Contact Us

My staff and I are honored to represent and serve more than 650,000 people in the Fifth District. This E-mail is one way I’m able to maintain personal contact with our constituents. Another is our hard copy newsletter.

We have procedures for you to communicate directly with me, and I assure you that every phone call, letter, E-mail, and FAX is heard, read, and acted upon.

With legal restraints on what a Supervisor can and cannot do and with so many people in the Fifth District, here are steps you can use to contact me through my staff:

• Alice Re is our receptionist and her friendly voice is the one you are most likely to hear when you call our office. She fields hundreds of phone calls each day and most likely, she will transfer a constituent call to Candyce Yee, our Director of Constituent Services.
  
• Candyce is the first line of information for me and records questions, comments, complaints, and, yes, praise from the public.
  
• Candyce may refer an individual to County staff, who then can take appropriate action
  
• She may give the information to a staff policy advisor (land use, roads, fire, health, etc.), who will in turn investigate the matter and give a report to Joan Wonsley, my chief of staff.
  
• Sometimes a face-to-face meeting will be arranged either in downtown San Diego or our Vista office between the constituent and a staff member
  
• This allows complete, factual information to be compiled and presented to me
  
• We’re all busy with the demands of family and work; so being well prepared is my way of respecting your time and better serving you through my staff
  
• As you might expect, there are many requests for me to speak at various events. Those are sent to Marisol Eaton, my executive scheduler, who then gives the requests to my chief of staff. Regretfully, I can’t accept all of them.
  
• In many instances, when I can’t be in two or three places at once, we will send a staff member to represent our office
  
• As for the media, our procedure requires the first call be made to John Culea, my media and communications director. He then gathers background and passes the request and information to my chief of staff.
  
• We take great pride in the prompt response to people who contact our office. Most matters are taken care of the same day as the contact is made; others require more time.
  
• For a list of my staff and their policy responsibilities, I invite you to go to our District 5 website at www.sdcounty.ca.gov/cnty/bos/sup5/team.html

People should remember that as a County Supervisor, I must act as a judge. By law, with few exceptions such as personnel matters or legal action against the County, decisions must be made in an open, public session. I can’t intervene directly with the operations of a County department or discuss specific land issues with planning groups or individuals. This is why I have a staff—and I might add, those on my staff are top quality people, dedicated to serving the public with courtesy, professionalism, and efficiency.

I welcome input from community groups, individuals, businesses, schools, charitable organizations—the more information you provide me through my staff, the better it helps me reach decisions that are in the best interests of our County.

As you know, I am out in the Fifth District all the time and welcome the chance to say hello to you and hear what you have to say. Most likely, if you have a concern, I’ll take your name and phone number and give that to a staff person to follow up.

Our internal office procedures have worked well and, again, if you’ll excuse my bias, I think you’ll find the best treatment in District 5.