Hanford Insider

Hanford Insider: Supervisor Doug Verboon

• Rob Bentley • Season 3 • Episode 2

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Dive into a fascinating conversation with Doug Verboon, Kings County Board of Supervisor for District 3, as he unpacks the inner workings of county government and shares his vision for Kings County's future.

As a fifth-generation resident with deep roots in the Central Valley, Verboon brings 32 years of public service experience to the table. His family's journey from operating a hotel in pre-Corcoran Angiola to farming the same land his ancestors worked provides a compelling framework for his commitment to community stewardship.

The transformation of Kings County's abandoned hospital into a comprehensive behavioral health facility stands as a testament to effective governance. This innovative renovation has become a blueprint for future county building projects, showcasing how thoughtful repurposing can honor history while meeting present-day needs. Similarly, the new KART station nearing completion in downtown Hanford represents years of persistent advocacy and creative problem-solving.

Transportation infrastructure emerges as a critical focus, with Verboon revealing how his roles as Amtrak San Joaquin Chairman and member of regional transportation committees have helped secure millions in funding. The recent $2 million grant for the Grangeville Boulevard crossing study addresses one of the community's most pressing traffic concerns. Meanwhile, progress on the Houston Avenue bridge replacement demonstrates the complex dance between local needs and federal requirements.

Homelessness presents multidimensional challenges requiring balanced solutions. Verboon thoughtfully distinguishes between individuals seeking assistance and those resistant to intervention, highlighting partnerships with Kings County Action Organization to develop low-barrier shelters while maintaining community standards through no-camping ordinances.

Water management looms as perhaps the most existential threat to Kings County's agricultural economy. Though deserving its own dedicated conversation, Verboon emphasizes its fundamental importance to the region's future prosperity.

Subscribe to hear more conversations with local leaders shaping our community, and join us next week for an update from the Kings Homeless Collaborative with Mark Kairis and Jeff Gardner.

You can find the Hanford Insider at www.hanfordinsider.com and on social media at @hanfordinsider
Thank you for supporting the show!

Speaker 1:

On this episode of the Hanford Insider, county Board of Supervisor, doug Verboon gives us an update on a variety of projects in Kings County, including future plans for the government center, and Rob will have the updated community calendar. This is the Hanford Insider for Monday, august 4th.

Speaker 2:

Well, how's it going everybody? Welcome to the Hanford Insider your behind-the-scenes look at life in Hanford, california. I'm your host, Rob Bentley. This show is all about sharing local stories, highlighting community events and keeping you in the know about what's happening right here in our hometown. It doesn't matter if you've lived here your whole life or you're just getting to know Hanford. This weekly podcast is the place for news, community events, history and maybe a few things you didn't know. So let's get started. How about a hearty congratulations to Hanford Fire Department Captain Michael Briones, who officially retired this week with over 32 years of service to the community?

Speaker 2:

The Hanford City Council will meet on Tuesday, august 5th At the study session at 4,. They'll take a look at the timing of the proposed transient occupancy tax ballot measure. They'll get an update on the East Lacey project and they'll have a discussion about the city's setback regulations At the general meeting beginning at 7,. They've got another full agenda. Items include several MOUs with firefighters and police officers, a request for a downtown mural project and purchases for streets and public safety. The items under general business include the approval of an architect for the full design of the city's new public safety building, as promised with Measure H funds. Finally, they'll continue discussion of the Feather Flags Ordinance. Don't forget to tune in Wednesday for Mayor Travis Payton's Wednesday wrap-up right here on the Hanford Insider.

Speaker 2:

Let's take a look at this week's community calendar. At this week's Thursday Night Marketplace it's Farmers Market Appreciation Night with music by the Carlos Montano Band. Thursday night is also the Kings County Child Support Service's Summer Kids Day event in the Fast Plaza from 4 to 7 pm. On Saturday August 9th it's the Battle of the Dojos. At the Hanford Civic Auditorium, saturday August 9th is also the date of the Sierra Pacific High School football kickoff dinner at the Hanford Fraternal Hall. Hanford High Football will hold their Hall of Fame dinner at the Hanford Civic Auditorium on August 16th.

