Politics & Government

Q&A: County Supervisor Wilma Chan, District 3

Just more than a month after she took office, Alameda County Supervisor Wilma Chan is gearing up to tackle some of the biggest problems facing the community. See what she's planning.

On Jan. 3 of this year, Wilma Chan returned from a decade-long hiatus in Sacramento to assume the District 3 seat of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors. Her district includes Alameda, San Leandro, San Lorenzo, a portion of Ashland, Hillcrest Knolls and parts of Oakland.

Patch sat down with the new supervisor to talk about what's changed and what's stayed the same, as well as what local residents can expect to see in the coming term.  

Patch: You've spent the past decade in Sacramento — what's changed in Alameda County since you've been away?

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Wilma Chan: The last five years in particular, the county has really suffered because of the state budget cuts. Departments have lost people. We were just meeting with the Probation Department, and they lost 22 people in the last budget cycle. 

People are doing more and more with less resources, and getting more and more concerned with what the county's going to look like at the end of the day.

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We're very, very concerned with the current budget. It's quite devastating to elderly, to women who are on welfare having to find a job a year earlier when the unemployment rate in this area is around 12 percent. MediCal recipients are having to pay premiums. Child care providers are going to get their rates reduced. It's really frightening for people who have depended on the county for services. 

 Were you surprised this was the situation you walked into?

WC: I think I had a pretty realistic idea of what was happening down here. I knew it was going to be challenging. I'm still very familiar with county government, the way it functions. There are even people who were here when I was here last time. For me, it's been a little bit easier getting oriented. 

What do you see as your biggest challenge this year? 

WC:  I think obviously the budget is the biggest challenge. It was a challenge even before this proposed budget came in. The prospect of not having redevelopment money is going to be very challenging for those of us who represent unincorporated areas. It's been the only money available to get rid of blight and do important economic development projects in the unincorporated areas.

We are going to be implementing health care reform in the county. Some portions have already gone into effect. The rest don't go into effect until 2014, but we have to plan for them now. We want Alameda County to be a shining star in California.

There are people who live in this county who aren't covered under the new law, mainly immigrants who don't qualify for any of those programs. The county has an obligation, we're required to provide health care for everybody, regardless of immigration status, insurance status.

So what's going to happen is, by 2014, there's going to be about 50,000 people who will qualify for health insurance. They'll have a chance to chose their provider. But the medical center is still left serving those without insurance. We have great clinics that see immigrants, those that qualify for health insurance, and those that are going to qualify for health insurance. My goal is that everyone has access, and everyone has quality coverage. 

Do you have any particular plans in mind for San Lorenzo?

WC:  Obviously, it's not a city, so we provide all the services there, from fire to library, etc. I'm looking forward to some good things that are already on schedule.

The demographics (in San Lorenzo) have really changed overt the past 10-20 years. I want to see more civic  engagement from everyone in the community. All the bodies that represent San Lorenzo need to be diverse and inclusive.

I think it's identifying community leaders from all sectors of the community and including them in advisory or decision-making bodies that the county sets up. Its really trying to identify leaders, and if they don't exist, training new leaders.

Its not just ethnic, but it's age. We're looking at the future of the county, and we really need to be inclusive and have younger people step up, have people of all different backgrounds step up.

Then, there's going to be an issue with what's called downtown. If we want to complete that, we need to move on it quickly.  

I'm going to encourage the community to try to come together as quickly as possible. I can't force  people to come together, but I would encourage people to minimize their differences. We have a window of opportunity here, and once it closes, that's it.

 The next step is to find out what the Bohannons would like to do. There was a period of time when it wasn't clear. I'm going to urge the community to try to come together on this and be realistic about the economic times. I understand that many people would like to see commercial development, and I'm supportive of that, but we have to be realistic about what kind of commercial will come in and what would be sustainable. 

How do those plans mesh with the proposed elimination of redevelopment?

 WC: There is danger to our redevelopment money. Even if we're given the money back, there will be more and more competition throughout the county for those dollars. The more the community can come to some kind of consensus, the better. If they don't, it'll be the community's loss. 

You're going to see on Feb. 22, we may be considering trying to move some development forward—but we don't know whether it will actually protect those programs going forward. Our intent here is to be able to continue to do projects in the unincorporated area. 

Right now, we're trying to be smart about what we do, and to have as much information as possible. We felt it wouldn't have been right to put things on the agenda that haven't been shown to the public.

I think the community does have to know that there is going to be a lot of competition for this money. So I really encourage them to come together in terms of what they would like to see. It's difficult, but we didn't create the budget situation, and we didn't create the time-line.

I don't want the community to miss out. 

Got more questions? Visit Supervisor Chan's District Office at 15903 Hesperian Blvd. during drop-in hours, Wednesday 1-4 p.m. and Thursday 9 a.m.-noon.


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