Board of Supervisors

Back in December, one of the more complex agreements about local water issues was literally rammed through by the Yolo County Board of Supervisors, literally at the last minute.  According to the County Counsel’s office, however, they complied with Brown Act in noticing requirements.

However, Supervisor Jim Provenza did not agree.  Supervisor Provenza told the Enterprise that he had received notice of the meeting at 4:52 p.m. Thursday, which the Enterprise reported was “the same time the county e-mailed The Davis Enterprise an agenda. Friday’s meeting started 20 1/2 hours later, at 1:30 p.m.”

It looks like Supervisor Jim Provenza will prevail in his efforts to get the Board of Supervisors to comply with the Brown Act after all.  On February 8, the Board of Supervisor will consider an item that, in part, will ask them to rescind the actions taken on December 17 with regards to Conaway Ranch.

They will then consider the issue again, take public input and finally vote on whether to determine that the agreements are exempt from CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) and to authorize the Chair of the Board of Supervisors to execute the agreements.

A group calling themselves Citizens Alliance for Regional Environmental Sustainability (CARES) sent a letter through Davis Attorney Donald Mooney* Thursday alleging a Brown Act violation occurred at the Yolo County Board of Supervisors Special Meeting on December 17, 2010, where the Board took up the issue of an agreement with Conaway Ranch and a group owned by developer Angelo Tsakopoulos.

The letter alleges “the notice for the December 17, 2010, Special Meeting violated the requirements of the Brown Act, Government Code, section 54956.”

Currently the County Board of Supervisors, like the Davis School Board, rotates its presiding officer in order to share the bounty and the experience.  This arrangement produces equity at the expense of effectiveness, or so argues Matt Rexroad who represents Woodland as the third 3rd District Supervisor.

The rotation of board members means that, according to current policies, Matt Rexroad would become the next chair and preside over meetings.  However, sensing an opportunity to change the system when it is least likely to anger his colleagues as they are in line to become chair, Mr. Rexroad is suggesting that we alter the system.

On the local front, the Vanguard watched county officials who were sworn in on Monday morning.  It was a relatively uneventful swearing in.  The most important was Don Saylor being sworn in, finally, as a member of the County Board of Supervisors.  His vacancy now triggers a string of events in the City of Davis.

Buried in the middle of an otherwise standard piece in the Davis Enterprise might be a red flag that Don Saylor intends to look at ways to develop on Davis’ periphery – or at least talk about it from a Yolo County point of view.

A war of words is brewing in the County Government over the water deal signed a week and a half ago by Yolo County with Angelo Tsakopoulos.  County Supervisor Jim Provenza of Davis is accusing the county of having run an illegal meeting, chaired by his colleague in Davis, outgoing Supervisor Helen Thomson.

According to a Sunday article in the Davis Enterprise, Helen Thomson has fired back calling Jim Provenza’s accusation “a crock” and saying it was “very irritating.”

People keep asking me if I think this is a good deal for Davis and Yolo County.  Quite frankly I do not know the answer to that.  It may be a good deal, it may not be a good deal.  We may not know the answer to that for some time.

However, the point I think that needs to be made over and over again is that democracy is not about outcomes.  We could get together and figure out the best solution and impose it on the people, but that is not democracy.  Democracy is about process – open process, transparent process, and sometimes messy process.

Back in June we ran an article on the problems that Yolo County had in responding to public records requests in a timely matter.

There is a good article this morning in the Woodland Daily Democrat on the problems that the Yolo County Counsel’s Office had with responding to public records requests.

There is a good article this morning in the Woodland Daily Democrat on the problems that the Yolo County Counsel’s Office had with responding to public records requests.

Earlier this year, I had made a request for information from the County Counsel’s office, it took several months and every so often I would send Assistant County Counsel Dan Cederborg an email asking for an update on the status.  He stopped responding, did not return my calls, etc.  After awhile, I finally asked Supervisor Matt Rexroad to intercede, he made some calls and within a few days I got exactly what I was asking for.

It began as a very simply comment that Matt Rexroad has likely done thousands of times, he updated his Facebook status as he would sometimes update his blog, rexroad.com, with a comment about the political world.  And for those that believe that Matt Rexroad is nothing more than a cut and dried Conservative Republican, the Matt Rexroad I have gotten to know over the last four years has a considerable amount of gray.

So when I saw his Facebook status, as he is indeed a “Facebook friend,” I laughed and thought nothing of it, it was Matt Rexroad being Matt Rexroad.  He wrote, “Matt Rexroad understands that it works with Republican voters… but if Sarah Palin endorsed me I would be too embarrassed to tell anyone.”

On Tuesday May 5, at 10 AM the Yolo County Board of supervisors will discuss whether to reduce public health services provided by the County to people who have no medical insurance at all.  The Yolo County Board of Supervisors will also be voting on whether to eliminate all  medical services for people who do not have proof of documentation.

The cuts will be broader than just services to undocumented workers, it will be roughly 1.5 million dollars in savings by reducing and modifying eligibility for patients.  YCHIP (Yolo County Healthcare for Indigents Program) currently servces about 2,500 Yolo County residents, they estimate about half of those are undocumented.

This is a brand new feature on the Vanguard.  Every week, we will put a local official in the spotlight and ask them ten tough questions with follow ups.  The goal is to press them on the tough issues of the day.  We will also be tallying a running scorecard to let the public know which officials were willing to go under the gun and which officials refused to.  This week we start things off with County Supervisor Matt Rexroad.  The interview follows.

1.       The County is facing a $24 million budget deficit which represents over one-third of the general fund budget—what could you have done sooner to prevent this catastrophe?