LAKEPORT, Calif. – For the second time in less than a year, issues with county leadership have led to a vacancy in the top position in the elections office, leaving the Board of Supervisors with the responsibility of deciding how the department should be managed going forward.
The board held a discussion on Tuesday regarding next potential steps in the wake of Registrar of Voters Catherine McMullen’s resignation, submitted on Nov. 7, as Lake County News has reported.
The direction from Tuesday’s meeting is that staff is to begin an immediate recruitment for a new registrar.
McMullen, who took over the elections office at the end of June, originally intended to leave as of Nov. 22, according to her resignation letter.
However, County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson said McMullen has decided to stay with the county through Dec. 2 in order to certify Northshore Fire’s Measure N fire tax election, which took place two days before she submitted her resignation letter.
Huchingson said she wanted to discuss with the board the next steps for the Registrar of Voters Office, and asked that staff be given direction on how to approach the office’s short-term and long-term functions.
McMullen was not present for the discussion.
Her resignation letter gave little insight into her reasons for resigning. “While this was not an easy decision to make, it is the best decision moving forward for myself and my family,” McMullen wrote.
However, McMullen – who was raised in Lake County and moved back from Portland, Oregon, with her family to take the job – has shed more light on her tenure as registrar on her LinkedIn page, in response to Lake County News’ initial story on her resignation.
“This appointment was to be my dream job but instead has been a nightmare from day one. It is time to move on,” McMullen wrote.
Earlier this week, in a comment on a post about bullying, McMullen said, “I’m actively leaving a workplace where myself and others are experiencing bullying. I'm choosing to get out but it was a very difficult decision to make.”
The board on Tuesday did not address, at least in open session, the causes of McMullen’s departure.
Huchingson proposes consolidation, again
On Tuesday, Huchingson said that among the options the board has, the first is to recruit a new registrar of voters. Huchingson said staff estimated that would likely be a three-month process, as recruitments tend to slow down over the holidays.
California’s Super Tuesday presidential primary is only four months away, at the start of March. “From our view that timing is very problematic,” Huchingson said.
Huchingson said the second option is to restructure the Registrar of Voters Office, using government code to show how the office could be integrated into the County Clerk-Auditor-Controller’s Office, which is headed by Cathy Saderlund, an elected official, who also wasn’t present for the Tuesday meeting.
That’s the proposal Huchingson made last fall to the board last fall when longtime Registrar Diane Fridley announced her retirement. At that time the board didn’t agree to the proposal, especially after Fridley explained that the department originally had been separated for reasons of transparency and giving the board control over that department head.
However, Huchingson argued for it again on Tuesday.
She explained that in 2002 the county had split off its election function, which it was allowed to do under California Government Code Section 26802.5.
That code allows Lake and 12 other California counties to have an independent registrar’s office, a measure that supervisors pointed out was taken due to the appearance of conflict.
Huchingson said that Lake is the smallest county to have an independent registrar. With three staffers, it’s also Lake County’s smallest department.
Later in the discussion, Supervisor Bruno Sabatier would point out that, in fact, Modoc – with 8,000 residents, compared to Lake’s 65,000 – is the smallest county with an independent elections office.
Huchingson showed a list of options of how other counties combine their elections office with agencies such as the county clerk, public administrator or treasurer tax collector. Based on Huchingson’s analysis, in the majority of the state’s counties, the elections office is a function but not a separate department.
Regarding short-term coverage, Huchingson asked that the board agendize a discussion for its Nov. 26 meeting on a recommendation specific to returning the elections office to its earlier model of being combined with another department.
At the same time, Huchingson suggested she once again serve as interim registrar – as she did earlier this year after then-interim Registrar Maria Valadez left to take a job in Mendocino County – for the purposes of transition only. She suggested that interim appointment would be effective as of Dec. 3, upon McMullen’s departure.
For longterm coverage, Huchingson said staff recommended the board direct that a future agenda item, likely at the Dec. 10 meeting, be scheduled to rescind County Ordinance 2560, which was the basis of the change to government code and return the elections office function to the county clerk’s office.
Huchingson said Saderlund has expressed a willingness to take on the elections office and provide ongoing administrative support. Her new chief deputy, Marcy Harrison, who since April has served as interim registrar of voters, would provide transitional training.
Saderlund, Huchingson said, proposes to create a chief deputy registrar of voters to oversee the elections division while retaining the current positions and staff. Huchingson said it would offer the advantage of allowing election staff to focus on elections and not juggle responsibility for budget oversight and other duties.
