As the June election nears, the only contested race for a county supervisor seat is heating up.
District 1 incumbent Supervisor Susan Adams and challenger Kerry Mazzoni, a former state assemblywoman, argued county issues at a debate hosted by the Marin chapter of the National Women’s Political Caucus April 15. Both were vying not only for public support, but for an endorsement by the caucus.
Adams touted projects she’d worked on since being elected supervisor eight years ago, taking credit for pushing the completion of the county’s new Health and Wellness Campus, where community health services are offered, and the completion of the Highway 101 Gap Closure Project.
“We have a mentally ill offenders program that is diverting nonviolent mentally ill people from jail to treatment, and with that we’ve reduced recidivism by 80 percent,” Adams said. “We have disaster readiness programs, a children’s health initiative that I do a fundraiser myself for every year, and Project Homeless Connect and homeless services we didn’t have before.”
Mazzoni, however, said Adams and other supervisors had failed to adequately address key issues.
“One of the greatest issues we have facing the county right now is a $20 million deficit,” Mazzoni said. “We’re looking at cuts to the most vulnerable members of our community. We’re looking at laying off people, all the while knowing that in our community people are suffering foreclosures, they’re out of work, and businesses are closing down.”
Mazzoni said the county had wasted tens of millions of dollars on a failed information technology system. “We’ve spent so much money on that, that had it been a successful program, we wouldn’t be facing the deficit that we are today,” she said.
Asked about how to manage with the county’s $430 million budget, still facing an $8 million deficit down from $20 million, Adams said she other supervisors had provided good fiscal policy.
“Our county, contrary to Kerry’s assertions, is in the best fiscal condition of any of the 58 counties in the state,” Adams said. “We have a AAA-plus bond rating; we have very low debt-service; we have a very healthy capital and backup reserve, which is allowing us a glide-path to restructuring. We’ll have eliminated 170 positions over the last three years through the restructuring, working smarter, with efficiencies and technology. By the end of this fiscal year, we’ll have resolved that budget gap.”
Mazzoni said the county needs to work more with staff to prevent cuts to services.
“I’ve heard from many people in the county that feel they haven’t been listened to, and I think our staff is our most valuable resource,” she said. “They should be pulled in to problem-solve. This is not the case in many of the instances with the budget.
Mazzoni noted that the county was preparing to cut OB/GYN services at the Marin Health and Wellness Campus, and said staff and community concerns about that move demonstrated aloofness on the part of the Board of Supervisors.
Both candidates emphasized green technology to promote economic growth.
“We need to transition to a new type of environmentalism that relies on the resources and technology within our community to ensure that the very complex issues of clean and adequate water supply, clean air, clean energy are all addressed in ways that meet the needs of our community,” Mazzoni said.
Adams said such a focus is already in place.
“We have 10 targeted industries that we’re focusing on in our community,” Adams said. “We have certified green-business programs that have helped to increase the profitability of businesses that move to greener practices. We’re working on changing our development code to allow easier permitting and business placement. We just received $8 million in federal stimulus funding for workforce supplementation of businesses that will help to train employees.”
Mazzoni and Adams butted heads regarding strategies to reduce the county’s carbon footprint. Adams supports the Marin Energy Authority (MEA), a joint powers authority through which local governments are buying green energy for customers and competing with current provider PG&E. Mazzoni, who is opposed to the MEA, criticized the Board of Supervisors for not instead investing in a energy-efficiency financing program created by Assembly Bill 811, which allows local governments to set up a system through which to provide low-interest, long-term loans to local property owners to finance energy-efficiency upgrades to their buildings. The loans are then repaid through property taxes.
“Thirty-four percent of our greenhouse gas emissions come from businesses and residences that have not been retrofitted,” Mazzoni said. “The first thing to do that would have the most efficient and effective impact would have been to go into the AB811 program. Unfortunately, with the MEA we’re going to be doing very little to reduce our GHG emissions.”
Adams said county studies showed MEA would be an effective program.
“We analyzed greenhouse gases in terms of transportation and electricity usage, and what the MEA does is take ratepayer money that is already going to PG&E shareholders and it brings that money back to our county so that we can do the things that Kerry is talking about,” Adams said. “When we did our analysis, MEA by far was going to contribute the most to our GHG emissions [goals].”
Adams said AB811 required public dollars and risk, just like MEA.
“There’s a significant amount of investment up front to provide the bonding and the funding to allow for people to purchase [energy efficiency upgrades],” she said.
Candidates also answered questions regarding the county’s permit process, which will allow continued operations of the San Rafael Rock Quarry. Adams said the matter was an important health and safety issue for nearby residents.
“The quarry is a heavy industrial mining operation right in the middle of a residential community,” Adams said. “There are concerns for the community, including air quality from fractured silica that’s being blasted up into the air, shaking of the properties that feels like 5.0 earthquakes on occasion, and heavy amounts of truck traffic going down the road emitting diesel.”
Adams said she had worked with community members to put in place temporary mitigations, and that the county was continuing to work on the permitting process. Mazzoni said Adams and other supervisors had voted to approve the quarry’s environment impact report, and needed to be fair to both community members and the business, which was operating before the nearby community was constructed.
Another issue raised was the Santa Venetia flood zone. Adams said she’d worked with residents to get a new pump station built. Mazzoni countered that a $500 tax measure Santa Venetia residents will vote on in the June election to pay for flood improvements might have been less severe if the county had worked more closely with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a move she said could also reduce flood insurance rates for residents.
Adams was endorsed by the women’s caucus at the end of the debate, along with Shelly Scott for Marin County assessor-recorder.
In her first District 1 supervisor candidate campaign finance filings, Adams reported raising $3,875, with donators including groups Friends of Hal Brown and Mark Leno for State Senate. Mazzoni reported raising $18,699, with donators including Ghilotti Construction Company, CSW/Stuber-Stroeh Engineering Group Inc. and McNear Brick & Block.
For more election information, go to
co.marin.ca.us/depts/RV/Main/index.cfm.
