts of the country, it won’t pencil. So you kind of rule that out.

A lot of people talk about biomass opportunities and that’s fine and may work well because that is a kind of a value-added crop in terms of alternative energy. But it doesn’t necessarily solve our over planting problem we have in this valley. We probably have got too much acreage in production so we need to redeploy a crucial mass of acreage. So the biomass thing may be good, may be nice to have, but it doesn’t solve the fundamental structural problem of overproduction in this valley.

WEEKLY: Salinas is not known as a ‘business-friendly’ city. What needs to change to make Salinas more accommodating to businesses?

DONOHUE: Salinas is kind of the quintessential definition of America or what Calvin Coolidge said, “The business of America is business.” Monterey’s job is to show up everyday and be pretty. Salinas is a working community. We work. We make stuff. We grow stuff. And I don’t say that in sort of a pejorative sense. They are in the leading edge of the $1.9 [billion] tourist industry. They’ve got to be pretty. Good food, good wine, great views—that’s what they do. We are the $3.2 billion ag driver. We grow stuff.

Certainly we are a business receptive city. Typically that question applies to the city of Salinas. What I have heard a lot of times is projects don’t move fast enough. They don’t move at all because of political reasons. They don’t move fast enough through city hall because of staffing reasons. They tend to be more anecdotal. So I listen to them and I take that seriously. They happen more than I would like because I think we are in the customer service business. People explain why you can’t do things rather than how you can do things. Business hates that.

WEEKLY: So how would you change this?

DONOHUE: The reality is the council sets the tone. If we say customer service is a priority that can change attitudes. But we’ve got to move to structural reality. The amount of activity waiting to happen in this community is probably surprising. The likelihood is there could be bottlenecks, let’s say through the planning department, not because they are obstinate, but you have X amount of projects and X amount of stuff and you can’t move them through the pipeline fast enough. That’s going to irritate somebody. So if we want economic development one of the first things we have to do is make sure we have the necessary planning capacity.

One of the first things we are going to be dealing with is Salinas really needs to get the future growth area annexed and through the LAFCO process. Everybody has agreed upon that. The city has done its general plan well and faithfully over the years—[growth should] be contiguous to the city, be compact.

The other thing that has to happen is we have to have a sufficient industrial land base so that people have options. There is a lot of discussion about why did Dole really leave whose fault is it? We’ll stay away from that.

But here’s one of the things that did cause them to leave: they certainly felt they did not have sufficient options. Dole is no different than you or me. Let’s say it’s the car you want and they only have a blue one and you want a green one. In my mind what that speaks to is it’s very critical we have a sufficient land base ready to go from an industrial standpoint.

I’m a pretty fair salesman but if we go to the marketplace (and say), “I’ve got this great city. It’s got wonderful air quality. It’s really pretty. It’s near Monterey. It’s got a reputation for crime. It’s got high housing cots. It’s got a perceived uneven, education system. Labor is really high. And I am not quite sure where I’ll put you. Will you come here and set up shop?” That’s a tough sell.

I understand people are not interested in more new taxes. I understand that people want their services, and I also understand people are not paying close attention when these things happen. But basically what I told the community, is look, if we want to improve the business climate, if we want to feel safe, we got to address image and we have to have economic vitality. If that’s really what we want—and I take my victory as an indication that’s one of thing we want—then we got to make economic development a priority.

WEEKLY: The Salinas Police Department has 23 vacancies and frequently loses officers to higher paying departments. Now the city of Monterey has approved pay increases that will make them the highest paying department in the county. How will Salinas’ department stay competitive?

DONOHUE: They’ll match them and see them one, as far as I am concerned.

WEEKLY: How is the city going to afford that?

DONOHUE: I will tell the Weekly, what I told the public, what I told the police. The police endorsed me and I am grateful for that endorsement. And I told them, “I will fight to make sure you are compensated.” I have never had to risk my life, so I have enormous respect for people who are on the front line of that process.

The reality is: there is a marketplace. Every city or county, the reality is you have to compete for labor. This is not complicated. It’s supply and demand and it’s a competitive situation.

“We’ve got to create an environment where there is a lot of activity and the city is dynamic and vibrant.”

I always compare it to the medical professional that if you have to pay RNs [registered nurses] more that doesn’t mean you necessarily have more money to spend. So there may have to be fewer RNs and more LVNs [licensed vocational nurses].

The answer to your question: we may have to have fewer sworn officers. Frankly, we have never had to cross that bridge because we can’t fill the budgeted slots we have. I think the other thing is we may have to get a little more creative and tee up some workforce housing incentives. There have been programs like that in the past. I think we have to look at that again.

