Re-elect Connelly, Teeter to Butte County board

Generally speaking, the more you do something, the better you get at doing it. That’s the case with governance, although that peculiar profession has some pitfalls.

That’s a reason we tend to favor incumbents, unless the power of making decisions for the public has gone to their head, or they’ve become a mindless ideologue, or they’ve yielded to the opportunities to become corrupt.

We haven’t seen any of that in the two Butte County Supervisors seeking re-election — Bill Connelly and Doug Teeter — and are comfortable endorsing them in the March 3 election.

Connelly was first elected in 2004 to represent the 1st District, which includes Oroville and the areas to the south and east. His family has been in the area since 1915.

He first got involved in politics after a dispute with the sitting district supervisor over the Veterans Memorial Park in Oroville.

After winning his first election, he quickly became knowledgeable in the problems facing the district and the county.

He’s been a staunch opponent of the re-licensing of Oroville Dam until an agreement beneficial to the area is reached. He’s been an advocate for widening Highway 70 to five lanes between Oroville and Marysville. He helped develop the process that dramatically reduced the number of complaints about marijuana grows.

Oh, and he helped get the Veterans Memorial Park well on the way to completion.

By comparison, his opponent, Ian Greene, simply doesn’t seem to have a very good grip on the issues facing the county.

Connelly told the editorial board, “I’m good at what I do and have a passion for it.”

A big part of that job is the recovery from the Camp Fire. Connelly points out there have been five large wildfires in his district in the past five years, so he knows the drill.

The Camp Fire is in the forefront of Doug Teeter’s mindset as well, as he lost his home in the fire, and was trapped several hours in a parking lot after all escape routes were blocked by fallen power poles.

Teeter represents the 5th District, which extends eastward from Bruce Road in Chico to encompass Butte Creek Canyon, Paradise, Magalia and the communities farther up the ridge. He was first elected to the board in 2012.

Teeter grew up in Paradise, graduating from Paradise High School and attending Chico State University for a time before transferring to San Diego State. After a career in scientific instrumentation elsewhere, he returned to the area in 2005.

He lived on a street that had been developed by his grandfather, and is in the process of rebuilding.

“I have a direct knowledge of the problems my constituents will face,” Teeter told the editorial board. “I want to be there for the town I grew up in.”

He’s been very active in the county’s fire recovery efforts, and in the efforts to find a use for the Paradise Irrigation District’s water, to avert loss of PID’s water rights or absorption of the district into some other entity, as the state has promoted.

He’s a member of the board of the Representatives of California Rural Counties, which has formed a non-profit corporation working to reopen a couple of closed north state lumber mills to convert biomass into wood pellets that will be sold to Japan and Korea.

He said there is also an effort to bring technology to the area that allows use of all sizes of trees — rather than just the big timber — to create laminated glue beams for construction.

Teeter’s opponent, Henry Schleiger, is a Magalia resident since 2015, whose home was just missed by the Camp Fire. His job is mapping wildfires for Deer Creek GIS, which is part of the Firestorm group.

He was born in Pulga and lived in Durham for a time before a stint in the Navy and jobs elsewhere. He returned to Butte County in 2010.

He has some good ideas, including the idea similar to the one Teeter mentioned of developing industries that can use all sizes of trees to make wood products.

“Rather than spending millions to get us out of it,” he told the editorial board, “let’s create an industry to get us out of it.”

He seems well informed on the issues concerning the county, but we don’t see anything that outweighs Teeter’s experience.

We also have concerns similar to those expressed Thursday about Susan Hilderbrand regarding Schleiger’s connection with the Chico supervisors. Schleiger is Tami Ritter’s member on the county Planning Commission, representing her 3rd District, even though he lives in the 5th.

That seems odd at the least.

In summary, we recommend re-electing 1st District Supervisor Bill Connelly and 5th District Supervisor Doug Teeter for another four years.