Odessa Lefrancois, a resident of Antioch and candidate for Contra Costa County Board of Supervisor, District 3, does not mind being the only non-elected candidate running for the job.
Lefrancois considers it an advantage because she is not a part of the establishment who are making poor decisions and not listening to the public’s wants and needs. Instead, she touts her experience serving her country 21-yaers in the Navy before retiring.
During that time, she held various leadership and management roles including Department Head for the Respiratory Therapy Department at the Naval Medical Center Oakland, California and as a Senior Company Commander at Naval Station, Great Lakes Illinois. Her last position was as Assistant Department Head of Patient Administration and Public Affairs Officer to the Hospital Commander at the Naval Hospital in Lemoore, California.
After retirement, she became a county employee as a respiratory therapist and became a member of SIEU-UHW 250 Union and Public Employees Union (PEU) Local 1. She also serves as president of the East County NAACP.
Since announcing her intention to run in November of 2015, political circles are knocking Lefrancois and dismissing her from the race because she has not held office. She rejects that thought and questions the motives of those who say she should instead run for a council seat or other position before running for county supervisor.
“I have a passion for this and I believe I can do a better job than the other candidates,” says Lefrancois. “How much experience do I really need? I’ve done something that most people haven’t done which was commit to my country and given my life for this country. Holding a city council seat is not a criteria for me running for County Supervisor.”
She says other than herself and Oakley councilman Doug Hardcastle, none of the other candidates were willing to challenge Supervisor Mary Piepho because they would lose noting only after she announced retirement did others seek the seat. She called it very opportunistic for some wanting to advance their political future.
“You have people now who are running who are a mayor or on a city council, this or that, what results have they given? When an incumbent was running, there was only two people willing to challenge an incumbent. Now all of a sudden since an incumbent isn’t running, the floodgate is now open,” explained Lefrancois. “So are those people now running really caring about the community or just about themselves and see it’s a great opportunity to advance? People need to realize it’s not an opportunity for me like the others now running, I really want to make a difference. I really care about this area. Win or lose, I just want to give people a choice and I hope they give me a chance to get to know me.”
Lefrancois says she is running because of the County budget and where the Board of Supervisors are deciding to spend their money–such as closing Doctors Hospital. What alarmed her was the funding issues facing the sheriff’s department, jails and other county departments. She also did not appreciate the treatment to unions by the Board of Supervisors.
“Living in East County, there has migration of new residents and I saw something is not working here, we are spending a lot of money in central and west Contra Costa county but far east county has not been addressed as far as I am concerned,” sad Lefrancois. “I said instead of complaining, I am going to try and do something about it. I am qualified and I want to serve my county.”
She says working with the county and in the military, she has had some of the best training and has been in leadership positions that help her understand what it takes to get the job done well.
“I don’t think people in East County have a voice and was not too happy the way some of the county supervisors reacted to the unions,” said Lefrancois. “They (the supervisors) are really out of touch and are not really making a difference in communities.”
Lefrancois goals if elected include working to create more accessibility between a County Supervisor and the public—saying she wants to create more community collaboration and get more input. She called Supervisor Mary Piepho out of touch and rarely accessible.
“I would like to see a Supervisor who has coffee on Saturday morning with constituents to hear concerns. On the weekend, have meetings to allow people who work during the week be able to drop by and talk,” explained Lefrancois. “We hold board meetings at 9:00 am, most people are at work. The public should have a right to know what is going on and a supervisor must invest in getting to know their constituents. You need to have meetings in different forums.”
She questioned whether Supervisor Piepho really knew what her concerns are in the community saying she has never had a conversation with Piepho in depth or invited her to come by her office during office hours. She believes that there should be 3-days a week, to have set office hours for constituents to drop by and talk about concerns.
She also wants to work to improve transportation in an out of East Contra Costa County saying there is much more work to do calling BART a priority.
“A lot of people are not happy about getting an eBART system because they paid for a BART system. Our leaders have compromised for that and the people are not happy. BART is going everywhere else, what is it, are we not a part of Silicon Valley bringing in a million dollars per month or whatever that you can be overlooked and instead we get a substitute?” explained Lefrancois. “People want BART to go further than Hillcrest and some do not. The community needs to get together and figure out what is going to work what is really going to work for all the residents.”
