Modoc Supervisors, CAO
Criticized by Sheriff, Auditor
Two of the county’s elected officials publicly criticized the Modoc County Board of Supervisors and its chief administrative officer Tuesday for not including them in strategic budget meetings at a time when the chance of bankruptcy appears to loom ever closer.
Charging the board with “a shift towards secrecy” and “bad business practice,” Sheriff Mike Poindexter and Auditor Darcy Locken cast political diplomacy aside and bluntly told the supervisors they are fostering mistrust, dissension and double standards by failing to publicly address the county’s financial status.
“I find myself being pushed aside and kept in the dark by the board and the county administrative officer (Chester Robertson),” Locken said in a prepared statement read to the board. “It begs the question, why are we being excluded, and what are we not being told?”
Poindexter, reading from his prepared statement, went further.
“It all seems suspect to me and I would submit to the public that the elimination of necessary checks and balances is being accomplished behind closed doors,” Poindexter said.
Locken and Poindexter’s discontent with the Board of Supervisor has apparently been building for months. At issue is the board’s efforts to restore a treasury deficit caused by a “rob Peter to pay Paul” principle that for an estimated 10 years depleted the treasury by a reported $20 million, resulting in a state-ordered mandate to make restitution.
Asked just how serious the county’s financial condition is, Locken told the Modoc Independent News blog, “I'd rate it an eight on a scale from one to 10, with 10 being bankruptcy. The reason I put it so high is that the rug could be pulled out from under us at any time. A bad storm that causes an expensive emergency or flood could bankrupt us, although that doesn't seem to be much of a threat so far this season.”
Unnecessary spending by the board at a time of fiscal crisis was attacked by Poindexter.
“I am asked, it seems, at every corner to cut further, while I watch the precious dollars cut from my budget (then) reappear to pay outside professionals for duplication of services,” the sheriff told the board without elaboration.
Explaining her reasons for chastising the board, Locken said she saw no other alternative.
“The reason I came to the board publicly the way I did is that I've exhausted all other avenues,” she told the Modoc Independent News blog in an e-mail exchange. “I've tried to work with Chester Robertson. No go. I've talked to Geri Byrne. I've talked to Dave Allen. No go.
“Jeff Bullock and I are actually on the same page on this subject, but he's obviously on the outs,” she said in reference to an internal move on the board to oust Bullock as chairman. “We ask questions,” Locken continued. “We want to see proof, backup and results. I do believe that there are other ‘pressures’ behind the scenes. I've got nothing to hide, let's see if they do.”
Poindexter asked the board to reassess its methods of managing the county’s business by being more open.
“Please take a close look at the current county government management style,” he asked. “Include the public, your elected and appointed officials in the loop, especially in areas that pertain to their lawful duties. We simply cannot continue in the direction we are moving.”
24 comments:
During the budget hearings last fall CAO Robertson was questioned about his professional and specialized line item. It was a line item increase in expenditures of $67,000.00. When asked about those funds he replied that they were for his "tool kit". When further questioned to the point of asking him to put his "tool kit" aside and come to the board for each item he stated he didn't want to have to go to the board to ask for funding for each item in his "tool kit". He was questioned as to what exactly the professional and specialized services were that he would need. He stated that maybe an attorney, because he could find a cheaper alternative to County Counsel, and he has, former DA Wolverton. However he didn't state that he was looking for a former Auditor. Apparently that "tool kit" is being used to hire former elected officials to sit in on some department mid-year budget reviews, and who knows what Wolverton has been hired for. So, how does the board justify all of this spending for duplication of services when they have furloughed employees. Tederick is hired at a rate of $67.50 per hour plus expenses, and it's not real clear what he's doing. The compensated absences are not a cost that the general fund can afford now. And in looking at the numbers that were provided by the CAO, it appears that he doesn't have a real good grasp on reality when it comes to computing numbers.
Ultimately its the Boards responsibility. They should probably pay attention when the County wide elected officials start writing open letters to them. It's a sign that all is not well, and frustration is spilling over. I don't know that those relationships can be salvaged; the degree of mistrust may be to high to enable salvation of working relations with current Admin staff.
