Ray Morquecho: ‘I’m running on a pragmatic, centrist, common-sense platform’

Location: 1718-1722 Hayes Ave. (future site of a navigation center for homeless services)

Spend a few hours with Ray Morquecho and you’ll definitely get a sense of earnestness. While he’s running as the “pro-business” candidate, he comes to our interview wearing a polo and shorts, eschewing the traditional chamber-of-commerce look (they’ve endorsed him). He calls himself a “California Republican.” Principled but pragmatic. A believer in limited government who is also pro-choice, recognizes the importance of social programs, and uses the term “undocumented immigrants” instead of “illegal aliens.” But he’s not running to talk about immigrants or abortion rights. He wants to talk about tree stumps and alleyways. The meat and potatoes of local governance, not the red meat of movement Republicans.

 “They just came out with the alleyway survey and nobody has it good; everyone has millions of dollars of things that need to be done,” he said. “And everyone’s arguing about things that really aren’t having to do with the nuts and bolts of actually running the city.”

He’s currently registered as “Decline to State,” which he quickly points out is the fastest growing voter registration in California. He’s not too fond of the current occupant of the Oval Office and he thinks that local politics has become too ideological.

We met in a warehouse district a few blocks west of Santa Fe Avenue in West Long Beach. It’s the site of a future homeless services navigation center where unhoused folks will be able to use lockers for personal belongings and receive other services. Proposed by then-Councilmember Lena Gonzalez, it represents one of the “wrap around” services touted by the city, part of a holistic strategy to address homelessness. Morquecho chose the location because he wanted to give voice to a silenced community. But it might not be the one you think.

Our interview was occasionally interrupted by passing cargo trucks. Stagnant, diesel-tinged air surrounds us as the Port of Long Beach teamed with activity to the south. We ducked under the awning of the center to preserve the effectiveness of my recorder from the loud trucks and to avoid the blaring heat, intensified by our largely concrete surroundings. Morquecho mentioned how these trucks, vital to the Southern California economy, are being joined by some less-than-welcomed neighbors.

“(Business owners) have a horrible problem with people camping in RVs everywhere around here. And there’s not-so-great-looked-after dogs, there’s pales of human feces, and excrement, and pee. And (business owners are) just not being listened to,” said Morquecho.

Morquecho attended a meeting of West PAC, a group of business and property owners in West Long Beach, and relayed some of their concerns: “What’s going to happen? Are we going to just have people everywhere flopped out? … How is this going to benefit the businesses around here?”

Still, Morquecho recognizes the human cost of the homelessness crisis. He acknowledges the importance of emergency transitional housing, including the municipal shelter planned for North Long Beach and services like the Get Help app (connecting unhoused folks with services using the GPS capabilities of smartphones), which the city is planning to implement. He also, unlike many on the right, acknowledges the importance of social programs in giving people a leg up.

He’s got personal experience. At the age of four, his mother left his alcoholic father and raised him and his two siblings as a single parent. They lived in single-bedroom apartments and got by with the help of family, friends, and food stamps.

“My family used social programs to uplift us. And now a generation later, my sister’s an MBA graduate, I have my degree and I’m running for City Council, my oldest sister is in Korea (and) is high-ranking in the Air Force. It was such a turn around,” Morquecho said. “And one of the big parts of that was seeing how generosity, sympathy, empathy, but coupled with drive, ambition,  maybe even, dare I say, a little bit of shame because we had to pull the food stamps out of a packet and people in line saw it … it motivates.”

He’s most at home when critiquing tax structures. It’s no wonder. Before founding Calibu Surf School in Huntington Beach, he worked as a district representative for Republican Michelle Steel while she served on the California Board of Equalization, the state agency charged with administering taxes.

He remembers how an increase on cigarette taxes played out. While promising to generate more tax revenue and decrease smoking, it had an unintended effect. According to Morquecho, First Five California, a commission that distributes funds collected from tobacco taxes to local programs serving children five and under, became concerned with the loss in revenue resulting from less people smoking.