Speaker 2:

On Wednesday August 20th, the Children's Storybook Garden and Museum is hosting a special guest speaker, devondria Sanchez, who will speak to families with children with special needs. If you have an event coming up and you'd like some help getting the word out, let's work together. Send your information to hanfordinsider at gmailcom. Be sure to subscribe to my weekly newsletter to get a complete calendar of events. It's the most comprehensive community calendar available. Well, I've been looking forward to this interview for quite some time and it's time to sit down with County Board of Supervisors. Area District Representative 3 for the Kings County Board of Supervisors, mr Doug Verboon. Welcome to the show, doug.

Speaker 3:

Well, thank you, Rob. I really appreciate you doing this. It's important to the community to get the words out.

Speaker 2:

Doug, you have been a longtime member of this community and you have quite an investment. Can you give us a little bit about your background and how you got involved in public service?

Speaker 3:

So I've lived here my entire life. I'm 62 years old. I ran for school board in 1995. I ran for pioneer school and this is my. I'm going to start my 32nd year of being a politician and finished up my 31st.

Speaker 3:

Like I said, I'm a fifth generation resident here in the Central Valley. My great-great-grandfather homesteaded down in the town called Angiola, south of Corcoran before Corcoran was there, with a hotel and stable. My great-grandfather came here from the Netherlands in 1906, stayed at that same hotel and was registered in a book before he raised his family and brought his wife over. He worked on a ranch that I own today, but he homesteaded down in Corcoran with a dairy farm, raised his family. My grandfather bought the ranch that my great-grandfather worked on in 1948 and raised his family.

Speaker 3:

My grandfather didn't want to be a dairyman. He was a truck driver and then bought a farm when his marriage was falling apart. So he needed to stay home more and had two more kids, my aunt and my uncle and so I farm, been a farmer my entire life. I'm on my 20th year farming by myself, my family. I'm the only Verboon left here in the city of Hanford in the County of Kings, besides my kids, and I love giving back to the community. I've done it, I've had a good life and I think public service is a good deal to for people to do, and I always recommend it to people that are successful in life to at least give back two to four years to the community so they can share their experiences with policymaking.

Speaker 2:

So the Kings County Board of Supervisors has been very busy. There's been a lot of issues out in the news and maybe quite a few not in the news, and I thought this would be a great opportunity to let us know what is it that the County Board of Supervisors is responsible for and what types of things are you working on currently?

Speaker 3:

advisors is. You know, we're responsible for all things county and some of the stuff ties into the city and not everybody understands what we do. We're basically just make policy for things that are happening today. Right now, the biggest concern we have is a lack of water and coming up with that. But you know, here at the county we don't have a water department, so we're kind of on the edge trying to do things ourselves, and nobody really wants us in the water issues. But we also do things like go to fire department. You know we manage all the fires. We have automatic aid agreements with all of our communities Corcoran Avenel, hanford Avenel. We take care of theirs and we take care of Corcoran too, but we have automatic aid agreement with Lemoore and the city of Hanford, so that's always important. We want to make sure we have good equipment. We're always looking for grants for new trucks and we've increased our stations from one-man stations to two-man stations, and so that didn't exist. When I got on the board, the first thing I asked for in 2011, and I actually got assistance county supervisor CAO threw a book at me, told me to find the money. I said well, that's your job. So it took about 12 years to get that done, but we got it done. So your job. So it took about 12 years to get that done, but we got it done. So the firemen are safer now. Some of the things we do funding-wise we're always looking for funding to do things.

Speaker 3:

You can see the old hospital. We did that. That was a great deal. We did it differently At that time. We had a hospital that was abandoned. It was an eyesore to the community. We didn't want to tear it down because people had history with it. So we found a builder that took it over and built it for us. We had it done in less than a year, very proud of that. And right now we have our old courthouses. So the new courthouse went up about eight, nine years ago and our old courthouses we exchanged. We gave them the property and they gave us the buildings back, even though it was on our site and our campus. Now they're ours officially, so we haven't utilized those buildings yet. So we're going to announce what we're going to do with those buildings, probably in October, at our State of the County event at Satachi Palace, which will be our second one open to the public to come to, and so we're going to take and repurpose those buildings and make them in office buildings so we can get more people on staff here, possibly bring other departments back on campus so we have more room.

