Page 4
Concord Pioneer • www.concordpioneer.com
Candid and clever, Supervisor Karen Mitchoff takes on county issues [Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of interviews with Concord/Clayton regional leaders.] PEGGY SPEAR Concord Pioneer
Karen Mitchoff might like to put purple streaks in her hair for the next Board of Supervisor’s meeting, but then again, it might send the wrong message. “I love purple, that’s who I am,” she says. “But I also have to look the part.” “The part” is that of District IV Supervisor, reelected to her second term in 2014 following a long career in county service and as a Pleasant Hill City Council member and mayor of that city in 2010. This is perhaps the culmination of her political aspirations, which began in first grade with an election made up of felt elephants for Nixon and felt donkeys for Kennedy. “Politics always seemed fascinating to me,” she says from her sunny corner conference room at her district office, tucked away in Todos Santos Plaza. “I came of age during Watergate,” she says with a smile. But never in her wildest dreams did she expect to become a policymaker herself. LOCAL GIRL Born in Portland Oregon, Mitchoff moved to California in 1962 when her father — not a very political man — had a job transfer, and the family landed in Pleasant Hill. She attended Gregory Gardens Elementary School, Valley View Middle School, College Park High School and then attended Diablo Valley College, earning an AA in Business. She returned to college in
SUPERVISOR KAREN MITCHOFF (seated) and District Representative, Lisa Chow, confer in Mitchoff’s District office on items for an upcoming board meeting. Chow is one of four District office staff members.
2000 while working full-time, and graduated from Cal State East Bay on the day of her 30th high school class reunion. She says that college was an eye-opening experience. “When you go back to school in your 40s, you have learned certain life lessons that some professors didn’t appreciate. Yes, I had a few run-ins.” Her first job for the county was with the office of former Sherriff-Coroner Richard Rainey. She also worked as a fiscal and administrative analyst for the county’s Employment and Human Services Department, and as Chief of Staff for former Supervisors Sunne Wright McPeak and Mark DeSaulnier. Moving into civic service was a natural next step, she says. She was appointed to the Pleasant Hill Recreation and Park District Board of Directors in 2003 and was elected to that board in 2004 and 2006. She served as Chair in 2005 and 2006, and served on a variety of committees during her
tenure there. She was elected to the Pleasant Hill City Council in 2008, and the rest, she says, is history. “I hit the ground running,” she says of her job as supervisor. “Unlike serving on a city council, you can’t really have another job.” The job is considered part-time, despite the 50-60 hours per week she spends on it. “You don’t go into this business for the money,” she says, which leads her to discuss last year’s highly contentious decision for the board to give themselves a 30 percent raise, from $97,500 to $129,200 per year — a move they later scaled back to 7 percent. “If I had to do it over, I’d do it differently,” she says. “I did not correctly gauge the reaction of the public employees.” She said she would instead have a special commission study the best way to give Supervisors cost of living and other increases. Still, it underscores her guiding principle in governing:
“I try to be fair to all concerned,” she says. “I listen, I take into perspective all sides, and I decide what is best for the majority of the people. “We can disagree — that’s part of my job. But I will always listen to all sides of an issue.” That’s apparent to her colleagues on the board. “Karen serves with passion,” says District 2 Supervisor Candace Andersen. “She is forthright and doesn’t hesitate to say whatever she is thinking. You don’t ever have to wonder what her thoughts are on an issue! She is always well prepared and her years as a County employee before becoming a Supervisor provide her with great institutional knowledge. I enjoy working with her. She has been a thoughtful and helpful colleague.” It hasn’t always been easy. Mitchoff remembers one of her hardest votes, when she was the swing vote against the redistricting proposal a couple of years ago. “If it had gone through, it would have divided Concord, and I didn’t think that was a good idea,” she says. “I didn’t think it was good for my constituents, or the county, to break up Contra Costa’s largest city. But it was hard to go against my friends on the board.” APPROACHABLE, FAIR AND PURPLE
Mitchoff is a no-nonsense, what-you-see-is-what-you-get person, and she will have to use all her talents in dealing with what she says are the three major issues facing Con-
See Mitchoff, page 6
February 26, 2016
Longtime arts supporter Robert Rezak dies at 83 PEGGY SPEAR Concord Pioneer
The local arts community is mourning the loss of Robert R. Rezak, whose keen enthusiasm for theater, music and visual arts propelled him to one of the pillars of the arts local scene. A longtime employee at Pacific Bell in corporate communications, he maintained an avid interest in the arts, volunteering in the arts community in a variety of ways. After his retirement he served as publicist for such organizations as the Diablo Symphony, Eugene O’Neill Foundation, Contra Costa Wind Symphony and others. He was a founding commissioner and chairman of the Arts and Culture Commission of Contra Costa County, and he served on the boards of Diablo Light Opera Company, the Willows Theatre and Contra Costa Children’s Chorus, among others. Rezak also acted as a trustee for the Diablo Regional Arts Association, and served for 22 years on the executive committee of the Concord Pavilion Associates, a volunteer support group for the outdoor concert venue. One of the projects he worked on was the Pavilion’s “Walk of Fame,” of which local jazz superstar Dave Brubeck was the first honoree. His impact was not lost on those he worked with in the media. “I hope our local arts groups appreciate how
Photo courtesy of the Rezak family
ROBERT REZAK is shown here with daughter Sharon Vanni and grandson Nick Stirm. Rezak died Feb. 12 after a long career supporting arts organizations in the east Bay.
effective he was working behind the scenes, steering us to good stories, helping arts institutions understand what their local paper could [and sometimes could not] do for them. He will be missed” says Lisa Wrenn, Features Editor for Bay Area News Group. He was also a beloved husband, father and grandfather. “I am so lucky to be the daughter of this special man,” says daughter Sharon Vanni of Concord. “He has left quite a legacy. He instilled in me the values of family, education, hard work, doing the right thing, good stewardship, enjoying arts and culture, eating well and most of all, finding humor every day.” A memorial service will be held next month.