As a Member of the Arizona State House, Patty Contreras wants to Work and Deliver for the People in LD 12

Arizona Legislative District 12 State Representative Candidate Patty Contreras

Patty Contreras has worked for the public for over 30 years.

A former public servant at both the Human Services and Parks and Recreation Department for the City of Phoenix, Ms. Contreras wants to continue to work for the public good.

As a member of the Arizona State House Representatives in the new Legislative District (LD) 12.

Running on the issues of fully funding education, helping senior citizens and veterans, combatting climate change, and protecting Arizona’s water supply, Ms. Contreras’ love of the Grand Canyon State and the people in it are what would drive her to work and deliver forward directed legislation for them.

Ms. Contreras graciously took the time to interview with Blog for Arizona to discuss her candidacy for the Arizona State House.

The questions and her responses are below.

  • What are at least two reasons you want to run for a term for the Arizona State Legislature in the new LD 12?

“First off, I want to say that I love this state. I am an Arizona native and my family has been in Arizona over a hundred years. I love the diversity of this state, we have a diverse population and climate, and our flora and fauna are some of the most diverse in the country. My love of the state is the primary reason that I want to continue in public service.”

“I want to promote growth in Arizona. I want to work for the people of Arizona to help them achieve all that they can whether it is a good job, education, or home; just help them to achieve all they can. I also want to promote businesses and help people get good paying jobs here in the state.”

“We also need fair wages and to promote safety and equality for everyone. That’s why I’m running for office.”

  • What are at least two reasons voters should elect you over any opponent in the election.

“I just retired from working with city government which gave me an opportunity to work in public service for over 30 years.”

“I know a lot of the ins and outs of working with people, collaborating with different entities, working on budgets that are based on tax dollars. When you’re working in the public sector, you know you can’t just tax and spend. We have to be good stewards of  public tax funds. We need to make sure that whatever our budgets look like, that they reflect what the public wants.”

“I also have a passion for working with people. My jobs with the city of Phoenix were in Parks and Recreation and in Human Services. My career was always about giving back to citizens by providing services.

“To me it’s always about giving back to the community; that’s always been my mantra. It’s never been for me. It’s for the people. That’s really my passion: working with people and making sure that we get services for them.”

“When I was with human services, I ran senior centers and was able to provide, not only meals, transportation, and recreational activities for seniors, but we also provided opportunities for seniors to receive social work referrals so they could improve their lives and continue to live in their homes.”

“So, working with and for people is really my passion. And that’s why I should be elected.”

  • If elected, what are at least four issues you will focus on in the State Legislature?

“It’s hard to nail down just four things because there are a lot of areas that need work in this state. One is of course public schools and public education. I have two younger sisters that are teachers and one left the state because the pay was better in a different state than it is here.”

“My other sister works here in the Roosevelt School District. She has a passion for teaching. I wish that the State Legislature would recognize the importance of teachers and the need to pay them a fair wage and have money for supplies and other educational items in their classrooms. I’ve heard that some schools have ceilings falling on their students. We really need to put an emphasis on public education and getting the infrastructure improved or build new schools. We need better wages for paraprofessionals; the people helping out in the schools and helping teachers. We need more school counselors, social workers, nurses, and librarians. We need bus drivers that will get paid better than minimum wage.”

“The state has let our schools slide quite a bit in the last few years. We’re at the bottom of the list in all categories, including how much money is spent per student, and how much teachers get paid. I want to help get public schools fully funded.”

“The second issue is to make is easier and safer for seniors to age in place; this means making resources and programs available to seniors have the opportunity to stay in their home as long as possible. For example, if a senior or a person with a disability needs a caregiver, that the caregiver coming into their home is trained, has gone through a background check, is not going to take advantage of them, and they know how to handle the senior properly with whatever they need.”

“We want them to stay in their home as long possible and where they are most comfortable, right?”

“We need to make sure that in home care gets licensed and staff are certified. We need to pay decent wages to those who are taking care of our elders, such as certified nursing assistants (CNA’s). They get paid minimum wage at a lot of places and they have a lot classes to take to get trained. A CNA needs training on first aid, CPR and on how to properly lift or move people. I want to pass legislation that will ensure seniors get the services that they need so they can grow old with dignity, preferably in their own homes.”

“The third thing is the environment including water and climate change.”

“I grew up here in Arizona. I have seen a lot of changes over the course of the years. Thirty years ago, we could watch big thunderstorms coming in and they were fun to see rolling in. We could pretty much count on them coming in at certain times of the day.”

