At the last CCSD meeting , GM Tammy Rudock reported that she had voted “No” on the recent Mosquito Abatement District Assessment on behalf of the District and the properties it owns. She decisded that this was within her authority, since she is authorized to enter into contracts for the District. As to why she voted no for the district: the money wasn’t in the budget to pay it.
This action might not have caught my attention, except that over the last two weeks, I’ve attended four meetings of agencies subject to the Brown Act: the SLO Board of Supervisors, San Miguel Advisory Council, Cambria Community Healthcare District and the Cambria Community Services District. At each of these meetings, the staff brought the issue to Board to vote on, as they seemed to consider it more of a policy issue, rather than a management one. Looking at the agendas for a few other CSDs it was clear they also left the vote to the choice of their Boards.
Since it wasn’t even on the consent calendar, the public had no opportunity to make comment on it and no analysis was provided of what the fiscal impact (or other benefits) would be for the District. Whether to support or oppose the formation of another department in the county should be a decision for the Board, not the General Manager. It may seem like I’m nit-picking, but if we continue to ignore these small transgressions, the laws that are intended to limit the powers of our local agency staff and provide for oversight by elected representatives, we begin to slip away from agencies that provide services for the community toward an unaccountable clique controlling the community.
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