Ahead of the March primary, The Orange County Register compiled a list of questions to pose to the candidates who wish to represent you. You can find the full questionnaire below. Questionnaires may have been edited for spelling, grammar, length and, in some instances, to remove hate speech and offensive language.
MORE: Read all the candidate responses in our Voter Guide
Name: Kimberly Ho
Current Job Title: Vice Mayor of Westminster
Political Party Affiliation: Nonpartisan
Incumbent: No
Other political positions held: Westminster City Councilmember
City where you reside: Westminster
Campaign website or social media: www.KimberlyHo4Supervisor.com
What experiences and priorities do you bring to the table? What have you learned in prior leadership roles that make you the person for this job?
I believe I am the best candidate for the job. Not only do I have the leadership skills from running the city of Westminster for the past seven years, but I am the only healthcare professional among the candidates and the most well-rounded person with 32 years of experience running successful private enterprises that I started with only $500.
I am running for supervisor in the First District, and I would like to prioritize as follows:
– Reform CalOptima: The current system needs a complete overhaul as it is failing the people it intends to serve. A check and balance and tighter protocols need to be in place to watch over the $4 billion budget.
– Housing: We are in a housing crisis, and this goes hand-in-hand with the homeless crisis. I will bring a fresh pair of eyes and multi-million dollars of real estate ownership and real estate development and an innovative mind to help alleviate this problem.
– Homelessness and affordable housing: These two problems go hand-in-hand. These problems are begging for solutions. I will bring innovative solutions and experiences in private and public sectors. My world is a lot bigger than the world of the career politicians.
Where in the county are we effectively putting money toward solutions to tackle homelessness? Where are the gaps in care when it comes to the homelessness issue? Are all communities being served or doing their fair share?
We are putting money into the OC Be Well program to make this service accessible to the mentally ill and the mentally ill from drug use. With time and quality of care, this program will pay off in the long run.
I believe we have to close the gaps in care once the individuals return to permanent housing or exit homelessness with intensive case management to ensure continued progress.
Another problem I experience as a city councilmember is that cities are expected to provide beds for the homeless, but we are not given the funds so it is a financial struggle. We have partnered with our neighboring cities, upon my recommendation to do so, using FEMA money to build a homeless shelter with a service case management provider year-round. We have also involved the faith-based community to assist along with our dedicated homeless liaison officers. I do believe our community is doing its fair share.
Looking at the county’s yearly budget, is there a department or project that has not received the attention it needs? How would you make sure those needs are addressed?
It is not about spending money to cover all bases of our constituents’ needs, but it’s about making sure a good process is in place for each department to provide the quality of service or care as a result — or money is wasted.
For example, with CalOptima, the root of the problem is in hiring a qualified person at the helm, and it is important to have an oversight team in place to watch over the $4 billion budget. Are the people’s needs being met? Is there a quality of care being provided to the members? You might find there’s overcrowding that might compromise the healthcare service.
The recent findings by state investigators will speak for themselves on some of the apparent problems of CalOptima, but not all; that needs to be addressed by putting in place better protocols, people and processes.
The public expects full transparency from public leaders. How can this be achieved? How can the county do better in this area?
There are many laws that exist regarding transparency so more laws may not be necessary. Are the punishments harsh enough? This problem continues to exist, so this leads me to think the penalties may not be harsh enough to fit the crime.
I believe a better and more thorough vetting process of vendors as well as for-profit and nonprofit organizations needs to be in place and hold people accountable for this process. Furthermore, transparency should be a culture of the county with the leaders being the ones who set examples for others to follow.
Transparency involves openness, sharing of information and making decisions based on the information while accountability involves taking responsibility for one’s actions and decisions. Distrust and potential unethical behavior will occur when these principles are lacking.
The county oversees unincorporated territories where it can encourage housing, how else can it stimulate the development of affordable rent/housing in Orange County?
When you want to drive a certain behavior, you must give incentives. Are the incentives good enough to incentivize people to develop affordable rent or housing? As a real estate investor and developer, what would incentivize me to develop is getting some property tax breaks. When renters have to pay your property tax bill on top of the mortgage, the rent becomes high and unaffordable so with the lower property tax, I will be able to save, and this savings will definitely be passed onto the tenants.
I know of many affordable developments that go for years without going through the required audits. Those who receive incentives to develop affordable housing need to be audited on a regular basis to ensure they charge the low price they are supposed to.