He makes a similar observation about parking fines. “If you’re balancing the budget on parking fines, that’s where I have a fundamental problem with government. If a fine is trying to prevent someone from doing something, then if I could snap my fingers tomorrow (and) we’ve stopped everyone from doing (the) illegal thing that we’re fining … How screwed is our budget? That’s where I don’t like line items which says: We’re going to collect this much millions of dollars in speeding fines, parking fines, so forth.”

The most recent budget released by the city specifically states that parking fines will be increased to pave the “path to (a) balanced the budget.” A $10 increase on parking fines is projected to bring an additional $1.5 million.

One of Morquecho’s first jobs in Long Beach, while still a political science student at the University of California, Irvine, was bartending at the now closed Mai Tai Bar at the Pike. Fun times for Morquecho; maybe a little too much fun he says with a chuckle.

You can see how his personality helped him tend bar: a broad smile, easy going, a lighthearted, dry sense of humor. Traits that likely help with his politicking too.

Tomisin Oluwole
Coquette
Acrylic on canvas
18 x 24 inches

Click here to check out our interview with Tomisin Oluwole, a a literary and visual artist based in Long Beach.

Instead of gunking up our site with ads, we use this space to display and promote the work of local artists.

He received some criticism on social media for having a fundraiser hosted by unabashed MAGA Republicans. He doesn’t share many of their opinions on the national level he says, but locally, they support his brand of fiscal conservatism. Ultimately, though, he’s “open to all donations” he said unapologetically. Morquecho doesn’t bend to the will of anybody, he says. If people want to support him that’s fine, but don’t expect any favors. And if a constituent has a question about a decision, he’s making his personal phone number available. You can call him and ask.

How’s that for earnest? Here’s Morquecho:

There are serious health disparities between this district and other parts of the city. A big part of that is due to pollution. Are there any policies you’re excited to expand upon or bring to City Council that would help improve the air?

No specific programs. Because I think we’re all very aware. It’s just implementing it. We probably spend millions of dollars trying to fix our air quality. But I think you have to give more immediate relief to this community with green spaces, trees. Just anything that’s gonna be able to turn some of this particular matter into oxygen … There’s obviously opportunities for us to maybe work with some nonprofits and plant trees. One, community building, two, we do need greens spaces, and three, we have a pollution problem that needs to be addressed. And why not address it with something that also beautifies neighborhood and brings us together. I mean it seems like a no-brainer to me … We can’t divest from fossil fuels. It will completely annihilate hundreds of thousands of jobs and hundreds of thousands if not millions in the budget.

Homelessness is a pretty big issue facing the 1st district. What are some of the solutions that you think can help alleviate homelessness?

I think that it’s a really hard problem. And it’s one that doesn’t have a very easy solution. But rather than doing the, making the hard decisions and kind of saying, “Okay, listen, we have to follow others, other cities’ leads,” I mean, we can even see San Francisco, which has just kind of been accommodating. And I completely understand that kind of empathetic approach, which is this is a person that’s down on their luck, or has an addiction or mental health issues, and we have to be respectful of them as well. That’s fine. But the respect has to go also to the taxpayers who are trying to do the best that they can and struggling, like, that’s the part that I think that we’re missing out on, which is: There has to be a solution that takes into account that the homeless are actually human beings. And this is a problem we need to solve. But at the same time, you have to be able to say, “Listen, you either can accept help, or we need to figure out how to make Long Beach not as welcoming”, I guess … there’s some barrier. And I think one of the barriers is they very fervently say it takes 17 points of contact between yourself and this homeless person or this person experiencing drug, alcohol, whatever it is, 17 points of contact to help. But we only have six people doing this job for thousands of homeless people. And you have to do that, say 17 times on average. Okay, well, how do we make an ordinance that says, okay, after the fifth time, we’re able to do something about it, we’re able to say, “You know what, you’ve been out here and it’s not humane, it’s not okay, for the business owner, that maybe has called (the police) multiple times and feels like they’re not being listened to now because police are handcuffed, pardon the pun.

The city is in the process of developing an inclusionary zoning policy. In general, are you in favor of such policies?

