League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Sonoma County, CA June 3, 2008 Election
	Maddy Hirshfield Answers Questions Candidate for County Supervisor; Sonoma County; Supervisorial District 5

The questions were prepared by the the League of Women Voters of Sonoma County and asked of all candidates for this office.
Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

Questions & Answers

1. In your opinion, how would the proposed SMART commuter railroad impact Sonoma County?

SMART creates an opportunity to introduce more multimodal transportation into the unincorporated areas of the County. Additionally, the adoption of Urban Growth Boundaries and focus on infill development combined with the opportunity for a rail based system supported with feeder bus and bicycle routes could result in breaking the pattern of sprawl development. I will work aggressively for the passage of the SMART initiative. I have always maintained that if we want Sonoma County residents to get out of our cars we need to provide something for us to get into.

2. How can Sonoma County improve mental health services in the county?

The Board of Supervisors needs to make mental health a priority. When one looks at the budget, just under half, about 47% goes to public safety while only about 12% goes to health and human services. Much of the public safety money is spent housing mentally ill in our prisons. It is not acceptable that the last inpatient mental health beds are being closed. We need to decriminalize mental illness and work toward prevention and treatment, not incarceration. Finally, we need to provide access to health insurance that covers mental health.

3. If elected, how will you keep yourself informed of your constituents' concerns, and your constituents informed of your stances and activities?

Understanding constituent concerns as well as keeping constituents informed requires frequent contact with voters. In addition to regular office hours I plan to go out into the district and have meetings on a regular basis. The 5th Supervisorial District is huge and I don't expect people in some of the outer lying areas to be able to make it into Santa Rosa to address their Supervisor. I plan to set up regular and informal meetings in the various different parts of the district.

Openness, transparency, availability are very important to me and I will bring these values with me to the office of Supervisor

4. How would you balance the need for developing housing and business with environmental stewardship?

I believe that there is a commonality of interest between the environmental and business/development communities. My experience is that most business people want to do what is right for their community and the environment. Government needs to appeal to that better sense and provide incentives for business to be more environmentally friendly. This could come in the form of government loans to help fund the high start up costs of converting to solar, installing water saving devices and following sustainable practices. I would look for opportunities to help business become stewards of our environment. I will also look to strict adherence to our environmental regulations.

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Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidates' answers are presented as submitted. Word limits for answers were 400 words for all 4 questions. Direct reference to opponents are not permitted.

Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: May 25, 2008 21:07
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