Candidates profiles: District 1 Supervisor

Larry Johnston

“I’ve always wanted to run for office,” said Johnston, who’s running against Bill Sauser for the soon-to-be open District 1 Mono County Supervisor seat. Johnston, it turns out, has been involved with politics his entire life. His dad got the sewer district started in the family hometown of Waterford, Calif., an agriculture town just south of Oakdale. And that’s not all. Mom was a community 4-H Club leader, his brother was the mayor, ran for the state Assembly and is now the Finance Director for the City of Tracy.

“My dad was a barber in Waterford. He gave haircuts for 95 cents. Mom and dad met in the Army, and my uncle was killed in action during WWII in the Philippines by a Japanese booby trap,” he recalled. All 14 of his mother’s family came out from Arkansas on the back of a flatbed truck, migrant farm workers looking for work. “It was a very ‘Grapes of Wrath’ type of scene.” She took a welding class at 17 and worked as a Rosie the Riveter-type on ships prior to enlisting in the Army.

Johnston came to Mammoth in a roundabout way via his dad, who was at one point a minor league baseball player. “He could pitch right- and left-handed, and was a switch-hitter to boot. That’s how I ended up involved with Little League,” Johnston said. {He’s been the league’s Board chair for the past three years). “Dad also taught us how to ski. He never skied up here, but I knew how when I moved to Mammoth.”

After his dad passed away in 1987, Johnston realized his father didn’t get to fulfill some of his dreams. In 1988, he and wife Karen were looking for their next home, and said, “Let’s find someplace special.” They bought a lot in the Trails, which at that time Johnston said was considered “affordable housing,” and built a house from the ground up.

“We did everything … the foundation and framing, I did the electrical and plumbing. My mom set the anchor bolts, and Karen and I hung the roof trusses,” he described. “It was a true barn-raising.” By 1990, they were here to stay, opening LK Johnston and Associates, a planning consulting business. “One of the first jobs we landed: preparing the Town’s first parks and recreation element, which included a track at Whitmore, ironically,” he points out. One extension of that work was the first incarnation of Mammoth’s trails system. “Most of the trails people see in existence today, I had a hand in when they were conceived and put in.”

The next thing he got involved in was the Main Street promenade project. “We got about $2 million in Transportation Enhancement Act funding in the mid-90s. We had almost the highest per capita allotment of any county in the country.”

After about 10 years in the private sector, which included the Cerro Coso and Bluffs Environmental Impact Report documents (the Bluffs document won a state award), more firms were making it more difficult to compete and going out of town for work wasn’t why he moved here. An opening at the County was just what the doctor ordered, allowing him to use his skills and, more importantly, to stay local.

“I’ve had politics in the background the whole time and kept busy with the Boosters, Eastside Velo and being president of my homeowners association. I figured what’s one more job,” he said with a laugh. “When Tom Farnetti announced his retirement from the Board, I decided in December after talking with him that I’d run. Our family has always filled gaps in leadership. That’s what we did. Part of that is being a good follower, being able to step into someone’s shoes. During my time working in the County, I figured, ‘I’m a logical person and kind of creative,’ and could help keep the County going.”

His campaign’s overarching theme is “self-reliance and resiliency of the local economy.” That carries over into other planks of his platform. “Regional Planning Advisory Committees cover about 6,000 people countywide. Mammoth has no such RPAC and I’d like to establish a ‘TAC,’ sort of the town equivalent of an RPAC, which would cover about another 7,000 people who aren’t really part of the process,” Johnston explained. “During the recent county capital improvement needs assessment survey, no one came to the town.”

Other planks: Stabilize the tourism base. “Make sure what’s advertised is at least here, if not readily available, when visitors get here,” he stated. He also wants to capitalize on the Yosemite traffic and make the highway itself a tourist attraction. He also would like to see more diversification of jobs, including green, enviro, broadband and other similar applications, including satellite.

A big one is stimulating the construction sector. “They need a stimulus, and I know some of this is related to the national economy and the financial problems, but so far this year we’ve only had 3 permits issued for residential building, compared to 30-40 [normally].”

Johnston also proposes free building permits to any project integrating green technology, including solar, ground-source heating, anything that decreases energy use or adds to efficiency.

One of his signature plans calls for suspending Development Impact Fees. “They’re different in the County than they are in the Town. It’s the same, but not the same. It doesn’t cover the whole county (it excludes the entire north county). The projects that were to be funded by DIF never happened, because those within the town were never realized. We’ve only collected at most $250,000 in the five years the fees have been in existence, and practically nothing lately.”

He also thinks the current DIF schedule is somewhat lopsided. “Take the jail. Why does the south county end up paying for that and north-county doesn’t? Development should have an impact before charging a fee.”

The DIF schedule, which Johnston points out was carried over from a previous administration (and written by former Mammoth Town Manager Charlie Long) is “not ill-conceived, but it’s close.”

Fees should, he added, be free to stick-built single-family projects. “I know a lot of it hinges on financing, but if you can stimulate even three projects, those are jobs that can stay working for another year.”

He’s also in favor of air service covering the six-week gap in service that currently exists in October and November. “If it’s between spending $40,000 to update DIF or air service, there’s no contest. Air service!”

In terms of fiscal responsibility, Johnston said he’s “as frugal as they come,” citing his years of experience as a private businessman. “I’d like to put off a few general plan updates and shuffle some people into economic development to go for some federal grant funds. We should wait on the census data before doing any General Plan update.”

