LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday appointed the auditor-controller/county clerk to temporarily oversee the Registrar of Voters Office as the county moves forward with recruiting a new registrar and looking at the long-term leadership for the department.
Registrar Catherine McMullen’s last day on the job will be Dec. 2, just five months after taking over the job. In social media posts she has called her job a “nightmare from day one,” and said that she’s experienced in Lake County a workplace where she and others are bullied.
McMullen’s interim deputy, Marcy Harrison, also has left the department but is moving to another department within the county, that of the auditor-controller/county clerk.
Last week, the board held an initial discussion of next steps, directing county staff to move forward with recruiting McMullen’s successor, as Lake County News has reported.
The most recent shakeup in leadership caps a year of major changes within the Registrar of Voters office, including the loss of an estimated 70 years of experience.
Longtime Registrar Diane Fridley retired in December. Then, in February, Fridley’s longtime deputy, Maria Valadez, left to take a job in Mendocino County after County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson apparently worked to prevent her from getting the registrar job on a permanent basis.
On Tuesday, Huchingson told the board that with McMullen’s last day falling on Dec. 2, and the board not scheduled to meet again until the following week, they needed to make an interim appointment.
Ultimately, the board decided to temporarily appoint Auditor-Controller/County Clerk Cathy Saderlund to temporarily oversee the elections office while a recruitment for a new registrar takes place.
Saderlund told the board during the discussion that she was less open to an interim appointment than taking over the elections office on a long-term basis.
However, the discussion revealed that even if Saderlund were to take over the elections function, if her department is ultimately consolidated with the treasurer-tax collector – which it now can be thanks to the passage and signing by the governor earlier this year of AB 632 – the county clerk and elections functions would need to be removed from that consolidated department.
In consolidating the Registrar of Voters Office with Saderlund’s, county officials such as Huchingson, who is pushing the move, have not provided any actual analysis of the benefits they claim that the move would bring.
After last week’s initial discussion by the board, in response to questions from Lake County News about the potential consolidation, Saderlund wrote in an email, “Whenever there is a department head resignation, the opportunity for efficiencies is considered. In the case of the Elections Department it was previously a division of the Auditor-Controller/County Clerk and prior to that the stand alone County Clerk. Those are important facts to future decisions regarding the current instability that having the two Elections Department managers depart at the same time has presented, once again.”
At that point, Saderlund said no fiscal analysis had been done on the proposed consolidation, nor had any work begun on consolidating her and the treasurer-tax collector, as allowed under AB 632.
Asked about how consolidating the Registrar of Voters Office with hers might impact the two departments, Saderlund replied, “This is an evolving process and I do not have an analysis at this time.”
Board discussions options, hears from public
Supervisor Bruno Sabatier said he agreed an interim appointment was necessary. However, when it came to restructuring the department, “I don’t agree with the restructuring. I think that we are asking a lot from every single one of our departments,” he said.
Sabatier said that combining a department and asking a department head to take on many departments has an impact.
He said they need to look at how departments are structured and the workload, and if it works for the county.
Sabatier said he has looked at other departments the board has consolidated. “There is a juggling game that happens when you start consolidating and you’re at the top and you don’t have the people underneath you yet to be able to support that kind of consolidation.”
He also said questioned if the Registrar of Voters Office, if consolidated with the auditor-controller/county clerk, would get out of the tiny space it inhabits on the second floor of the courthouse. “I don’t see it as a positive setting when you’re that cramped.”
Sabatier said he would support the idea of placing the elections office under Saderlund’s oversight on an interim basis as they continue to look for a new registrar.
“I don’t disagree with that at all,” said Supervisor Rob Brown.
During public comment, Mary Borjon, an active volunteer with the elections office, said she wanted to see it remain separate.
“In the long term I’d like to see it remain independent for two reasons,” said Borjon.
She explained that she believes it promotes transparency if it’s not under an elected official, and she agreed with Sabatier about how far the county is stressing employees and diluting work with consolidation.
Michael Green, who has worked in the elections office, noted, “It’s a very critical function to the county.”
He offered support for staff members, who he said has been through dramatic change.
