Civil Unrest, Group Chats, and Representation: Rachel Hernandez on Governing as a First-Gen Mayor

Danny Caine
In late 2024, Rachel Hernandez ran a successful campaign to become mayor of Riverbank, California. A small town at the top of the state’s central valley, Riverbank may not fit into what you imagine as California. There are no beaches or Hollywood signs here. The town follows the rhythm of the harvest with workers passing through following the crops. If Riverbank isn’t your typical California town, Rachel Hernandez isn’t your typical mayor. But she doesn’t shy away from that fact.

Hernandez has made her identity a central part of her governing and campaigning. She’s young. She’s Latina. She’s the daughter of immigrants. She’s a renter, not a homeowner. In this way, she represents exciting generational changes in who is claiming stewardship of American cities and towns. How does she do it? The answer is actually pretty simple, partnerships. To talk about all this and more, we’re thrilled to have Rachel as today’s guest on Building Local Power.

Danny Caine 
Rachel Hernandez, welcome to Building Local Power. Thanks so much for talking to us. I think my first question, I usually like to just ask a little bit about people’s journeys to how you got to here as your office as Riverbank mayor.

Rachel Hernandez
I feel like being the youngest mayor, I think, right now in the county I get asked this question a lot. It’s a little bit different. It’s a lifelong story, right? And to say it in a nutshell, I was not the person at school who was in student government or in the clubs and did all the extracurriculars.

Being the eldest of five siblings and of parents who were both immigrants from Vietnam and Mexico it was about figuring out life and like how to survive and all the things and even now you know with the environmental things like I’m struggling now with my allergies You know being born in the Bay Area, I feel like the environmental impacts really led me to have bouts of asthma that I deal with regularly. And so it’s like all the things that intersect. I got older, went to junior college trying to figure out what I wanted to do with life and did find a political science club.

You know, after learning about civic engagement and voting and all the things, I’m like, wait, like we do have some control. We do have control over things. Like if we get learned and become empowered that we can start to influence, the things that and policies that are being made. And so really it was during junior college, I found that out and got involved and volunteering on campaigns.

My day job was in nonprofits and I got my bachelor’s in political science and ended up getting my master’s in public administration. Not knowing, you know, what I wanted to do with running for office, but in 2020 right after I graduated with my grad degree, peak pandemic, peak wildfires here in the northern part of California and peak political unrest, I mean with BLM and everything that was going on. And I decided, you know, I’m the one that has been involved in campaigns. You know, I dedicated my education to this and my city council seat is up for election. I was like, why not me? So I ran for office back in 2020.

Danny Caine 
So that’s you. I’m also interested in Riverbank. I’ve never been there. My boss Reggie is from Modesto. He talks about the area all the time and he really loves it. So for our listeners who haven’t been there, how would you describe Riverbank, California?

Rachel Hernandez 
It’s unique from the rest of the state. You know, I think folks who aren’t familiar with California, see it as either Bay Area or Southern California beaches and stuff. There’s this whole middle section, geographically large, that’s the Central Valley, that’s at the agriculture of the state and of the country, where we have farm workers who travel according to seasons of crops up and down the Central Valley. And I mean, you hear about the farm workers movements and all those things. But County, where I’m at, is kind of the northern end of that, just an hour south of Sacramento. But Riverbank is this quaint city with about 26,000 people.

But really the intersection between, you know, we have commuters from the Bay Area who are moving here because of cost of living, but we have generations of families that are here as well. And know, we, I mean, most recently, and we’ll probably talk about a little bit later, we opened up a Costco, which is huge for a rural city like ours, but points to kind of the shift that, you know, we’re seeing in some of the movement people are doing in, towards the Central Valley. So. Very small community feel still.

Danny Caine
I really enjoy learning about that and I’m sure our listeners will too, kind of poking at our stereotypes of California.

