He’s a GOP leader, a Trump supporter and is poised to lead Stanislaus County board

Jim DeMartini, a longtime conservative leader, is preparing to serve as chairman of the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors next year.

He will lead a politically divided county that’s dealing with homelessness, criminal justice reform, water issues and doubts about the future of the Affordable Care Act.

The four-term supervisor will take over as chairman in January. He is a Republican Party leader in Stanislaus County, where Democrats hold a slight edge in voter registration.

DeMartini said the untold story of county government is its financial health. “Things are a lot better now,” DeMartini said. “Property values are up, unemployment has dropped. The county has no general fund debt. The county has $186 million in reserves.”

He noted that stock market gains have boosted the value of the Stanislaus County Employees’ Retirement Association fund, which pays the pension benefits of public service retirees.

StanCERA received a 14.7 percent return on investments for the year that ended June 30, and the fund has increased 6.5 percent in value with six months remaining in the current fiscal year.

StanCERA administers the retirement benefits for employees of the county, Ceres, the Superior Court and certain special districts. DeMartini, who serves on StanCERA’s board, gave credit for the stock market performance to the Trump Administration.

“Everybody is better off because of Trump,” he said.

DeMartini plans to deliver a “State of the County” address on Feb. 6, the birthdate of former President Ronald Reagan.

Later in February, the county will christen a 288-bed jail addition designed for programs to help inmates break cycles of crime. Called the REACT center for Re-Entry and Enhanced Alternatives to Custody Training, the facility caps a major expansion at the Public Safety Center on Hackett Road.

DeMartini said the county is adding two more staff members to a downtown Modesto outreach center that’s working with the homeless.

“Instead of giving them food and letting them live on the streets, we are trying to better connect them to the services they need,” DeMartini said. “The objective is to help them with (addiction or mental health issues) and get them employed and off the streets.”

Another county priority is a reuse plan for the former Crows Landing Navy airfield in western Stanislaus Couunty. The county has been waiting for results of an environmental study on the master plan for business parks and a general aviation airport at the former base. The EIR should be released for public comment early next year.

Thousands of jobs could emerge at the 1,500-acre site if the county partners with a developer. The economic development project is within DeMartini’s district, which includes Patterson, Newman, south Modesto and Ceres.

The county also has contested a state water board proposal for irrigation districts to forfeit water for salmon in the Stanislaus, Tuolumne and Merced rivers. DeMartini said there’s no evidence that increased flows will restore the salmon run.

The state proposal “will wreck property values and fallow thousands of acres of farmland,” he said.

This story was originally published December 24, 2017 at 7:31 AM with the headline "He’s a GOP leader, a Trump supporter and is poised to lead Stanislaus County board."