Among the items discussed at Tuesday’s Del Norte County Board of Supervisors meeting:
Funding for EOC:
Del Norte County staff plans to seek $2 million in fiscal year 2027 Congressionally Directed Spending money to establish an emergency operations center, Assistant County Administrative Officer Randy Hooper said.
County staff is looking at converting the manual arts building near the Flynn Administrative Center, according to Hooper, and would renovate the former gymnasium into a “hardened purpose-built EOC.” It would also house the Del Norte County Office of Emergency Services as well as be a “public safety answering point” or dispatch center, according to Hooper’s staff report.
Such a project would cost an estimated $3.1 million. In addition to requesting $2 million in Congressionally Designated Spending dollars, the county would also pursue other local funding sources.
County staff submitted a former eligibility request to CalOES on Feb. 19 to determine that establishing a new EOC aligns with FEMA, Hooper stated in his staff report. Currently, a “makeshift” EOC is run out of the Crescent Fire Protection District facility on Washington Boulevard. Developing an improved operations center is a priority of the other agencies the county works with including Crescent City, law enforcement, fire and medical services, Hoper said.
Deputy DA salary: District Attorney Katherine Micks successfully made her case for why she should hire a deputy at a higher step on the salary schedule. The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved her request to place the new deputy district attorney III at Step 3 on the new salary schedule.
But, while she acknowledged the vacancy rate within Micks’ office, Norma Williams, outgoing Del Norte County Employees Association president, still had questions.
“Was there a DDA 1 or DDA 2 that could have been promoted into the position?” Williams asked.
At the Board’s Feb. 10 meeting, before supervisors approved a similar request from Chief Probation Officer Lonnie Reyman, Williams said she hopes it doesn’t become a regular practice. She pointed out that the compensation study that the county had commissioned and the structure the Board approved in December was meant to eliminate such requests.
On Tuesday, Williams repeated her concerns
“It begs the question, what was the point of doing a compensation study to begin with? What was the point of restructuring the salary schedule?” She said.
In August, Micks told supervisors that she was hiring for three deputy DA positions within her department. Two deputy district attorneys were still employed to fill niche positions, which left the DA and her assistant DA Todd Zocchi handling general crimes including misdemeanors and felonies, Micks said.
Micks told supervisors that she had contracted with three private practice attorneys to handle to extra cases.
According to a memo Micks sent to Human Resources Director Kerri Vue, the DDA III position had been vacant since January 2025. The candidate she hired was a DDA III in Stanislaus County before transitioning into criminal defense. In addition to holding an advance legal degree, the new hire speaks multiple languages including Spanish and Italian, Micks said.
“The candidate can immediately assume complex felony caseloads,” she told Vue. “The county is fortunate to have the opportunity to hire an attorney with his qualifications.”
Juvenile Placement in Shasta County: County supervisors unanimously approved a renewed agreement with Shasta County to house in-custody youth at its juvenile hall. The renewed contract also allows Del Norte juveniles access to Shasta’s Rivers Edge Academy and Secure Track Treatment Program, according to Reyman’s staff report.
Del Norte County has housed juvenile offenders at Humboldt and Mendocino counties and in Shasta County with Humboldt the primary facility.
Dan Schmidt Faithful Performance Bond
Though a municipal law attorney last month said such a step was unnecessary, Harbor Commissioner Dan Schmidt submitted a faithful performance bond to the Board of Supervisors for their approval.
Supervisors unanimously accepted it, though one member of the public called it political theater and District 5 Supervisor Dean Wilson said the controversy is resolved.
“Many members of the public have weighed in on this over time and there was an issue, a problem… it has been corrected at this point with this motion,” Wilson said. “They are in compliance with the required law and hopefully they will move forward in an appropriate way.”
Schmidt filed his faithful performance bond with the Del Norte County Clerk-Recorder’s Office on Feb. 5. His colleague Annie Nehmer also filed a faithful performance bond with the county in December.
On Feb. 12, Schmidt and his colleagues on the Crescent City Harbor District Board heard from Michael Colantuono, a municipal law attorney, who said the California legal code requiring the $5,000 faithful performance bond, Harbors and Navigations Code Section 6056, was ancient. He said that a blanket crime and fraud bond CCHD has had through its insurer since 2012 complies with this regulation.
