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Hector Sosa Newsletter — November 9, 2026
📬 Councilmember Hector Sosa | District 2, Downey | November 9, 2026
Good Morning, Downey,
Thank you. Every other word in this edition comes second to those two. On Tuesday, the voters of District 2 entrusted me with a second term on your City Council, and I do not take a single ballot of it for granted. My first thank-you belongs at home, to Daisy, Lucas, and Joshua, who share every late meeting and every missed dinner that comes with this seat. My second belongs to you. Whether you voted for me, for someone else, or are still deciding what to make of all of us, I work for you, and the proof will be in the weeks of updates ahead, starting with this one. It was a full week beyond the ballot box too: a hard goodbye to a beloved city employee, a Vikings season that went down to the final seconds, and a Veterans Day ceremony on deck. Here is this week's rundown.
🚨 Public Safety
🔹 Safety Was on Every Ballot: The Downey Patriot's election coverage made an observation worth repeating: the winning campaigns in both districts ran on public safety and fiscal accountability. I read that as an assignment, not an applause line. The late-night security effort in Downtown Downey continues with Downey PD, city leadership, and downtown businesses at the table, the expanded overnight park patrols the Council approved last month will be feeding incident data back to the city so schedules can adjust to conditions, and identifying ways to reduce speeding on our residential streets remains one of the initiatives I ran on. Twice now.
→ 🎯 My take: A vote is a loan of trust, not a gift of it. Repayment starts immediately, and public safety is the first installment. These items will keep appearing in this section until the results speak for themselves.
👉 Visit the Downey Police Department page
💰 Budget & Finance
🔹 Fourteen Straight Balanced Budgets Is a Streak Worth Protecting: As chair of the Council's budget subcommittee, I spent the campaign talking about Downey's 14 consecutive balanced budgets, and now comes the part that matters: protecting the streak while operating costs keep climbing. My second-term priorities here are unchanged. Maintain healthy reserves, scrutinize spending line by line, and fund essential services first.
→ 💡 What this means: The streak is not the goal; the services it protects are. A balanced budget is what allows a city of 113,000 to run its own police department, fire department, library, and recreation programs without gimmicks. Every financial report that reaches the Council arrives through a posted agenda, in English and Spanish, before we vote, so you can follow the same numbers I do.
👉 View agendas and city documents
💼 Economic Development & Local Business
🔹 Housing, Parking Tickets, and Yes, the Trader Joe's Question: Just before Election Day, the Patriot published my conversation with Jorge Somoano and Greg Page, who won the paper's Editor for a Day experience at its gala last month and came armed with sharper questions than I hear at most podiums. We dug into how Downey absorbs the housing Sacramento requires without shortchanging public safety and public works, the tiered permit fee structure that lowers startup costs for small businesses, my request for a review of our tree canopy, and whether a parking ticket that already runs about $38 should cost more. My answer on that last one: not arbitrarily. Enforcement costs and actual compliance should drive that discussion, not a hunt for revenue.
→ 🎯 My take on Trader Joe's: Sites have been looked at, including the Rite Aid property at Firestone and Rives, and parking requirements have been the sticking point. The company knows exactly how much this city wants them. The decision is theirs. Our job is to keep building a Downey worth choosing, and if they ever do arrive, I promise we will immediately find something new to wish for.
👉 Read my conversation with the Patriot
🔹 One More Vote, Cast on Thursday: This one was for lunch: a truly excellent panini and an iced espresso at one of our local spots. Creating support for small businesses is one of my core initiatives, and the simplest version of that work fits on a receipt. Spend local when you can. It compounds.
👉 See my lunch stop (Instagram)
🤝 Community
🔹 Thank You, District 2: The count remains unofficial, but the direction is clear: 2,655 of my neighbors, 61.63 percent, chose to send me back to work, and I am humbled by it. In District 4, congratulations to Carrie Uva, who earned 48.74 percent in a three-candidate field and will step up from the Planning Commission to the seat Mayor Frometa has held with distinction for eight years. I am grateful to the Mayor for her generous words on election night, and I want to thank Maria Zaragoza, Lissette Rivera, and Martha Camacho Rodriguez for competing. Putting your name on a ballot takes real courage, and this city is better when good people step forward to serve it.
