Five supervisor hopefuls name housing, homelessness and crime as top priorities
CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, CA (Jan. 21, 2022) — Four elected officials and one social justice advocate plan to run this June for the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors District 4 seat currently held by Karen Mitchoff who plans to retire at the end of this her third term.
District 4’s newly drawn map covers Concord except for a slice at the northern edge of the city, Pleasant Hill, most of Walnut Creek and all of Clayton now including the Marsh Creek/Morgan Territory area that was part of East County District 3 prior to redistricting. It was this change that spurred BART director Debora Allen who lives on Morgan Territory, to run in District 4.
As the race takes shape, it’s clear that quality of life issues will drive the campaigns. Crime, homelessness, mental health services, jobs and the need for more housing are all listed as top priorities of all five candidates.
Debora Allen
Allen is a small business owner and accountant with a focus on data driven decision making.
A strong supporter of public safety, she wants to see a unified effort between law enforcement, the criminal justice system, the fire department and mental health services. She believes mental health teams are a valuable adjunct to police services but should not be a replacement to trained officers as first responders.
She says Contra Costa County should be the job center for the entire region. “Attracting, retaining and supporting businesses in our county is critical to generating new jobs.”
Jobs, housing and transportation are all part of a “three legged stool,” she said in an email to the Pioneer. They must progress together. “Imbalance of one makes the stool fall over.”
She calls for more fiscal oversight and transparency and a modernization of county systems. “This means laying the plans for streamlining services with new technology for future budget savings.”
Allen, 58, lives with her husband Tim and three dogs on a ranch in rural Clayton. They have two grown sons.
Edi Birsan
Birsan is in his third term on the Concord City Council. He says he’s been planning to run for supervisor as soon as Mitchoff retired.
A strong supporter of law enforcement, he will work to establish local courts to quickly deal with property crimes and repeat offenders.
He wants a “massive increase in shelters” for the homeless and diversionary encampments to get people off the streets.”
“We can only do so much for the homeless in our community,” he told the Pioneer in a July interview. “The big lift is from the county side. After all, half the budget for the county is health services.”
Birsan staunchly defends his decision to select controversial Seeno Company/Discovery Homes as master developer for the Concord Naval Weapons Station preferring to deal with a locally owned company rather than a global conglomerate. The development will impact the entire region.
Birsan is 72. He and wife Carol live in Concord where they raised their two children. He is an internationally known player of the strategic board game Diplomacy.
Ken Carlson
Carlson is a Pleasant Hill city councilmember in his third term. He retired from the Concord Police Department in 2017 after 29 years of service.
He wants to better mental health support for the police in responding to social service calls. By creating non-police response teams, we can free officers to be more proactive in crime prevention, enforcement and investigations,” he told the Pioneer.
He wants to make it easier for small businesses to recover from the pandemic by cutting through red tape and providing incentives for them to hire local workers.
He says the county must play a major role in protecting the Delta and mitigating the climate issues that cause wildfires and sea level rise.
Carlson, 59, is a former board president of the LGBTQ Rainbow Community Center. He lives in Pleasant Hill with his husband, Jeremy, a travel agency owner.
Roxanne Garza
Garza is the only one of the five candidates who is not an elected official. A strong advocate for social justice, Garza is a senior director at Healthy Richmond Initiative, a non-profit working for racial equity in health care services. Previously, she was a public health program manager for the Contra Costa County Health Department.
“Rising to the pandemic and the suffering it caused must be a top priority of the next District 4 supervisor,” she said in an email to the Pioneer. “We must address inequities in healthcare, education, transportation and employment.”
Garza supports a non-police response to mental health crises. “Trained mobile teams should be the primary form of response with support from police only where there is the threat of escalating violence,” she said.
Garza lives in Pleasant Hill with her husband Jaime.
Carlyn Obringer
Obringer, 41, is in her second term on the Concord City Council. Prior to the Council, she was on the city’s Design Review Board and the Planning Commission.
Affordable housing and finding solutions for the county’s unhoused are among her top priorities.
She strongly advocates for Yes in God’s Backyard, a movement calling for churches to use their excess lands for tiny home communities and other affordable housing options.
She voted against Concord’s choice of the Seeno Companies/Discovery Homes for CNWS master developer, but later supported the council decision since the terms require 25% affordable housing.
Obringer works for Blue Shield as a government and community outreach manager.
She has an MBA in International Relations and is bi-lingual in English and Japanese. She and husband Justin live in Concord with their dog CoCo.