Chula Vista has been the fixed point in Steve Padilla’s public life: Bonita Vista High School, the police department, city boards, the council and the mayor’s office. Now serving in the California State Senate, he came to Sacramento after holding local office, losing it and returning to it. His record runs through the institutions that govern growth, public safety, city finances and the coast. It also includes two firsts in Chula Vista politics: the first Latino elected to the City Council and the first openly gay elected city official. The Senate office is the latest assignment in a career spent moving between elected office and appointed boards.
ROOTS AND THE JOB BEFORE THE JOB
Born in 1967 to a Mexican father and Portuguese mother, Padilla lost his father after he returned from a deployment in the Vietnam War and was killed in an automobile accident. His mother bought a home in Chula Vista, raised the family there and later remarried. Padilla went through the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts and became involved with the Chula Vista Explorer Scouts.
After Bonita Vista High School, he became the youngest cadet accepted into the Southwestern Police Academy. He spent thirteen years as a police officer, specializing as a detective in domestic violence and child abuse, and served as president of the Chula Vista Police Officers Association. While on the force, he earned a bachelor’s degree in public administration. The City Council appointed him to boards and commissions, including the Board of Ethics and Safety Commission. He also worked as a substitute teacher in the Sweetwater Union High School District.
CITY HALL, DEFEAT AND RETURN
Padilla won a City Council seat in 1994, becoming the first person of Latino descent elected to the Chula Vista City Council, and won reelection in 1998. He contributed to the city’s prohibition on machine tobacco sales and led a change to two-year budget planning. He also served for a time as deputy mayor.
Term limits prevented another consecutive council run in 2002. Instead, Padilla defeated fellow council member Mary Salas and was elected Chula Vista’s 38th mayor on November 5, 2002. He proposed requiring developers to pay for roads and public services before their projects received approval and proposed a unified school district within the city. As mayor, he launched a Give a Book drive that donated more than 100,000 books to underprivileged children in San Diego County.
In August 2005, at the Stonewall Rally of San Diego Pride, Padilla publicly acknowledged that he was gay. He had come out privately to his family in 1999, separated from his wife around that time and later received sole custody of their daughter, Ashleigh. He became Chula Vista’s first openly gay elected city official.
Padilla lost the 2006 mayoral election to Cheryl Cox with 45.76% of the vote. His next council campaign, in 2014, ended in a loss by two votes out of nearly 39,000 cast. He ran for a different council seat in 2016 and won, then won reelection in 2020. That March, he tested positive for COVID-19 and later entered an intensive care unit.
THE POLICY SIGNATURE
Padilla’s policymaking record is rooted in the machinery of local government: ordinances, budget calendars, development conditions, schools, parks and appointed commissions. On the council, that meant restricting tobacco sales and moving Chula Vista to two-year budget cycles. In his mayoral campaign and tenure, it meant asking developers to cover roads and public services before project approval, proposing a citywide unified school district and directing books to children across San Diego County. His stated priorities for a second mayoral term included reducing traffic and improving parks and education.
The other durable part of the record is the California Coastal Commission. Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez appointed Padilla in July 2005. He was appointed again on May 31, 2017, later served as vice-chair and now serves as chair of the California Coastal Commission. The mechanism of his career has been both elective and appointive: winning votes in Chula Vista, taking seats on boards and commissions, and returning after defeats.
The interests most consistently named in that record are city residents who depend on roads, parks, schools and public services; children, including those reached by the book drive; and communities affected by development decisions. Public safety appears not as a late-added issue but as the work he did before office and the city responsibilities he continued to carry once elected.
- State Senate · Senate District 18 · 2022–present
Chula Vista has been the fixed point in Steve Padilla’s public life: Bonita Vista High School, the police department, city boards, the council and the mayor’s office. Now serving in the California State Senate, he came to Sacramento after holding local office, losing it and returning to it. His record runs through the institutions that govern growth, public safety, city finances and the coast. It also includes two firsts in Chula Vista politics: the first Latino elected to the City Council and the first openly gay elected city official. The Senate office is the latest assignment in a career spent moving between elected office and appointed boards.
ROOTS AND THE JOB BEFORE THE JOB
Born in 1967 to a Mexican father and Portuguese mother, Padilla lost his father after he returned from a deployment in the Vietnam War and was killed in an automobile accident. His mother bought a home in Chula Vista, raised the family there and later remarried. Padilla went through the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts and became involved with the Chula Vista Explorer Scouts.
After Bonita Vista High School, he became the youngest cadet accepted into the Southwestern Police Academy. He spent thirteen years as a police officer, specializing as a detective in domestic violence and child abuse, and served as president of the Chula Vista Police Officers Association. While on the force, he earned a bachelor’s degree in public administration. The City Council appointed him to boards and commissions, including the Board of Ethics and Safety Commission. He also worked as a substitute teacher in the Sweetwater Union High School District.
