Nevada City Advocate - A free news & entertainment Newspaper Serving Nevada City & Greater Nevada County: Supervisors could merge two elected offices as soon as next week

Supervisors could merge two elected offices as soon as next week
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Pat Butler on Jan 04 11:45am
 
Editor's note: The Nevada City Advocate will update this story when new
developments occur and cover the Jan. 12 superviors meeting.
Nevada County could eliminate an elected position in just one week after it was
it was brought up for discussion for the first time at a special Board of
Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 5.
After approximately 40 minutes of discussion, the supervisors unanimously
approved making a decision on whether to combine the elected positions of
treasurer/tax collector and auditor-controller at its first regular meeting of
the year, which is on Jan. 12.
At that same meeting, the supervisors will be asked to appoint
Auditor-Controller Marcia Salter to fill the vacant office of treasurer-tax
collector.
County CEO Rick Haffey said he decided to put the item on the agenda for the
special board meeting after county counsel pointed out that the recent
resignation of Treasurer/Tax Collector Chris Dabis gave the county a rare
opportunity to combine the positions.
Dabis resigned from the office on Dec. 30, 2009. If Salter is appointed on Jan.
12 to finish her term, it would effectively combine the two offices for all of
2010. There will be an election for both positions later this year.
Assistant CEO Laura Matteson made the presentation to the supervisors. She said
the merger of the positions will save the county approximately $150,000 in
salary and benefits although the new position would see a 15 percent pay hike to
compensate for the additional responsibilities.
In addition, the county and special districts would see additional savings due
to the efficiencies that would come with the combined offices, she said.
Supervisor Nate Beason said that while he would vote to further study the
measure, he is opposed to the consolidation until more information was presented
to convince him of the need for the merger.
Supervisor Ed Scofield asked how the county could be assured the treasurer was
making sound investments when the same office would be auditing its performance.
Currently, the auditor-controller verifies the performance of the investments,
which are made by the treasurer/tax collector.
Salter said she was confident the combined offices could do that without
endangering the county’s credibility and that the system provided adequate
checks and balances.
Matteson and Salter said four other California counties – Yolo, Fresno,
Tulare and Sonoma – have already combined the two positions and reported no
problems.