→ 🎯 My promise: Downey's elections are nonpartisan, and I intend to govern that way. If your ballot carried another name, my door is open exactly as wide. Bring me your potholes, your ideas, and your disagreements.
👉 Read the Patriot's election coverage
🔹 Remembering William Craig: Downey lost one of its own last week. William Craig, a Public Works employee who died unexpectedly at 47, was the familiar face picking up trash downtown and caring for our parks and public facilities, and an honorary board member of Downey Ponytail for more than two decades. The tributes from colleagues, friends, and community leaders all land on the same word: heart. I have said before that our public works employees are this city's unsung heroes, and William embodied that truth every single day. My deepest condolences to his family, his Public Works colleagues, and everyone who loved him. Downey will not be the same without you, William.
👉 Read the Patriot's tribute to William
🔹 A Season Worth Tipping Our Helmets To: The Downey High Vikings took the Gateway League title game down to the final 30 seconds before falling 20-14 to La Serna, closing league play at 4-1 and earning a home game in the CIF playoffs. I spent fifteen years coaching Downey kids in Little League and DJAA, so trust me on this: the scoreboard is the least durable thing a season produces. The discipline, the teamwork, and a blocked punt carried in for a touchdown? Those stick. Congratulations on a strong season, Vikings.
👉 Read the Patriot's game recap
📅 Coming Up
🔹 🏛️ Next Regular City Council Meeting: Tomorrow, Tuesday, November 10: 6:30 PM, Council Chambers, Downey City Hall, 11111 Brookshire Avenue. The first regular meeting since the election, and your input is as welcome as ever. The agenda posts ahead of time, in English and Spanish.
👉 View agendas and city documents
🔹 🎖️ Veterans Day Ceremony: Wednesday, November 11: 10:00 to 11:00 AM at the Columbia Memorial Space Center, 12400 Columbia Way. Honoring service in the building that carries Downey's aerospace legacy feels exactly right. Our veterans carried a weight most of us will never fully understand, and one hour of our morning is a small way to say so. If you know a veteran, bring them along, or at least thank them in person.
🔹 🍕 Downey Conservancy Fundraiser: Thursday, November 12: 3:00 to 9:00 PM at Pina Pizza House. Dinner that does double duty for a local cause, served by a local business. That is a very Downey combination.
🔹 🥕 Downey Farmers Market: Saturday, November 14: 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM at La Reina Avenue and 2nd Street. Fall produce is in full swing, and so are the tamale debates.
🔹 🧹 Keep Downey Beautiful Cleanup: Saturday, November 14: 9:00 to 10:00 AM at Golden Park, 8840 Golden Avenue. Students can earn volunteer hours, and volunteers under 16 should bring an adult. Arrive a few minutes early to check in.
🔹 👑 Miss California Pageant: Sunday, November 22: 5:00 PM at the Downey Theatre, 8435 Firestone Boulevard. Another big stage moment for our city's theatre.
📱 Stay Connected
Got a pothole to report, graffiti to flag, or a service request to submit? The Downey Connect App is the fastest, most direct path to getting things done. Available for both Apple and Android.
👉 Download the Downey Connect App
Follow me on Instagram and Facebook for more real-time updates, event highlights, and a look at what I am working on between newsletters.
Campaigns end fast; the work never does. The signs are already coming down, and what remains is tomorrow night's agenda, a 10:00 AM ceremony for our veterans on Wednesday, and a cleanup crew gathering at Golden Park on Saturday morning. That is the real calendar of a city, and it has room for you on it. Thank you for the trust you placed in me this week. I intend to earn it twice over: once for those who voted for me, and once for those who did not.
Questions, concerns, or ideas? Hit reply. I read every message.
Together, we're building a community that works for everyone. Thank you for staying connected!
Hector Sosa
Councilmember, City of Downey