So I’m glad you mentioned Costco. Presumably one of the jobs of the city government is to help attract businesses and make it a climate where businesses can open and thrive. Can you talk about the importance of downtown small businesses to Riverbank? And then also, how do you think about the box stores like Costco that bring sales tax revenue to your city versus these small independent stores you called Riverbank quaint? And not only do the small businesses kind of make up the character of the downtown, but they also bring sales tax revenue to your city.

Yeah, so how do you think about the small businesses? How do you balance that with places like Costco? What’s your kind of view on small versus big and how it affects Riverbank?

Rachel Hernandez
And that’s like really the crossroads that we’re at right now. cause it’s important to our community and something I heard on the campaign trail. So also after running for, we have a mayor that’s elected at large. And so after four years on council, this last year I ran for mayor and, and I’m now three months in to serving as mayor. But yeah, you’re right. So I hear we need this, we need to keep our small community feel.

But we love our Costco, you know, so how do we balance that? And I think that that’s why this year in these next four years with my new council as well is so to start kind of reshifting the culture large developers and commercial retail and tell them, you know, you’re here to invest in our community because I think one of the learning lessons from COVID was that people want to hang out. Like people want to socialize, people want to be in community and re kind of shifting our view of the downtown as more of like the social center rather than a sales tax base because I mean, it’s similar to the whole county here. mean, vacant buildings, abandoned buildings, owners who are not even in state, that maybe don’t have those properties at the forefront of their mind. So to kind of hopefully guide the city and our decision-making body to rethink how we invest in downtown and that there has to be an investment all around for sure.

Danny Caine 
it seems like supporting the small businesses downtown is an interest of the mayor and the city council in Riverbank. Do you have specific policy ideas about how you might go about doing that?

Rachel Hernandez
Yeah, mean, you heard it here first. I would love to. We’re kind of moving into our strategic planning session with this new council in a couple months here. I mean, addressing the vacancies of these buildings, making the permitting process a lot more streamlined. mean, like a user’s permit or users license for a license that small businesses are already paying for to be qualified for. Streamlining all of that, mean, partnering with nonprofits to have them kind of continue their cohorts of helping small businesses and supporting them through the process. It’s like all kinds of things. I wanna hopefully create a package for the downtown. We don’t have things like a downtown district or an association or something like that. So it’ll be kind of brand new for us.

Danny Caine 
Okay, I’m really interested. You already mentioned kind of air quality in California and the impact of pollution and wildfires on California residents. So this is a little bit of a long story, but like everybody at ILSR knows that Reggie loves that area of California. Someone on our compost team sent Reggie this short film. We’ll link to it in the show notes. It’s a really kind of compelling and interesting short film about the last remaining garbage incinerator in California, which is just outside of Modesto in Crow’s Landing, maybe 25 miles or so south of you in Riverbank. Are you familiar with the incinerator and its effects on the residents? And more broadly, how does air quality as it relates to public health show up as you talk and work in the community? Is this a prominent issue? Where are you looking to help address it at the local level?

Rachel Hernandez 
I am familiar and there’s that group specifically and others the documentary are very involved. so think it’s kind of like levels. The whole Central Valley is kind of behind, I would think from the rest of the state in terms of keeping up with like recycling and air quality and I mean, water quality. Not that it’s all bad because we all have drinkable water here, fortunately.

I think it points to the fact that some of these state policies in a blanket approach do not fit, you know, for our region. And so although there are very obvious impacts to us, you know, the unique part of the Central Valley is that we’re trying to figure out how to start keeping up with the state mandates with less wealth in the area, which means less funds to allocate to the solutions of these problems. And almost trying to advocate at the state level about how different it is geographically here, too. It’s large to the more densely populated Bay areas in Southern California. And so it’s like a constant battle.

Being in local office, I didn’t realize how often I would be talking to our state legislators about, know, this is what the Central Valley is and this is how we’re unique and, you know, the farmers to the farm workers and their unique experiences and everything in between. So, yes, yeah, and I think it definitely impacts us here. I mean, we’re in this bowl, fish bowl, essentially, here in the state. So I think there’s a lot of work to be done.

