District 3 Supervisor Candidate Forum to be televised on CCTV
March 24, 2008
A televised Candidate Forum for Supervisor District 3 will be aired locally on CCTV on the following dates listed nearby. Candidates include Incumbent Mary Nejedly Piepho and challenger, Assemblyman Guy Houston. The forum, taped March 3, is moderated by Lisa Vorderbrueggen of the Contra Costa Times.
Wednesday April 2 at 8 p.m., Monday, April 7 at 8 p.m., Wednesday, April 16 at 5 p.m. and Monday, April 21 at 9 p.m.
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3 Responses to “District 3 Supervisor Candidate Forum to be televised on CCTV”
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After watching the Piepho and Houston debate, I walked away with two very different impressions of the candidates. I was encouraged by the likelihood of Mrs. Piepho’s continued presences on the Board of Supervisors and distressed by Mr. Houston (a career politician attempting to resurrect his career).
From the start I found Mr. Houston to be disingenuous and a bit of an opportunist. It seems that if one has no significant record of accomplishments to stand on, the only alternative when running for office is to criticize your opponent (which is what he set out to do). Mr. Houston’s answers to most issues were essentially, there’s plenty of tax money coming in, we just need to cut wasteful spending… – brilliant revelation Mr. Houston. Such naive and simplistic thinking will not help lead the board to resolving the many complex issues we face. Much of this so-called “wasteful spending” is relative to whatever an individual’s governmental & social priorities are. What Houston considers “wasteful”, might very well be critical to the majority of us in the community.
As for issues of money, I found one of Guy Houston’s proudly-stated comments not only humorous but an un-nerving indicator of the influence that “special interests” might expect to enjoy with him in office, “I’ll take money from anybody”. To me Houston seems like a classic politician with no personal-stake or real interest in working for the common-interests of most Contra Costa citizens.
In contrast, I found Incumbent Mary Nejedly Piepho to show the genuine concern of a local community leader. She confidently articulated and presented her commanding knowledge over issues that face our community and the state. As any responsible politician should acknowledge, there is no quick “silver bullet” to resolving many of our issues. In line with that, we need a leader who is capable of leading us towards solutions not only of the short-term, but those improving the lives of our future generations in the county. With Mrs. Piepho’s independent leadership and willingness to work in a “solutions-oriented” way with various community stakeholders (both republican and democrat), I am very confident she is the right person to continue working for the best interests of Contra Costa citizens.
Instead of buying Mrs. Piepho’s talk about her solutions you might want to do some research of your own. Mrs. Piepho and her fellow board members have actually mortgaged the financial future of Contra Costa County by agreeing to the demands of the public employee unions over the last four years - she didn’t bother to mention that. Instead she is trying to blame the state. The Contra Costa Times has covered these issues. Where were you?
You might also wonder why Contra Costa County’s top elected financial officials - the Auditor-Controller, the Treasurer-Tax Collector and the Assessor all support Mr. Houston. It is extremely unusual that these officials would endorse someone other than a current supervisor. Could it be that they know something from having worked with Mrs. Piepho? Oh, and you can add the Sheriff to that list. And it isn’t a matter of political party affiliation because two of those elected officials are Democrats and two are Republicans.
Maybe you should read some newspapers and do some research before you make a decision about who to support. Mr. Houston has had a successful career as a councilman, a mayor, and a state assemblyman. He has brought millions of dollars to our school districts with his school equalization funding bill. That took bipartisan support. Since you read this blog, you will know that he authored a bill with Mark DeSaulnier (D-Concord) to help equalize county revenues. This will bring Contra Costa County around 80 million a year. Pretty impressive for a person who is in the minority party in the state legislature.
I found the debate very interesting. Today’s paper helps me think a bit clearer on the status quo. The nurses union has come to an agreement of multiple few percent increases. However, will not have to change any of thier benefits ( OPEB ). Congradulations on the agreement of 4 plus extra million dollars ( nad probably well deserved). The benfit package is a total embarrasement to the Board of Supervisors who claim they are addressing the 2.6 Billion Dollar Deficit. The Nurses along with the DA’s Office should have conceded to reductions in benefits that are more in line with the common taxpayer. You know, the ones who they are working for. Co Pays, Medicare, Medical, etc. , we give county employees carte blanc to use and abuse. This is how our current supervisors are handling this crisis ? I feel so sad for our grandchildren who will suffer from the current luxuries that our supervisors have gifted away. Yes, two very different candidates. Two current supervisors up for re-election could have made a bigger difference with the last two union negotiations but they didn’t. I don’t care who is a demo or repub. I am tired of digging into my pockets to bail out sloppy tax spending. Vote no to all taxes, vote for new leadership, you can’t do too much worse.