MIDDLETOWN >> When Voris Brumfield discovered that her Anderson Springs home still remained standing, untouched by the hellish flames of the Valley Fire, she wasn’t relieved — she was heartbroken.
“I had already prepared myself for it to be gone,” Brumfield said. “Knowing how many people had lost their houses and how many people had lost everything, it’s not like there’s a relief.”
Shortly after seeing her house she said a neighbor approached her and reported that her home’s survival wasn’t a coincidence.
“He walked up and said, ‘The reason why you were spared is so you can fight for the rest of us,’” she recalled. “That’s what I’ve been doing, trying to help people understand what the processes are, what the opportunities are and working with the county.”
To fight for her community and the rest of the fire survivors in District 1, Brumfield is seeking election to the soon-to-be vacant Board of Supervisors seat, a position she once held in the late 1980s to the early ‘90s.
She has held multiple positions on county staff — community services analyst, Lake County Visitor Center Coordinator and on various boards for schools, municipal utilities, and nonprofits alike.
“I don’t water ski,” she joked.
Her service, she said, is about being an advocate for the people and giving them a voice. It’s also about finding challenges and working to overcome them.
“I look for places where there is difficulty … or where people are frustrated,” she said. “People should feel empowered to take care of themselves.”
The Issues
If elected, she will be confronted with the greatest challenge the county has ever faced: recovering and rebuilding from the Valley Fire.
“I’m advocating people being able to return to their community and whatever it takes for that to happen,” she said, expressing support for the Anderson Springs sewer, which the county believes is necessary for the community to rebuild under state regulations.
Such projects, along the consolidation of water districts, are some of the “dramatic” downsizing she said communities like Cobb Mountain and Loch Lomond will need until the rebuilding will make some progress.
“The amount of money it will take to rebuild those is unbelievable,” she added.
Along with the recovery effort, Brumfield is focusing her 2016 campaign on six other issues: land use, the local economy, roads and public transportation, law enforcement, natural resources, and creating an atmosphere of cooperative government.
The former supervisor told the Record-Bee that people in the district feel that they have lost their voice and how the county government relates to the community. Past representatives in the county have done a good job understanding the positions of their constituency and communicating as such, she said, but the people have not felt championed, something she said she believes she can do because of her large body of experience.
To solve for this, Brumfield wants to increase communication with community leaders with county representatives and to have cooperation among the county’s jurisdictions and local non-governmental organizations.
In regards to law enforcement, her campaign brochure said she wants to increase wages, including deputy sheriffs, to “stop the revolving door of trained staff” that move on to other departments that pay more.
She also wants to increase spending on improving local infrastructure like roads and alternative transportation by pursuing greater funding sources to improve them.
Looking ahead, Brumfield shared optimism about the growth of Lake County. If elected, she sees growth and a rebuild from the fire at the end of her first term.
“I think we will have rebounded from the most devastating time in this community, not only will have rebounded but grown 10, 15 percent,” she said. “It’s a magnificent area to live in, it truly is.”
