Gjerde, Peters spar at LWV supervisorial candidates night
Fourth District supervisorial candidates Dan Gjerde and Lindy Peters joined in a spirited and wide-ranging discussion of Mendocino County issues during a pair of forums hosted by the Mendocino Coast Democratic Club at the Harbor Lite Lodge Jan. 9, and the League of Women Voters at the Fort Bragg’s Town Hall Jan. 16.
Peters and Gjerde are vying for the county’s Fourth supervisorial seat, which covers a stretch along the coast from Russian Gulch just north of Mendocino, to just south of Whale Gulch on the Lost Coast, including the communities of Caspar, Fort Bragg, Cleone, Inglenook, Westport, and Rockport. The district reaches inland to include the towns of Leggett and Piercy.
The candidates gave views on county water issues, continuing acute challenges addressing mental illness among county residents and the Measure B Committee charged with spending tens of millions of locally raised dollars to treat it; sometimes related issues surrounding homelessness; county government’s still-struggling (but, Gjerde says, improving) pension fund; and a number of other current topics.
They responded to questions and comments from the audience,
and at times critiqued each other’s positions, though Peters the challenger was more ready with the criticism and calls for a new approach, while Gjerde stood on his record.
Both candidates are longtime local politicians, starting their elected careers on the Fort Bragg City Council. In his opening statement, Peters pointed out that Gjerde has run unopposed in the last two elections, while Gjerde responded that he ran unopposed because of positive results he showed.
“For too long many of us in the Fourth District have felt that we needed a stronger presence on the Board of Supervisors. A certain sense of complacency seems to have set in,” Peters said. “For the first time in eight years, we’re actually going to have an election.”
Peters cited his 18 years of service on the City Council, during which he has been on all the council’s subcommittees, and was mayor twice. He said that, over that time, he has built relationships with the area’s state Assemblyman and Senator, and served on a number of regionwide organizations.
“I speak out at meetings. I’ll do everything I can to make sure we’re getting our fair share of the funding and services from the county,” Peters said.
Peters also noted there is a good chance that three of the five supervisors will be new next term. He appealed to voters to make him part of a new board.
Gjerde responded that it might not be a good idea to have a Board of Supervisors where the longest-serving member has two years’ experience. He said his seven years as a supervisor would be a plus for the board as a whole and for the Fourth District.
Gjerde noted his role in getting $700,000 in state funding for Fort Bragg’s Summers Lane reservoir, which stabilized the city’s water supply. He also pointed to his work setting up forums on affordable housing and said more roads were paved in the Fourth District last year than any other district.
He also said the county has built up a surplus that did not exist before the 2008 recession and is much more able to deal with an economic downturn without mass layoffs.
Top issue
Gjerde said he sees housing as the primary issue facing the Fourth District and the county. He said someone making the median income in Mendocino County can afford a house costing $245,000, but there aren’t any houses available at that price. The solution, he said, might be some kind of subsidies of land costs since, he said, a small house can be built for about $245,000.
Peters said the local economy and its continuing reliance on tourism, which he called a “stopgap,” is the biggest issue. He said he favors a county effort to do more work inhouse and rely less on consultants, address shortcomings in the county’s cannabis program, and turn the focus on water supplies from reservoirs to desalination.
Accomplishments
Peters noted his role in helping save the dry sheds on the Fort Bragg mill site, balancing Fort Bragg’s city budget, and addressing issues around homelessness.
“I think we’ve done a good job in Fort Bragg,” he said. “It’s much better now than when I was first elected.”
Gjerde noted the re-opening of the coast animal shelter on Summers Lane, relieving Fourth District residents of having to drive to Ukiah to retrieve a lost pet.
“I convinced my colleagues and county staff to reopen the shelter,” he said.
Gjerde also noted building county reserves and repaving roads in the Fourth District, which he said was helped by a policy he introduced for the county to spend one-time revenues on one-time expenses only.
Pension fund
The county’s independent pension fund, which is struggling to stay solvent like pension systems nationwide, is in better shape than before, and in better shape than the state’s CalPERS pension fund. Gjerde, who sits on the county’s pension oversight board, said Mendocino County’s fund has made reforms, like lowering its expected rate of return, faster than the state has. He said the county is paying its debts over 15 years instead of 30, lowering its interest payments.
“I actually think we have a realistic scenario for paying off the county’s debt for the first time in years,” he said.
“This is sort of like a balloon payment that is just sitting out there,” Peters said. He noted that he is familiar with the city’s pension issues and that he thinks the county’s “aren’t quite as bad.”
“Really what we need to do is assure those past employees … that the money’s going to be there for them.”
Peters said he would continue to follow a city policy to devote all surplus money to the pension fund and emergency reserves.
Solid Waste
Peters said he didn’t necessarily favor closing the Caspar Transfer Station, saying he thinks it could be renovated to serve the coast’s needs. He said he opposes building a new transfer station on Highway 20.
“I don’t think the county has the money for a new transfer station,” he said. “This county should be and is moving toward zero waste. Recycling markets are down. The waste stream should be less than it is today, tomorrow.”
Gjerde said he is focused on the results of a study funded by Mendocino County government and city governments to study the best solid waste alternative for the coast.
“We know we have a facility at Caspar that’s not very efficient,” he said. “… We need to make a decision based on the facts.”
