Incumbent Kranz campaigns on record

Kranz one of three running in District 5 supervisorial race

Click to Enlarge Incumbent Placer County Supervisor Bruce Kranz addresses North Tahoe residents over coffee at Garwoods Thursday. Seth Lightcap/Sierra Sun Browse and Buy Sierra Sun Photos

By Julie Brown
Sierra Sun, jbrown@sierrasun.com
April 30, 2008

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Just as Bruce Kranz has done nearly every month since the early part of his term, the Placer County District 5 Supervisor sat before North Tahoe constituents last week and opened up the discussion to any and all questions.

Last week’s meeting, hosted at Gar Woods Restaurant on the last Thursday of every month, opened with Kranz presenting his District 5 newsletter for Spring 2008 to the residents, business owners and agency representatives who attended.

The publication, paid for by Kranz’s campaign fund, keeps constituents updated on issues facing the county. This issue weaves through catastrophic wildfire prevention, an Eminent Domain proposition county voters will soon face, the purchase of a new Placer County Sheriff’s helicopter and Kranz’s decision to run for re-election in the District 5 supervisorial race.

“[Bruce Kranz] really has worked very hard for the fire issue and other issues at the lake on behalf of the county,” said Stuart Yount, the presidential appointee to the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Governing Board at last week’s gathering.

The informal monthly chat, dubbed “Coffee with Kranz,” is one of the supervisor’s most accessible public outreach venues.

“I think I’ve been open and responsive to the community,” Kranz said in a mid-April interview. “I’m getting a lot of good support up here from a lot of folks.”

Individual constituents, developers, ski resorts, unions and chambers of commerce are all among those who have contributed to Kranz’ campaign, which is now operating on a $150,000 campaign budget and continuing to grow, he said.

Campaign signs in favor of Kranz are posted throughout the district and the incumbent has committed to a candidate forum at the Tuesday Morning Breakfast Club meeting on May 6.

“They expressed an interest in having all of us there, and I said, ‘This is the opportunity to have this forum,’” Kranz said.

Kranz said he declined more opportunities for other forums sponsored by different community organizations because he had already committed to the Tuesday breakfast club.

“There are still opportunities to have discussions,” Kranz said. “I’ve got to be about doing my own campaigning.”

Looking back on his term, which began in 2004, Kranz said he feels he has accomplished a lot for the community.

Fuels reduction, biomass and wildfire prevention always have been and continue to be Kranz’s top priorities. But he’s also been responsive to open space preservation initiatives; Kranz noted the county’s involvement in the recent purchase of Waddle Ranch for open space.

The supervisor also followed through on his responsibility to sit on the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency’s Governing Board, a task he could have delegated to a representative but instead chose to do himself.

“I’ve been at every one of those [TRPA] meetings for the last four years, and I’ve been consistent on having those coffees,” Kranz said. “I don’t think this community has had anywhere near the representation that I’ve given them.”