The other day, San Mateo Councilmember Eric Rodriguez, who opted not to seek a second term, posted a tweet with a simple message: “Actual experience > ‘Lived’ experience.”
Rodriguez’s post was in response to a Twitter posting by Noelia Corzo, a San Mateo-Foster City School District trustee running for county supervisor against Belmont Councilmember Charles Stone. Corzo’s posting concerned money Stone got from development and real estate interests and included the claim that he “works for developers,” which is not really accurate, even within the latitude of political rhetoric.
Rodriguez’s “response” to Corzo’s tweet was enough to touch off this reply by Corzo on multiple social media platforms: “Never let anyone … tell you that your experience isn’t valuable.”
And there is your 2022 campaign for the two seats on the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors — Stone and Corzo in District 2 and councilmembers Ray Mueller of Menlo Park and Laura Parmer-Lohan of San Carlos in District 3.
It is an issue I touched on in last week’s masterpiece, but it warrants further discussion. It can be summed up — perhaps ineffectively, certainly less pejoratively than Rodriguez’s posting — as experience versus credentials.
In another era when supervisors ran countywide, Mueller and Stone would have been prohibitive favorites to win their respective races. They have nearly all the high-profile endorsements any candidate could want. They have served multiple city council terms, which means they have addressed a wide range of community issues. More than any other issue, city councils deal with land use and development. This means building relationships with the interests that most prominently donate to local political campaigns, even for an office such as supervisor, where land use is a secondary issue.
A city councilmember also has access to dozens of regional boards and commissions. These regional posts allow councilmembers to build connections with other elected officials. They provide a platform for high-profile issues. Mueller has served on regional entities dealing with transportation and housing. Stone has had a high-profile role as a member of the boards of SamTrans and Caltrain, among other regional entities.
In other words, Stone and Mueller have all the “credentials” that meant a winning campaign in previous elections.
But as Slim Charles from the HBO series “The Wire” said with his distinct eloquence: “The thing about the old days — they the old days.”
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It is the era of districts; no one runs for the board countywide. The county is changing, along with its politics. A younger, more diverse generation is asserting itself and further asserting that their lived experiences are just as relevant, if not more so, to elective office — particularly the job of county supervisor.
Few people seem to understand what a county supervisor does and why the job is significant. In essence, county government, with a $4.2 billion budget, is the delivery system for most of the local, state and federal social programs, including health care. The county also funds the local criminal justice system, homelessness programs, child care programs and initiatives aimed at responding to economic inequities.
School board members, such as Corzo, have statewide organizations with which they serve, but do not have the same array of countywide policymaking organizations that can be a platform for networking and high-profile issues.
But it could be argued that a school board member, particularly during the pandemic, addresses topics more closely in synch with the social programs in the county’s portfolio.
Corzo serves as a social worker, and she argues that this also means she has more working knowledge of the system and what is required to make it more effective. She is a Latina, which, she argues, means she has a better understanding of the needs of the people most frequently served by the county.
And both Corzo and Parmer-Lohan have argued that, as women, they have a deeper understanding of systemic inequities. Not to mention the current urgency about ensuring the protection of women’s reproductive rights.
“I don’t just talk about women’s issues,” Corzo wrote on Facebook. “I LIVE them.”
Whose experience is more relevant to the job they are seeking? As Corzo noted in her follow-up to Rodriguez, “The voters will decide.”
ONE MORE THING: Last week’s column misreported Heather Hopkins’ role in San Mateo County Women for Laura Parmer-Lohan. She is a donor, and she is from unincorporated Menlo Park. Hopkins also is a major donor ($15,000) to Levelfield, another independent committee. Also giving to Levelfield: Karen Grove, board chair of the Grove Foundation, $12,500; and San Mateo-Foster City School District Superintendent Diego Ochoa, $2,500. Ochoa already made a $2,000 campaign donation to Corzo, who voted a while ago to give him a contract extension and a raise.
Mark Simon is a veteran journalist, whose career included 15 years as an executive at SamTrans and Caltrain. He can be reached at marksimon@smdailyjournal.com.
