Merced County residents can now start voting in the June 2 primary election, as mail ballots started going out on May 4.
Among the important races, folks who live in Merced County District 3 will choose a new representative for the Board of Supervisors. District 3 includes the communities of Atwater, Winton, Beachwood-Franklin and McSwain.
The candidates include incumbent Supervisor Daron McDaniel, who has held office since 2015, and Luis Lara, a recently-retired officer with the Merced Area California Highway Patrol.
The deadline to register to vote in the primary election is May 18. Those who don’t meet the deadline will have to file a provisional ballot.
The candidates answered questions in a video conference debate sponsored by The Merced FOCUS. Panelists included Merced FOCUS editor Brianna Vaccari, Central Valley Journalism Collaborative Executive Editor Joe Kieta and CVJC Managing Editor Victor A. Patton.
The candidates generally had 90 seconds to provide an opening statement, 60 seconds for answers and 30 seconds for rebuttals. Our timekeeper was Teizy Zavala-Cortez.
A transcript of the debate is below, edited for length and clarity:
Merced FOCUS: Let’s get started with 90 second opening statements. We will start with incumbent Daron McDaniel, followed by challenger Luis Lara.
Daron McDaniel: Good evening and thank you to Merced FOCUS for hosting tonight’s conversation. My name is Daron McDaniel and I’m proud to serve as your Merced County Supervisor for District 3.
I’ve always believed this role comes down to one thing, results, not talk, not politics – results that people can see and feel in their daily lives. Since taking office, I’ve focused on building a stronger foundation for Merced County. That means real investment in infrastructure, real progress in economic development, and a clear commitment to public safety.
At Castle, we’ve turned what was once uncertainty into opportunity, securing nearly $50 million in state funding and supporting projects that are bringing jobs, investment, and long-term growth to our region.
We’re advancing the Atwater Merced Expressway, one of the most important transportation projects in our county’s future, improving connectivity and setting the stage for economic expansion. And we’ve taken action on roads, championing Measure V to finally create a reliable local funding source so we can fix our infrastructure and do it faster.
But just as important, I’ve made sure Merced County has a voice beyond our borders, working in Sacramento and Washington DC to cut through red tape and bring resources back home.
Because at the end of the day, it isn’t about promises, it’s about performance. I’m proud of the progress we’ve made together, and I’m ready to keep building on it with a focus on accountability, experience, and delivering real results for our community. Thank you.
Merced FOCUS: Thank you. Luis Lara, you’re up.
Luis Lara: Thank you very much, Merced Focus, for putting on this debate. I’m Luis Lara. I’m a lifelong Atwater resident. My wife and I are raising our family here.
I have spent the last 28 years with the CHP in Merced and before that started my work as a first responder as a volunteer fireman.
I have been on the ground during some of our devastating incidents here in Merced County and the state through floods, fires, and other emergencies such as civil unrest.
My top priority has always been to keep everybody safe in California and Merced County. As a CHP sergeant, I supervised local staff and throughout my career, I built relationships with leaders across the community, state, federal, and local (agencies).
I recently retired from the CHP and I am running because I’m not done working to improve the quality of life here in Merced County.
As I’ve been knocking on doors during the campaign, I can see more and more clearly that residents are tired of business as usual. They want to see our community make progress and so do I.
I’m not a career politician, but I have decades of leadership experience working hard for Merced County. If elected to the Board of Supervisors, I will always be transparent, accessible, hold myself accountable and others accountable.
People who live here don’t want to be told everything is working great when they can see with their own eyes that it isn’t. We can see all the potholes and we can see Castle. If elected to the board, I won’t pretend I have the answers. I will work with partners in this committee to work together to improve our economy, fix our roads, and make our neighborhood safer. I hope I can earn your vote. Thank you.
The Merced FOCUS: Castle Commerce Center is integral to Merced County and we’ve seen a number of developments in recent years from the establishment of the transportation research center where self-driving vehicles are tested to the inland port.
