PD Editorial: In support of James Gore for supervisor

Let’s be clear. The election to fill the 4th District vacancy on the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors is not about economic development. It’s not about growth, and it’s not about the drought. On those issues, there’s little daylight between Windsor City Councilwoman Deb Fudge and former Department of Agriculture official James Gore.

It’s also not about whether Gore was a real registered lobbyist before accepting an appointment as assistant chief of the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Washington, D.C.

Despite being the focus of pro-Fudge independent expenditure committee ads, this is largely an irrelevant issue given that White House lawyers already had cleared Gore on that front prior to his appointment, and there is no prohibition against supervisors serving as lobbyists anyway.

This race, in our view, is about financial management and accountability. It’s about which candidate is better prepared to lead the county as it emerges from the economic doldrums and faces a critical juncture where it can either learn from the mistakes of the past or repeat them. It’s about who is more inclined to confront the county’s ongoing pension problems and not be swayed by arguments that there’s no need for further reform. (Annual pension costs have increased from $25 million in 2002 to $117 million and are expected to grow to $200 million by 2020. Meanwhile, the county’s unfunded liability stands at about $300 million.)

For these reasons, we give our support to James Gore.

Fudge, 58, is certainly well known having been on the Windsor Town Council for 18 years and having served on many boards including those for SMART and the Sonoma County Waste Management Agency. As we said in supporting her for supervisor four years ago, she has been a dedicated and hard-working public servant for years. But this time around, Fudge is heavily supported by labor unions and has already signed pledges to groups such as the Service Employees International Union which raise concerns about her independence. Equally concerning is her pledge to support project labor agreements.

Project labor agreements are a management system that essentially binds workers to union rules, benefits and oversight. Under pressure from labor groups, supervisors in January voted to impose project labor agreements on projects of more than $10 million. Supervisors David Rabbitt and Efren Carrillo proposed an alternative bidding process that would have allowed nonunion contractors to compete on certain qualifying projects. But, without explanation, their colleagues, all of whom are backed by labor groups, rejected the compromise. It’s this kind of blind allegiance that should give voters pause - and should move them to support Gore.

Gore, 36, is an articulate, discerning public servant whose background in environmental advocacy and agriculture will serve him well in representing the largely agricultural 4th District. We see his experience having worked inside the Beltway administering federal grants as being an asset for Sonoma County. We also are encouraged by Gore’s commitment to knowing the county’s progress in getting overall retirement costs back down to 10 percent of payroll. At last check, they were at 19 percent. “If we are going to go into collective bargaining (with SEIU next year), we need to know where we stand,” Gore said.

We agree. We also believe it’s critical to know where county supervisors stand when it comes to spending and managing taxpayer funds. We believe Gore stands with the general public rather than special interests. The Press Democrat recommends James Gore in the race for 4th District supervisor.