(Editor’s note: Ceres Courier editor Jeff Benziger sat down with District 5 Supervisor Channce Condit last week in his sixth floor county office to ask about a myriad of issues. The interview occurred days before the end of the filing period on Friday. Since then no candidates have come forth to challenge him). 

Courier: How are things?

Condit: Things are going great. Actually I’m getting ready to run for re-election. I have an election in March so I’m just gearing up for that.

I’m thankful to have all of the endorsements of our mayors. I represent three incorporated cities. I have the endorsement of our Assembly member, endorsement of our sheriff.

Courier: You have been county supervisor for nearly three years now. How different is this job compared to your time on the Ceres City Council?

Condit: Ceres definitely got me prepared to enter into this position, there’s no doubt about it. I do feel a little bit more autonomy and freedom as a county supervisor meaning I have the liberty to go directly to the department heads. We have 26 departments. Prior to that on the Ceres City Council a lot of things were primarily filtered through the city manager … who had more of a rein on kind of how things worked. Now we only had nine departments at the city level as opposed to we have 26. When I was  there (at the city) we had close to a $60 million budget. Now (at county) we have a $1.7 billion budget. So it is night and day in a lot of things but it’s the same principles.

I try not to get into the trappings of the sixth floor. I like to be more so out there with my 116,000 bosses. And of course … we only had a few thousand in that council district I represented. Going from one district, one city to three cities and then plus you have the unincorporated communities outside of that. I have nine communities total in District 5. I represent the area of Keyes, Westley, south Modesto, Patterson, Grayson, Empire, Crows Landing, Newman and Ceres. So it’s quite a big jurisdiction. I represent the largest geographic district in the county.

Courier: Would you say your time is spread equally among the communities? I’m sure you don’t spend as much time in Westley as maybe you would in Newman or Ceres?

Condit: Well I go where the issues and needs are. I get a lot of calls from folks in Westley as I do in Newman or Crows Landing or in Keyes but I get called from all over in the district, about whether it’s a pothole, whether there’s a mattress in an orchard or on the side of the road. But we’ve done community cleanups now and we’re actually doing on in Newman this Saturday. We’ve done county sponsored cleanups within the nine communities in District 5.

Courier: Let me back up. You said Keyes. You don’t represent Keyes.

Condit: We do represent Keyes. My district is the only district that added communities from redistricting. So Supervisor Buck Condit represented Empire at one time. I now have Empire the community. He has rural Empire. Now I have the community of Keyes and then Vito (Chiesa) has some of the outlying or rural areas.

When they were going to give me these two additional communities I said that’s great. I like having more on my plate. I have no gripes about it. I love all the communities; that’s why I do it full-time. 

Courier: Do you enjoy being a supervisor? The job is living up to your expectations?

Condit: I love being a supervisor. This is my passion, it’s what I love to do. I would say it is exceeding my expectations. It’s been great. I feel like a lot more, again, autonomy and flexibility to really go out into the communities and try to make a difference in working with the community partners and things like that.

Some of the big issues have been of course lack of infrastructure in south Modesto. We got $24.1 million from a combination of ARPA, state grant and the help of state Senator Marie Alvarado-Gil to improve their infrastructure.

Courier: What does that buy?

Condit: Curbs, gutters, sidewalks – which is big – lighting and we’re going to see some of the construction begin. It’s already started by the school over by Las Vegas in August. And then we’re going to see our ARPA dollars put to work as well as Senator Marie Alvarado-Gil’s $5 million put to work in the spring of 2025. We’re looking at the Parklawn community which is close to Ceres kind of off of Morgan Road there and then you have the Bret Harte community on this side of Crows Landing Road. (It’s Dallas Street, Tulsa, Spokane, Eureka). So the $24 million is the largest single investment that’s ever been made in south Modesto.

Courier: Hopefully to make that a little safer?

Condit: Well that’s what we’re hoping for. Those communities have been marginalized and disenfranchised for generations, lack of investment and it’s just great to finally see that kind of investment being made for that community. Hopefully it does make a difference. Hopefully it inspires community pride and gets people feeling motivated.

On the west side, the other thing we’re kind of able to accomplish in this three and a half years is that entire stretch of (Highway) 33 from Newman all the way up to Westley and Grayson they don’t have anything after hours or on the weekends for medical care. So if you live in Crows Landing in the middle of 33, you have to community 45 minutes or an hour east to go to a hospital. You’re all dependent on an air vac or an ambulance and again a matter of minutes means life.