Still, there are critics who say the progress at Castle has been slow considering the Air Force base closed more than 30 years ago. What letter grade would you give the progress at Castle Commerce Center so far and why? We will start with Luis Lara.
Luis Lara: Let’s just start with District 3 when Supervisor McDaniel took it over. (Since) 2015, there’s been little or no progress for Castle, as my priorities are jobs for Merced County residents.
I know we have the autonomous vehicles out there, (with) Google, but it just feels like we’re just leasing land just to say we did something. There’s no strategic plan.
There’s no strategy on how we’re building Castle out there. Castle has been closed since 1995. We’ve had little or no progress. Things aren’t moving as (they) should and they’re moving very slowly. I challenge anybody to drive out there and just see the other buildings, the hidden buildings, the back. There’s nothing out there.
We have an 11,000 foot runway that has no air traffic coming in, as in commercial.
The Merced FOCUS : OK. So, do you have a letter grade?
Luis Lara: Oh, I’m sorry about that: “D.”
Merced FOCUS: Ok, Supervisor McDaniel. What letter grade would you give the progress at Castle Commerce Center so far and why?
Daron McDaniel: I would give it a B.
I know when I first got elected the approach was to throw mud against the wall and see what would stick. So whenever I first sat down with our economic development director, I said “what are we doing out there right now and let’s be the best that we can be in the world.”
And since that time, we (have) identified the autonomous vehicle industry. We have Waymo. We have the Transportation Research Center out there. The Transportation Research Center is now sold out 24/7.
Since this time that I’ve been in office, over $300 million in private investment has been made there. TRC, $10 million. Blaker with their dorms have invested $8 million. Patriot Rail has invested $5 million in the Inland Port. Golden Valley Health Centers has invested $14 million. Since I’ve been in office, we have over 800 people working out at Castle. Eight hundred new people. It might have been Merced County moving HSA there, but that’s only 225.
Luis Lara: Can I rebuttal that?
The Merced FOCUS: Yes, you can. Luis Lara, you have a rebuttal.
Luis Lara: In regards to the employees, you have to see these employees are not all Merced County residents. We got Cal Fire out there. Same standards as CHP Academy. We’re bringing in people from throughout the state and then we’re sending them out throughout the state. So, it’s an investment for Merced County, but not what we’re looking for Merced County jobs. We hire consultants because right now the county doesn’t know what to do.
We (spent) $240,000 to see what we can do with the runway and we just spent $380,000 to figure out what we can do with the train, when we just have a $42 million grant that we should have a plan already with.
The Merced FOCUS: Okay, thank you.
Daron McDaniel: Do I get to rebuttal that?
The Merced FOCUS : Yes, you can.
Daron McDaniel: So, I didn’t even mention Cal Fire. All the jobs I said were the jobs that are out there now, every day. I didn’t count the Cal Fire jobs.
The Merced FOCUS: OK. So, the next question is about public safety. Two years ago, Sheriff’s Office employees received 10% raises, and public safety still takes up a majority of the county’s discretionary dollars.
But retaining and recruiting the best in law enforcement is still a challenge, as Merced County competes with other counties for talent. Given those challenges, why should Merced County voters be convinced you are the right person to keep them safe? We’ll start with Daron McDaniel.
Daron McDaniel: Actually, since I’ve been elected, we’ve improved their salaries by 59% since I’ve been in the office. We just now renegotiated. They got the 10%, they got another 10%, but what you don’t see are the post incentives that we tied in there. We actually have a sergeant who received after these last two contracts a 26.5% increase in pay.
And if you were at the Board of Supervisors meeting whenever they were presenting what jobs needed to come to Merced County and what we needed to do to negotiate it, actually the DSA sent a letter thanking the board for the incentives that we gave them and how they are able to recruit and retain. It’s in the meeting. It’s in the minutes. Thank you.
Luis Lara: So, it’s not enough for the current Board of Supervisors to say that they are giving law enforcement raises and patting themselves on the back, when they are telling the public that they are also cutting the benefits, increasing the contributions to their benefits.
