 Welcome everyone, thanks for coming out tonight. My name is Nancy Gert, I'm president of the Valley Women's Club. I want to welcome you to the candidates forum for the Fifth District County Supervisor. And we have our candidates here tonight. This event is sponsored by the Valley Women's Club, the League of Women Voters, and Community TV of Santa Cruz County. So thank you to all those that were involved in pulling this forum together. I'd also like to give special thanks to the San Lorenzo Valley High School Government AP classes. We have 12 students here tonight, could you raise your hands? And they are students of Steve Sifranco, Cindy Martinez, and I believe there was a lot of coordination done by the counselor here, Leslie Burns. So thank you to the teachers and the counselors. And I'd like to thank the candidates for coming out tonight. We have Eric Hammer and Bruce McPherson and Bill Smallman, and they put a lot of effort into their campaigns and we really appreciate you joining us tonight. So finally I really want to thank Ann Weiss from the League of Women Voters for graciously accepting the job of being the moderator tonight. And with this, at this point I'm going to turn it over to her and she will explain the process and then we can begin. Ann? Thank you Nancy. I'm really proud to be here representing the League of Women Voters and I'm so glad you came out to the forum tonight. The League is very interested in having informed voters and so that's why we do these kinds of things. We have a kind of strict procedure that we follow and we will do that tonight. Each candidate gets an opportunity to make an opening statement. Then we will do questions from the audience and our students have been diligent. We have a big pile up here. So thank you for asking your questions. If you think of something during the program, write it down, wave it. The students will come and get it. And then at the end we will have a closing statement. The candidates have drawn for their position in speaking for their opening statement. And number one is Bill Smallman. Thank you. Big reason why I decided to vote is I really believe that the wrong candidates are getting elected and I suppose I could sit home like Peter Finch and just say I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore or I could decide to run. So that's what I'm doing. That's why I'm here. And do we really need any more proof than the state of California is really in the worst condition that it's ever been in and to elect somebody that's been part of that failed management team I believe is wrong. And oftentimes you hear candidates express that there's going to be a change and oftentimes you do not see a change or you see a change in the wrong direction. So I believe that if voters really want a change we really need to change that the way that we vote. Do the Fort and Niners when they're looking for a quarterback, do they look at name endorsements or name recognition? No they don't. They look exactly how that player is going to help that team. Same thing goes with a company that wants to hire a CEO. Same thing needs to be applied with county supervisor. You're the boss. Use independent thinking. Don't listen to anybody else. You have our resumes in the form of brochures, newspaper articles and websites and this forum can act as an interview. Let's get started. Mr. McPherson has stated that he is the one that needs to get elected because he's the only one that has contacts in Sacramento. But in reality everybody in Sacramento is very easily accessible and if Eric or myself have the good fortune to be served as your supervisor we could easily establish contacts with a simple phone call or email. Secondly, he has also stated that he will hit the ground running by overseeing the realignment plan and the realignment plan is simply a failure of the state government and managing prison populations. Both Mr. McPherson and both Mr. Hammer's resumes are severely lacking on specific tasks or goals. And basically they provide the list of issues that we are obviously all in favor of. What I have to offer is I believe I have a unique work experience and qualification to help with serious issues involved with the planning department, environmental health service department and also infrastructure upgrades. I'm a civil engineer, I'm educated in the sciences and I have over 23 years building infrastructure improvement projects. I'm also the only candidate that has listed the specific tasks to create a board of economic development and I've been often asked how can you support economic development and be an environmentalist at the same time. I have to be clear that I only support economic development that doesn't increase the human footprint to a large degree. A good example of that is the target that didn't get built in Scotts Valley but moved it to the Capitola Mall, has less startup costs and is most likely to do much better business down there anyway. But I have to say that we are part of the environment and a healthy economy and a healthy environment need to partner up together. A healthy environment provides for our tourism industry, our fishing industry and agriculture and a healthy economy helps with providing the resources. We all know that there's a severe lack of people with work with county government that has, they do not have business experience so I like to create a board that is entirely consisting of people with that qualification, they can support expansion, growth of business, they can expand our vocational training, we can literally become the breeding ground for entrepreneurs in this county and the most exciting thing that I was bored, that I wanted to do is examine the way the county does its government and look at it as if it were a business. Bottom line to serve your tax dollar in the most efficient way, it would have been very helpful when they were negotiating pensions. And the next thing they will be on right on top of any infrastructure improvement projects that may be needed to help business in the county and then finally the last thing I'll just finish up is to make sure that as you business owners out there know to make sure that it takes very little effort to make the customer feel like the boss and it goes a long way to establish a good relationship. Thank you. I'm Bruce McPherson and thank you for being here and showing your interest in this race. It's a very important one. There are big changes going on in government as we know it and I want to be a part of it. I'm a fourth generation Santa Cruz native born in the fifth district, went to public schools here, raised my family with my wife of 44 years, Mary. I wrote and worked at the Santa Cruz Sentinel for 26 years. I wrote articles about issues throughout Santa Cruz County including every district in the county. I feel like I know it well and for 10 years of those 26 that I was with the Sentinel I was the editor and editorial writer that gave opinions on issues that faced the valley at the time and throughout the county. Many of those had to do with water and sewage and so forth, the septic tanks and we're still here in those kind of problems still as we move along. We still have to address those issues and I think I'm the best one to put myself forward to serve you and as your county supervisor in this great district that we have here in the fifth district. I have been fortunate enough to be have been elected to the and I think that is fortunate to be have been elected to the state legislature for two terms in the California assembly and two terms in the California Senate and also served two years as California Secretary of State. And during that process I saw had a lot of experiences of course you take a couple thousand votes a year you see how the system works or how it doesn't work but overall through my procedures and in when I was in the elected office that I held I was I was known as one who is a problem solver one who is a consensus builder and one who gets the job done and I think probably no more clear evidence of that was when then Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger nominated me to be Secretary of State of California when the previous secretary had to resign or chose to resign and I was confirmed unanimously by every member of the assembly in the Senate and believe me jif ladies and gentlemen there are not too many unanimous votes in the assembly in the Senate these days I think that shows a respect that I earned for the job that I did and working with people in the legislature and I think it is important to know people in the legislature and I think it's important to know how the state works and aside and as long as when I was working at the Sentinel and when I was in the legislature and for the last six years when I have not been in the legislature I have been dedicated to public service whether it's the land trust of Santa Cruz County the second harvest food bank chair I was the the chair of or of a vice chair of a cabrillo scholarship fundraising organization where we raised over a million dollars to give to kids for scholarships these things matter to me and I think they matter to you as well I feel very good about the endorsements that I have received and I do think they count too I have received the law and for the sheriff the sheriff woax endorsement and the preceding two sheriffs as well as environmental leaders Jack O'Neill Renee Shepherd a very distinguished county planning commissioner today and I think that it does matter and I think that in this time of realignment the knowledge that I have the experience that I have and the context that I know in the state and federal level of government are very critical to seeing that our our county and our district gets its fair share of the resources that we deserve and we want I can tell you that in right while I've been I've been walking precincts and I've really I'm very pleased with the welcome reception that I have gotten going door to door and I've gone to every place in this county and this district I should say and I really appreciate the warm reception that you have given me and I know I've gone to some places where others haven't gone because you've told me so so I thank you very much for your being here and Eric thank you everybody for being here tonight my name is Eric Hammer and I'm running for fifth district supervisor and you might be asking yourself why would anybody want to do that well let me put that because I love looking at everybody here and there's actually some truth to that I look out right now and the people in front of me are people that I've been working with my entire life I look out here I'm born and raised in Boulder Creek I've lived here 43 years I went to school in this high school I represent this community very strongly so when I say that I've worked with a lot of you in this room I really have and I'll pick out some of you later on what got me passionate to run is I was raised in a family that honored civic commitment to the community I was raised in a family where we walked the watersheds on the weekends where we cleaned up the river where we had I was actually drugged to most of these as a kid so this be honest and today I'm actually dragging my kids to the same thing you know we went to the river clean up here this last year we filled up our truck I've got three amazing kids you know they go to the school systems here you know I've got an amazing wife that's right here tonight that stands beside me I'm a down-to-earth person here but I also understand the significances of that we're facing right now and I also understand the fifth district we are three distinctly different communities within this district