The 2026 Encinitas Action Candidate Questionnaire
On August 3rd, Encinitas Action invited all six candidates for Mayor and City Council Districts 3 and 4 to answer the same nine questions about the issues, decisions, and responsibilities they would face if elected.
We’re publishing the responses over three weeks: District 4 two weeks ago, District 3 last week, and Mayor this week.
Each candidate received the same questions, the same 150–200-word response limit, the same deadline, two reminders, and the commitment that their answers would be published exactly as received.
Three candidates submitted responses; three did not.
Since our first installment two weeks ago, the questionnaires have prompted a spirited online discussion. A few posters questioned Encinitas Action’s affiliations and perspective, criticized the questionnaire as partisan or manipulative, and suggested that candidates couldn’t trust us to present their responses fairly.
We think readers should have the information to judge that for themselves. Encinitas Action’s members, mission, funding, and approach to civic engagement are public:
The Encinitas Mayor questionnaire and candidate responses are below. Judge for yourself the questions, the answers, and each candidate’s decision to participate — or not. When a candidate did not participate, we’ve noted that fact where their responses would have appeared.
Encinitas Mayor (All districts)
Bruce Ehlers
NO RESPONSE RECEIVED
Rimga Viskanta
1. Vision: What are the three biggest challenges facing Encinitas over the next four years, and what would be your top priority in addressing them?
The three biggest challenges facing Encinitas over the next four years are traffic safety, housing pressures, and climate-driven risks.
On traffic safety, my top priority is designing and funding improvements on our most dangerous corridors, the small share of roadways where nearly all of our serious injuries and fatalities occur.
On housing, my top priority is working with mayors across the region through SANDAG to advocate for reform of the two mechanisms I find most problematic: density bonus law and the Regional Housing Needs Allocation process. Where housing is already being built, we need to ensure that traffic and evacuation concerns are addressed.
On climate risk, my top priority is wildfire preparedness, doing everything we can to reduce the risk to Encinitas neighborhoods before an event rather than responding to one.
2. Housing & Local Control: What approach would you take to balancing the need for housing with preserving the unique character of Encinitas neighborhoods?
The City and the State cannot rely on private developers to solve our affordability crisis. The focus on build, build, build at the expense of everything else is the wrong approach, especially in a city like ours where location, location, location, the oldest maxim of real estate, means that the economics of building here are burdened by high land costs.
We need to support incremental growth and gentle density, like fourplexes and duplexes, to avoid the oversized development projects that do not address affordability but do create more traffic and strain infrastructure. We also need to engage nonprofit affordable housing developers and lenders to begin the long work of structuring projects that might actually deliver the truly affordable housing we need.
And finally, because building new units is the most expensive path to affordable housing, we need to preserve naturally occurring affordable housing wherever possible and look at converting existing apartments and condos into deed-restricted units.
These are complicated topics, but if we don’t start the work now and engage in challenging conversations, then we won’t be taking control locally to shape our future.
3. Fiscal Priorities: If declining revenues or rising costs forced difficult choices, which city services or investments would you protect first, and what would you be willing to postpone or reduce?
I would protect public safety, core personnel, and the maintenance that prevents small problems from becoming capital problems. I would postpone studies that don’t lead directly to action, and capital projects that are not critical.
4. Infrastructure: Encinitas has experienced multiple traffic fatalities and serious injuries in recent years. What specific steps would you take to improve safety while maintaining mobility throughout the city?
I would take the Comprehensive Street Safety Action Plan off the shelf and bring it forward for adoption. On April 21, 2025, the Mobility and Traffic Safety Commission recommended that the Council adopt the final plan.
The plan found that 100 percent of our traffic-related injuries and fatalities occurred on just 16 percent of our roadways. That means we do not need to rebuild every street in Encinitas. We need to focus on the 16 percent where people are actually getting hurt, starting with the corridors the plan already identified as highest priority, including Encinitas Boulevard.
We need to meet, design, and fund these corridors until we have done all we can. It will take time and funding will be a challenge, but we must start now.
I would also put our fire and emergency personnel at the table for every corridor design, from the very beginning. Street design determines how fast an ambulance reaches a patient and how a neighborhood evacuates in an emergency. Those are seconds that matter, and they are far cheaper to account for during design than to retrofit afterward.
