BRUCE GIBSON FOR SUPERVISOR
San Luis Obispo County (CA) District 2

As the home page says, I want this campaign to be about ideas, and there certainly are a number of important issues that confront this county, now and in the near future.  In this space I’ll get into a little more detail about some of the issues that I believe are most important to this campaign and the people of San Luis Obispo County’s 2nd Supervisorial District.

These are the issues we’re hearing on the street, talking one-on-one with residents of District 2, and the issues that personal experience tells me are essential to our community. Please visit here often. I’ll be expanding the topics covered and keeping you abreast of current developments as time permits.  (Files on this page are posted in PDF format. Adobe Reader download link provided to your left.)

On this page: 
Los Osos Interests; Morro Bay Interests; Land Use Planning; Health and Human Services; Parks and Libraries

As 2nd District Planning Commissioner, I’ve been involved in shaping the future of this County through reviewing development applications and updating the General Plan. Often, this work doesn’t appear to be real exciting, as there are seemingly endless volumes of details to review.

In fact, Planning Commissioner is one of the most rewarding jobs I’ve ever had, as it’s helped me gain insight into both the development threats facing our county and a promising future we might achieve if we can come together to work through some contentious issues.

My guiding principals to land use planning:

Compact urban form: I strongly support the idea of compact urban development. Our county cannot afford sprawl, as it threatens our agricultural lands and the open space that supports our tourist economy.

General Plan amendments: Our General Plan already contains many elements of good land use planning. In my time on the Planning Commission, I’ve fought to implement the provisions of the existing General Plan – too many exceptions have been granted in the past and those exceptions often resulted in poor projects.

City/County cooperation: The key to successful planning in the future is to engage the county in a closer cooperation with our incorporated cities. Development should be encouraged where services exist to support it and in that issue our cities are key players. I recently commented on the Community 2050 Workshops (PDF), which I believe are a good step in the right direction.

TOP

Outside of land use planning, dealing with health and human service issues takes up most of a county supervisor’s time and energy – physically and emotionally – both at the board level and in pure staff work.

As in all aspects of local government, the state budget crisis has cast a long shadow on our county’s efforts to deal with the ever-increasing demands on our medical and mental health care systems.

My job is to make the best of a situation that begs for improvement in just about every area. Specifically:

We need to be sure the county public clinic system works. I believe that the best health care services are delivered as close to the patient as possible. We need to assure that our clinic system, now operated by a private non-profit, continues to provide the best medical services at the most reasonable cost to as many people as we can.

Sadly, necessary mental health services aren’t available to all who need them in San Luis Obispo County. Our county Mental Health Services department is stretched thin dealing with a wide variety of difficult issues – from drug and alcohol abuse to juvenile offenders to homelessness. We have seen some recent progress, as some law enforcement officers are now being specially trained to deal with the mentally ill, and we need that trend to continue.

However, we still have a significant mental health care challenge in this county that – if we’re being honest – many of us don’t want to acknowledge because it’s uncomfortable to talk about. The solution requires that we honestly assess our situation and then find the resources necessary to help those who need professional mental heath care.

As a start, I pledge that one of my first projects as an elected official will be to convene all the experts who work with and for the county to map out a short- and long-term vision for mental health services. We won’t let the lack of resources be an excuse to not try.

I’ll push to have a Mental Health Care Vision document complete in time for the budget process to begin in the spring of 2007, so that, at a minimum, we can have a frank and open discussion about the issues. After that, we’ll sit down with state and federal government agencies to find ways to make that vision happen.

TOP

Quality parks and libraries are more than just public amenities. They are a measure of our sense of community. Beyond their entertainment value, they have real importance to our physical and civic health.

In San Luis Obispo County, we have some lovely parks and many well-used libraries. Their operation today owes much to the efforts of volunteers and employees who make do with very few resources. For many years these important community assets have suffered in the budget squeeze. We can and should do better. Here’s what I recommend:

County government needs to be a parks champion – a booster – in addition to serving the role of parks keeper. The county needs to work with communities to serve their needs and develop real public-private partnerships (such as a County Parks Foundation) to advance the quality of our parks. We may not have the money, but we’ve got the brains to make the best with what we’ve got. I’ll try to find more money. I’ll also try to find the people who, together, can come up with clever ways to make our parks better.

We need to do the same for our library system. Voters have rejected increasing the sales tax to benefit our libraries. County government needs to get that message and use its collective brain power to develop innovative ways to keep our libraries current, relevant, attractive, and open. We deserve great libraries, and, together, we can make it happen.

These are important goals that define not just the quality of our communities, but the character as well. We are up to the challenge.