So, it’s almost like they get a raise and then they get nothing because they just slap on the benefits. Benefits (are) a current issue for Merced County employees and it’s just they’re patting themselves on the back for the incentives and when you talk about (a) 59% raise, look at the Board of Supervisors, you ask yourself as a (member of the) Board of Supervisors, what is your raise from 2014? It’s attached to the state superior court judges and it’s unfair that salary is raised when other people aren’t getting the same salary raises.
The Merced FOCUS: I think you wanted to rebut there, Supervisor McDaniel?
Daron McDaniel: Yes. The percentage of raises (for) the Board of Supervisors does not match what we’ve done for public safety. It’s not even close. It’s more in line with the rest of the employees in Merced County. The grand jury actually made that recommendation. And if you look back, and the Sun Star covered this a lot, I actually refused my raise whenever we were going through negotiations because I didn’t think it was fair if I took a raise and our employees didn’t vote for their raise at that time. So I rescinded the raise.
The Merced FOCUS: The next topic is health care. Even though most county employees got a big raise last year, health care premiums continue to go up and they aren’t showing any signs of going down. If elected, how will you ensure that county employees have access to adequate, affordable health care?
Luis Lara: I think it’s very important that all employees have good health care. We have a county that has 2,000 plus employees and we have issues when executive staff and the board approve health benefits. It just becomes a problem each time.
So now they just approved all these health benefits. The county employees weren’t happy and now we’re going back. It seems that the county acknowledged they have an issue and how they did this and now we’re spending $40,000 on a consultant. Mind (you) that during the election year, to go back and try to see what the county has done wrong.
Still there’s no transparency. I don’t know what the situation was to go back on those, but it’s researching, doing this properly, providing the right health benefits to employees and also providing the right messaging, being very transparent and open the books and say how it is.
It was not like that. The employees are not happy right now. And that is an issue where employees will leave Merced County to go to another county and for competitive wages, other private employers.
Daron McDaniel: Yeah, we’ve already taken those steps and just like he had said we did engage, we wanted a third party to come in and look at the pool and how it works… It’s the pool usage that creates the cost of doing business and when a lot of folks are using the pool the price goes up.
So we wanted a third party to come in and analyze exactly what we have, so we can say that … we’re being completely transparent. We want a third party to come in and tell us what’s the best possible health care we can have. And I think $40,000 that’s a return on investment that’s going to be reciprocated. And we’re hoping we can find something better for our employees because that’s what we’ve been doing. When we rely on our own folks within to look at it, we don’t know exactly. Who are they accessing, how are they getting the information? That’s why a third party is important to look at all other forms of insurance so we can provide it.
Luis Lara: I’d like to rebuttal that. If we are constantly hiring consultants during (an) election year, if we are hiring them any time just to fix our issues, maybe we don’t have the right people doing that job. If we are second guessing our job on health benefits, we don’t have the right person. If we’re second-guessing ourselves for other things and spending $240,000, $380,000, we don’t have the correct people doing those jobs. Maybe the county needs to look at hiring someone that can do this right.
Daron McDaniel: Can I rebuttal that?
The Merced FOCUS: You may.
Daron McDaniel: So, we use consultants all the time because we don’t have the experts to make those calls. If you have county folks doing county business, they are wrapped up in the business they do, providing stuff for our constituency. Whenever you ask them to go above and beyond, we have contract negotiations that we have to fit within those parameters. It takes a consultant, especially a third party to be able to tell us the right answers. And so I think it’s well worth the return on investment to invest that for the results that we’ll get out of it.
The Merced FOCUS: Governor Newsom recently threatened to sue several Valley jurisdictions saying that they are out of compliance with state law for their housing element plans. And some of those jurisdictions included Merced County and the city of Atwater.
This is important because a lawsuit from the state could jeopardize key funding for Merced County. What is your plan to deal with this issue? We will start with Supervisor McDaniel.
Daron McDaniel: So that’s HCD out of Sacramento and if you look it was out of one particular regional office where they had all the issues.
