LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Board of Supervisors gave the go ahead to county staff this week to begin researching how to permanently fill the registrar of voters job after the current registrar retires later this year.

County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson asked the board to consider what process to take in filling the job.

Huchingson said longtime Registrar Diane Fridley – “who has been incredible” – retires at the end of this calendar year. She’s had a 41-year career in elections.

“That will be a tremendous loss to Lake County elections,” Huchingson said.

Huchingson asked the board to direct staff to take the time necessary to explore the best model for filling the registrar’s position going forward.

“Many counties go about this in a different way,” she said, noting that Lake County some years ago had a different approach.

Many counties have a county clerk-recorder that oversees the function of recorder and elections, and it’s another elected classification, Huchingson said.

“It appears that a majority of counties use that model and others do it in different ways,” said Huchingson.

“What I’m recommending to your board is that we take the time to fully research best practice options before decisions are made about how to permanently fill this position and cover this function,” Huchingson said.

She said she thinks there is little doubt that in the face of the financial challenges on the horizon that the county of Lake is going to have to look at significant restructuring, and that it would be shortsighted to fill the job without looking at the broader scheme of how other offices are handled.

In the interim, Huchingson suggested the board consider arranging interviews of qualified staff for the interim appointment under the registrar’s current job classification, which would be on a future agenda.

In keeping with recommendations for other county offices, she wants to alter the job requirements to include a bachelor’s degree without the substitution of experience for a future permanent appointment.

Board Chair Jim Steele asked if there was any particular imperative for a degree or if that suggestion was for consistency with other department heads. Huchingson said it was the latter.

Fridley, who was present for the discussion, volunteered to be part of looking at consolidating the elections office versus leaving it freestanding.

She said the registrar’s office had been separated from the county clerk’s office for a few reasons. One was transparency, and the second was so the board would have control over the department head.

Fridley said there had been an incident in which the former county clerk and ex officio registrar of voters went door to door with a supervisorial candidate – who ended up not winning – during an election. She said she had advised that person that it wasn’t a good policy.

The change in structure ultimately was taken to the State Legislature. Fridley said state Sen. Wes Chesbro sponsored legislation to make elections a separate office and remove it from county clerk.

Separately, Fridley told Lake County News that the legislation in question, SB 195, passed in 2001 and went into effect in 2002, making the Registrar of Voters Office its own freestanding department.

Those changes were established in Board of Supervisors Ordinance No. 2580, with the chaptered bill included in Government Code Section 26802.5.

That code section, last amended by statute in 2013, says, “In the Counties of El Dorado, Imperial, Kings, Lake, Marin, Merced, Modoc, Monterey, Napa, Riverside, San Joaquin, Solano, and Tulare, a registrar of voters may be appointed by the board of supervisors in the same manner as other county officers are appointed. In those counties, the county clerk is not ex officio registrar of voters, and the registrar of voters shall discharge all duties vested by law in the county elections official that relate to and are a part of the election procedure.”

“It’s worked quite well, being separate,” Fridley told the board on Tuesday. “Our office is transparent.”

Fridley said her office provides good public service, and she’s not sure if the county would save money in the long run, especially with lawsuits.

Steele congratulated Fridley for doing a stellar job heading the elections office, adding that he hears about her good work all the time.

Supervisor Rob Brown thanked Fridley for offering the historical perspective. He said he was the board member who brought it to the board previously to not have it run by an elected official.

He said the board has oversight of the elections office budget, but doesn’t control its decision.

“At that time, there were some really bad decisions being made,” he said of the former structure.

Brown said it would be a bad place to put an elected official, as there always would be a conspiracy. “As an individual elected official running that, I think it’s a bad idea.”

Fridley also asked the board about the proposed updated job classification, noting that her two staffers don’t qualify under those new standards.

Huchingson said the interim registrar would be appointed under the current job classification. She suggested to the board that they defer consideration of the updated job description, a proposal they followed.

Fridley told Lake County News that all of her 41 years working for the county of Lake have been spent in elections.

In 2002, after the Registrar of Voters Office became its own separate department, she moved from chief deputy county clerk registrar to registrar of voters.

She started work with the county on Dec. 12, 1977, and will officially retire as of Dec. 28.

Asked about how she plans to spend her retirement, Fridley replied without hesitation: “Riding my horses.”

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.