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| Saturday, May 27 2006 7:05 PM
Last Updated: Saturday, May 27 2006 7:09 PM
As a political mushroom cloud darkens Kern County's 3rd District supervisor's race, candidate Dean Haddock complains it is overshadowing the "real issues."
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He's wrong. It is the real issue.
The political scheming, bogus accusations and thousands of dollars in distorted attack ads are being aimed at one candidate in the 3rd District race -- Bakersfield City Councilman Mike Maggard, who has dared to stand up to an out-of-town developer.
The top-paid executive of the Building Industry Association has been forced to quit after admitting he was behind the anonymous attack ads. E-mails left on his BIA computer reportedly link others to the deceptive campaign.
General Holding, a Sacramento-based developer fighting city regulations in its effort to build a housing and commercial project on the northeast bluffs, is spending thousands of dollars to oppose Maggard's bid for supervisor and promote Haddock.
Haddock is a Bakersfield psychologist, who years ago obtained a building contractor's license. Although he told The Californian's editorial board he has seldom used the license in the past 14 years, he boasts he is the only builder in the race.
Endorsed by the Building Industry Association, Haddock said if elected to the Board of Supervisors he will work to reduce the red tape builders have to contend with and the fees they have to pay for such things as street improvements.
While he says he will be spending only about $10,000 on his campaign for supervisor and that he disapproves of negative campaigning, his voice isn't raised to discourage developer General Holding from spending about three times that amount (possibly more) on his behalf to attack Maggard.
The motivation behind General Holding's attack on Maggard is the real issue in the race. The way metropolitan Bakersfield and Kern County grows affects all of our lives and all aspects of county government. Voters must elect representatives who will have the political courage to be good stewards and make decisions that benefit everyone who lives and works in Kern County.
The issue is not about a city councilman and a developer locking horns over just one project in northeast Bakersfield. It is about making sure the air we breathe is clean, the roads we drive on are not congested, government services are not stretched so far that tax dollars can't be found for law enforcement and fire protection.
A supervisor has a lot to say about building projects proposed in his or her district. The five members on the Board of Supervisors also adopt policies that determine where new homes and businesses sprout and how they operate throughout Kern County.
These are often contentious decisions, with special interest groups, such as builders, opposing new rules, fees and limits.
Consider the brutal fights over mega-dairies moving to Kern County. Only after years of foot-dragging by some supervisors has real attention been turned to the cumulative impacts these dairies are having on our air and drinking water.
The consequences of allowing several more megadairies to move from Southern California to Kern County are being studied. County planning commissioners and supervisors soon will be conducting public hearings that will lead to tougher rules covering the way new dairies are built and operated. They will answer: How many cows are too many cows?
Not long ago, supervisors bucked the development community when they adopted a policy requiring new homes built in unincorporated metropolitan areas to be hooked to sewer lines. Years of allowing homes to sprout wherever builders pleased and supervisors were convinced to let them resulted in groundwater being polluted by septic tanks.
New roads have to be built and existing roads improved to reach the new housing tracts and to keep the increased traffic flowing. Again supervisors bucked the building industry to raised developer transportation fees.
It's only fair that developers, who are making a lot of money building and selling homes, help pay for the public services, such as roads, they need to support their projects.
Political battles now loom over the contribution growth is making to our already polluted air. People living in metropolitan Bakersfield are breathing some of the nation's most polluted air. It takes about an hour to drive from the city's most eastern edge to its most western. As new housing tracts push out those edges, cars are on the road longer and polluting more.
Supervisors must require developers design their projects to minimize air pollution and more efficiently use energy. State law also demands limits be set on the consumption of Kern's prime agricultural land by this urban sprawl.
How these growth issues are addressed will also determine how efficiently every aspect of county government functions. How many more firefighters and sheriff's deputies will be needed? How many more miles of road will have to be maintained? How will health care services be delivered?
Kern County taxpayers cannot afford to just let growth happen. We must elect representatives to make intelligent and politically courageous decisions.
That is the real issue in the 3rd District race. It is not being overshadowed. It is being highlighted.