City Council Candidate Spotlight: John Hamon
Editor’s note: This is the fourth and final story in a series of spotlights for all candidates running for Paso Robles City Council.
Councilman John Hamon runs for a fourth and final term
John Hamon.
—Paso Robles City Council member John Hamon is running for his fourth and final term in the upcoming November election. Hamon grew up in Lompoc and came to Paso Robles after graduating Cal Poly’s School of Industrial Technology with a Bachelors of Arts Degree in 1976.
Hamon’s long list of community involvement includes volunteering with Boy Scouts and the Fire Department (almost 20 years ranking as Captain), he participates in the Chamber of Commerce, he is President of the Paso Rotary Club, on the Board of Directors with the Paso Robles Children’s Museum, Industrial Technology Advisory Board for Cal Poly’s Orfalea College of Business, and Airport Advisory Board, and he and his wife were named ‘Paso Roblans of the Year’ in 2015.
Hamon shared, “Some people run for City Council with no tools on board, or they have an agenda. Everyone knows who I am, and I’ve always been visible, especially from my business, Hamon Overhead Door Company. Through Rotary, Elks, Boy Scouts, everyone knows me, and people seek me out.”
He added, “I listen to the public and our staff and laws, understand the issues at hand, and can make decisions to fit with Paso Robles. I encourage people to come to the meetings, and feel it is important for me to make it right for everybody, and try my hardest to do the best for our city.”
Hamon continued, “I work closely with our city staff to make sure they follow our directions. The City Council needs people with history, and knowledge of the area. I would also love to see more public involvement at the meetings because we put the time in as councilmen, and we really want to hear from the public. There are usually about five to six passionate people who show up to meetings, and we listen to a lot of people. Rotary, elks, everyone tells me what they want to see or hear, and how they feel. I carry questions back to City Council.”
“I want to continue managing the basics that all Roblans expect in our city, and that is police, fire, sewer, and water,” said Hamon. “These are what we need to always have available and fully staffed. I am strong on law enforcement from visitors using our vacation rentals, to aliens here illegally. I will continue our support of our emergency services/fire department and getting our response times to people in need faster with better equipment.
“We need to continue to repair our 125+-year-old city’s infrastructure, and our streets, buildings, parks, and libraries need further investment. I also want to continue to manage every penny of our 1/2 cent sales tax directly back into our streets as promised for or the past six years. The public has to vote it in or not, and all the money goes to improving our streets.”
Hamon is concerned with the lack of funding for street repairs and overall maintenance and taking care of the city is his top priority. He feels that Paso Robles is a safe home, and wants to make sure we plan for population growth accordingly.
“I want to protect our more than adequate water resources from both state government and county residents.” Hamon says, “Most people are under the impression that we don’t have enough water. It simply isn’t accurate. We have excess water, and the council has planned very well. The state put a lot of restrictions on water and the city has planned accordingly. Sacramento is trying to get a change of mind about water usage, and trying to conserve it.”
At the end of the day, Hamon says that he wants to continue to manage and support new growth and strong economic development, encouraging new industries to invest in Paso Robles, and create higher paying head of household jobs. He expressed, “I don’t want issues to go sideways because of inexperience, I represent all over the Central Coast on many issues in the county, and I don’t feel comfortable retiring just yet.”
-Cassandra Frey
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