Three Colusa supervisor incumbents win re-election

They asked the voters to let them keep working — and the voters said get to work.

Three incumbents — District 2 Supervisor Tom Indrieri, District 3 Supervisor Mark Marshall and District 4 Supervisor Gary Evans — won re-election to the board.

The results are unofficials until the final canvass and board certification.

It was a campaign in which the entire board stood as a group, pointed to each other for the successes the county has had with its budget and economic growth, and were rewarded with three big wins.

But now work is waiting, and at least a part of that will be mending fences.

"There is always county business to do, and it is often controversial," said Marshall, who won a fourth four-year term on the board with a 286-200 vote victory over Williams Councilwoman Angela Plachek-Fulcher. "So we go forward with a positive mindset and working for the citizens of Colusa County."

Marshall said for the majority of citizens that means creating new jobs.

He points to a proposal to loan Premiere Mushrooms $4.6 million through the Community Development Block Grant program for its expansion, which is expected to create 40 or more full-time jobs.

"And that will break wide open on June 26, and we will have public hearings on it," Marshall said.

Indrieri said the county is also working to close a deal with a large ag-compatible manufacturing firm, but would not discuss any additional details.

Indrieri won a third term with 57.94 percent of the vote in a three-candidate race. Colusa Councilman Tom Reische was second with 30.37 percent and Curtis Boewer captured 11.69 percent.

Evans, who beat back the challenge of Maxwell Fire Department Lt. Kenneth Cohen on a 331-289 vote for a third term, has emphasized the importance of water issues from the first day of the campaign.

He is particularly concerned with changes in the wind regarding water rights transfers, and place of origin rights. Both he said are under attack.

But he feels the supervisors are on top of those issues, each handling different elements, so he sees it as staying the course.

And while both Marshall and Indrieri agreed there is some fence mending needed with county employees, and back in their own districts to a degree, the bigger issue remains the county's business.

"We have to run this county for the citizens of the county, and I think some employees lose touch with that. That is why we kept a lot of (departments) open at lunch. We serve the citizens of the county, not the other way around," Indrieri said.

That noted, Marshall said the county is working on manager training efforts, and taking some other steps with the hopes of addressing employee concerns.

"We have to set some guidelines into these (personnel) policies. We have to be able to resolve some of these issues long before it gets to the Board of Supervisors," Indrieri said.

Indrieri said he also has talked with Reische about trying to find a way for the county and the city of Colusa to work better together.

Reische had made what he views as a lack of support from the county a part of his campaign, but said in a recent interview, he would work from the council side now to improve those communications.

Marshall said he has some conversations ahead of him, too.

"Certainly, it was a closer election than I had hoped to have had," Marshall said, "so obviously I need to reach out to some people in my district who think I am not doing the best job."

Evans does not see a lot of need for change.

He believes the board has to be patient when it comes to some of the personnel issues because of legal constraints

"We have our plans in place in what we want to do, and obviousely we have to get over the hurdles from our legal stuff first .... which shakles us and keeps us from going forward as fast as we would like," Evans said.

"Obiously we have plans to address management, and we don't know what is going to shake out with our bargaining units, but we don't have to look back, we have to keep moving forward."

And Evans is not sure having political disagreements within the county is all that bad.

To have a difference of opinion is healthy, and it looks like Colusa County is pretty healthy," he said.