The other answer is we have to work very hard to develop a more homegrown element. People who are from this area are more likely to stay in this area so I think that’s an attraction, retention strategy.

The reality is if you are interested in the police business, you are going to get a lot of experience here. I think fundamentally we are going to have to be competitive.

WEEKLY: Can you explain your plan to create a ‘Community Safety Alliance’ and how this will improve public safety in Salinas?

DONOHUE: Salinas has a strong history of really good people working really hard in a lot of really good programs geared to the intervention side. Part of the need of prevention arises is some of our social institutions like schools, which don’t have the same resources that they used to. So there is an element of prevention, that let’s just get people off to the right start in life.

But the plan in a nutshell is real simple. There needs to be accountability. There needs to be structure. So what I propose is creating a community safety director that will do three things fundamentally. Take a look at all city departments—police, fire, parks and rec, library, public works and the administrative support side—with an idea, what do libraries for instance, do that can contribute to an idea of community safety.

Most people, when I first started working at Second Chance, they talked about middle school and they’d push it down to the fifth and sixth grades and would go, “Really, kids that young are getting recruited.” But to me the real issue is managing it before they get into anybody’s line of sight, like second grade. That notion if you begin to fall behind on the literary side or reading side or the math side, you begin to be susceptible. So I contend your libraries are part of your front-end tools for creating a community at peace.

This is a community that ought to be very conscious about children’s library services, about making sure we reach out to the entire city if that involves bookmobiles. When you really look at where libraries are involved as a community agency above and beyond traditional library services, I get excited when I hear about libraries that have teen centers and recording studios. This is a city that talks about there is nothing for young people to do. So all of sudden your libraries are part of your game plan.

The community safety director would work with the library director to say, “Hey are we doing everything we can? Does your programming element reflect our safety priority?” Same thing with recreation, public works.

Then you try to organize the major stakeholders in the community: businesses, nonprofits, and I think in this community the faith community, and then some of the more traditional elements, probation, education.

You organize a network of stakeholders and say, “Look, all of us have got to be involved in this notion of community safety.” It is not in the business community’s best interest to have the city have a reputation of not being safe.

That’s one of the reason I talk about things like beauty and the arts. The arts are part of a prevention element. Every young person is not interested in athletics, so the arts are important from an economic standpoint, from an image standpoint but also important from a positive alternative standpoint. Part of your crime prevention program really could be getting in with the education community and saying what do we need to do to get music programs back in all the schools? Or theater programs?

WEEKLY: Over the past few years, the City Council has focused its efforts on revitalizing downtown, while neglecting its east Salinas and Chinatown neighborhoods. Where do you think the city should focus its redevelopment efforts?

DONOHUE: I don’t believe in either or. I believe in all. That’s why that issue, how fast can you move things through the pipeline, matters. There is energy in all three areas. Our job is to clear out the obstacles to keep them from all moving simultaneously. I don’t believe in either or because the marketplace wants to work in all those areas.

WEEKLY: What about east Salinas?

DONOHUE: There is a redevelopment agency tool there to be used. The level of interest and activity and promise in that area is very high. SUBA [Salinas United Business Association] is an organization that is on the move. I don’t believe that downtown should have more priority versus east Salinas or vice versa. I’m a rising tide lifts all boats. Let ‘em all rip. Let’s go. Let’s bring it on. We’ve got to create an environment where there is a lot of activity and the city is dynamic and vibrant. We should be moving on all levels.

WEEKLY: How do you plan to address the rampant overcrowding and poverty in east Salinas?

DONOHUE: What I want to do is make sure that we are actively providing opportunities that will create better paying jobs that will allow our young people to come home. We export our kids. I want to help create an economic environment where our young people can come home and we can create wealth. I want to create the Silicon Valley of the Salinas Valley.

My goal is to go beyond just attracting new jobs. It’s to attract a new business sector, to take advantage of our proximity to the Silicon Valley. The idea is it to expand the business base dramatically and there is no question everyone benefits from that.

In my mind prosperity is one of the keys to providing services people want and creating the resource base to address the social needs in the community.

WEEKLY: Your mayoral campaign drew a lot of money from the agriculture industry. In what ways do you feel beholden to these interests?

DONOHUE: I don’t feel beholden. I told everyone I had one special interest: the city of Salinas. No one who gave me money asked me for a thing. No one asked me a question. They just believed I’d be a good mayor, I’d be fair, and try to do a good job for the entire community.

If you are a businessperson you can be appreciative of the fact that I am pro-business. But I think I have a clear personal record of being very much pro-community and very much on board with the community’s social objectives. And I feel being pro-business is very much compatible with that. I don’t feel beholden to anybody.