BOS Purges Bullock

Cantrall New Chair

In a scene bordering on the Kafkaesque the Modoc County Board of Supervisors Wednesday purged Jeff Bullock of his chairmanship and effectively stripped him of all powers.
   
In a special session before a standing room only audience of mostly pro-Bullock supporters the board voted 4 to 1 to remove him as its chair without specifying their complaints against him other than a vague expression from fellow supervisor Dave Allan of “conduct unbecoming.”
    
In California politics removing a chairman from the leadership of a county board of supervisors is virtually unheard of.
   
“This is not very common,” said a spokesperson for the California State Association of Counties in Sacramento. “I do not know the specifics regarding Modoc’s practice, but with several boards, the chair rotates on an annual basis among the five supervisors, thus removal is rare since they will rotate out within a few months.”
   
The board’s action, led by Supervisor Patricia Cantrall and Allan and supported by Geri Byrne and Loren “Shorty“ Crabtree, left the audience with a vacant sense of bewilderment and bitterness.
   
Ironically, coming to Bullock’s defense largely on grounds that the politically conservative board was violating his rights under the First Amendment were members of the ultra-conservative Modoc County Tea Party.
   
There were charges from speakers of a “cabal,” and a  lack of transparency or openness. Audience members stood and said they refused to accept the nebulous charge of “conduct unbecoming.”
   
“The Board of Supervisors has not shown any reason for removing Bullock from the chair,” said an unidentified speaker. “You want to shut his voice down, you want to shut his power down. You are violating the First Amendment of the Constitution. What has he done in the 30 days he’s been chair? You know there is a power grab on this board.”
   
Bullock had few words to say in his defense other than he had the right to make appointments to board sub-committees, a reference to what he apparently thought were the board’s complaints against him.
   
But Cantrall, after being elected on a 4 to 1 vote to replace Bullock, tipped off her reasons for purging Bullock when she came to the defense of Chief Administrative Office Chester Robertson -- who at that point had not been brought into the heated argument between the board and the public.
   
Apparently addressing a member of the audience, Cantrall said, “You, sir, have called the CAO everything but a white man.”
   
In the turmoil of a riled audience, Cantrall gavelled the meeting to an end.

Balancing the County’s Budget Deficits

 on the Backs of Children

By Ray A. March

Part 15

Nov.7, 2001
Commission: “No Irregularities”

At this special meeting, Nov. 7, 2001, Tracey D. Cochran, a paralegal in the county counsel’s office headed by Vickie Cochran, Rosemary Nelson, representing the private sector; and Rusty DuVall, a private business owner, join the commission’s governing board.
   
They were to be formally sworn in as commission members on Nov. 28.
   
Minutes show that Carol Callaghan is now Carol Harbaugh’s alternate and present at this meeting.
   
In less than three months on the commission, at a special meeting on Jan. 30, 2002 -- the same afternoon Michelson was abruptly fired -- Cochran was elevated to the chair on the motion of Nelson.

Nov. 28, 2001

This meeting at which the commission was scheduled to “review ledgers, audit and reports” prepared by CPA Kristin Domenichelli was cancelled without explanation.

Dec. 5, 2001

A letter was apparently sent this date to Lynn Talbott, CPA, in effect declaring that there were no irregularities in any financial information provided by the commission.   

In other words, Donna Michelson refused to sign the letter.
   
Dec. 18, 2001

Less than two weeks later Donna Michelson wrote Lynn Talbott a three-page single-spaced letter explaining why she would not sign the “trust me” letter of Dec. 5.
   
She explained that signing the letter would put her in a position of committing perjury, that she had no control over the Prop. 10 Trust Fund and audit issues concerning the fund should be addressed to Auditor Judi Stevens.
   
“My suggestion is that you send this letter (Dec. 5, 2001) for sign off to our interim fiscal agent, Modoc County Auditor Judi Stevens, who has since the inception of the commission operated as its fiscal agent without any authorization from the executive director or the acting chair of the commission Dr. Edward P. Richert, who has the authority to bind the commission in fiscal matters, or to whomever on the commission you have obtained your information,” Michelson sternly advised Talbott.
   
Next: Part 16
    Unknown to Michelson time was running out as a new year was about to begin, but Kristin Domenichelli unloads six consecutive bombshells on the Children and Families Commission.

Balancing the County’s Budget Deficits 

on the Backs of Children

By Ray A. March

Part 14

Oct. 30, 2001
Harbaugh’s Plans for Michelson

Carol Harbaugh, using Modoc County Office of Education letterhead,  informed Domenichelli:

“The Modoc County Office of Education is planning to submit a proposal to the Modoc Children and Families Commission to provide fiscal and payroll services,” Harbaugh announced apparently in advance of notifying her fellow commissioners.

Harbaugh wrote in a two-and-a-half page, single-spaced letter that she was responding to Domenichelli’s letter of Oct. 10 to Michelson in which she recommended the commission keep its financial records independent of the county and avoid confusion and a lack of cooperation from the auditor and treasurer’s offices.
   
Harbaugh, sidestepping Domenichelli’s accusations and using vague jargon familiar to politics, said the problems stemmed from a lack of understanding and limited accounting software in the auditor’s office.
   
“The faults range from not getting requested release of payroll information authorizations to lack of understanding of what information you needed and how it could be provided by the county auditor’s accounting software,” Harbaugh wrote, excusing the behavior of the treasurer and auditor’s offices.
   
In pitching her office of education as “another local agency available to provide fiscal and payroll services,” Harbaugh outlined a contract proposal that would “not be bound by county auditor-mandated regulations, but still offer the checks and balances of a comprehensive, interactive system…” in which the Children and Families Commission would be completely independent of the county.
   
Michelson, Harbaugh, wrote, would continue as an employee of the commission “or an independent conditional” member of the Modoc County Office of Education staff completely under the direction of the commission.
   
Copies of Harbaugh’s letter to Domenichelli were sent to Michelson and each of the commission members.
   
Next: Part 15
    Donna Michelson balks at signing CPA’s  “clearance” letter and 2001 temporarily ends in relative peace.