Issues

Public Safety

As a 9-1-1 dispatcher and instructor for the Los Angeles Police Department, Norma has dedicated her career to public safety and making her community a better place to live.  She won the fight to require the hiring of bilingual 9-1-1 operators at the LAPD.  Passing California’s first ordinance regulating where convicted sex offenders could live, Norma helped keep these criminals away from schools.  She has imposed restrictions on gangs and is working to end the code of silence in crime-ridden neighborhoods.  As Mayor of Pomona, she reversed budget cuts and restored firefighting positions to ensure that shifts are fully staffed and ready to respond to emergency calls. 
As an Assembly Member, Norma’s priorities on public safety will be:

• Working to end the cycle of gang violence
• Keeping convicted sex offenders away from our schools and kids
• Getting parents involved in drug and gang prevention programs
• Ensuring that our police and firefighters have the equipment and training they need to protect our communities
• Working with local leaders to reduce drug use

The Economy

As a member of AFSCME Local 3090, Norma understands the challenges that working families face every day.  In the face of increased living costs and gas prices, she knows that good, well-paying jobs are crucial to the people of her district. 
As an Assembly Member, Norma’s priorities on the economy will be:

• Bringing quality jobs to the 61st District
• Boosting the minimum wage to a real living wage
• Increasing job training and support programs
• Aiding low income families purchase their own homes
• Promoting growth California’s green economy to bring new jobs to Southern California

Education

As the mother of three boys, Norma knows that in order to compete in today’s global economy, kids need a first class education.  Nothing is more important to the families of Norma’s district than their children’s schooling.  At the core of that schooling are the teachers in front of each classroom.  From teacher training to increased per pupil spending to school safety, education will be at the top of Norma’s Agenda as a member of the Assembly.

As an Assembly Member, Norma’s priorities on education will be:

• Raising teacher salaries
• Maintaining Prop 98 funding levels and ensuring full funding for our schools
• Recruiting more young people to enter the teaching profession
• Increasing per pupil spending
• Fully funding after school and mentoring programs for our children

Health Care

Norma is a proponent of universal health coverage and believes that every individual has a right to affordable care.  With the cost of coverage rising every year, more and more individuals are finding that they cannot afford health insurance while fewer businesses are able to provide it for their workers.  Coupled with the lack of hospitals and primary care facilities in many urban centers, lack of coverage represents a genuine crisis to families when faced with illness. 

As an Assembly Member, Norma’s priorities on health care will be:

• Increasing the number of trauma centers and health care facilities
• Working to make prescription drugs affordable
• Developing additional wellness and nutrition programs for our seniors
• Fighting to contain health care costs
• Ensuring that workers do not lose their health insurance when they change jobs
• Restoring funding for the Healthy Services Program

The Environment

Norma believes that we have a moral obligation to our children to leave our planet in better shape than it is now.  Norma knows that the quality of our air and water directly affects day-to-day life for the residents of the 61st District. With five freeways running through the 61st District (10, 210, 57, 71, and 60), the effects on air quality are enormous.   Childhood asthma and other ailments are rampant in urban life.   As the next Assembly Member from the 61st, she will fight to see that the legacy of a cleaner environment is one that this generation passes on to the next. 

As an Assembly Member, Norma’s priorities on the environment will be:

• Fighting air pollution and decreasing incidences of childhood asthma
• Making sure that drinking water is clean and safe
• Increasing funds for toxic waste clean up
• Keeping toys and other imports with toxic materials out of California
• Decreasing traffic through highway expansion and increased public transit

Transportation 

Norma knows that severe traffic and congestion have a dramatic and detrimental impact on the quality of life of the residents of the 61st District.  In Sacramento, Norma will take strides to minimize the congestion that pollutes our air and detracts from time families have to spend with each other.

As Assembly Member, Norma’s priorities on transportation will be:

• Improving public transportation by making it more                  affordable, accessible and of higher quality
• Expediting construction of the 71 freeway
• Expanding the 60 freeway to the Inland Valley
• Increasing the number of HOV lanes on the 60 and other major freeways