Johnston said he’s not going to shoot from the hip on issues. “I want to know what the facts are, but I’m also not going to be paralyzed by them.” If he’s elected, look for “logical decisions based on facts.”

“I want to visit other RPACs and meet other people, find out as much as I can about their needs and desires, not get holed up in a little District 1 silo. By the same token, I’d like them to sit in on our ‘TAC.’ We’re all the same taxpayers.”

Bill Sauser

When you talk to him, one could determine that a run for county supervisor is something Bill Sauser has been preparing for all his life. He just didn’t know it most of that time. Sauser, one of the two candidates running for the District 1 Mono County Board of Supervisors seat about to be vacated by the retiring Tom Farnetti, is generally known for his candor and confident demeanor, but admits he actually has some butterflies. “I’m apprehensive, nervous … all these things I’ve never experienced before,” Sauser disclosed with a smile. “My opponent [Larry Johnston] is running a big, vigorous campaign, May’s weather has been somewhat adverse, but I’m cautiously optimistic. I’ve got a lot of supporters.”

And like his opponent, he’s running his own campaign. “I am who I am,” Sauser said. “If I’m going to get elected, I want people to vote for me because I’m a staunch advocate of Mammoth.”

And few people know the district’s history as well as he does. Sauser’s family moved to Mammoth in fall 1958, when there were just about 300 residents living here at that time. “One of the battles in the local chamber back then was whether we wanted to be a winter resort,” he points out. “Until Dave McCoy put up Chair 1, the town was a summer destination.” How’s that for irony? Each ‘battle’ that was supposedly the ‘end of life as we knew it’ — be it adapting the economy to winter visitation or allowing shaped skis and snowboarders on Mammoth Mountain — actually ended up feeding the next boom.”

I’ve been here since I was 6. I left town to attend junior college, but other than traveling the world with my wife, I’ve been here the whole time.” Sauser owns Bill’s Locksmith, a family business he took over from his dad. “I never intended on starting a business; it came to me.” During his high school years and in his early 20s, he volunteered as a youth commissioner for Mono County and was a student teacher at Lee Vining Elementary. “My mom was hugely active in the Chamber; that became the next thing I got active in, helping stuff envelopes and so on.”

In the early 80s, he became president of the area’s neophyte snowmobile association, just prior to the Town’s incorporation in 1984. It was, he said, a local organization with local issues, but businessmen soon recognized the value of expanding its horizons, working with the Forest Service to formalize a trail system. Sauser takes a certain amount of pride in having set up what is now a Forest Service program funded with grant dollars for motorized recreation programs, which puts down the first groom on blue diamond trails once new snow is down.

He also is effusive about his charter membership in the Southern Mono Historical Society. “The [Hayden Cabin] was falling down, logs were rotting. I was asked to do restoration on it, so I found an expert on the East Coast, did some local fundraising, and me and some volunteers worked 60 hours a week for a month to elevate the cabin, remove the dead wood and rebuild back down to ground level.”

Those involvements and the associated experiences dealing with the state and federal politicians, and various agencies and officials have been invaluable, Sauser says. “Any recreation/land use lobbying groups out there, chances are I’ve dealt with them. I also learned a lot about how to apply those things to local partnerships.” That led directly to going for an opening on Mammoth’s Parks and Recreation Commission in the mid 90s, which he has been on ever since and seen transition into what is today the Town’s Tourism and Recreation Commission. He’s been the Commission’s chairman for five terms, which he thinks says something about his ability to muster other peoples’ confidence in his abilities.

“It costs me a lot, both in terms of time and money out of my own pocket,” he said. “But when I’m serving, it’s a priority. I’ve gotten good at balancing it against my day job, but it’s a challenge.”

That day job, however, is part of his candidacy he values and doesn’t intend to give up going forward, win or lose. “It gets me in front of a lot of people. I get to hear what they’re talking about, what their concerns are,” he stated. “I’ve had my opinions on issues changed after hearing from the public.”

In terms of issues, Sauser said he thinks the County needs to step up to the plate to help Mammoth more on recreation issues. He’d also like to see more County and Town partnerships, including a DARE officer in the schools (“It’s a small thing, but important.”), year-round air service (“Are people flying in only going to Mammoth?”) and the Whitmore Park facility, which he thinks serves more County residents than Mammoth denizens. He also wants to revisit the approach to how property tax revenue is returned to the Town by the County. “I wouldn’t necessarily give those dollars back to the Town,” he explained. “I’d rather identify specific programs they can be spent on.” He’s also keen on reviving discussion about another pass at a South County Recreation District, which he thinks wasn’t given enough consideration during earlier discussions.

“I’m not elected by the county, but by the District 1 voters. My priorities, in order, are District 1, the town and then the county. I’ll certainly look out for the county, but not at the expense of my district,” he vowed. “That having been said, I also realize that my showing up in Bridgeport doesn’t equate to a river of money flowing back to District 1.”

What can voters expect from him, should he win the election? “I think a new guy will bring a whole new perspective to the seat,” Sauser replied. “You won’t have to wonder what I think. Right or wrong, you’re gonna hear about it. It’s healthy for discourse. I play the devil’s advocate all the time to bring out all sides of a discussion.” He characterizes himself as flexible on the issues. “I’m not hard to read, but I’m certainly willing to negotiate.” Sauser also pledges lots of visibility. “I’m open to all ideas and my phone will always be listed,” he said. “I like hearing from the man on the street, whether he’s in my district or not. All feedback is important.”