Doug Chaffee is being challenged from both the left and the right as he seeks a second four-year term representing District 4 on the Orange County Board of Supervisors.

Sunny Park, currently serving as mayor of Buena Park, and Steve Vargas, a Brea councilman, also are hoping to win the seat in the June 7 election. While county supervisor posts are nonpartisan and candidates’ party affiliations don’t appear on the ballot, the county Democratic and Republican parties pay close attention to the races and often weigh in with endorsements and spending.

The newly drawn north county district – which includes Brea, Buena Park, Fullerton, La Habra, Placentia, Stanton and part of Anaheim – leans blue, but almost a quarter of its nearly 422,000 registered voters aren’t registered to a party. Chaffee and Park are both Democrats; Vargas is a Republican.

Chaffee, 77, a retired attorney and former Fullerton mayor, was the first Democrat to hold a Board of Supervisors seat in 12 years when he won in 2018. Now, he hopes June primary voters will give him the opportunity to continue his work to address homelessness, housing, parks and other issues.

Getting people off the streets is an “ongoing battle,” but the county has made some progress, Chaffee said. He currently chairs the Orange County Housing Finance Trust, a partnership between the county and 23 cities to help fund affordable homes with supportive services.

The trust set a goal of getting 2,700 units built by 2025. Chaffee said what’s been built and is in the pipeline gets them about two-thirds of the way there, and “when we reach that goal I think we’ll double it and look for another 2,700, not just for homeless people but for others” at risk of becoming homeless.

Chaffee also touted the new Be Well OC mental and behavioral health program, which opened a campus in Orange in January 2021 and is planning a second, much larger one for Irvine. It’s a public-private endeavor in which the county is a partner.

But Chaffee’s challengers question whether the county’s approach to homelessness has been the right one.

Park, 51, a tax attorney who’s been on the Buena Park City Council since 2018, said when the pandemic hit, Los Angeles County almost immediately started getting people off the streets and into motels through the state’s Project Roomkey, while Orange County lagged behind. One proposed site was nixed after community protests.

Meanwhile, her city was already working with its neighbors to create a navigation center (an emergency shelter with services such as health care and job counseling) that has since opened and been a success, she said.

Vargas, 59, a U.S. Navy Reserve lieutenant commander and retired general contractor who’s been elected to the Brea City Council four times, said tackling the county’s homeless issues is one of the reasons he’s running for supervisor.

The county has spent hundreds of millions and doesn’t seem to have made much progress, he said. The OC Health Care Agency could work more closely with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department to bring resources directly to people on the streets or getting out of jail, Vargas said.

He’d also like to support affordable housing by waiving some county building and permit fees and exempting low-income units from Mello-Roos taxes.

While most of District 4 is within incorporated cities that handle potholes, trash collection and other day-to-day issues, it includes several county-run parks that candidates said they’d like to upgrade or make more accessible.

Park said she’s heard complaints about car break-ins at Ralph B. Clark Regional Park, so she’d like the county to install more security cameras so people feel safe parking their cars.

In Brea, Vargas said he’s already working with Whittier officials to connect recreational trails in their cities with La Habra’s trail system, and as supervisor he would encourage more of those kinds of projects. For example, Stanton doesn’t have much green space, but on the west end there’s a little-used railroad spur track that would make a great linear park.

The city has sometimes been neglected by the county, but “I’m going to care about Stanton,” Vargas said.

Chaffee said plans are already in the works to restore the fossil collection at Clark Park and put in an amphitheater at Carbon Canyon Regional Park, and the county is working with Placentia to build a much-needed senior center at Tri-City Regional Park.

As to what he has to offer his constituents, Chaffee said he understands the district because he’s lived there for more than 70 years, he loves his job, and he works with all his board colleagues, regardless of politics.

“I want to bring people together rather than push them apart,” he said.

Park said if voters choose her, she’d bring more responsive representation and make sure residents understand what county supervisors do so they can hold the board accountable.

“I want to make sure that we have a very close working relationship with the cities that I am going to represent,” while also working in partnership with the rest of the county, she said.

Vargas pledged that if elected, he wouldn’t support increasing taxes or fees on residents, and he’d provide “fresh eyes” to look for savings in the county budget.

“I’m very active, I’m very motivated and I just can’t wait to continue serving,” he said.

Orange County’s five-member Board of Supervisors oversees a budget of more than $7 billion that funds the offices of the Sheriff, District Attorney and Public Defender, social services, 60,000 acres of public parks, beaches and open space, and the public health department that’s been leading the local COVID-19 response.

Ballots will be mailed to all registered voters in the county starting May 9. If none of the three District 4 candidates gets more than 50% of the vote, the top two proceed to a November runoff.

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