Speaker 3:

Another thing is we're always looking for funding. So at the county level as a supervisor, we just don't work as a board of supervisors. We sit on other policy stuff. So I sit on LAFCO Commission, which is built up from city and county people, and then I also sit on Kings County Associates to Governments, which is transportation issues and housing issues, which is based from city and county folks, elected officials. And then I also sit on CART, kings Area Rapid Transit, which is the CART buses, which is the same thing On Kings County Associates to Governments. I sit on the Policy Council, which is eight counties, and we look for transportation funding From that.

Speaker 3:

I was appointed on to the Rail Commission years ago and then appointed on to Amtrak and so it's called the San Joaquin Valley JPA and I am actually right now the chairman of Amtrak San Joaquin for the next two years, and so we do a lot of stuff with Amtrak. I'm busy with all that stuff. I did an announcement at a graduation on Sunday in Stockton and we're looking for funding. But with that group we travel to Sacramento once a year and we travel to DC once a year and we lobby for funding for all eight counties together. So we're more powerful and so over the last four years we became pretty strong. We have a really good group with people from Merced.

Speaker 3:

San Joaquin Kern County doesn't participate with elected officials, but they are there. But we were in the White House last year and we applied for some funding for Highway 99. We applied for funding for a rail station in Madera for Amtrak. We also have a rail station coming here for new high-speed rail that possibly will be Amtrak in the long run on Lacey Boulevard. So we got that done and also at a meeting about six years ago when they said they had money available for rail mitigation, for decongestion, for rail crossings.

Speaker 3:

So at the time we had a city council member from Hanford on a policy council and I said, hey, you need to speak up for this money and he didn't do anything. So I went to this last two years I went to Mario Suentes and I said, hey, I need all the information you got on this application for this rail decongestion money. Anyway, on Friday we received $2 million to do a study to see if we can do another crossing at Granville Boulevard. So that's exciting to see and I hope we can get that done. It's the start. It's going to take a lot more than $2 million, but you know, anytime that you're at the table you can tell your story. So I'll be back there. Senator Padilla is the one that put that in his budget, so we're going to make sure he's thanked and then hopefully get that project done.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, every little bit helps. I know a lot of people are concerned about the congestion around the traffic signals in Hanford, and be it Flint, fargo, grangeville, downtown. It's quite an operation, but that's much appreciated.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and it doesn't really come from a problem in Hanford. It comes from a problem in Stockton. So it's called the Stockton Diamond and it's where Southern Pacific and Santa Fe meet and they have to take turns crossing it. So if a train has a problem then it backs it up. It can back up clear into the middle of Utah from that spot or clear back in the desert of Arizona. So we're trying to get we got funding for that too, so that project's being started as well and we're doing double, double tracking from Turlock to Ceres and we're always looking for money for double tracking.

Speaker 3:

So rail is important because it also it divides the community when the rails stop. So we got to be on site and we got to be relevant and we got to make sure everybody understands our story. So it's difficult this year. We're going to go back in September, but we have a new administration. We have to make new friends, new personalities, new conflicts. We have to get through that. It'll probably be a waste. I think it might be kind of a wasted year. More or less touchy-feely. You only have about 25 minutes to introduce yourself and ask for what you want, but you leave your flyers. But it's the personality part that gets you.

Speaker 3:

Last year we were in Biden's office and I told a story about who I am. I'm the guy that was fighting high-speed rail for 10 years and here I am now I'm the chairman of Amtrak and you know I need some funding for high-speed rail and also I need some funding for 99, because I go, I build custom Corvettes and I'm not driving my nice car near crappy-ass roads. So they called me back in and told me they were going to take care of me, and they did, and so that was September 10th and October 3rd. I got $81 million for all the projects I asked for, including on Friday, I got the $2 million for the Grangeville underpass. So that's exciting.

