Jesus Medina is running for San Bernardino City Council in the city’s Fourth Ward, where Fred Shorett is the incumbent. In addition to Medina, Alexandra Beltran is also looking to unseat Shorett, who has been on the council since 2009 and is seeking four more years in office.
“San Bernardino needs a new vision for the next four years,” said Medina. “Our city deserves better. I’m running to better our community by making it safer for our residents, increasing the amount of revenue and diversifying the way we bring new businesses into our city, and to change the image of San Bernardino as a whole. I want our residents to be proud of the city they live in.”

Jesus Medina

Medina said that “Being a resident of San Bernardino for 22 years, I have gotten to see a majority of the problems the city is facing. I was on the San Bernardino Building Commission, where I got to see lots of the issues. I was in the Chamber of Commerce of the Inland Empire, so I understand what we need on the business side. All of these qualify me, I believe, to represent the Fourth Ward and the whole of the city.”
Asked what distinguishes him from his opponents, Medina said, “I’m a blue collared, work-hard-every-day public employee. I’m a concerned resident of this beautiful city. I represent the day-by-day people in our city.”
Medina enumerated public safety, economic success and community pride as major issues currently facing the city. The way in which to address those needs, Medina said, was to “elect leaders who have an understanding of the law enforcement agencies’ needs and who will try to help them, including adding more citizen volunteers like they did in other cities such as Redlands. We need to create a strong local economy, improve downtown, and make our airport fully functional.”
To generate the revenue the city will need to carry out improvements, Medina suggested “increasing revenue from new businesses, approaching the state to ask for grants and inviting new corporations to come to San Bernardino.”
Medina cited his professional experience “as a Section 8 inspector and negotiator” in reference to inquiries about his knowledge of how government works. “I know the processes, budgets, and the responsibilities of being in government,” he said. He works for the Housing Authority of the County of San Bernardino.
Medina is two courses short of getting his two-year associate of arts degree. Upon achieving that goal, he said “I intend to transfer to Cal State San Bernardino.”
Recently separated from his wife, to whom he was married for 23 years, Medina has five children, three of whom now attend Cal State San Bernardino and two who are students at San Gorgonio High School.
-Mark Gutglueck