12/16/2021
ANOTHER GREAT REASON FOR MENDOCINO TO BECOME A CHARTER COUNTY
Supervisors Vote to Consolidate Auditor-Controller and Treasurer-Tax Collector
by Mark Scaramella
By a 4-1 vote on Tuesday, the Board voted to adopt the ordinance consolidating the Auditor-Controller and Treasurer-Tax Collector into one combined elected position. They did so despite having no analysis or plan and against the recommendations of the officials involved and everyone else who commented on the subject. The Supervisors don't need data or analysis because this change is about personalities, not policy.
The CEO, the District Attorney and Supervisor Gjerde (the current Chair and longest serving Supervisor) don't like the current Interim Auditor-Controller. They don't like her because she has denied reimbursement for travel claims that were not in line with county policy. She's also denied the use of county funds to pay for such things as hot tubs for personal use. The problem? She was saying “no” to a trio of powerful people who don't think the rules apply to them and who are used to getting their way.
Supervisors Williams, McGourty and Gjerde cited specious and irrelevant complaints about travel reimbursement delays, decades old retirement system problems, allegedly uncollected taxes on vacation rentals, unnamed and unquantified “efficiences,” and mischaracterizations of the objections that have been raised. They didn’t ask the individuals involved about these allegations, just made unsubstantiated claims.
Supervisor Haschak was the lone dissenter, noting he hadn't seen anything describing how the consolidation would save money. He also pointed out there wasn’t enough analysis (none, as a matter of fact) and it would be better to have buy-in from the officials involved.
Supervisor McGourty (who has ignored the well informed comments of the current incumbents and others with direct knowledge of County finances) arranged to have a “real expert,” make a presentation to the Board. Pat Blacklock, CEO of Rural County Representatives of California (RCRC) and former CAO of Yolo County was on hand in an obvious attempt to make up for the lack of analysis. Unfortunately, Mr. Blacklock made a presentation on the “Yolo Model” - which was not the model Mendo’s Supervisors voted for.
The offices of Treasurer-Tax Collector and Auditor-Controller were already consolidated before Blacklock got to Yolo! For that reason, he offered no information on how the offices were consolidated or how they functioned, either before or after. Not one Supervisor pointed out this apples to oranges comparison.
The Yolo Model turned out to be the creation of a Department of Financial Services with an appointed (not elected) Chief Financial Officer (CFO). This may be the ultimate goal of the Supervisors, but under current conditions the voters would never support a CFO appointed by the Supervisors. It took three tries to get voter approval in Yolo.
Before the CFO was approved, finance staff in Yolo were scattered among the already consolidated Auditor, the CAO and the departments. The efficiency they observed was from taking some finance staff out of the CAO and departments. If the Board wants efficiency they would take the 8 or 10 finance people who work in the CEO's office and put them in the understaffed Auditor's office. Instead, the CEO's office keeps adding staff while the Auditor-Controller and Treasurer-Tax Collector are perennially understaffed.
Blacklock emphasized (twice) that consolidation (into a CFO) succeeded in Yolo because the Auditor was "an absolute superstar" who was committed to culture change. Have the Supes identified Mendo's superstar who will lead Mendo’s conversion? Do they think consolidation will happen on its own? Do they expect staff (whom they've just snubbed) to add this to their already heavy workload?
Supervisor Williams cautioned against the risk of inaction solemnly intoning, “I see problems with the status quo.” Which could be said of any county department. During Supervisors reports Williams lamented the hundreds of millions it would take to fix county roads, saying it was time to decide which ones will revert to gravel. Isn't that a problem with the status quo? Why not combine the Transportation Department with General Services?
Williams also said he hadn't heard from any employees or department heads who were against the consolidation. Which only shows he isn't listening. Howard Dashiell, Director of Transportation wrote a letter cautioning the Board against consolidation. He made a point of saying he sticks to transportation issues and never takes sides on political issues, leaving that to the Supervisors. Yet he chimed in on this one.
Without citing any information to support his claims, Williams said consolidation would lead to more efficiency and improved staffing levels. The letters of opposition from the incumbents explain why the opposite is more likely to be true.
McGourty described the current system of two elected officials as being “not truly a democratic process” because an incumbent could resign mid term leaving a vacancy to be filled by appointment. Supervisor Mulheren (who managed not to say a single word during the discussion) used the same ludicrous argument when the Board introduced the ordinance at a previous meeting. Neither McGourty nor Mulheren explained how creating a single elected position would prevent the single incumbent from resigning mid-term and magically create more democracy in the process. Or how this would be any less democratic than having two elected officials, either of whom could resign, thereby creating a vacancy.
The most telling remark of the discussion was Supervisor McGourty’s weak attempt to wrap up the discussion and refute the critics: “We are not saying, ‘Gee, let’s see what happens.’ We can make a plan to make this work.”
Actually, “Let’s see what happens” is exactly what the Board has done, as McGourty's next sentence — “We can make a plan to make this work” — admitted, i.e., there is no plan. McGourty closed by saying, “Eventually we need to look at how our finances are organized for this county.” The time to do that would have been before blindly voting to combine the two key financial offices in the county, not after. But in Mendo there is no plan, no planning process. Instead, they’re working on a “strategic plan” that their own employees say is a “waste of time.”
