The Plumas County Board of Supervisors is deciding whether to reduce its monthly meetings from three to two.
The proposal, from County Administrative Officer Debra Lucero, met with both pros and cons during a June 11 discussion. She has argued that holding just two meetings a month would save money and reduce staff preparation time. It would also free her office to spend less time preparing for the next meeting and more getting work done.
“I see zero harm,” said Supervisor Tom McGowan, who represents the Chester/Almanor area. It would reduce his travel time, he said.
Questions and considerations
Sheriff Todd Johns said the reduction in meetings could lengthen the process for approving various actions affecting the Plumas County Sheriff’s Office. When a person is promoted and leaves a vacancy, for example, it takes several approvals to fill that vacancy. In a department that already has numerous unfilled positions, the lengthy decision process could be a problem, Johns said.
Planning Department Director Tracey Ferguson asked whether holding two meetings rather than three would affect compensation for supervisors.
“We work seven days a week, sometimes until 10:30 at night.”
Greg Hagwood, board of supervisors chairman
Supervisor Greg Hagwood, the board chairman, responded: “I don’t know that our time would go down. We work seven days a week, sometimes until 10:30 at night.”
Ferguson also questioned how dissemination of board correspondence and information generally would be affected. “How would the public know? How are we assured that it doesn’t go into a black hole?” she said.
Allen Hiskey, clerk of the board, said he prints all correspondence and provides it to each board member.
“Then it’s incumbent on an individual board member to respond,” said Ferguson.
Dissenting voices
The most passionate voice for retaining three meetings a week came from Clint Koble, an advisor for the Sierra Small Business Development Center and regular board attendee. It is a privilege to attend board of supervisors meetings and important that the public has access to the supervisors, he said.
“The less interaction we have, the less democracy we have in this county,” Koble said.
Supervisor Dwight Ceresola also spoke in favor of keeping the board’s monthly meetings at three.
Mitigating factors
A proposal currently under consideration could lessen the effect of dropping one board meeting a month. At the June 4 meeting, Lucero proposed raising the spending limits of department heads and the CAO. Currently, department heads can spend up to $5,000 per expenditure without board approval; the proposal would increase that to $10,000. Lucero’s own spending allowance would jump from up to $10,000 to between $15,000 and $20,000 under the proposal.
Hagwood said approving the increases would eliminate some expenditure approvals from department heads that currently come to the supervisors. “We have an outstanding group of department heads and we completely trust them,” he added.
McGowan noted that the board can always call a special meeting if necessary. And he proposed that four times a year the supervisors hold a meeting outside of Quincy. “Few people from the north ever get to Portola, and vice versa,” he said.
The supervisors voted 4-1 to table a decision on the number of monthly meetings until their June 25 special budget meeting. Supervisor Jeff Engel voted no.