Thanks for your column today!! A benefit, I think, of district elections is that the candidates can knock on doors and talk to a huge percentage of the people they would be serving. That plus there can be local debates / forums where folks can get significant exposure to the candidates and get in depth discussions on key issues. When you add to all that the fact that most of the forums are recorded and easily accessed online folks have abundant access to these candidates to determine who they feel will serve them best. I think you are right that most people don't know much about what the Board of Supervisors does. There are annual opportunities to learn about that so I'll try to make sure that when such a workshop is available I let folks know. One GREAT way to know more about the BOS is to serve on one of the many boards and commissions who advise them. Check out https://www.smcgov.org/bnc for opportunities to serve, or at least, come to some of the meetings and watch is in action.
That's the thing about the BOS. If they really wanted people to show up at their meetings, they would not have them during most people's workdays and times, but at nights or weekends. No wonder no one knows what they do. San Mateo County politics have been insular forever with good old boys and girls paving the way for people who look and think just like them into positions of power.
Point noted and as an advisor to the BOS I will share this feedback. And, I invite you to participate in boards and commissions that do meet in the evening, as mine does (LGBTQ Commission).
Think about what you would value when hiring a person for an extremely complex, high-value position. For me, and everyone else I've ever worked for and/or hired, it would be qualifications, i.e. credentials. All job candidates have "life experience", but not all have the expertise to actually perform the requirements of a job. Voting for qualifications/credentials at least means the elected official has the capacity to do the job. Thus, Charles Stone, with his level of experience and qualifications, is the top candidate for the SMC Board of Supervisors.
NM - I fully agree. Early on in my management career I was taught interviewing skills which essentially got away from "What would you do" instead of "What have you done" or "give an example where you screwed up and how you rectified it." As you said, life experience is not a tangible or even a useful attribute. So, while I do not always agree with Mr. Stone, he is a doer and gets results. And, in a Supervisor position I am puzzled why the abortion issue even comes up as if that is all we need to be concerned about.
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Thanks for your column today!! A benefit, I think, of district elections is that the candidates can knock on doors and talk to a huge percentage of the people they would be serving. That plus there can be local debates / forums where folks can get significant exposure to the candidates and get in depth discussions on key issues. When you add to all that the fact that most of the forums are recorded and easily accessed online folks have abundant access to these candidates to determine who they feel will serve them best. I think you are right that most people don't know much about what the Board of Supervisors does. There are annual opportunities to learn about that so I'll try to make sure that when such a workshop is available I let folks know. One GREAT way to know more about the BOS is to serve on one of the many boards and commissions who advise them. Check out https://www.smcgov.org/bnc for opportunities to serve, or at least, come to some of the meetings and watch is in action.
That's the thing about the BOS. If they really wanted people to show up at their meetings, they would not have them during most people's workdays and times, but at nights or weekends. No wonder no one knows what they do. San Mateo County politics have been insular forever with good old boys and girls paving the way for people who look and think just like them into positions of power.
Point noted and as an advisor to the BOS I will share this feedback. And, I invite you to participate in boards and commissions that do meet in the evening, as mine does (LGBTQ Commission).
Think about what you would value when hiring a person for an extremely complex, high-value position. For me, and everyone else I've ever worked for and/or hired, it would be qualifications, i.e. credentials. All job candidates have "life experience", but not all have the expertise to actually perform the requirements of a job. Voting for qualifications/credentials at least means the elected official has the capacity to do the job. Thus, Charles Stone, with his level of experience and qualifications, is the top candidate for the SMC Board of Supervisors.
NM - I fully agree. Early on in my management career I was taught interviewing skills which essentially got away from "What would you do" instead of "What have you done" or "give an example where you screwed up and how you rectified it." As you said, life experience is not a tangible or even a useful attribute. So, while I do not always agree with Mr. Stone, he is a doer and gets results. And, in a Supervisor position I am puzzled why the abortion issue even comes up as if that is all we need to be concerned about.
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