The Board of Supervisors dissolved 12 county advisory committees Tuesday.
Supervisor Miles Menetrey moved to leave the consent agenda intact, and Supervisor Rosemarie Smallcombe seconded. The motion passed with three ayes and two abstentions.
The dissolved bodies are the planning advisory committees for Catheys Valley, Coulterville, El Portal, Greeley Hill and Yosemite West, plus the Fish Camp Town Planning Advisory Committee.
The others are the Code Compliance Advisory Committee, the Housing Program Advisory Committee, the Mariposa Advisory Task Force, the Central Sierra Broadband Utility Zone Consortium, the Childcare Task Force and the Surface Mining Technical Advisory Committee.
Speakers asked the board to keep at least some of them.
Lisa Edelheit said committees have a different purpose than town halls and urged the board to “keep some committees,” naming the code compliance, Fish Camp and housing bodies.
She also asked whether the surface mining committee could be repurposed.
Barbara Cone, speaking by phone, said the code compliance committee was not told of the plan and called the lack of notice “very rude.”
She asked the board to pull that item and the housing item.
In an email to the board Nov. 1, Dale Silverman, president of Mystic Mountain Ranch Consulting, urged supervisors to move the items off the consent calendar.
She called for public town halls first, saying the committees
“increase civic trust.”
Supervisor Shannon Poe said the committees were notified in advance.
Supervisors don’t appoint committee members, he said. Poe said he held a town hall with about 50 people, and that nobody had come forward or communicated with him to keep the committees.
He also tied the move to county finances. “This county is broke, guys,” he said.
On code compliance, Poe said Development Services Director Greg Thompson told him the committee’s five years of work gave him enough to draft a proposal for the public.
He said Thompson agreed to a six-month timeline. Poe praised the committee’s members but said its duration was the problem.
Supervisor Jenni Kiser asked to pull out five of the proposed committees to be cut from the agenda and bring back a staff report on each. She said the code compliance committee “has worked very hard and has some good recommendations.” Menetrey said the board had discussed the dissolutions at least three times.
He noted that the code compliance committee began with nine members and only two stayed throughout and he commended their efforts.
The Board of Supervisors approved the consent agenda 3-0, with two abstentions, on a motion by Supervisor Miles Menetrey, seconded by Supervisor Rosemarie Smallcombe. Menetrey, Smallcombe and Board Chair Danette Toso voted yes. Supervisors Shannon Poe and Jenni Kiser abstained.
Smallcombe said three town halls in Fish Camp drew “substantial” participation.
“If we hear from even a small group of people, we will work with those folks,” she said.
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