Candidate for
County Supervisor; Humboldt County; Supervisorial District 5

Economy Our County government needs to further support development of small business and create a climate friendly atmosphere to small business that maintains a sustainable balance between jobs and the environment. The role of government in Humboldt County needs to be examined and modified to meet the economic challenges of the 21st century. Livelihood in our county is historically based on natural resource extraction: fishing, logging and lumber manufacturing. Over the past 15 years we have seen businesses in Humboldt County develop and grow their niche markets. There has been an increase in the service and technology sectors as well as growth in the education and governmental sectors. We can help business by creating Zoning for small local businesses and light industry in areas of Mckinleyville and other areas of the county. We can also capitalize on the opportunity to use biomass to create energy and put people back to work in the woods promoting forest health and the reduction of fire risk.

After having served as an elected member of the Trinidad Rancheria Tribal Council for fourteen years, my record is clear. I have consistently worked for expanding jobs and employment. During my tenure we have grown from 50 employees to over 200 employees. I have worked to bring in millions of dollars to improve our roads, keep our water clean, and educate our youth. I also continue to focus on finding grants that improve the lives of our Rancheria members as well as the community members at large. My work at the Rancheria can serve as a model of what can happen in Humboldt County when I bring my results-laden experience to the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors. In these trying times, we need the county supervisors to focus on the economic needs of the 21st century which will bring in tax dollars to sustain and enhance our public health services, our transportation infrastructure, and our environment. Environment As a Humboldt County Supervisor, I commit myself to working for the protection and preservation of our environment, as I have always done when serving the public. For example, as a Tribal Council member, I helped create and administer the Environmental Protection Agency's Department at our Rancheria that instituted programs such as ocean and stream preservation, recycling, sewage waste, and water treatment quality. During the past few years the Trinidad Rancheria successfully received millions of dollars in Federal grants to stop pollution in the Trinidad Harbor. As a result of this funding, we have built a new state of the art sewage treatment facility and leach fields, as well as the installation of new public restrooms near Seascape restaurant and the public beach. As your 5th District Supervisor, I will work to accomplish similar work that enhances and protects our environment. Another example of my work with the environment is the plan to replace the Trinidad pier. The current pier has creosote pilings that pollute the fragile ecosystem in our bay and hinder local fisherman during the fish and crab harvest year. We are also working towards developing a plan to collect water runoff from the city of Trinidad and reroute it through the Rancheria's sewer treatment facility so that deadly toxins will not be released in the ground water, stream beds or the ocean. As your Supervisor I will bring that same dedication to protecting our environment as I have demonstrated while being a council member with Trinidad Rancheria. When I was young our rivers were in much better condition than they are today. Back then one night of fishing would easily result in catching your limit. Now we are lucky to catch four or five, because of the poor water quality due to high concentrations of algae and contaminants. Our rivers have been exploited and mismanaged for far too long and our salmon are paying the price. This is completely unacceptable to me. If we do not take care of our rivers now, we jeopardize people's lifestyles and culture, both Native American and American sports fishermen alike. Since the approval of the Klamath Basin River Agreement has been pushed through, we now need to participate in the process and work to implement removal of the dams and restoration of the Klamath River and fisheries. Since the Trinity River was left out of this agreement we need to focus our energy on protecting this vital river. When the Trinity Dam was built the county was promised not-less-than fifty thousand acre feet of water delivered annually. To this day Humboldt has never seen acknowledgement of this promise. Our Salmon are on the brink of irrefutable consequences, and if we do not keep clean water flowing into the river we risk loosing them to extinction. I believe deeply in protecting our ocean ecology, yet State bureaucrats are attempting to put in marine sanctuaries in our area without the science to support the claims underlying the creation of these sanctuaries. We have strong regulations in place now, and our fragile fishing industry can not survive this last blow. They are also trying to implement a zero take for all people, including Native Americans who have been collecting from the beach for private and ceremonial purposes for centuries. As your Supervisor, I will fight to keep our rivers clean and flowing as well as protecting our rivers and beaches for all. Public Safety We must do what it takes to promote and sustain our police and fire departments in order to protect our citizens in Humboldt County during good and bad budget years. We must also retain and enhance partnerships with local organizations and Tribe/Rancheria police forces for rural enforcement and protection. As your 5th District Supervisor, I commit myself to supporting actions which would assure a viable police force for the protection of our citizens. Transportation We must prioritize local trail development and completion. Trails may be used as non-motorized transportation routes, provide recreational opportunities, encourage public health, and connect our communities neighborhood to neighborhood. I will seek to obtain some of the many grants available for building a system of trails and work with both the community and the grant sponsors in order to create an environmentally sound, non-intrusive network of trails for non-motorized recreational use. In these hard economic times inexpensive public transportation is both vital as well as needed to ease the economic burden for our county's commuters. I will work to expand public transportation to eastern part of our county. I would also like to explore ways to make public transportation become more convenient and affordable so that it might become part of our everyday lives, and therefore add savings to the commuter. A critical piece to our regional transportation puzzle is moving goods in and out of Humboldt County efficiently. Rather than relying completely on highway we have an opportunity to utilize Humboldt Bay for shipping goods in and out of our area. Humboldt County has the second largest bay in California and it is greatly underutilized. By taking advantage of this natural resource, we could increase local employment with living wage jobs, resulting in reduced trucking congestion on state and county roads. Expanding our sea shipping capabilities would reduce the cost of goods for local merchants, which would in turn bring savings to our community members. If elected, I will work to encourage the use of water shipping from our bay.