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Don Horsley has a new job in his old workplace. With his election to the San Mateo County Board of Supervisor for District 3 — an area that includes Menlo Park, Atherton, Woodside and Portola Valley — he’ll have an office on the first floor of the County Center building in Redwood City.

Between June 1993 and January 2007, he was county sheriff and had an office on the third floor. (On retiring, he ran for the board of the Sequoia Healthcare District and is the current board president with an office nearby on Veterans Boulevard.)

Mr. Horsley won 56.5 percent of the vote, defeating April Vargas 73,234 to 56,391. While candidates must live in the district, they run county-wide.

As the winner, Mr. Horsley now has the opportunity to make good on his ideas for addressing the $150 million structural deficit the county is facing in 2014 if something isn’t done to align expenses with income.

His personal expenses will not be aligned with his income as supervisor, since he has agreed to take just $1 a year, instead of the usual annual salary of $114,000. But then he is a retired California sheriff living on a retired California sheriff’s pension.

The county has been borrowing from its reserves for the past three years. The 2010-11 fiscal year county budget projects spending $1.8 billion, including $90 million from reserves.

In the run-up to the election, Mr. Horsley said in an interview that he would focus his cost-cutting attention in the areas of public safety and health care — reflective of his experience.

“I’m aware of what the community’s problems are,” he said when asked before the election why voters should choose him. “I’m aware of how to continue to make this county the best it can possibly be.”

Among his cost-saving ideas:

■ Have jailed pregnant women sent home where they could be electronically monitored.

■ Evaluate patients now in skilled nursing care for less expensive assisted living, and ask nonprofit hospitals to raise their intake of charity cases. Nationally, he said, about 6 percent of patients at nonprofit hospitals are charity cases, compared to just 2 percent locally.

■ Consolidate county firefighting agencies to maintain the number of actual firefighters but lower the number of managers — a savings of about $8 million, he said.

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11 Comments

  1. Wow, I find your comment “But then he is a retired California sheriff living on a retired California sheriff’s pension” to be a bit snarky. There are few people in this world, who are not rich, that would give up a salary and work for free. Seems to me that he earned his pension same as if he retired from some other corporation. He deserves to get paid for this job just like the other members of the Board. It would be a shame to discourage smart, experienced, and respected people from running for public office by expecting them to work for free. If anything, you should be praising Mr. Horsley for his decision, not putting him down.

  2. Don Horsley made it sound like he was offering if elected to not accept the salary plus benefits . This was part of his political campaign. I heard him say this several times when I was running against him.

    The truth be told is he is not allowed to accept the income, He could accept the Supervisor salary but would need to forgo the Sheriff pension, that is how this came about.

    Time for some honesty.

  3. You need to check your facts, Mr. Stogner. Your statement is not true. While it is true that a person cannot retire from the county and then go back and get another job there, that does not hold true for elected persons. It is your right to run for public office no matter where you held a job and it is your right to get paid for it.

  6. I object to perjury. I’m not that concerned with a candidate making false statements.

    I have said this before and I will say it again. Don Horsley as Sheriff of San Mateo County committed Perjury 2 times during the Congressional subcommittee hearing held in San Mateo, California August 2004.

    You can verify this with Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Atherton, She was the one who asked him the question I asked her to ask.

    His response: “All 10 lbs of the C-4 was recovered” she asked him again, same answer.

    The ATF witness just minutes before testified 34lbs of C-4…not 10

  7. Unlike you, Mr. Stogner, I would not make a statement like that if I didn’t already check. You are the one who needs to get your facts straight.

  9. Don Horsley released a press release in Jan.2010 Lead by example.

    insidebayarea.com

    By Shaun Bishop 01/20/10

    San Mateo County supervisor candidate to forgo salary if elected

    The former sheriff of San Mateo County said he will forgo a salary if elected to the Board of Supervisors.

    Former Sheriff Don Horsley announced this week that he would pass on the $115,000 annual salary paid to supervisors, as well as health and retirement benefits, if he wins a five-way race to replace termed-out Supervisor Rich Gordon.

    Horsley said supervisors will have to make tough decisions to erase a projected $100 million budget deficit and in the process may have to lay off employees or ask them to take pay cuts.

    “You really have to lead by example, and I think that’s the example I want to set, the tone I want to set for this election,” said Horsley, who receives a taxpayer-funded pension of more than $200,000 per year.

    This is simple now he just needs to do what he said he would do.

  11. Andy, asks “mike don’t you have anything else to talk about?”

    Yes Andy I can talk about Child Absue, Elder Abuse, Human Trafficking of Underaged Sex Slaves, Illegal conduct by (some) Police Officers, Sheriff Deputies fabrication evidence in Capital murder cases, Sheriff Deputies committing Perjury in court , DDA misstating evidence, CPS Fraud, and Fraud of the Private Defender Program of SMC to name a few subjects.

    Why don’t you pick a subject you feel more comfortable with.

    PS I can talk about Fast-Pitch Softball, I took a team to the Nationals in 1997

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