She further highlighted that any transportation solution cannot target just a small group, but has to benefit most of the community while better involving he community on these solutions.
Another goal of Lefrancois is to further protect the Delta and wetlands. She opposes the tunnels and noted a Rio Vista town hall she attended where there was a replica of the tunnels the Governor wants to place in the Delta.
Lefrancois also stated veterans and seniors need to be given a greater priority with services provided. She explained she deals with a lot of seniors just trying to get their prescriptions filled and its sometimes an all-day process which is concerning to her because they need help navigating the system.
“People do not understand how it works and they get frustrated,” says Lefrancois. “We need to help seniors and I am committed to providing a liaison to help people through the process and to get affordable healthcare. It’s a major issue. I spend a lot of my own time just helping them because it’s the right thing to do. Even by just calling the doctor and seeing what needs to be done.”
John A. Biedrzycki Jr. Commander-in-Chief of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and Odessa Francois
She also challenged those in office and those running on their commitment to veterans. She explained while services have improved since Vietnam, there is still a ways to go for providing access and services.
“I’d like to see a veteran’s service center out in East County because a lot of veterans complain about access having to travel to Martinez and even Oakland. To them, that can be an all day trip,” explained Lefrancois. “It would be nice to have a one-stop shop, possibly some assisted living for veterans, but we need to do something for them.”
If a service center cannot be provided in East County, she proposes transportation for veterans to get to Martinez or Oakland that can become routine each week to pick-up and drop-off veterans so its not an all day trip to handle their business saying it would improve their lives by creating access and transportation.
She also noted that what bothers her is in an election year, everybody talks about the veterans, but no one ever does anything for them because there is no follow through because it’s a pandering for votes.
“Everybody running for election says they are committed to veterans, police and fire, but once they are elected, nothing gets done. That is another reason why I am running, it can’t be politics as usual. Don’t just tell me stuff to make me feel better or feel good,” said Lefrancois. “I really care and committed to make things better.”
She did credit Assemblyman Jim Frazier and Supervisor Federal Glover who are two people who just don’t talk about supporting veterans, both she has witnessed actually help veterans routinely and be there for the veteran community.
With regards to Contra Costa County, she says the County needs to do a better job at ensuring departments across the board are appropriately funded saying the Sheriff’s Department, like all departments, have become training grounds for employees who are leaving. The county is going to have to find a way to get them better pay and more competitive.
“We need to get them comparable to the other counties, especially Alameda,” says Lefrancois. “We need to increase benefits. There have been a lot of cuts and concessions since 2007, we are now solvent so now is the time to go back and re-look at some of the contracts. If we don’t, we are never going to get qualified people to stay and work in the county and that really bothers me.”
She does not like the fact people can work a few years then leave for higher paying jobs and now the county has lost both talent and training costs.
“We need to increase pay and benefits because we do not want people just to work in our area, we want people to be vested and live in the county,” says Lefrancois. “I think we have to make a commitment, if people are committed, they do a better job. That is my personal feeling about it.”
To pay for it, Lefrancois says there are a lot of programs that can be cut to help pay for the sheriff’s department. She says they have to re-evaluate programs that are not working and shift the funds elsewhere.
“We have a lot of programs in Contra Costa County that do not work that we are still doing and throwing money at it,” says Lefrancois.”That needs to stop.”
For example, she provided the example of homeless shelters and how they have plenty of shelters, but people are not going to them due to poor conditions-especially in San Pablo. She admits she would not stay there either.
“How do you fix that? You fix that by having homeless shelters run by county employees instead of contracting out with a lot of other organizations. That is one way to help. If the shelter is not working or providing the type of services it’s supposed to, maybe we need to relocate it or shut it down. Do something different, maybe we need assisted living homes instead,” says Lefrancois. “I see a lot of the waste.”
When asked about the East Contra Costa Fire Protection District, she says this fire department must be a priority saying that District is a training ground as firefighters leave for hire paying jobs. She says some form of re-allocation must occur and the county must get more engaged.
Lefrancois highlighted that when you look at the social economic area, one has to be very careful about taxing people. Under Proposition 13, we know with the 1% we can only do so much with the funding that we actually give to fire.
