James' Accomplishments as Supervisor

Some of James' accomplishments over his last term in office includes work towards:

Championing fire recovery and community resiliency.  Following the 2017 Sonoma Complex Fires, 2019 Kincade Fire and 2020 Wahlbridge Fire, James led the transformation of the fire preparedness model from an ill-prepared, responsive approach to a proactive, fire-ready model built on neighborhood engagement and coordination.  Coupled with top-in-class alert & warnings, improved vegetation management, and firefighting coordination, Sonoma County’s model has since been implemented in other fire-scarred communities throughout the State under Gore’s leadership as Founder and Chair of California’s Resilient Counties Initiative. 

 

Serving the Underserved.  After leading bilingual communications through Fires, Floods, and the Pandemic, James championed the creation of the Sonoma County Office of Equity, a powerful step to recognize and celebrate our role in unseating racial inequity in our communities.  James continues to work with this Office on objectives that will lead to normalizing, organizing, and operationalizing a workforce reflective of the community we serve and to achieve racial equity in County service provision.

 

Conserving and preserving precious water resourcesJames led the creation of Sonoma County’s Venture Conservation Initiative and the Russian River Confluence, securing tens of millions towards habit restoration, groundwater recharge, and water sustainability. He has used his position representing Lake Sonoma, Dry Creek, Alexander Valley and the Russian River to be a leading voice for the diverse water users in sustainability efforts. He has been at the forefront of water conservation measures as a Board Director of Sonoma Water and continues to bring agricultural, residential and commercial users together to address shared challenges and best practices amidst historic drought conditions.

 

Investing unprecedented dollars into roads and infrastructure.  James has delivered on his campaign promises and led historic investments into Sonoma County’s aging infrastructure.  These actions have transformed the County’s roads from some of the worst in the State into one of continuous demonstrable improvement.  Under his leadership, Sonoma County now invests more discretionary dollars into its road system than any other county in California. 

 

Strengthening good government: transparency, accountability and citizen engagement.  Since taking office, the County has reduced long term pension debt, increased independent oversight, and rebuilt county reserves.  Further, James has created two Citizen Advisory Councils in the unincorporated communities of Geyserville and Mark West.  Together, these actions have helped ensure that government is held to account by those it is meant to serve.