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Three Calaveras County residents vying to represent Board of Supervisors District 1 in June’s primary election debated economic development and public safety Tuesday night for Calaveras County Public Television viewers. Incumbent Gary Tofanelli, seeking his second term, is being challenged by Cliff Edson and Joe Kelly.
Edson, a restaurant owner, said the county is “unfriendly to business.” “Businesses are leaving,” he said. “(Would-be entrepreneurs) don’t get answers they’re looking for, they get shoved from one place to another ... and it costs them a whole bunch of money besides.” Edson said the county needs to remove cumbersome rules and regulations to improve the economic climate. Tofanelli said he wants Calaveras County to hire an economic development director, as Tuolumne County and the City of Sonora did in creating the county’s Economic Development Authority and hiring director Larry Cope. Tofanelli also wants to go back to four Board of Supervisors meetings a month, now at two, and introduce night meetings to make the board more accessible to the working public. Kelly said overspending — with $1 million committed to an unfinished General Plan land-use document and several hundred thousand more proposed to go to a low-income and mental health client housing project — is hurting the county. “They say the county’s not dysfunctional anymore,” he said. “I beg to disagree with that.” Kelly expressed heavy concern with what he views as United Nations Agenda 21 intrusion into the general plan. The sustainable development blueprint developed in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro is a serious threat to sovereignty, he said. “We the people of Calaveras County are at a crossroads. I respect liberty, private property rights and constitutional law,” Kelly said. “This general plan is a subversion of the Constitution through what is called UN Agenda 21. It needs to stop right quick or else we all lose.” Kelly also had an unorthodox take on ensuring the new jail will not be too full when it opens next year. “We need a tent city. If it’s good enough for our military, I think it’s darn good enough for our criminals,” he said. “I think we should check in with (Maricopa County, Ariz.) Sheriff Joe Arpaio on what’s a good brand for pink underwear for our (jail) clothes.” Tofanelli said the impacts of Assembly Bill 109 prisoner realignment “are yet to be felt.” The state law puts counties in charge of jailing and monitoring low-level criminal offenders who formerly would have gone to prison. “It’s going to have a major impact on us here at the county level,” Tofanelli said. He said he wants to get more deputies on the streets and money for the District Attorney’s Office with Assembly Bill 109 allocations. Edson also emphasized the need for tougher law enforcement, sharing an anecdote about a man who harassed him at his restaurant and went down the road to another merchant before being arrested. He was back out on the street creating a nuisance the next day. The District Attorney debate and those of three supervisorial district races and state Assembly District 5 campaign will be shown on cable Channel 7 in Calaveras County from 7:30 p.m. to midnight tonight through Monday and 3 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. May 22 through June 4. Election Day is June 5. |