So we are moving forward now. We’ve already resubmitted all of our paperwork. We will be going out to a public hearing here right away. A lot of times whenever you send it out … I mean the state’s a big bureaucracy and a lot of times you don’t get the response as soon as you want to and that’s one thing that we have to continue to work with.
I actually think (we’ve been) consulting with the city of Atwater and they were in a similar situation. So moving forward we’re going to be having, I think it’s going to be by the end of this month, we’ll have the public hearing to move forward on this.
So all the documentation we submitted was the proper (information). We’re moving forward and so we will not breach that area. We’ll be fine.
Luis Lara: OK, this is where you say ‘we did something wrong.’ Hold yourself accountable. Hold everybody accountable (who) did something wrong.
July 2024, the county received a letter that on January 1, your housing element plan should have been turned in. So, don’t say there’s a miscommunication. Well, it could have been a miscommunication on the third floor, but the problem is, hold yourself accountable. Get it done. We have a housing issue. We have a homeless issue. Let’s get it done. Someone dropped the ball. Hold yourself accountable. Tell the people that. There’s the messaging.
Daron McDaniel: Can I rebuttal that?
The Merced FOCUS: Yes.
Daron McDaniel: It was turned in. It was under review. It’s part of a process. It goes back and forth. Nobody dropped the ball. It was turned in.
The Merced FOCUS: OK, we’re ready to move on to the next question. We’ve seen efforts to address the homeless problem in Merced County. Project home key funds are an example and there’s also a new navigation center. Still, the massive scope of the problem is going to require bold ideas to solve it.
So tell us, what are your bold ideas to fix Merced County’s homeless problem? We will start with Luis Lara.
Luis Lara: I think there’s always a partnership here. I was boots on the ground for the state, (with) my law enforcement agency I worked with.
And I know what the homeless issues were. I know there wasn’t any coordination between cities and the county on handling this issue. It was almost (like) everybody was on their own.
I think the best part about this is to get some partnership between everybody, involve the state, involve (the) feds. There’s always grants available. There’s other private entities, nonprofits and everything.
Let’s all get together, have some type of task force to handle this and go from there. We know we have a homeless issue. I know there was talk the other day that homelessness has decreased. No, it hasn’t. It’s increased 4% .. we have probably about a population of 780 and we need to bring that down.
The Merced FOCUS: Supervisor McDaniel, what are your bold ideas to fix Merced County’s homeless problem.
Daron McDaniel: If I had that, I’d be running for governor. I’ll just say that for the record. What we’ve done … the Board of Supervisors we made a new position within the Board of Supervisors and we assigned John Ceccoli as our homeless person to work directly with us.
We went out and we identified the cause. What we have come to find out is, how do we force these folks into services? I talk with our HSA, our behavioral health. My wife worked for behavioral health in Stanislaus County and she had the same issue. It was a 3% success rate, maybe. And so getting these folks I think it’s going to have to take legislation.
We have the Care Court, who we were just recognized by the governor as being one of the top 10 care courts in California. But it’s – how do we force these folks to do the services We give them housing vouchers and they refuse them. We get them services to get cleaned up and they refuse them. How do we motivate these folks to get to a better spot?
The Merced FOCUS: More than half of Merced County residents receive some sort of public assistance, whether it’s food assistance or medical. And Covered California has already seen a decrease in enrollment following the passage of the federal One Big Beautiful Bill Act. And we know that Merced County’s budget could see a $10 million impact from that. What kind of adjustments should be made in Merced County’s budget to ensure the highest level of service while remaining fiscally sound? We’ll start with Supervisor McDaniel.
Daron McDaniel: That falls on Merced County for sure. We had had discussions way before this with CSMP. We’re part of the 45 counties that can join this collaboration to do it and there’s realignment monies that are already in the health department that we can actually put towards that.
