LAKEPORT, Calif. – After an initial unsuccessful recruitment – and with less than two months before the county’s next election – the Board of Supervisors has directed county staff to reopen the application period for the registrar of voters job, which continues to be held on an interim basis by the county administrative officer.
The job posting returned to the county’s Human Resources Web page on Monday.
It will remain open until 5 p.m. Sunday, March 31.
The salary range is $5,597 to $7,327 on a monthly basis. According to the job announcement, it requires “five years of work experience performing a variety of election administrative and support functions; or five years of current high-level management experience in voter registration and election organization with responsibility for election planning, budget administration, and personnel management; or five years of full-time administrative or managerial experience in a position which requires the application of laws and processes.”
The job first opened last month, after the resignation of interim Registrar Maria Valadez, as Lake County News has reported.
Valadez was the county’s longtime deputy registrar who was appointed in early December to fill the job on an interim basis effective Dec. 29, the day after Registrar Diane Fridley retired. Together, the two women had close to 70 years of experience in the office, as Lake County News has reported.
After the county made no attempt to keep Valadez permanently, she left on Feb. 22 to take a position with the county of Mendocino, where she is now the assistant clerk-recorder/registrar of voters.
In October, County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson had attempted unsuccessfully to have the board change the registrar’s job requirements to require a bachelor’s degree without the ability to substitute in experience, which would have prevented Valadez from succeeding Fridley on her retirement, despite having close to three decades of experience in the registrar’s office.
Although the board didn’t pursue that proposal after Fridley pointed out her staff wouldn’t be eligible, the supervisors didn’t give the the job to Valadez on a permanent basis, wanting to hold off on a permanent appointment for six months. With a higher-paying, permanent job offer available in Ukiah, Valadez departed.
On Feb. 12, Huchingson asked the board to add a special closed session discussion about filling the registrar’s job after the announcement of Valadez’s intended departure. In that closed session, the board voted 3-1 to appoint Huchingson the interim registrar of voters, effective at the close of business on Feb. 22, Valadez’s last day on the job. The vote was 3-1, with Supervisor Rob Brown voting no and Supervisor EJ Crandell absent.
Supervisor Bruno Sabatier said the intention is not to have Huchingson fill the job long term, but to cover it until a new registrar is hired.
New recruitment to be longer
When the county first opened its recruitment for a new registrar in February, it advertised for a permanent, not interim, election official, after the board had been unwilling to offer Valadez the job on a permanent basis.
The job’s initial recruitment period open to the public was nine days, following a brief period during which it was open only to other county employees, according to the Human Resources Department.
From that first posting Huchingson said the county received 13 applications. Of those, only three individuals met the minimum requirements.
At the end of February, after that first recruitment window closed, Huchingson told Lake County News that there was to be no extension of time in the recruitment.
Of the three candidates who met the qualifications and were invited to interview, the Board of Supervisors interviewed two candidates during a closed session at its March 5 meeting, Sabatier confirmed.
Sabatier said the board chose not to hire either person they interviewed. “We just said no because we didn’t feel it was a good fit.”
The decision was then made to readvertise the job. “Our hope from the very beginning is to fill that position as soon as possible,” said Sabatier, adding, “We don’t want to linger.”
He didn’t recall the board at the March 5 meeting giving any specific direction on the length of the new open recruitment, which is 20 days, compared to the previous 9-day period of time it was open to the public, not just county employees.
“We want to solve this issue,” Sabatier said.
One of the factors limiting the number of applicants, Sabatier said, is the pay the county offers.
Sabatier said he doesn’t know if the Human Resources Department is reaching out to any professional associations to find a candidate, but added that Human Resources Director Pamela Nichols has been using different avenues to advertise the county’s jobs, which he said has helped them get more applicants.
Nichols joined the county in August, four months after the board approved Huchingson’s request, tucked into a March 20 consent agenda item, to consolidate the Human Resources Department into a division of her department, the County Administrative Office.
Sabatier couldn’t confirm recent reports that the county went to Valadez, now in her new job, to ask her to return and take the registrar’s job – promising her the same pay she is now getting – and that she refused.
The county of Mendocino assistant clerk-recorder/registrar pay range is $76,918.40 to $93,475.20 annually, compared to $67,164 to $81,636 for the Lake County registrar of voters job.
Retired registrar offers assistance; Lakeport Fire officials concerned
One of Huchingson’s deputy administrative officers, Matthew Rothstein, has been assigned to work with the elections office while the recruitment continues.
The departure of both Fridley and Valadez left behind an office with only two employees, both part-time and with not enough experience to apply for either the registrar’s job or the deputy registrar’s position – which still hasn’t appeared on the county job board.
Meanwhile, Fridley confirmed to Lake County News that she has returned to help as a volunteer in the Registrar of Voters Office and that she’s willing to assist in the upcoming election.
“I don’t want the office to fail,” she said.
Sabatier said Fridley also has been part of the process to hire a new registrar.
Fridley said she was in the office on Tuesday helping clarify some issues on the Lakeport Fire Protection District fire measure, which is set to go to voters in a mail ballot in early May.
That election coming up is a concern for the county and the district alike.
“It’s an important election,” Sabatier said.
At its meeting on Tuesday evening, the Lakeport Fire Protection District Board discussed the ballot measure, with staff reporting that they had been communicating with multiple county staffers and double- and triple-checking to make sure that the registrar’s office had the information needed ahead of the election.
“It’s just very concerning that they’re going to be able to handle this measure successfully,” said District Director Alan Flora, who also is the assistant city manager for the city of Clearlake.
Flora said the district will have to keep checking to make sure everything is in order. “Obviously, it’s a big problem if they can’t uphold their responsibility and make sure it gets administered correctly.”
Sabatier said the county has just upgraded its election equipment and software, which will be in place for the fire district election. He said the company is supposed to both train county staff and help them with the election in May.
So far, it’s not clear how quickly a new registrar can be in place. On the county’s current time line, it’s likely that, at the earliest, it could be mid April before a candidate has been screened, vetted, interviewed and accepted the offer, which would give them less than a month to get up to speed.
Fridley pointed to the challenges ahead. “It’s not just learning the election, it’s learning the new system also.”
However, she said she feels the registrar’s office is moving in the right direction. “They’re on their way.”
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
County of Lake reopens registrar of voters job recruitment
- Elizabeth Larson
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