Commentary By Samuel Strait – January 28, 2023 It is not often where one put in charge of things has so manifestly exhibited and in such a short time displayed his obvious lack of ability to occupy that leadership role. For Darren Short, newly elected to be Del Norte County's Chairman of the Board, his lapses and mistakes continue to mount up. It was only with the timely intervention of County Counsel and public member Linda Sutter that "Chair" Short avoided a very public violation of the Brown Act. In fact, the Brown Act was violated, and only because the Brown Act has no real meaning in local government, and likely never has, the violation will no doubt be dismissed. As the current Board continues its wayward ways, it is not surprising that there is very little participation in the governing of this County by the public. While the trappings of County government continue to be observed, that is when Chair Short remembers, the Board reports and follow up discussion were a thing to behold. While it is interesting that each Board member has the opportunity to relate to the audience, mostly consisting of government employees, that they remain active in the community, it offers little in the way a broader perspective that beyond meetings with other public officials, the public in their respective districts should be the voices that are the key to discovering the NEEDS of that group and not what can be cooked up in meetings with other public employees. Public comments at a scheduled time became a victim of Chair Short's failure to understand that the County Department heads should not be the focus of the Board's concern, particularly when they are meant to represent. Nearly forty five minutes and a violation of the Brown Act later, it was concluded that the topic of discussion was not on the posted Agenda and should be perhaps actually placed on a future Agenda. Still not sure whether or not the Board was more concerned about the County's Department Heads, many of them have proven to be in charge of dysfunctional departments, all the while giving them praise for their noted dysfunction. Kind of puts a huge question mark above the lengthy discussion, particularly when Board members prattle on for some time then turn about and limit public discussion to three minutes. In any event the public finally managed to get their day in the sun, notably more on vacation rentals, and another example of the County's inability to address maintenance issues in public buildings. The other scheduled item, the County's housing element for the sixth cycle was largely word salad by a contractor from Sacramento, no doubt handsomely compensated, which allows the State to dictate the composition of future housing needs without any real appreciation of the actual needs of the County. But hey, it might lead to future grants to the County that will unlikely to be of any help, but "FREE MONEY", is hard for government officials to pass up. It is only when the public realizes that "FREE MONEY" isn't free and ultimately the bill will always wait the future and then come calling. If you are looking for the normal fireworks surrounding the inequities of the "Consent Agenda" and the normal festivities that comes with it, be patient, the fun is yet to start. General Government, at least what little was discussed by the Board, consisted of a resolution appointing members to the Law Library Board Of Trustees. Yes, that of "leaky roof" fame. Things proceeded on to a discussion of the evils of tobacco, and naturally concluded with another ordinance. Won't Supervisor Starkey be proud. It is not as if there is any likelihood of enforcement, but its on the books. Keep in mind that its still illegal to hunt rabbits in some places in California, but I doubt that one is being enforced either. On to budget transfers, which should have merited at least some discussion, but it seems that is not something the Board takes on unless there is the potential for a Brown Act violation. $25,000 to hire another part time employee for the County's IT department. Another $6,600 for the County Jail that continues to fall apart. Fire alarm system failure it seems. Got to be prepared for any inmate barbeques, garbage can heaters, or random protests that may catch one of the new patrol cars on fire. And finally another $10,000 for the "Nuisance Budget" Unit at Community Development. Seems the County has a line item for professional services to cope with unexpected public nuisances, the town drunk anybody? Legislative and Budget issues are normally about complaining to the State over the unexpected consequences of State actions. In this case it is a letter directed to the State asking for relief from the ignorance of the State's Fire Marshall regarding State authored Fire Hazard Severity Zone Maps which can negatively affect insurance premiums on your house or business. Not that it is likely to have any affect on your fire insurance any time soon, but maybe the next rain storm will be $!00 bills instead of water. AH, last but not least, the Consent Agenda became the grand finale. Branden Bieber managed to annoy Chair Short only slightly this time around, and the Sheriff was not called. This particular agenda consisted of but fourteen items. Good luck for a public comment if you wish to have more than a couple discussed. Part of the problem with the County's insistence to conduct a large portion of the County's business on the Consent Agenda is the failure to discuss many of the items it contains in a public venue. Many of those items contain contractual obligations in which the County has entered into that are not of recent origin. As such they should be treated as new business and properly vetted in front of the public and not as an extension of the original contract. This alarming behavior by the Board should cease immediately and a proper procedure be installed. This would have the immediate effect of shortening the Consent Agenda to a more manageable form and allow the County's supervisors to at least have the appearance of governing. Most of the County's business is conducted nearly every Board meeting with a 5-0 vote and hardly a murmur of discussion. This particular Consent Agenda was notable, only in the respect that item number Two had to be pulled due to yet another failure on Chair Short's part and the fact that assignments to the various committees elicited nothing in the way of discussion nor input from the public as to the suitability of various supervisors to be appointed to such committees. Two other items were removed, one to call attention to our own Gerry Cochran as a long serving Veteran Service Officer and the other calling for attention by Supervisor Wilson to address the woeful behavior of the County towards attention to its surplus equipment which has value if disposed of properly. While this may have concluded this particular meeting, it should have been evident that the Consent Agenda continues to be a problem and that problem is in the Board's leadership, both past and present and has yet to be properly addressed. The train wreck continues.