Speaker 2:

That is exciting. I want to go back to two topics you brought up. One was the CART involvement, and we know that this massive station is being built downtown Hanford. It's looking great, by the way. Do you have any updates on?

Speaker 3:

that we're going to open that up in December with a ribbon cutting. It's doing really well, I think. I'm trying to think what year we started that. I think we started that back in 2016, 2017, in the Obama administration, and Angie Dow, our administrator for CART, has been diligent, just trying to find money. We finally got funding for it. We had to buy the lots. We had to go through the whole process. It's beautiful. It's really changed the look of downtown Hanford. The buildings that looked nice before need to be upgraded. We've done pop-outs on the curbs. It looks really nice. I can't wait to see it done. Done pop-outs on the curbs it looks really nice. I can't wait to see it done.

Speaker 3:

We had a deal with the old DMV building, which was a rehab facility not rehab, but a counseling facility. So they owned the building and they didn't want to sell. So Angie worked with the owners of the property and we long-term leased them part of our building and built it to spec to fit their needs. So they're already on site in there. So we couldn't tear that building down until they were already moved. We moved them. The building's gone and so that area is going to be a parking lot. But yeah, it's very impressive. I'm not sure who the architect was, but Angie Dow should take a lot of credit for that, and the board. That's really going to change the look of Hanford.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we had an interview with Heather Corder and their staff there at the CART facility a few years ago when they were just getting started and people were wondering you know what's going on here and people can drive by now and there are some parts of that building that look like it's been there for years and kept in really great shape, so appreciate the extra effort that they've done on that. I want to also go back to the old county hospital remodeling Again. That is just a tremendous transformation of an old building that many people thought was not ever going to happen, and what kinds of services are offered in that building now?

Speaker 3:

That's all behavior. Health is in there and, I think, some HSA stuff. So anybody that's you know, having homelessness issues, mental health issues all our staff is right there and I think, some HSA stuff. So anybody that's uh, you know, having homelessness issues, mental health issues all our staff is right there. There's some nice uh rooms in there.

Speaker 3:

It was a two story building with a basement and we made it a three story building that. They did a great job remodeling it. But yeah, it's, it's for me. It we we've had before, but you had to travel to different areas. Now it's a one-stop shop and it's very friendly to the eyes as you drive by and see that. Now it makes the round building look bad for the superintendent of the school. So I would like to copy that building in front of our complex here and also do the corner where the old sheriff's office is, and so once we have some funding, we'll tear down the old sheriff's office and build. I would like to do something that matches that building on the corner and maybe do a mixed multi-use so we bring in spots to rent with our services above it.

Speaker 2:

That's going to be amazing about the low barrier shelter, but I know it's a huge concern for everybody in the county. What's been the chatter around the Board of Supervisors?

Speaker 3:

Well, when it comes to homeless, it's very difficult because not one type of person is out there. It could be someone that lost their job or got divorced or even got into drugs, and so you've got to be careful when you go to meet these people and how you help them. People that are doing the drugs, the self-medicate, are very difficult People that have lost their job or had a bad week or lost their house or they want help, and that's the first step you need. You need someone that wants to help, to give them help. County of Kings. We did an ordinance called a no camping ordinance, along with the city, almost exactly the same. So before you couldn't go and it wasn't illegal to be camping on the streets, and it's not illegal to be homeless, so you had to be careful how you approach. So our behavior, health and HSA would always document, talk to them and try to get them help when they needed it. Once the no camping ordinance was done, we can get them off the street downtown. My job is we need to protect businesses and take care of the taxpayers and the business owners first, and then homeless. If they want help, we get them the help they need.

Speaker 3:

Kings County Action Organization with Jeff Garner. They're doing a good job. He's really proactive. You know, with Jeff Garner they're doing a good job. He's had, you know he's really proactive. But it's difficult when you have someone that's not elected making decisions that affect elected. So he's made a couple of choices where he's put these little barrier shelters, bought property without talking to the elected official. So then we lose our job by not getting reelected because people think we're doing it and we're not. So Jeff's done a great job by working with us, and so we found a piece of property that he purchased out there on 10th Avenue in Hanford, Ramona, and so he has looking for funding to do a little barrier shelter, I think 200 beds and a food kitchen, a food bank, and so hopefully that comes to fruition.

