Discussion:
Historically, former Boards have rotated the Chair and Vice-Chair positions based on supervisorial district. This has allowed the citizens of each district to have their respective Board representatives serve in those positions. However, the existing Governance Manual, while generally reflecting this past Board practice, also prohibits Board members from serving as the Board Chair or Vice-Chair if they have not been on the Board in the previous year. The reasoning for this practice is not clear, but seems to assume that in no circumstance should a Board member be considered “qualified” to serve in Chair and Vice-Chair positions if he or she has not previously served on this Board. That policy is unfair to individual Board members and, more importantly, to the districts they represent, and should be immediately changed to provide flexibility based on specific circumstances and affected Board member ability and preferences.
The now proposed changes and clarifications to the existing Board of Supervisors Governance Manual, addressing the rotation of the Board Chair and Vice-Chair positions, are attached with stricken and added language highlighted in the section of the Governance Manual addressing this issue. The changes would (1) make the rotation based on supervisorial districts in sequence, without exception based on prior Board experience; and (2) allow individual Board members who would otherwise serve as Chair to determine if altering the normal rotation for a year (e.g., to have the Board member who would otherwise serve as Chair instead become the Vice-Chair) would be appropriate under the circumstances.
In effect, the requested changes would eliminate the blanket prohibition from serving as Board Chair (or as Vice-Chair and therefore in line to become Chair) based only on prior Board experience. Instead, the changes would allow individual members to determine how best to represent their districts and participate on the Board with regard to when to take their turn as Board Chair. Importantly, the proposed change would avoid the existing possibility that a newly seated Board member’s district could be effectively prohibited from having its representative serve as Chair for multiple Board terms.
With the District 1 Board member having just changed, the existing Board Chair rotation exception based on prior Board experience would prohibit Supervisor Leutywler from serving as Chair or Vice-Chair this year. As a result, District 1 would be prevented from having its elected representative serve as Board Chair anytime during his just commenced 4-year term. Moreover, if he were to determine not to run again for supervisor in 4 years, or run but be defeated with a new board member to instead be seated in 2027, District 1 would again be prevented from having its representative serve as a Board officer, for at least another 4 years. The proposed Governance Manual change would rectify this rotation and representation problem.
Additional possible changes and clarifications to the Governance Manual should also be considered by the Board sometime in the near future, with the following goals: (1) making it easier for community members of all perspectives and interests to participate in Board meetings and be timely made aware of related County business decisions; (2) clarifying the process for appointing and the operation of temporary and permanent Board committees; and (3) updating Board agenda policies and procedures, and clarifying and updating other possible policies and procedures to meet existing Board expectations.
But these additional kinds of possible Governance Manuel changes and clarifications should not be undertaken without more review and County staff input. Instead, it is proposed that a temporary Board Committee be appointed to review possible additional policy and procedure changes, in consultation with the CAO, County Counsel and others as it determines helpful, and to make resulting recommendations to this Board at a later date. It is therefore proposed that the Chair appoint an Ad Hoc Governance Manual Update Committee. Recommendations would be presented to the full Board by no later than the Board’s second regular meeting in February.