CAO's and ACAO's are replaceable; one is on contract which is up in June, and the other is an at-will employee. Maybe the County should try to go without a CAO for awhile, as that just hasn't been working out real well over the past decade.
Has anyone noted that the CAO's mother-in-law Dr. Stockton, Director of Health Services is always in the room to come to her son-in-laws defense when it gets heated? Her statement yesterday that maybe she should have brought a letter was out of line. The Sheriff stated that he's been asked to stay out of BOS meetings. Seems Dr. Stockton didn't get the same memo.
What is the major problem. Why can't we seem to elect an intelligent board that can manage business in a professional manner. I'm not sure what we're paying our CAO for as he can't seem to work with the elected Sheriff and Auditor, and now we have to hire an antiquated retired auditor that may have lent a hand in the early days towards the inappropriate allocations of funds. Why did the County vote Tederick out? I would be interested to know where his downward spiral started that allowed Judy Stevens to beat him.
Things may be getting worse. I have a letter from County cousel Kenny that says the BOS didn't create the budget committee and the county clerk has authority to make changes to county committees on her own without board aproval. This guy is a big part of Modoc's problems. He tells officials whatever they hope to hear rather than the truth. Where did the clerk of the board get authority to change committees? How and when was the budget committee created if not by the BOS. These are new questions created by the letter.
CAO Robertson is doing a very good job. The Sheriff's Office budget for this year is the same as last year, every other dept got cut 10%. What are you whining about. We are in tough times.
Dept heads are not required to be at the budget hearings, usually they go when their dept is up for debate.
We all have to work together.
CAO Robertson has a great head on his shoulders. Don't start a campaign against him as is the typical Modoc method of running someone off that CAN do a good job for us. We need Robertson's expertise to pull us out of the hole that has been dug.
Darcy, Cheryl, Mike pull in your horns!
I agree with 10:29. There are a lot of other issues going on here. Communication is a two-way street and those elected officials could be more forthcoming themselves. Looking at the department's budget, it doesn't appear the Sheriff was cut at all. If we hope to get out of this financial mess, we need to put personal issues aside.
Anonymous at 10:29. you miss the entire point. Secrecy in our county government is the problem. Secrecy breads suspicion, usually rightly so. Robertson was shoved down our throats without proper procedures. The nepotism here realy stinks. His overpaid mother-inlaw also works for the county. Meetings held in secret have no place when public confidence is so low. Robertson may be doing a great job but secrecy will only alienate the public and create suspicion. Why does he insist on budget committee meetings be in total secrecy? That's why corruption has thrived in this county for so long.
Darcy, Cheryl, Mike pull in your horns!? REALY? That would be the wrong thing to do now. They need to keep pushing for the openness and honesty and compliance with the law that we all are demanding. It seems that Robertson wants a free hand to do as he wishes without oversight. History tells us that is the wrong thing to do.
Just a clarification, the elected officials are not County department heads. They are independent authorities with direct responsibility to the voters. The Sheriff and Auditor are supposed to critique Board actions. Whether we agree with them or not, that is part of their responsibility.
Greg Small
Fort Bidwell
Pull in your horns? That is precisely the "herd mentality" that got the Modoc taxpayers $20 million dollars into debt in the first place.
Which is why it is exactly the opposite of what Modoc needs right now. We need independent and open dialog from our elected officials, not this pretend transparency that Byrne, Allan, CAO Robertson, and the rest are giving us.
Please remember, if just a few more people (other than Mrs. Michelson from the First 5 program) had "broken from the herd" 13 years ago and been honest, we wouldn't be talking about this now.
But we are here, and unless we want to repeat history, we need less herd behavior from our elected officials - not more.
“Apparently people don't like the truth, but I do like it; I like it because it upsets a lot of people. If you show them enough times that their arguments are bullshit, then maybe just once, one of them will say, 'Oh! Wait a minute - I was wrong.' I live for that happening. Rare, I assure you."