“It’s tough to do all that in a small, small department,” she said.
Huchingson also advocated for the change because it would allow for cross training, offer depth when staffing changes occur and maximize staff resources.
“It’s tough to identify cons with this methodology,” said Huchingson.
However, some board members would do just that, raising concerns about accountability.
At no time on Tuesday did Huchingson explain how the proposal for combining the departments would impact a proposal to have Saderlund take over still another department – that of the treasurer-tax collector. That was another change Huchingson pushed but one which the board approved.
Earlier this year, Assemblywoman Cecelia Aguiar-Curry wrote a bill, AB 632, authorizing those two elected offices to be combined into one. It was signed by the governor this summer.
Saderlund told Lake County News later on Tuesday that she is not aware of any work having been done so far to move forward on consolidating her office with that of the treasurer-tax collector based on the approval of AB 632.
Board considers options
Supervisor Rob Brown said he was the one who brought the issue forward about breaking the elections office into its own department 17 years ago, taking it away from the supervision of an elected official due to perception.
Referring to Saderlund, although not by name, Brown said the person holding the county clerk-auditor-controller position is not going to be there forever. He said he has 1,000-percent confidence in her and that she isn’t up for election coming up, so the perception issue won’t be the same.
As such, he asked why they couldn’t consider making the interim registrar appointment soon.
County Clerk Anita Grant clarified that under current ordinance, the county clerk does not hold the elections function in an ex officio role – in other words, by rights of the office – as in other counties. However, that office could hold it as an interim appointment.
Sabatier said he thinks it’s important to keep the elections office separate, as he believed it increases accountability. While he didn’t mind having the auditor-controller offer interim oversight, “I don’t think that should be a final destination.”
He suggested beginning an immediate recruitment for a new registrar as part of making it a robust department, noting this is the second time in less than a year that the board was dealing with registrar staffing issues.
Sabatier added he wanted to see an upcoming discussion on what the county needs to do to make the elections office conducive to success, as he said it needed to be perceived as a strong department.
Supervisor Moke Simon said he liked Huchingson suggestion of combining the registrar’s office with the auditor-controller’s office.
He said it would allow for cross training and succession plans, which he said the county didn’t have before.
However, Sabatier countered that he believed there had been a potential succession plan and the county “blew it,” an apparent reference to the departure of Valadez, whose appointment to the job Huchingson tried to block by a proposed change to educational requirements.
Ultimately, Valadez left after the board put off making a permanent job offer and after she received another opportunity in Mendocino County.
Board Chair Tina Scott also said she wanted to see if the registrar’s office could be placed back with the auditor-controller.
Speaking of public perception, Grant – who said she had volunteered to help count ballots during previous elections – noted that Fridley always kept a separation, as she was “always very aware of public perception” and did an excellent job of honoring public concerns.
Northshore Fire officials raise concerns with process
Northshore FIre Chief Mike Ciancio told the board he was happy to hear McMullen would stay to validate the election.
He said he also was encouraged to hear that the board wants to work on the process.
Ciancio said his agency, Fire District Board Chair Jim Burton and the Friends of Northshore Fire District have submitted a letter of concern to Supervisor EJ Crandell about the election for its Measure N fire tax and the processes of the election.
He said he’s fielded a lot of calls about the election process, not so much about the results. He raised questions about whether the recent power shutoffs affected the election and the associated mailers.
Crandell said he submitted the letter to Grant and Huchingson and wanted it on an upcoming agenda.
Shannon Stilwell of the Friends of Northshore Fire District also spoke about the elections process, questioning the impact of the power shutoffs on the process and delivery, raising concern about the stability of the Registrar of Voters Office and deviations from the norm.
Stilwell said McMullen’s intended departure before the certification raised red flags.
“This is an issue that will affect the public in the Northshore for quite some time,” she said.
Gillian Parrillo questioned who would be staffing the office as people are filing documents to run for local offices, with a Dec. 6 deadline.
“We’ll know next Tuesday,” said Brown. “We don’t know who it’s going to be.”
Sabatier, Crandell and Brown all said they supported advertising for a new registrar of voters, which was the direction given to staff.
Next week, the board is scheduled to further discuss hiring a new registrar and where the office should be placed.
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Supervisors hold initial discussion on elections office leadership; majority direct new recruitment
- Elizabeth Larson
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