Mark Fleming, 66, a retired business leader, is one of six candidates running for a City Council seat in Coronado’s municipal election to be held on Tuesday, Nov. 5.
The 2024 council candidates running for the two open council seats are Fleming, Andrew Gade, Christine Mott, Amy Steward, Mark Warner and Laura Wilkinson Sinton. Three current council members — John Duncan, Mike Donovan and Casey Tanaka — are running for mayor.
Depending on the mayoral result, with one continuing incumbent position term, a third council member may be selected in the process. The Coronado News will be hosting a mayoral forum on Sept. 24 and the community is welcome to submit questions and topics for discussion.
Fleming said he looks forward to working on issues currently affecting Coronado including the Tijuana sewage crisis, stormwater infrastructure projects and the Cays Park Master Plan.
“My motivation for running is not focused on me, it’s focused on being a servant for this city,” said Fleming.
With more than 30 years of experience as a business owner of mid-size companies, Fleming said he has extensive experience managing budgets and schedules, while overseeing long range financial planning and projections. Fleming owned and operated one commercial electrical contracting company and a technology and innovation company providing services to the construction industry, according to his candidate website.
“I can dedicate myself to serving the needs of our special community, without needing to balance my time with a career,” Fleming told The Coronado News, referring to the fact that he is retired. “I bring diversity that will be of benefit to our City Council in many ways, including my ability to evaluate our city’s capital projects and dedicate the time necessary to effectively fulfill the duties of the office. I humbly ask for your vote this November.”
The Coronado News reached out to Fleming and all candidates with questions to learn more about their priorities and philosophy. Responses have been edited for brevity and clarity, including additional information from a follow-up conversation.
Q: Why did you choose to run for City Council?
Fleming: I decided to run for City Council because I see a lot of turn-over coming with our city leaders in this upcoming election. …It’s imperative that we elect leaders with the right experience and temperament that can help guide Coronado through the issues and challenges that we are faced with, while positioning our community for the future.
The Coronado News asked what set him apart in a follow-up interview.
Fleming: I sold my businesses; I’m retired; I am available to work up to full-time for the job. I’m fortunate enough to be in a position where I can dedicate that amount of time to serve the city’s needs. …I’m certainly putting a focus on that because I think it’s important, number one, and number two I believe that it’s something that sets me apart from some of the other candidates.
Q: During your time living in Coronado, what is your record of civic involvement?
Fleming: Since selling my companies and retiring, I have supported the Sharp Hospice Care Benefit Regatta (including the use of our boat for the event), supported Generate Hope Association, supported Friends of Children United Society (FOCUS) and I am an active member of the Rotary Club of Coronado.
Q: Can you spell out specific plans you’d advocate for fixing the stormwater infrastructure?
Fleming: The City of Coronado is generally a low-lying area, which adds to the challenge of preventing flooding during 100-year and 1000-year storm events like we have experienced over the past several years. In addition, there are certain areas within Coronado that are more susceptible than others to flooding, such as the Fourth Street and I Avenue intersection, the 5-point intersection at Pomona, and the Country Club area.
Fleming later offered a detailed account of the steps he’d take to prevent and respond to flooding, including improved street designs and pump systems.
Fleming: If we are not already doing so, we should be performing a risk assessment on the entire storm water system to identify any potential weaknesses and developing a plan to address those weaknesses. It is important to have redundancy built into the system whenever and wherever reasonably possible. This includes redundant pumps and control systems, redundant power sources to ride us through power outages, etc.
Q: What are tangible examples of efforts you’ve made with the Tijuana sewage crisis, or what do you hope to do during your time in office? Will you push for Coronado to declare a local emergency for the ongoing Tijuana sewage crisis?
Fleming: The good news is that with a plan in place, funding appropriated, and shovels already in the ground, there is light at the end of the tunnel on this issue. Coronado has played an important part in this effort through the work of the council subcommittee that led the charge. With Mayor [Richard] Bailey ending his service, I would seek appointment to this committee to continue seeing the projects through to completion. Once complete, it’ll be important to continue monitoring sewage flows from the two treatment plants and make sure water quality testing is accurate.
With an emergency declaration, an agency can resolve a problem in an expeditious manner by by passing bureaucratic procedures such as waiting for regularly scheduled council meetings to make decisions, forgoing procurement requirements to solicit from multiple vendors, eliminating mandatory periods of review, and implementing temporary policies to protect the health and safety of residents. As it relates to the Tijuana sewage issue, although Coronado is impacted, the problem does not originate in Coronado so we would be ineligible for funding or any other type of relief with an emergency declaration.
Fleming further articulated his stance on an emergency declaration for the sewage pollution.
Fleming: I don’t think the City of Coronado declaring a state of emergency is going to do a thing to help to move this along any faster. …We should be putting pressure on our elected leaders representing the state of California in Washington, D.C. They’re the ones that should be advocating this on our behalf, and that’s been slow coming around.
Q: What is your stance on the Cays Park Master plan?
Fleming: I view the master plan as a wish list and the truth of the matter is, many of the items are too costly for the value they would provide to our residents. Each one of the projects should be considered with an up or down vote so we can pare back the spending to a more reasonable level while providing the recreational outlets that our residents value. We have many dog lovers that enjoy the dog run, youth soccer players that learn social skills and life lessons from organized sports, an active tennis and pickleball community that deserve great facilities, and we also have an aging fire station that needs to be replaced. Investment in the Cays Park is needed, but the current plan is more than is necessary.
Q:. What is your stance on the affordable housing allocation?
Fleming: Coronado is already the most densely populated city in San Diego County (as measured by population over land use authority area) and it is unfair to expect us to increase our density without any consideration for existing infrastructure, parking congestion and traffic congestion. The state should be looking at more rural areas where it is easier and more affordable to build middle-class housing.
Q:. City-wide ordinances have not been implemented for things like a single-use plastic ban. Where do you stand on this?
Fleming: Before passing any ordinance, it’s important to have a clear and quantifiable objective as well as an understanding of the city’s role. I do not believe it would be appropriate for the City of Coronado to dictate to Vons, Boney’s, Smart and Final and the other stores in town that they can no longer sell water, Gatorade, vitamin water, sodas and numerous other beverages in plastic bottles.
Fleming further noted he is not against such an ordinance.
Fleming: I am not opposed to eventually eliminating the use of single-use plastic containers. My concern is Coronado taking that step and really having very little effect as far as improving the environment here, but instead hurting our businesses. …It will actually drive more people that want to buy Gatorade and so on and so forth to the shopping in stores across the bridge rather than doing it locally…The plastics are still going to be coming.
Q: Do you favor an ordinance with greater E-bike regulations?
Fleming: E-bikes can be a great transportation alternative, and they have grown in popularity amongst much of our population. However, it is clear the way some riders are operating the E-bikes is unsafe. This problem is not limited to Coronado, and I am pleased the State of California is taking action by passing statewide ordinances which I fully support our police officers enforcing.