Green said the board needed to appoint an interim head, but he thought they could buy some time on the broader issue of how to structure it. He said he likes the idea of a department head that reports directly to the board but also recognized the challenges in handling overhead functions for a small department.
The county needs to get more workers in the department and let them know they have their backs, Green added.
Supervisor EJ Crandell said he was concerned about the timeline, with the fast-approaching March primary.
He said he also felt strongly about keeping the elections office a standalone department, adding it may not be feasible.
Brown said he wanted to see Saderlund’s office oversee the elections office on an interim basis and then the county can begin a recruitment process. “I think that’s a good way to start.”
He said he also wanted the county to reach out to Fridley to see if she would be willing to come back on a part-time basis. Brown said he believed that would give everyone a level of comfort to get through a series of upcoming election-related deadlines.
During the discussion, Huchingson handed out the eclections calendar that showed the long list of deadlines that have to be met. She said she had invited Saderlund to the discussion and hoped she would appear.
In the meantime, Vice Chair Moke Simon – acting as chair on Tuesday because of Tina Scott’s absence – said he supported consolidating the elections office with the Auditor-Controller/County Clerk’s Office. He called it an “opportunity” to give the department long-term stability.
Saderlund weighs in on short-term and long-term oversight
After Simon spoke Saderlund appeared, saying that Huchingson had called her down to the meeting and that she was only just seeing the election schedule for the first time. She added that she hadn’t heard the discussion or the board’s comments so far and so she wasn’t clear on their direction.
She said she was happy to assist wherever she can, but added that if the board wanted her to take over the elections function on a short-term basis, she didn’t feel she would be the right person, because she needed to time plan and include it in her department’s vision.
“It would be hard to have a good vision for that department if it was on an interim basis and Ii would not be able to plan,” she said.
Saderlund added, “I can’t take my current staff and have them buy into an interim support mechanism at this point,” because the training would be for nothing. “I think we need more of a vision on this, long-term.”
She said she would be happy to reach out to Fridley, adding both she and Brown had spoken to a former elections employee in preparation for whatever might come. She thought the board needed to hear from that person about what they think would be the appropriate movement forward.
As for the matter of accountability, Saderlund said she wasn’t going to address it. “That’s a non-issue,” she said. “It needs to be what makes sense for Lake County not who that specific person is at this very point in time.”
Huchingson said that the board will have a decision to make when Saderlund’s term ends in January 2023.
At that point, the board would have the opportunity to move forward with consolidating the treasurer-tax collector with the auditor-controller. However, Huchingson said they would then need to do something different with the county clerk and the elections offices, which can’t remain attached to the consolidated treasurer-tax collector and auditor-controller.
Saderlund agreed with Sabatier that the elections office is very cramped. She said she would look at moving it to a location that would better serve citizens. “There needs to be a better location and there has been for a very long time.”
Huchingson said her office had been looking to the Registrar of Voters Office to look at its office space with the goal of coming back to the county’s space committee with a recommendation which could then be forwarded to the supervisors.
Sabatier said he wanted to see if they could speak with Fridley about helping out on an interim basis. The elections office has 3.75 full-time equivalent jobs budgeted but is down to 1.75. Another staffer is due to join the department in December.
He voiced his concerns about putting additional burden on Saderlund, pointing to the elections calendar, which he said is added work.
Brown suggested making Saderlund the interim registrar to start. “I’m afraid we’re not completely looking outside the box,” he said, adding they have some options that are obvious but can look at others and then come back and continue the discussion next month.
Sabatier moved to place Saderlund as interim registrar of voters and to move forward with a recruitment of a registrar and reconvene the conversation on Dec. 10, which Crandell seconded.
Brown asked if a few board members could meet with Saderlund and come back with a recommendation based on her input. It was decided that Brown and Sabatier would meet with her.
At Saderlund’s request, Sabatier amended the motion to clarify that her interim oversight of the elections office initially would run from Dec. 3 to 10.
The board approved the motion and agreed to further discuss the matter on Dec. 10.
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Supervisors appoint Saderlund interim registrar of voters, plan followup discussion on Dec. 10
- Elizabeth Larson
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