~ Lemmy Kilmister
Bring Tedrick back to Modoc County? That would be about as foolhardy as the Modoc voters electing Judy Stevens. What is wrong people? Digging way back in the Modoc 'good ole boy' network to 'fix' things is NOT progress.
Talk is cheap.
Can anyone provide some highlights of Robertson's accomplishments since taking the CAO position?
County code specifies competitive sourcing procedures to to be followed when services and products are procured for the county. Were the components of Robertson's toolkit procured in accordance with the legal requirements?
It's the voters that need to step in and get this stopped. The supervisors work for the voters in their districts, and county wide elected officials work for all of the voters in the county.
This all starts with the fact that the county is sharing a CAO with the City of Alturas. The board was advised last spring by County Counsel that it was a conflict of interest and advised against it. True to the form of the BOS, they chose to ignore his advise, and did exactly what they wanted to do. This is a huge conflict of interest, and there have been a few instances where that has come into question. Then lets further compound that problem with his mother in law being the Director of Health Services, who employs her sister, and the CAO had his nephew in law working as an intern for him. And Mr. Small is correct, there is a vast difference between a department head, which is what Dr. Stockton is, and an elected official such as the Auditor.
My hats off to the Auditor and the Sheriff for opening this up and not keeping to what has been done in the past. Checks and balances are a necessary part of government, it's what keeps everyone honest, or at least it's supposed to. If our supervisors are straying from the path of what's right and legal, then the other elected officials need to step in to correct that. I believe the start of that correction may have happened Tuesday with the open letters to the Board from the Sheriff and the Auditor.
Why the unnecessary, childish, divisive, and condescending comments by the CAO's mother-in -law, the Director of Health Services, Mrs. Stockton, regarding the elected officials’ public comments to the board of supervisors?
These elected officials have the right and the responsibility to speak out, as does every other American citizen.
First Mrs. Stockton insinuates that somehow these elected officials are stating that they represent other department heads, when in fact they said nothing of the sort. Just listen to the BOS audio to confirm this.
Mrs. Stockton then follows that self-serving comment with the snide remark to these elected officials that "if you feel victimized, there may be a reason for it," thus implying that she is privy to information that should be confidential, as well as attempting to marginalize and distance these elected officials from the rest of the “herd,” and invalidate their position by innuendo alone.
If memory serves, Mrs. Stockton was one of several department heads that over the past three years begged the BOS to create an open and transparent process which included the public in solving our self-inflicted financial dilemma.
Incongruously, now that Mrs. Stockton’s son-in-law, the new CAO Chester Robertson, along with other members of the board, have corralled the information and created a much less public-friendly process for dealing with this mess, she hypocritically crows the success of this latest management style – apparently because she has access to the information and resources that the new power structure is underhandedly denying these elected officials and the very public she advocated for not long ago.
“Honest discussions - even and perhaps especially on topics about which we disagree - can help us resist hypocrisy and arrogance. They can also help us live up to the basic ideals, such as liberty and justice for all, on which our country was founded.”
-- David E. Price
How can they justify hiring the people as consultants that lied to us and created this mess and pay them with our taxes? It may be legal but it sure creates suspicion of continuing the good old boy's and girl's system. They don't like to tell us about that either. I have been told, by a supervisor, that a large amount of county business is decided in secret meetings and then just pretend first discussion at BOS meetings. Anybody that went to meetings last year could easily see that in the way they cut some discussions so short before a vote.
Just because a meeting can be legaly held in secret does not mean it must be a secret meeting. Our present representatives seem to look for any thread of excuse to hold secret, closed meetings.
In times of universal deceit, telling the truth will be a revolutionary act.
G. Orwell
February 16, 2012 11:10 AM & February 16, 2012 10:29 AM
You both state that Chester is doing a good job. What is it exactly that he's done?
Waste Management and the Library were issues that were supposed to be resolved in 60 days according to him during the budget hearings. Neither are resolved and now it looks like neither of them will finish the year in the black. Who is going to pay for that? More cuts in other departments? Point is that both of those issues were supposed to have a resolution sometime in December, and here we are with March around the corner and still no resolution. At least nothing that has been brought to the Board.
