Candidates share concerns, offer different approach
For the first time after the June 7 primary election, the two runoff candidates vying for the Imperial County Board of Supervisors District 2 seat had the opportunity to talk about their proposal with the public in a candidates’ forum on Tuesday night.
Businessman Luis Plancarte and El Centro councilwoman Cheryl Viegas-Walker shared their plans and vision for the county and addressed questions from the public.
During her opening remarks, Walker mentioned the ample experience she has serving on El Centro City Council and other regional and state organization and boards. She said that if elected she will be fully committed to serve on the board full-time. Walker also noted that the board needs to be more diverse and that no woman has served on the board for nearly 30 years.
On the other hand Plancarte talked about how he has been involved with the community through the years, talked about his work experience and how it has enabled him to be more aware of the challenges the county faces and said he wants to give a voice to the people of the community as part of the board.
The main topics of discussion included county roads, job creation, Salton Sea and urban growth.
The topic of county roads drew intriguing responses from both candidates, Walker said she is aware of the precarious road funding crisis the county has been enduring.
She said that everyone locally needs to be on the same page and advocate for the transit funding plan that is pending in the state legislature stating it is the best hope to address the local needs, and also mentioned Assembly Bill 2170 which is awaiting approval by the governor can bring important monies to aid with the local infrastructure.
Her vision locally is to do the most with the transportation money they have.
“What we need to do is prioritize our transportation funding dollars and getting our biggest bang for our buck,” Walker said.
Plancarte replied by stating that he didn’t think AB 2170 would have the greatest impact because the need locally is to address the poor condition of the county roads and not state corridors.
He added that the way the state plans to fund the bill is through a set tax on gasoline and diesel and essentially is taking money from the Valley and sending it to the state only to receive a small portion of it back.
Plancarte said that one of his concerns was that the county doesn’t have a plan of which roads they need to work on the most.
“We have not done a prioritization of roads to see in which order we are going to address them,” he said.
Another important question raised by the public was about the candidates’ vision of additional industries on top of agriculture that can have the biggest impact on local job generation.
Plancarte mentioned that auxiliary or supplemental services that can go hand-in-hand with the farming industry is an option and used One World Beef as an example.
He also said that if the detention facility remains in operation it can also provide major opportunities as well as the renewable energy sector.
Walker said she believed tapping into the vast geothermal resource in the community should be a priority and said the Valley is a prime location for call centers to open.
She added that new opportunities can emerge at the border once the port of entry projects are completed.
The third major topic of the night was dealing with the department heads leaving for better jobs or to retirement.
Plancarte said the county needs to work on nurturing the mentality within its employees to continue to grow and strive to be better. He added that by ensuring employees are properly compensated they can keep their best workers in the Valley.
He also said that next year the county has labor agreements coming up next year and mentioned that is a good opportunity.
“That is when we can send a strong message to county employees that we are with them, that we support them and them continuing their education and do everything we possibly can to make sure that when they retire, they do so here,” Plancarte said.
Walker mentioned her previous experience as head of human resources of a bank in which she had the opportunity to work in succession planning in order to have well-prepared individuals to take over should a department head move on, as well as ensuring they are paid adequately.
“We really need to take a good hard look at our compensation packages for our employees,” she said using the example of local firefighters whose compensation is low. “We need to conduct a salary survey to adequate compensating our employees and that will assist us as we develop a succession plan.
“I understand the opportunities that succession planning bring to the workplace, where you have the opportunity to cross-train and provide opportunities for employees so that when we do have a head move on, the next in line is ready and available to serve at least on interim basis,” Walker said. “We must become an employer of choice within Imperial County; we really need to take a good hard look at our compensation packages for our employees.”
Despite the different approach of each of the candidates they did found some common ground in the way the county and the Imperial Irrigation District have worked to press the state on the Salton Sea.
Both talked positively about the solar industry when done right without putting agricultural land out of commission and mentioned that the county should be working a lot closer with the local cities in terms of urban development and planning.
The general election will be on Nov. 8.