“Nowadays, our summers are so unpredictable, I believe we had over 50 days over 110 degrees last summer. I don’t know how we can sustain that.”

“Obviously, we have air conditioning, but to get back to the seniors, some of them don’t have air conditioning in their homes and some seniors find it hard to pay their electricity bills during the summer time. So that’s an issue with them too.”

“We could do things like more shade. The City of Phoenix is doing a good job trying to plant more trees in the city.” “A state legislator has proposed more trees in the school yards. I think that’s a great idea.”

“As a legislator, I want to bring everybody to the table (our tribal nations, ranchers, farmers, businesses, homebuilders) and talk about what we can do to preserve our water resources. For instance, finding out what is going on with water we are currently using. This would include measuring water we have in our aquifers right now and how much we’re taking out. As far as I know, this isn’t being done in a systematic manner throughout the state. Once we know how much water we have and how much is being used, then we can better plan for the future.”

“If we don’t make plans to care for water resources that we have right now, the supply of water is going to be a really severe problem in the future.”

“I’m also interested in helping our veterans. My dad was a veteran and was in the army for a couple of years during the Korean Conflict.”

“What I see happening with our veterans right now is terrible. We really need to provide veterans with more services. They’ve given their lives and limbs for us and to let them sleep on the street and not have access to decent healthcare, or transportation, or good paying jobs, is wrong.”

“There are veterans who are also dealing with mental health issues which need to be addressed. If we need more mental health counselors to help our veterans, then let’s get more mental health counselors.”

“Veterans need wraparound services so they can transition back into civilian life, get a job, have a family, and be productive.”

Are you for expanding Kids Care?

“Yes.”

Are you for Universal Pre-Kindergarten?

“Yes. Kids need a jumpstart into school and to be ready to learn. Youngsters need to learn how to socialize at an early age and to start learning to work together so that when they get to school, they’re ready to learn. We also need smaller classrooms, by the way.”

Are you for funding the police?

“Yes, police departments obviously need to be funded but money needs to be budgeted differently. For instance, there needs to be better training for our police officers. We need diversity training so that police officers understand that just because we’re a different color, we’re still people and should be treated with respect.”

If a member of legislature you’re going to vote to protect voter rights?

“Yes. Most definitely. I have been a voter protection volunteer. I have volunteered to go out and make sure people know what their rights are when they go vote.”

“I was also a poll observer as a volunteer. This involves  going into the polls and making sure that the poll workers are doing what they’re supposed to do and allowing people to vote if they are eligible. I’ve done this or voter protection every election for the last 15 years.”

“It’s very important to me that poll workers and voters understand that everybody who’s eligible should get to vote. If someone is confused because they didn’t change their address, either you help the person figure out where they need to go vote or you help the poll workers understand that they can still vote depending on what kind of documentation they give them.”

Are you for a secure border along with common sense immigration reform?

“Definitely. It’s a tough situation and we need to treat people humanely. That’s the bottom line. We need to treat people humanely.”

“There used to be a Bracero program back in the 1940s where Mexican farm workers would come across the border to work in Arizona for a little while and then they would go back to Mexico. These folks who come and work in the fields are hard workers. We don’t see Americans busting down the doors to get these jobs. The people that are busting down the doors are coming across the border because they want to work.”

“But when they come here, we need to treat them fairly and pay them fairly. It would be best to ensure they’re legal workers. One way to do that is to provide a program that would allow farmworkers to come across the border to work and then be allowed to go home after the season. They don’t want to come here and necessarily stay here; they have family back in Mexico or other countries, so they want to go back to their country to be with their families until it is time to work again.”

  • Is there anything that covered in the first three questions that you’d like to know the readers to know about you or your candidacy?

“Like I said earlier, my family has been in this state for over a hundred years.”

“I went to the public schools here in Arizona, to the public universities, NAU and ASU.  I really have a passion for working with people and just really love the state and have always really wanted to do something to give back to the Arizona residents. I have done that in my communities, through my work, but this would be giving back on a larger scale.”

“It would be an honor to represent our constituents here in LD 12 where I have lived for the last 30+ years. I also have an affinity for residents of the entire state and feel that I could represent them, too. Having grown up in a rural area I understand the needs and complexities of our Arizona rural communities. I really think that somebody like me is needed at the state legislature.”

Please click on the below social media sites for more information about Patty Contreras and her campaign for the Arizona State House in the new LD 12.

https://contrerasforaz.com

https://www.facebook.com/Pattycontrerasforaz

https://www.instagram.com/patty_contreras_az

Twitter:  @P_ContrerasAZ