He was asked several times during the budget hearings if we were going to get financing this year, as he chose to dig into some of the set aside funds. He stated that by May we would have financing. It's just a little over 60 days until May, and that has yet to be taken to the Board.
Every time there is an issue on the agenda that might be sensitive the health services staff is in attendance with their words of superior wisdom washing the room in their condescending tones. Karen is often there acting as defender, and Pam is just the side circus attraction that fits well into Chester's mantra at being the master of redirection and distraction. Ask him a question and he'll give a dissertation for an answer, though never really answers the question. Karen will step forward with, "I think what Chester is trying to say is...." And she even gets it wrong, and what you end up being is exhausted as you listen to the endless mindless chatter that he is so adept at.
I do believe he is in over his head, and I think he can thank his mother in law for that. I'm sure that she just wanted to make sure that her daughter and grandchildren were well provided for.
If that is what you consider a good job, then yes I agree Chester has been very successful at distraction and evasion.
This doesn't even touch on the conflict of interest. How sure are we that he's working for the best interest of the County? Who's on first? City or County? Which day does he wear which hat?
All interesting questions to ponder.
The 'our way or the highway' gang just took over Modoc County again, all because another board member supposedly doesn't 100% support the CAO. No proof was given, other than this board member was "asking questions" and trying to "appoint committee members." How dare he.
The problem with this solution is that these are mostly the same people and ideas that made this mess in the first place.
Hard to figure how they are going to be as good as getting us out of this fiasco as they were at getting us into it.
"Deficits mean future tax increases, pure and simple. Deficit spending should be viewed as a tax on future generations, and politicians who create deficits should be exposed as tax hikers."
-- Ron Paul
Well, the board clerk almost got it right at the Feb. 22nd meeting, when she noted that when you make a motion to reconsider you have to specify what specific motion is being reconsidered, and make a motion and take a vote to reconsider that specific item.
Where she got it wrong was that BOS board policy states that:
"motions for reconsideration must be placed on a future agenda for action."
Since the original motion being reconsidered from the Jan. 10th meeting was:
"CONSIDERATION/ACTION: Reorganization of Board of Supervisors. Election of Chairman and Vice-Chairman,"
This is what should have properly been stated on this Feb. 22nd meeting agenda - exactly as worded before.
Oh, and also filling out the reasons for this on the agenda request, as another poster had mentioned here earlier.
Cowards, bullies, and hypocrites are running our county now. Not that I like or dislike Jeff Bullock, that has nothing to do with it, but I certainly I don't like people who say that we all need to make complaints through the proper channels and all, and then ignore their own rules to get someone out of the way that they disagree with.
Look out Mr. Sheriff and Mrs. Auditor, you will be next.
The CAO clearly doesn't like the Auditor as she's "too argumentative", and the Sheriff as he's referred to him as a "neanderthal".
This County needs to unite against this type of corruption in government.
This County is on the economic edge of disaster as it is. Adding total corruption in our County government will not add stability to that which is on the verge of a total collapse. When that happens every single citizen in this County will be effected.
5:31 PM, In case you haven't heard, the BOS voted for total corruption for Modoc government yesterday by installing the champion of corruption and intimidation to chair the BOS. Now she'll really feel empowered to intimidate and threaten.
I attended the BOS meeting of 2/22 and it was obvious that the three thugs were in charge and were NOT going to state why they must have a change in leadership. Sitting where I was, I could not see every face up around that table, but watching David Allen (not my supervisor, thankfully) he was rolling his eyes and in general had the body language of a teenager on a rampage. His lack of respect for the public actually shocked me. I thought I was past the stage of being shocked by these clowns, evidently not. I do not know if that body language shows on Doug Knox's video (yes, he was there video taping the meeting) but if you see the video, look for it. Our BOS is out of control, taking all of us too close to the edge of fiscal disaster. They are making bankruptcy and take-over by a judge and appointed outsider look like a pretty reasonable proposition. At least they could get rid of these thugs who "rule" over us. Nothing representative about their government style.
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