Meet the candidates: Peter Durfee runs for seat on Board of Supervisors
From a young age, Peter Durfee had an idea that he might want to be a police officer.
He recalled being a 17-year-old at Chico High School and winning the ABC award which gave him the opportunity to do a ridealong with a cop.
To Durfee’s surprise, the shirt and tie-clad officer who pulled up in an unmarked police vehicle was the chief of police.
“And I’m like ‘oh yeah, it must be a busy day so all the uniformed personnel are busy doing other things,’” Durfee said. “Now, obviously, I know how busy you can get. So the chief took me to lunch at La Comida and from that day forward I just wanted to be a police officer.”
Durfee would go on to become a minor-league baseball umpire and eventually work his way to the major leagues before deciding to move back to Chico with his now-wife to raise their family where he began his career as a police officer for the Chico Police Department. He currently works the weekend graveyard shift and does training for other officers.
Now, Durfee is running for District 2 Supervisor.
“It’s easy to sit around with all your buddies having coffee and say ‘you know what’s wrong with our city or county or state or nation?’ but it’s difficult to raise your hand and put your name on a ballot,” Durfee said. “It’s because I want to make a difference, and I feel like I have something to offer.”
Durfee added that if he were to win the seat, he would keep his weekend position with the Chico Police Department going forward.
The issues
The first issue Durfee said came to mind was homelessness.
“Obviously homelessness is a huge issue, especially within Chico,” Durfee said. “I think you see it more in Chico than you do in Butte County as a whole but Chico for sure. Which is obviously what District 2 is.”
Another topic Durfee said he is concerned about is growth, particularly related to housing.
“The fact that we’ve got 40 houses on (multiple listing services) right now is an absolute joke,” Durfee said. “When we have houses that are getting 10 to 12 offers and they’re on the market for six days and they’re selling for $80,000 over asking, there’s a problem. We need to have some smart growth in our community. We need more homes for people to live in.”
The example Durfee used was the roundabout at Eaton Road and the Highway 99 exit.
“It would have been nice to have that in place prior to Amber Grove blowing up like it is,” Durfee said.
Durfee went on to talk about public safety as being
an issue he cares about.
“Near and dear to my heart is public safety,” Durfee said. “Because realistically, nothing else matters. If the community is not safe, we have to do our best to keep our community safe on a day in and day out basis.”
Durfee expressed his concerns about state-level laws and changing definitions of crime, adding that the Butte County Jail is old and needs an expansion if it’s going to house more inmates.
“I think we’ve got a Sacramento problem,” Durfee said. “With Proposition 47, Proposition 57 and Assembly Bill 109, they have decriminalized crime. So the sheriff is having a difficult time keeping people locked up.”
Durfee is running for District 2 Supervisor against incumbent Debra Lucero and challenger Carl Jeffries. The race will be on the June 7 ballot.