District 3 supe candidates take on coalition Q&A

Starting with introductions, Boeger has spent 30 years in wine industry marketing, product development and business strategy, she told the packed audience. She currently serves as a county planning commissioner and in the past served as the El Dorado Winery Association’s president and was a member of the Community Economic Development Advisory Committee.

“I'm not a politician. I'm not interested in this as a career move for myself. I'm one of those people who sees problems (and I am) compelled to fix it,” Boeger said. 

Some of her priorities are economic development, housing (especially for seniors) and addressing failing government processes. 

DeBerry has worked in transportation and land use for much of his career. He had a 23-year tenure with Caltrans and also worked in the land surveying industry. He has held positions with the El Dorado County Department of Transportation and the El Dorado Irrigation District as well. 

County road infrastructure and residents' insurance struggles are issues the candidate said he will focus on if elected.

"My job as I see it, if elected by you, is to not govern you. My job is to help you (and) to correct the problems that I've seen the last 50 years in this county," DeBerry said. "I can't do it alone. I need your help." 

Martin is running on a grassroots campaign. He is a near 50-year El Dorado County resident and has worked as a commercial helicopter pilot for much of his career. He had his own company called GEM before outsourcing for work. He has also worked as a Department of Justice firearms instructor.

"Sadly, our district has been plagued with overgrowth and high-fire areas, a punitive, dismissive government, homelessness, increased tax and infrastructure costs, while watching services being reduced,” Martin said. "I spent most of my life working in industries that require me to make life-or-death decisions with little or no room for error. I intend on using the same knowledge, skills and wisdom ... in the voting decisions if I'm elected supervisor.”

Martin added he would look to preserve things that residents consider unique to El Dorado County for future generations. 

Veerkamp is a former two-term District 3 supervisor whose resume is stacked in the emergency services field. Veerkamp was a fire chief for the El Dorado Hills Fire Department, the executive director for the El Dorado County Emergency Services Authority Joint Powers Authority and currently serves on the Marshall Medical Center Board of Directors.

He was also elected to the El Dorado Irrigation District Board of Directors and serves on the El Dorado County Community Foundation board. If elected, it would mean a third four-year term for Veerkamp, whose family settled in the Gold Hill/Lotus area in the 1850s. 

“It's not about me. It's never been about me,” Veerkamp said. “It's about service and what I can do to try to help and represent people. I think we've gotten so far away from representing people and we need to get back there, back to that. At the local community level, that's where we can certainly do it.”

The Mountain Democrat selected five questions from the Q&A portion of the candidate forum for this article. The complete forum can be viewed on the Diamond Springs/El Dorado Community Coalition's website at bit.ly/D3coalitionforum. Additionally, the candidates answered a questionnaire covering 16 topics presented by the coalition that can be found on the same website. 

How does the historical aspect of Diamond Springs help to preserve it (and) eliminate overdevelopment? 

Veerkamp: "I think it plays a big role. I think we should take into account as we look at any development in Diamond Springs and anywhere in El Dorado County. We have a lot of historical places across the county and they should be playing a major role in our General Plan and our mission statement speaks to that." 

Boeger: "I think we are creative people and we can solve our needs for limited growth and the reasonable growth that we need around the assets that we have, not just the historic assets, but our natural landscape and other things like that. In general, I think (preservation is) good, but it comes back to policy needing to be written well."

DeBerry: "This town, Diamond Springs, is a California historical monument and I don't know how they can go back and try to put a subdivision in a historical monument. I'm dead-set against what's happening."

Martin: "They have this new development they're putting in there and the roads aren't well enough to be able to handle if there is ever some kind of an emergency or a fire. I'm completely against (the roundabout plan). I think that there's got to be a better way to be able to maintain and mitigate that traffic issue that they have with the gridlock. As far as the rest of the town, I would hope that if I'm elected, that I would be able to get some of the other supervisors to agree with me on trying to protect (the historical) buildings that are there.”

(Relating to Dorado Oaks) Do you believe that having a draft environmental impact report remain open indefinitely is the way we should be managing draft EIRs in this county?

DeBerry: "I think there should be some kind of time limit that works for everybody and the county. They could drag it on and it isn’t right for all of you. You don't need to be held in limbo for three or four years worrying about what's happening to your property. That should not happen."

Martin: "I don't think they should be allowed to continue the way they are doing it. I think that (Dorado Oaks) should not be an open-ended EIR and I do believe that they should put together a new one. From what I understand, that one has been around for a little while and they need to go have a more updated, recent one to see if it still feels the same for everybody."

Veerkamp: "I agree there needs to be a time limit and they need to resubmit it or drop it. I don't think, with the current infrastructure, the project will ever fly. There's just too many other things that would need to be corrected."