“I say this, which some people may not be happy hearing this, you have the school districts who get a majority of the funds, I would take a look at all the agencies and reallocate the funding,” explained Lefrancois. “We have to look at all agencies and look to see if they really need all that funding that could otherwise go to fire. There won’t be people happy, nobody wants to have money taken from their program, but you have to look at what program is going to be best serving the residents. To me, fire and police are a basic need that every citizen should have access to and is not a choice.”
She says a local plan by residents to ask agencies to “voluntarily give up funds” is not feasible and that the county and Sacramento need to find a solution.
Although the county is facing many issues, LeFrancois believes that her experience with the NAACP has shown her ability and willingness to bring people together while helping the community.
“One of the accomplishments I’d like to think I accomplished is bring people together from all parts of the community. We increased our membership, created more scholarships for youths while holding the school districts responsible for their actions,” says Lefrancois.
She highlighted how they had worked specifically with the Antioch Unified School District, Antioch Police Department and Brentwood School Districts on solutions because they used to get a lot of complaints of treatment of people, but through communication, complaints have been reduced
“What we have done is bridge that gap and have a working relationship with those entities. We did bring a lawsuit against the Antioch Unified, not the NAACP itself but worked with another agency to do that, because it was needed, especially when it comes to special education kids and achievement gaps because I didn’t see that happening,” explained Lefrancois. “I didn’t see just a school board, but I saw teachers who didn’t understand the whole area has changed and we need to learn to change with it and accept that change by embracing that change while working together.”
Lefrancois said that once a quarter, she meets with Antioch Police Chief Allan Cantando to go over issues and create a working relationship. She says the communication has led to less complaints of police abuse.
“I think I’ve done a lot to bridge the gap between police and racial relations, especially out here in Antioch,” says Lefrancois highlighting how the NAACP, the police, and the City council would not get along in the past. “Under my leadership, we have improved that and it’s much more collaborative.”
Although she has is proud of her achievements, she does admit that there are misconceptions about her because all they see about her is the NAACP when they Google her name—something she says is a branding issue for her.
She says she is much more than the NAACP.
“I am proud to be a part of an organization that is 100 years old helping move civil rights forward not just for African American people, but for everyone in this country and people need to understand we have opened the doors for everybody. Everybody has benefited from the work we have done,” explained Lefrancois. “So who am I, I am girl from a small town that joined the military at the age of 17 and spent 21-years serving my country and became the first female company commander in the medical core. I spend a lot of my time volunteering with the faith based community doing health related help.”
Lefrancois says she does not see herself as an African American running for a county supervisor but sees herself as a citizen of Contra Costa running for office to help people and further serve her community as best she can.
As the political outsider in the race, she says people should not dismiss her and instead get to know her on the issues.
“People should take a look at who I am. I really care about this area and I am not doing it because I want to be somebody, I am already somebody. I think people who are dismissing me are the establishment because I am not a part of their club. That is kind of sad. Whether you like or disagree with Donald Trump, one of the reason people like him is because he is not a part of the establishment and everybody is trying to dismiss him.”
Regardless of where the campaign takes her, she vows to be transparent and approachable.
“People should vote for me because I will be accessible and open. If I am not holding up my end of the bargain, feel free to come talk to me. I am always going to be available because I want to do the right thing,” explained Lefrancois. “Those in office blowing me off and questioning my accomplishments, I challenge people to look at those in office and look at what they have done and some of the poor decisions they have made. It’s time for the public to focus on results.”
For more information on Odessa Lefrancois, visit her website at www.odessa4supervisor.com
23 comments
Great article. She looks pretty good. I agree with her about the other candidates.
She sounds like a breath of fresh air. She is saying what we all think about some of the elected officials, especially Monica Wilson and Wade Harper.
Thank you for your military service Odessa, but I question how you can be a county supervisor and be fair with the unions since you are part of them. It would appear you are set to open up the county bank account to give raises. I am not voting for anyone in Antioch.
You obviously are not from District 3, Antiioch is the biggest city in District 3. District 3 needs to represent East County constituents.
She has my support. Good article.
Do your homework folks. She is a seasoned politician. Just another Harper, Wilson, Hardcastle etc. The union connection is a huge problem too.
None of the unions have endorsed Odessa. Most of them are supporting and endorsing Diane Burgis for istrict 3. Is that a huge problem too!!