and that's important where the San Lorenzo Valley the San Lorenzo Valley has one voice in local government and that voice is the supervisor and that voice needs to be strong and that needs to be heard with the problems that we have with the economic development environmental uh impacts on our streams with water we've got scott's valley which is also unique in itself it has a city council that helps govern it but that city council needs to be able to work together in partnership with the supervisor but the residents also have two voices but they also have different needs growth is one of them business development in a different different fashion yet we also have some of the same similarities I'll get to those Santa Cruz also very distinctly different they have a city council they have concerns that are voiced in a different way and the way when I've gone out and talked with people they're concerned about high density building downtown in the SoCal corridor we don't have the high density building but we're concerned about growth it's the same they're concerned about the potholes outside their street and the parking along their curbs and gutters we don't even know what curbs and gutters are or sidewalks are up here but it's the same issue it's infrastructure and deteriorating infrastructure and how you're going to get it fixed it's going to take a combination of working with all the local governments and all the organizations out there pulling together to be able to make that difference I have the skill set to be able to do that I am the only candidate that has 15 plus years of experience working through this building department I'm a licensed general contractor I specialize in removing red tags and doing remodel projects I interact with the public and I interact with the county on a daily basis you know it's what feeds my kids it's what feeds actually many members in this community you know my company employs directly and indirectly 100 to 200 people you know and I give back into this community from my company but the point I'm making is I have the leadership and the understanding on how to make that impact I am president of the Boulder Creek Business Association I understand what it takes to bring a group of people together to promote business and tourism I have sat and elected to the Boulder Creek Parks and Rec for the last eight years we have made a significant difference in Boulder Creek to Boulder Creek Parks and Rec we built a new park that park was built by you people here not by me but by you people here coming out and volunteering and there's 15 or 20 people in the audience that I know I saw out there with shovels I sat on the board of Mountain Community Resource Center and successfully worked with a group of hard energetic passionate people to help with a merger to keep the doors open forever is the intent because we got sustainability by merging with community bridges which is a fantastic organization that's the skill set that I bring not to mention the fact that I'm passionate about youth we started the teen center took it over from the Y back in 2000 the Y was going to step away the funding wasn't there a bunch of us in the community got together we formed the 501c3 I was elected president by my peers which was an amazing experience at time Jeff Anquist was on that Barbara Springer was on that committee my mom was on that committee these are people that I've looked up to in leadership so thank you thank you very much to the candidates now we're moving to the question portion of it and you folks in the audience have been very generous in asking questions and so I've been here sitting here trying to group them so that we don't ask the same question five times in a row we're going to start off with a general question the candidates each will have two minutes to answer the question what issue do you feel most pressing in each of the three communities you will represent in the fifth district how will you address this issue in each district if different Bruce you're first well I think there's okay three issues I think the economy is no question that is really a concern for everyone I've gone door to door and seen many people or more than I want to say that my house is going to be foreclosed upon in the next two weeks and I'm I'm going to have to move and so forth we we have as a county we have to establish some kind of a government organization center as mr smallman had mentioned as well this region Santa Cruz county is the only government in this region that does not have a strategy or personnel to guide us and dedicate us to creating jobs and business opportunities here and we have those here with our tourism industry as a basis high technology particularly in the scots valley area we need to do that and that's really a critical thing I think that protection of our natural resources is also a critical thing that people really look to and say we need to we like it here this is why we like it let's maintain it as best we can and I agree with that and I think that we we really have to make sure that we maintain the natural resources the natural beauty that we have that really drives the tourism industry in this area third I think that we need to be sure that we provide adequate public safety and law enforcement and fire protection services from our our really overworked and excellent sheriff's department and our outstanding volunteer fire departments that we have throughout the valley going along with that and law enforcement public safety is the the road system that is here and it's a very complicated situation I think this district has been shunned and put in the backseat of that for that situation year in and year out it's about time we get our fair share because I don't think this district has gotten it for several years running and I think that's going to have a really significant aspect on the improvement of our fire protection our police protection that we have in the fifth district question one more time what issues do you feel most pressing in each of the three communities you will represent in the fifth district and how will you address this issue in each district if different I think the I've spent the time out in all three areas that we're talking about again scott's valley santa cruz and the sands of valley and it's really difficult I think to take a look at any one impact that's hit them all but my feeling is we're looking at renewable resources as being our number one long-term impact the economic implications I think we're feeling the hardest right now but I think what we're going to really be facing is water shortages and how we're going to manage growth or slow growth based on the renewable resources scott's valleys aquifers are being drained they have been able to through good water management practices been able to level it off but they are definitely not increasing the aquifers you're looking at santa cruz with an expansion possible expansion of ucsc and the possible looking at a diesel plant you know which is a huge issue and that is the top of everybody's mind that I talked to in santa cruz what is your opinion on the diesel you know so I know that that is a huge issue and in the center of the valley here you know we have the watershed but it's all surface water you know how do we work together to maintain a water source that's going to be there for eternity and that's going to take collaboration of a lot of very very smart people and they've started the process the problem is not everybody's working together yet and not everybody has the same goal we need to get to that point to where we all have the same goal and working on a strategic plan to implement it okay yeah I think I covered the economy is big in my campaign and I talked about the creating board of economic development and that that would be district wide for all three communities infrastructure improvements you know it's been said that oh we need to improve infrastructure roads for our tourism industry but a lot of the roads are actually caltrans maintained so a lot of the roads that we're talking about are residential roads especially in San Lorenzo Valley and John Priestly wanted to do a chip seal operation which I agree with but he wants to increase the sales tax to pay for it which I don't I don't agree with it I think we should budget more money for that and the reason why that's a priority is that it's a road maintenance because roads when they start to deteriorate the subgrade starts to go and eventually you end up with a road that if you want smooth again you're going to have to rebuild the whole thing so the cost goes up exponentially so I really believe that that's kind of the first infrastructure improvement and then also there's a lot of roads we live by one that just got washed away on East Saini Road that I believe you know those ones that were got washed away these need need to be fixed you know for fire protection and the inconvenience I don't think we budget enough money for our roads secondly there's a lot less priority is water pollution you know a lot of people tell you the San Lorenzo River if it was pristine would promote a lot for our tourism and our in the fishing industry there's a lot of we have a high density septic tank so that we could do a lot of water conservation methods to save water people can start using reclaimed water at their houses etc I mean there's a whole host of storm storm drain redesign etc etc I'm against I'm publicly against the desalination plant I believe that we need to restrict growth I'm against I'm against sprawl and I believe that we need to spend a lot more time studying interest of water conservation methods and in all the all the essential service please fire etc they're essential and basically I don't I whatever they need I believe that that we need to support them 100% thank you now we're going to move to probably the most popular question I have a big stack all on the same subject our fifth district supervisor will probably serve on the library joint powers board would you support the 10 branch system and would you support exploring funding for construction of a new library in Felton and we're going to start with Eric yes to every one of those questions I'm very supportive of our public library system in fact you know my kid I grew up sitting on the lap of Ann Gulliver during story time at Boulder Creek Library that was a time that for me it was hard you know as a kid and the program that these kids have during story time I mean I'm 43 years old I remember the stories that Ann Gulliver told me my kids today love it they look forward to going to library and checking out books I think it's imperative that we support the 10 branch system and the local libraries I am excited that in this last week the Felton library has moved forward in small steps by being able to move the land over toward to the county and their vision of creating the footprint and building the building pad and then taking a look at bringing portables on or modulars to start out with I think I think that's fantastic I definitely do not agree or think that the new library in scott's valley can serve our community and I will fight to make sure that our libraries stay here and stay local that we don't have to look to go into scott's valley to serve our needs thank you and first of all I I would like to congratulate Mr. Wiley and the people of the sentiments of valley school district for what they did to rebuild the library here at this school it's a tremendous asset and it's deserving for those students to have that kind of facility here it is absolutely outstanding you should be congratulated as for the Felton library as for the Felton