Speaker 3:

But it's difficult. Every community in the state of California and the United States has homelessness issues, and until they want help themselves, it's almost impossible to help them. And so the state had some rules where, you know, once you took them into your control, they had more rights than someone paying taxes or a business owner. So it was very difficult and we tried you know the sheriff worked with us we tried to take the old jail yard and let them stay there at night. And you know the stigmatism, and not in my backyard, nobody wanted it. You know everybody wants to help the homeless but nobody wants them near their house.

Speaker 3:

So it's very difficult to handle and the city moves them. The county County doesn't do as much as the cities. Corcoran had a bunch of homeless and they picked them up and moved them back to Hanford. They said they were all from Hanford having a party in Corcoran. So now you got communities against each other. But they generally stay somewhere where they can be, where they have the food served at lunchtime, so they don't go too far away. But they're up all night, the crowds and around, and so we need to get a handle on it.

Speaker 2:

But it's very difficult around and so we need to get a handle on it. But it's very difficult, totally understandable. A lot of stuff on the agenda. I've looked at those county board of supervisors agenda meetings. You had a meeting recently. You know you meet every what? Two weeks? Every two weeks.

Speaker 3:

Every two weeks. I mean every Tuesday, every Tuesday, every Tuesday, unless we have a holiday on a Monday, then we skip that week.

Speaker 2:

And those meetings are streamed, if I recall. Yes, they are.

Speaker 3:

So you can actually watch the meetings. They're live streamed and they also have translator on site. On the website, you can listen to it in Spanish.

Speaker 2:

So what are some things that the Board of Supervisors is looking forward to projects that they're working on?

Speaker 3:

Well, the next project. We'll announce that at our State of the County which is coming up in October. Well, it's the second time we've had the state of the county. It's open to the public. We can allow 200 people and hopefully we can grow it in the future to have more people. I think people need to hear what we're doing. It's difficult because we can't talk about all the fun stuff, but what we have on the future is water. If we don't have access to water, we lose our income from the farming community and we go backwards. So we're fighting really hard to have water. Uh, we have, we got uh $3 million for a new fire station, a fire headquarters. So we've we've just started that and uh, grangeville underpass, which is city of Hanford. But we're going to support them as much as we possibly can. We're remodeling a fire station in Armona. That should be done here shortly.

Speaker 3:

We also have other issues that are problems. You know we don't have Houston Avenue done. You know we had a flood, took the bridge out and we were told we had to wait for FEMA to give us a go ahead. We waited a year, year and a half. Finally I went to DC myself. I talked to Congressman Fong, I said, hey, I need some help, and so they started working on it. So I think I believe we're at the stage right now where we're going through NEPA and CEQA. We've had the Tachy Palace. They have the right to come out there and survey the area, make sure we don't mess up any burial grounds. Fish and Game has looked at it. I think they've given us the green light and we already had it engineered and we're going to probably go out for bid here pretty soon.

Speaker 2:

But that takes forever. Yeah, that's a great update. Thank you for bringing that up, because that was one of the questions I was going to ask the road department about that. I interviewed someone, gosh, two years ago about that, because people are concerned. You know you've got 198 has had closures because of high speed rail. Now Grangeville has closures. Houston's been closed for over two years, so that's a great. That's a great update. Thank you for that.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it's a shame that we don't have. You know, we're elected and we're in control, but we're really not in control and so if we make a mistake and go against the state or federal government, they punish us and we lose our funding. And so you know people say, well, just do it anyways and don't utilize the state or federal funding. But we need their funding. You know we don't fund ourselves. We're not self-funded.

