"District 3 candidates discuss county challenges," The Inyo Register, March 31, 2022​

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1. What do you see as the role of a county super­visor?

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To over­see our county depart­ments and pro­grams, review and approve their budgets, and also to ensure these pro­grams are effect­ive and fin­ancially sus­tain­able. This respons­ib­il­ity also includes serving on vari­ous com­mis­sions and com­mit­tees and enact­ing ordin­ances with the goal of improv­ing the qual­ity of life of all res­id­ents in Inyo County.

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2. What qual­i­fic­a­tions do you have to ful­fill that role?

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I have over 15 years of exper­i­ence work­ing with local, state, and fed­eral pro­grams. I have a B. S. degree in crim­inal justice and an asso­ciates degree in gen­eral edu­ca­tion. I served as the regional dir­ector of Los Angeles County for the Torres-Mar­tinez Tri­bal TANF pro­gram. I provided over­sight of four TANF offices and worked closely with our city and county gov­ern­ments. I reviewed budgets, developed policies, mon­itored grant fund­ing sources, and ensured the com­pli­ance of our fund­ing. I have over five years of exper­i­ence as the Human Resources Dir­ector of the Owens Val­ley Career Devel­op­ment Cen­ter and under­stand the import­ance of lead­er­ship and staff devel­op­ment. Our employ­ees are our greatest assets. I’m cur­rently the assist­ant tri­bal admin­is­trator of the Bishop Paiute Tribe. In this role, I super­vise mul­tiple depart­ments, develop policies, review budgets, par­ti­cip­ate in pro­gram devel­op­ment.

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3. What are the top three chal­lenges facing Inyo county and how would you address them?

 

Cost of liv­ing – We need to give relief to our res­id­ents who live and work in Inyo County. Shop­ping local is a great idea but not a real­istic one for most res­id­ents to do con­sist­ently. One solu­tion, an effect­ive local dis­count to res­id­ents and com­munity input on busi­nesses and ser­vices that are needed in our com­munit­ies.

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Afford­able hous­ing – We need to look at all options such as devel­op­ing afford­able hous­ing areas, rent con­trol, and con­tinue efforts to bring in more high-pay­ing jobs and career oppor­tun­it­ies. We will con­tinue to lose our res­id­ents, work­ers, and busi­nesses if they are unable to find afford­able hous­ing.

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Pub­lic safety – We need to ensure that our local law enforce­ment agen­cies are ser­vi­cing all areas in Inyo County and are hear­ing the needs of the com­munit­ies. We need to coordin­ate with and pro­mote pro­grams that assist with sub­stance abuse pre­ven­tion and strategies to rid our com­munit­ies of drug activ­ity. We need imme­di­ate ser­vices avail­able for our most vul­ner­able res­id­ents. Those exper­i­en­cing home­less­ness, viol­ence, and food scarcity.

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4. What is a chal­lenge unique to Dis­trict 3 that the rest of the county might not be aware of and how would you address it?

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Dis­trict 3 includes the Bishop Paiute Reser­va­tion and is under the jur­is­dic­tion of the fed­eral gov­ern­ment, unlike the other areas of Dis­trict 3. As a res­id­ent of the Reser­va­tion and a decedent of the Bishop Paiute Tribe, I am famil­iar with the chal­lenges of ser­vices, fund­ing, and jur­is­dic­tion con­cerns. I will work closely with all the res­id­ents on the Reser­va­tion to meet these and other com­munity needs.

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(Got a fol­low-up ques­tion for Kody Jae­ger? Email info@kodyd3.com.)

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