Sue Lempert's column from the Daily Journal on 1-24-17
The next day, I attended the reorganization meeting of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, mainly to witness the swearing in of the newest member Dave Canepa. It, too, was a very crowded event. Hard to find a place to park and hard to find a seat. I ended up sitting outside the chambers where rows of seats had been set up for the overflow crowd and a small TV gave you some idea of what was going on. Each supervisor had a chance to talk about some of the accomplishments of the year and to compliment his/her colleagues on their achievements.
What impressed me was how much good these officials do for the community. Supervisor Warren Slocum helped set up a homeless shelter for vets on the VA site. Supervisor Dave Pine has been the advocate and go-to guy to protect us from sea level rise and has even been invited to the Netherlands as a local expert. Supervisor Carole Groom has worked tirelessly on The Big Lift, a program to ensure kids can read at the proper grade level. And Don Horsley, the new president of the board, assured our local immigrant population that we will keep them safe from federal witch hunts.
Canepa will be a good addition to the board. He’s young, full of energy, and with many ideas on how to better serve the community. It’s too bad there are not more people in Washington, D.C., like our local elected officials. We are indeed blessed to live in California and especially in San Mateo County.
Sue Lempert is the former mayor of San Mateo. Her column runs every Monday. She can be reached at sue@smdailyjournal.com.