Danny Caine 
That’s really interesting. guess I hadn’t really thought of like a job of local office being kind of communicating and working with the state and advocating for your constituents at the state level. And I can certainly imagine how in California, Southern California having a big influence on statewide policy. As I was doing some research for this episode, I came across a letter posted to your LinkedIn where you say, “I am proud to be a young renter.” And this question is kind of personal to me because I am a renter as well. One study found that across all levels, as little as 2 percent of elected officials nationwide rent their homes, despite more than 30 percent of all adults being renters. What problems can this imbalance cause and how are you approaching governing for renters and homeowners alike?

Rachel Hernandez 
Yeah, I think it’s that missing middle we see in advocacy. So I think that that’s what makes it difficult too, because it’s these groups that don’t have the time to advocate or show up to the council meetings and do all the things. So.

It is first keeping in mind the rates of everything else that’s involved. I mean utilities, water, sewage, garbage, all the things and advocating on that end. then also taking ideas from other partners in other cities and trying to make it work here. So I’m looking at inclusionary housing policies and hopefully bringing that. I mean, I’ve planted the seed enough during the last four years that the city as a whole, I think we’re ready to move forward with something like that. Even further than that, hopefully take it to like rent control ordinances to support. But I think a lot of the the onus falls on like nonprofits to to be partners and help with us. So it just it feels like it’s all of those things together because it’s true. I I rent in a home that the prices are starting to be comparable to the Bay Area because of the changes around here.

Danny Caine 
You mentioned looking to other cities for this kind of an example and I heard you say rent control ordinances, but I’m wondering if you could kind of give a specific call out to a city that has a renter friendly policy that that you would consider a good one or a goal for Riverbank.

Rachel Hernandez 
I think Salinas is a great example. It’s another part of Central Valley or Central Coast rather, just south of us. they enacted a rent control policy just I think a couple years ago. So I’m in close contact with them. But I guess if I can be a little candid here with you, it is difficult to do. This person that enacted this rent control policy is no longer elected. I think because of the rent control policy and the real estate interests, you know, that get involved. And so I keep coming back to like the partnership and wanting to work with, you know, all industries here, but always keeping in mind and forefront, the communities.

Danny Caine 
Yeah, and think you do a good job of explaining just the impact of rental homes. And you also mentioned the vacant storefronts and the out-of-state landlords and the small business question. So I just think the idea of governing for the renters is really interesting. Another thing I found in researching this episode and learning about you is it seems like your personal identity is really important to you. And you’re kind of upfront and candid about it and how you communicate with your audience. So talk to me about how the importance of identity shows up in the community and how you think it helps bring a community together to tackle the challenges and opportunities your city faces.

Rachel Hernandez
It’s emotional but always backed up by data, There’s a studies, surveys, and data being collected that shows that in the Central Valley, one of the biggest growing voting blocks are young Latina women. And to even be more pointed, it about age, to talk about first generation, and I’m like…that is exactly who I am, you know? And so, though I’m very upfront with everybody, I am a self-proclaimed introvert and I would rather work behind the scenes, but I think it matters a lot to be in these spaces, to always, unfortunately you have to be over-prepared and show up sit in those seats but, when it comes to the feel good things, the ribbon cuttings. And last week I threw out the first pitch for a youth softball league and I made it to the catcher, fortunately. But the comments that always happen, thank you for bringing our culture into this space and having moms bring their daughters up to me and say, they’re so excited to see you in these spaces.

I think that representation matters starts to become this very like ideological arbitrary idea. But I mean, it’s a real life, you know, when I show up authentically and it allows others to do the same.

Danny Caine
How does it feel to become a role model like that?

Rachel Hernandez 
It still feels funny, know, I still refuse to believe. Maybe it’s these, this, I grew up very close to the Mexican side of my family. You’re always humble, just is always so grounding. It’s so grounding, you know, when things start to get political or, you know, divisive in other spaces, parts of, you know, what this role is, it’s super grounding.

