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Katherine Bauer

Elizabeth Katherine Bauer, 40, of Mammoth Lakes was arrested in late May on felony charges of grand theft and embezzlement, according to Lt. Jason Kravetz of the Laguna Beach Police Dept.

She allegedly embezzled “nearly $72,000” from P.U.P. (Protecting Unwanted Animals), the all-volunteer non-profit fundraising arm of the city’s animal shelter. Bauer had served as president of the 501(c)(3) from August 2006 until March of this year.

According to Laguna Police, last summer, P.U.P. and Hennessey’s Tavern on Ocean Avenue held a charity golf tournament to raise money toward the animal shelter’s damage suffered during the December 2010 flooding. After Bauer stepped down as president, the new administration discovered “several irregularities with one of the bank accounts.” According to Kravetz, Bauer was requested to explain them, but allegedly only offered excuses.

P.U.P. filed a police report, and on May 22, Bauer arrived at the animal shelter for what she thought was a meeting. Once there, a detective questioned and subsequently arrested her. Police said Bauer apparently used the money to pay rent on a Dana Point home, purchase ski lift tickets in Mammoth and to make repairs on her Mammoth Lakes property. –stunewslaguna.com

District 3 Mono County Supervisor and 2012 incumbent, Vikki Bauer faced off against challenger Tim Alpers on Tuesday night at a candidates forum in Lee Vining. Due to last year’s redistricting of Mono County, Lee Vining is now part of District 3.

The following is a summary of highlights of the candidates’ answers to some of the questions asked throughout the evening.

What will be the biggest challenge to Mono County be in the next five years?

Alpers: Balancing projects and financial stability; improving the human environment and business.

Bauer: Pension reform; keeping Mono County solvent is the first order of business otherwise we can’t provide services. Pension reforms could lead to bankruptcies. We need to get county pay in line.

Thoughts on term limits for supervisors.

Bauer: There’s a sweet spot; 12 years is good, but 16 is too long [Bauer has currently served 8 consecutive years as a supervisor]. Voters showing up [at the polls] are the best solution.

Alpers: I’m a term limits guy. I impose limits on myself. You go into office with goals you want to accomplish, and it takes a lot of energy and work. The longer you’ve been in office the more slips through the cracks. I’ve been away and had time to recharge my batteries [Alpers served as a Mono County supervisor from 1983-1989 and again from 1993-1997].

How can you help small business development get going?

Alpers: The county needs to remember who it is working for. People are being harassed when they are trying to get a business going; we need to figure out how we can help. From serving in the past I know what works and what doesn’t.

Bauer: By having a personal touch. I have a personal relationship with the Planning Department (Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story stated that Bauer had a personal relationship with the Planning Commission, which was incorrect). [Bauer then gave an example of how she helped a man in June Lake open a taco truck business]. I helped him understand all the hoops. I couldn’t relieve the hoops but I could explain them. It took six months but it worked.

Would you support trying to get Hwy 158 designated as a state scenic byway in an effort to promote and encourage economic growth?

Bauer: I don’t see any reason not to, we have a large planning grant right now.

Alpers: I think we should look through the lens of making things better for small business and I would support any effort in that direction.

The current pay to Mono County supervisors and management, and the raises that the supervisors have received in the past three or four years outrages the public. What are your thoughts?

Alpers: We should index the employee with economic reality. Some things should be on your own dime. I recently went to D.C. on my own dime and spoke with the President for three minutes and now he wants to come to the Eastern Sierra.

Bauer: We [supervisors] receive a $740 car allowance, which is considered income so taxes are taken out. There’s a lot of travel as a supervisor and there are months that I go over that allowance. It ends up being a wash. In 2009 the supervisors took cost of living raises because employees received cost of living raises as well. Salaries are in line with 2008 and 2009. You have to honor the employees you have both union and management.

Mono County RPACs are the front lines in the county, how do you see your role with these groups?

Alpers: RPACs are where the rubber meets the road. I brought the first RPAC to Chalfant. Supervisors should be seen and not heard at RPAC meetings. We should bring information but then just listen. These groups are where you start building interest.

Bauer: I am the product of a RPAC in June Lake. As a supervisor I have been appointed to the Lee Vining RPAC when it was left without a supervisor on several occasions. I was able to step in and take care of you. I have played a part in RPACs all along.

The Bodie Hills are special and unique but have recently been threatened by gold mining. Will you support the permanent protection of the Bodie Hills?

Bauer: We have to make recreational opportunities economically viable. I supported the mining because Bridgeport needs viability. As a trade off I am working to get Bodie into the national monument program.

Alpers: The Bodie Hills are beautiful but we need to look at the bigger picture. We need a strategic plan. We need to polish our jewel and promote business. We need to get preservation and sustainability language into our policies so people coming in know what to expect.

Are you in favor of promoting something that would help businesses survive in winter?

Bauer: The RPAC plays with that all the time. Making practical use of ideas is the trick. The government needs to help move it along but not pay for it. It seems that in Lee Vining the best thing would be a permanent drought because I hear you’ve had your best winter ever. But the county counts on Mammoth so much and Mammoth needs snow.

Alpers: Government needs to provide an inviting environment. We need to get a whole variety of things. We need to be possibility thinkers. Think in bigger terms and don’t just hunker down in a hole for the winter.

The USDA is willing to loan money to my small business but the local bank won’t loan it. How can you help when there’s money out there but we can’t get it?

Bauer: Persistence is the answer. You have to prove that you can pay it back. You need to build your case with a tight business plan. Perhaps scale back to fit into constraints.

Alpers: This is a national problem, too. You have to show that you can sustain a day-to-day business. Paying attention to details separates the winners from the losers. Networking is a great key so talk to your peers. Ask yourself if you are willing to work hard enough to pay the money back.