We’ve got into an agreement right now with Sutter Gould and Del Puerto Health Ccare District – which is the operated healthcare district out there – where Sutter Gould is going to provide the personnel and the equipment and they’re going to operate out of the footprint of Del Puerto. Now this is going to be funded out of the Health Partners of San Joaquin as well as Health Net and then the county would fill in whatever funding gaps there may be. This is going to offer elevated urgent care services where these people stabilize folks if you were in a bad car accident in Interstate 5 …before transporting further 45 minutes to an hour. And that’s going to be rolling out in February 2024. We’re really excited about that.

Those are just some of the big highlighting things that we’ve accomplished in the last three and a half years.

Courier: In years past this district has been represented by men who were either farmers or had their own businesses. Is this a full-time gig for you? 

Condit: It is a full-time gig.

Courier: And then are you the only supervisor in the county who isn’t divided between the official job of being a county supervisor and another job?

Condit: Well, Supervisor Buck Condit is technically retired so I think he would consider himself a full-time supervisor. I know Vito is a farmer and Mani (Grewal) is obviously a businessman, a very prominent one, and Supervisor (Terry) Withrow is of course a CPA but I know they’re just as committed. I know they work just as hard as myself and try and make sure they are available to their constituents. But yeah I’m a full-time supervisor. I honestly believe I give my constituents their bang for the buck. I just always try to be accessible. I treat this as a 24/7 job. Whether I’m on a vacation or it’s a holiday, my information is public and I get people contacting me all the time. Whatever needs to happen we’ll try to address them.

Courier: Of course, agriculture is the economic engine of Stanislaus County. As someone who has not farmed before, have you been able to relate to the ag industry?

Condit: Absolutely, well just even people who aren’t in the farming industry I think just being from Stanislaus County, being from the Central Valley, it’s almost ingrained in you with our agricultural roots. I probably represent more ag land in my district than the other districts. And yeah those west side farmers and the water is always the number one conversation on everybody’s mind. But Westley, Grayson, Crows Landing those west side communities, even down Central (Avenue) in the rural parts of Ceres I represent, I meet a lot of different farmers, a lot of different ag workers, a lot of farm workers and I want to make sure I’m responsive to their needs as the incorporated cities.

Courier: What kinds of needs might they have, other than water which of course the county doesn’t dictate water policy?

Condit: Well they have a lot of needs whether it’s housing for their workers or whether it’s the roads that their tractors and operators are riding on. I mean, if you look at some of our roads and how horrendous they are, a lot of them being county roads, that’s just where we can make an impact and try to get their roads chip sealed or repaved or making sure that the right-of-way isn’t falling off the shoulder. But I’ve worked with a lot of our farmers just dealing with that type of issues and of course the illegal dumping that takes place in our unincorporated communities, especially on ag land.

Courier: Speaking of infrastructure, what’s the status of the Seventh Street Bridge replacement?

Condit: I know we’re shopping around for grants. It’s like the second oldest bridge in the state if I’m not mistaken. But there is going to be some completion, some movement, in the next couple of years.

That is a city-county project but it is being addressed and hopefully sooner than later. Just with the cost of everything going up but that will replaced out eventually and needs to.

Courier: This county has lagged in jobs for many years. The unemployment rate is higher here in the Valley than it is in the rest of the state. What is the direction of job creation as far as the county goes?

Condit: I think the heart of job creation is actually in my district 5 at the old NASA air base, the Crows Landing Naval Air Base project which that was gifted to the county in 1998. I think that’s going to be a huge job creator. They estimate potentially 15,000 jobs just at that site alone. We actually have a 2030 economic strategic blueprint that kind of outlines where we could potentially see at the naval air base. We need to put the rubber to the road and actually get that project up and going. We’re looking for a master developer currently, trying to attract someone who could come in and renovate that air base. But we did invest roughly $14 million from our ARPA funds to lay the infrastructure and to get everything stubbed and we’re going to have some landscaping. We’re going to see some dirt getting turned over at the Crows Landing Naval Air Base.

Courier: What kind of jobs are we talking about?

