First goal deadline – Feb. 1st! Thanks to all of you who have endorsed me online and thanks to those who have sent contributions! I’m so pleased and appreciative when I look over the list posted here (see Endorsements, above) and see your names! Thank you!

If you plan to do either but haven’t yet, I still need help reaching the goal by Feb. 1st (see previous posting). So far, endorsements are up to 77 and contributions are lagging behind.

Board Rules. Next Tuesday is a big day. I have proposed new rules and procedures to govern Board meetings and agenda preparation and we’ll be discussing them then (below is the text of the Memo for the Board’s consideration). It would be great to get consensus to adopt them, but I anticipate some resistance to a few of the critical revisions.

Tuolumne County is somewhat unusual in my experience in that the Board Chair hasn’t had the ability or authority granted by the Board to take part in the agenda formulation process. In fact, what’s on the agenda tends to be revealed to the Chair and the Board at the same time the final agenda is made public under the Brown Act. Of course, a Board member who seeks that information gets it, but at the very least, the Chair should be an integral part of agenda formulation and approval. 

Perhaps because some past Boards have not worked as a team,  there has been a practice of limiting the Chair so a “bad” Chair can’t unduly influence things. That can be a good thing, but it also can make it difficult for a Board that wants to set its own course and work together toward common interests… (see next post).