It must be election season. Compton for Supervisor signs are popping up on farm fences everywhere, and I've received my first mailing from the "Lynn Compton for Supervisor" campaign. Her previous campaign's misleading "slate mailers" touted her as, among other things, "the preferred candidate of the Democratic Party," choice of a nonexistent copycat version of the League of Women Voters, and claims she'd fight for Proposition 13 (a state, not county, issue), so, "Buyer beware!"

This is an important election as District 4, the South County, is in dire need of a supervisor who will represent all of its constituents, not just present and prospective customers of Valley Farm Supply (Ms. Compton's family business), fellow members of the Nipomo Chamber of Commerce, businesses in general, or oneself. Ms. Compton, however, has shown herself to be partial in several of her actions thus far.

As an example of her dedication to the people of District 4, she has touted her deflection of many thousands of South County funds to the creation of a skate park in the Nipomo Community Park. This project, however, is a partial fulfillment of former Supervisor Paul Teixiera's campaign to use the community park as a rental-free gift to the Nipomo Recreation Center people, when the center lost its venue on Frontage Road many years ago and had to rent other facilities. He began to push the idea of using the only community park in the South County, designed to be open to all as a passive park, as a taxpayer-supported venue for the rec center and its profitable child care facility despite the opposition of the then-sitting South County Advisory Council (SCAC). Ms. Compton has simply picked up the baton.

Yet, despite years of complaints by the locals to the county supervisor, she didn't push for the correction of a years-long violation of county code when a wholesale nursery permitted in the midst of a rural Nipomo residential neighborhood morphed into a distribution center for Plant Source. It brought streams of semis into a residential neighborhood, lighted the night skies, ruined the local (non county maintained) roads, and destroyed the quality of life and property values of the surrounding residents (and still does). Where is her concern for them?

Her supporters' letters applaud her votes for "the people." Yes, Ms. Compton voted against the expansion of Laetitia Vineyards, but considering her own family estate is situated just up the hill from the proposed project, which would negatively impact her wells, her traffic, and her quality of life, that was no surprise. Yes, she finally voted against the Phillips 66 proposed rail terminal off Highway 1 (opposed by a large proactive community of prospective voters who actively worked against it). Yes, she supported Jack Ready Park for all children, disabled and otherwise, a project conceived and supported by the SCAC long before she ever considered a run for office. More telling, in the almost 30 years I was involved in the SCAC, I never saw or heard of Ms. Compton at a SCAC or Board of Supervisors meeting.

What District 4 needs is a supervisor who will unselfishly represent the needs of those South County residents who lack "connections." After listening to Jimmy Paulding, I have high hopes he may be that one. What I know is that Lynn Compton is not. It is time for a positive change. Δ

Istar Holliday from Arroyo Grande once served as a member of the South County Advisory Council. Send comments through the editor at [email protected] or write a letter for publication and email it to [email protected].