Oceanside CA— Oceanside City Council member, Jerry Kern kicked off his bid for the San Diego County Supervisor seat, currently held by Bill Horn, with an event at Paradise Hills. The seat in the Fifth District, which covers most of north county and rural areas, east to the county line, becomes available in 2018 due to term limits. Horn has held the seat since 1995. Among those attending were the event were Tri-City Board Chair James Dagostino and California State Assembly member, Rocky Chavez.
The Council-member said he is uniquely qualified in the race for the seat due to his experience on the Oceanside City Council, the largest city full-service city in North County while working on a variety of issues from San Onofre nuclear waste removal to his work with the Arts Council and helping develop the only Homeless Outreach Team in north county.
“This district faces a lot of different and diverse problems. From traffic and housing along the coast, to water issues in Borrego and the desert,” said the councilman. “Affordable housing is a big problem. We are losing millennials at a high rate because they can’t afford a place to live. We fall about 100,000 homes short a year and we can’t catch up. Development is one of the hardest problems any elected official faces because people don’t want the needed development near them. It takes a balanced approach.”
Jerry Kern’s opponent on the Republican ticket is San Marcos Mayor, Jim Desmond. “The biggest difference between us is he supported ‘Measure A’ (a”half-cent” county sales tax for transportation repairs, public transit expansion, and open space preservation which would have raised the total sales tax rate in the county to 8.5 percent) where I opposed the measure due to the fact that very little of the money was going to be used in north county.” Although the measure got a majority vote, 58%, it failed due to a lack of getting the super majority, 60%, required.
Kern said the Supervisor position offers the opportunity to help coordinate efforts between communities in easing the homelessness crisis and dealing with the Hepatitis A outbreak developing in the county.
Along with Bill Horn, Ron Roberts in the Third District will term out in 2018.