We had monies that we had for this before and whenever the Affordable Care Act was passed the state actually took those monies away from us. So we’re actually advocating with CSAC and RCRC to advocate for those monies to become more available. HR1 is going to be a huge impact and I’ll tell you that our community is actually 58% on that subsidy and we have identified the problem and I think CMSP is going to be our answer and like I said we were working with them eight years ago to get involved in this and we’re one of the counties that can get involved and that’s going to that’s going to be a big benefit for us moving forward.
Luis Lara: I agree. I think you have to be a good advocate. You have to partner up with and be a good advocate with states and feds obviously get more money involved with these programs and also it’s just bringing in revenue to the county. You hear about the pie, the pie is only this big, but if you’re going to host and you’re going to be the county you need to make that pie bigger and that’s where I talk about investing in Castle as bringing in jobs.
You hear about, we just set out the table. Well, the table’s been set out for 10 years and nothing’s happened.
So, we need (to) find new fresh ideas, come up and bring in new revenue to Castle. It’s 2,000 acres. And if you get employers to come out there with good paying jobs, we will bring in more revenue. That’s a way to help the budget, to put people back to work.
Daron McDaniel: And if I can rebuttal that?
The Merced FOCUS: Yes, you may.
Daron McDaniel: That’s exactly what we’re doing. Thank you for recognizing it.
The Merced FOCUS: This year, Merced County is making good on its commitment to hold budget workshops for the public to attend before the proposed budget is released.
Merced County has also started hosting informational sessions for the public about specific county departments. What are other ways Merced County can better engage its residents and how do you think county supervisors should engage with their constituents? We will start with Luis Lara.
Luis Lara: I went to the budget workshop, the first one, and it was OK, you know, I mean it’s just a beginner basic course, good, but I think it’s also (about) being more transparent.
People are asking for transparency, transparency, transparency and we’re not getting that from (the) District 3 Supervisor. I think those are the things that you know all of a sudden and you see it come out right now.
The county has (been) messaging more on Facebook, doing more videos and everything. Yes, I agree with that, but that should have happened a long time ago because that’s what the people are asking.
People have been asking question over question and they’re still not getting answers. I think the way to do it is social media platforms, town halls. We haven’t seen those in District 3.
The MAC, the municipal advisory committees no longer exists in McSwain, Beachwood Franklin MAC, (you) only see a supervisor there three times during the election year and then before that you never see them. They send a representative. It’s important that the messaging comes from the county supervisor directly.
Daron McDaniel: Well, and I’ll agree. We haven’t told our story at the county very well and we’ve been looking at ways how we can do that and social media has definitely opened up that opportunity.
But from the first day that I was elected, that first month, I have mobile district office hours that I have open in Atwater once a month, every month since I’ve been elected.
That’s an opportunity for a town hall. As I was doing it and expanding on it, I actually opened it up and asked for Assembly members to have a representative there, a state Senator to have a representative there, as well as a congressman’s representative there.
And we’ll have either the mayor or a city councilman there as well and sometimes a city manager sits in. It is about being transparent.
Let’s understand this information age right now. We are transparent. If you want to look into the budget and get right into the budget at Merced County, you can dive right in online. Everything is available. It’s about us telling the story.
Our schools aren’t teaching civics anymore. That’s a problem. I went to high school. I learned civics. That was my favorite class. I guess that’s why maybe I’m the county supervisor now.
The Merced FOCUS: District 3 in Merced County is home to the largest unincorporated community in the county – Winton – which is the size of a small city. And for unincorporated communities, the county and its supervisors are often the first point of contact for public services. How can you ensure residents of unincorporated communities have access to the high levels of service on par with an incorporated city? We will start with Supervisor McDaniel.
Daron McDaniel: Yeah. That is a problem. And we have these communities who look at trying to incorporate to become a city, but as you know in California, that’s just way too expensive. And I can’t remember, really the last time that one has been incorporated because most of them become unincorporated because they can’t pay their fees.
It depends on what services you’re talking about because we now have Golden Valley Health Centers out there as well.
I’ve been working from day one to get a park so folks can communicate and have fellowship and be able to have a gathering place – 18.5 acres. We just opened this up last week.