Condit: There could be manufacturing jobs. They’re could be some warehouse jobs. I think we want to kind of gear towards the biofuels industry. We’re in competition to receive some biofuels grants and incentives in making us kind of an inland port, if you will. But I think what Atwater has done with the Castle air base we can do plus some. It could be double what Castle is because we are larger with acreage. We have over 2,300 acres over there, we have two runways. We could see a partnership potentially with the San Jose International Airport in these runways where we can do commercial puddle jumpers or we can do logistics with commercial industries. But as far as commuters go, we could have someone who uses a puddle jumper over to San Jose or have Amazon transport their goods into Crows Landing Naval Air Base so it could be a total economic hub and then also providing those thousands and thousands of jobs.

But I could also see a future long-term ER trauma center for the west side located at the Crows Landing Naval Air Base as well. So I think there could be a variety of sectors and I think again that is the number one project that is outright county owned.

Courier: Your District 5 runs from the middle of the county to the west side of the county. How different are the needs between those two areas of your district, say between Ceres and Newman and Patterson?

Condit: Being from Ceres, we actually have a lot more in common with our west side neighbors being that Ceres historically has always been kind of the “red-headed stepchild” of the east side. We’ve always competed with our bigger brothers to the south and to the north and the west side feels like the red-headed stepchild of the county. They feel like they’ve always been the afterthought, they’ve always fought for the scraps from the table and so there’s actually a lot of commonality between Ceres and the west side. And again, it’s about just having a seat at the table, try to be responsive and try to be accessible and make sure they have just as strong of a voice as Modesto, Turlock, Oakdale, Salida, whoever it may be. But I really enjoy just representing the west side as well as Ceres and south Modesto, Keyes and Empire.

Courier: Ceres, of course, is governed by a city council and its residents receive city services. So do you hear much from Ceres residents about county issues?

Condit: I wouldn’t say about county issues, specifically. I get a lot of calls from residents who … need to be connected with (city) code enforcement, if they want to talk to one of their councilmembers, they don’t know who to call about an issue, a lot of dumping issues but Ceres does have quite a few county pockets, especially over there by Central Valley High School as well as north by River Road …but regardless whether they live in an incorporated city or in the unincorporated area we’re going to be responsive to their needs. There’s always a way we can get them in contact with the right person, whether it be a councilmember, the mayor, the city manager, the police chief. So we have a shared jurisdiction and there’s a shared partnership and we do have the same goal – that we want to see results.

Courier: So the Copper Trails master plan. Isn’t that going to take in the Collins Road area to annex?

Condit: I believe it is. LAFCO will require it and actually LAFCO will be triggered in south Modesto with the curbs and gutters and all that as well so eventually we’re hoping to see that annexed to the city of Modesto. But yeah Copper Trails will take out a lot of those county pockets. I believe we have roughly 70 or so county pockets throughout Stanislaus County. We’d like to see those decreased … just having uniformity. We see that in south Modesto.”

Courier:  When you hear from constituents, what issues stand out in your mind? Is it mostly about roads?

Condit: Roads are always #1. Never enough money but I think we can be as responsive as we possibly can. Potholes are generally easy to fix, we just need to know about it. Now I do my best to drive around and take photos and report them but we try to stay proactive on that. Illegal dumping, of course.

Courier:  That seems to be a passion of yours, doing the community cleanups. I don’t think any other supervisors have rolled up their sleeves, put on the work clothes and then put to work.

Condit: Well, it did carry over from the Ceres City Council. I was trying to start that beautification committee. I do believe to make your “home” attractive we’re going to attract more consumers. We’re going to attract more industry. We’re going to attract more businesses. So I do believe in tidying things up and making sure that our county and cities are as beautiful as possible and if I can play a role in that I am happy to do so.

Courier: What is the most frustrating aspect of your job?

Condit: Not having enough hours in the day. There’s always frustration with the bureaucracy in government. Probably any elected office bureaucracy is always a frustration; not just being able to go out and get it done or seeing results.

Courier: If you could give a grade to the board of supervisors, what would it be and why?

Condit: I think we deserve an A grade. I believe these last three and a half years we have made historic investments within the community. We received $107 million in ARPA. We technically could have put that in our general fund and just went on our way. We did not. We put half of it into infrastructure needs throughout the county.

For the first time since 1996 we had a 50/50 tax sharing agreement with our cities. That’s going to pay dividends to the city of Ceres over the next five years.

I ran on that issue but the best idea if you don’t have three votes it doesn’t matter.

Courier: So why would the county be willing to give up tax money?

