28 Oct Q&A: To Improve Pittsburg, Get Community, Youth Involved, Gonzalez Says

Iztaccuauhtli Hector Gonzalez is running for Pittsburg City Council. (Courtesy of Iztaccuauhtli Hector Gonzalez)

Interview, Malcolm Marshall

Name: Iztaccuauhtli Hector Gonzalez

Age: 50

Employment History: Owner of Gonzalez Insurance and Financial Services Agency; loan and real estate and loan broker; insurance agent; former teacher with Pittsburg Unified School District and West Contra Costa Unified School District

Public service: Former president of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce; treasurer for the United Latino Voices

Education: Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, B.A. in History

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

CC Pulse: For those who don’t know your background, how has it shaped your decision to run for City Council? Why are you running, in general?

 Iztaccuauhtli Hector Gonzalez: I love to serve. I love to talk to people. I love to hear their perspectives and listen to what their wants and needs are and I want to be a voice for the people of Pittsburg. I want to make Pittsburg more prosperous.

We have some people that go into politics and are in politics most of their working lives. It’s nice to have career politicians, but we also need to have working people and people that are running small businesses, involved to address the community. I think that’s an important perspective, that that would be great on the council.

CC Pulse: What would you say are the major issues facing Pittsburg right now, and what can be done to fix them? 

IG: I see posts on Ring, for example, someone hearing several gunshots. Sometimes, I’ve heard a client say that there were people going really fast in their cars, dangerously doing donuts. And large amounts of people doing that. Sometimes, we would call the police, and it would be an hour; they wouldn’t come until everyone pretty much had left. Some other residents thought maybe the police are scared. There was an African American lady I spoke to recently that was telling me that her mother lives by where the Hampton Hotel is, that there were people doing donuts and driving crazy, and she was upset about that. She feels the police are not cracking down on that.

I think we, as a community, have to provide education and opportunities for our young people, our teenagers and our early-20-year-olds to serve and to be involved in the community. Help us lead them in the right direction that’s beneficial to the community. I want to keep the programs that we have, like sports, for young people to be involved in.

And also they have a limited amount of positions for students to participate in a training program at Camp Roberts, where they learn about how government works and how the court system works. I think that’s good to have our young people learn to be involved. We want to help bring them up so that they can be involved at an even younger age.

CC Pulse: How would you support local businesses and foster economic growth in Pittsburg?

 IG: For example, when there’s graffiti, we should have it covered up right away. Sometimes, people like to see their graffiti there for a long time. If it’s covered up right away, then it’s like, why bother graffiti if they’re going to cover it? So I think that would help prevent graffiti. And then also respond to help our unhoused people have the resources to provide working opportunities, to provide housing opportunities, or maybe get off drugs. Some businesses have complained that people are urinating, defecating or littering in front of their businesses. Or sometimes their clients feel intimidated.

Also training opportunities for small businesses. Like accounting, making sure they’re following OSHA rules, following state rules. Having workshops maybe once a month where they can learn. Work with the Chamber [of Commerce] and other organizations to know how to operate their businesses correctly, following all the laws.

I don’t know if it still exists, but there was a program, I don’t know if it was a government program or where the resources came [from], but they would pay up to 100 hours for an intern to work for a business. It was like having a free employee. I think things like that are good — for our young people to have opportunities and our businesses to have some support. 

CC Pulse: In your opinion, what do you think makes Pittsburg a special place? 

IG: I love that it’s diverse, and there’s all kinds of history and culture in Pittsburg. There’s a long history of diversity (from) when people were not able to buy houses in Antioch, when it was on the deed that they couldn’t sell to people of color. There’s always been rich culture here. There was Italians, there’s African Americans, there’s a lot of Chicanos. There was a military base here, Camp Stoneman. Before all that, it was also Rancho Medanos and there was Native people, so there’s a rich history. We’re right next to the river. We have our Marina. We have hills and hiking trails. We have parks. We have good schools and enough restaurants. We have a BART station. We could jump on BART, go to San Francisco, go towards San Jose, go towards Richmond, go to UC Berkeley.

We’re really situated in a strategic location where there’s a lot of opportunities to do a lot. So I love the area, and it’s affordable — it’s one of the most affordable cities to live in Contra Costa County.

CC Pulse: Lastly, what message do you have for voters as they get closer to Election Day? Why should voters choose you?

IG: Like John F. Kennedy said, don’t ask what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. I think as citizens, we have to not only think, what are you, city of Pittsburg, going to do for me, but we got to ask ourselves, what can we do to be more involved in our city, to make it more prosperous as a community? How can I step up as a citizen to serve my community and find ideas and be creative, make our community better, working with our nonprofits, our churches, our government, our police, all as a community, to uplift each other?

I’m here to serve. I’m not here to be a long-term politician. I’m here to give my all to this community that I’ve been in, continuously, since 2006. I want to make everyone have the opportunity to have their voice be heard and be more involved.

Read our interviews with the other Pittsburg City Council candidates:

Q&A: Banales Running to Bring More Jobs and Revenue to Pittsburg

Q&A: A Better Pittsburg Starts With Job-Housing Balance, Jelani Killings Says