The grounds at Milton-Freewater City Hall were cropped and trimmed in May 2021. Jose Garcia and Destiny Jensen are the two candidates running unopposed for Milton-Freewater City Council.

MILTON-FREEWATER — Two candidates running unopposed for the Milton-Freewater City Council said they want more community involvement and a more open attitude in city government.

Jose Garcia has no contenders for his Ward 1 representation. And Destiny Jensen has filed to take the at large seat Damien Reino holds, but he is not running for a second term.

Jose Garcia

Garcia, 62, was first appointed to the Milton-Freewater council in 2017, the first Latino and only ever to be so. Roughly 50% of the town’s population is Latino.

Ward 1 begins at where South Main Street branches off to rejoin Highway 11 and stops at the town’s northeast end.

Garcia said he took the seat for a few reasons but primarily because he was hearing of incidents of “unfair” treatment from a number of Latino residents.

As a soccer coach and employee with the Milton-Freewater Unified School District, Garcia has had a highly visible presence in the community for decades.

Yet he, too, found himself pulled over by police for reasons that seemed racially motivated, Garcia recently recalled.

Being a city councilor would offer an opportunity to be closely involved with city government, represent his race and encourage younger Latinos to do the same, he said.

The latter hasn’t happened the way Garcia hoped. While a few Latinos are now serving on local boards, more need to come forward. If people don’t, they have only themselves to blame if nothing changes, he said.

“It’s sad,” he said. “We need representation for our community. I know they say ‘We have jobs.’ I have jobs too, and I do coaching in the community.”

In general, the city council is ready for an infusion of fresh blood, new ideas and people who care about their neighborhoods, Garcia said.

As city council meetings began filling with interested residents during the past year, he was initially cautious and nervous.

“People have started coming and asking questions. We were not prepared for this,” Garcia said. “But I am so glad this is happening. It’s good this happened. I know people have been asking about several things and they had questions about (city) spending. That was amazing. That was great.”

There are issues to address, such as a lack of affordable housing. Garcia said he’d like to see a program similar to Habitat for Community that allows families to put in some sweat equity to reduce the cost of getting into a home. But Milton-Freewater has a leg up in that there are jobs here for just anyone that wants one, he pointed out.

Garcia said he’s still a little shy in the council setting and still learning a lot about how things work. Serving another four-year term allows him to continue doing so while growing his understanding.

And he’ll be watching for more Latino participation, he added.

Destiny Jensen

Jensen, 27, says she’s not the typical city council candidate.

“I don’t fit into a certain category,” she said. “My biggest strength is being fair. I’m not running based on people or groups I know. I want to listen to all sides of an issue, not as a middleman but to be a mediator.”

Jensen noticed division between city officials and residents in recent years and believes time has come for trust-building and collaboration, she said.

“I think the division has come because people who have been here a long time have taken the city as their own and don’t listen to the citizens,” she said, and that has to change.

“It shouldn’t matter how small or silly an issue seems,” Jensen said. “I think a lot of people just don’t get listened to. They get shut down.”

The 2014 McLoughlin High School graduate studied nursing at Walla Walla Community College and worked as a certified nursing assistant for several years.

Jensen is unafraid of transparency. She’s straightforward about overcoming drug addiction and being sex trafficked for 18 months in 2017-2019.

She told her story to local and county law enforcement employees, to make officials aware of “what’s in their own backyard,” Jensen said.

“I was able to work with the FBI for two years to put my trafficker in prison,” she said. It felt good to put him behind bars but he only got six years. And he’d been doing it for 20.”

Milton-Freewater has great positives, starting with the people who live here and an “awesome” school district and teachers, she said.

The flip side is a lack of realistically-priced housing, graffiti that plagues the city and drug use that’s “out of control.”

And while the city’s focus on water infrastructure is important, so is more housing, according to Jensen.

“There’s basically nowhere to live unless you buy a fancy house.”

Some of the budget tightness could be relieved by allowing a marijuana dispensary here and the taxing that would come with it, Jensen pointed out, adding she knows it’s not a popular opinion with everyone.

“People go to Walla Walla to buy legal marijuana products. Half of those IDs are from Oregon,” she said. “We have a liquor store by the high school, how is that any different?”

Jensen said she is not interested in “being popular” on the council, but she’s determined to be fair.

“I don’t have much experience but I am here to try and figure it out and see where I can be a strength,” she said. “I want to learn and I want to do well for the city.”

The primary election is May 21. Tuesday, April 30, is the deadline to register to vote in the primary. Elections offices mail ballots starting May 1. For more election information, visit the Oregon Secretary of State’s election website at shorturl.at/hkAB0.