Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources (SOAR)
- Currently as SOAR's Executive Director, supporting the SOAR laws that protect farmland and open space by vote of the people.
- Continue SOAR protections and fight back attempts to weaken the law.
- Encourage buffers between new development and farmland.
- Continue Right to Farm Ordinance.
- Support Farmworker Housing.
Board of Supervisors (2003-2022)
- Brought a bike lane to Potrero Road in Hidden Valley protecting cyclists/commuters.
- Reinstated the County’s Ethics Commission to further transparency and openness
- Made transportation safer and easier by ending gridlock at the 118/Somis Road intersection, adding a signalized crosswalk for school children in Newbury Park, and starting a free popular bus service in Oak Park.
- Secured two million dollars from a landfill operator Waste Management for parkland.
- Created first-of-its-kind Wildlife Corridor Zone to keep major corridors from being blocked off.
- Expanded access to quality health care, opening a new 250-bed hospital wing, a mental health rehabilitation center, and a children’s crisis center.
- Established a County bookmobile for underserved communities, students and seniors.
- Started a non-profit drought tolerant nursery, Growing Works, that provides horticultural therapy and job training for people with mental health challenges.
- Created the Mental Health and Safety Task Force that provided a blueprint to reduce gun violence and increase services for people in crisis.
- Developed a requirement for the the planting of 1,000 trees a year to combat global warming.
- Established some of the strongest environmental justice policies in the nation by requiring 2,500' setbacks between oil wells and schools.
- Led policy to establish 15% reserve that took Ventura County from no reserves when I joined the Board of Supervisors to over $100 million in reserve funds when I stepped down.
Champion Clean and Sustainable Energy
- Leader in the creation of the Clean Power Alliance with the most 100% customers in U.S.
- Encourage local clean energy sources such as solar and wind
- Support conversion of diesel engines to clean burning fuels, including school buses
Pollution-Free Land, Water, and Air
- Demand polluters clean their contaminated land, including Santa Susana Field Lab.
- Ensure safety of farmworkers and neighboring community from pesticide drift.
- Keep fracking operations from poisoning our water.
- Encourage compatible land uses for the safety and sanctity of neighborhoods
- Support the capture and reuse stormwater
Habitat and Wildlife Protections
- Support wildlife corridor zoning, fencing, and wildlife bridge over 101 Freeway to keep wildlife, including mountain lions, from being hit by cars.
- Ban anti-coagulant rodenticides so they no longer threaten the lives of bobcats, mountain lions, coyotes, raptors and other wildlife in our region.
- Stop use of glyphosate and other herbicides that cause cancer.
- Enforce protections for landmark trees, including oaks.
- Lead efforts to keep Monarch Butterflies from becoming extinct.