Boeger: "I can't speak directly to the project as a planning commissioner, since it is potentially coming for me on those details, but I think that this issue is symptomatic of what I think is one of our most critical issues in the county right now, and that is our permitting process has just screeched to a halt. We need to look at our processes and how we do things, our underlying systems and our thinking around all of these processes and get this stuff reformed."

What will you do to keep our historical courthouse downtown?

Veerkamp: "I don't know if you know or not but the county currently owns the courthouse. They have the pink slip and the state has determined that it is a building that needs to be demolished, so they don't really care for it. But so far, there's been no funding to build a new courthouse. So once that process occurs, and there's hopefully a new courthouse built off Ray Lawyer Drive, the county will own that courthouse and it will be preserved one way or another if I'm involved."

Boeger: "We do need to preserve the building and the history of it. Whatever the destiny of it is, whether it's still a functioning courthouse doing business or if it becomes a centerpiece for our downtown, where we can celebrate its history and have activities or have an adaptive reuse of it that somehow keeps it alive and hopefully generates better interest in it. Sometimes, if you switch the use on some of these buildings, you can have a whole new life to them."

Martin: "I’m very much for preserving all the buildings that we have, including the historic buildings in town. Some of the buildings downtown are a little harder to fix. I think it's going to be easier to repair and restore that one as it is than some of those other buildings downtown, and they are managing to fix some of those."

DeBerry: "This is something that I've been fighting for a long time — preserving our history. I can see that building, sometime in the future, hopefully being used as a museum to celebrate the people that were here, the people that came here and the people that can come back."

What can be done to lower fire insurance so we can keep our homes? 

DeBerry: "(My) basic idea is for us to insure ourselves. The federal government does it, the county does it, why not all of us? Would you rather be faring $1,000 on your property tax or paying $8,000 to an insurance company? There's 135,000 taxable parcels in this county. I'm sure (that) includes vacant and developed property. That's $135 million which you can do a lot with. Additionally if you fix the roads, put people to work, you take care of the insurance issue."

Martin: "I think that the county needs to get involved in this if they really want to help. A lot of people don't know that you can get your insurance out of state, and it's a lot easier for you to get insurance for your houses. If you're getting it from some place on the East Coast and talking to an agent there rather than talking to one in California ... I think there has to be something that can be done and I think we need to get involved in that here locally."

Veerkamp: "It really starts with the individual homeowner. (I'm) constantly working on my property, keeping the brush trimmed up and over what the minimum requirements are, and that's where it really starts. Had we done that as a county, we wouldn't have the catastrophic fires that we're having today and it would make a bigger difference, because you've got defensible space. But all we've done is create a big tinder box and now our homes are in the middle of it. Better planning would help as well."

Boeger: "I can see the problems that we have, one of them being you can clear your place to a moonscape and it doesn't necessarily mean you're going to get any kind of a discount for insurance. For those who can, we need to start making a change in our landscape with carrots, not sticks. I think from the federal, state and local level, we can help people be fire resistant in a way that they can afford. Let's just (address) the elephant in the room ... we do have some neighbors with really horribly managed properties that are an absolute threat to us.

What are your thoughts on expanding marijuana grows in El Dorado County? 

Boeger: "I don't have a personal position one way or another that cannabis is better or worse than any other crop. I see it as an agricultural commodity. We are in critical times in the agriculture industry. The wine industry is going to see a downturn and a flatline for the next 30 years and that's one of our primary drivers. After the last five years, agriculture has seen back-to-back smoke, fires, floods and frosts that cost 75% of our apple crops. It's critical that agriculture is able to diversify for their survival."

Veerkamp: "I surely understand that, yes, a majority of folks voted for it in El Dorado County, but I'm on the other side of it to a degree. It has purpose and I think those purposes can be attained and can be used for the right purposes, medicinal, whatever it may be. But ... it's the degradation of our society and we don't need the infiltration of the crime it will bring."

Martin: "I've always been in support for the medical marijuana aspect of it, but you can see what happened in Colorado when it went recreational and I've been afraid that's going to happen here as well. As far as commercial grows and operations, (El Dorado County residents) said that's what they wanted, and if we can do it according to the law, that's fine, but they have to adhere to those laws and all those requirements. I am concerned though that we're going to have people coming up from Sacramento that are going to come up and rob these places. I don't feel that (law enforcement) should babysit people's marijuana grows. So unless these farmers are willing to put up their own security forces that are really going to make sure there isn't any crime, I'm against the large commercial grows."

DeBerry: "There's recreational and there's the type that makes clothing, shoes, etc ... that's the kind of marijuana I would support. The county needs the money. Agriculture is on life support, tourism is leaving ... we have to get something to get the economy back on track."

District 3 residents will have another chance to meet their candidates at a forum hosted by the League of Women Voters of El Dorado County at 7 p.m. Jan. 31 at Placerville Town Hall.