Selina Thomas, of Saugus, has announced that she’s making another bid for a seat on the Santa Clarita City Council.
She told The Signal she’s running because she’s invested in the community as a business owner, homeowner, and single mother of three daughters
“I’m invested in the results of leadership,” she said. “And I want to be a part of that leadership because of not only my experience, but also representation.”
Thomas announced her campaign on Juneteenth, or June 19, which commemorates the date in 1865 when in Texas the last enslaved Black people learned about the end of slavery and the end of the Civil War.
“I wanted it to be specific to what I represent,” she said of her campaign announcement. She said she also represents business, single mothers, parents of athletes, and students.
Thomas, owner of Six Degrees HR Consulting, said her top priority as a councilwoman would be to support small businesses as they recover from the pandemic.
“That is No. 1 for me because it certainly has a domino effect into the larger (community), which is our community is growing,” she said.
Thomas said she knows many Santa Claritans who work two or three jobs outside of Santa Clarita in order to live in the city.
The city can change that, she said, “by having big businesses, the Microsofts, the Amazons, the Disneys, come here.”
Thomas said her experience working with small business as a human resources professional to save jobs will “also lend to bringing new jobs to this community – employers that can offer income that allows people to work (and) live in their community.”
Students are also on the priority list for Thomas, whose daughters attended local public schools and played sports.
Her goal, she said, is for “our students in the Santa Clarita Valley (to be) able to…get back into school and start to have this social side that every student deserves to have — those milestones and highlights in their life without it being with barriers.”
Thomas also thanked her family, including her life partner Ronald Livingston, for their support.
“Behind every candidate is a strong family,” she said, noting she plans to run regardless of whether the City Council transitions to district-based elections for the 2022 race.
