Emily Francis, a current city council member, announced her reelection for city council on May 17 at The Bunker. Francis is one of the three candidates running for the two city council seats up for election in November.
“We’re making some real progress on addressing homelessness and building out our park infrastructure,” Francis said. “ I would just love to see those things all the way through, particularly since about four years in, you start to get a real handle on the rhythms of how this all works, and you get more and more efficient at being able to get things done.”
Current council member Michelle Shoresman and Felicia Lewis, a private chef, are also running for San Luis Obispo city council on Nov. 3.
READ MORE: Shoresman announces reelection plans for SLO city council
Francis currently serves as vice mayor on the city council. The city council appoints their vice mayor, and she fills in for events where the mayor cannot attend, according to Francis. She has served on council since she was elected in 2022.
“It’s this amazing experience of getting really into the weeds on so many different issues and having a chance to shape what you want the future of the community to look like,” Francis said.
One of her goals for the next term is to ensure safe and affordable housing.
“I’ve been really excited by the creation and energy of the SLO Tenants Union and would love to help realize some of our shared goals, of ensuring that housing is stable and safe for all members of our community,” Francis said.
San Luis Obispo will transition to a single-vote system for the November election. Each voter will only get one vote for a candidate, and the two winners will head to city council. In the past, each voter got two votes, allowing incumbents to support each other.
“We are going to be experimenting with this for two election cycles, so this one coming up and then the one afterwards,” Francis said. “Both sides will be evaluating our data and the outcomes and hopefully finding out that this was a reasonable solution to have the most representative council we possibly can. That’s the goal.”