Currently the supervisors have given up a lot of control of running the county to one person holding three positions [CAO Jim Arkens who is also the HR and Public Works Director]. One person running the county, whoever it is, isn’t good and affects the county’s checks and balances. Is this an issue for you?

Alpers: The supervisors ran the county when I was in office the first time because there was no CAO. The board is losing control of the team framework in the county. We need to go back to four board meetings per month. Team Mono County needs to be built and we need to watch bureaucratic growth.

Bauer: I’ve seen it both ways. Checks and balances cost money. Combining positions has kept us alive, fiscally. We won’t go back to what we were. We are in a new era of consolidation and we won’t ever be able to afford what we had before. Two people may be doing what three were doing. One person shouldn’t have three jobs, but I choose that versus not being able to put snowplows on the road.

During closing statements, Alpers made five promises to Lee Vining. “I will correspond promptly, hold office hours in Lee Vining, attend all RPACs, report RPAC results at the board level, and have at least two town hall meetings per year.”

He also stated that he would make all of his decisions in office based on three things: his personal philosophies, what his constituents want, and what the laws allow.

Bauer asked that the public review her record when making its decision for whom to vote.

“I am just hitting my stride and would like four more years,” she said. “I enjoy my work and am an active problem solver. I ask for your vote and your support.”

Since Lee Vining does not have a polling place, residents will receive their vote by mail ballots on May 10.

The big candidate news this week comes from fishing entrepreneur Tim Alpers, who announced Thursday morning he’s challenging incumbent Vikki Bauer for District 3 Supervisor.

Alpers said in a press statement he recently retired from a 42-year career in Aquaculture to “pursue my passion for public service.” In a phone call with The Sheet, the well-known fish farmer and fishing industry activist, who has his own variety of trout named for him, said he had previously run for office in the ‘80s, and served as District 3 Supervisor in the mid-‘90s.

“I turned the administration of the [Conway Ranch] over to my partners, and I’m ready to get my old seat back,” Alpers told The Sheet. “District 3 is one of the most beautiful in all of California, but it’s also very complicated. There are lots of issues between the Town, Mammoth Mountain Ski Area, which is in the district, and the County. We need to get our collective heads together between the town and the county and get past this ‘Cowboys versus Aliens’ mentality.”

Bauer announced her plan to seek re-election last week.

“It seems like I’ve finally found my way around in the thing called government,” she said. “It would be a shame to waste all that I have learned.”

In addition, Mono County District 2 Supervisor Hap Hazard has decided to throw his hat in once again as well.

Hazard said he wasn’t initially sure he was inclined to run, but decided there’s just “too many important issues facing the county to not stay involved.” -Geisel

Fed up with all the partisan bickering in Washington D.C. and Sacramento? Had enough with a political system that seems to have been hijacked out from under the people? Then perhaps it’s time to take back control of the political process. And, if former U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Tip O’Neill was right, and all politics is indeed “local,” then Mono County Supervisor Vikki Bauer recommends, no encourages, getting involved in Mono County’s Central Committee process.

Wait … you didn’t know we had one? That’s not surprising. “Everyone thinks party politics is national, but California’s election code mandates political parties have local central committees,” Bauer explained. She went on to say that citizens dismayed at how policy is (or isn’t) put forth, can get involved in influencing how things get done right here at home. “What if Jane Smith sitting at home in Mono County knew she could get 25 signatures and be part of the process?” Bauer asked rhetorically.

It’s a civic process authorized under the California Constitution, she said, and taking a run at a seat is not far-fetched, and actually pretty easy to do.

Every two years duing the election cycle, along with the Assessor, Board of Education members and so on, Central Committee candidates for various parties can get on the ballot. Mono County has 21 seats each for Democrats and Republicans, but as Bauer points out, if there are not enough nominees to stage a challenge for a seat (the numbers are apportioned by district), very often they are never seen on the ballot. “As a matter of routine, they’re pulled and signed off ‘appointed as if elected,’” Bauer said.

Awareness, she said, has been one of the biggest hurdles to overcome when it comes to getting more public participation. Paperwork not withstanding, Bauer said more often than not, it’s been done word of mouth. “You almost have to know someone on the Central Committee,” she expained. “I’m on the GOP Central Committee and had to remind myself to pull new papers. I’m smart, an elected official, and it took me a year and a half to find out how to apply for the Central Committee!”

Larger counties, she observed, have more vigorous policy debates and competition for seats on those central committees, due largely to greater population bases.

One of the upsides to serving on the committee: exerting influence in party conventions. You don’t even have to go. Local votes are added to that of all of the state’s 58 counties and can ultimately be reflected in national policy decisions.

“Think about it … locally one-quarter of the population makes the decisions for 100 percent of us,” she said. “There’s something wrong with that. In Mono County, 3,500 get to decide for the 14,000 living here. Anybody out there like that? I don’t.”

Getting out the vote, she said, was a nice idea, but it hasn’t lived up to its potential. “It’s not enough. We have to get mad and get involved,” she charged. “Those of us who are sick of party politics as usual have to get in there and take back our parties. And the grass roots, the ones in our backyard, is a great place to start.”

Bauer said she wants to see a healthy engagement across all party lines. “I’m not advocating one party or another. I think they all need us … Democrat, Republican, whatever,” Bauer stated. “Bottom line: we’re stuck with the party system. You can have all the tea baggers you want, but this is how it works in America.”

Nomination papers can be obtained from Linda Romero in the County Clerk’s office (call 760.932.5530 or e-mail lromero@mono.ca.gov). Filing is free, you just need to get 25 signatures and have it back to Romero by no later than 5 p.m. Friday, March 12.