Ahead of the November general election, the Southern California News Group 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: Blaze Bhence

Current job title: President – IT Services and Security Companies

Political party affiliation: Non-Partisan

Incumbent: No

Other political positions held: None

City where you reside: Cypress

Campaign website or social media: www.Blaze4Cypress.com

How can the city best meet the demand and mandates for more housing, including at lower prices, while also preserving the quality of life for existing neighborhoods and residents? (Please limit your answer to 200 words or less.)

We are one of the few cities with no planning commission. We need to appoint a planning commission and address this via the residents. I believe we have an opportunity to zone correctly the Lincoln corridor for mixed-use housing and a shopping center. I believe we have areas within Cypress that can achieve housing expansion efforts, without throwing them all into one area, currently the LARC complex. We have numerous large commercial properties that have been vacant for years and will not be built on with the current zoning. We need to look at mixed-use retail/residential for some of these lots.

California is working toward achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2045. Where does climate change fall in your list of priorities? How, if at all, would you address this as a councilmember? (Please limit your answer to 200 words or less.)

No. 1 priority, tied with health care as right. Personally, I have 63 solar panels and two electric cars. We drive on the sun. We need to provide incentives for people and commercial buildings to increase solar installations and reduce the burden on our power grid. We need more EV chargers set up in our city. We currently have 17 gas stations and few EV charging stations. We have built an apartment complex; we need to incentivize metered charging for tenants in rental dwellings. We are replacing all street lights with LEDs, and more is needed in some townhouse communities with older halogen lighting. The city needs to work with the utility company to request efficient light swaps for all public and private sites. We can set policies for many other climate initiatives, down to restaurants should all offer a few plant-based options on their menus, as they do in more cities like in Los Angeles.

How should the city balance paying off debts, such as pension liabilities, and building reserves all while meeting residents’ needs? Should a solution involve finding new revenue, trimming the budget, or something else entirely? (Please limit your answer to 200 words or less.)

We have a plan to have the PERS fund and matching fund be equal in 2030. I believe we should push for the balance and payoff of that burden before it becomes an insurmountable burden as may be happening in some cities across the state. Other cities need to perhaps do a combination of trimming the budget, increasing revenues (though not a fan of tax hikes for encumbered debts) and other subsidy measures to pay down the PERS obligations, possibly bonds, but that kicks the can down the road into other buckets of burden.

In your opinion, what is the biggest need your city faces, and how would you address it? (Please limit your answer to 200 words or less.)

Having a plan for increased housing and a well-planned community. We currently are one of the very few cities that does not have a planning commission. We need to appoint a planning commission for the people, by the people. Without a plan, we plan to fail and we have failed on the Lincoln corridor and other areas of the city. We have much more to build out in the next decade, and we should have a planning committee to support good initiatives and plans.

Why would you make a good leader, and how would you represent the diverse communities of your city? (Please limit your answer to 200 words or less.)

I’ve been the president of my homeowners association for almost 20 years. We have a 301-unit townhome complex with the lowest association fees of all complexes (five complexes in District 4 with almost 1,500 units total) and the best grounds. I have run and currently run businesses where we find ways to do much more with less. I have always been fiscally responsible and feel we can do better. In the past, Cypress has not gone to bid for large contracts like trash collection and some building efforts. The bid process is meant to view options and ensure the city receives the best value for their spend. We took out a loan for $40 million and have used $33 million for a single park renovation. We are budgeting $600,000 for a conference room renovation in City Hall. We can do better.

I have patrolled the streets of Orange County as a lieutenant of the OC Sheriff’s Department. I understand the need for a safe community and believe we can improve our already great police force, with no increased cost burdens to the taxpayers. We have partnerships with neighboring cities where we share dispatch and homeless shelters. We can share specialists for homeless, mentally ill, etc., without burdening our budgets. There are other areas where I feel we can hire a more inclusive force and become a better law enforcement agency.

Lastly, I would look for citizen involvement in the development and buildout of our city and our future. A planning commission is a start. Better communication among councilmembers as well as with the school board are easy items to tackle that would benefit all constituents of our great city.

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