I don’t like the fact that you have to be this poor to live here because it makes people not want to leave that tax bracket. And that kind of is a problem. Maybe there’s opportunities where if you are in low-income things that qualifies you for free daycare in the building, or whatever it is, or night classes, or I don’t know, some other out-of-the-box thinking. How can we get this person to a better paying job so that they can afford market rates, housing and stuff like that, rather than keeping them impoverished? Because it they can’t afford to move that extra dollar out of this tax bracket. And all of a sudden, they’re screwed again, you know?

State law went into effect this year that raised the cap on what cities can charge for fines associated with building code violations—amounts that haven’t been adjusted in over three decades. The 1st District contains some of the oldest housing in the city and tenant advocates say raising those fines would help crack down on unhealthy housing conditions. Where do you stand on this?

Yeah, I think I would be open to it. It’s always hard to say yes to fines and stuff like that. I’m not a huge fan of government trying to make societal changes and things of that nature, I would like to know think that landlords or property owners, it’s in their own best interest to keep up their buildings for property values. Unfortunately, that does tie into the rent control thing, because it’s like, “Okay, if you’re capping my ability to raise rents, for building improvements, and then fining me for not improving my building, I’m kind of screwed.”

The district has had very low voter turnout in previous City Council elections. What would you do to increase voter engagement and try to increase turnout?

Keeping (my) promises and making sure that people understand that it’s not all bad. You know its not all people just out for themselves is how you gotta get that motivation and get people to actually do something about voting again because the vast majority of the 1st District just doesn’t vote. Time after time after time it’s exactly the same way every time. It’s the lowest of the low. How do we fix it? Its gotta be community engagement. The one thing I was actually thinking about if I’m completely honest is the ability to just continue walking. The one thing I think people do is they get really insulated when they get into office. If I could do something as simple as rather than having coffee with a candidate or a town hall., just pick a different precinct or a different neighborhood and just go walk around the neighborhood for 30 minutes with whoever wants to walk with me.

Do you support the upcoming ballot measure to make the Measure A sales tax permanent?

Now that it’s already part and parcel of the landscape, I believe I will probably vote for it. Because the (tax rate) was going to be 10 and a quarter (percent) no matter what, you know, (city officials) did a very good job of saying, “Hey, listen, if we don’t do this, first, the county is going to take it in rather than keeping the money local. So very, very outright, I went okay, well, this is the best we can do in a bad situation, in my opinion, because I don’t like the fact that we are the the highest taxed, one of the most expensive cities to live in. It’s just more and more and more and from my own personal kind of view on it, sales tax is kind of a regressive tax, it taxes the poorest people first … I don’t like scare tactics. That’s the thing that I hate, because every politician knows that if you want a tax measure, you scare (the public). Well, in order for us to pay for police officers and fire(fighters), or this new one came out, the (Community) Hospital, it’s like, well, you know, this is what we need it for.

Is your campaign taking corporate contributions?

I’m open to all donations. Again, I’m a pragmatic person. I don’t bend to the will of anybody. That’s not one of those things where someone comes up and says, “Hey, I wrote you a check for $1,000, will you rezone this thing for me?” It’s like, if it makes sense. But the reason why I’m running on a pragmatic, centrist, common-sense platform is because the people who are supporting me, that’s what they want. And the people who so far have written checks are people who feel like they’re just not being listened to. Because their issues aren’t sexy.

How would you assess State Senator Lena Gonzales’s tenure as the 1st District Councilmember?

To be honest with you, I wasn’t really paying attention because the my business as I was growing my business for the past will start starting it four years ago, and then actually running it two and a half years ago, I completely was consumed … I appreciated her authenticity. I like the fact that she was visible. I didn’t like the fact that I felt she was doing a lot of things for her own notoriety. I personally feel that it was going to be a foregone conclusion that she was gonna be running for senate well before the race ever started. So political positioning and, and and like, like the Styrofoam Ban. One hundred percent for the Styrofoam ban, again, Styrofoam in the ocean is gross. I don’t like it, it makes beaches ugly. I think it was a larger issue that she could stand on later.

