LAKEPORT >> The Lake County Board of Supervisors will not hold a meeting today.
After a three month trial period, the board unanimously approved an ordinance to continue the schedule that reduced the number of meetings held each month. The idea was brought up in January, when the board decided to cancel meetings held on the second Tuesday of February, March and April to allow county staff to “use their time more effectively.”
A second reading of the ordinance will be held during the board’s May 19 meeting.
The discussion spurred from many meetings lacking agenda items, which resulted in multiple canceled meetings last year. As the ordinance will not go into effect until June 18, the board also unanimously approve canceling today’s meeting, as well as its June 9 meeting. The board will continue to meet on the first, third and fourth Tuesday of each month. However, the board can meet at other times as determined.
There had been opposition to the cutback. Some critics of the plan voiced concerns that the board’s ability to address problems plaguing the county — poor road conditions, lake issues, drought enforcement, abatements — would be slowed.
“It just doesn’t make a lot of sense to be cutting back on the amount of work you do when there are so many problems in the county that we don’t seem to be making a lot of headway on,” Phil Murphy, a Lakeport resident, said. “It’s a bad time to retreat, when we have so much on the plate that needs to get done.”
District 2 Supervisor Jeff Smith explained that “there is a ton of stuff that happens in the background all the time with all the different committees that we attend.”
“You’re under the belief and perception that there is less work because there are less meetings, the reality is that the same items come before us one way or the other — whether it is one meeting a month or if it’s 20 meetings a month,” District 4 Supervisor Anthony Farrington retorted.
There is a move to require board members to account for their time in order to receive their pay and benefits. However, no group has placed such a plan on the board’s agenda.
District 3 Supervisor Jim Steele said that having one less meeting “has freed up a week to get things done.”
“I am amazed at how much work this has been,” Steele said. “I am at it all the time.”
Contact J. W. Burch, IV at 900-2022.
