CANDIDATES PRESENT THEIR PLATFORMS AT FORUM IN COBB
COBB >> Candidates for local office presented their platforms during a candidate forum held Tuesday at Adams Springs golf course in Cobb organized and presented by the Clear Lake Chamber of Commerce. Various topics were addressed by those running for their respective offices including the District Attorney, Middletown Unified School Board and Treasurer-Tax Collector's Office in the upcoming June 7 election.
“Our community has been so divided over masking and vaccinations that we probably lost sight of taking care of school business,” said Charise Reynolds, candidate for Middletown Unified School Board's special election, adding that she decided to run for the school board because she wants to put the focus back on education.
Reynolds said the district has gone through
seven superintendents in the last four years (if you count interim superintendents). “It's understandable that we have a lack of continuity, but we aren't doing enough to recruit and retain our teachers. Our teachers are consistently among the lowest paid in the county, as are our classified staff.” she said, adding that on top of a teaching shortage there is a housing shortage which must also be addressed.
She said a High School teacher was hired by the district earlier this year, but he quit because he could not find housing in the district. “We almost lost $2 million dollars in COVID (relief) money due to the inaction of one of our former superintendents, things such as the local control and accountability plan and the secondary relief fund Elementary and Secondary, school emergency relief funds are constantly on the back burners.”
Reynolds said when it comes to managing the district bond draws, the district is reactive instead of being proactive. “We are scrambling to use our draws before we lose them. When we first allocated our bond money, there was a pot of matching funds, three years later those funds are gone.”
Another MUSD candidate, Bryan Pullman, spoke about his background and said he wanted to highlight some of what is going on in the district. Pullman said he has lived in Middletown for many years, moving to the area in 1972 when he was in the eighth grade. He said he spent almost seven years in the U.S. Army including a stint in Iran from 1977 to 1979.
Pullman said he came back home and started a few businesses, one of which is still operational today. “I am the father of four and the grandfather of 12. Of those 12, 10 are school age, only three go to school, the other seven have been pulled from private schools because their parents lack the confidence in the education system in our state, they are now home schooled or in private schools. “This was a wakeup call for me,” he stated.
The candidate added that a few of the problems with the education system
here in California are CRT (critical race theory) “I am sure no good parent wants their school to teach their child that principle.” Pullman also stated CRT teaches white children that they are “inherently evil” and that there is talk in education circles in the state that calculus is racist. He pointed out that another problem with the school system is wrongly teaching students as young as 6 about sexuality, including transgender issues. “School is a great place to teach biology, including reproductive biology, but it is best to leave sexuality to family and parents in my opinion.”
Other candidates who spoke during the forum included Patrick Sullivan who is running for Treasurer — Tax Collector, Anthony Farrington, who is challenging the incumbent Susan Krones
in the race for District Attorney and Paul Flores, also running for TreasurerTax Collector. Also in attendance were Richard Ford, the current Assessor Recorder for Lake County and representatives for Hannah Faith Lee, challenging Ford for that post. Lee was unable
to attend the event due to illness.
Sullivan said staffing has impacted every department in the county. “It's been a real burden, It's been difficult to retain staff, it's been difficult to recruit staff.” Sullivan said that there have been steps
taken to address the issue with salary increases given last year, but said he thinks there is still a lot that can be done, adding that there's ways the office can be more active in recruiting through job fairs and other programs. He highlighted his experience during his tenure as Lake County Tax Administrator for three years. During his time in Lake County, Sullivan has worked in collaboration with the Board of Supervisors in the Administrative Office as a liaison to the Treasurer-Tax Collector's office on a number of revenue programs, including the cannabis tax program, transient occupancy tax and sales tax.
Anthony Farrington, a former member of the Lake County Board of Supervisors, discussed reasons for seeking to run for the D.A.'s office. Born and raised in Lake County and publicly educated in the area, Farrington attended Mendocino College and U.C. Davis before working for the Lake County Office of Education which he said was probably the hardest job he ever had, but which taught him a lot about himself “and about our children and humanity.”
Farrington said he doesn't always appeal to partisan politics, but that he prided himself in making himself available to constituents. He also addressed crime rates in Lake County and the state. “I think we are at a very critical state here in Lake County.” He added that the county has some of the highest arrest and crime rates in the state. He cited his supervisorial duty where he provided budget oversight for the D.A.'s office, the Sheriff's budget, Juvenile Hall, the correctional jail and other facilities making policy decisions for various departments focused on public safety.
For her part, Krones, who grew up in the Bay Area, cited her extensive trial experience and institutional knowledge, having served as a Lake County Deputy District Attorney from 1992-2018. Before that, Krones served as a Captain in the U.S. Army in the Judge Advocate General's Corps (JAG.) She has been a resident of the County for 29 years and served as a prosecutor in addition to participating in more than 100 jury trials.