Candidate for
Supervisor, District 2; County of Monterey; District 2

As a foster child growing up in rural Washington State, Ed Mitchell learned the value of hard work at an early age. He worked harvesting tree and row crops to help feed his family. Later, with the help of loving foster parents, he gained the support needed to achieve his academic goals. He never forgot the hard lessons from his difficult childhood and knew one day he would be able to help others. Through his perseverance and work ethic he had the honor of receiving degrees from West Point, the Naval Post Graduate School, Webster University, along with a RAND Corporation fellowship.

After receiving his commission from West Point, He felt a debt to the people who helped him and a country that allowed him to compete and earn a degree from one of America's premier schools. He's dedicated his life to repaying that debt with service to his country and community.

Ed served 25 years in the Army as an Airborne Infantry Ranger, as well as receiving advance training in engineering, management, and integrity in government contracting. His last two assignments were buying hardware and software for the National Missile Defense Command and analyzing Joint Space Command missions. Simply put, Ed's Army career stretched from the foxhole to outer space.

After retirement from the military, Ed moved into private business as an aerospace systems engineer at Lockheed-Martin in Sunnyvale. Later, he opened his consulting company and has worked for Boeing, Raytheon, and other high-technology suppliers. His extensive training and work experience have required him to understand and apply high technology and modern management strategies to a myriad of real-world problems, including evaluating, managing, and budgeting government contracts. As the supplier to the government, he's helped win dozens of manufacturing and advanced technology contracts employing thousands of engineers and union workers.

For more than two decades Ed and his wife Jan became deeply involved in issues facing Monterey County. Ed worked those issues as member of the Grange, American Legion, and other community groups.

In 1995, the Mitchell's ranch well went dry. They experienced first-hand the difficulties of not having a water supply. So, knowing how vital affordable and sustainable water is to the families, farms, and businesses, Ed became an expert on the water situation in North Salinas and North County and has worked steadily for a new source of affordable water. Those efforts included preventing a local aquifer from being polluted 70% beyond drinking standards. He has been a champion of the public and even put his family at risk of being sued by powerful politicians in Monterey County. Ed reported likely corruption in the regional desalination project to the District Attorney. Evidence he provided led to a water official being indicted and protected taxpayers dollars from being ripped off.

Year after year, Ed has pushed for transparent government to ensure the public was informed of conditions impacting them. In 1998, he reported a developer had failed to build required fire protection water tanks in a box canyon, threatening 400+ residences despite the county knowing the project was red tagged for missing water storage. When the county wouldn't take action, he reported the situation to the Assistant Attorney General of California to force the county to build required fire suppression water tanks.

Teamed with neighborhood groups, he also reduced the size of the poorly planned Rancho San Juan housing project, which would have harmed North County's fragile water aquifer and crippled North Salinas roadways with unmitigated traffic.

Since 2000, Ed and Jan have allowed Redwings, a local nonprofit that's dedicated to providing homes for abused and abandoned horses, to use their "Ranch Forgotten Sanctuary" for no fee. This year, the ranch is converting to sheltering horses to be fostered to new families.

Ed has always been a leader, fighting for what's right. It's this determination that fueled him in helping his family as a youngster, in his military service, as an advocate for the animals in his care, and as a community leader. We can count on Ed to bring that same leadership to the Board of Supervisors, where he'll put his extensive business and government contracting experience to work in making county government more effective and accountable to the people of the second district.