Council Candidate: "I Always Put the City First"

The South San Francisco city council election is Tuesday. To see what the other candidates had to say to the same questions, see previously published questionnaires from and .

Name: Johnny "Midnight" Rankins

Age: 64

Occupation: Retired arborist and entertainer

How long have you lived in South San Francisco?

Moved here two years ago after working here for 26 years.

Why are you running for office?

Because I see things going bad here since retiring, things like the quality of safety going down. We need a committee that's appropriate to be watching the council to be making the right decisions.

What previous public offices and community leadership positions have you held?

I was the lead of the tree crew for South City for several years, although they never paid me for it.

What in your experience best prepares you to serve on the city council?

I have good ideas because I worked here for 26 years and I saw how South City took care of the people, more, in the past than they do now.

What will you do to improve downtown and bring in more businesses that appeal to consumers (question submitted by reader Cynthia Arias)?

To help improve downtown I would like to bring back the Art and Wine Festival. I would like to use the white building on the corner of Grand and Linden to show art and the history of South San Francisco. 

Reader Marcy Escobar asks why the city continues planning building projects when some apartments and businesses are vacant? More generally, how do you respond to criticisms of development plans such as the El Camino Real/Chestnut Avenue Area General Plan? How do you square concern from some residents about development with the city’s requirement to provide more housing?

You think it will provide housing, but for who? That's what I'd like to know. I would want to be in the meetings to find out what the general plan is and get back to people with concerns.

Many surrounding areas have renovated Safeway stores, but locations in South San Francisco are “a disgrace,” according to reader Melissa Yoshida. What, if anything, will you do get encourage Safeway to improve its local stores?

Take pictures of the other stores, then take pictures of the ones in South City and show them to Safeway. The city should make them come up to par, come up to standard. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

City leaders and police officers pledged to try to reduce violent crime after last December’s fatal shooting, but just last month a 14-year-old boy was shot and killed on First Lane. Have the additional officers on the police force and new Old Town substation paid for from city reserve funds been successful at curbing violence? What more will you do to address this problem? What do you say to residents who argue that more funds should be committed to youth programming?

Get people to take care of this. They should know the people in their neighborhood. Work with the police. The police can't do it alone. The council should be working with the people in the neighborhoods, too. Walk through the neighborhoods. The council's got to be accountable, too. Open more things for the teens to keep them off the streets.

South San Francisco currently has a voluntary ban on plastic bags, discouraging their use at large retail stores. Would you support a more general, countywide ban on plastic bags, as has been recently proposed?

South City is different—no barbed wire is used here on the fences. Each city has their own rules. Other cities might need them right now. You have to look at what is the reason for the ban. What about having a regular Bay clean-up? I say let them get their own back yard straightened out.

What, if anything, do you think the city of South San Francisco should do to encourage the biotech and clean technology industries?

I'd have to see what they need. I need to do research on this. At least let's be polite.

In your opinion, what is the most crucial budget issue the city faces, and what would you do about the problem?

The hiring of part-timers. It's hard to get the right work out of part-timers. Hiring contractors, they take the lowest bid on the contractors and then they pay managers top dollar. I want to investigate the use of redevelopment money, the general fund and the reserves.

What’s something that voters don’t know about you?

I always put the city first and me second.