June 3 Election
It’s no surprise to find Ted Owens on the phone when entering his 5th District Supervisor office at Truckee Town Hall. One gets the feeling he spends a good part of his day engaged this way. Not surprisingly, dealing with ‘active constituent issues,’ as he calls them, is his favorite part of serving the vast and geographically varied 525-square mile Nevada County district. He says that during his first term as Supervisor, he has solved many of these issues, but not all. He has also been appointed Board Chair twice in that short time by his fellow Board members, a feat almost unheard of in county politics. Perhaps his effectiveness working on behalf of constituents combined with an unusual degree of respect from his Board is the reason he is running unopposed for his second term. While Owens remarks that he is definitely sleeping better without battling one or more opponents in this race and that he hopes it’s because he’s done good job, he feels it’s also a sign of declining interest and that concerns him. ‘Public service shouldn’t be driven by hot button issues – it’s about community service,’ he says.
And it’s clearly not about the money, either, although according to Owens the $39,647 per year stipend he receives as a Supervisor is starting to look more like a paycheck in these increasingly tough economic times. Owens owns and manages his Truckee-based business, Owens Construction, full time.
When asked about the accomplishments he’s most proud of he cites a work still in progress. He is attempting to get a firehouse built in the tiny old mining town of Graniteville in the far reaches of the District. As it currently stands, the Graniteville fire department must transport their firefighting equipment all the way to North San Juan to be stored during the winter season.
He gets lost for a moment describing the actual route to Graniteville, but soon his eyes light up as he begins recounting the successful partnership between the Truckee Donner Land Trust and the Nature Conservancy, which resulted in the acquisition of 3,300 acres in the Truckee River canyon last year. Working quietly in the background on this project, Owens played a role in helping with boundary line adjustments and negotiating with landowners and others to help bring the project to fruition.
Many constituent issues Owens deals with on a daily basis are not as exciting as this historic land acquisition. Still the Supervisor doesn’t hesitate to dive into the boring, but important, matters. Whether it’s assisting the community of Floriston with snow removal contracts, working with the Himsl family and Truckee Donner Recreation and Park district on maintenance arrangements for the Ponderosa Golf Course, or attending water board meetings to hammer out the fine details of a water delivery system in the Town of Washington, one gets the feeling Owens finds great reward dealing with and solving constituent issues. He is also proud of trimming excess and improving efficiency at the County. He wants to make sure that Steve Monahan, the county’s Chief Information Officer is also given due credit for successfully implementing the technological advances that have made the successes possible.
However Owens comes up with something completely unexpected as his ‘crowning achievement,’ and it’s something that will never be noted in press releases or proclamations. What he is most proud of is bringing what he calls ‘the Truckee way’ to the Nevada County Supervisor chambers. He feels he has been instrumental in bringing a functioning culture and a new collegiality to a Board that was better known in the past for bickering, infighting and less than ideal management of staff and county resources. Only with a well functioning Board of Supervisors can the business of the people become the first priority, Owens believes.
When asked if it’s difficult being from Truckee, representing such a broad district, and serving as Board Chairman, he equated it to ‘playing baseball on two fields.’ As with each boardmember, Owens must keep up with issues in his district, in the county, and in his colleagues’ districts, in order to be truly effective. But he has a huge geographical area to cover and travels much more than all the other Supervisors.
Looking forward to his second term with certainty, Owens feels one focus will undoubtedly be effectively managing service delivery to the public, especially in the mental health and social service sectors, given budget difficulties in Sacramento. There are also several large infrastructure projects on the horizon for the Hirschdale and Floriston areas, with four bridges and several major road projects throughout the eastern reaches of the district that will need to be funded and built with a combination of local, state and federal dollars. In terms of the Nevada County budget, having served for the last three years on the Budget Committee he’s confident that the County will be in good shape, with a balanced budget and restored reserves.
At age 45, with nearly a full decade spent in public service, first as a Truckee Planning Commissioner and then as a Town Councilmember prior to stepping into the Supervisor role, one can’t help but wonder if voters will see the Owens name on a state assembly or possibly even a U.S. senate ballot in the years to come. He was hesitant to answer at first, but soon came around. ‘I don’t dream about it…but if I do a good job and that streetcar comes along…I might consider it.’ Sounds like a definite maybe. Owens ends the interview on a much more sentimental note. ‘If I’m 85 (years old) and I can drive through Graniteville and see a firehouse, I’ll be a happy man.’
