Jim Steele grew up in northern California — Chico, to be precise. He is from a fifth generation California family. Yet his ties to Lake County began during this three-decade term with the state’s Fish and Game Commission. He joined the commission after serving in the Air Force and earning a master’s degree in biology from Sacramento St. He is a naturalist and long-time advocate for a healthy Clear Lake. More recently, he was elected as a county supervisor representing District 3. He was sworn in at the beginning of January.
1. County government? Why?
I hope I can bring something different to the mix. The problem is that we don’t address problems well enough for them to go away. Hopefully I can help solve the problems. After all, this is a beautiful setting.
2. What got you interested in the outdoors?
The whole family are outdoorsmen. We’re ranchers, miners, loggers, farmers — that’s in the family. The first class that interested me was biology. I thought ‘I can find out how the outdoors works.’ The funny thing, my family didn’t like me joining Fish and Game. They said ‘you’ve gone over to the dark side.’ It made for some interesting conversations at the dinner table.
3. When Measure S failed, what went through your mind?
I had just been elected. I was hoping for the funds to develop programs to protect the watershed. If you protect the watershed, you protect the lake. Then you can promote the lake. We’re a destination economy.
4. Will tourism ever be back?
Absolutely. It will come back. But we need to fix our problems.
5. To be a supervisor you have to like meetings, don’t you?
When I was working with Fish and Game, as I moved up, issues were tied to meetings. I understand a meetings-based approach to solving problems. But you have to have money for programs. You need new money and you have to regenerate the economy to get new money coming in.
6. You used to present to the board. Is it different being on the other side?
Yeah, it is. It’s embarrassing in a way. Now you’re hearing the same things you used to say. County government is a people-based business, more than it is at the state level. People want things to happen.
7. So in your first couple of months, what has been the biggest issue?
I ran on a slate of fixing the lake to fixing the economy to solving social justice issues. I’m here to do the stuff I said. New problems come up, like the WestAmerica Bank in Upper Lake, and that is a social justice issue. The water rates in Lucerne, that’s part of social justice. We’re trying to get the economy moving in District 3. We have a thoroughfare — Highway 20. We need to get traffic to stop. But I think the county is well situated. We have bird watching, we have bass fishing, we have catfish. The bird watching — people go to South America and spend a lot of money to see what they can see here. We have to pull people here and we have to think differently to do it.
8. How important is the wine industry in all this?
The wine industry is important if they recognize that we’re not Napa. We are Lake County and we have to have a different theme. We have the Konocti Trails System, we have a unique lake, we have Mt. Konocti.
9. Wine guy or beer guy?
I used to be a beer guy until gout told me to drink wine. That’s not a great answer, but it’s true.
10. What’s the best thing about Lake County? And you can’t say ‘the lake.’
When I was working with Fish and Game I saw all the counties. I picked Lake County, but it is because of the lake. You know, we have more species of different types of any place in the west? It’s because of the lake and the climate zones. I’m a naturalist, and you can’t get better than this.
