Thumbnail photo by Paul Critz
Among the items discussed at Tuesday’s Del Norte County Board of Supervisors meeting:
Boat Ramp Access: Despite skepticism from a member of the public, District 1 Darrin Short said he and his colleagues did have public safety in mind when directing the county to do repairs on the public access road to Saxton’s Boat Ramp in Smith River.
Supervisors unanimously approved allocating an additional $1,922.11 to the project, which, Short says, is necessary for the sheriff’s office to be able to deploy its rescue boat. This allocation brings the project cost to $8,900 in funds the Board of Supervisors had set aside to make repairs to non-maintained county roads.
“This is the primary place where the sheriff puts in his rescue boat when there’s an emergency upriver,” Short told county resident Sam Strait. “That ramp is just about unusable.”
Strait referred to a January meeting and said he was gaslighted into believing that the county was making repairs to roads it traditionally doesn’t maintain to allow emergency vehicles to better access homes in the area. He noted that the Board had added several roads to its list of unmaintained county roads due to there not being any homes on them.
Community Development Director Heidi Kunstal said in addition to repairing the access road, her department also rebuilt a fence near the boat ramp.
Stepping Along the Salary Schedule: County supervisors and Del Norte County Employee Association Norma Williams accepted the probation chief’s rationale for hiring a senior account clerk at a more advanced step on the salary schedule.
Chief Probation Officer Lonnie Reyman pointed to the new hire’s possession of a master’s degree in business administration, her 10-plus years of experience in bookkeeping and financial administration as well as a background in professional writing as reasons why the new senior account clerk should start at Step 3 on the salary schedule.
Reyman said he wanted to approach the Board of Supervisors directly since he recruited the new employee while the county was negotiating changes to its salary structure format. The new salary structure was implemented in December.
District 2 Supervisor Valerie Starkey said she initially was going to oppose Reyman’s request, but appreciated the work he put in to demonstrate his reasons why his new recruit should receive a greater salary.
“That extra effort convinced me,” Starkey said.
Williams, however, cautioned that even though the salary structure had changed, it will still be 10 years before an employee is able to achieve longevity with the county.
Supervisors’ state and federal advocacy: Supervisors amended the County Administrative Manual, adding a rule that reaffirms their authority to participate in state and federal advocacy.
The amendment designates a primary and alternate representative to state and federal advocacy organizations such as the California State Association of Counties, or CSAC, and the National Association of Counties, or NACo. According to a staff report by Assistant County Administrative Officer Randy Hooper, the amended rule seeks to reduce potential confusion and provide clearer guidance to the Board of Supervisors.
After receiving criticism from Strait over the number of representatives that travel to various conferences, District 3 Supervisor Chris Howard pointed out that there is a lot going on at these events.
Howard, who attended a NACo conference in Philadelphia last year, said that he spent two days in a public lands policy committee session, which focused on National Forest lands. Because of the amount of information disseminated at these conferences, Howard said, he thinks it takes at least two county supervisors to cover them.
His colleague, District 5 Supervisor Dean Wilson agreed, pointing out that many of the sessions are conducted simultaneously and focus on multiple subjects including law enforcement, healthcare and land use and agricultural issues.
Supervisors’ compensation: County supervisors unanimously adopted the new salary structure that implements the biweekly $2,277.67 compensation rate the Board set for themselves in December.
Coinciding with a revision of the county’s overall salary structure, which included wage adjustments, the Board’s action ensures that each member receives the same biweekly compensation regardless of the number of terms served in office. The Board’s action also approved an additional $100 to be paid to the chairperson biweekly.
Previously, the Board of Supervisors’ compensation rate had ranged from $1,462.60 to $2,146.26 based on the number of terms they served.
The Board of Supervisors’ adoption of the 700 Master Salary Schedule on Tuesday put the new compensation rate into effect, Human Resources and Risk Management Director Kerri Vue wrote in her staff report.
