After almost four years in office, Stockton City Councilmember Michele Padilla is facing an opponent who has a big gap to close if she hopes to unseat the incumbent — at least based on voters’ initial response.
In the June primary, Padilla came very close to securing the majority of votes needed to avoid a runoff in the Nov. 3 election, getting 4,844, or 49.11%. Her Nov. 3 challenger, Tamica Small, placed second, with 2,722 votes, or 27.60%.
But mailers calling Padilla a “self serving politician” plus support for Small from high-profile entertainers and politicians may prove enough for the challenger to get the win.
District 1 is Stockton’s smallest by land area, yet one of its most populated. Home to 33% of the city’s population, the district — also the city’s wealthiest — stretches across north Stockton, with the majority of neighborhoods running along either side of Bear Creek.
In a phone interview with Stocktonia, Padilla answered questions about public safety, homelessness and City Council infighting.
Small, however, did not provide any comments. After repeated phone messages and emails, she responded by email that she wasn’t available for an interview and would only answer questions in writing. Stocktonia emailed her questions, but Small did not submit responses.
The candidates
Padilla, who is originally from Lodi, has lived in the district for 37 years and worked as an educator with Stockton Unified School District. She’s since stepped back from teaching full time, she said, and now works as a substitute teacher.
When asked why she wants to continue representing District 1, Padilla said her work isn’t finished. First elected in 2022, Padilla said she wants to bring a standalone grocery store to the district, improve public safety through community policing and establish a citywide safe camping site if voted into a second term. Stockton councilmembers are limited to two four-year terms.
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“There’s a lot more things that I have in the works — that my district wants and needs, as well as our city,” she said.
Small is a Stockton native who, according to her campaign website, was raised by a single mother. She says she’s “dedicated her life to serving the community she calls home.”
Like Padilla, Small works as a local substitute teacher, according to her campaign literature.
On her campaign’s Facebook page and during earlier candidate forums, Small — who worked as a county probation officer for two decades — said public safety is her top priority.
“My job was to ensure compliance of offenders following their releases and re-entry into the community or those who received supervision instead of a custodial sentence,” she said in a Facebook post. “In this capacity I learned the importance of safe neighborhoods. From keeping the worst behind bars and preventing violence before it happens.”
Small has some big-name backers. Actress and comedian Tiffany Haddish donated $5,900 to her campaign in May.
U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a Democrat from Texas, publicly endorsed Small, also in May. In a recent video, the ranking member for the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Oversight urged Stockton residents not to “stop at the top” with a vote for Xavier Becerra, the Democratic candidate for California governor, but to vote for Small too.
“Stocktonians should vote for me because of my proven commitment and love for this community. My record of public service as a law enforcement officer uniquely provides me with the experience we need at this time to address public safety,” Small told Stocktonia in an email ahead of the June primary.
Crockett is set to join Small for a forum on Oct. 22 alongside Stockton Vice Mayor Jason Lee.
Public safety
When it comes to public safety, Padilla and Small agree: An increased police presence in District 1 will help reduce criminal activity.
Padilla said most reports that come to her aren’t about violent crime; they’re about retail theft.
It’s worrisome, she said, when residents are not able to go to a store and feel safe.
When Stocktonia asked what could help, Padilla suggested that parking unmarked police vehicles in high-crime areas has reduced thefts. Based on that, she said she wants a dedicated officer in her district who can expedite crime reporting.
A bigger police presence has been a push in other districts as well. Lee, who represents District 6, advocated for police substations, where officers and aides staff outposts in different areas across Stockton. But Padilla said that approach isn’t immediately viable for her district, citing a shortage of officers within the Stockton Police Department.
On Flock cameras and other surveillance technology — which has become a point of debate at City Council meetings and across the country over privacy and data sharing — Padilla said she feels “extremely confident” in Police Chief Stanley McFadden’s ability to oversee their use.
Padilla downplayed the widespread concern over the automated license plate readers, saying, “cameras are everywhere” and “no one had a problem” with them before now in places like grocery stores, the Department of Motor Vehicles and retail shops.
Small agreed that improving public safety is a way to invest in areas that are perceived as unsafe.
She would like to see police substations added to District 1, a move she said would help create faster response times and increase security in neighborhoods. That, in turn, would boost economic development in the area, she said.
“For our city to be attractive to people — to want to come and do business here — we’d have to get a handle on public safety first,” she said during a candidates forum in May. “Nobody’s going to want to come and do business somewhere where we’re riddled with crime.”
On her campaign website, Small supports expanding youth activities and mentorship programs to improve public safety and calls for partnerships with federal, state and county agencies to help in the effort. She also wants increased police staffing and more funding and staff for the Office of Violence Prevention, a city office that works to reduce gun and gang violence through street outreach.
Homelessness
When it comes to homelessness, it’s “complex,” Padilla said. Even though the number of those locally who are unhoused dropped sharply in the last two years — with San Joaquin County reporting a nearly 50% decrease between 2024 and 2026 — homelessness is still visible across the city. Encampments remain set up around town, she said, and people are panhandling.
Last summer, the city enforced a major homeless camp cleanup, displacing dozens of people who had lived for nearly a decade at Trinity Park, a wooded area near Interstate 5 in north Stockton. Motel rooms were offered for those who were forced to move, but they weren’t used, Padilla said.
That’s why she wants to have a multi-layered plan that includes shelters, safe camping and parking areas — including a low-barrier site for tent encampments — and voluntary relocation assistance that would be managed by the city.
But Small argued that addressing the homeless crisis requires more than simply relocating people. She said nonprofits and service providers are also needed to help with long-term housing solutions.
“I will work to ensure that our unhoused community are better connected to behavioral health services, job training and life skills classes,” she said during the spring candidates forum. “But treatment is key, and I will prioritize aid.”
She also argued that Padilla’s role in last year’s Trinity Park cleanup was “more a political point.”
If elected, Small says on her website that she will request an audit of the city’s money spent on homelessness services to determine how programs could be made more effective.
Disagreements at City Hall
Tensions among City Councilmembers have become all too familiar. Discussions at City Hall have turned ugly. Residents have called for decorum, and council infighting has drawn scrutiny from the county’s civil grand jury.
Padilla said the strain comes, in part, from councilmembers’ “passion” for the city. But the friction is unlike anything she’s experienced at any other job.
She says this council has accomplished more than the one she previously served, but she acknowledged that public disagreements have affected the city’s ability to govern. If reelected, Padilla said she hopes the council can learn to work together better.
“There’s things that we vote on that we disagree on, and I think there are people that take it personally, and that’s what causes the disagreements on the council,” she said. “That’s where you know we need to bring it back to: know that we’re all going to have different opinions, and it’s not personal.”
During the May candidates forum, Small said she would be firm in her principals if elected and draw from her experience in law enforcement.
“I am a person of integrity,” she said at the time. “As a probation officer, I was held to a higher standard, much higher than the average citizen.”
It’s with those same standards that she’ll be able to move the “city forward,” she said, to change Stockton’s trajectory.