Elisa worked in partnership with her colleagues and community members to accomplish the following:

Safer Hayward

• Supported refurbishing of all our fire stations and a new Fire Training Center.
• Added bike patrol officers to the Downtown and the Tennyson community.
• Added new crime-fighting technology like body-worn cameras for patrol officers; license plate readers that recover stolen vehicles; and security cameras at crime hot-spots.
• Closed all of the illegal internet gambling businesses.
• Supported HPD’s CALEA accreditation which ensures our officers have the best available training.
• Supported a new policy of asking the State Attorney General to investigate all officer-involved deaths in Hayward to ensure full transparency to the public.

Economic Development

• Increased the number of businesses located in Hayward by 3,400!  
• Established the Innovation Corridor to attract more Advanced Industries companies and their well-paying jobs to Hayward.
• Served on the City’s Economic Development committee that has helped attract new businesses to Hayward (CVS Pharmacy, Round One Arcade and Bowling, Motor Coach International, dozens of new restaurants, and many, many more).
• Supported creating of the Tennyson Corridor initiative to revitalize the Tennyson area in South Hayward.
• Approved a new Seafood City grocer and Century Movie theater that opened at Southland Mall.
• Added 5 new grocery stores to Hayward (Island Pacific Supermarket, Chavez Market on Mission, Seafood City at Southland, 88 Manor on Mission and Grocery Outlet at Fairway Park Shopping Center).

Beautifying Hayward

• Reduced illegal dumping by more than 50%!
• Added dozens of new murals all across Hayward.
• Supported new trees and landscape improvements along Industrial Blvd. and Winton Ave. that look great and save water.
• Improved the appearance of vacant lots by requiring property owners to install and maintain attractive fences.

• Hired four new maintenance workers to pick up litter, paint over graffiti and improve landscaping all across Hayward.

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  Supported the redevelopment of a dozen blighted properties along Mission Blvd and all across town to help beatify Hayward by replacing vacant lots with housing and jobs.

• Supported bringing the Downtown Streets Team to the downtown and Tennyson to employ unsheltered individuals beautifying our community.

Sustainability

• The new downtown library is LEED Platinum (certification pending) and will be Hayward's first zero-net-energy building.
• Approved a plan to get Hayward municipal operations to 100% on-site renewable energy by 2025.
• Supported the creation of East Bay Community Energy which provides a cheaper and cleaner energy choice for everyone in Hayward since 2018.
• Supported innovative environmental policies that have received the Beacon Award from the CA League of Cities and a Green Leadership award from the U.S. EPA (under Obama).
• Implemented a county-wide plastic bag ban and increased recycling at businesses and multifamily properties.
• Supported city-wide installation of LED light bulbs in existing street lights to reduce costs and make street lights brighter.
• Supported installation of solar panels on almost a dozen city-owned buildings.
• Supported a new City plan to massively reduce our carbon emissions in the years to come to protect the planet from Climate Change.
• Supported the Shoreline Master Plan being developed to protect Hayward’s shoreline from sea level rise in the coming decades.

Budget

• Worked to fully identifying Hayward's long-term budget challenges and developed solutions that eliminated the long-term budget deficits (pre-COVID).
• Achieved fair contract extensions with all of Hayward’s bargaining units.
• Championed the passage of Measure T to help support ongoing city services.
• Worked WITH city labor groups to achieve budget savings after the COVID-19 emergency impacted the city’s budget, while protecting jobs for city employees and minimizing impacts to services.

Hayward Youth

• The new 21st Century Library and Community Learning Center open in Downtown.
• Partnering with HARD to build a new 50 acre La Vista "destination park" at Tennyson and Mission Blvd in South Hayward to open in 2021 or 2022.
• Supported the expansion of the City’s successful after-school homework help program to nearly-all HUSD schools.
• Supported the Hayward Promise Neighborhood, which won a 2nd round of funding from the Federal Government in 2018 totaling $29.8 million!
• Partnered with HUSD to increase attendance and graduation rates. 
• Supported the re-visioning process to expand Tennyson Park and the construction of a new Community Center, as Eden Youth Center .

Housing

• Approved new mixed use projects at the old Mervyns site on Foothill (Lincoln Landing), the former Bryman College (Maple & Main), the old Ford site (Mission Crossings), and the former Haymont Shopping Center.
• Supported the new Complete Communities initiative to ensure that all large new housing developments always includes parks, retail and other amenities in addition to much needed housing.
• Championed a 400% increase in the affordable housing requirements for new residential developments.
• Created a new Housing Department within the City to encourage housing development, increase development of affordable housing and to protect tenants’ rights.
• Championed passage of a new Residential Rental Housing Ordinance, which caps rent increases and helps to protect tenants from abusive landlords.
• Championed the opening of Hayward’s first public Homeless shelter in the Industrial area in 2019, which is helping 45 formerly homeless individuals find permanent, affordable housing each month.
• Allocated almost $30 million of public housing dollars to help build hundreds of new affordable housing units in Hayward.
• Supported the redevelopment of the long-vacant Caltrans parcels and used the proceeds from these developments to increase Hayward’s emergency fund.

Transportation

• Supported the Downtown Specific Plan which developed a plan to fix “The Loop” and return many of Downtown Hayward’s streets back to two-way.
• Supported the new Complete Streets City initiative to ensure that our streets work for bikers, transit, pedestrians and cars.
• Serve as Chair of the City Infrastructure Committee which is focused on improving our roads and other infrastructure.
• Oversaw the planning and construction of the Mission Blvd road improvements for South Hayward (completed in 2020).
• Approved plans for the improvement of Mission Blvd in North Hayward (construction starts in 2020 / 2021).
• Approved the largest pavement repair project in Hayward’s history in 2017 with the 2nd largest project coming in 2018.
• Kept all of the parking in the downtown free – no parking meters!
• Added or upgraded ~20 new miles of bike paths in 2017, alone (more than was added in the previous 20 years!).  
• Finalizing the City’s first Bike and Pedestrian Master Plan in almost 20 years.
• Supported the development of a new traffic calming “tool kit” that provides more options that just speed bumps for making our streets safer.

Supporting Cultural Diversity

• Championed the City’s Task Force that developed The Commitment for an Inclusive, Equitable and Compassionate Community (CIECC).
• Supported passage of the City’s Sanctuary City Policy.
• Started offering Spanish language translation at all public meeting to make City Hall more accessible to all of Hayward’s residents.
• Brought cultural sensitivity training to City Hall to help ensure that city employees are respectful and sensitive to people of all cultural backgrounds.
• Recruited and appointed community members that represent the diversity in our community to serve on City commissions, task force and committees. 

Other

• Hired a new City Manager who is bringing innovation and new energy to City Hall.
• Helped to keep water, sewer and garbage rates low over the last 6 years, with increases below the rate of inflation.

COVID-19

• Supported opening the first-in-the-nation free, public COVID-19 test center in South Hayward, a model that has been replicated across Alameda County and the nation.
• Supported providing free PPE to local business to help them re-open once the SIP started being eased.
• Championed the hiring of Hayward’s first public information officer, whose team has been pushing out daily updates to Hayward residents during COVID to help ensure that everyone has up-to-date information about the SIP and reopening process.
• Passed an emergency moratorium on evictions to protect tenants suffering income losses during the COVID SIP, which is helping people to keep their homes and businesses to stay open during the emergency.
• Supported financial grants for local businesses. 
• Supported rent assistance and grants for community members ineligible to receive unemployment benefits. 
• Championed Hayward Relief Fund to support community members, COVID-19 Test Site, and business grants.