As Supervisor, David is:
As Assessor, David will:
Produce fair, accurate and timely property assessments for homeowners and businesses
Prioritize and protect local revenue for vital services for county residents, especially as our we continue to experience funding cuts at the state and federal levels
Improve outreach to ensure eligible homeowners including seniors, veterans, disabled persons and nonprofits receive the property tax exemptions for which they are qualified
Launch free/affordable estate planning programs for low/moderate-income and multi-lingual households, preserving property from probate costs.
Modernize assessment systems to save taxpayer dollars and improve accuracy
Board President Canepa has advanced several policies to increase outreach and education to individuals with disabilities, individuals housed in temporary shelters including hotels and permanent supportive housing and young adults including first-time voters.
County employees also have the option to take an optional holiday named “Let San Mateo County Vote Day,” which is observed the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November under a policy Supervisor Canepa’s Office authored.
In 2024, Canepa launched a media outreach campaign to encourage voter participation in San Mateo County, emphasizing the importance of registering and casting ballots on Election Day. Highlighting the 70,000 eligible-yet-unregistered voters in the County, he also promoted Conditional Voter Registration, allowing residents to register and vote up until 8 p.m. on Election Day, ensuring every voice could be heard.
As Chief Elections Officer, David will:
Improve transparency and public trust in elections by
Providing clear communications about how elections work
Bolstering open processes for observers and media
Audits to verify integrity
Spearheading public education campaigns to help voters recognize misinformation
Create a live voter data portal in San Mateo County to provide user-friendly, real-time info on voter registration, party info, city breakdowns, vote totals and more.
Monitor and counter false information on social media about voting procedures and results
Launch an Older Adult and Youth Ambassador program. Ambassadors would work to promote voter registration and civic engagement in their communities.
As Clerk and Recorder, David will:
Upgrade the Online Service Portal Make the department’s website more user-friendly and mobile-optimized with clear pathways for popular services, including:
Birth/death certificates
Marriage licenses
Property records
Voter registration
Add real-time status tracking for document requests.
Launch “Easy Access for Recorded Documents” to provide free online access to millions of records dating back to the 1990s
Increase Multilingual Access to County Documents
Expand support in key local languages (Spanish, Tagalog, Chinese, Vietnamese)
Provide translated documents and videos explaining procedures
As President, David is working to:
David wants to continue to invest in better public health care outcomes for county residents, like he did by securing $25 million to keep Seton Medical Center in Daly City from closure. While serving on the San Mateo Medical Center and Health Plan of San Mateo boards of directors, David will continue to champion the County Health System’s “Get Healthy San Mateo County,” a local collaborative of community-based organizations, county agencies, cities, schools, and hospitals working together to advance policy change to prevent diseases and ensure everyone has equitable opportunities to live a long and healthy life.
David wants to invest more in mental and behavioral health services, particularly for those suffering from isolation and loneliness post-pandemic, which the U.S. Surgeon General declared a health crisis in May 2023. Under David’s leadership, San Mateo County has invested $105 million to rebuild the Cordilleras Mental Health Center that will house and treat about 120 individuals at a time from with severe mental health issues. The facility is slated to open in 2024 and will accommodate about 120 individuals at a time. This is one of many steps David will continue to take to address the ongoing issues of mental and behavioral health issues amongst our residents.
David is also supporting the development of a three-year plan to identify priorities for funding mental health and substance use services, programming, infrastructure, workforce, and various other strategies through the state’s Mental Health Services Act.
Following the CZU wildfire of 2019, David voted to commit nearly $20 million to protect county residents from potential wildfires by thinning trees and vegetation along the county’s rural evacuation routes. As a member of the San Mateo County Fire Resiliency Steering Committee, David coordinates with San Mateo County Parks, Fire Safe San Mateo County, the San Mateo Resource Conservation District and the San Mateo County Fire Department to address and combat the threats of wildfires throughout the county and to prepare for other disasters as well such as the mass rains that caused massive power outages, downed trees, flooding and sinkholes on freeways at the beginning of 2023. One of the projects David helped fund was the removal of invasive eucalyptus trees in Guadalupe Canyon Parkway in Daly City. David was proud to secure county funds for the Guadalupe project that has mitigated the potential for future wildfires on San Bruno Mountain and to make evacuating the area much safer if a fire does erupt on the mountain.
Invest more in the construction and rehabilitation of affordable housing such as Midway Village in Daly City, the largest such project in San Mateo County’s history.
Prior to the pandemic, San Mateo County was already facing a housing crisis. In recent years, the county has contributed more than $130 million to dozens of projects enabling the construction or preservation of nearly 2,000 affordable housing units. Such projects include Midway Village in Daly City, which when completed will be the county’s largest affordable housing in history. The project transforms about 120 units of housing into 500 units of housing with a childcare center, open space and community-serving park. It will house veterans, foster youth, seniors and families with ownership possibilities for its future tenants. It will complement other affordable housing investments in North San Mateo County such as the Colma Veterans Village and planned construction of 72 affordable apartments with a $9.5 million county investment in the 400 block of Eastmoor in Daly City.
A community college graduate himself, David supports free community college for all and sponsored a resolution to support granting $2 million in county funds to send 500 low-income students for two years to one of the county’s three community colleges through the Promise Scholars Program. The program provides free tuition, free transportation, free food and intensive counseling. These investments enabled the San Mateo County Community College District to leverage an additional $6 million grant from the state to expand the program to 2,500 students.