PARADISE — In recent years, District 5 Supervisor challenger Julie Threet has gone full swing for joining community groups and making connections with people.
After her husband’s passing in 2011, Threet moved to Chico where she eventually became politically involved.
“I started going to city council meetings, started going to school board meetings, joined the Newcomers Club, joined the Elks Lodge and the Daughters of the American Revolution,” Threet said. “I just poured myself into the community. I got to meet people, and then you start to hear the issues and then you start to coalesce with people of similar interests or similar things that you see are problems in the community.”
Threet also became involved in volunteer work with a focus on health care.
“I joined (Enloe Health) and I joined as a full-time volunteer as a patient ambassador,” Threet said. “So every Thursday, I had a purpose. Get out of bed, go down to the third floor (Intensive Care Unit) for four hours and help patients.”
Threet said she took on more volunteer activities in the wake of disasters like the Camp Fire and is now looking toward politics as her next venture.
“I’ve always taken my democratic privileges seriously,” Threet said. “I’ve voted since I was 18, and when we did the redistricting, I did every one of them. I literally did the one at the county and drew a map and went down there through that whole process and did the (Chico) City Council, the whole thing, and then did the one at the Chico Unified School District.”
The issues
Threet is open about her skepticism of the COVID-19 vaccine and has spoken about it at many Butte County Board of Supervisors meetings. She said she had complications from her vaccine and that it affected her life and she eventually chose to leave her volunteer position at Enloe Health.
“Enloe changed their policy and for volunteers, the booster was mandated,” Threet said. “There was no opting out, there was no religious exemption, there was no testing once a week like they did for staff. It was not an easy choice because my mental health was all about providing medical support and working at Enloe.”
For homeless issues, Threet said she took part in the Point in Time count to get more perspective.
“We talked to people,” Threet said. “I mean I talked to people, and my gosh it was nothing like I was hearing. These are not your drug addicts, this is a mom who is waiting to get an RV out of her Camp Fire settlement so she can get on the road and get out of the county. There was a kid there that had just landed from Willows because they have no services and I’m talking to him, he literally was just there in his tent going, ‘Where do I go?'”
Threet said she was in favor of Chico’s Pallet shelter approach as a means to provide beds to homeless people.
“I thought that was one of the most fabulous (things),” Threet said. “I still do. And I’m supporting the one in Oroville that they are building.”
While her concerns regarding the vaccines guided her to many of the board meetings, Threet said in attending the meetings she learned of other issues facing the county.
“As I’m there, I’m witnessing other things,” Threet said. “The library is not funded, I mean people are coming in screaming about the libraries. Mobile homeowners are coming it and going, ‘We’ve got slumlords.’ People are coming in from Berry Creek, Inskip and Sterling City saying fire stations aren’t covered. So I’m like, ‘What’s going on?'”
Threet is challenging District 5 Supervisor incumbent Doug Teeter for his seat on the board. The election is scheduled for March 5, 2024.
