South Lake County is fortunate to have four strong candidates for supervisor of District One.

But it sure makes deciding who to vote for difficult.

I am hugely impressed by the contributions to our community over the past years by Moke Simon, Monica Rosenthal and Voris Brumfield. I have not had the opportunity to become acquainted with Jim Ryan, but his credentials look good.

After serious consideration, I am falling back on a time-honored truth: An election should not be a popularity contest; it is a matter of hiring the employee who will be most productive on the job.

Monica Rosenthal’s long and active participation in promoting the welfare of Lake County – her tenure with the Lake County Planning Commission, her work with the Middletown Area Merchants Association, the Lower Lake Community Action Group, the Lake County Farm Bureau and at least a dozen other groups – has consistently shown the kind of approach I would prefer to see in our supervisor.

I appreciate that she looks for all the potential solutions to a problem and researches the probable outcome of each, before making an important decision.

I am especially enthused by how well she listens!

And I find truly heartening the number of her avowed supporters (see her Web site) who continually, steadfastly, quietly and productively work for the betterment of our community.

Nina Bouska lives in Middletown, Calif.