Outspoken Salida advocate to challenge Withrow for Stanislaus County board seat

Supervisor Terry Withrow won’t have a free ride to a third term on the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors.

Katherine Borges, a county planning commissioner and outspoken Salida advocate, said she is running for the District 3 seat held by Withrow since 2011.

Borges, who has fought proposals for Modesto to annex Salida, has served on the Salida Municipal Advisory Council and planning commission, but those positions have no decision-making authority, she said.

“I have a goal and vision for District 3 and that includes making it a better place and bringing tourism to Modesto,” Borges said.

She said Withrow has done a good job and she has no plans to attack the respected incumbent. Borges, 49, faces long odds of winning the seat in the June primary but her campaign could be a rehearsal for 2022.

Withrow has made no promises to run four years from now.

“It is totally her choice,” Withrow said. “I look forward to a campaign. I work very hard for this district and the county.”

Withrow’s district includes the county’s largest unincorporated town, the west side of Modesto and the Wood Colony area. “Salida is one area of the county I have done a lot for,” Withrow said.

The job of county supervisor, he added, is about working for the entire county, not just a single community. He is seeking another term to work on unfinished business, including Focus on Prevention and major road projects.

Borges, 49, is director of the International Society of Genetic Geneology and gives speeches in other states and countries on using DNA to trace your ancestry. She assumes that community work and local politics are in her DNA and hopes to make the jump from appointed to elected office.

Borges said one reason for running for office is the state mandate that the county provide for affordable housing. A section of the county general plan seems to talk about 883 units of low-income and very low-income housing plotted in the Salida community plan.

The challenger said that represents the bulk of affordable housing needed to meet the county’s requirement. That much low-cost housing would change the middle-class character of Salida, and it should be evenly distributed among the county’s unincorporated communities, she stressed.

“I can see some of it going in Salida but not all of the county’s requirement,” Borges said.

Withrow, 57, said he does not foresee home construction in Salida anytime soon. “The county will make sure (affordable housing) is not disproportionate,” the supervisor promised.

Angela Freitas, director of planning and community development for the county, said there’s potential for a large amount of housing in the Salida plan, but it does not mean the housing has to be built or at affordable rates.

Freitas said no developers have come in with plans for building the 4,000 to 5,000 homes in the Salida community plan, which was approved in 2007.

Aside from the state requirement that counties provide a certain amount of affordable housing – and what it even means – neither candidate said that affordable housing is a current priority for county government. That is despite soaring rental costs for local residents.

The Modesto Bee reported this month the average monthly rent for Modesto apartments is $1,146, an 8 percent increase in the last year. Another double-digit increase is projected this year.

Borges, a Fresno native, has lived in Salida since 1993 and was on the Salida MAC for more than five years, from July 2012 until December. She is president of the Salida Chamber of Commerce and has favored city incorporation for the town of 14,000 residents, but the concept is hindered by a limited tax base.

A nemesis of former Modesto Mayor Garrad Marsh, Borges said she gets along well with Mayor Ted Brandvold. Any land development in the overlapping territory of Salida and Modesto needs to be a partnership, she stressed.

Borges established a graffiti abatement program called “Take Back Salida”, which removed more than 200 graffiti tags in two years. She also works on graffiti abatement as a Modesto police volunteer and would apply her energies to safer neighborhoods in Modesto.

But can she convince voters to put her on the Board of Supervisors?

“I would do the job full time,” Borges said. “I just want to make the district a better place. I can’t do these things in an advisory role.”

A second supervisorial seat is on the June ballot. State senator Tom Berryhill, who is terming out this year, is vying for the District 4 seat representing most of Modesto, along with Frank Damrell III, a district representative for state senator Cathleen Galgiani of Stockton. Incumbent Dick Monteith is retiring. Bret De St. Jeor has pulled papers.

This story was originally published January 25, 2018 at 4:09 PM with the headline "Outspoken Salida advocate to challenge Withrow for Stanislaus County board seat."