San Luis Obispo County’s newest supervisor, Caren Ray, sat down to talk to the SLO Chamber about two months after she was appointed to fill the 4th District Supervisor seat.
She was appointed in October by Gov. Jerry Brown to succeed Paul Teixeira, who died in June.
Ray is a former business owner, high school history teacher and Arroyo Grande City Council member. Soon after she was sworn in Oct. 8, she announced her candidacy for the position when the race opens next year.
The newest county supervisor invited us to the table and talked about what she admires most in people, why she believes she was chosen and what inspired her to pursue the job.
Which personal quality do you like most?
Integrity of intent.
Which personal quality are you working on?
Coming to terms with, I’m not going to please everyone.
Which living person do you most admire?
I can’t decide between Oprah Winfrey and Malcolm Gladwell.
Oprah Winfrey has done a lot of things, not the least of which was she single handedly made reading cool again. She seems to really have her eye on making each person she comes in contact with, whether through the television or in person, a better person. I think that is something that we all could learn from.
Malcolm Gladwell hits closer to me personally. He’s a nonfiction writer and he takes economics and social science principles and applies them to everyday thoughts and comes up with these very unique ways to measure and see the world and understand why we do what we do. I find his work endlessly fascinating. If I could have somebody to dinner it would probably be him.
What do you most admire in other people?
Fortitude.
What do you believe set you apart for the Governor to choose you?
Very experienced leadership, thorough preparation and potential.
What inspired you to pursue this office?
It’s a long story, that’s not a short answer…I was approached by many people to do it but I took a couple weeks to decide if I was going to.
As a part of that process I met with several community leaders… I had dinner with Katcho (Achadjian, state assemblyman) and Tony Ferrara (Arroyo Grande mayor). Lisa Ray (Children’s Resource Network) joined us at the table. I had not met her before; she’s no relation to me. We got to talking and we became soul sisters.
The next day I went and saw her operation in San Luis, (and) I brought another teacher with me. Two days later, we had my principal there and within a couple of weeks, we had the thumbs up from the school district in Santa Maria to bring her a second location in Santa Maria.
I was really proud because that would service hundreds of kids at the school that I had built my career at.
I realized… the reason it came about so quickly was because I happened to be sitting at the table with the right people at the right time. That’s when I realized what this job really was.
I put my application in the next day.
It wasn’t until I could see my fit and what I could do and what difference I could make.
It’s not about Tuesday, it’s never about Tuesday. It’s about how you help people along the way.