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Three businessmen want to do the county’s business representing District 1 on the Calaveras County Board of Supervisors. Contractor Gary Tofanelli, the incumbent, is facing restaurateur Cliff Edson and Joe Kelly in his June 5 re-election bid.
The winner of the seat will represent the northwest county district of four years on the county’s budget and policy-making panel. Tofanelli wants to continue the work he started on projects to alleviate flooding on Cosgrove Creek and minimize cost overruns on the jail and sheriff’s office construction. Edson is concerned with the county’s economic doldrums. Kelly is a persistent government watchdog who fears a United Nations sustainable development plan has sunk its teeth into local land use decisions. Tofanelli, 58, said his construction management experience has been crucial to scrutinizing and reducing payments for unanticipated work on the $57 million justice center that voters approved in 2007. Tofanelli said he will continue to try and get the two additional votes necessary to hire an economic development guru. He is encouraged by a 2012-2013 budget that will commence negotiations next month with no defecit. “I have advocated before I was elected and while I have been on the board that in order to compete on the same level as surrounding counties, Calaveras needs to hire a director of economic development much like Amador and Tuolumne counties have,” Tofanelli said. “We then would have a individual that works full-time on, and concentrates entirely on, working with industrial and retail businesses to meet their needs, also walking them through all of the county’s requirements to establish their business in the county.” Edson, 55, said Calaveras County’s economic doldrums and double-digit unemployment inspired his run. He said he has spent much of his campaign listening to the concerns of local residents and merchants. As a volunteer with park, school and anti-drug organizations, Edson said he has built a strong rapport with the community. Edson said the county needs to be friendlier toward development and “a county economic commission needs to be developed with members in each district to identify our needs. They could work with community organizations such as the Chamber of Commerce to create a package for Calaveras County to go out and actively recruit industry.” He has been most sharply critical of the incumbent when it comes to a proposed revamp of Hillside Apartments in downtown San Andreas. The county would kick in as much as $640,000 in Mental Health Services Act funds toward a nearly $8 million remodel of a now-dilapidated facility that would have 25 units for low-income households and five dedicated to mental health clients who are now homeless. The county has squeezed too many of its poverty-stricken residents into San Andreas and failed to attract enough jobs to improve its residents’ fortunes, Edson said. Kelly, 65, a U.S. Army veteran who has run a family farming and property development business, is on a quest to remove any hint of United Nations Agenda 21 from county code. The sustainable development plan developed in 1992 at a Brazil conference is “a subversion of the Constitution,” Kelly said. He said the best way to address growing crime in the district is to wholeheartedly support Sheriff Gary Kuntz. Kelly also wants to borrow some of the well-publicized policies of Maricopa County, Ariz. Sheriff Joe Arpaio. “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 during a debate earlier this week. Kelly added that making criminals wear pink underwear, another Arpaio concept, ought to be considered. Upcoming election profiles: Monday — Board of Supervisors District 2 Tuesday — Board of Supervisors District 4 |