Johnston v. Sauser in district 1 rematch

This week, we take a look at the candidates for Mono County Supervisor District 1. The challenger won the coin flip and will appear first.

Bill Sauser

In 2010, Bill Sauser lost the election for Mono County Supervisor District 1 to Larry Johnston by five votes. Four years later, Johnston and Sauser are head-to-head again. While the race remains the same, the landscape has changed

Bill Sauser isn’t new to the issues facing Mono County or the Town of Mammoth. His family moved to Mammoth in 1958, and he has seen the population grow from just under 300 to more than 8,000. He was here for the condo boom of the late 1960s, the incorporation of the town in 1984, and the recreation boom of the last 20 years. Sauser has welcomed all of it and, if elected, plans to replicate that growth in the rest of Mono County.

“One of the things that people ask me a lot is: ‘Doesn’t it upset you, all of this change?’ Well frankly, no,” Sauser said. “Without that growth there isn’t a place for anything new. And if you don’t get anything new, you die.”

Sauser laid out some of his thoughts, experiences, and campaign ideas in an interview with the Sheet last week. Sauser’s bottom line: to change how Mammoth’s tax dollars are used in a way that benefits both the town and the county.

“Mammoth incorporated in 1984 because the county wasn’t giving the town its due,” Sauser said.  “I don’t think I’ve seen that culture change. You still hear it all over the county, ‘we don’t want to be like Mammoth.’ But Mammoth is 70% of the disposable income. Which part of Mammoth don’t you want to be? Successful?”

“When I ran four years ago, there was a $6 million reserve. Now there’s $1.6 million left. So $4 million of reserves have been used,” Sauser said. “I find that unconscionable.” He doesn’t believe that this money has been spent wisely, or in ways that benefits both the town and the county. He’s not saying the county needs to give a bunch of money to the town government either. “I’m advocating that we partner to raise the economy. A rising tide lifts all ships,” he said. “Wait, I can’t afford a ship. A dinghy? A rising tide lifts all dinghys.”

Sauser owns and runs Bill’s Locksmith, a family business he inherited from his dad, although he spends a good portion of his time as the Chairman of the Town’s Recreation Commission, which he helped found in the early ‘90s. He also serves as President of the Southern Mono Historical Society and is the caretaker for his 93 year-old mother, who still lives in town. Sauser believes his mix of non-profit, government and business experience is an important piece to his run for Supervisor.

“I get an insight that most other politicians don’t get,” Sauser said about running the locksmith business. “I don’t think the average local understands where the tax dollars get used in the county. I know that the common person down here is not feeling represented. And feeling like their 70% of the budget is being ignored.”

Sauser hopes to partner more with Mammoth, create a better advertising budget to draw visitors to the county and help keep the public lands open for the public to use. Sauser was instrumental in the early ‘80s establishing the snowmobile association, which lobbied for the trails that the Forest Service now maintains. “When we created that trail system it was a very positive thing for locals but it also helped drive a tourist economy.” About new recreation opportunities he said: “We need to look at how to get that double bang out of the dollar.”

According to Sauser the budget is the largest issue facing the county. “It’s going to be two or three years before the budget really gets under control. They’re saying it’s in balance this year, but there are unfunded liabilities that need to be paid in the next 20 years,” he said. He criticizes the current Board for waiving building fees for energy improvements and not preparing for the county vehicle replacement in order to meet Clean Air Resources Board (CARB) standards. “Do the people building those homes who can afford those solar panels really need a reduction of fees? Because by reducing those fees, you are reducing the

money coming into the county coffers and somebody else has to pick that up. Is that really the appropriate way to build the economy?”

“We knew about the CARB rules coming down the pipe along time ago and there should have been money set aside,” Sauser said. “You’re going to have to cut enough of your budget in order to make those obligations before you can spring any money free to see the things I would like to see done. But you can change the culture now.”

Sauser suggested creating special tax districts throughout the county as one way to generate income. “The taxpayers in Mammoth voted very specifically to raise taxes on themselves to build some of the infrastructures that are going to help keep our customers and grow our businesses,” Sauser said.  “Better to create a special tax district, so that the properties in the area being served are at least paying a higher proportion of the cost. Then you have some of that general fund money left.”

For example, Sauser would like to see “the county and the town come together to create one massive recreation agency that can create recreation throughout the whole area.” He referenced what he has observed in Jackson, Wyoming, where the town and Teton County teamed up.. He said that outlying areas of the Mono County wouldn’t need to be involved, but this district would “make sense from Lee Vining to the top of Sherwin Grade.”

This special recreation district, Sauser said, could help pay for a county-wide trail system that attracts visitors: “Wouldn’t it be great to have a seamless trail for SUVs, motorcycles, walkers, equestrian that started down at the Inyo County line and went all the way to the Nevada state line? How huge could that be?”

Sauser admitted he isn’t exactly sure how to implement some of his ideas, but wants the opportunity to find out. “Until you get in there and really get your feet wet, specifics are tough,” he said. “I know it’s a tough job but I think I’m the guy for the job.”

Along with his own campaign, Sauser has a clear favorite, who he declined to name, in the District 5 Supervisor race. “When I look at the issues, its real easy. One is aligned with me and the other two are not, in terms of recreation and expansion and things like that.”

Editor’s note: Gee, could it be Greg Eckert? 

Sauser isn’t running his campaign any differently this time around, although he has “a bad taste in my mouth from the last time that I’m not even going to go into.” He’s running again because he has “not seen a culture change in Bridgeport” and he hopes to remedy that.