library I was one who signed the ballot measure to extend the quarter cent sales tax for the library system indefinitely it was going it was set to stop in I think it was 2013 or 14 I was one of those who they asked to come to sign that measure to put on the ballot in June of 2008 and it passed overwhelmingly secondly after that had passed and the library board had gone back into talking about condensing this 10 library 10 branch library system to say five or so they asked me my opinion and I said don't do that geographic location is absolutely essential and important keep the 10 libraries where they are and if you have to cut down some service time or hours that's the way to do it but do not close any branches this library in Felton is was designated as the top priority when people supported the library bond in the first place how many times do we have to forget that I'll tell you if I and I if I become your county supervisor I am going to be asking to get on that library board to have that library built in Felton tomorrow I did that I fully support the library my family uses it all the time I grew up going to libraries I think all counties and city made an early obligation to have libraries and they kind of let that down I'm not sure exactly the reason why I think there's a lot of people think oh why do you need a library you have a home and a computer and but it serves as a learning center and there's people that can't afford to have a computer or they just want me I went ahead I didn't have a computer when I was a kid but I you know I liked getting out of the house and going to the library because it inspired it was inspiring but also it's just it's great I love going to the scott's valley library I'm like both these guys I want the Felton library built we could use that two million dollars they wasted on the Zion yokes and built the darn thing I want to build and I if I get elected I'm going to very be strong supporter then make sure they get spelt and not only gets built but also had me has a support to stay open you know not get built and oh forget about it we want to keep it built but we also want to have quality people working there and also maintain it as well thanks okay we're going to move a little bit in our discussion north county does not get its fair share of county money for just about everything and a lack of a true local city government does not help what will you do to ensure that north county will get its fair share and bill your first on this well I want to make sure that they they get their fair share there is I know that there's some concerns because I know there's people that live just you know they sit live so far and they don't have as many people using the roads so like that's what kind of happens is that the roads that are you know that gets the most traffic get the priority and then the ones that are in the you know way out there so it's difficult it's a challenge but you know I I'm running this campaign I you know I have no favoritism whatsoever I don't care if you live in I live in a very rural area and but obviously I you know I I favor people that live in the urban environment in scott's valley equally I I'm I'm blind you know I support if I realize that there is a deficiency for the rural residents residents in north county you know I would I would like to address it because I you know I mean I live in a rural area and there's there's some big issues not only you know the roads but also fire protection there was as well and it's difficult to get to those areas so and I think some partnership with CDF as well to make sure that they have fire protection is very important to maintain and also maintain the local fire districts in those areas thank you the question again was the economy that did you say that now it's north county you convince your other four supervisors and you've got to get two of them to say you need your fair share which you haven't been getting for years and years that's particularly true of the area from Felton on up in the valley scott's valley and Santa Cruz of course our cities they can take care of themselves they are important to us we need to cooperate in many many ways in the tourism industry that has been mentioned by some of us as well but there are things that we need to do to encourage and really twist arms to get things done so we can get that Felton library done and I've been known to build consensus as I mentioned and to get things done you got you need to identify the problem that you have and it's clearly the library in Felton do we need how can we make a swimming hole be returned to Ben Lohman which people want and and get that done and you can do that and be economically sound in doing that and have a swimming hole for the summer that would be very valuable to the people of Ben Lohman and then let's go to Brookdale let's work with the private sector at times too to see how we can clean up that mess and that's what it is and it takes a lot of work and that's where you can start to bring in and work with the private sector to be part of the solution to have a growing business so you can provide more revenues to provide the services that every one of us needs this valley has not gotten its fair share it's pretty evident to me when i'm walking through the neighborhoods and I think we need to work with people I know that I've done that in a legislative sense and a political sense before in the legislature and I've been very successful at it and I can be successful at it again for you and I look forward to that opportunity on the county board of supervisors thank you all right this I think is one of the most important questions that's going to be asked tonight it's a backbone of what's important to the San Lorenzo Valley it's the services and making sure that we can provide the services and get the funding that the county already has it's not about raising more funding within our own community that has to happen also with the partnerships but it's about getting our one-fifth share of the general fund and the services that are provided with those and fighting for those you do that yes mr. fixton is exactly right you got to have two votes but the way you get those two votes is to work with the community and petition and lobby be at those meetings and show that we are committed and we need to do an audit of where the money is being spent how it is being spent and where it's not being spent we need to take a look at fire service Los Cumbres the outer area so we need to more adequate fire protection we need more law enforcement right here we need to be taking a look at putting a satellite police station in ben loman more centrally located with more law enforcement up here we don't have nearly enough health services we have to go to emeline or Dominican for any health services we need to find a way to pay to bring the services that everybody else in this county has within 10 minutes of their house up here 45 minutes is way too long to wait for response we don't have mutual aid period Scotts Valley Santa Cruz Pasadampio have mutual aid they have law enforcement they have fire they have an ambulance there within 10 minutes to their house we don't get that we need that here and the way you do that is getting everybody in this room empowered working together taking a look putting on me as supervisor to take a look at the books to find out where it's being spent and then hold the other people at the county accountable and say we need our share and then we make it happen thank you okay another popular issue there is a proposed safe route to school here along highway nine will you energetically support this project and there are a whole bunch of different variations off of that start something right i'm already supported i've been working with people power and sustainable transportation and safe routes to school to identify a route has actually already been identified to make it safer for kids to come to school you know i've been endorsed by people power because i think outside of the box you know i want to make it safer for kids i want to make it a a better form of transportation it helps with with gas it helps with the danger of the roadways it helps with the carbon footprint that we're worried about the first part of this project it's small we've done if you take a look at the transportation study that's been done for the San Lorenzo Valley corridor it's huge it's 47 pages long and a tons of millions of dollars to be able to implement it what we're asking for right now is a very small piece we're talking about trying to get from downtown felton through the back street and improvements on highway nine from the high school here just to the road that cuts up just by a a plus properties small piece the second component of that is from the high school to to glenn arbor we're not asking for a lot but what it's going to take is people in this community stepping up and working together and forming partnerships so that we can rally to get the funding take a look at alternative funds that are out there through state and federal programs and get behind it so do i back it 100% thank you yeah i'm i'm an avid bike bicycle rider i grew up in marine county and i ride bikes like crazy i rode the first mountain bikes and i i i totally advocate a safe bike path i i kind of i don't really advocate widening some of the highways and making places for bikes because i still think it's pretty dangerous so i you know i would i'm not familiar with the exact routes of the the bike path that the dark was talking about but i was looking at on the it was on the east side of actually highway nine going through open space but i absolutely support it i think it's great it's a little it not only make a safe path for children people kids going to school but they'll be loaded with you know guys my age right riding bikes it'll be wonderful it will be expensive like you know i know they were talking about putting a bike path on roaring camp railroad but i i think that that'd be a little bit too expensive but these these bike paths absolutely i i'm supporting 100 i think it'd be a really a really big improvement for this community to have that asset it's i grew up with them and we're in marine county it's wonderful they have a lot of bike paths that are off off the main road and you can literally go i went to school in chico just talk a little bit longer since i have another man but i literally i didn't drive a car for the whole year when i was up there i would drive i just took a road the bike path all the way up bid well park to go home and it was it was just great so i support people power but you know some of these are really to go through some sensitive uh environmental areas you know the ran arana colts was really almost like a road not really a bike path and i think we need to be concerned that we're not building big roads through open space areas like that so i was kind of questionable about the arana colts project so anyway thank you yeah absolutely i'd be supportive of that and our our children deserve no less that are going to school i mean this uh this traffic pattern if that's what you want to call it it's kind of a traffic uh jam more than anything in school days it is it is absolutely horrendous and i think we need to do everything we can to provide bike bike trails and bike paths that are not on highway one if we can i understand that there's for some people that want to do it for commute but i'm thinking more of the children that are going to school and what we need for heaven's sakes let's give them the basic safety that they can come and go from school and their bike and do it in a very safe manner and we they