Meet the candidates: Mary Murphy-Waldorf running for supervisor position
CHICO » Mary Murphy-Waldorf is constantly seeking out new ways to become involved with her community.
Whether she is working with farmers in agriculture, teaching science or helping coach soccer for her kids when they were in high school, Murphy-Waldorf has kept her finger on the pulse of Chico.
“I’ve also been very much involved with my church for well over 30 years,” Murphy-Waldorf said, adding that she’s helped her church with housing the homeless at various instances. “And again, same M.O. There’s a need for education, a need for help with feeding people. Our church has been involved with this for quite a while.”
Murphy-Waldorf said she has historically worked with her children to provide aid to organizations such as the Jesus Center, something she said she learned from her own parents.
“I come from a large family,” Murphy-Waldorf said. “Kudos to my mom and dad. They got us all involved with community service and helping the community that we live in no matter where that was.”
Because her father worked for Pan American Airways, Murphy-Waldorf spent eight years living in the Middle East, which she said provided her with considerable perspective on communities and working closely with others.
“I bring that up because it gives a perspective on how just about every culture that’s in existence was there, and the whole idea of long-term thinking and looking at civilization in a very long way,” Murphy-Waldorf said.
She added that she’s not particularly interested in short-term solutions but rather stability for the future.
“The long way really helps in terms of not always seeking quick fixes,” Murphy-Waldorf said. “And seeing the pluses and minuses of people working together.”
The issues
Public safety immediately came to Murphy-Waldorf’s mind when asked about what she considers to be the top issues facing Butte County.
“People feel like they’re not safe right now,” Murphy-Waldorf said. “So we need to restore safety in this area. But why is that the case? There’s been so much trauma and challenges in our county through the fires and then on top of it, the isolation that so many people feel (from the pandemic). So it’s the idea of being communicated with, and people don’t feel the county is doing
a great job of listening.”
Murphy-Waldorf went on to say that public safety in itself is a particularly complicated matter that can’t be resolved with a single simple solution.
“It’s such a complex situation and there’s no silver bullet,” Murphy-Waldorf said. “And I keep saying that we have got to find sustainable solutions to it.”
Public safety, MurphyWaldorf said, before pouring into the issues of mental health and substance abuse, two other issues she expressed passion for.
“If you delve into people who have substance abuse experiences, they are experiencing mental health issues,” Murphy-Waldorf said. “There’s a lot of different care that needs to be going into this and it has to be ongoing.”
Murphy-Waldorf said she believes there is also an importance to working with those living on the edge of extreme poverty, such as some individuals who may have lost their homes in the recent fires, which she feels requires more communication between county personnel and the individuals facing these problems.
“That’s the whole idea of town hall meetings,” Murphy-Waldorf said. “We haven’t had those And while there are incidences where the county officials are working with the cities, which is awesome, they’re leaving out a component: the people.”
Murphy-Waldorf is running for District 3 Supervisor against incumbent Tami Ritter. The election will appear on the June 7 ballot.