Speaker 3:

It'd be nice to create enough revenue to not need the state, but we need to have a working relationship and that's what our job is as elected. We have to go to Sacramento and we have to go to DC and have those communications and face-to-face meetings so people understand what our needs are. And that's where I come in. I've been doing it for 15 years and I've built up a lot of relationships and I don't look at Republican or Democrat. I try to get in the office. You know I've received more money from the Biden administration than I did from anybody else, and I think that's because of the stories I tell and how I present my projects.

Speaker 2:

So this is the opportunity for you to give some shout outs to some people in the office here at the County Government Center who make the Board of Supervisors operation run, who are some people that really help out.

Speaker 3:

Well, we have a new CAO. She's on her second year. Her name is Curie Martinez. She's a young professional and she's done a great job. She adds a little humor to it. People like her. There's no controversy.

Speaker 3:

We had Larry Spikes for the longest lasting CAO in the state of California. It worked fine with him, but then we went through a transition through different CAOs and we have one now. I think was going to be here for a long time. Once those problems are resolved, like they are today, things work smoothly. She has a full staff. She has two assistant CAOs. The second one just started on Monday. Gives her time to do her job. Started on Monday. Gives her time to do her job and a separation from budget.

Speaker 3:

Our budget is huge and it's a constant concern. We just finished up, you know, giving, I think, $12 million to our staff last year pay raises and of course they want more this year. So we'll try to find revenue to make that happen. We got to be competitive in the state of California and we have great staff here. You know we have three clerks in our office that take care of our scheduling and all our calendars and stuff like that. It's nice.

Speaker 3:

We have a new fire chief. He's only been here two weeks, but so far so good. He's done a great job. We had a lot of issues with the fire department that we're trying to get resolved, but I think now we've got stability. We have a sheriff that's retiring November 24th. We've had a good run with Dave Robinson. He's a great guy and he's got good visions and it's always amazing. So I travel to Sacramento to look for funding and lobby for our county with our legislative platform and I come across our sheriff doing the same thing for us with our legislative platform and I come across our sheriff doing the same thing for us. And so it's nice to be back-to-back and have a sheriff that's not afraid to go look for funding, not just for his department but for the fire department, and so he was a big, very instrumental in helping us find money for the fire and he's working with fire to help make sure that new fire headquarters get built. And we're going to build that building. We have the courthouse, we have the jail, we have the sheriff's headquarters and we have the day reporting and then we're going to have the fire headquarters.

Speaker 3:

We've never had a standalone building, so it takes a community to get this done and when we're not arguing about issues, I watch other communities argue over simple things. They argue about roundabouts. I remember one year years ago they argued for a whole year over where they should put the constitution. A congressman gave the city council a constitution and somebody made frames and hung it up, and then everybody else was offended because they didn't have a say in it. So you got to knock it off. I think you need to stay off social media. You need to make decisions based on your own, from who you are. Social media can only distract you because people give you opinions that don't matter, and you have to be able to make a mistake and accept it if you make a mistake. I've made mistakes in the past too, but it's a team that we have here that makes this work, and we have a great team.

Speaker 2:

Well, those are wise words from County Board of Supervisors, district 3, doug Verboon. Doug, I want to thank you for joining us today, and I think we're going to be having some more conversations in the future, because there's a lot to talk about. We just barely scratched the surface today, but I want to thank you for your time.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, we didn't talk about water, and that could take about three hours, so that's important for the future of Kings County, but we'll get there. Thank you, doug. No, thank you.

Speaker 2:

Well, that's all the time we have for this week's show. Join me next week for an update from the Kings Homeless Collaborative with Mark Kyrus and Jeff Gardner. If you enjoyed this podcast and you'd like to show your support, you can go to buymeacoffeecom slash Hanford Insider to makea donation. If you'd like to join the Hanford Insider email list, stop by my website at hanfordinsidercom to sign up for updates. You'll also get an exclusive copy of my newsletter in your inbox each week. Also need your help getting the word out about the show by liking and sharing on social media or telling a friend For more information about the show. You can find this podcast on Facebook, instagram, threads X and YouTube at Hanford Insider. If you have a show idea, be sure to email me at hanfordinsider at gmailcom and I'll look into it. Thanks for listening. Have a great week.

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