Aldridge
Griffiths and Aldridge challenge Cash in Inyo County’s 2nd District
Two-term incumbent Susan Cash is defending her seat on the Inyo County Board of Supervisors this year. She is being challenged by current Bishop City Councilman Jeff Griffiths and local businessman Russ Aldridge.
Cash, who has a background in accounting, is a former county employee who toppled Julie Bear to gain the District 2 seat (which essentially encompasses the City of Bishop) in 2004.
She says she got into politics over the tobacco settlement issue, where she said the will of the voters (who wanted the money allocated to local hospitals) was trumped by a lack of responsiveness of the County Supervisors.
She appears to be running on the strength of her fiscal record. As she said in a statement which appeared in the Inyo Register:
“I am proud to say that Inyo County is one of the most economically stable counties in California. Out of 58 counties, Inyo is ranked #2 in Net Assets per Capita. Inyo County is one of the few counties free of structured debt. We have reduced staff through strategic reorganization of duties in response to lower revenues, while continuing to provide the same quality services to our communities. This is directly attributable to our employees’ dedication to the public and the fiscally conservative oversight of the Board of Supervisors. We have our reserves intact, balance the budget every year, and we are moving forward on several issues.”
Cash
In her statement, she also trumpeted her role in advancing the Digital 395 broadband project and an ordinance which gives preference to local contractors when bidding on County projects.
In follow-up calls to Praxis Associates’, the company which spearheaded and will ultimately build the Digital 395 project, representatives said they perceived Cash as more of a bandwagon-jumper. They assigned more credit to Griffiths and Mono County District 2 Supervisor Hap Hazard in advancing the project.
Griffiths, a six-year Councilman, said he enjoys government work and feels like he’s done a good job on Council. As far as his fiscal record, he points to reducing the City’s administrative costs by $400,000 during his tenure.
Griffiths believes his strength may be in how he leads. While he touts the City’s partnerships in creating a dog park and community garden, it’s his perception that the County needs to be more collaborative in working with agencies.
When all three candidates were asked by the Register “Is there adequate communication and/or coordination between the County of Inyo and City of Bishop on matters affecting the greater Bishop area?” there was a clear gulf in perception.
Cash said the County and City worked together in a variety of ways.
Griffths
Griffiths said there was room for improvement.
Aldridge was more blunt. “It is my understanding that the communication … is very poor.”
Aldridge, who has been a plumbing and heating contractor for 28 years, is refreshingly blunt about a lot of things.
Though there is no history of political activism on either side of his family – “My family can’t quite understand it,” he says of his foray into politics – Aldridge said “I realized there had come a point where I feel too many people are getting taken advantage of.”
As for the ordinance regarding preference to local contractors, he doesn’t recall Cash being much help.
“The opposition from the City and County was unbelievable,” he said.
Aldridge, a member of the Owens Valley Contractors and Vendors Assn., said it took 18 months for both governmental entities to get something done. “It boils down to lazy attorneys,” he said flatly.
Aldridge was also the only candidate to take a definite position regarding the construction of a new consolidated County office space in Bishop. While Cash and Griffiths circled the issue elucidating pros and cons, Aldridge balked at the terms of the proposed lease/purchase agreement, saying the cost was simply too high. Besides, he said, “They don’t take care of the buildings they own [already].”
“I think this is a vanity-type deal,” he concluded.
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For the record, I traveled to Sacramento, San Francisco, and Washington DC several times in order to help secure the $100M in federal and state funding for this project; testified (along with Supervisor Hazard) at the California Public Utilities Commission in order to get the match from the state increased from 10% to 19%, helped to rally the local anchor institutions into writing letters of support to the NTIA and the CPUC, and have arranged and convened many many meetings of the private contractor as well as the staff and elected representatives of the 3 counties over the last several years. I personally have had extensive conversations with members of the Governor’s Office, White House staff, and the California Public Utilities Commission with regard to securing funding for this vital project.
I’ve been a part of the project since its inception as a small planning grant to assess the needs of the region to the present time. I don’t care about “credit”, I want the project built – but I do care about basically being called a liar. I would be interested to find out what Mr. Griffiths has done on Digital 395 according to “representatives of Praxis” – he’s not been involved in any of the extensive planning and implementation meetings that I’ve attended nor convened.
That Supervisor Hap Hazard of Mono County is given credit is correct – along with Supervisor Linda Arcularius of Inyo County and Supervisor Jon McQuiston of Kern County, the four of us and our respective county staff have been working on this project together for the improvement of broadband connectivity in the Eastern Sierra. It’s been a pleasure working with all of the involved parties – elected, staff, other institutions, and the public – on such a worthy and needed project.
If anyone has any questions, please feel free to call me (760)937-3387 or e-mail me at Cash93514@msn.com. Check out the Digital395 website – particularly this page: http://www.digital395.com/partners_sponsors.html where I, and not Mr. Griffiths, am listed as a Project Sponsor.
I apologize to Praxis for having their fine efforts being dragged into a political debate, as well as to Mr. Griffiths for having an unnamed source cause me to defend my record and question his when he didn’t ask for it. But I cannot let such an assault on my integrity stand without response.
~Susan Cash
Inyo County Supervisor, District 2
As a fellow Supervisor from Humboldt County, I have worked with Susan for the past 4 years on the California State Association of Counties (CSAC) and the National Association of Counties (NACo). While Susan was working on Digital 395, I was working on our own rural broadband project here on the North Coast. I can attest to Susan’s hard work and determination in pushing our State and Federal agencies and policy makers to develop broadband policy and funding priorities that recognize the unique needs of our rural areas.
Susan was a strong and ever-present voice in advocating for our rural areas to the White House, the NTIA, the CPUC and other entities, which did not initially understand the challenges we face. This kind of policy work was critical to ensuring that our rural areas would be able to compete for the funding necessary to get these critical projects done.
Mark Lovelace
3rd District Supervisor
Humboldt County
In the strongest possible terms, the assertions attributed to Praxis Management with regard to Supervisor Cash on Digital 395 do not, in any way, reflect the opinions of Praxis Associates.
To set the record straight: Susan Cash worked hard to help get Digital 395 supported and funded. She went to Sacramento, the CPUC and Washington DC to talk with decision makers. She stood before the California Public Services Commission in support of funding for the project. She attended meetings with us with Sacramento lawmakers. She took the message to Washington. This is what she has stated on her web site, and she has done everything she represents supporting Digital 395. She worked hard and should be commended for her efforts to bring broadband to the Eastern Sierra. We know, we were there.