County board in talks over new agency’s director

County supervisors Tuesday are scheduled to negotiate in closed session regarding a new department head position overseeing a consolidated Resource Management Agency. In the regular session at 9 a.m., they will consider hiring Brent Barnes as the resource management director.
Officials are set to meet with labor negotiators over the Resource Management Agency director at an 8:15 a.m. Tuesday closed session meeting at the San Benito County Administration Building, 481 Fourth St.
San Benito County supervisors in early April considered consolidating three departments—public works, planning and waste management—into a new Resource Management Agency overseen by one official.
With all three departments having vacant department head positions, the county is examining the move to one consolidated agency and talked of moving Interim Public Works Director Joe Horwedel into the temporary job so he could gauge the service structure for the permanent role.
County officials project savings of more than $200,000 by reducing overhead in the move. The Resource Management Agency director would make a salary range of $125,484 to $160,236, according to the April meeting agenda.