deserve no less and i'd be a hundred percent behind that okay kind of along the same lines from the town plans many years ago there was discussion of a bike and hike path along the way all the way from junction park in boulder creek to san lorenzo park in sanikers what happened to that plan and designated funding and bill i think we start with you well i i think a lot of these projects would be absolutely wonderful but we have to you know we have to consider some costs involved um and the priority like before like we talked about the infrastructure improvement projects that we really need to focus our dollars in on some of that stuff but bike path from all the way from boulder creek to santa cruz i'm there i mean i would love to have one but again i you know i want to stress the fact that and i believe in my civil civil engineering and work experience is valuable with that because it's very difficult to prioritize the types of projects that we really want they may sound wonderful and not the graham hill road project i don't i don't disagree with it at all it's a very safe um it's going to help the project there as well but it had a high price tag when we have some other big infrastructure things that we should the money should have been there so but bottom line i support it but we need to be concerned about the the money we need to prioritize the money and put it where we really need it when we when we do have the extra money to pay for these things then we can divert it to that but it would be absolutely wonderful but i think we need to stick with these bike paths for the schools that that's obviously the priority when not these recreational months that go all the way to santa cruz thank you now what happened to it uh well it literally it didn't get done or it hasn't been getting done so we have to see how we can make it make it happen and it is with the tight money that we have for transportation services throughout this county and throughout this district it's a difficult task to take on but i don't think that should stop us from saying let's try it and let's let's keep our eye on the ball and keep going after it because i was in the state legislature and working with fred kealy and sam far we had a seashore trail and they said oh you'll never get it done well that is getting done as i speak and it takes time and it takes years my suggestion to you is we have to know or i would have to know as your supervisor how important it is to you and be vocal about it so i and the other board members hear that this is a top priority for you because when i've been going to throughout this district door to door i don't go to tell people what i think or what's on my mind i'm here i'm there as i will be at the county board to hear what's on your mind and what are your top priorities this uh we we have all talked about the transportation network and how lacking in really services and really the the the priority that has been given over the years here and and usually when you talk about transportation it is on vehicles we need that is going to be a top priority for the highway nine quarter because it's a state highway and the state transportation commission gives you the money and bike trails are not a priority there so my suggestion is let's try to do what we can outside of the state highway corridor to connect some of our communities to connect to connect them to some of our services i think that's the best motive most immediate chance we have to really develop a bikeway system in santa cruz county in the fifth district there was a lot of work that was actually done by several members in this community looking at the feasibility of the bike trail so it wasn't that it was dropped completely it was that there were some huge roadblocks were put in front and i think it's important that people realize that there has been people in this community that have been working towards this they were able to get from santa cruz to san lorenzo bridge which again is right across from a plus property on the back street over on the other side of the river and they came up to a property with a property owner that wasn't willing to allow access through their property and there was some very um the some of the people involved such as jeff on quest who actually i believe was chair of the committee at the time you know they they tried to to get it through there and from that particular point they had ways to weave it in and out using the rail trails up into boulder creek so it's not that it's impossible it's the fact that we need to prioritize if we want to use what it takes to make those trails you know and there is a really bad word out there in this world and it's called eminent domain if something is and people feel passionate enough about it there is a way i'm not saying that that's the way that that that i look at things i'm saying that if this community wants to get together and build it it can be built there are rail um line easements they go through people's property but they have been there for a very long time we need to read to take a look at that you know the town plan i think it's a more important part of this question we developed and spent a lot of money on these town plans fred kealy was supervisor at the time many of you in the audience today worked on those town plans those town plans talked about business development schools infrastructure everything okay just adjusting the gears a little bit counties are the most important land use authority under u.s law how do you envision your leadership on the board of supervisors in preserving a high standard of land use regulation that will sustain an environmental quality we can be proud of i think this starts with bruce well first of all i think we we follow the general plan that we have here we are not a fast growth county we are a slow growth county and that's where we wanted people live in this region up in the upper valley and throughout santa cruz county because that's where they want to live and they like the protections that they have and the sensitivity we have to environmental protection from protection of our streams to our forests to the seashore and i've been very much involved in those types of protection uh through my legislative career and as an editor of the santa cruz sentinel when i was the first one to encourage the biggest moderate bay marine sanctuary of the five being proposed that i was the first editor to suggest that in the state of california i am none of the vice chair fred kealy is the chair of of developing the or building the marine exploration center it's an education center for the moderate bay marine sanctuary that we have that's going to open at the foot of the santa cruz wharf come uh july i'm really proud of that that is really great i also supported those bonds that were authored by fred kealy when he was an assembly member and i was a senator to have parked bonds so we could build more park facilities including the junction park and bowler creek uh from those bond measures i have been out front and very protective of the environmental resources that we have because i believe that jobs and the environment can work together literally and they do and they have to because tourism and agriculture coupled with education and technology are highest economic drivers in this county and we need to do everything we can produce protect those natural resources and my great grandfather in 1902 helped to establish big basin is the first state park and this uh at the first park state park in california i'm very proud of that and i want to keep to maintain that kind of standard i'm really sorry about the cutbacks that are coming to the parks but i'm so proud of the simple virings club of which i'm a member has come forth and said that they're going to support the maintenance and the maintaining and the operation of castle castle rock state park i said earlier in the introduction that i felt that i was the best candidate and with the making improvements with the planning department i really think that you don't need to look any further i mean if you read the general plan it's somewhat hard it takes a while to read it it's like it's written by part economist part tourist guide part engineer etc etc but it does have a lot of really good things it's probably the most difficult document to generate for the county but it really dictates planning but i believe it needs to be perfected and there's a there's a problem with it being really confusing and that's that some of the environmental protections get violated and you really can't make a document like that they recently made some amendments to it and added it which were helpful no doubt but i believe that this is a document that needs to be regenerated like once every decade and i believe it's i believe it needs to be revamped again keeping all the the good things that are in it but to try to make it a little bit more easier the meat and potatoes really is land use so basically you're dividing up all the parcels that are everywhere and saying okay you can do this here or that and then they get certain zoning designations but you only have to go to one pico and look at some of the parcels and how they were drawn up in 1930s and know that there's some real a lot of work that needs to be continued to be done on this but you need to have you know my the civil engineering work experience to understand the infrastructure that what's where it's required and you also need to know you have to be educated in sciences to know the important environmental safeguards that need to be protected to try bottom line we're trying to create a pristine environment here because it's a real plus for our well-being and our spiritual health and also our tourism it's a big you know we need to protect it and the planning department has a big role on that and i really believe it needs to be and i believe i'm the best candidate for that in that regard thank you but the question again was on land use planning right just want to make sure you get it right land use planning and development and growth and environmental protection those are the big keywords here we have been fortunate in this county in the last 20 to 30 years to have a spoken and unspoken slow growth mentality and i'm actually very grateful for that i'm fortunate when you walk out the doors of the school and you take a look at what's around you you see the trees you see the environment you see rivers that for the most part are very clean and you see a lifestyle and it's based on zoning and it's based on development and there is a push through economic development to make a change we are at a point that we will be looking at the general plan in the next four years it is going to be rewritten and parts of it changed and my big concern is that there's going to be a growth component to it i want to make it really clear i am very much into slow growth what i want to see is i want to see these houses that were built 1920s 1930s and 1940s fixed up and the ease in which they're fixed up be so that everybody in this room can walk down to the county building department and feel comfortable and feel safe that they're going to be heard and that they're going to be helped and they're going to walk out of that room knowing exactly what they need to do the first time in order to take off that lead-based paint single wall construction single pane windows asbestos tile and turn that old cabin into a jewel that is right next to the river because if you use good building practices today and green building practices and in your restoration of that house you can walk away with that house being better than it ever could be in the acquisition of the