CITY HALL, DEFEAT AND RETURN
Padilla won a City Council seat in 1994, becoming the first person of Latino descent elected to the Chula Vista City Council, and won reelection in 1998. He contributed to the city’s prohibition on machine tobacco sales and led a change to two-year budget planning. He also served for a time as deputy mayor.
Term limits prevented another consecutive council run in 2002. Instead, Padilla defeated fellow council member Mary Salas and was elected Chula Vista’s 38th mayor on November 5, 2002. He proposed requiring developers to pay for roads and public services before their projects received approval and proposed a unified school district within the city. As mayor, he launched a Give a Book drive that donated more than 100,000 books to underprivileged children in San Diego County.
In August 2005, at the Stonewall Rally of San Diego Pride, Padilla publicly acknowledged that he was gay. He had come out privately to his family in 1999, separated from his wife around that time and later received sole custody of their daughter, Ashleigh. He became Chula Vista’s first openly gay elected city official.
Padilla lost the 2006 mayoral election to Cheryl Cox with 45.76% of the vote. His next council campaign, in 2014, ended in a loss by two votes out of nearly 39,000 cast. He ran for a different council seat in 2016 and won, then won reelection in 2020. That March, he tested positive for COVID-19 and later entered an intensive care unit.
THE POLICY SIGNATURE
Padilla’s policymaking record is rooted in the machinery of local government: ordinances, budget calendars, development conditions, schools, parks and appointed commissions. On the council, that meant restricting tobacco sales and moving Chula Vista to two-year budget cycles. In his mayoral campaign and tenure, it meant asking developers to cover roads and public services before project approval, proposing a citywide unified school district and directing books to children across San Diego County. His stated priorities for a second mayoral term included reducing traffic and improving parks and education.
The other durable part of the record is the California Coastal Commission. Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez appointed Padilla in July 2005. He was appointed again on May 31, 2017, later served as vice-chair and now serves as chair of the California Coastal Commission. The mechanism of his career has been both elective and appointive: winning votes in Chula Vista, taking seats on boards and commissions, and returning after defeats.
The interests most consistently named in that record are city residents who depend on roads, parks, schools and public services; children, including those reached by the book drive; and communities affected by development decisions. Public safety appears not as a late-added issue but as the work he did before office and the city responsibilities he continued to carry once elected.
The record
3,981 events, each with its sourceSpecial Consent ACR154 Patterson et al
Consent Calendar 2nd SB1433 JUD. (Umberg)
Special Consent ACR153 Calderon et al
Special Consent ACR151 Papan et al
Special Consent ACR146 Ransom et al
Special Consent ACR144 Hadwick
Special Consent ACR147 Lackey et al
Senate 3rd Reading SCR152 Reyes et al
Special Consent ACR139 Calderon et al
Special Consent ACR140 Patel et al
Senate 3rd Reading SCR150 Choi
Special Consent ACR148 Addis et al
Special Consent ACR135 Patel et al
Special Consent ACR133 Johnson et al
Special Consent ACR136 Harabedian et al
Consent Calendar 2nd SB999 Weber Pierson
Consent Calendar 2nd SB1426 HOUSING (Arreguín) Urgency Clause
Consent Calendar 2nd SB1236 G.O. (Rubio)
Consent Calendar 2nd SB1017 Reyes et al
Consent Calendar 2nd SB1235 G.O. (Rubio)
Special Consent ACR138 Hadwick et al
Senate 3rd Reading SCR149 Valladares et al
Consent Calendar 2nd SB1073 Smallwood-Cuevas
Special Consent ACR145 Caloza et al
Consent Calendar 2nd SB1391 Wahab
Consent Calendar 2nd SB1148 Niello
Senate 3rd Reading SR98 Wiener
Senate 3rd Reading SR91 Gonzalez
Senate 3rd Reading SB1078 Laird et al. Urgency Clause
Consent Calendar 2nd SB1376 Wahab
Consent Calendar 2nd SB918 Seyarto et al
Consent Calendar 2nd SB935 Choi et al
Consent Calendar 2nd SB1189 Valladares et al
Consent Calendar 2nd SB1204 Ochoa Bogh
Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Judiciary]
Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Judiciary]
Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] with the recommendation: To Consent Calendar
Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Labor, Public Employment and Retirement ]
Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations]
Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Judiciary]
Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Judiciary]
Be adopted. Ordered to third reading
Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations]
Do pass as amended, but first amend, and re-refer to the Committee on [Rules]
Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Public Safety]
Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Judiciary]
Do pass as amended, but first amend, and re-refer to the Committee on [Appropriations]
Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Local Government]
Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Business, Professions and Economic Development]
Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Judiciary]