Condit: I think it’s an equity issue being that 80 percent of the population lives within our cities. Myself and Supervisor Grewal both kind of had city council perspectives and we know how strapped our city councils are dependent solely on sales tax. I come from the notion that I believe in fairness, one, and two that the cities are providing a majority of services to the majority of the constituents … so I would probably be a little bit more radical on this, I think they deserve the majority (of sales taxes). Now politically I know I’m not going to get the majority of tax sharing for the cities so we kind of landed on a 50/50 split and this is for current and future developments and projects. And this is going to show dividends of close to $5 million for Ceres over the next five years and that’s going to go directly into their General Fund. They can do with what they will but in my mind that means potentially more police services, more fire services, better roads and just safer neighborhoods.

Courier: What would you say is the biggest problem facing Stanislaus County?

Condit: The state is the problem for anybody in California, just dealing with the bureaucracy of the state to not being able to build anything. Just the CEQA regulations that they put on us. Then you can go into our water being at threat constantly.

I think we are roughly 27,000 (housing) units short in this county. Every hoop and hurdle they put us through is costing us jobs and driving up the cost and then you add inflation on top of it.

I would absolutely say that the state is obviously our biggest obstacle because you have to deal with the regulations that stop responsible growth.

Courier: How do you feel Newsom is on issues that affect this county?

Condit: I wish he would come to the Central Valley more often. I know when I was on the Ceres City Council he came to Monterey Park Tract on a whim. Actually I got to be a part of the vote where we hooked up our water with Monterey Park Tract and now I actually represent that community in my district.

He’s come out to Patterson out at the solar field I think last year and I got to meet him out there but I wish he’d just come and give us a little more attention and not be so coastal. Obviously we want a great partner with the governor but we need to make sure that they are as exposed to our culture and how much we bring to the table as anyone else. We not only feed the state, we feed the country. We are honestly probably the most valuable asset to the state of California and I just wish that our neighbors would recognize that and see that.

Courier: He probably understands this county doesn’t support him so there’s no need to come here.

Condit: Well, I honestly wish it wasn’t that personal. Technically I lost south Modesto in the primary to Tom Hallinan. It was one of the only communities he beat me in but that’s been the community I’ve worked the hardest in. I didn’t shun south Modesto once I got elected.

Courier: Let’s talk about homelessness. It continues to be a huge problem in California. Despite the spending of billions by the state so how would you assess this county’s attempts to curb homelessness?

Condit: I’m proud of Stanislaus County … because we were bold enough to be one of seven counties to enter the CARES court pilot program. Supervisor Withrow deserves enormous credit for taking on this issue for years now. Terry has been the number one champion on this issue and we’ve done our best to follow his lead in that. But I think the CARES court will have some great ramifications in 1) getting people into services; and 2) having that accountability factor so that we can be 1) compassionate to those who want help, and 2) hold those accountable who are just resisting.

It’s yet to be seen (if it works). We will see hopefully more results moving forward. A lot of it depends on our relations with the courts and how the courts divvy out those sentences to folks in getting them into those programs necessary and having a custodial care and also making sure that they’re going to rehabilitation program resources.

Jails are full and that’s where we’re not going to be able to arrest our way out of it. But, again, if you go against a judge’s sentencing, there’s going to be consequences.

Jody Hayes, our CEO has been great on this issue as Reuben Imperial who’s with our executive staff and formerly with the HRS, Behavioral Health and Recovery Services but it’s going to take a full-on approach to fix this. You’re not going to be able to build houses to accommodate everybody. You’re not going to be able to arrest everybody. You almost have to do all of the above to try to combat this issue. And again, it’s never fully gonna go away but it certainly can’t be at the level that it currently is. That’s unacceptable.

Courier: What are you feeling about the proposed cannabis tax?

Condit:  I am for a more equitable tax across the board where it gets everybody on an equal playing field. Right now we’re doing the (developer agreements). They’re all individualized. So what this tax would do is pretty much set the perimeters across the board for the cannabis industry in the unincorporated areas. Yes, this is a countywide vote but this is only going to have ramifications for cannabis businesses in the unincorporated communities.

What we have done on the county level when it comes to our cannabis (tax) dollars is it fully goes towards trying to stomp out the black market. I know the helicopter we recently purchased about a year and a half, two years ago, that was largely funded through our cannabis dollars. And we support Sheriff Jeff Dirkse in trying to combat and stomp out the black market that’s just running rampant.

When the state of California put a proposition on there to recreationally legalize it, I was a “no” vote. I did not support recreational use but it is the reality of which we live in and honestly if we don’t capitalize on it and we don’t regulate it somebody else is, whether it’s Merced County, whether it’s San Joaquin County. You see this with dry communities, you know, the city of Hughson is “dry,” the city of Newman is “dry” but the city of Ceres still has it. So if you’re in Newman you can still have a delivery made from Crows Landing or Patterson or wherever it may be so it’s still going to be in your community.