local water system in felton would you be supportive and i think we need to start with eric so right flow you bet i supported flow in the first first place uh went to some fundraiser with my kids um i think they had a couple of movie shows outside at the park you know we were supportive that way uh we also signed petitions and as a family we're very supportive of it um we're looking at that again right now um you you water issues are going to be at the top of the list for years to come water wars we're taking a look right now we're seeing in front of us the lompico water district having issues and it's made the the press a little bit you're you're you're seeing residents reaching out for support you're seeing um a mixture of of foreign against a merger the lompico water district is going to be an issue in the next couple of years with this infrastructure no matter what happens you know it's got about two point three million dollars worth of upgrades that need to be done by some sources you know bills an expert who sits on it but from my understanding is the residents are reaching out to slv water district to try and do an acquisition or a merger and slv water district is also being very safe and and how they approach that they want to make sure there's a consensus of the people who live in that community so we're going through this right now and i think we're going to continue to go through this there's a lot of little municipalities out there special water districts we're going to have to work together as a community and as a county to solve our water problems you know i am in favor of the the north south tie that they're putting in for for or looking at the terminology might not be perfect but it's it's to give xiany i mean lompico the water that they need in case of in the drought it's an emergency connection that needs to happen you know we don't want to be in a in a fire danger we don't want to run out of water when we have you know drought situations or overdrafting of of the river we need to really look at that now thanks yeah the law i support the merger with the lompico water district it was really kind of a bad planning decision for lompico water because there were only 500 houses and that we couldn't it's also a complicated water system has we have our own treatment plants and we have a lot of elevation changes sometimes there's a small water district that just meters off you know the larger water district so they don't have a lot of costs lompico doesn't they have a full service water district so we couldn't support our overhead so merging makes sense yes we are we let uh i wasn't on the board i'm getting blind for it but our infrastructure deteriorated and we need a 2.6 million dollars was the last estimate and um turn it in we want to merge with san lorenzo valley totally support that and it will be a plus for san lorenzo valley water district adding 500 customers is not to sneeze that and they'll also get a part of the water system that will be have all new equipment etc so i've been told when they did take over the felton water that they did have some issues lots of things that they didn't foresee that they needed to fix up some people but they you know the german company cow cow american water they just wanted them out of theirs and so i believe that was a plus it really helps to have one big water district because they you know they can consolidate and they can they can cover all their overhead costs and then they can they can really respond and serve their customers very well so i know that you started out talking about felton water but i believe that this is more concerned with lompico water so but any of you out there can help get this merger helped and you know i really you know want to support that and it really makes sense we just uh anyway thank you yes i would be very pleased to try to accommodate this which would have to be a an agreement between two independent water district lompico and san lorenzo water and san lorenzo water district is a very well run and it has pristine water quality and it should be you should be pleased with the services you're getting from your water board because it's really top notch this is going to be something know that the uh from what i've heard and talked with some of the san lorenzo valley water uh directors that they're they're very concerned that they don't let left holding the bag is what happened in the the previous water uh merger so to speak so we we have to they'll be very sensitive to that uh mr smallman knows much more about the water district than i do sitting on having sat or sitting on that water board but it is uh it is a very brittle system at this point and it needs some attention and i think that the san lorenzo valley water board uh when i've talked to the members they have seemed willing and able to to be able to do that it's just a matter of making sure that they're not left holding the bag they want to help their neighbor and i think it's would be a very good uh very very good result if these two districts could merge continuing with water what is the first step we need to take to be sure of an adequate supply into the future and i'm going to start with bruce well we have limited we have limited options because we don't we don't have any surface water to go to and so that's very very very much of a concern but we do have a lot of we have a great aquifer here as i mentioned before we have some of the most pristine water uh resource in in this county and anywhere you want to look but we we really have to see how we can work together and have tie-ins like we do with with long peak hope it gets done with long pico that can be done the the water district is very sensitive this uh the first thing that everybody looks to is conservation well that's easily said and to the credit of people of santa cruz county this county has probably the best record of conservation of any county in the state and we might have to be asked to do more and if it's uh maybe not to the the reduction that we had before but it's another five percent that will go a long way for us to uh for us to accommodate our needs that we we're going to have in the future also to tie in with one another is a very good i think option that we should we should look into because there's some aquifers that might dry up or get get more shallow than others at times and then we we need to have that source as well as the the reservoir for the city of santa cruz that it depends on so it's going to take a conservation effort and i think a cooperative effort between the districts and the cities of scott's valley and santa cruz to make this work in the long run because it's our most precious resource and our most most basic resource that we need to protect i think conservation is the very first thing we need to take a look at and then i think after conservation we need to take a look at our building practices i disagree with the fact that that we can't do more we can do a lot more but in order to do more you got to think outside the box and you got to make sacrifices building practices today you're changing out gross pollutant toilets shower heads faucets you know some places you're taking a look at doing a rainwater catchment system those are alternatives we need to make those priorities if we put rainwater catchment systems in all buildings and all commercial building applications if we take a look at retention and detention systems to slow down the surface water to replenish the aquifers it can be done if we take a look at pavement and it's pervious that allows for the water to soak down it's possible they're implementing that today in new building if we want to talk about conservation we're going to have to take a look at going backwards we may have to take a look at ripping up parking lots that are existing putting in new systems repaving it with imper with pervious pavement we need this water problem goes a lot farther than just scott's valley and sandland as a valley in sanikers we're talking soak kelp creek water we're talking pahoe valley we're talking saltwater infusion into the aquifers we're talking about an aquifer in scott's valley that has not come up ever they flatlined it we need to take a look at recharging the aquifers and thinking outside the box they're expensive alternatives i've met with every city managed water manager soak kelp sanikers scott's valley sandlands a valley they're working together but the thing they've all said there's no more low hanging fruit they're all expensive alternatives we need to look at those expensive alternatives and prioritize them thank you yeah i get i'm i'm really interested in water conservation issues i i worked actually on the first step system in california was in pen valley but that's just a secondary septic tank effluent pump instead of having leech fields it goes the water goes to a treatment plant and then they generate reclaimed water and use it for irrigation i you know i think that might work in some areas in the valley and i'm also interested in these personal home septic tank treatment plants i think it'd be really cool to have a septic tank you have to have an additional tanks aerated and then it has to go to another tank that kills all the microorganisms so then then you can use the water for plants and stuff and everybody could do that so you're killing two birds and two stunts you're not getting all the bad nutrients going into san lorenzo river and you're also saving a lot of water it's going to be expensive but you're actually taking care of your your sewer so that's some of the responsibility of the county to take care of you know they build sanitation districts and stuff like that and you could actually have some of this at home but really the county is really can do a bad job with water pollution and we need to we need to address that and we can address both water conservation and water pollution at the same time doing that is it a big huge you know top priority yeah it is and but i'd like to work towards doing that and i believe i'm the only candidate that really has experience in that field to address that and then lastly i'd like to revisit i remember when i first moved here the sand quarry operator talked about building a reservoir at no cost up there and you've so many people might know but i would like to revisit that but he would he wanted to extend his mining permit to build a reservoir up on the sand quarry so it cost nothing and it might be really a good place to store water water storage recharge the water storage bill it also may be a real place to for tourists to go to or for recreation as well thanks okay now we're going to shift to some more less frequent topics but a big one brookdale lodge as a brookdale resident i am concerned about what the candidates are going to do to improve the brookdale lodge and i think we need to start with bill on this well i wanted to talk about the brookdale lodge in my conclusion because i really believe that my board of economic development would have helped in that area if mr i can't remember his name kakar kakar i believe it is if he before he even purchased the property if he went to the board of economic development they would immediately said hey you have no experience remodeling hotels you need to hire this guy a construction manager and your these permits are going to be involved describe all the permits the cost etc then he would have known exactly what costs who we need to hire to get the job done right and it was a complete disaster we can blame this guy all we want but um you know who knows but the thing is is it also this board and i want to say that even though it would have informed mr kakar