By Patric Hedlund

Former Taft Mayor Cliff Thompson visited The Mountain Enterprise on Friday, Nov. 16. He said he was offering us a ‘scoop’ about his intention to declare his candidacy for the District 4 Board of Supervisors seat currently held by Ray Watson. Watson has twice denied he intended to run again, then declared on October 2 that he had changed his mind and would, in fact, seek reelection.

“I’ve never run a negative campaign,” Former Taft Mayor Cliff Thompson said Friday over a bowl of Dream Castle chili soup, “But you can’t govern this county from an ivory tower on Truxtun Avenue.” Thompson, who says he is a Republican in a nonpartisan race, asked about issues of concern to the future of the Mountain Communities. The Mountain Enterprise has extended an invitation to Ray Watson to come for such a talk as well.

The former Taft mayor said that Watson is responsive to “Bakersfield interests.” He said he admires the work of District 5 Supervisor Michael Rubio “who gets out into the neighborhoods and rural areas and gets work done for the people there.”

Thompson is plain-spoken and quick. He spent 20 years working in oil fields and on platform rigs converting pneumatic to electronic control systems for Chevron, Exxon and Vanoco oil companies. On Friday he dressed in a pinstripe suit and vintage art deco tie as he leaned forward to illustrate his short but feisty political career. He says he found multi-million dollar fraud being perpetrated on the city of Taft when he was first elected in year 2000 to the city council. He ousted the popular city manager and was able to “stop the hemorrhage at $750,000 instead of millions,” but lost his council seat in a recall election—all within his first nine months in politics.

When the Kern County Grand Jury found his assertions were accurate, indictments and then convictions were handed down against consultant Gretchen Belli. Thompson was reelected in 2003 by a 30 percent margin. He became mayor. He has been barreling forward to implement ambitious plans for the revitalization of downtown Taft, including negotiating for purchase of 60 acres of railroad land in the center of town. He envisions a “green and walkable” commercial and residential city center development.

Thompson said he understands Frazier Park’s need for a “walkable commercial center.” In discussion of Mountain Community support for maintaining the Frazier Park-Lebec Specific Plan (developed in year 2000 with significant community involvement) Thompson said that he is opposed to urban sprawl. He is a member of the Kern Council of Governments and said he would see that we receive additional information about how the KCOG "blueprint project" is taking the Specific Plan into consideration.

A primary goal for Thompson is to reopen Taft Hospital, which he said was closed on Labor Day, 2004. He recalls that when the hospital closed, Hall Ambulance Service said it would provide additional coverage for the city. "They did," he said, "for two months. Then they shut it down because of ‘low call volume.’" He spoke of ambulance response problems when Hall ambulances are away from Taft on runs to the hospital in Bakersfield or called to highway accidents ( there were eight fatalities on Highway 119 in the past year, he reports, and added "there are too many motorcycle crashes…"). He said he believes it should be policy that a replacement service vehicle should be dispatched to an area as soon as an ambulance becomes occupied or is on its way out of the service area to a hospital. According to reporter’s notes, he told of a personal tragedy: "I lost my father when ambulances were busy. He started hemorrhaging before the ambulance could get there. He bled to death in an ambulance between Taft and Bakersfield."

Thompson asked about emergency medical services in the Mountain Communities. We explained that in the outlying regions of the Mountain Communities, such as Pine Mountain, it can take an hour before a patient will get to emergency medical services in Valencia or Bakersfield, even after an ambulance arrives, especially when the roads are icy. We mentioned the May 29, 2007 recommendation by the Kern County Grand Jury that a 24/7 paramedic is needed in Pine Mountain. He said “it sounds like you can’t do without a firefighter-paramedic program…you have it even worse than we do in Taft."

"The difference between Ray Watson and me is that I do my homework. I’m proactive and hands on. I’ll out-work Watson," Thompson said.

[In an email note to the editor on Tuesday, Nov. 20, Thompson asked that we revise his statements as reported, proposing we report:  "I said it sounds to me like you can’t do without a firefighter-paramedic program, but I went on to say that the program would have to have a sustainable business plan to survive. I then explained that I needed to study the issue and I would come back and talk to you again after I had done some research." He also asked to substitute this statement for the report above: "My father died because we didn’t have a hospital with emergency medical services. Hall Ambulance did arrive and transport my father in a professional and timely manner."]

On Monday, shortly after Thompsons formal announcement of his candidacy in Bakersfield, State Senator Dean Florez, D-Shafter endorsed Taft’s mayor for the supervisor’s run, citing his “fire and adrenaline,” according to reports. “I can work across party lines, and this is not a partisan race,”  Thompson said.

Asked if it is possible for a rural resident to win in District 4, Thompson explained his logic: “There are more voters registered as ‘decline to state’ than ever. All I need is 30% of the city votes and all the rural votes, and we can win…besides, Dean Florez never backed a loser….” Florez is reported “to like the rough and tumble” of Thompson.

This is part of the November 23, 2007 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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