Russ Steele
This morning here are four citizen visitors, Yubanet, two bloggers and one observer at the BOS Workshop. A big improvement over last year, when I was the only observer. No Union reporter today. The room was much larger this morning, set in large C shape, as the BOS had invited several Department Heads and Sheriff Keith Royal to join the discussion. Keith explained where he is focusing his staff to solve problems in North San Juan, Greehhorn Creek, and the town of Washington. Compared to other County's we have a very low crime rate in Nevada County, with 70% of the crime drug related. In the past year the jail population has dropped from about 200 to 90 County law breakers. As a result Sheriff Royal is renting space to the Federal Marshals Office to hold nonviolent prisoners for periods of 30 to 60 days, making some extra money for the County in these rough budget times.
The BOS returned to the task of triming their issues list and setting priorities. The final list will be posted on the County Web Site once they have been passed by resolution. I will post a link when that happens. Yesterday I wrote about listing AB-32 Policy as an priority A. It was dropped to B today, into a monitoring category in recognition that the State will be setting the policy. I wanted to jump into the conversation, but held my tongue. While it is true the State is in drivers seat is setting greenhouse gas policy, it is Nevada County that will have to deal with the economic impacts of these misguided regulations. Gaining some insight to what those impacts our local economy might be could help the Board in their decision making process, providing valuable inputs to a cost benefits analysis, similar the the analysis they did on the location of the DAs new office. If they had a written policy for considering the impact of greenhouse gas reduction requirements, their decision may not have received such a strong critical review from the local newspaper. It could have cut down on the second guessing and Monday morning quarterbacking.
Some of the afternoon session was taken up discussing how to deal with small sanitation districts and how to deal with them over the long term. There are existing systems and the potential for more systems in the under 100 unit category. When new, all these sewer plant met specifications, but over time new specification are issued and these small districts lack the funds to make the necessary upgrades without huge rate increases. As the discussion progressed, the opportunity for developing regional sewer systems was examined. The consensus seem to be this was the best long term solution and should be considered as an option.
The next item on the agenda of interest to me was a discussion on privatization of some government functions, including the Airport, Animal Shelter and the Waste Transfer Station. There is currently no policy governing how to deal with privatization proposals, or issuing RFPs for the same. Again, I wanted to inject a comment, when it was suggested that the County just wait for proposals to float in over the transom before taking any action. Plus their was concern that these over the transom proposals may not cover all the nuances of the operation, resulting in failure, and risk to the tax payer when the County had to step back in. Considering both of these cases, it demonstrated why the County should be proactive in seeking privatization. They can write the RFP with a tight set of specifications that covered all the ins and outs of the operation than anyone else. Who better to know all the issues than the departments currently performing the functions. Participation in the RFP process would provide a strong team for evaluating all the proposals received by companies willing to take on these functions, reducing government operating costs, while providing some economic stimulus.
Another item of discussion on the agenda was starting the General Plan Process by updating the Circulation Element first. Again, I wanted to ask questions. It seems to me that the circulation element and the land use elements are tied so close, they should be considered in tandem. Unless at the start the BOS decided there will be no major changes in land use that will impact circulation. This may be the case, but as a Transportation Commissioner I had a lot of questions. My time will come once the process gets underway.
As the Board and Staff worked through these and other problems guided by the facilitor, I was impressed with the interaction, the display of professionalism by everyone, and the effectiveness of these public displays. I overheard the other observers expressing similar comments on how smoothly the Staff and Board worked together. I know it might be hard to believe from some reports on Board performance, but being there is proof enough for me.
George Rebane's has some impressions and more details on the information presented at Rebane's Ruminations.