of how he could have successfully rebuild the brookdale lodge the um if the county wasn't really being uh you know serving him well and giving him i don't know i'm not i'm not making any accusations but they could have had some difficulty um getting his permits they could have correct that too as well that's why i'm really excited about creating a board like this what to do now i believe that he while he's in court and i believe that he either needs to be forced to sail or he needs to uh to sell the brookdale lodge or he needs to be some restrictions and then he needs he needs some time limits and if he if he has the fun he may not have the funds to do so but to get on a schedule it's a lot it's a big loss for our tourism the brookdale lodge is great i miss it and i want it back so he i believe he i don't know i'm not a lawyer but i believe that he either needs to be forced to sail or get on a schedule of rebuilding and get it back online because we're starting to lose the name recognition as well and you start to lose people from out of town too they oh i don't even know where that place and not you know you you lose your name recognition so i you know i think we need a support thing to fix thanks boy this it's a complicated situation because you're dealing with private property rights uh lawsuits uh all kinds of things and i think that the the county needs to really get energized and and force some of the issue to the greatest extent it can through its uh building and zoning procedures which need improvement on their own uh to allow you to come into the planning department and know what you have to pay and and get a good idea of how long it's going to take to get a permit that's probably complicated a little on the county level listen there's not one of us here that doesn't want to see that thing built that is a critical element to the tourism trade of the san ronzo valley and when it's up and running and doing well we all do better and um i'm not a lawyer uh but i have uh i think that we can press some issues there on the county to make force him into action or out of there one way or the other um it's a it's a complicated situation as i said but it's something that we really need as a county to address and really have better oversight and see something like this coming and why did it happen it this he wasn't um you know a good manager shall we say i mean that the court system is showing us that right now so that's something that the county probably didn't have any control over but we can have control over trying to have this come back and then maybe seeing who builds it in the long run as well brookdale lodge the brookdale lodge is a jewel and walking districts i've had so many people come up with so many different ideas about what we can do with a brookdale lodge one of the one of the ones that stuck out to me which was very different was low cost senior housing turn it in and do a mixed use on it it's different but the cool thing is it's someone out in the community that approached me with an idea i like that that's how i want to the brookdale lodge to me however is a place where my 103-year-old aunt before she died told me the stories of coming down from alameda to our cabin and stopping at the brookdale lodge and having those boys deliver groceries up into the cabin uh on the weekends that was a highlighter summer i mean i want people to be able to tell stories like that so this is how you fix something like that or how i feel you fix something like that the county needs to be proactive as a supervisor i'm going to go out there i'm going to talk to those lawyers and i'm going to talk to people find out how we can make it happen it my degree is in resort management recreation and tourism you know i want to i know exactly the impact that that resort has i want to see it up and running and it's going to take some big steps you know and there are people that are more experienced than i am that i want to look to to help make that happen and the first thing you do is you start a conversation in a dialogue with the owner there and with a with a real estate attorney and with county council and you go to county council and say this is what we want how do we make it happen and then we have to take a look at it from an economic development standpoint and put together a team that's going to attract a buyer that can come in reshape it and put it back out into the market so that we as a business community at a tourist community can can utilize it it's a jam we want to see it fixed back up thanks in your opinion how can the county best ensure an adequate supply of affordable child care affordable child care we can't really depend on ourselves to make this happen as a county we are agents of the state and have to implement the laws of the state and we're their right arm person to do that it is very very critical that we work through the state to see that they give adequate funding for this kind of services these kind of services and this is one of the places where i think i could really become a very very strong spokesperson for this county and for the counties throughout the state to uh that the state is is shoving more responsibilities down uh and onto the counties i think this is the time for us to demand that they put up their fair share this is this has been uh the state has been cutting back this source of funding for several years running well they've had to and very uh a great number of areas but this is one where they've had an even cut back and a higher percentage than is what's necessary in my opinion we have to get together as counties and let our elected representatives in the state sure i want to do it myself but the fact of the matter is much of that funding comes from the state sources and federal is for that matter so i think that with my experience and the contacts that i have i'll be able to help us talk to the right people at the right time to get our fair share i think there has been enough cut backs in this this area because we have just working families literally now that need more of this type of care and we ought to see that we are provided and we're going to need the help of the other levels of governments to help us do it i like to be one that takes care of it myself but the state or the county itself is not in a position to fund that we're going to have to get the lion's share of that through other levels of government okay um to be honest i haven't given a lot of thought about childcare on this issue but um but it goes on kind of on in the line with uh you know i gave a lot of thought with uh home in here care nursing's um because they only get paid 11 dollars and 50 an hour but they do you know i'm all in favor of uh keeping as much state funding as possible you know as we can get to fund um these programs but i'm also sort of interested in including um paying customers to share the burden for possibly both this childcare and in-home health care to hire more people and actually advertise and have a county agency that provide these services um so we could collect more funding to support them from people that could afford to pay and then also maintain um government funding and um and i think we can pay these people a lot more to for the service and we can really provide quality service that way it's just uh i'm just brainstorming a thought i think it's a way to really maintain a good quality service and and there's really a lot of demand for these service for people that don't have money and then there's also people that have money that could afford to pay it um out there for that and i think it might possibly work thank you i know childcare is a huge issue for working families um and it's not one that can be answered easily um i don't think we can depend upon the state though i mean we we keep hearing that the state's broken it's not going to work and it hasn't worked um and i think that that we've got some some good local leaders that have been pushing those buttons already and we're not we're not getting heard i think that we have to look locally and we have to look amongst our own communities to support our communities exactly what that looks like i don't have the answer to that but i think that if we take a look at some of the outside agencies that are there now that specialize in outreach for families and for kids we take a look at mountain community resource center we take a look at community bridges the the the family resource centers there's six of them in the county um there's county-based programming through counseling centers we need to put together a group of people a collaborative and find a way to create affordable childcare um because we can't stop people from work and they need to work and when people want a second income is going directly for childcare you're not making any progress and you hear about that problem all the time so do i have an answer for that i don't but when i reach out to some people and find a way to get an answer yes and make some phone calls to the state you bet we've got some good representatives at the state level that i can reach out to and would reach out to but i i can't guarantee or even suggest that they would come through because they haven't so far thanks this should be a fairly short one unless you choose to expand it do you favor spending county money in support of nonprofits like planned parenthood yes yes yes okay regardless of state or federal laws marijuana cultivation has become a big business do how do we ensure safe and environmentally sensitive practices well my concern here is the like you know i'm a big open space advocate i support uh the central finance group and its land trust as well and um you know there's a lot of renegade guides that go under these open space areas and have renegade pot farms and um i think it's a big problem really i have you know especially when i actually wrote uh john lared about it because when they decided to close the state parks i believe that this would be a big issue and i thought you know it's a good thing you know that you know there's a lot of damage would occur to the state parks with this problem um litter and everything else that goes along with it um as far as like you know the legal cultivation areas you know um that's you know there's there's a big problem obviously that you know the federal government it's illegal state government they're trying to make it legal etc etc you know these guys need to get their act together figure out if they want marijuana legal or not that way it can stay uh cultivation can stay in places where it's not environmentally damaging so but um you know um that's why um when they did close the state parks i did want i said hey why don't you just uh sell passes to those us people that are really concerned about the state parks so we can go out there and if we see some illegal activity of of growing pot farms that we could simply call on our cell phone and call ranger to take care of that so that doesn't happen so but i you know i think you know there's a lot of really remote places where that can happen and and that's a concern of mine thank you yeah when i when i was in the state legislature i i did support the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes when it was overseen properly uh it doesn't seem to have a problem there but the problem that we have with marijuana long and short of it is is there's different levels of government that enforce it different ways and until they get their act together and how we're supposed to do it the governments the levels of governments themselves are going to be working against each other uh we can see what we we want here we can try to plan and say