ECT I am very concerned you did not ask more in depth questions regarding the union connection with Odessa. Local 1 is one of the most obnoxious unions out there and even went as far as trying to recall Supervisor Karen Mitchoff. Odessa, by her comments, appears to be following that same strategy as getting the public all worked up with talking points and little substance. Word has gotten out that Philip Hu, who is in management for local 1 is running her campaign. She is the unions choice and one can only assume she will be an ear for the union come time for negotiations.
You need to ask Odessa the following questions:
1. How will you ensure fair contract negotiations with a union you used to work for?
2. How do you plan to pay for raises across the board when the county still has budget issues?
3. You focus on ECCFPD, but what about closed fire stations?
4. When you talk about shutting down programs, which ones and how will you decide if they are worthwhile or not?
5. You say you do not need to be on a city council or school board to serve on BOS, yes true, but how do you know know the processes of how to get things done?
Today you are EC Dan. In the other article you were Manny. Make up your mind – Impostor.
Stay out of politics in a District that is not your own. You can’t even vote in District 3 election if you live in Central County. You oviously did not read the article or you would know that East County has been underserved by the BOS for decades. She is the only candidate that has workied at the community level behind the scenes, and now that she is wanting to put those skills to the elective political process, she is called inexperienced. Everyone should go to Odessa4supervisor.com to find out more about what she has accomplished, or her Facebook page by the same name(minus .com)
She said: “How much experience do I really need? I’ve done something that most people haven’t done which was commit to my country and given my life for this country.”
Most people say that about a person who has actually given their life for this country when they have died-most often during combat.
Thank you Odessa for serving our country working as a respiratory therapist and administrator. You haven’t given your life to this country, you simply chose a career path with the Navy, a choice thousands of people make for many different reasons. Enlisting is an admirable thing but often it is a choice taken for the job training and other benefits. If you actually participated in combat thank you for your service but there was no mention of that.
Wade Harper spent 20+ years as police officer serving our community putting his life on the line. Is that less service than Odessa’s career serving as a respiratory therapist? I think it is unfortunate that she is discounting others career choices to make herself sound better than others. I think this is a peak at what time of elected official she would be if elected and I am not impressed.
I think elected office experience is important.
It says a lot for all of these people that actually did run for office and were successful. This means they already have successfully put their neck on the line and stepped up. I imagine it takes a great commitment and stamina to run for office- all these others have proven they can do it successfully.
The benefits of having experience in elected office is important. Those that have been elected understand the limitations, opportunities and processes of being in elected office. How they have acted while in office gives us a peak on how they would perform while in a higher office. Some of the candidates have shown themselves in very negative ways which helps us make a better choice.
Wilson being the best example of why we wouldn’t vote for her is the card room fiasco. We were lucky enough to see how weak and sneaky she is before the election. Harper is another example, he can’t seem to to win the hearts of his own city. I haven’t seen a lot on the other candidates but it will be interesting to see what they have done while in office as an example to see what kind of leaders they will be if elected to this higher office.
I am not understanding the logic that because Doug Hardcastle and Odessa decided to announce before Mary Piepho announced retirement it makes them better candidates? No, it means they are stupid for running against an incumbent who would have got a majority of the votes in the primary. Doug believes he could have beat Mary, absolutely not!!!!!!! Odessa, would have had a better chance if she was the only Dem. It does not matter WHEN someone announces they will run because everyone falls under the same filing deadline. If anything, it shows just how far from reality both Doug and Odessa are.
We do not need supervisors who operate in dreamland,we need a supervisor who deals in reality.
Thank you ECT for interviewing all the candidates, you have made my choice easy and I guarantee you its neither Doug or Odessa.
Did you maybe think that none of the other candidates would run against Mary Piepho because they believe they could not win against her. Odessa was the first to run against her, because she says working with the county and in the military, she has had some of the best training and has been in leadership positions that help her understand what it takes to get the job done well. She is tired of Board of Supervisors not doing what their political campaign promises stated. Did you even read the article?
I am reposting this from the article on Odessa:
Of all the candidates so far I would say this one is THE political opportunist.
Odessa Lefrancois is the President of the East County NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) 1055 (according to their website) & 2nd Vice President of Local Union 1. She isn’t an elected politician but she clearly has been POLITICAL for quite some time. She HAS an agenda AND she has some special interests supporting her. Google her and see what she has been up to.
