Supervisor Federal Glover Seeks Another Four Years

First elected in 2000 to the Contra Costa Board of Supervisors, Supervisor Federal Glover says he has unfinished business he wants to complete and is seeking another four-years in office.

Glover, who missed most of 2015 while recovering from a heart and kidney transplant, says the ordeal has made him stronger. He is now ultra-focused, understands the need for quality healthcare and learning to enjoy things that are sometimes taken for granted.

He called the last 16-months interesting.

“On February 26, 2015, I went into get a test to get eligible for a kidney transplant. When I got there they did a pleasure check on my heart and found its not operating at capacity and weak. They would not let me leave and had to replace both the kidney and heart at the same time,” explained Glover.

He called the process of dialysis annoying where he would have to sit for 3-hours of treatment so he wanted to get the transplant to get back to normal and start feeling better.

“It was rough being away for that period of time, but nothing stopped and we operated my office out of the hospital room and my staff would visit me every day and I would give them guidance and instructions. I knew what was going on in the district and my staff kept me up to date,” explained Glover. “My voice was definitely heard when big decisions were being made. I didn’t feel like I walked into some big mystery. It was tough not being there with some of the things taken place, but at the same time, I know my wishes and desires were being worked out.”

He says the easy thing would have been to walk away from public office, but he enjoys it too much. He enjoys helping constituents with issues while moving the county forward.

Glover also wants to go out on his terms – not because of a medical issue. He says he feels as healthy as ever now and wakes up every day looking forward to representing District 5 residents.

“I have a new perspective in life, but one of the things I enjoy doing is providing service to our citizens. I enjoy it and have done it all my life. It’s in my blood and I enjoy what I do. Seeing the results of our labor of love, I want to continue to do that,” says Glover. “I want to continue the work I started 16-years ago. I want to do four more years and put a period behind some of the things. I have more energy now than I have had in years. I feel good. I am able to tackle issues that would have been put on the back burner.”

Some of the issues Glover considers incomplete are transportation issues, eBART stations, the Northern Waterfront Project, and public safety. He says transportation is still the number one issue.

Glover, a member of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) and the Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA), is credited with bringing at least $1.8 billion dollars of transportation improvements to his district and throughout Contra Costa County.

“We want to see that the eBart stations are up and operating, make sure that the widening projects are completed on Highway 4. One of the things recently that was taken care of were the connectors at 160-Highway 4 which were things initiated years ago,” explained Glover. “I’ve been leading the charge, but still want to see more transportation improvements completed.”

Glover also says the Northern Waterfront Project is a project he wants to see go through at some point while wanting to better improve economic development in Contra Costa County on under-utilized land.

“We are looking for opportunities on our region’s waterfront where businesses and residences can co-exist so people can live, work and play by the water,” says Glover. “We are at the stage now where people are coming in and looking at the properties. There now has to be cooperation for cities to participate in a big way because some of the lands are within their jurisdictions. This is not something that will happen overnight, but it’s moving forward.”

Glover says that this fall there will be a forum with an update to the public on his Northern Waterfront Project. He did want to make it clear that the County is not responsible for what is or isn’t happening at the Martinez Marina. “That is a city issue,” said Glover. Referring to one of his opponents, Anamarie Farias, Vice Mayor of Martinez, Glover said that she will need to be accountable to Martinez voters for what she has or has not done to make the marina viable.

Overall, Glover highlights there is a lot of good work being done and he is excited that with an improved budget, they are able to improve the quality of life within the county in terms of employees and residents.

“I am glad the economy has turned itself around so we are able to get people to the median salary and we want to do that on a county level as a whole. I am excited that we have had seen growth of assessed evaluation and down the road we will see some increases,” explained Glover. “I think the other thing is that when you go through difficult times you have an opportunity to educate employee groups about what really is going on and this is one that is an eye opener even for them to work within their means and make tough decisions in terms of if you want to exceed the ability to deliver or keep employees working, cut service, those are choice the Board has to make in the best interest of the county.”

According to Glover, that is why county employee unions are supporting his opponent because he balances the budget and makes balanced decisions that don’t always include large raises for county employees. He says that sometimes the unions are looking for “yes people” who will agree to hefty raises in salaries and benefits – even when the budget doesn’t always permit that.

He stated it’s easy for his opponents to make promises to the unions for higher salaries, benefits and pensions, but it is unlikely they will be able to follow through and still balance the County’s budget.

“It’s easy to be on the outside and look in saying you are going to do this or that, but the reality is I am very truthful with the folks and I am not going to tell them something to make them feel good. I am going to tell them the truth,” says Glover. “I am not going to put the county in a position where we don’t have the ability to grow our revenues or go out and get things or have a reserve for a rainy day where we need resources. This is why we have the AAA-rating.”

Glover further explained that the reason for the honesty is so that the county does not have to go backwards and again ask employees for reductions or force to cut.

“We don’t want to ask anyone to give up what they have today; we have to be able to balance. We don’t’ want take ways, we want to give increases, but it has to be a balanced approach.”

He admits that while there has been improvement, public safety still has room to grow. He says the sheriff’s department is in a rebuilding mode but the process has started to begin to make them competitive.

“One of the things we did is in the last negotiation, we got our deputy sheriffs a raise where they would be at the average pay rate with everyone else in the bay area, so that should be helpful with retention,” explained Glover. “That was always the goal was to get all of our public safety and public employees to a level where they can look at their job and if they apply elsewhere, they would have to now look at the package and see that its very comparable in wages in benefits.”

Glover says that he would love to give all employees raises, but notes they are limited by their budget. He also highlighted that public outcry comes with the job territory but says it’s sometimes not fair.

