Warren Church (October 19, 1929 – September 2, 2017) was an American politician and educator who served on the Monterey County Board of Supervisors from 1965 to 1977. He was a Democrat who represented District 1 which at that time encompassed the northern parts of Monterey County. He served on various committees and published books on local history and genealogy. He was a native of Monterey County.
Warren Church has been acknowledged as the father of the Monterey County parks system.
Early life, education, and career
Warren Church was born in northern Monterey County and spent all his life in the county, graduating from King City High School in 1947. He was a high school athlete as well as being active with both student government and the school newspaper. At the age of 15, Church worked in the stock room of the King City J.C. Penney department store. He graduated from California Polytechnic State College in 1962, earning a bachelor's degree in social sciences and a Master of Arts Degree in education-social sciences. He also received both elementary and secondary teaching credentials. He was also on the staff of the college newspaper, "El Mustang." In 1974, Church was awarded the Honored Alumni Award by Cal Poly University's alumni association.
Church served in the Korean War and served with the 987th Armored Field Artillery Battalion and was wounded while serving, receiving a Purple Heart. He was eventually discharged as a Corporal on April 17, 1953.
Church taught at the Pajaro Elementary and the Jefferson school in San Benito.
Board of Supervisors
Before the 1964 Monterey County Board of Supervisors primary, Church, Allmond and incumbent Chester Deaver were split over their positions on the incorporation of North Monterey County, Castroville and Moss Landing. Church opposed the incorporation of North Monterey County, calling it an "'extremely poor, short sighted and senseless reason,'" but felt that Castroville was ready. Allmond called the incorporation of Castroville a "'stab in the back'" but later changed to asking for more input from the Castroville people. Deaver wanted to take a "'wait and see' attitude."
In the June 1964 primary, Chester Deaver had finished far in front of his challengers; Deaver 2,927, Church 1,374, Allmond 1,116, Simon 938, Bayer 650, Coffill 391 (unofficial results). However, the runoff of the top two candidates led to the election of Church to the Monterey County Board of Supervisors November 3, 1964. Church defeated incumbent Deaver, "with a 1,066 vote margin". At the time, The supervisor position was part-time and came with a typewriter and $300 a month for incidentals.
The 1968 election results were Church 5,555 to Simon 2,859.
In 1972, the Salinas Californian endorsed Church for Supervisor, while saying that they have disagreed with him many times and probably will continue to do so as "the interests of the city of Salinas seen to be a fairly low priority item with him... Nevertheless,... he is head and shoulders above his opponents." Church won reelection for his third term June 6, 1972. He won with 53% of the vote. His challengers were Jack Simon and Andrew Hollenstain.
In 1972 Church was invited to a Salinas Board of Realtors meeting to discuss campaign issues in a private setting. Church declined stating:
In November 1972, the Board heard arguments for relaxing zoning ordinances for mobile homes in North Monterey County. Arguments for relaxing were due to very high home prices that made owning a home in the county difficult. Arguments against were that mobile homeowners used the county services equally as a homeowner but paid lower taxes. There was also a concern about a reduction of lot sizes, allowing the county to double in population since 1963 when 11,000 residents lived in the unincorporated area of North County (excluding Castroville). According to the North County Rezoning Study which looked at 48,700 acres and an existing density of 11.3 acres per unit, proposed developments could increase the population from 16,000 (from 1970 census) to 338,900 with a density of .51 acres per unit. Appearance of mobile homes, fire safety, and environmental concerns were also a consideration. Church stated that all attendees at the meeting that approved of the ban lived in North Monterey County, and those arguing about the ban were people who lived outside the area and had a financial interest. One Pacific Grove resident, Art Woodfin, complained about the ban stating that he "had an option on 15 acres of land in North County and planned to put mobile homes on it." Church replied, "'Then you're coming to rape the North County?'"