Staffing problems at the San Benito County Planning Department
will go from bad to worse later this month with the departure of a
long-time planner.
Hollister – Staffing problems at the San Benito County Planning Department will go from bad to worse later this month with the departure of a long-time planner.
Senior Planner Mary Paxton, a 15-year veteran of the planning department, is departing at the end of October for personal reasons.
“At this point in my life, I want to be present with my family,” she said.
Paxton’s departure will leave the planning department with just three planners. According to county Management Analyst Susan Lyons, the department needs five full-time planners and a part-time planner just to deal with its current work load.
Lyons said they were losing more than an employee – they were losing 15 years of experience.
“A department definitely feels the loss when it loses someone with that much institutional knowledge,” Lyons said.
It’s been a tumultuous year for the county’s planning department.
In May, the Board of Supervisors fired former Planning Director Rob Mendiola, who had held the post for more than two decades. The reasons for the dismissal were never made public.
Two months before that, Mendiola and the planning department were the subject of a county investigation stemming from allegations by two building inspectors that Mendiola had abused his power to help former Supervisor Richard Scagliotti use his position as a county supervisor for financial gain in a development project. The accusation of corruption was part of a lawsuit lawyer Michael Pekin filed against the county and Scagliotti.
The investigation was completed in April, but the Board of Supervisors has not released its findings because they involve pending litigation in the ongoing case against Scagliotti. Mendiola was exonerated of any criminal activity by the investigation, according to County Counsel Claude Biddle.
Less than two weeks after Mendiola was fired, another management position in the department became vacant when Deputy Planning Director Fred Goodrich quit, giving the county 48 hours notice – the same length of notice the county gave Mendiola.
Though the Board of Supervisors took steps to fill the leadership void in the department when it hired Michael Bethke as part-time interim planning director in mid-May, the department is still in need of a full-time permanent director.
Currently, county staff is working to finalize the job description for full-time planning director. Supervisors will probably vote on whether to approve the job description next week. There are at least two candidates interested in the job, Lyons said, adding that the county might start interviewing candidates for the position in the next few weeks.
Bethke, meanwhile, has said that he is working to recruit more planners.
