Charlotte Williams | Jun 3, 2018

Cio Perez knows you can't talk your way out of a drought or a hard freeze.

Unlike our current county supervisors, who have allowed and supported the corruption of words essential to this county -- words like "agriculture" and "winery" -- Cio knows what those words truly mean. He's spent his working life intimately involved with them.

These same supervisors have permitted the over-marketing of the valley to tourists, the massive expansion of wineries-cum-event centers and the ensuing visitor traffic, low-wage jobs and lack of affordable housing, which lead to more traffic as employees must commute from out of county. It is a cycle with negative impacts on the county's residents, agriculture, and natural environment.

When I met Cio Perez, he introduced himself as "a farmer." How refreshing. A person aware of and dependent on nature who takes honest pleasure in literally seeing the fruits of his labor; a person devoted to this place.

Because of that devotion to place and reality he supports (Yes) Measure C, the Watershed and Oak Woodland Protection Initiative, guarding a crucial ingredient of life and agriculture: clean water.

He also supports (Yes) Measure D, which bans further private heliports while allowing essential uses of and landings for helicopters, including emergencies, agricultural, and utilities.

He has studied at Stanford University, graduated from UC Davis in viticulture and been on the Farm Bureau board of directors for 30 years, and debated policy and practice with hundreds of Farm Bureau members at the state level.

Over the past several weeks of campaigning for and meeting with Cio, I am impressed by these behaviors: He is consistent in his message and presentation, he listens to all and replies thoughtfully and respectfully, he is knowledgeable about county issues and asks questions when he isn't.

He is clear in his solutions to problems; knows how to drill down to the deeper problem and find a true solution. He is solid, steady and wise in the way that a farmer learns to be when dealing with the variables of nature. And he has a gentle sense of humor.

I believe Cio is a person of integrity and good character, that he is a person of good word.

That's why I'm voting for Cio: he understands the difference between the essential and the frivolous.

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NVR version 5/23/18: Cio Perez is my choice for supervisor

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