Odessa Lefrancois, courtesy of NAACP East County Branch website
Becomes sixth candidate to join District 3 race
Odessa Lefrancois, a 16-year resident of East Contra Costa County and a 12-year county health services employee, made her candidacy for District 3 Supervisor official by completing her filing on Wednesday afternoon, March 9th, as supporters and volunteers dressed in “Vote for Odessa” shirts looked on at the County Office of Elections and Registration.
Informally beginning her campaign last November, by riding in a car with signs announcing her candidacy in Antioch’s Veterans Day Parade, Lefrancois is undeterred to join a race with five other candidates seeking to replace Mary Piepho.
“I’ve not only lived in the district for a long time, I’ve also worked (and still do) for the County for over a decade,” she said. “I’ve seen County governance both from the inside and the outside. More importantly, I’ve experienced, firsthand, the effects of Supervisor decisions as a resident as well as an employee. I have something unique that the other candidates don’t have – a dual perspective and experience.”
Recent decisions from the Supervisors have led Lefrancois to her run for Supervisor.
Filing her papers at the County Elections Office on Wednesday, March 9th, 2016.
“For nearly a decade, we have seen the County reduce or completely cut services, close down health care facilities, roll back employee salaries and benefits, and insist residents do more with less,” she said. “Supervisors preached sacrifice.”
But one decision in particular concretized Odessa Lefrancois’ determination to run.”
“When the Supervisors, minus Candace Andersen, voted to raise their own salaries by an unbelievable 33% while preaching sacrifice to everyone else, I knew this County needed new leadership,” she stated. “That decision was incredibly self serving. Leaders serve the public interest, not their own interest.”
On her priorities for the County, she said, “I am neither a career politician nor a political opportunist chasing the next office. I am a mother, a resident, a County health services employee, a retired Navy veteran, and a community volunteer.”
As a mother and resident, Lefrancois’ priorities are improved public safety and the preservation of green spaces and wetlands for families to enjoy.
As an employee, Lefrancois’ priorities are better regional transportation infrastructure and County leadership that will treat their employees fairly, and to lead by example.
As a Navy vet, Lefrancois’ priorities are better health care delivery to all, especially our men and women in uniform who served honorably but now have mental and/or physical health needs to heal.
Supporters who joined her at the County Elections Office.
According to her bio on the NAACP East County Branch website, two weeks after graduating from Lincoln High School in McClellanville, she joined the United States Navy.
During her military career she was trained as a hospital corpsman and a respiratory therapist. Training led to a military career that took her to over thirty-five states in the United States and five foreign countries (Japan, Korea, Philippines, Canada and Mexico). She retired from the military after 21 years of honorable service at the rank of Chief Petty Officer (E7). After retirement, she went on to complete a Bachelor of Arts degree in Organizational Leadership and Management from Chapman University, in Orange County, California. Community involvement includes but not limited to Health Chair for Antioch Church Family and the current President of the East County National Association for the Advancement of Colored (NAACP) Branch.
Lefrancois is a proud mother of two children, Shane (28) and Lorraine (20) and three grandchildren. She enjoys bicycle riding, reading, traveling and most important, living a life of service to others. She is currently employed as a respiratory therapist at Contra Costa Regional Medical Center and Kaiser, Walnut Creek Medical Center. Lefrancois resides with her husband, Louis in Antioch.
The election is June 7th. If no candidate receives a majority of the vote, the top two candidates will face off in the General Election in November.
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