Battle of the Triunfo candidates

In the 24 years that Mr. Stark has served on the Triunfo Sanitation District (TSD) board he has repeatedly opposed any attempts to allow ratepayers to elect the board's five members.

Now, one week before the election, he is suddenly supporting an all-elected board, though with the proviso that the members be elected from districts. What he doesn't tell you is that you can only have an all-elected board if it's not split into districts. Even the attorneys TSD hired have told Mr. Stark that it is not legal to elect the board by separate areas in the district— you can only have the election if it is at large.

Mr. Stark knows that all five seats on the TSD board can go to election immediately if we don't split TSD's 30,000 ratepayers into five districts (of 6,000 ratepayers per district).

Both TSD board members, county Supervisor Linda Parks and TSD Vice Chair Janna Orkney, support an all-elected board by doing it the legal way —calling for elections at large.

It's time to end the political gamesmanship and instead bring real change to the TSD. Your vote will make the difference. Michael Paule Oak Park

Paule is a challenger to incumbent Ron Stark in the Nov. 4 Triunfo election

My opponent has been saying that he is going to modernize the Triunfo Sanitation District, bringing us into the future with new technology. He wants to bring solar and wind and other energy producing technology to the attention of our district. He wants to change the way we do business.

I think his future is my past. In 2002, our district, with our partner the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, installed two fuel cells at our composting facilities that run off gases produced by the composting process.

We are now soliciting bids from several companies for solar cells to be installed on the plant property. We are also looking at sites for wind turbine power. We are in the process of soliciting bids for installing an ultralowemission engine generator that will run off the gas produced by composting. Our composting plant is at the cutting edge of technology. We are one of the highest users of recycled water in the state of California.

As far as modernizing our way of doing business, let me say that our accounting staff has won many awards from their peers for excellence in accounting. State and federal laws regulate the way we do business. There is not much leeway for change. One must recognize that government agencies' accounting regulations are different than nongovernment enterprises.

In any case, as my grandson would say, you have to walk the walk before you can talk the talk. Ron Stark Oak Park

Stark is chairperson for the Triunfo Sanitation District