In 2004, Bruce Kranz defeated three-term incumbent Rex Bloomfield for the post of Placer County 5th District Supervisor. A mixed blessing as Kranz admits he spends between 50 to 60 hours a week doing the job. In the past three years he has driven more than 70,000 miles criss-crossing the vast district. Add a tough election campaign to the existing workload and one wonders why he’s choosing to fight to retain the position. Plus Kranz says, ‘It’s a lot harder running against two people.’
In his elected position Kranz says he has accomplished a lot and become a ‘lightning rod’ because of it. ‘Anytime you deal with issues, you get people upset,’ he said. When asked what brought about the lightning rod status, the first issue he mentioned his efforts to improve customer service and efficiency within the Placer County government system. While he didn’t go into specifics in the interview, Kranz said he saw a need to trim excess and improve transparency in the county as soon as he got elected. Kranz did note that he was the first Supervisor in Placer County to develop his own web site in order to keep the public informed and up to date on relevant district topics and county business. He also feels he’s made tremendous progress preparing for the inevitability of catastrophic wildfire through the implementation of fuels reduction and biomass programs. He devotes roughly 40 percent of his time to this issue alone. It’s clear that as busy as he is, he doesn’t plan on slowing down anytime soon.
When asked if his busy schedule was the reason he didn’t show up at a recent candidate forum in Kings Beach sponsored by the North Tahoe Business Association and the Blue Tahoe Toastmasters, he replied matter-of-factly that there were ‘other things I needed to do.’ He emphatically mentioned that he did attend a candidate forum at Granlibakken the Tuesday prior.
During the Kings Beach forum, Kranz’s opponents, Bob Houston and Jennifer Montgomery, each spent time discussing the vital role of Placer County’s Municipal Advisory Committees and ways they would work to improve them if elected. The mention of his opponent’s ideas triggered strong words from Kranz on several fronts. He was quick to say that his predecessor, Rex Bloomfield, had loaded the MACs with constituents who were ‘determined to re-live the election for the next four years’ once he stepped into the Supervisor position and because of that ‘he had to ask them to leave.’ He also seems to be astonished by the fact that while his opponents have focused so much energy campaigning on the role of the MACs, that, according to Kranz, ‘neither one of them attended any (meeting of the) Municipal Advisory Committee the whole time’ he’s been in office.
Kranz has a laundry list of hot button issues he feels need to be addressed within the 5th District and the eastern county in particular. ‘What isn’t controversial in Tahoe?’ he queried. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing, Kranz says. Between the 64-Acres transit center project to the question of 3 or 4 lanes in Kings Beach, he feels controversy is good because it engages people with strong opinions who eventually will come to a solution. How to make Tahoe blue seems to be a driving force behind many of his current and future plans. He believes one way to make Tahoe blue is to implement good BMPs and have the private sector pay for them. He highlights the need to clean up the community, especially Kings Beach, and to do everything possible to make businesses successful. He feels great strides have already been made in improving public transportation, but much more needs to be done.
For Kranz, public safety is the ‘primary purpose of local government’ and includes not just policing, but good roads and delivering health and human services. With so many concerns to address, setting priorities is essential for Kranz, especially in the face of lean budget times, which Kranz believes are going to get worse. He is opposed to a raise in Supervisor’s salaries, which have been capped at $30,000 since 1992, and was eager to set the record straight on this topic because he feels one of his opponents has been misrepresenting his stance on this issue repeatedly throughout the campaign. A pay raise would require an amendment to the Placer County Charter and came to a vote at the Supervisor meeting on May 27, Supervisors approved a motion that directed staff to come back with draft ballot language that includes a new base salary of $48,000 with annual cost of living adjustments. If ballot language is eventually approved, voters will have the final say on this topic in November.
Supervisor Kranz has three accomplishments in particular that he is clearly proud of and was eager to share the details. He feels he has been very effective in dealing with the looming prospect of catastrophic wildfire in his district, which is 70 percent forested, and firmly believes that biomass projects are the answer. The Tahoe Basin Biomass Removal Project provides 30-yard biomass boxes throughout the basin. Residents and homeowner’s associations can deposit accumulated woody debris for free, after which it is taken to the Eastern Regional Landfill for chipping and then to the Loyalton Biomass plant where it is converted into energy. He has lobbied for biomass not just locally but at the state level and in Washington DC. Reducing fuels in this manner creates clean energy, reduces air and water pollution and prevents catastrophic wildfire, according to Kranz. He wants to site a small biomass facility near the proposed Placer County Government Center in Kings Beach, use it to power the center and sell power back to Sierra Pacific. He also eventually sees the possibility of creating a carbon credit program around biomass where the county could sell credits back to local residents.
Kranz feels he’s been very effective at improving government efficiency and transparency since he’s been in office. He acknowledges that there was a lot to do on both of these fronts, especially in Tahoe. He feels his aide, Collier Cook, is a big asset and very active in the community. He also notes that he was the first 5th District Supervisor to ever sit on the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Board, which he sees as an essential part of his role even though the meetings are eight hours long and require a ‘big commitment’ on his part. He was the first Supervisor to create his own website. ‘Coffee with Kranz’ meetings, held four times per month throughout the district, provide an opportunity for constituents to ask anything they want of the Supervisor in a relaxed, unstructured setting.
As the interview winds down, Kranz reflects on another accomplishment, alsoa quality that distinguishes him from his opponents in the Supervisor race, he says. ‘I know all the legislators on the state and federal level and I can get things done.’ Adding that he worked for California State Parks for 33 years, ‘This is the first time I feel as though I can make a difference…that’s why I do it.’