Danny Caine 
That’s great. I think it’s really interesting to talk to a mayor on the podcast. I think with the kind of shifting and unpredictable nature of the federal government right now, a lot of people are talking about state and local officials and what they can do and what kind of power lays in state and local government. So I like, I know Reggie was recently, he keeps coming up, but like this is his area. He recently went to the Conference of Mayors Winter Meeting in Washington, DC, which you went to as well. I’m wondering how that went as a young first time mayor. Did you learn anything? Did you make any good connections? And more broadly, like do mayors talk to each other? Is there, do you support each other? Is there kind of this like inter-mayor networking or community that happens?

Rachel Hernandez
I okay, that was like the thing when I saw I have a nonprofit background I mentioned I was like, the one of the biggest rude awakenings coming into the city council four years ago, five years ago, was that no one’s talking to each other. I was like, where like, how do you get support? How do you learn and it was just trial by fire those four years. But along the way, you know, trying to find community and I think that starts to happen with younger electeds. So we, in different groups and cohorts, in California, a statewide organization that unifies cities. Even in that, young people, we started finding each other now have a group chat, somewhere on social media, trying to connect. So there’s like no formal thing.

And I think, with the conference for mayors, I got there and it was so different. It was people who had been there for decades, serving as mayor and did like a new mayors, Mixer. was like a handful of us there because everyone has been so experienced and had been there for so long. So naturally, I think people started trying to connect in informal ways.

There’s a group that’s, you know, super connected about certain issue areas or young people and et cetera. So there’s like random group chats floating around. I people just naturally want to get involved with each other.

Danny Caine 
Yeah, well, I hope upi can continue to find that community and build those group chats. I kind of like the idea of mayors getting together and strategizing and building all this local power together. So for our last question on these episodes, I really like to ask about political inspiration. You already mentioned the rent control ordinance but I wonder where else are you seeing good things happening and where do you draw your political inspiration from?

Rachel Hernandez 
Oh my. So that’s always been a question. And some of these organizations I’m involved with, they’re always asking, you know, what’s missing now that you’re elected? Cause there’s no like handbook to tell you how to So you’re just trying to find organizations that will help align like-minded people each other to bounce ideas off of I mean, there was never one that’s like copy paste, but I have folks in the Bay Area who in Hercules is there’s random small city that I look to, Salinas and Central Coast. There’s some LA folks that I really admire.

And so it just, I will take inspiration from anyone and I’ve gotten this good group in different areas that where all like, don’t reinvent the wheel, know, let’s help each other. Look, I just passed this policy, like maybe it’ll fit in your city. So people are the groups that I’m involved with at least much more open to sharing these kinds of things.

Danny Caine
Great. love that. And hopefully that will continue with listeners hearing this episode and learning about Riverbank and all of these issues. I really enjoyed learning about your area of California and the issues you’re facing and you. So thank you, Rachel Hernandez, for being on Building Local Power.

Rachel Hernandez 
Thank you. Thanks for the questions.

Danny Caine
For more information on Riverbank and Rachel herself, see the links in the show notes. There, you’ll find a link to Burning Injustice, the short film we mentioned that profiles California’s last trash incinerator and the activists who are trying to stop it. You’ll also find details of the rent control ordinance in Salinas, a piece of legislation that inspires Rachel. Relatedly, I’ve also linked to the study that found that less than 2 percent of elected officials rent their homes.

Here at Building Local Power, we’d love to invite you, our listeners, into the conversation. If you have thoughts about this or other episodes, ideas for future guests, or if you just want to get in touch, send me a note at buildinglocalpoweratilsr.org. And as always, if you like what you hear, please like, subscribe, review, and share with your friends. This episode of Building Local Power was produced by me, Danny Caine with the help of Reggie Rucker. I did the editing with help from Téa Noelle who also composed the music.

Thank you so much for listening and see you in two weeks.

Burning Injustice short film

More information about the Salinas rent stabilization ordinance

Study showing 2% of elected officials are renters