Opinion by Samuel Strait – May 12, 2022 I will leave it up to "Eye On Del Norte" to give the hard cold facts on the most recent election debate for the candidates from the County's District Three, Chris Howard, Frank Magarino, and Joe Akins. It is time to pull off the gloves and get down to what I see as the heart of the differences between the three men who are looking to be District Three Supervisor and let them know what they might look like to a potential voter. I have now listened to all three men articulate what they see as their "street creds" towards being the "best " man for the job. The following will be a concise and to the point offering of whether or not any of the three candidates can listen, learn, and then produce some measure of solutions, if possible, to a few of the purported issues facing the County. In the recent two hour session where all three candidates were offered a series of questions and asked for a response, a pattern has been established for each man. All of the questions are time worn issues that do not easily lend themselves to any form of solution to be found by the County's government. Most will not likely be solved in any satisfactory manner, hence it is important to understand that when an elected office holder says "I have the answers" the voter should be wary. If that same person were to say, "I am open to what say my district's constituents", then just maybe we have a winner. Beginning with the incumbent, Chris Howard, if you wish a polished well spoken representative who fancy's himself as "having all the answers" if, only enough money was available to expand government endlessly, then Chris is your man. Government is Chris's answer to every issue. He is a poor listener, well entrenched in government both within and outside of the County. He has a fascination with government operations that he views as "successful", yet do not appear to have "solved the issue". When confronted with facts that dispute his vision, he is quick to point to the notion, that this is the way government works, nothing to see here folks. He "talks" about his successes not in evidence and seems unaware that others may see something very different from his version of events. This combination of traits leaves him little room to understand why things do not work as intended. There are problems that government was never meant to solve no matter how many times local bureaucrats relay citizen concern over a particular problem. Frank Magarino, quite simply is a man of "I's" which exclude those he wishes to represent. It is unclear whether he is capable of listening and learning. There are many aspects of government operation that he will have great difficulty adjusting to from the perspective of primarily coming from a business orientation. Government is quite simply messy and often does not react well to a business model. All things to all people is an oxymoron and unattainable in any form of government. Compromises are therefore, the name of the game, but are rarely the answers everyone is looking for. This is why government should work to become as small as possible and cost the least to allow individuals to acquire skills to solve their own individual problems. Mr. Magarino does not appear to grasp the fundamentals of what does and does not happen in the government world. His previous experiences on the Del Norte Unified School District failed to forge any understanding of promises made and not kept which was particularly noticeable when the school district promised one thing, and produced something barely recognizable to those promises. He and Chris Howard are very similar in that regard. Attention to deferred maintenance was not what was expected by those that voted to approve Measure "A". Last but not least, it was refreshing to hear from a candidate that does not have all the answers, and can admit to that position while running for office. Too often politicians get wrapped up in their "visions" and are ultimately unsuccessful, without ever knowing "Why?". Mr. Joe "Hank" Akin can and does defer to others that may offer a better solution and has a better understanding of what "representative" actually can be defined as. Clearly there will be a "learning curve" and multiple frustrations for this candidate with practices currently engaged in the decision pathway as well as the understanding of how far the local bureaucracy has strayed from what they are tasked to undertake. Most of Mr. Akin's path as a Supervisor will occupy the ground between what can be accomplished with less, not more, and still have County government satisfy the very basic needs for his district's residents. A tall task of which Mr. Akin is the only one of the three that will have some measure of success for the County's future. For those that are running for this office, the past should become an education for what has been a long standing set of well defined issues that stubbornly refuse to succumb to the adage that more has to be better. What has not quelled the concern for those perpetual issues must become open to a stark change of course where excess, expensive and extravagant solutions become a thing of the past. Government has long ago crossed the line of becoming too expensive without any signs of measurable success.