An incumbent and two other candidates are running in the March 5 primary election for a seat on the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors to represent District 5.
District 5 covers Escalon, Ripon, Tracy, and Mountain House and is currently represented by Robert Rickman.
Rickman, who has previously served as board chair, will compete with Tracy Mayor Nancy Young and retired schoolteacher Wes Huffman. If no candidate gets a majority of the vote, then the two contenders with the most votes will go to a November runoff election.
Last month, the Stockton branch of the NAACP held a forum for voters to hear from candidates, but Rickman and Huffman did not participate.
Robert Rickman
Rickman is a third-generation resident of the county, has served as mayor of Tracy for 2016 and 2018 and was a law enforcement officer.
He was elected to the City Council in 2010 and again in 2014 and in 2015 was voted by the council to be mayor pro tem.
His campaign page states that his top priorities will include boosting local jobs and the economy, improving regional traffic and transportation options, public safety and first responders, supporting law enforcement, working to reduce homelessness and helping farmers to protect the water and environment.
Rickman said he has advocated for help and secured $1.23 million for supplies and various items for ambulances at the Ripon Consolidated Fire District station dispatch center, $208,000 for watercraft, equipment, personal protective equipment, and training for the South San Joaquin County Fire Authority, and made available $300,000 to $500,000 for reimbursements to fire departments that respond to unincorporated parts of the county.
Nancy Young
Young said she brings 12 years of experience to the Tracy City Council and some of the city’s accomplishments thus far have been opening a new temporary emergency housing facility and opening an additional fire station after 20 years.
Similar to her opponent, Young’s priorities include jobs and the economy, public safety, housing and homelessness.
Her candidate page states that as a supervisor, she will address the need to give the youth work development opportunities as well as continue helping connect people and businesses to resources and services within the community.
When it comes to public safety, she said she will always prioritize public safety resources in the budget to ensure first responders have what they need.
Young was the only candidate who took part at the NAACP forum and was asked what were some underfunded programs or services that she believed needed to be enhanced in the district and how she would propose to advocate for those resources.
“Some of the resources that we need is behavior and mental health. Not only do we need that for our shelters, but we need that for people,” Young said.
She said she had two events together last year that helped raise over $30,000 that was given to eight different organizations that are doing work in the behavioral and mental health space.
Huffman did not have a campaign page to discuss priorities if elected.
