County Supervisor Candidate April Vargas - my impressions

I should be writing this while I'm wide-awake, rather than about to fall asleep, but here goes -

At the moment, I expect to be voting for Don Horsley for San Mateo County Board of Supervisors in the upcoming June 8 primary. He's been involved with county politics forever and I remember him from when he was County Sheriff.  I also happened to meet him a few months ago at a local meet-and-greet. After talking to him, and then later doing some research, I felt he had the experience and competence to serve as an effective Supervisor.  Still do.

The other candidate who gets mentioned a lot is April Vargas, whom I finally got to meet at last Tuesday's candidates forum at Sharp Park Library. After the meeting, I was able to talk to her for about 10 minutes. While I was personally impressed with her, I can't vote for her.

She came off as very professional, and stressed business-development as an important issue. So far, so good. We both agree that it's better to elect supervisors by district, rather than in a county-wide election. She and fellow Board of Supervisors candidate Michael Stogner explained how expensive it was for a newcomer to run for the Board of Supervisors, mentioning it required $80,000 just to be heard, and a minimum of $200,000 to have any chance of winning. This is one issue where I disagree with Horsley, who prefers county-wide elections.

http://prfound.org/index.php/practice/case_studies/case_study_san_mateo_county_bos/

We both agreed that with five Supervisor candidates, no candidate will reach the 50% +1 vote total required to avoid a runoff in the November election, and that it will likely be Horsley and Vargas in the runoff.

When April was talking about the pros and cons of district elections, she said one of the cons was that people like Chris Daly get elected, which I thought was pretty funny. She wasn't as loony as I had feared. (Daly is a crazy SF supervisor who makes Sharp Park Golf Course nemesis Ross Mirkarimi look like the most reasonable guy in the world.)

The problem was, when discussing Pacifica's economy, she believed ways to improve the city's business climate were to revitalize West Sharp Park; she thought giving land to the GGNRA was good for the economy; and she seemed to be against development in the Quarry.  Heard that before?  She also used the term "visitor-serving" in describing which types of businesses would work in Pacifica, which basically is a shorthand way of saying April believes in the long-held and demonstrably failed idea that  "our environment is our economy." She was promoting the same "nice-sounding, no results" ideas that have been responsible for destroying Pacifica's economy.

She was wishy-washy on the topic of the golf course. When asked whether she preferred that Sharp Park remain a golf course or be "restored," she wouldn't answer directly, but did say it was inevitable that SF would eventually restore it. The other supervisor candidate, Michael Stogner, said outright we should keep it as a golf course, and even the Coroner's candidate who was there, Stacie Nevares, said she wanted to see the golf course remain. (Horsley is also pro-golf course.)

Supervisor candidate Michael Stogner is a very interesting guy. His motivation for running seemed to be that he was unhappy at the way Carol Groome was appointed to the county Board of Supervisors to replace Jerry Hill, when Hill went to the State Assembly. Stogner felt she should have been elected rather than appointed, and he's right.  He was taken aback at the way County Sheriff Greg Munks and Undersheriff Carlos Bolanos were not disciplined after they were busted during a raid in a Las Vegas brothel.   I guess you could say Stogner was running on a platform of "reform" or "change." I would have no problem if he were elected, although I still plan to vote for Don Horsley.

As long as I'm at it, when listening to Coroner candidate Stacie Nevares, I remember thinking she would have made a pretty good Supervisor. She had opinions on all kinds of county issues beyond the Coroner's office. As far as the Coroner's office goes, she's very unhappy with what she believes is an unprofessional and uncaring attitude within the office. It was interesting to listen to her describe the responsibilities of the Coroner, which is something I'd imagine very few people know anything about unless they used to watch "Quincy, M.E.". She mentioned the current Coroner's propensity for attracting lawsuits, which really hits home considering the way Pacifica's City Council does the same thing. After doing some web research on both Stacie and her opposition, incumbent coroner Robert Foucrault, I'll be voting for Nevares.

More candidate info, along with further info on some of the issues they talked about -

http://aprilvargas.com/
http://www.stacienevares.com/
Michael Stogner's blog
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_15027207
http://www.examiner.com/x-1891-San-Mateo-Public-Policy-Examiner~y2010m1d20-Battle-begins-in-san-mateo-sups-race
http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/San-Mateo-County-supe-hopefuls-throw-hats-in-the-ring-80861727.html
http://www.almanacnews.com/square/index.php?i=3&d=&t=3656
http://www.realpolice.net/forums/police-officer-headlines-76/67835-whatever-happens-vegas-sheriff-undersheriff-caught-brothel-raid.html
http://www.mercurynews.com/peninsula/ci_15090914


Posted by Steve Sinai