Estelle and Clif on KEET

Smack in the middle of this week’s saturation of candidate forums, second district candidates Estelle Fennell and Clif Clendenen faced off in their first televised debate on KEET Wednesday night on their race to the Board of Supervisors.

The quick version: Estelle effing nailed it in terms of public presentation and comfort level. Her years of radio served her well as she easily discussed a wide variety of county issues with confidence and knowledge.

Not that there weren’t shrieks of horror echoing ’round the Humboldt Herald HQ when she said people have a right to live on their land, “absolutely.” If that’s true, lets throw the General Plan out the window and hand the keys to the assessors office as they distribute parcel numbers willy nilly while the county is chopped into smaller and smaller pieces so people can enjoy their “absolute” rights. At some point down that road you’re no longer living the rural lifestyle.

Perhaps that’s another issue to be solved by our children’s children.

Environmental concerns are right out with the “absolute” approach. Ironically, Estelle ranked environmental health as equally important to property rights and economic issues.

Clif’s position was far more wise: he said people should be able to live on their land “subject to qualifications.” He cited health and safety issues, fire safeness, septic concerns, and the Williamson Act.

Estelle said she is “quite confident” she can work with all sides of the issues “because [she's] been doing it for the last 17 and a half years.” She said she “covered everything,” about the 2nd district during her time as news director of KMUD. “I’m confident I can represent it well,” she said.

Clif and Estelle agree on several issues (Richardson Grove realignment, civilian police review board, inclusion of the Hoopa Tribe in the Humboldt County Assc. of Governments), but they differed on the question: what’s more important when casting a vote — your own conscience or the wishes of constituents? Estelle said her conscience would demand she listen to and represent her constituents. Clif said he would vote his conscience after listening to all sides of the issue. His response is more realistic since it’s impossible to carry out the wishes of all voters, especially in the notoriously diverse 2nd district.

Clif and Estelle are in a difficult — and, in some ways, impossible — situation following the death of incumbent Roger Rodoni. The Times-Standard does a good job of laying out the trouble spots (as does the latest North Coast Journal), including the challenge of running against a well-supported dead man and — by default — his wife, Johanna, who is essentially running for office without participating in the debates.

In her closing statement, Estelle raised an issue that hadn’t come up – the county’s Tooby Ranch settlement. Roger was a strong supporter (or maybe driving force behind) the Tooby Ranch lawsuit, not to mention the other big loser — the Q-tip pepper-spray case.

“Let’s have the county be less lawsuit happy,” Estelle said.

Too bad Johanna can’t be included in a forum on that question.