this is what you should do but if it's not legal in the eyes of the state or primarily the federal government we we just open ourselves up to some big problems and some big lawsuits we have to be very careful with that i do think that there is a use for marijuana that we should uh that it should be from open for medicinal uses but to how to make that work for all levels of law enforcement to agree upon we haven't reached that point yet and we need to do that and it's going to i think it's going to have to start from the top on down i think that as i said there should be available uses in some situations but until we get the the okay from the other levels of government it's going to really complicate the situation and what we don't want to be doing is defending as a county and spending thousands and thousands of dollars defending something that we're going to lose on and something that we might even want to happen so we have to be very careful with that thank you could you repeat the question again please regardless of state and federal laws marijuana cultivation has become a big business how do we ensure safe and environmentally sensitive practices okay the question isn't about the legalization of medical marijuana it's about environmental and safety issues so let's talk a little bit about that to start with uh there was actually an article in the paper a week back about you know code enforcement going out and taking a look at some of these quote legal fields and imposing the same style of rules and regulations that go on to anybody that does any type of building practices you have to have erosion control measures you have to have wattles and drainage and make sure that there aren't any environmental uh grading or unnecessary grading you know we have the what that i believe is more of the question around safety and environmental safety it's not whether or not we can legalize it or not that's another question you know the voters of the state of california you know voted to legalize medical marijuana it and whether we want to turn our heads or not it is a huge part of this community there it's undoubtedly a huge economic impact to our district and our county we need to take a look at that we or as a supervisor we have to also uphold the law of the feds so that's different but i do think that we can go out there and impose environmental protections that you know if you're going to do a legalized uh farm you have to get a grading permit if you're moving around dirt you have to have that inspection you know they're not code enforcement officers are going out taking a look at this environmental planning is going out and taking a look at some of these farms they're not turning them in to the feds they're not trying to to be the police in this they're just trying to protect the environment we need to give them the resources to be able to go out and do that thanks okay this one's a concentrate question so focus in which of the following best expresses your vision for the role of county government one it should first seek to encourage and facilitate the service efforts of individuals voluntary associations and lower levels of government two it should first seek to provide programs and facilities which serve the public okay um this question needs to start with eric thank you i think i see number three here all the above um should first seek to encourage and facilitate the service efforts of individual voluntary associations and lower levels of government you know i i think number one to start with but you know what you also need number two to be an effective government thanks that's very diplomatic um it's this one's right it's it really is this is tough for it yeah i have to agree with eric yeah i think it's a twofer also yeah so it's uh yeah i just don't know how you can say one over the other sometimes sometimes we have to do the hard ones what do you think is the most pressing issue for youth in the valley and what have you done and will you do about it let's see bill we'll start we'll start with bill okay well i definitely my first priority i guess you know i've stated earlier i want to create a board of economic development and i think that's top priority second one is you know this uh road maintenance program to get that moving along that john pricely was recommended and there's some other other safety infrastructure improvement projects that are all there that are smaller that are also a big priority too basically for safety and good access spike path from the school i think that's that's a big priority and um and well you know we're solving the lompico water merger is priority for me obviously but i think it'll be good for the entire community as well and then extending on beyond that um and you know we need to like i said with this economic board development to maintain and increase our tourism industry here and uh in the in our district would be very helpful generate resources um to do more things and um other than that um like i said um the water like before the water conservation methods that we need to start implementing some of these um improvement projects like i said they're not top priority but they're they would be really we need to stay focused on even this long bike path i mean i i don't mind it's like you know i would like high-speed rail i mean but we we need to stay okay to you know keep keep on focused on what we need to do to get it done um but that doesn't mean we have to expend the resources and take it away from the high priority items that we need right now thank you i think the uh the top priority of us is to provide adequate public safety and law enforcement for the citizens of this district of this county if you don't feel safe in your home in your neighborhoods your just don't feel it's not good anywhere that is a basic component that we should provide as your representative on the county board of supervisors there's no question that they're the the road system when i've been going door to door that is a huge thing that that has an impact on that law enforcement system and the outstanding volunteer fire departments that we have in this district uh though those are really critical things that we need in the economy we we should have in the county a one portal where somebody can come in and say what do i have to do to get my building permit to start my business and let me know in 24 hours or less or two years or less it's it's taken for somebody for primary sakes it's we just have to be more accommodating to people and welcome them into our community if they come here to have a business to create jobs for the people in our district in this county uh but those are the really the the major things that we have to do and covered with all of those is the protection of our natural resources because that's the the gem that we all appreciate and that's why we want to live here in the first place wasn't the question about teens youth i thought i thought so i just wanted to make sure because that's not what i heard let's talk about the youth for a minute then why don't we um top priority of youth correct what do you think okay good that helps thank you that's why i asked for me the top priority there's many of them um not to repeat i also believe that we really need to take a look and having better law enforcement and fire protection in the rural areas of the center and so valley i talked about it before with the fact that i think that we need to bring more of a presence here into our community we're about to build a 44 million dollar police station share station down in santa cruz live oak area you know it would have been nice to have had some of that money even though i know it was rda money but i thought of how can we build a small substation up in the santa rinza valley so that we weren't sharing a station with cal fire i know that we have to look at that but how could we have done that so that's a priority fire those culmbres the outer areas of of csa 48 are having a very difficult time funding their stations you know and they're looking to mutual aid from the volunteer fire departments in the valley to help protect their area we need to find the funding they need 1.2 million dollars to adequately fund their stations to upgrade upgrade their equipment we need to look at that it's not a ton of money it's out there in fact that amount of money has been diverted um through ab 127 into another area that they could get that money i think tourism and increasing tourism is a huge um avenue that we need to take a look at i've been working through boulder creek parks and rec through the business association through the chamber through felton chamber to take a look at a plan a strategic plan on how to increase tourism through his through marketing through a historic scenic corridor and joining partnerships with scott's valley and santa crews in putting together a master plan marketing plan to increase that we live in a gateway to scenic beauty you know that this work together to make that happen and i'm already working with people within this community to make that happen it starts right here locally to improve it thank you okay i want to do one quickie on the county women's commission report shows that women in santa Cruz county are underpaid underinsured and underrepresented especially on the board of supervisors how will you change this reality i think the first thing i would do is is support the women's commission the women's commission has been working hard for years uh on the c dot um document and trying to get our county to uphold its basic principles our government is one of the few that is yet to adopt it this was a policy that has been adopted worldwide except for smaller countries in the united states we need to take a look at that in fact i was flabbergasted when i was at the board of supervisors meeting about six weeks ago when the women's commission did a presentation to the board of supervisors about implementing a plan to collect data on women in the workforce equal equal pay equal representation equal people on the bodies and it did not pass unanimously it's unbelievable that that didn't happen how we bring more leaders in the report that i was reading it said that 37 percent of the elected officials i believe was 37 to 39 don't totally quote me are women and and that's a low percentage i mean we need to empower people within the community and we need to give we need to work together to be able to motivate the women leaders out there and have them feel safe to come out and be role models i mean most of the people that i surround myself with this is the sharpest women i've ever known you know and i would love to see a strong woman running for supervisor thanks yeah i i mean i i definitely would encourage i hope you obviously there's not going to be a woman on that after this election on the board but i hopefully encourage next election that a woman would run for one of the open spots but you know i'm all equal opportunity person women are clearly make better managers than men they really do and so you know you know obviously you know if there's some discrimination there or you know we need to encourage more women into the workforce because they really do make quality managers and i'd like to support that more in the county government effort you know i don't we don't want to go backwards make it a male dominated you know county government or any civilization so we need to move forward the same thing with you know we went we went to a foreman with the lgbd thing there's a there's still you know even though we're in groovy Santa Cruz there's a lot of discrimination and hate and stuff like that that we needed to stay focused to stamp