Whether or not District 1 voters change their minds this time around and vote for Sauser to represent them, he will remain involved in local government. “I’ve been able to have a huge handprint on this community,” he said. “That’s the benefit of living in a small place— you can have input.”

Larry Johnston

As the only incumbent candidate in the Board of Supervisors election this June, Larry Johnston, District 1, is running on the platform of “proven leadership.”

“I’m a proven commodity. I was an agent for change when I came on board and I’m still looking for ways to make it better,” Johnston said in his interview with the Sheet. “We’ve got challenges ahead— I do my homework, I look at the issues carefully, I listen to both sides, and I work hard to get the best and right answer for the public.”

Johnston’s campaign platform also includes building an efficient government, stabilizing the tourism base and diversifying the economy. “I have comprehensive strategies to do this and my accomplishments prove it,” he said.

Johnston was quick to list his accomplishments: getting rid of “excessive management benefits;” moving the third Board of Supervisors meeting of the month to Mammoth, “because that’s where most of the people are;” creating a stimulus for construction, which involved the waiving of building fees; and putting money back into the County reserves.

Johnston acknowledges the budget problems, although he disagrees about when they started: “I came in when the County was at the lowest ebb of reserves in a number of years. We went from about $5.7 million down to $1.2 million when I took office. That’s what I had to deal with,” Johnston said.  “People weren’t really used to getting down to the nitty gritty to stop it. But we did and now [the budget] is balanced. We stopped the drain on the reserves. But there’s still more to do in the future.”

He praises the Board’s effort to put $1.2 million back into the reserves over the last two years in addition to setting aside $1 million for the upcoming CARB requirements. “You’ve heard it’s going to take millions on top of that. But CARB doesn’t require us to replace vehicles. It requires us to replace diesel engines. We’re finding that there are other ways to do that,” he said. “And remember that’s five years from now. I like the idea of setting money aside for that but we need to be prudent. It’s there, we just need to figure it out.”

Johnston said that his greatest asset in the District 1 race is simple: experience.

“It’s not just the Board of Supervisors that I’ve been on. When you’re on the Board you get to participate in a lot of other agencies and committees,” he said. Johnston has served on the the Solid Waste Task Force, Local Transportation Committee and the Eastern Sierra Council of Governments, along with being the Board chairman as of January 2014.

“I am not single [issue] focused,” Johnston said. This became evident as he talked about several smaller projects, from roads to environmental analyses, that the Board has worked on to try and bring in tourism, become energy efficient and build the local economy. If elected, Johnston said his plan is “a lot of continuation” of what he has already been doing, but he did acknowledge a few areas that will be challenges for the County in the upcoming years.

“We have to keep our eyes on services,” Johnston said. The County invests twice the amount of money into the town, in the form of services, than the entire town’s budget, Johnston said. “The bulk of services that the county provides affect the town. They are mostly the social services— kind of a safety net that occurs that most people aren’t aware of.”

“As I’ve gotten into this and known it better, what a diverse organization to be a part of. We have great employees, exceptionally trained and well qualified. We can do anything; if you want your dog vaccinated or you want to get vaccinated, we can do that. If you want a road built or cleared we can do that. If you want a facility designed and built, we can do that. If you have an alcohol or drug abuse problem we can help. We have to keep these services as best we can.”

Johnston is also concerned about the solid waste issue in Mono County, with the potential closure of the landfill by 2023. He discussed the possibility of opening another landfill and building a Material Recovery Facility (MRF), but didn’t have any clear opinions on either. “That’s something that needs to be worked out over the next few years, systematically,” he said.  “We want the best long term program and to do it environmentally safe and sound.”

Johnston doesn’t think that the relationship between Mammoth and Mono County is as strained as people think and said: “There is this collaborative discourse that is happening. We are ready and willing to work on other things.” Although Johnston is concerned, as a town citizen, about town government, his focus remains on the county. “I think if you ask the average citizen how the town is doing compared to the county, you’d find the county is much more favorably looked upon. And it should be,” Johnston said. “We’ve survived this economic downturn better than almost any other government entity in the state.”

Johnston has lived in Mammoth for 25 years, working first as an independent planning consultant and then working in the Community Development department in Mono County. His mother was a “Grapes of Wrath” migrant farmer and his father a barber, which Johnston said gives him perspective on the economic difficulties facing the average citizen.

“I’ve come from some very humble roots myself. We’ve pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps through hard work,” Johnston said. “So there’s a basis for me to try and understand the struggles people go through especially in a high cost area. I want to try and do those things that have an impact on people’s lives where the county can.”

Johnston said he’s handing out voter registration forms to people in all districts, running a “vigorous campaign from that perspective.” Walking the neighborhoods, he knocks on plenty of doors where young people live with “all the skis and bikes and things in the apartment,” who aren’t registered and don’t want to be. He also acknowledged the large Latino immigrant population in his district.  “They have become the backbone of the service industry and they are filling jobs that need to be filled but they can’t register which is unfortunate,” Johnston said. “That’s an important issue throughout the town.”

Johnston still has some ideas from his last campaign he’d like to see implemented, such as creating a TAC— Town Advisory Committee, like the June Lake CAC and other area RPACs— but he emphasized the need to focus on stimulating the economy through the strategic planning process.

“You got to make sure the boat floats before you hoist the sail,” Johnston said. “Some good ideas might have to wait a little bit.”

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View more 2014 election coverage from The Sheet.