After storm-induced delay, Monterey County officials get sworn in.

After weeks of heavy rainstorms and flooding that commanded the attention of Monterey County’s elected officials, some of the newer ranks of those officials finally gathered at the Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 17, for the pomp and circumstance of their formal swearing-in ceremonies.

Monterey County Sheriff Tina Nieto, little more than two eventful weeks into her tenure, was joined by new District 2 Supervisor Glenn Church and new County Assessor/Clerk/Recorder Marina Camacho in being sworn in at the ceremony. Returning District 3 Supervisor Chris Lopez, who won reelection to his seat unopposed in November’s election, also took his oath of office for a second time.

For Nieto and Camacho, the occasion held extra significance: Both women became the first Latinas to hold their respective positions, with Nieto also being the first woman and first openly LGBTQ+ sheriff of Monterey County. Newly installed County Administration Officer Sonia De La Rosa, also the first Latina to hold her position, was on hand and spoke as well. (De La Rosa had already taken her oath of office.)

“When they talk about baptism, my executive management team and myself definitely had a baptism by Mother Nature this past two weeks,” Nieto said, referring to the storms that demanded the constant attention of her and her staff since the start of her month. In honor of that collective effort, Nieto asked members of her staff and other local police chiefs, as well as her partner Cheryl, to stand behind her as she took her oath. “We could not have got through what we got through without their support, because it really is a collaborative effort to work through these natural disasters,” Nieto said.

Both Camacho and De La Rosa reflected on their similar backgrounds as the children of working-class laborers, and the values that their parents instilled in them. “The basics for us was to work hard and give back, and to raise children who will do well in our community,” said King City native De La Rosa—who, like her parents, also worked in the agricultural fields of the Salinas Valley when growing up. “Never, working in the fields of this county, would I ever have thought this position would be bestowed on me by those of you in this community.” 

Likewise, Camacho—who has worked with the county for 33 years and succeeds her old boss, Steve Vagnini—spoke of how her late parents taught her to “work hard and the fruits of your labor will come through.”

“As CAO De La Rosa indicated, never in a million years did I think I would be in this position, but I’m grateful and fortunate that I find myself here through the values that my parents taught me,” Camacho said.

Church also reflected on the role his own father played in his own path to local government; the elder Church, Warren, himself served on the Board of Supervisors for 12 years, from 1965 to 1977. “It was a real opportunity to learn a lot of things about how this county operates,” he noted.

“As I look back over those many decades of being in this county and seeing this county government operate, I look back at the issues that were there 50 years ago—and they were housing, and water, and roads, and land use,” Church said. “And then I look around now at the issues we face—and it’s housing, it’s water, it’s roads, it’s land use.

“And while I like to be optimistic that we’ll be able to address some of these [challenges],” Church added, “somehow I have a hunch that 50 years from now, it’ll still be housing, and water, and land use, and roads.” 

Lopez firstly thanked his wife Jazmin, who had given birth to the couple’s second child only 11 days prior. “That makes it extremely tough, especially with the storms we’ve been experiencing—but she understands what I do, and why the passion that I have is for the communities that I represent,” he said. 

“I’m proud of what we were able to accomplish in my first term,” Lopez added. “In my community, we built housing, we fixed roads—and in a weird way, we’ve got more water today than we’ve had in probably 15 years. We’re fixing the issues that we see, but we’re putting the communities who haven’t seen those benefits first.”