Editor’s note: This is the first part in a two-part series. The second part will detail the Sentinel’s talk with Sandy Brown.
SANTA CRUZ — With the new Santa Cruz City Council members taking their seats behind the dais Tuesday, former members Martine Watkins and Sandy Brown reflected on the highs and lows of their two terms in office which ended in December 2024.
“I have definitely grown tremendously as a person,” said Watkins. “The best part (of being on the City Council) was just connecting with the community. I have met so many amazing people serving Santa Cruz in so many different ways, doing such cool things. It was such a privilege.”
Watkins told the Sentinel that if you asked her mom, her passion for policy-making and local government stemmed from an innate sense of fairness and justice she had since she was a kid. Watkins planned on pursuing a career in law after she received a degree in legal studies from UC Santa Cruz. However, when the firm she worked for in the Bay Area took on a lawsuit against a children’s hospital, she decided to take a different career path.
“My thought was to try and change things with the legal process,” said Watkins. “But I didn’t particularly care for working in the legal field.”
After moving back to Santa Cruz from the Bay Area, Watkins took on an internship at the Santa Cruz County Office of Education where she heard about programs at the Panetta Institute for Public Policy and enrolled.
“He (Leon Panetta) would share stories about his time in Washington and he was so authentic and cool,” said Watkins. “He was real about how policy works and how to make it work.”
Following the guidance of Panetta, Watkins began serving on local nonprofit boards and commissions such as the city of Santa Cruz Commission for the Prevention of Violence Against Women. It was during the mid-2010s when Watkins, working for the County Office of Education and raising two daughters, was inspired to run for a seat on the Santa Cruz City Council.
“For me, running for City Council was a growth experience in that you have to really understand who you are and what you stand for because you’re asked about that, in terms of how you’re going to approach these big issues that affect people’s lives in the community,” said Watkins. “And so I had to hone in on, what do I really believe about that, and, how can I make change in this way, and what do I want to accomplish?”
Wherein many are inspired to run for office because they oppose an issue, person or project, Watkins said she ran to promote health and find ways to financially support families and childcare workers.
“Some people will run because they don’t like the library project or something specific,” said Watkins. “I didn’t come from that perspective at all. I wanted to get creative about how we’re influencing upstream investments in prevention and health and wellness, and do my best with all of the rest.”
When she began her first term, Watkins quickly learned where the rubber meets the road in terms of local politics and felt the pressure to strongly support or oppose certain issues.
“People want to know if you’re this or if you’re that — choose a box, basically — and I don’t like that,” said Watkins. “I know I pissed some people off with that. By saying I’m not going to just choose a box. I’m going to wait and see and learn.”
Watkins began her first term in December 2016 alongside Brown, who had been labeled a more progressive candidate and Watkins more moderate, which Watkins found strange as she considers herself very progressive. Both newcomers were included on a subcommittee to study housing issues in the city with then-Mayor Cynthia Chase.
“That was a great experience for me as a newer councilmember to be part of that conversation,” said Watkins. “Those first couple of years were all about learning.”
Later in her first term, Watkins served as vice mayor and then mayor, which was a challenging role for her as the city was facing heated issues at the time, such as housing costs and what to do with the unsanctioned homeless encampment known as the Ross Camp.
“(City Council) meetings were going on and on and on,” said Watkins. “There were lines of constituents angry about how we were handling the Ross Camp. It was an intense time for our community and it was really hard to watch some of the divides and the behaviors, frankly, that I would witness in the council chambers. That was overshadowed though by all the amazing things that people were doing in the community that you get to see as mayor.”
While mayor, Watkins was part of the subcommittee studying what would become the city’s Health in All Policies framework, which became an official city policy in November 2019 after it was adopted unanimously by the council.
“It helps us think about equity in terms of our priority setting and budget,” said Watkins. “It has heightened our awareness around our role of sustainability, heightened our awareness around equity and it shows how our decisions impact people’s health. I am really proud of that work.”
In 2017, the council established a fund to support young people in the community by setting aside a portion of the taxes collected from cannabis businesses, known as the Santa Cruz Children’s Fund. Watkins was one of the proponents of the ballot initiative known as Measure A, which was approved by voters in 2021 and made the Children’s Fund permanent.
“I’ve learned that what can be by council policy can go away by council policy,” said Watkins. “And so having it codified by voters to have that in place was really important to me and I wanted to see that through. It was part of my motivation to run again.”
Running for City Council in 2020 was vastly different from running in 2016, as candidates like Watkins were reluctant to walk neighborhoods and knock on people’s doors during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was a confusing and scary time,” said Watkins. “I wanted to see the Children’s Fund through and keep serving the community despite having some tough years in my first term. I stayed optimistic and I’m glad I did.”
In addition to the passage of the Santa Cruz Children’s Fund, another big win for Watkins during her second term was the decision by the California Third District Court of Appeals in 2023, where the court found that charter cities such as Santa Cruz cannot be financially penalized by the state for lawfully implementing a sugary-drink tax on residents.
In 2018, a sugary-drink tax ballot initiative, championed by Watkins and others, was approved by the Santa Cruz City Council to go to a vote by city residents. But the campaign was brought to an abrupt end when then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed the Keep Groceries Affordable Act into law months before the election.
The law prevents taxes on grocery items until 2031 and includes a penalty provision that would take away all of sales and use tax revenue from a city if it attempted to implement a grocery-related tax, such as a soda tax. In a March 2023 ruling, the California Third District Court of Appeals found the law to be unconstitutional, allowing Watkins and others to pursue the initiative a second time.
“To have it all play out so that it passed just at the end of my term, I was so stoked,” said Watkins. “I am really proud because it’s going to decrease people’s consumption. And I do think people are starting to talk about it in a different way. These sugary beverages are not good for you. And having $1.3 million invested into the community is awesome.”
Watkins said she does not plan on running for public office again, at least for the moment, as she focuses on her new role as the local government and business affairs senior manager at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. There, her political viewpoint has grown to include Santa Cruz, San Benito and Monterey counties.
“I can never not see myself wanting to make things better some way, somehow, so I’m sure I’ll find myself doing something else in public service again, but no plans at this time,” said Watkins. “My friend told me I have to take six months where I say no. She said, then you can think about what you want to do with your time. I have a tendency to say yes, though, so we’ll see.”
