Such a runoff promises to be a spirited campaign, as Agopian, in a 5-candidate field, came on strong in the closing days of the June 3rd California Primary. According to campaign consultant Dan Lee, “There was a big shift in momentum in the closing days of the campaign in the 5th. Gary Agopian’s percentage jumped 7.7% from the Absentees to the ballots cast on Election Day. This kind of momentum is seldom seen. In spite of being out spent 6 to 1, Agopian did carry Antioch, as the top vote-getter. Antioch is 50% of the district.”

This sad event throws into doubt the status of the runoff election; whether Nunn would remain on the ballot or not. One source indicated that Section 8807 of California’s Election Code indicates that if a vacancy occurs for a non-partisan race, regardless of when the vacancy occurs, the next highest vote recipient’s name, in this case Gary Agopian, would appear on the ballot. Updates on this tragedy and ballot outcome will be forthcoming.

The California State Election Code
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/calawquery?codesection=elec&codebody=8807&hits=20

8807. If the vacancy occurs among candidates chosen at the direct primary to go on the ballot for the succeeding general election for a nonpartisan office, the name of that candidate receiving at the primary election the next highest number of votes shall go upon the ballot to fill the vacancy.

- Go to http://www.leginfo.ca.gov
- Click on California Law
- Click box “Elections”
- Type “vacancy” in search box
- Click on Search
- Click on 2nd line 8800-8811
- Scroll down to section 8807

“The photograph is obviously staged and manipulated to have voters believe that Mr. Nunn has the support of East County nurses,” Gerber stated. “It couldn’t be farther from the truth.” The CNA recently announced support for incumbent Federal Glover in his reelection bid.

The mailer primarily focuses on support for advanced Breast Cancer treatment and research. Its primary message advocates digital mammograms, education, and access to health insurance.

Yet another panel shows Nunn standing in front of the Medical Center. “The voters need to know that Erik Nunn was fired from his job as a County security guard for harassing and physically attacking a co-worker,” Gerber added.

Snip Snip. Such is local politics.

Despite his touching personal story and good ideas for healthcare treatment and finance reform, like Pentheus in Euripedes’ The Bacchae, it looks like Erik just got whacked, but may still be intact. Snip Snip, indeed.

Mary Piepho, our current supervisor has been sending out a campaign material touting her accomplishments of the past three years. The message is, this inexperienced member from the community swept in and has single handedly fixed all the county problems, in spite of the fact that the Board votes in lock step 5 to 0 on every issue. If I were on the Board with her I would be insulted that she gets all the credit. But then again, maybe they are happy under her “Leadership” to give her all the credit for the County Grand Jury report that came out on Friday:

“Supervisors have said that they have learned their lesson, that they will do better, and that they are on the road to fiscal sanity. Their record says otherwise.” The report says:

- Individual supervisors are individually communicating with labor leaders undermining the negotiation process
- The Board has continued to approve labor contracts through the last couple of months that “…in each case, the Supervisors as a group have failed to take any meaningful steps to address out-of-control health benefit costs, attributable largely to the generous union agreements.”
- The Board has targeted only 40% of the OPEB debt, the Grand Jury recommends raising the target to 85% of the debt. They say the Board should come up with a plan in the next six months as to how this will be achieved.
- The current annual “gap between the required and planned contributions” for OPEB is estimated to be $54 million. The Board is not required to actually “fund” that amount, but it must fund it, reduce it in some manner, or disclose the $54 million as a liability on the financial statements. Currently, the plan is to report the liability.

Guy Houston’s accomplishments in the State Legislature are too numerous to list in one blog. Here is but a sample of what he has accomplished in Sacramento:

- Equalization for school funding which has brought millions of extra dollars to not only Contra Costa County but under funded districts across the state.
- Introduced a bill to equalize county funding across the state, which would bring millions into Contra Costa County and other under funded counties in the state.
- A bill to enhance penalties for people that maliciously post someone else’s information on the internet.
- Authored a bill which helps address State’s critical shortage of specialists for disabled students.
- Introduced a bill to increase the tax exemption for 100% totally disabled veterans.

Additionally, he was appointed this year to serve on the Banking and Finance committee, the Local Government committee and the Transportation committee. He received the American Electronics Association prestigious award as “Legislator of the Year.”

Guy Houston doesn’t promise to swoop in like Superman and make this County whole overnight. But with his background and experience at the State level Guy has gained the support of the Assessor, the Auditor-Controller, the County Treasurer (the financial Big Three) and the Sheriff.

So let’s move away from the gender arguments, nice person arguments, hard working arguments and elect the most qualified candidate with a proven track record. That person is Guy Houston.

Just imagine how Republican Lynne Leach must feel to know her mug just got pasted onto the same mailer that the Piepho camp used to tout the support of Democrat Senator, Tom Torlakson, with his Republican-killer smile?

That’s got to be embarrassing for any respected Republican leader supporting a candidate who’d just as soon tout the support of a Republican nemesis itching to cut Republican representation off at the knees in the California State Legislature.

Supervisor Glover is asking the policing agencies in the 5th Supervisorial District to be on the look out for these vandals and to investigate the stealing of his signs.

Supervisor Glover asked that local website newspapers alert residents to be on the look out for vandals who obviously have a political motive behind their efforts. These signs cost thousands of dollars and have dozens of person-power hours in their posting. If you should have further questions, please contact Mary Jo Rossi at 925-768-7207.