How would you reduce crime in the district?

There needs to be more community building. I think that when you have high crime, there’s a cyclical problem where everyone kind of just becomes really insulated … So having better access to community events, outreach; National Night Out is one night of the year, which I don’t understand. Maybe that should be something that happens again, walking with the councilman. And then also specifically trying to tackle the fact that, especially in the 1st District, there’s a lot of undocumented immigrants, and I think that they have a fear of reporting crime or there is an apathy for general resident that go, “Hey my bike got stolen or this got tagged. Who cares?” Well that data needs to be reported whether or not the police officer—which is unfortunate because half the time when its a very petty thing on their spectrum of things they have to cover, they just don’t come out. Because they don’t have time to prioritize because they’re understaffed or they don’t have the resources. And that leads to more apathy and more not reporting. But when you don’t have those data points, you don’t know where the crime is happening and you can’t effectively deploy your resources. And that’s the number one thing that I would change, you have to get the word out.

Do you think police transparency is an issue for the city? If so, what would you do to address it were you to be elected?

I believe so. And I think it’s both for the protection side of the police department and for the protection of the citizens. I think body cameras are a great … I just know that the police are very protective of themselves. And again, I think that leads that comes from the fact that the society we live in is viewing them as as maybe predators, they’re they’re like, they’re going out and looking for reasons to shoot minorities and stuff like that. And it’s just I don’t believe that to be true. I think that they’re usually good people. I think there’s probably bad apples and stuff like that, but they’re just like teachers unions and, and you know, pipe fitters, or people that just work in the same restaurant, these they tend to protect each other, they become a family, and they do that. So right or wrong, I think that there’s need for this, but there also needs to be funding … I’ve always been in favor of having an independent auditor.

Some law enforcement agencies in Southern California have encrypted some or all of their police radio traffic, making it inaccessible to the public, including to reporters. The Long Beach Police Department maintains its public channels, but last year bought equipment that allows them to encrypt the signals. Would you support a move toward encryption?

That’s another one of those things where you can see the argument for both sides. Right off the top of my head, I’m going, “Why give the criminals the untapped access to what you guys are calling in team what’s happening and where you’re at and what’s going on?” … But then on the other hand, those are our tax dollars. Those are our radios, we pay for that we pay for your we should be open and honest, that kind of fun stuff. So I don’t know if to be honest with you. That’s one of those ones where I’d have to see a bit more data about, has it helped or hurt those other places that have used it as test beds.

Do you think there should be more bike lanes in the district?

I definitely do it. I like bike lanes. I like walkability. It’s one of the reasons why I live Downtown. Sometimes out of necessity, because if you move your (parking) spot on Saturday or Sunday, you’re never get another one. But I’m not a fan of the Broadway corridor because of the implementation. I understand the goal was to slow down cars and stuff like that. I think we maybe could have done something by, I don’t know making a single sided, slightly wider bike lane so that you could have coming and going on one particular side or something like that, and then maybe making diagonal parking so that you didn’t have to worry about any doors opening into the bike lane. Plus, you’d increase rather than lose parking.

Would you support increasing funding for youth programming in the city?

As much as I want to say yes to everything, you just can’t. You have to prioritize things. If this is a program that’s been shown to alleviate any number of social ills that cost us a bunch of money, then absolutely, lets figure out how to get it in there … I would much rather have opportunity to work with groups like the YMCA, the Boys and Girls Club, the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts, or any number of organizations that are already ingrained into youth development.

How would you make the city more accessible for people with disabilities?

You have to just understand that your brain, and your perspective cannot be how you make decisions. It has to be based on everybody’s accessibility, everyone’s likelihood to agree or disagree where these perspectives and point of view is coming from … It’s not 100 percent on the elected officials that they didn’t think about it, because if you’re looking for someone who’s going to know everything about everything you’re gonna be disappointed every time. And if I could be so bold, if I win, I would like to have people like Mary (Zendejas) saying, “Hey did you think about this.” … The ability to be a good leader and not necessarily how to tell everybody what to do, but to listen to everybody and then make a firm decision.