Election Day is November 3rd — make your plan to vote
Pauline JohnsonFor Pittsburg
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The full platform

The change Pittsburg needs.

Four priorities, the problem behind each one, and exactly what I'll push for on the council.

01 · Stop the data center

No data center near homes, schools, and churches.

The problem

  • This is the wrong project in the wrong place. It's only 500 feet away from our homes, a school, and a church.
  • The process to approve the data center was tainted from the start, with minimal transparency.
  • A "technology park" is not a hyperscale data center.
  • This isn't a fringe position: a March 2026 Gallup survey found 71% of those surveyed oppose a data center built near their home, across party lines.

What I'll push for

  • This project

    Fight every phase, by every legitimate means available

    • Phase I hasn't broken ground, permits aren't finalized, and construction hasn't started. I'm not looking for better terms on it. I'm fighting to stop it, at the Air District, on the public record, and by pushing to reexamine the approval.
    • If it still gets built despite that fight, I will not let us be told to just live with whatever risk a developer's own paperwork says is acceptable. I'll push the city to enforce every emissions, noise, and water condition it can.

  • The next one

    A ballot measure, so residents decide directly

    • A moratorium on every future data center application — Phase II, Phase III, and any new application from any developer, effective immediately. Not conditions, not concessions: no new data centers in Pittsburg while residents decide.
    • I'll push for a ballot measure that puts the decision to voters, directly. Not the council. Not staff. Not developers.

My commitment

I will fight this data center as hard as I can. These are our homes, our air, our health, and our kids' schools. Not a line item in somebody else's business plan.

See sources & evidence+

02 · Transparency and inclusion

No backroom deals. Resident input shapes our city.

The problem

  • The city signed a negotiation agreement with a data center developer in 2017, closed the golf course in 2018, and only afterward sent residents a survey asking what we wanted for the land, but the outcome was already locked in.
  • Meetings move fast, use dense procedural language, and aren't translated, so residents who don't speak English fluently are locked out entirely.
  • The data center passed 5-0 under a name nobody recognized.

What I'll push for

  • Access

    Make decisions understandable, not just available

    • Translation at every major decision and meeting.
    • Plain-language summaries, published before and after, so we can follow what's discussed and decided.
    • Project names that are accurate.

  • Input

    Your input, incorporated

    • Quarterly pulse surveys, in the languages our community speaks, offered both online and in person at events residents already attend, plus ad hoc surveys for urgent issues like the data center, so we weigh in while decisions are still being made.

  • Accountability

    Closing the gap is the city's job, not ours

    • Track civic engagement and survey participation against the city's voting population. If turnout is low or skewed, especially among underserved communities, I'll push the city to close that gap, not just move on.

My commitment

I will not vote for anything I would not be willing to explain, in plain language, at a kitchen table on my street. If a decision can't survive being explained in public beforehand, it shouldn't pass.

See sources & evidence+

03 · Fiscal accountability

Stop making residents pay for the city's carelessness.

The problem

  • Dream Courts was agreed at about $3 million and now costs $13.79 million, while the skate plaza, the pump track, and arts funding were cut to help close the resulting gap.
  • The city fell for a phishing scam and wired almost $1 million to scammers impersonating Discovery Builders — no one verified the request, and no one noticed the money was gone for five days.
  • City council found money in the general fund for a new display sign, but not to keep the library open on Mondays. That's a choice, not a shortfall.

What I'll push for

  • Face it

    A full audit of how we got here

    • A comprehensive, independent audit of the entire budget: revenue streams, budget allocations, and funding decisions, line by line.

  • Visibility

    A real-time public budget dashboard

    • Reserve balances, project-by-project spending, and revenue sources, checkable any day.

  • Discipline

    A known floor, and accurate numbers up front

    • A published minimum reserve balance the city commits to, so every draw has to be justified against a known floor.
    • Independent cost estimates before approval, and any overrun past a set threshold goes back to council in public, not a staff memo.

  • Protection

    Catch fraud before the money leaves

    • Real-time tracking on every transaction, not just project budgets, with automatic holds on payments to new or changed vendor accounts — flagged and blocked as it happens, not noticed five days later.

  • Priorities

    Core services come before discretionary extras

    • Before any core service, like library hours, is cut or reduced, the council should have to show why an already-budgeted discretionary item, like a display sign, wasn't clawed back and redirected first.

My commitment

This is not about one project. It's about rebuilding trust in how our city handles our money, with real rules that hold us accountable.

See sources & evidence+

04 · Business and development

Economic and community growth Pittsburg actually needs.

The problem

  • A long-time business spent 9 months just to get approval to add restrooms, with no change to the building's exterior, while a hyperscale data center sailed through 500 feet away from homes.
  • The city approves projects one at a time with no plan for how they fit together — rezoning neighborhoods with no industrial history, and putting a data center right next to a youth soccer field.
  • The data center and the basketball barn went up right behind homes with no regard for residents — now living with the noise, the air, and a wall where their view of the golden hills used to be.
  • The businesses residents actually want and need aren't here, so we spend our money in other cities instead.

What I'll push for

  • Diagnosis

    A retail & dining leakage study

    • Identify which spending categories are leaving for nearby cities so we have data-driven, targeted recruitment.

  • Plan

    A real, public plan for cohesive development

    • Public, readable land-use plan with real community review, so we have a say before neighborhood-altering changes like this happen, not after.
    • Real setback, height, and screening standards, plus zoning protections that keep industrial-scale uses out of areas with no industrial history.

  • Standards

    Score every project on jobs-per-acre and local hiring

    • Future development scored on jobs-per-acre, Pittsburg-local hiring commitments, and union jobs.

  • Retention

    Make it easier to open, and easier to stay

    • Remove local obstacles for small businesses, especially permitting delays and high city fees, and build real business retention, not just recruitment.
    • A real retention strategy: scheduled check-ins and a point of contact who can offer fee relief, permitting help, or financing connections, before a struggling business is forced to close.

  • Resilience

    Diversify the tax base so one bad sector doesn't bust the budget

    • Actively recruit outside our historic reliance on heavy industry, so a downturn in one sector doesn't force cuts to libraries, parks, and public safety.

My commitment

Pittsburg deserves a real plan for how development fits together, and growth that creates real jobs, so we can work, eat, and shop in the city we actually live in.

See sources & evidence+

This only changes if enough of us show up.

Join the campaign fighting for open books, honest notice, and a real plan for Pittsburg.

Run with us!

Volunteer, get yard signs, host house meetings, and donate.

Pauline JohnsonFor Pittsburg

A grassroots campaign for Pittsburg City Council. By the people, for the people.

© 2026

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