Number of suitors for Logue's seat grows

November 16, 2008 - 11:35 PM

The pool of candidates interested in representing District 1 on the Yuba County Board of Supervisors continues to grow.

Andy Vasquez, 61, said he's already submitted an application to the governor's office to fill the vacancy that will be left when Dan Logue is sworn in as a state assemblyman for the 3rd District on Dec. 1

The 3rd District includes Yuba, Placer, Plumas, Sierra, Lassen and Nevada and parts of Butte County.

Vasquez joins John Black, former supervisor Joan Saunders and Katie Ertmer as candidates known to have submitted applications with the governor's office.

Yuba County's District 1 represents the community of Linda. As a deputy sheriff reserve officer and a business man, Vasquez said nobody knows the community better than he does.

If chosen by the governor, Vasquez said his No. 1 priority would be children. He said he would help enhance school programs already in place to fight drugs, specifically methamphetamine.

"Meth is killing us and it's killing our kids," he said. "It crosses all racial and economic barriers."

Vasquez is chair of the Yuba County Juvenile Justice Commission Meth awareness and ran the weekend teen center for Friday Night Live in Challenge for two years.

A representative from the governor's office said applications are accepted until the seat is filled, a process that could take up to six months.

Supervisor John Nicoletti said regardless of who comes on board, he or she will have a lot of catching up to do because of the work on levees and the general plan update that the county is already working on.

"No two areas of the county are the same," he said. "Folks in the foothills have different requests than folks in the valley."

Nicoletti said whoever fills the seat has to have a love of the community.

"Nobody puts themselves up for public punishment without a love for their community and a desire to make it better," Nicoletti said.

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Andrea Koskey at 749-4709 or akoskey@appealdemocrat.com