Among the items discussed at Tuesday’s Del Norte County Board of Supervisors meeting.
Salary Schedule and New Hires: Though she said new employees are welcome, the president of the Del Norte County Employees Association pointed out that the county is establishing a standard when it comes to placement on the salary schedule.
Norma Williams referred to the proposed hiring of four employees at Step C on the salary schedule — items that appeared on the Board’s consent agenda and were approved without comment.
Those hires included a social worker, eligibility specialist and health educator — positions within the Department of Health and Human Services — and a facilities maintenance worker. According to Williams, those positions would fall within the Del Norte County Employees Association’s bargaining unit. Step C is in the middle of the regular salary range, she told supervisors.
“Again, you are signaling that you are not offering competitive wages at the lower end within those ranges,” she said.
Williams referred to a compensation and structural analysis that found Del Norte County’s base salary is 10% below the market median while its overall compensation package is 2.1%. She also reminded them that SEIU 1021 is in contract negotiations and will be taking into account the study’s findings and “what your county team has come up with in response to that.”
“If we continue to see these kinds of consent (agenda) items still showing up then it’s going to basically continue to show that maybe you should re-think your plan and what you’re proposing,” Williams said. “It’s my hope that with our negotiations we would stop seeing these.”
Juvenile Detention Agreement: After Del Norte County’s chief probation officer informed them that multiple youths have been housed in El Dorado County, the Board of Supervisors agreed to make that arrangement official.
El Dorado is currently housing a juvenile offender that was ordered to participate in a “specific program” through a court disposition, Chief Probation Officer Lonnie Reyman said. However, multiple youth have been housed in El Dorado County in cases where the three counties Del Norte currently contracts with — Humboldt, Mendocino and Shasta — either refused to take the youth in due to behavioral issues or a prior experience or if they were short staffed or at capacity, he said.
According to Reyman’s staff report, the cost to the county would be based on an as-used basis per bed-day. He said general fund dollars have already been budgeted for the custody agreement.
Out of 14 counties in the northernmost part of California, five operate juvenile halls. Reyman said his department reached out to other counties in the North Bay Area for more options.
“We didn’t quite get down to Sacramento, but we almost did,” he said.
Reyman said he’s also been speaking with officials in Sonoma County, which offers a program for juvenile sex offenders as well as Tehama County, which still operates a juvenile hall that’s a little closer than El Dorado.
“It’s possible, depending on staffing and capacity on any given day, that they would be an option for us as well,” Reyman said.
The proposed agreement with El Dorado County appeared on the Board of Supervisors’ consent agenda. Though consent agenda items are typically voted on without comment, District 2 Supervisor Valerie Starkey asked Reyman to speak to the item after public commenter Linda Sutter called the arrangement “fiscally questionable and ethically indefensible.”
Prop. 50 opinions: Though they didn’t ask their colleagues to make an official statement for or against, supervisors Dean Wilson and Darrin Short urged their constituents to vote against Proposition 50.
Prop. 50, the Election Rigging Response Act, would suspend the state’s California Citizens Redistricting Commission and use “legislatively drawn” Congressional districts through 2031. California Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed redrawing the state’s Congressional maps after the Texas State Legislature approved a new redistricting plan in August that would result in five more seats for Republicans.
Wilson and Short both attended the Del Norte Republican Party’s Lincoln Reagan Trump Dinner on Saturday where District 3 Assemblyman James Gallagher was the keynote speaker. Short said he also heard Congressman Jared Huffman speak at his Oct. 5 town-hall meeting.
Both representatives opined on Prop. 50, Short said.
According to Wilson, Gallagher aired his concerns about the elimination of three Republican-held positions in “ag-driven communities.” The redistricting that would result should Prop. 50 pass would reduce the number of Republican Congressional representatives in California to nine, Wilson said.
Short said if Prop. 50 passes, it would “damage our rural representation.”
“I would encourage our voters to definitely vote no on Prop. 50,” he said. “It’s blatant gerrymandering and it’s just not fair for our representation.”
Proposition 50 came up at meetings held by the Del Norte County Board of Education and Del Norte Unified School District Board of Trustees last week. Trustee Area 5 representative Michael Greer, whose district boundaries coincides with Wilson’s, urged his colleagues twice to approve a resolution opposing Prop. 50. Greer’s colleagues refused to take a position, stating it was inappropriate for a nonpartisan board to weigh in on a partisan issue.