At stake is the cozy relationship the Supervisors have with public employee unions to the detriment of the poor, public safety, fiscal sanity, and taxpayers. Then there is the “pay for play” willingness to that encourages developers like Tom Koch to use the BOS to pry open the Urban Limit Line. Take a look at the upfront and behind-the-scene scaffolding now supporting RINO Republican, Mary Piepho.

Bielle Moore
Former fundraiser for State Senate Majority Leader Don Perata and Attorney General Jerry Brown. Recently sponsored and raised money for Supervisor Piepho on Friday, May 9th

David Bowlby
Top Aide to Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher. Assisted Tauscher in defeating Congressman Bill Baker. Held a fundraiser at his house for Supervisor Piepho on Friday, May 9th

Tomi Van de Brooke
Chief of Staff for Supervisor Piepho. Former Republican turned Democrat. Worked to promote Project Labor Agreements (PLA) that raise project costs and hinder private builders from fair competition. Used her influence from past jobs to get major Dems to support Mary. Whispers at cocktail parties indicate Tomi wants to replace Republican Supervisor Gail Uilkema.

Tom Torlakson
State Senator until he switches with former Republican Mark DeSaulnier for his Assembly seat. Sources say this leading California Democrat endorsed Mary for Supervisor from the recommendations of the above individuals. Knocked Senator Dick Rainey out of office. Torlakson cites Piepho’s support for his bills to raise fees to pay for questionable domestic violence programs. Piepho supported Torlakson’s proposal to raise the real estate transaction fee to pay for eminent domain abuse to build “smart housing” and “tranist villages” via a housing trust fund.

Unfortunately, and not to make too fine a point about it, the confusion over political identity in Contra Costa caused by Republican Party incompetence and fuzzy thinking is further illustrated as erstwhile Republican leaders including Lynne Leach, Tom Del Beccaro, Tom Hawkins, and Arne Simonsen play Pollyanna and support Piepho as a “Republican’s Republican.” In fact, as recently as May 4, Simonsen commented on Lisa Vorderbrueggen’s site that, “You should have no fear of Mary Piepho changing her party registration. She is a dyed-in-the-wool Republican through and through.”

Really? It’s beyond insanity when so-called Republican leaders back a RINO candidate that welcomes support from a leading Democrat that has vowed to destroy Republicans statewide and taxpayers by removing the two-thirds vote in the legislature to raise taxes. Nevermind the old saw about dancing with who brought you to the party, ’cause if this is what Republican leadership in Contra Costa County believes to be a “dyed in the wool Republican,” then no wonder they can’t win elections.

========

FULL DISCLOSURE, the author of this article and publisher of Halfway To Concord, Bill Gram-Reefer, is a candidate for the Republican Central Committee for District IV.

Supervisor Bonilla wants to talk with residents about their concerns as well as ideas to improve county government, and ways to make it more responsive and accountable to the community’s needs.
Supervisor Bonilla and her staff will be on hand to meet with constituents at her office located at 2151 Salvio Street, Suite R in Concord, on Todos Santos Plaza. Free Parking is conveniently available and no appointment is necessary. If you have questions, please call (925) 521-7100.

First we hear from Mary Piepho that Contra Costa County is leading the state if not the nation and the world in handling its retiree health benefit debt. Really? Contra Costa’s OPEB obligation is heading toward $3-billion and is larger than the OPEB debt of five larger California counties — Alameda, Orange, Riverside, Sacramento and San Diego — combined. In offering a mere 40-percent solution, the only leadership we see is in the BOS failure to not deal with the political and structural realities that got us so far in debt in the first place.

Meanwhile, Federal Glover offers voters Rollie Katz flavored Kool Aid when he avers that the County cannot solve the OPEB problem. Rather we need a solution at the state and national levels in the form of Universal Healthcare. As if this will eliminate the current debt and obligation to current employees. This is irresponsible gibberish.

Unfortunately, many of the challengers during these televised debates were not very forthcoming, either. Most hemmed and hawed around the question from the Times’ Lisa Vorderbrueggen when she asked how to increase funding for OPEB when there is already a $51-million budget shortfall on the table.

Clearly, no one wants to address the elephant in the kitchen called cutting obscene health care giveaways to current unionized public employees. Times columnist, Daniel Borenstein, in a recent editorial suggested that, “instead of offering the county-subsidized health benefits, the county (c)ould provide a stipend of $250 a month to cover the cost of Medigap insurance. By one estimate, that simple change would save the county $37 million a year.”

These and other common sense suggestions prove that the issue facing Contra Costa County is not about money. It’s never about the money. The issue is having the vision for sane and fair policies that work, and having the courage and community support needed to take on the public employees unions that are eating taxpayers alive. Instead, all we hear from incumbents is, “Oh my, it took us forty years to get into this jam, and by golly we don’t want to upset the apple cart cause it’s all about relationships.”

The only reason these political sock puppets of the public employee unions don’t represent California’s more agricultural communities is because farmers already know what a load of bullshit looks and smells like.

In the end, despite the childish and self-righteous temper tantrums of SEIU Local One union rep Rollie Katz, the County in fact ends up favoring special interests by coddling union employees instead of funding critical services including health care for the poor and public safety. Please tell us, Supervisor Gioia, what’s so Progressive about that? How does it help working families who really need county services when at the end of the day, the only people who are being served are the union bosses and the politicians they support.