So many reasons to vote for Provenza

I am writing in strong support of Jim Provenza to be re-elected to County Supervisor for many reasons. Jim has been an extremely dedicated and effective Yolo County Supervisor since he was first elected, and we need him to continue his work.

Jim has had a long history of public service. Early on, as an attorney with the Legal Aid Foundation, Jim worked as an attorney to help protect women and children against domestic violence. Later, when he worked at the State Capital, he successfully created legislation to help enforce protection from stalking and against hate crimes as well.

Jim has been an advocate for children, families, seniors and the disadvantaged for decades. He has stepped up to be a leader on committees such as chairing First 5 Yolo for at-risk children under 5. Jim prevented Yolo County Crisis Nursery from being shut down by successfully securing emergency funding.

Jim is also chair of the Yolo Healthy Aging Alliance Non-profit and the Yolo Aging Commission. He is working on getting a new County Adult Day Care Center to help families with aging family members, particularly with dementia.

Jim has been great on land use and environmental issues, including addressing climate change and protecting ag land and habitat. I was impressed to see that Yolo Farm Bureau (who rarely endorse candidates) was happy to endorse Jim.

As an animal lover, I especially have appreciated Jim working on helping to get our County a much needed new animal shelter. Jim currently represents the county on a city-county task force that is working to form a new agency to govern shelter operations and to consider construction of a new state-of-the art shelter. Jim is a strong advocate of a new shelter and is also participating in fundraising efforts to make this goal a reality.

Finally, while I am a feminist, I always base my vote on who I see as the most qualified and effective candidate, not on their gender. After watching the LWV forum of the supervisorial candidates, I knew I would be voting for Jim Provenza, and encourage others to also.

Eileen Samitz