New supervisors eager to start 2013

Incoming county supervisors’ 2013 to-do list is a little longer and costlier than the average spate of New Year’s resolutions in Calaveras County, but at least as ambitious.

Take District 1 newcomer Cliff Edson, who said Wednesday he aims to put board members back on the weekly meeting schedule resisted by his predecessor, Gary Tofanelli.

Edson, poised to take Tofanelli’s seat on Jan. 8, said he fears the board’s lengthy, twice-a-month meetings take too much time away from boldface items like the county’s long-sought general plan update.

“The thing that concerns me is the amount of time department heads have to sit there waiting to present an (agenda) item,” Edson said. “There are more important things they could be working on.” Including, he said, a little fence-mending with board members themselves, some of whom tangled with Auditor-Controller Rebecca Callen, Assessor Leslie Davis and Sheriff Gary Kuntz in departmental funding and hiring disputes earlier this year.

Edson and District 5 representative Darren Spellman hope to head-off those spats through future rounds of mediation.

“We’re in uncharted waters here: Over a two-year time period four of five sitting supervisors have changed,” Spellman said. “So I think this is going to be an incredible opportunity to work better together and work better with staff.”

Spellman, one of two remaining board incumbents, also sided with Edson’s position on weekly board meetings, explaining he would like to free up time outside the boardroom for department heads to work on a countywide oak mitigation ordinance.

“This county doesn’t have an oak tree ordinance,” he explained. “(Supervisor Steve Wilensky) couldn’t get it passed several years ago, but (Copperopolis’ Sawmill Lake housing development) has brought it back to the forefront.”

Merita Callaway, the only other incumbent spared a November election test, has already lined up behind Spellman’s oak tree mitigation push, though she also underlined the need to find a replacement for retiring County Administrative Officer Jeanne Boyce.

“We’re not looking for someone who can walk on water, but someone who can at least keep one foot on top,” the District 3 supervisor said of Boyce’s would-be successor.

The 19-year board veteran also eyed attempts to smooth over relations between the board and elected department heads, adding her voice to Edson’s calls for heightened focus on county staff.

“All of us elected and appointed officials are here to serve the community,” she said. “If there are potholes in the way, let’s see what we can do to fill those.”

District 2 rookie Chris Wright, succeeding Steve Wilensky on the board, noted a personal commitment to “cutting back on pretzels and beer” before hinting at a board challenge of his own in 2013: Securing funding for the in-progress county jail and improvements at the Calaveras County Animal Shelter.

“I don’t want to be pushing my own agenda at this point,” the former nonprofit executive cautioned, “But I’d be very surprised if the all the county’s (jail) grant funding options had been exhausted by now.”

Newly elected District 4 Supervisor Debbie Ponte was also reluctant to pitch a specific countywide commitment, but found some room for improvement on the board itself, where she would like to see “a really good overview of whether we need to have so many commissions and committees.”

“I see four or five that seem to do the same thing,” she added.

Ponte will join her fellow board newcomers for their first board meeting 9 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 8, in the Board of Supervisors chambers at 891 Mountain Ranch Road in San Andreas.

Contact James DeHaven at james@calaverasenterprise.com.