But I am the main force. We try to, at the max, have the sheriff’s department. We have planning and we have other people there to express our needs. The community center will solve a lot of that problem. So, we can do human services agency office hours there as well as behavioral health. And that is something I’ve been working on for a long time. And we’ll get that done
The Merced FOCUS: Thank you. Luis Lara, how can you ensure that residents of unincorporated communities will have services on par with incorporated cities?
Luis Lara: First, you have to be the county supervisor and be present at these events. You have to show up.
McSwain, Beachwood-Franklin, those are your unincorporated areas in District 3. The MAC’s there, the MAC meetings are there. I would be present (for) everyone involved. McSwain MAC, I would reopen that MAC because there’s a good group of McSwainers that want to know what’s going on. So, I’d open that up.
It’s just being present, getting the pulse from everybody. What do you guys need? Right? What resources do you need? And then you provide them.
It just depends. I know the county started mobile services on passports. That’s a great idea. Those are the ideas that we need in certain areas and bring them. But you have to get the pulse as a county supervisor and show up and there’s where you get your results bringing them in.
And also just what other county services do you need? You need law enforcement for something, bring them over. You need (to bring) probation over to discuss some issues. Just bringing in community representation from the county.
Daron McDaniel: Can I rebuttal that?
The Merced FOCUS: Yes, you may.
Daron McDaniel: So, a municipal advisory committee, a MAC that he was referring to, is actually an extension of the planning commission. We’ve expanded on that to allow updates for those communities through our MACs. But let’s understand the MACs’ role and responsibility is with the planning commission.
Luis Lara: I’d like to rebuttal that again.
The Merced FOCUS: Yes, you may.
Luis Lara: It’s a long time here. I’ve been here for years. I’ve been on the MAC board. It’s accepting responsibility, supervisor, and knowing that you have a responsibility to make sure it happens for the people of this community.
Victor Patton: As a supervisor, what can you do to make Merced County more affordable to its residents? And we will start with Luis Lara.
Luis Lara: I think again it’s working with your cities, your elected officials, having good partnerships, having good partnerships with your cities in Merced County.
I think the one thing with speaking to Realtors, it’s they want the houses to sell, but you have to work with the developers, the people building these houses, finding out what’s going on. What are the delays? Merced County, what do we need to do within the county buildings? Not do any favoritism, but see what’s going on that we can fix – the red tape, the incentives, are there incentives that we can offer developers to build houses for these people, all different types of houses for all incomes?
And that’s where I think it’s being involved with your county, being involved with your developers, being involved with the Realtors, having a good relationship with everybody, elected officials, too, because if you build houses (it’s a win) for everybody here for Merced County.
Daron McDaniel: I see that in real time. My sons are 30 and 28. They went to school in Los Angeles. They returned to Merced County because it’s much more affordable here.
One thing we have to remember, we are contiguous to Santa Clara County. And if we look at a lot of the folks who come in here and purchase homes, they are selling their home in Santa Clara, coming over the hill and replacing at a smaller rate for them, but it’s actually very expensive to everybody else.
And we have to look at what we have with the UC as well. I’m glad they expanded the student housing because right now if you own a home and you want to rent out your house, you can rent a three-bedroom house out to six students who will go two per room who can outprice a family who needs that. And so I’m not into doing subsidies.
I am about streamlining the process and sitting as chairman of the Golden State Finance Authority, we do have down payment assistance to affect it.
You know, a lot of times the people can afford the house once they’re in, but they need the down payment assistance and that’s what we try to do in rural California.
The Merced FOCUS: So obviously you can’t talk about the future of the Merced region without mentioning the proposed Merced high speed rail station.
Despite years of planning for a downtown station, the rail authority is now suggesting an alternative site for the station roughly four miles southeast of downtown in order to save a billion dollars. Plus, the legislative analyst’s office just released a report saying the authorities draft plan lacks transparency. One state lawmaker even said the plan appears deceptive. So, what’s your stance on high speed rail as the plan stands today? We will start with Supervisor McDaniel.