all that stuff out and just move forward and we're all equal so we need to move forward in that thanks yeah we sure we sure are equal or we should be and there's no reason that woman should not be equal pay for an equal job that is out there and there are leaders and it's good to see there's some ceo throughout the world and so forth that are women but there's not enough in the united states but i think one thing that is for sure we better start listing because i think there's more women than men in this county and i think they're on the nation so we better listen up men because you know they they are good managers and if you don't believe it just come to my house and ask for mary macpherson okay is your seat getting really hard okay as you can see i still have another two hours of questions here so you've been very prolific but i think that we need to bring this to a close and one of the things that i thought we could do that with is what is your major point of difference from the other two candidates we're going to start with bruce we're going to come with eric and then with bill i think i have a proven track record of having of getting things done i have the experience that none of the other two do and you know i think that anybody who runs for public office ought to be applauded you know we all want to run for public service and to serve you in the best abilities we have but there are some qualities that each of us have that each and every one of us has over here that are better than the person sitting next to you but mine i think are experience knowledge and the personal contacts that i can have throughout government to bring more things to santa cruz county and the and the fifth district in particular and this is particularly important in this time of what we call realignment that began in october first when the state started shifting more responsibilities to counties and i like the idea of shifting more to local government that we would uh incarcerate in our jails first time felon nonviolent felons in our own prison systems this has been going well in santa cruz and our sheriff wolwack who has endorsed me as a matter of fact so i guess i might say good something good about him but in fact he is really doing a model job for the rest of the state health and human services is going to come next and there's going to be more and more coming our way clearly i believe i have the best in the experience in the knowledge and the personal contacts to see how this can get done and i would love to have that opportunity to serve you in the june fifth election and that's why i'm asking you to vote for me in the june fifth election to be your county supervisor for the fifth district because i think i can do the best job for you in this time of realignment this time of change unlike we have seen since proposition 13 shifted so much of the responsibility up to the state well it's coming back to us and i'm ready for it and i would love to serve you and implement it for us in the fifth district and all of santa cruz county thank you i think i'll talk more about where my strengths are my strength one of my biggest strengths is my local knowledge of what works right here right now uh and the connections and the ability to collaborate with everybody in this community i have working with boulder creek parks and rec working with mountain community resource center building the teen center i've been able to form collaborations and partnerships with this community we are looking at needing to make a change and that change is going to happen locally i have the connection locally to make those changes you've seen it with the partnerships that i've been able to make with boulder creek business association felton businesses association working with the chamber creating a vision and being able to implement that vision from a very local perspective i am a visionary i am a multitasking project manager i work with people all the time today i'm running seven jobs i'm coaching a baseball team i find time to spend with my kids and my my wife a little bit and i'm and i'm running for county supervisor and i am bringing myself up to speed because i do not have this level of experience but i do have the level of experience that everybody in this room is used to having and seeking out and i will look to everybody in this room to help me govern this fifth district because that's how we're going to get it done and that's the skill set that i have the other skill set that i have is i can listen i'm approachable and i will always follow through on what i say i'm going to do thank you yeah when i first said the introduction um you know i really felt that the wrong candidates or we're getting elected and i really felt that i really wanted to go on my message i want to specifically say what i would do if i got elected supervisor not give you a bunch of broad generalizations of issues that we're all obviously in favor of it it's really not quite as complicated as it all sounds and you know um like i said i want to create a board of economic development jobs is to me is the answer of taking care of the realignment plan it's the only realistic helpful thing to deal with that situation none of us really has any law enforcement experience um and i also want to again say that i have the experience that can really address the planning department the environmental health services department and also i'm clearly the best candidate to prioritize infrastructure improvement projects these are all very main things with the county that need to be done i don't want to make it confusing i want to make it very clear and specific on what i would exactly what i would do i don't want to come up and stay a lot of fuel gold but that's what separates me from these two guys i'm dealing with specifics i'm telling you what exactly what i'm going to do i'm not going to go over these and gloss and give you a bunch of lip surface and tell you i'm not here to serve i'm here to work and work hard and do these things that i'm telling you that i'm going to do and i believe it's going to make a big difference and help make the county a lot better and also remove the uncertainty of destroying the environment here and keep maintaining it thank you okay on the schedule was for each of them to give a two-minute closing statement so we'll start with eric then bruce then bill sure all right i'd like to thank everybody tonight for coming it would be my pleasure to serve you i'd also like to thank the valley women's club for sponsoring the event tonight in the league of women voters what it's going to take for me to win this election it's going to take your support it's going to take going out and talking with people and spreading the word of what you heard here tonight i have a web page please take a look at it i have a facebook page you know reach out i've got a bunch of youtube videos that are out there and i do also believe that endorsements are important i have been endorsed by the democratic women's club of santa cruz i have been endorsed by santa cruz democratic central committee by people power by seiyu by monary bay central labor council by oe three operating engineers the pahero valley cesar chavez democratic club the monary santa cruz county's building and construction trade councils just to mention a few thank you again i look forward to your vote getting your vote thank you very much i've had the distinct pleasure of serving you previously in the state legislature and every one of those races for the assembly and the senate i i won in the fifth district and i appreciate you giving me that opportunity to serve you as i i was very fortunate i feel like a very fortunate person to be able to serve you in that capacity again i think that i can bring to the table someone that's not going to go through a learning experience and doing something at this level of government because it's different and it's important that we get things on the table and people know what our needs are and not only have i received all the endorsements from the sheriffs the past media sheriffs the fire the immediate fire district supporters of like steve sanders sam robustelli uh mr boyden uh those people have supported me because they have seen how i was delivered from them in that capacity and i was known as the most independent vote in the legislature and i'm going to listen to you and i'm going to work with you and i'm going to be here all the time to serve you as i can best do as a county supervisor this is a thrilling opportunity for me and i've had people say well why did you go from the state to the county this is coming home and i can have more direct impact and again to get back to it in this period of realignment it is very very important we know who to go to how to get there and get things done and i think i can do that better than any of the three candidates here i respect their opinions and what they have accomplished and what they have done in the past but i really appreciate the support system that i have not only from the law enforcement community but from environmental leaders throughout this county and throughout this state it is something that i really i'm proud of and i appreciate and i would love to have the opportunity to serve you as your county supervisor come June 5th and i ask for your vote thank you very much well thanks thanks everybody for having me talk here and yeah i i don't as everybody knows i'm pretty much the underdog i i wasn't working on endorsements you know work over the hill i'm really i really believe i'm the only candidate that's coming out of the hard knocks of the private sector you know i've been working over the hill commuting actually the past 23 years all over california but the past 15 i commute to san jose and i've never really had job security you know being a construction estimator is tough you know you have to be very competitive and and do that so but you know again i'm really just running on message i'm really trying to convey exactly what i would do as your elected supervisor and and i'm not going on endorsements i'm going on message and i really like i said before if you really want change change the way you vote you are the boss when you listen to somebody else say hey this guy i want to i want to vote for him you're taking his judgment you're not using your judgment you want to use your judgment and i believe i really believe that that is the reason why you know the one the right people aren't running and one second the right people aren't really getting elected you want people that are out of the private sector out of the hard knocks of private sector that are realists that can really do to make real changes how are you going to know what these guys are going to do they really just gave you a bunch of generalizations about stuff think about it i really gave some specific ideas of what i would do and that's create a board of economic development and make improvements with the planning department and make improvements with the environmental health service department and i'm the best candidate for infrastructure improvement projects which we really need we need somebody up there to make those things happen thank you okay thank you very much i'd like to thank my helpers for tonight first fellow league member barbara louis who was the timer the students from the government class thank you very much i think it's particularly important that they chose to take some time to observe how civic life works and i appreciate them you have been a wonderful audience with tons of questions and i want to thank the candidates for presenting their point of view thank you don't you think and did a brilliant job