San Benito supes move Emergency Services into Health and Human
Services, Sheriff’s Department
San Benito supervisors last week abolished the county’s Office
of Emergency Services, dividing its services between the Sheriff
and the Health and Human Services departments.
But while they voted down a 5 percent pay raise for Sheriff
Curtis Hill and Social Services Director Kathy Flores for taking on
the added duties of the dissolved agency, they did push through a
12.5 percent pay raise for outgoing elections head John Hodges. The
vote was narrow: 3-2, with Supervisors Pat Loe and Anthony Botelho
voting against the motion for Hodges’ raise, made by Supervisor
Jaime De La Cruz, who voted with Supervisors Reb Monaco and Don
Marcus for the pay hike.
San Benito supes move Emergency Services into Health and Human Services, Sheriff’s Department
San Benito supervisors last week abolished the county’s Office of Emergency Services, dividing its services between the Sheriff and the Health and Human Services departments.
But while they voted down a 5 percent pay raise for Sheriff Curtis Hill and Social Services Director Kathy Flores for taking on the added duties of the dissolved agency, they did push through a 12.5 percent pay raise for outgoing elections head John Hodges. The vote was narrow: 3-2, with Supervisors Pat Loe and Anthony Botelho voting against the motion for Hodges’ raise, made by Supervisor Jaime De La Cruz, who voted with Supervisors Reb Monaco and Don Marcus for the pay hike.
The board grappled with a major reorganization Tuesday, preparing to hire a new county counsel and public works director, on top of discussing the possibilities of folding the position of county finance director into Hodge’s clerk/auditor/recorder/elections position. County staff assured the board and audience that such a drastic change would not be made until the outgoing Hodges was out of office at year’s end.
But the meeting took on an edgy tone when Supervisor De La Cruz broke order during board announcements to criticize the district attorney for his prosecution against Los Valientes.
Board announcements are a normally routine but innocuous portion of the meeting – reserved for light fare such as official recognitions, awards, reminders of upcoming community functions and the like. But the ritual might never be the same. De La Cruz waved a copy of The Pinnacle to the audience and demanded the board take a vote of “no confidence” against D.A. John Sarsfield.
“Because of his personal vendetta, Sarsfield has cost this county $1 million chasing people around!” De La Cruz shouted. “I believe the D.A. is out of control. I urge a vote of ‘no confidence.'”
De La Cruz was referring to the recent announcement made in court by county attorney Nancy Battel, who said the county has spent nearly $1 million to defend against litigation from an anonymous group called Los Valientes, who claimed widespread corruption against county officials in 2003. Court documents of witness testimony that emerged recently in the D.A.’s counter civil case against the group indicate that De La Cruz could be involved with the group, or perhaps even a member.
Loe, on her second meeting as new Chair, tepidly tapped the gavel to stop the rogue point of order, with little result. Finally, outgoing Interim County Counsel Claude Biddle reminded De La Cruz that they could not take any action during board announcements, and furthermore, his motion was not on the agenda.
By the time the supervisors took on discussing how to make the clerk/auditor/recorder/elections position financially on par with the now vacated finance director position, the arguments became murky.
“Let me add more mud to the water,” De La Cruz said. “Right now, the finance director works under Hodges.”
But there is no finance director now. The board is still undecided whether to refill the position or let the new clerk/auditor/recorder. – depending on who gets elected – undertake the vacant role as well. Hodges, a colorful but controversial county icon, said he is not running again for the post he held for 19 years. He leaves in his tenured wake three investigations of his office, launched after the contentious District 5 supervisor’s race of 2004. State and local investigators determined the elections head illegally counted ballots that might have thrown the race to De La Cruz by a mere 10 votes. Hodges’ office also was sued by the federal government for not making elections materials bilingual in a county that’s 55 percent Hispanic.
With little further discussion, De La Cruz quickly moved to up Hodges’ salary to make it 20 percent higher than what former Finance Director Dan Vrtis was getting. It means Hodges will be getting a 12.5 percent pay raise, from $8771 per month to $9972 per month. His total salary is $119,674 a year. Loe and Botelho voted against the salary hike.
The move contradicted the call for frugality De La Cruz made just minutes before when he argued against upping the salaries for Sheriff Curtis Hill and Social Services Director Kathy Flores 5 percent, even though the board had just dissolved the Office of Emergency Services and divvied the workload between the two county workhorses.
Former OES Director Margie Riopel will become a management analyst in the county’s administrative offices. In a post-meeting comment, she said is happy with the decision to fold the office into two other agencies as it was becoming too stressful.
Sheriff Hill’s department will take over the emergency communications system, and the Office of Health Services will manage the emergency medical services prong of the former county office.