Daron McDaniel: Well, I don’t know if we really know what the plan is.
You talked about transparency. They keep going back and forth and doing everything. I know as a board, we’ve made the decision to be at the table because if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.
And we want to have those discussions. Me myself, I don’t want to get out in front of the city (of Merced). If (the high speed rail authority) wants it to be in the unincorporated area, I am ready to say ‘no, the city had plans first.’
The city was in (the) discussion first. Merced city should be out in front of this and I think from the mayor to Darin DuPont, the council member, they’ve been very active on it and I will not get out in front of them. But I want to see them try to resolve this, but at the same time, if we’re going to have the conversation, I want to be a part of the conversation and continue (those) talks.
Luis Lara: I agree. The county, the city, again, partnerships, we all have to have some type of discussion, be together at the table and come up to some agreement.
What’s the best for the Merced County residents? That’s where it needs to be at the end. I feel the high speed rail (authority), I feel like they’re strong-arming Merced County (and) Merced.
I think we need to figure out what’s best for the county. For me, in my personal opinion, I would like to see (the station) in downtown Merced. And the only reason is because it’s a hub. (You have) all the transportation methods there and it’s closer to Castle, it’s closer to (Atwater Merced-Expressway). I want to see it closer to Castle for when jobs are created there. That’s where I want to see the high speed rail (station).
The Merced FOCUS: Next question. Let’s talk about businesses. What can you do as a supervisor moving forward to help small businesses, particularly people that are interested in, you know, setting up a brand new business?
The Merced FOCUS: We will start with Luis Lara.
Luis Lara: I think it’s just getting the pulse with small businesses … It is very important to support small businesses now, especially in Atwater, especially Merced, Merced County out in the outskirts and everything and build those relationships and again get the pulse from people.
What do you need from us? (How) can we help you and where can we provide you the services? Do you need employees? I know we have Worknet, workforce that we can provide through the county. I know we have an unemployment office … it’s just linking them to our services for Merced County services and also for state services. But at the end Merced County has to support small businesses as individuals or as a whole.
Daron McDaniel: A lot of it is education and streamlining the process. I think some individuals get frustrated through the process.
We have a lot of really good entrepreneurs out there and it’s engaging with them and trying to get them to get their proper licenses to get them up to standard.
We know that it’s the lifeblood of our economy. Small business is what drives Merced County. I ran my own business for 25 years and the whole time I was doing concerts all over the western United States and not once did I do one in Merced County, but I was located here in Merced County. It’s where my warehouse and my equipment sat. But we could not get things done here.
Sometimes the mindset here just means to be able to allow it and 100% streamline the process, have government get out of the way and let the private sector thrive. That’s where I stand.
The Merced FOCUS: Immigration enforcement is top of mind for many people in California and across the nation.
And as we know, Merced County has a large population of immigrants with all types of statuses. So, what is your stance? Should our local law enforcement agencies collaborate and share information with federal law enforcement agencies such as ICE? We’ll start with Supervisor McDaniel.
Daron McDaniel: Sheriff Warnke is our elected person in that position. I back him where he is in that position. If he makes a decision to move forward with whatever he thinks to do to keep our community safe, our constituents elected him to do that.
And as a Board of Supervisors, we will back him on it. You know, sometimes we butt heads on stuff, but we look at him as our elected professional. And so whatever he does to move forward on it, I’m with Sheriff Warnke on that position.
Luis Lara: I think most local law enforcement here agencies here in District 3 or Merced County are on the same boat. I think it’s supporting them with their decisions.
I think immigration has become a hot topic. I think most law enforcement agencies, local law enforcement agencies know to let federal agencies handle everything. I think everybody’s on the same page of, they’ll handle it.
But the only time where any agency would be involved (is) if it involves some type of loss of life incident or some criminal activities occurring, then that’s when the locals get involved with any type of and I mean criminal activity occurring within County of Merced that we have to take action without federal agents or any type.