5. Homelessness: What would you do to address our unsheltered population in Encinitas?
Homelessness in Encinitas is a regional problem that we experience locally, and no city can solve the problem alone. The most effective and least expensive intervention is prevention: rental assistance, case management, and rapid response that keeps a household from losing housing in the first place. Once someone becomes unsheltered, the cost of helping them rises sharply and the odds of a good outcome fall.
That work requires funding. Prevention dollars flow through state and county programs, and as Mayor I would engage actively with the county, the Regional Task Force on Homelessness, and neighboring cities to pursue every dollar available to us.
I also believe our public spaces must remain safe and welcoming for everyone. Compassion and clear expectations are not in conflict. Cities that have made real progress pair services with consistent standards for public spaces, and Encinitas can do the same.
6. Leadership: Describe a time when you disagreed with your political supporters or closest allies. What did you decide, and what did you learn?
I’ve been criticized many times by my own supporters for decisions I made as a school board trustee. I listen to all points of view, consider the recommendations of the Superintendent and professionals, and then make the decision I believe is best for the district.
Supporters sometimes feel betrayed when a decision goes a different direction than the one they advocated for. But I’m there to govern in the best interest of an agency and the constituents it serves, not on behalf of individual interest groups, including the ones that helped elect me.
What I learned is that discomfort is par for the course as an elected official. I also learned that most people accept an outcome they dislike if they believe they were genuinely heard, a fair process was followed, and the reasoning was explained honestly. We can never expect full consensus on all decisions but we should expect full fairness and transparency regarding how decisions are made.
7. Judgment: Name one decision made by an Encinitas City Council that you believe was wrong. What would you have done differently, and why?
I believe Encinitas needs leadership that looks forward to the decisions yet to come rather than relitigating the past. I approach every decision before me by considering the current context, with an eye toward the Encinitas we want to become.
8. Management: How would you define and maintain a positive working relationship between the city council, city manager, and city staff?
The relationship works when everyone understands their role. The Council sets the what: the priorities, the policy direction, the budget. The City Manager and staff determine the how. A council that drifts into administration slows the organization down and demoralizes the people doing the work. And a council that keeps bringing forward work that isn’t in the plan makes staff chase the issue of the moment instead of the priorities they were given.
I’ve spent time on both sides of that dais. I worked in a City Manager’s Office, and I’ve served eight years as a school board trustee, including three terms as President. Hard questions belong in open session, because that’s oversight and it’s the job, but they should be asked in a way that treats professionals as professionals. Agencies work best when everyone performs their own role to the fullest without taking on the responsibilities of others and when everyone behaves with decorum and respect.
9. Hidden Issue: What is one issue facing Encinitas that you believe deserves more public attention?
Using social media as a means of public discourse and information is hurting our democracy everywhere, including here. We should remember that social media is an advertising platform. We are not the customers. We are the product being sold.
Voters in Encinitas are informed and engaged, and they show up. But increasingly many are showing up online, often anonymously, where the format rewards outrage, punishes nuance, and turns neighbors who likely agree on most things into adversaries. Residents form conclusions about each other from posts and comment threads rather than conversations, and that tone follows them into the Council chamber.
The consequence isn’t just unpleasantness. Decisions get harder to make, capable people decline to serve, and we lose the practical benefit of disagreement conducted in good faith.
As Mayor, I would encourage all of us to get back out into the community in person. Join the Current Events group at the Senior Center. Join a Rotary club. Turn out for Street Stewards or a Surfrider beach cleanup. Replant native vegetation or contribute to a community garden. Let’s reintroduce ourselves to one another and work together to make Encinitas a place we love to call home.
With this installment, our 2026 candidate questionnaire series comes to a close. Elections are ultimately about choices — not only between candidates, but about the direction we want our community to take. We hope this series has given you useful information as you make your voting decisions.
We encourage you to keep learning about the candidates, but not only from highly charged and polarized social media. Attend forums and meet-and-greets, ask questions, and talk with your neighbors. However you vote, make it an informed choice. The results of this election will shape Encinitas for years to come.
Now it’s up to you,
–Encinitas Action