Bureau. He is on the advisory committee of the Carrizo Plain National Monument. He was chairman of the Employers Training Resource Private Industry Council of Kern, Inyo, and Mono Counties, Future Bakersfield Foundation, United Way of Bakersfield, Kern Transportation Foundation, and Kern View Foundation. Board of Supervisors Elections Watson was elected to the county Board of Supervisors in November 2002 to represent the 4th District after Supervisor Ken Peterson died in office. He was reelected in 2004. He was elected to a third term in June 2008. He was accused by his opponent, Cliff Thompson, of "playing dirty backroom games" during the campaign. The latter claimed that Watson had told Bakersfield Mayor Harvey Hall, owner of an ambulance service, to move Hall's public relations man off Thompson's campaign team. Watson denied the charge. Watson had 11,064 votes to Thompson's 8,005. Thompson was endorsed by State Senator Dean Florez and public employee unions. In 2010, Watson was named chairman of the board by his fellow supervisors for a one-year term. The 4th District covers the rural, western part of the county, and in 2010 it included the towns of Lost Hills, Wasco, Buttonwillow, McKittrick, Tupman, Taft, Maricopa, Pine Mountain Club, Lebec and Frazier Park. Positions State powers, 2003 Watson strongly criticized State Senator Dean Florez for introducing a bill that would have banned all dairies within three miles of any school or urban area, to improve air quality. Watson said he wanted "customized buffers around cities that could be closer than three miles in some places and farther in others." He also stated that it was "a local planning issue and it should remain so. Kern County should not allow the state to usurp the authority of local governments to establish land use policies." Public safety, 2008 Residents of Pine Mountain Club were "angered by Watson's opposition to the county paying for a permanent ambulance or firefighter paramedics in their small town in the mountains above Frazier Park." Oil tax, 2010 Watson declared his opposition to a bill in the State Assembly by Fremont Democrat Alberto Torrico to impose a 12.5 percent severance tax on oil production. "This tax is aimed right at the heart of our economy," he said. He predicted the tax would result in the loss of 7,000 oil industry-related jobs and millions of dollars in unrealized tax receipts. Kern County produced 60 percent of the state's oil