Madera County supervisor representing Sierra announces retirement plan, endorses candidate
Supervisor Tom Wheeler, the longtime representative for rural District 5 in eastern Madera County, announced this month that he will not be running in next year’s election for a fifth term.
“Well folks, it’s been a great, almost 15-year run (1 1/2 years left in my 4th term) as your District 5 Supervisor, and now it’s time to pass the baton,” Wheeler wrote on his Facebook page beside a photo of him and Bobby Macaulay, the candidate he’s endorsing to take his place, at an event to kick off Macaulay’s campaign.
Macaulay is Wheeler’s chief of staff, recruited by Wheeler last year with the thought he’d soon be able to take his place.
“I’ve been on the lookout for someone who cares about our community as much as I do, and who will work as hard to achieve our goals,” Wheeler continued, “and now I’ve found that person.”
Wheeler will be 80 years old when his fourth term ends and said he wants to have more time to enjoy things like a cabin he has in the High Sierra while he’s able to. He’s not too worried about that clock ticking too fast. The 78-year-old just competed last weekend in various competitions at the Mid-Sierra Loggers Jamboree in North Fork, including ax throwing, chainsaw and double-hand bucking, where two people cut through logs with a handsaw.
Wheeler is proud to have never missed a Loggers Jamboree since the annual event started 61 years ago. That’s emblematic of Wheeler, who is a fixture at a wide range of events and meetings in the mountain communities he represents, including Oakhurst, Coarsegold and North Fork, which don’t have city councils.
“I try to get to everything and I want people to be able to see me and ask me questions,” Wheeler said. “If they have a problem, I don’t mind.”
Some of his priorities since first elected in 2006 have at times also been controversial: Making new development easier, building new government facilities, and increasing wages and aiming to increase government efficiency by combining and eliminating some county positions.
The number of Madera County employees dropped from around 1,750 to 800 between the Great Recession and that reorganization, what Wheeler described as making local government “lean and mean” instead of wasteful. He said the number of Madera County employees has since risen to about 1,300.
“I hope you’re not hiring people to take your garbage out,” Wheeler sometimes tells Madera County staffers, not really joking.
Wheeler’s work ethic is rooted in his childhood. He spent his early years living in a tent because his family had little money. He had polio then, and was 6 years old when his family was finally able to move into a house with one light in the kitchen, no warm water, and an outdoor toilet.
“I’ve had to work for everything I’ve got,” Wheeler said.
He went to high school in Selma and Dinuba before enrolling at Sierra High School in Tollhouse as a sophomore. The mountain area has remained his home ever since.
He loves the mountains and all of Madera County, what he often promotes as the “biggest little county” and the “best place to work, live and play.”
He said his dream as a young man was just to own a home. He’s amazed at how much more he’s been able to accomplish as a county supervisor. He credits much of his success to hiring good people.
“You’re only as good as the people under you,” Wheeler said. “If you don’t pick good people, you’ll never be successful.”
His last board of supervisors’ meeting will be in January 2023. Wheeler said at that time, he will be Madera County’s longest-serving supervisor for District 5.
This story was originally published July 8, 2021 at 2:00 PM.
