Peter Adam, 4th District Supervisor - KCOY Santa Maria, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo - News

Peter Adam, 4th District Supervisor

Party/Affiliation: n/a
Current Job: Farmer/Businessman

Top 3 Priorities if Elected:

STRENGTHEN PUBLIC SAFETY AND MAINTAIN INFASTRUCTURE 

The primary responsibility of government is to protect the life, liberty and property of each of its citizens. Maintaining our roads and infrastructure comes next.  All other spending  is discretionary. We should have a full-time North County Jail funded from existing revenues, not higher taxes. We must reallocate resources away from lesser priorities and toward our first responders: the Sheriff's  Department, firefighters, and our emergency response personnel.

REBUILD OUR STRATEGIC RESERVE

Santa Barbara County only has enough funds on hand to deal with a natural disaster for thirteen days ( $29 million ). The Government Finance Officers Association recommends a minimum of thirty days or $70 million. Given the fact that we could face an actual emergency such as a major earthquake or severe winter storm, we need to start committing the dollars required to protect the public at the start of every budget cycle. Only then should we determine how much we can spend on other services.

PAY DOWN THE LONG-TERM DEBT 

Santa Barbara County's unfunded liabilities amount to more than $1 billion. That's over $10,000 for a family of four! We need to develop a workable and realistic plan to pay down this long-term debt so that it does not become a future burden on our children and grandchildren. Reforming a broken county employee pension system in a way that's fair to both taxpayers and employees is a major part of solving the overall problem.