Courier: What is your vision for Stanislaus County? By that I mean project yourself out 50 or 60 years from now, how will the county be different than it is today?

Condit: I do see long term the Crows Landing Naval Air Base up and running, I see hospital on the west side. I probably see a surface water treatment plant on the west side. I think they absolutely need it. They have different water issues than we do on the east side. But those farmers, man, they need that water.

And honestly I hope that Ceres … and I see it, I see that we are on the cusp of finally coming into our own where we’re equally competing with Turlock and Modesto, becoming that viable city where people want to live and work and shop. I’m hoping Ceres is the #1 city 50 years from now. Modesto’s kind of landlocked. Turlock’s kind of landlocked; they kind of had their run but Ceres is really coming into its own.

I think if you see what’s happening on Mitchell Road right now, I think it’s great. I think this Copper Trails project will be great to have some new homes, good quality homes.

Courier: You come from a famous political family. Your grandfather was a congressman and your father has served a number of elected officials and run for office himself. Are there times when you seek their advice?

Condit: Absolutely. My grandfather and my father are a wealth of knowledge. My dad (Chad) is probably the smartest political mind I’ve known. I certainly seek his advice. I seek my grandfather’s advice. I seek my grandmother Carolyn’s advice. Carolyn honestly is probably the most popular Condit outside of my late great-grandfather Rev. A.J. Condit, and the way she was able to personally touch people and make those connections and genuinely care about those individuals. People still ask me about my grandfather (Gary), of course, day in and day out. They ask me about my father. They ask me about my uncle Burl but they do bring up my grandmother Carolyn very frequently and just how sweet and kind she was.

But yeah I lean on everybody for advice. I lean on Russell (Fowler, his field aide) for advice. I’m never gonna kid myself I’m the smartest guy in the room and if you are you kind of need to start looking for a different room.

Courier: What’s it like serving on the board with your second cousin, Buck Condit who represents District 1?

Condit: I think it’s great. He’s got his own way of doing things …and political philosophies and I think it’s been wonderful. I mean we’ve disagreed on a few things and agreed on some stuff. I think it’s wonderful that he represents the east side and I represent the west side.

Courier: Does that ever cause confusion? People contacting Supervisor Condit and they end up with the wrong one?

Condit: It happens. We’ll just refer it over to Buck. We’re all on the sixth floor. I try not to get trapped in the bubble. I don’t like being in the bureaucratic bubble.

Courier: You do certainly get out there. Of course (former county supervisor Jim DeMartini was always showing up at the meetings.

Condit: Yeah, I had a high standard to live up to filling Supervisor Jim DeMartini’s shoes. He had a prolific reputation of being everywhere. Now there is a meeting for everything. We have a cemetery meeting that I’ve gone to. We’ve got three school district meetings, we have three city council meetings, we have three community service districts, we have three MACs, south Modesto MAC, Keyes MAC. I mean every day, every night there is always something to do, something to attend, ribbon cuttings.

Courier: How do you balance the demands of serving the community and serving your family? That’s another factor.

Condit: I’m blessed to have a great life partner with my wife Nadine. She is amazing. She is definitely my rock and she’s given me the flexibility and freedom to be able to execute this job to the best of my capabilities.

But one thing is I love what I do. I love being a public servant. That’s my passion. You know the saying is, if you love what you do you’ll never “work” a day in your life. I’ll be honest with you – I don’t feel like I’ve worked as far as being a grueling job that I’m dreading going to. That hasn’t happened. 

That’s where my heart’s at. I love people. I love serving people and I love trying to find solutions to whatever issues they might have. It honestly excites me and I don’t take it for granted.

But it is hard to balance but if you care about something enough you eventually find a way to make it happen.

Courier: Since you love serving so much, I can’t see you saying here forever so do you have any ambitions to go to the state level?

Condit: I’m not looking down the road to anything. I would never blanketly say I’m ruling out anything but what I do is just focus on the task at hand. Whether or not you’re ready or prepared to run for something else, the voters are going to decide and that’s how it is. I just hope the voters will have me as long as they feel I’m doing a good job.

But I’m running for re-election for supervisor in March and I hope I’m re-elected and hope I can continue expounding upon the work that we’ve done.