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

Pittsburg City Council member Juan Antonio Banales is running for reelection. (Photo via city of Pittsburg)

Interview, Joe Porrello

Name: Juan Banales

Age: 33

Employment History: Engineer at Corteva Agriscience

Public service: Pittsburg City Council, 2017 – present, including two terms as mayor, 2019 and 2024; Pittsburg City Planning Commission, 3 years

Education: BA in Mechanical Engineering and MBA, UC Berkeley 

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

CC Pulse: Why did you decide to run for reelection?

Juan Banales: I’ve served on the City Council for eight years, and I’m really proud of the results we’ve been able to achieve. We’ve focused on economic development and public safety, infrastructure and youth development; and we’ve made great strides in those areas. I’m running for reelection to make sure we continue that momentum and see even more progress — specifically in areas where I think there’s more room to improve. 

We want to focus on investment in road maintenance and making sure we’re able to provide education programming and additional facilities for our youth. We have projects that have come before council and are pending, so I want to see those through execution. The primary projects have been revenue generators for the city such as hotels that represent about $1 million in annual recurring revenue for the city. We also have a data center project at the technology park — formerly a golf course — and that represents about $800 million worth of private investment in Pittsburg. And that could lead to anywhere from $3 [million] to 5 million in annual recurring revenue.

CC Pulse: What would you say is the No. 1 issue facing Pittsburg right now, and what can be done to fix it?

JB: The No. 1 issue right now is the jobs-housing imbalance. It’s been an issue for a while, with all the job centers in San Jose, San Francisco and Oakland. The East Bay has really been bedroom communities in each city, whether it’s Brentwood, Oakley, Antioch — even Concord and Pittsburg have more housing than jobs locally. We really want to see more local employment, and that doesn’t just mean Pittsburg but also neighboring cities… especially to the east, to help folks with their quality of life. A lot of residents are spending one to two hours or more per day sitting in traffic; if there were more local jobs, they could avoid that and spend more time with their communities and their families. One of the reasons I’m running for reelection is to bring in more jobs as well as revenue. I look at 300 jobs per business as the target. We’re really searching for big companies to come in and set up. We have some opportunities at the site of the old Costco that closed down, for example.

CC Pulse: How will you ensure fiscal responsibility as a council member, and what are some ways that the city can raise revenues?

JB: I’ve sat on the Finance Subcommittee, which is a committee of two council members out of the five elected, and we focus on ensuring we’re fiscally responsible and make recommendations to the entire council on our budget and anything involving finances. 

We have made sure that we’ve retained our reserve balance above 30% of operating expenditures, which is really great. It’s probably hard to find surrounding cities above 30%. That’s something we’re always trying to balance, seeing to it that we’re responsible with our expenses and that we don’t grow too fast. We live within our means in terms of what revenues come in and allocate to the benefit of our residents — whether that’s public safety or public works, ensuring our parks are cleaned and maintained, or repairing roads.

Since I’ve been on the council, we have not gone to taxpayers and said, ‘Hey, we need additional funds.’ We’ve worked within the funds that we have to make progress in those areas. We have models that we look at and say, ‘What is year two, three and four going to look like, and what do we need to do from a council standpoint to close those gaps?’ There are a number of ways to increase revenue, but we focus on economic development. 

CC Pulse: What do you think makes Pittsburg a special place?

JB:  I think it’s the community and the bond that residents have. Residents will often call it ‘Pittsburg Pride.’ We are very proud of our community and our city. It’s pride for our football team, our high school marching band, or just being raised in our community and what we have to show for a lot of the investment that we’ve made. You go to Old Town, and it’s absolutely beautiful. We bring in outside visitors all the time, whether it’s for city functions, events, or business meetings. We held the Contra Costa Mayors Conference earlier this year and hosted it at the California Theatre, and we brought them down to the newly reopened Marina Center, so they got to see how gorgeous our community is. 

It’s about working together. Our community does not shy away from tackling some of the larger and tougher issues we have. We come together to try and find solutions. At the end of the day, we all roll up our sleeves and we get to work, and that’s what I love about our community. 

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

JB: As we get closer to Election Day, I’d ask voters to look at the progress that we have made over the last eight years. Just in the last year alone, we have allocated and spent over $12 million for road repairs when we normally spend around $3 [million] to 4 million per year. We approved a battery storage energy facility that represented $100 million of private investment in our community and we have new commercial development over at the San Marco area of our city, which comes with a Sprouts grocery store. Throughout all of this, we have maintained our public safety by investing as much as we can to make sure it’s taken care of.

I’ve listened to the community and done my best to make sure we are focusing on the right areas. I think we’ve achieved some really strong results; I just ask voters to look at that and trust that I will continue listening to their concerns and try to obtain more results toward addressing some of the challenges that we face.

Read our interviews with the other Pittsburg City Council candidates:

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

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