She knows how to play the political games but unfortunately she doesn’t have any experience in the processes of governing. She has not proven herself to be an unbiased leader that represents all of her constituents. She works on behalf of Local 1, a union that last month had 85 percent of the workers vote to leave Local 1 and go with the Teamsters, because one worker said “We organized with the Teamsters because we want county management to respect us as a real union,”
According to the CC Times: Richard Boyd, director of field operations for Local 1, said the vote wasn’t a surprise. He said the loss of Local 1 members to the Teamsters can be blamed on two situations, one of them being the problems within Local 1’s previous local staff team. A lack of response to Local 1 members by since-departed staff workers — “lack of care, lack of follow-up” — played a key role in Contra Costa workers seeking different representation, he said.
Local 1’s controversial “previous local staff” included Phil Hu and that is who is heading up Ms Lefrancois campaign.
Knowing all of that, reread this article and you will realize she is playing the “oh shucks I am just regular person card” while fronting an effort by one union that couldn’t even represent their own employees well enough to stay in power and now she wants to represent us? I say no to this one.
I am voting for Odessa who has the leadership skills she acquired in the Navy, running different hospital departments, and serving the community in Health based communities and in NAACP. She will work for the people of her District, not the unions and Industry lobbyists. She is not a career politician, but a community servant for fair and equal treatment of all in the community.
Good luck Concerned. She will work for Odessa only.
Odessa doesn’t have my vote… no way … no how… no sir.
Thinking she thought she could run against Mary Piepho doesn’t give me any confidence in her decision making skills. For that reason Hardcastle and Lefrancois do not impress me.
She covers the same issues that the other candidates covered but with less real information. Lastly she seems intent on attacking the others running for this office which is not what I want to see. If she is going to Trumpify this race she will definitely not get my support.
Run on the issues, run on your experience and opinions, keep the BS to yourself.
Union backed politicians are not what we need in Co Co County for Supervisor. We have had too many issues with that conflict. A good honest candidate with little to none special interest is what we need to represent the voters. Think about it.
I have lived in Antioch for 13 years and I can say unequivocally that you CANNOT trust anyone who works for East County NAACP.
If you believe that individuals should take and accept responsibility for their actions then you will fall on the wrong side of the NAACP. This organization placates to making excuses for blacks who engage in criminal acts and demonizes people and public entities that choose to black folks legally responsible for their behavior.
And God help you if you are black and don’t agree with their “woe is me, every one owes me because I’m black, and I’m not smart enough to do anything on my own and need the government to provide everything for me mentality.” If you are black and believe hard work, a good education, and living as a law-abiding citizen are the keys to a successful life you are immediately labeled a “sellout and Uncle Tom” and are no longer considered “a real” brother or sister! I experienced this first-hand with the leadership of East County NAACP and I would NEVER, EVER support that organization or anyone from the leadership group that runs for ANY political office. You do so at your own peril!!!
We need more people like you sir
Until more self-respecting black folks start standing against others iberal who still believe that black people are too stupid to stand on their own two feet and succeed in life like any other group, the black community will continue to function in a slave mentality and kneel at the alter of government “hand outs”.
These same individuals believed that if America ever elected a black President of the United States their lives, hope & dreams would be fulfilled. After centuries of waiting their wish finally came true and what happened? Blacks are far more financially worse off under Obama, violent crime has increased exponentially, more black women are on welfare because lazy black men refuse to acknowledge or support their children, and our country is more divided along racial lines than ever before thanks to America’s first black President who many thought would unify our country.
Antioch made the same decision by electing Wade Harper over far more qualified candidates and will more than likely make the same mistake again. Blacks don’t vote based on a candidates knowledge & experience, at least ninety percent vote primarily based on the color of skin or what they can get without earning it.
What’s even more sad and ironic is most blacks constantly complain about their status in life yet they still support and vote for the Democratic Party that was created by the Klu Klux Klan whose goal was to threaten, intimidate, and murder blacks who tried to vote! Go figure. LOL
Where to begin? This lady might have good intentions in her head, but she is a train wreck and isn’t at all a viable candidate to run the county. Sorry Odessa but NAACP, and being a union shill doesn’t qualify you. It actually invalidates your attempts.
The only area you succeed is in splitting the votes of Monica Wilson and Wade Harper. You three will be at the bottom of the vote count. Thank goodness.
For this the voters of District Three thank you!
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