Nate Miley, Jennifer Esteen to Debate in CV

Long-time Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley will square off against challenger Jennifer Esteen in a candidate debate on Saturday, January 20, at 10 a.m. at the First Presbyterian Church behind Trader Joe’s in Castro Valley. The candidates are vying for the Board of Supervisors District 4 seat, which Miley currently holds. 

District 4 includes Castro Valley, Fairview, parts of Oakland, Hayward, and Pleasanton, as well as the unincorporated areas of San Lorenzo, Ashland, and Cherryland. The race for this position will be decided with the March 5, 2024, ballot.

Miley was first elected to represent District 4 in 2000, has served six consecutive terms, and is the current board president. Earlier in his career, Miley served as an Oakland city council member.

Esteen is a registered nurse working in a psychiatric emergency unit who is a member of the Eden Area Municipal Advisory Council (MAC) and, until recently, was vice president of the Alameda Health System (AHS) board. Esteen campaigned two years ago for the California State Assembly District 20 seat, which Liz Ortega eventually won.

Esteen is focusing her run for Supervisor around the areas of housing, health care, jobs, and justice. 

“We need a different kind of county budget for those and for others as well to meet people’s needs,” Esteen told the Forum.

Miley says the county is dealing with multiple crises at once and making some progress against them, but residents may still feel overwhelmed. He cited the related but different problems of mental health, homelessness, and crime. 

“Public safety is a core responsibility of government. If we can’t guarantee that, we’re not doing our job,” Miley told the Forum. 

Both candidates agreed that responsibilities for people with mental health problems should fall less on the police and the Sheriff’s Office. They disagree, though, on how much of that care should take place at the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, where authorities confirm a large proportion of inmates there have a known mental health diagnosis.

Around housing, Esteen has supported expanding tenant protections to prevent displacement and homelessness, saying there is probably a slight majority of renters in Alameda County overall who need that help. Last year, Miley declined to expand tenant protections on the board but strongly advocates building more housing, including a Bay Area-wide housing bond to support housing for law enforcement, teachers and school staff, and staffers with community organizations.

Esteen says she would bring different kinds of experience to the board of supervisors than most candidates would. “I was a single mother who was foreclosed on and was facing bankruptcy in the Great Recession of 2008. I got public benefits so I could survive, found out just how high those barriers can be for people already under incredible pressure, then put myself through nursing school and became a psychiatric emergency nurse.”

Esteen says she gained expertise in overseeing a billion-dollar budget at the Alameda Health System and dealt hands-on with problems in the unincorporated areas through her work on the Eden Area MAC.

Miley says he has years of experience in dealing with all areas of county services and has partnered with local communities and governments. He cites the opening up of the Doctor’s Building and the Marketplace in Castro Valley, bringing a new fire station to Cherryland and a new community center to Ashland as examples. More housing was built in the unincorporated areas, and those areas also got $30 million in COVID relief funds to meet needs brought to the fore by the pandemic, he said.

Miley says he increased the influence of unincorporated area residents over their own lives by setting up two new MACs (Fairview and Eden). Miley said he’s ensured some county planning commissioners with power over the unincorporated areas also live in the unincorporated areas rather than the surrounding cities.

The First Presbyterian Church of Hayward is at 2490 Grove Way, near Redwood Road. Castro Valley Forum Managing Editor Michael Singer will moderate the debate.