“It’s not fair that we get criticized and ridiculed because of the fact we are not able to give raises like we want to. I think people need to understand, that in order to keep this county operating, you cannot be in a position where you don’t balance the needs with your ability to deliver. I think many times we have our employee groups who don’t want to look at the big picture.  We have tried to keep the jobs and keep people working but at the same time delivering the services,” says Glover.

Glover further highlighted you can’t handicap one area in order to give another area everything and expect to keep the balance. He says the key is finding a balance.

For example, he notes that in his District alone, they need the Pittsburg fire station re-opened, but says it takes time, but also noted the public failed to pass a tax that would have re-opened it sooner.

“The stations are coming back,” says Glover. “Early next year we hope to re-open Pittsburg Station 87 and we will continue to look at opportunities as they exist.”

When asked about the Board of Supervisors attempt at a 33% pay raise, he explained that over a 10-year-period, it equated to a 4% raise each year for a 16-hour a day job representing citizens, including weekends. In the end, they ended up at a 7% increase, which was the recommendation of an independent citizens committee and Glover believes the increase was fair.

“I think a 7% increase was fair and I get that it is important that we make sure there is equity across the board.  When the deputy sheriffs were in dire need of a pay raise this year, the Board gave them a 17% salary increase, which I wholeheartedly supported.”

Aside from transportation being one of his top priorities, Glover is well known for his ardent support of the County’s Urban Limit Line, which was put into place to help control growth and preserve open space.

“I have always contended that the Urban Limit Line was necessary so that our region would not grow more than what our infrastructure could handle. Traffic, police services and schools are the main services that suffer when growth happens too fast.”

Glover said that he stands with local environmental groups in keeping the Urban Limit Line in tact so that our areas beautiful agricultural and open spaces can be preserved for all our futures.

The other issue front and center according to Glover is his fight to oppose the Governors twin tunnels plan which would send our water to Southern California and harm the Delta ecosystem.

“Water quality and protecting the Delta is not an issue we can compromise on. We need to continue to fight the Governor’s plan to protect our water and environmental resources,” said Glover.

Glover also discussed Section 8 and its impact on crime in neighborhoods throughout Contra Costa County.  Noting that one of his opponents, Anamarie Farias, has spent her entire career working on and finding ways to expand Section 8 housing.

Glover is proud of the policy he initiated and was ultimately approved that helps the County clean up poorly maintained rental and vacant properties.  Glover is also noted for his effective youth programs, including his Gang Task Force and yearly Youth Summit to help communities fight crime and reduce the influence of gangs in the community.

The Youth Summit started while Glover was on the City Council in Pittsburg. He wanted to find a way to get young people engaged while listening to youth and what concerns they have.

“You are not going to be able to help youth if you do not have a way to communicate with them. So we started the youth summit to say look, we are going to have a day to allow you to go to some workshops and discuss how you feel about things like gang pressure, bullying, and other important issues to teenagers. At the same time we allow for enjoyment throughout the day,” says Glover. “We provide a nice lunch and entertainment and close the day out on a serious note. That concept started there, when I was elected to the Board of Supervisors, we continued it on to a District wide event. It’s an opportunity to engage with youth.”

Because of his strong public safety record, and his commitment to quality healthcare, Glover says he is proud to have the endorsement of Sheriff David Livingston, District Attorney Mark Peterson, the County’s criminal prosecutors, victims’ rights and anti-gang violence leaders and local nurses of the California Nurses Association. Glover has also earned the endorsement of the East Bay Times.

Glover says part of the problem right now is the campaign rhetoric has gotten out of hand and people are quick to pass judgement without knowing the facts.

“It’s easy to point your finger and say so and so isn’t doing their job. But for my opponents who serve on the Martinez and Hercules city councils, they need to focus on whether they are doing the best job possible in their own cities.  That’s the true test to whether they can handle the responsibility of being a Supervisor and that’s what the voters are going to want to know … have you done your job where you are?”

Glover admitted that if there was a candidate in his District who could pick up the ball and run with it, he would have considered not serving another term, but he says there is no one at this time who can do that.

“Today, I can’t say there is a candidate in the race who is going to be able to just pick up and continue on the progress that has been made over the last few years. I don’t want to leave my residents without superior representation. I want to see the continuation of the work getting done. Not to say I can do it all, but I do know the resources and do understand how things are supposed to work and I do have a record of getting things done,”

Glover closed by saying that this will likely be his final term if elected and those interested in seat in the future will take the next four-years to learn and get involved so they can hit the ground running

He highlighted that it’s important for East Contra Costa County to have a member of the Board of Supervisors with experience – a person who can get things accomplished.  Glover says that with the District 3 supervisor being new, East Contra Costa cannot afford to have two new supervisors representing them.

Given everything Glover has been through in the last 16-months and since being elected in 2000, he is asking for the public to support him in his bid for re-election.

“People for the most part understand that I am bringing value. That I’m listening and dealing effectively to resolve issues and working on permanent resolutions, not piecemeal approaches to problems,” says Glover. “You can start something today, but if it’s not identified what the issues are, if it’s not sustainable, then it goes away. I look for what is sustainable. What can you implement and realize what the opportunity for what the future is going to be.”

Glover says he is not interested in campaign rhetoric to voters, like some of his opponents are out there promising.  He says he has a record of accomplishment that he is proud to stand on and looks forward to the next four-years to continue his track record of getting things accomplished for the communities he represents.

For more information, visit: www.federalglover.com

Interview conducted on April 20 at Steeltown Coffee & Tee in Pittsburg