But I agree it’s just supporting the local law enforcement agencies in their head.
The Merced FOCUS: So the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act will result in more than 1 million acres of farmland being fallowed all throughout the San Joaquin Valley and Merced County certainly won’t be spared as a part of this.
So what is the county going to do to mitigate the impact of this? Is there going to be job or training programs or anything else to mitigate the impact to the tax base?
Luis Lara: Water is lifeblood here in Merced County. We need it. Our farmers feed the county. Our farmers provide jobs to all the farm workers. So we have to have water, but we also need a balanced solution that protects ag and supports our community and ensures … that we’re following the rules. But as county supervisor, we have to be supportive of these farmers.
We have to be advocates. We have to tell them, you know, with the state setting rules, we have to push them back and say, you know, we have to take it lightly. We have to come up to some balance measures where we will work together with state rules, regulations and ensure that our farmers have time.
We have to work with irrigation districts here for infrastructure. We have to make sure that we’re providing the right infrastructure for the farmers and that we are prepared because if we aren’t prepared, it’s going to cost small farmers and they’re going to be the first ones to go if we’re not prepared with the right infrastructure.
Daron McDaniel: (The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act) is definitely uh hitting us hard, fallowing land.
Our farmers are very resilient. Having a lot of conversations with our farmers, they’re learning how they can grow more sustainable crops with less water. We shot ourselves in the foot, we got really good at micro sprinkling and putting an exact amount of water on each plant that we need.
We’re actually producing more food today with less land than we did before. So the farmers are getting really good. And I got to tell you, a bigger question is about the groundwater sustainability act.
We have to talk about surface water at the same time because if we don’t have the surface water that can replenish our groundwater aquifers, then we’re in trouble. And I’ve been working with MID on that because if (the state) takes the 20% water that they say they’re going to take, it will be a $500 million devastation to our economy.
So, we have to bring them both together. And last time at RCRC when we were talking with the folks up there, they’re now starting to talk about surface water with groundwater.
The Merced FOCUS : It’s time for closing statements. You’ll have 60 seconds each. So we’ll start with Luis.
Luis Lara: I grew up here in Atwater. I lived with my parents and my three siblings in a 700 square-foot home by Foster Freeze here. My brother and I slept on the living room floor.
My parents worked at Davis Cannery in Atwater for probably 30 years and that’s where I learned to work hard because they made opportunities for me where they couldn’t afford that kind of opportunity.
I worked at a paper route, R-N Market and then I was hired by the Highway Patrol. I’ve been in a leadership role for 15 years. I learned how to work with (community). I made big decisions going to large incidents. I’ve been to the Palisades fire. I can work with coordination with other agencies, with feds, with states.
But I’m grateful and blessed for everything I’ve had. I’ve worked really hard for it and I’ve never forgotten where I came from. Public service has always been a part of my life and I’m ready to take that service a lot further.
My kids will most likely come back here and I want to make Merced County better for them, for everybody’s kids and all the generations to come. So, I hope you vote for me by June 2.
Daron McDaniel: Yeah, thank you again to Merced Focus for hosting tonight and to everyone who took the time to be here and stay engaged.
At the end of the day, this election comes down to one simple question: Who has the experience, the relationships, and the proven record to keep moving Merced County forward?
Over the past decade, I’ve delivered real results, bringing millions in funding, advancing major infrastructure projects, supporting public safety, and helping create opportunities for our families and businesses right here at home. But just as important as what we’ve done is how we’ve done it by showing up, working with others, and staying focused on the solutions instead of noise.
There’s still more work ahead. We need to continue building our economy, fixing our roads, and making sure the community in this county has a voice and a future.
That’s work I’m committed to, and that’s the leadership I will continue to provide. I respectfully ask for your vote so we can keep delivering results together. Thank you.
The Merced FOCUS: This concludes today’s Merced Focus debate involving candidates for Merced County Supervisor District 3. We appreciate your willingness to answer our questions and to serve the public. Don’t forget to vote June 2. Thank you very much everyone.