Climate issues
Asked what county government is and should be doing to address climate change, Gjerde noted that the county’s membership in CleanPower Sonoma has reduced the countywide carbon footprint by half, because Sonoma Clean Power buys electricity from renewable sources, while actually reducing rates compared to PG&E. He said he is also focused on seeking grants to create microgrids and will work to install more electric vehicle charging stations in the county.
Peters also said reducing the county’s carbon footprint should be a goal. He proposed a plan where judges, attorneys and court staff could carpool from Ukiah to the coast, to avoid having to make coast jury candidates drive separately to Ukiah.
“Select the jury here. That would work much better. It makes no sense to always be driving over there,” he said.
Peters also noted creating microgrids and addressing saltwater intrusion into the City of Fort Bragg’s Noyo River water supply, an anticipated effect of sea level rise.
“We have to retreat in terms of our building plans,” he said. “That’s what the Coastal Commission is suggesting, and that’s what we need to do.”
Cannabis
Peters said the county’s cannabis application, at 17 pages, is too long, and noted county cannabis tax revenues fell 38 percent short of projections last year.
“The first thing we need to do … is to simplify the regulations here … It is absolutely daunting,” he said.
Gjerde said 92 percent of the applications that are awaiting county approval are held up because needed permits from the state have not been approved.
“If the applicant doesn’t have the other permits … approved, the county can’t approve the permit. Yes, everybody wants simpler permits, but part of what the county does need to do is protect neighborhoods. Sometimes there’s a reason why there’s a review process. Because property owners have invested most if not everything they have in their house, and they may not want a cannabis operation right next to their house.”
TOT revenue
Asked for their spending priorities for $5.5 million in annual countywide Transient Occupancy Tax revenues, Gjerde noted that those revenues go into the county’s general fund and so are spent for a variety of purposes, except for $450,000 a year to county promotion efforts. “It’s revenue like all other revenue,” he said. “… I’ve been able to carve out revenue for roads and other projects.”
Peters also noted the importance of county promotional efforts, especially for the arts.
“I think we don’t do enough to support the arts at the county level,” he said, adding that he has marketing skills and is willing to get involved himself.”
Housing
Noting that the average income in Mendocino County is $47,000 and the average cost of a house is $350,000, he said the answer is to improve the county’s job base and look at ways to increase the amount of affordable housing, including tiny homes and projects targeted at seniors and veterans.
Gjerde said the county has expanded more relaxed Class K building codes to second units.
Measure B
The candidates were asked for their positions on Measure B, a 2016 voters’ initiative prohibiting the use of pesticides to kill “weed trees,” such as tanoak, as a forestry method in Mendocino County. Mendocino Redwood Company, the county’s largest landowner, objected to the measure and let county government know (or at least gave the impression) that the county would have to sue the company to enforce the initiative. The initiative has sat on the books unenforced since then.
Gjerde said county counsel has told supervisors the county is unlikely to prevail in court.
“We have not been given the go-ahead with legal advice that the county would win that lawsuit,” he said. “… If you lose the case, if the government loses the case, it would have to pay the legal bills of the people sued. That could easily be a million dollars … that’s as much as we spend in any one year on extra paving of roads.”
Peters said he would push to enforce the measure anyway. “If we lose the court case, we lose the court case,” he said.
“This is a democracy,” he said. “Basically, you folks out in Mendocino County came up with this initiative. You supported this and put it on the ballot … So, I don’t think it’s a sign, whether I’m for something or not. You folks voted for something, and you’re expecting your elected officials to follow through.”
Noyo Harbor
Peters called Noyo Harbor “one of the most important assets in the Fourth District” and noted that, while Gjerde pointed to additional road repair as one of his recent accomplishments, the county road at Noyo Harbor, one of the most heavily used in the district, is terrible.
“The first thing I’d do is get that road fixed,” he said, adding that he thinks the harbor holds a lot of economic potential with a little fixing up.
“Some of us remember when the road to the harbor was in much worse shape,” Gjerde said, noting that he pushed for Caltrans to pave the road after bridge construction, which was the last time work was done on the county section of road in the harbor.
Gjerde said he also sees a lot of potential in the harbor and has been talking to people there about possibilities. However, he said, big changes in the harbor will require rezoning, which he said would be a “complicated, time-consuming process” and that he has other priorities ahead of that, such as rewriting rules in the Coastal Zone to make it easier to build second units, a hoped-for way to address the shortage of affordable housing on the coast.
“We are going to be circling back to the Harbor District,” he said.
English/Spanish
Asked how they are responding to the rapidly growing number of Hispanic constituents in the Fourth District, Gjerde said he has put out his ballot statement in English and Spanish.
“Some of our county documents are in Spanish. Maybe not enough. I’m open to suggestions,” he said.
Peters said he also made his ballot statement in English and Spanish, and said that as a City Council member in 2014 he hosted the City of Fort Bragg’s first Hispanic-themed event, a Cinco de Mayo celebration in Bainbridge Park. He added that he passed a resolution as mayor to prevent Fort Bragg police officers from cooperating with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
At the same time, he said, he campaigns door-to-door and “it’s just a difficult electorate to try to reach out to” adding that he is open to any method of bringing Hispanic people more into the political process.