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Board of Supes 1/28, Part 2: California Drought; New Adult Rehab Center; Chief P.O. Officer …

Hirz Bay, Shasta Lake photo courtesy of Karin Lightfoot, Jan. 27, 2014

As reported last week, the January 28 meeting of the Board of Supervisors was a marathon. This is a continuation of that meeting.

The issue that received the most public input was, of course, the consideration of a new county ordinance on land use for marijuana growing. This issue was reported last week. The Board did consider additional issues on January 28, reported here, and the Board cancelled the meeting for Tuesday, February 4.

Pat Minturn, Public Works Director, reported on the state’s designation of a California drought. The basic information is not news to any of us, but it is still shocking to realize that we are halfway through the rainy season.

In an average year we would have received 20 inches of rain; this season we have received 3 inches. Minturn expressed concern that so far, the drought declaration has only encouraged ‘flexibility and creativity’ by state agencies.

He believes that concrete steps are required, including such things as a state-supported Drought Water Bank, like the one created in 1990. The state at that time bought water from willing sellers and sold it to buyers. Minturn expected that water resources controlled by the State Water Resources Control Board will be curtailed under the ‘first in time, first in right’ doctrine.

Any water users under the Central Valley Project will be governed by current priority standards: first priority for fish and wildlife; second priority to provide for water users with pre-1914 water rights; third priority for domestic use; and fourth priority for agriculture.

Minturn expects that at best, 60% of historic use of Central Valley Project water for domestic water distribution will be available, and none will be available for agriculture. Ground water resources will not be affected by these decisions although they are, of course, affected by the drought itself.

In other news, Sheriff Tom Bosenko and Pat Minturn, Public Works Director, reported that the county has received from the California Board of State and Community Corrections a $20 million competitive award for the construction of a new Adult Rehabilitation Center.

The funding is provided through state lease-revenue bonds, and the Board has taken several actions over the last year to assemble the county’s proposal, including budgeting County matching funds, guaranteeing title to the site and approving a staffing plan.

The facility will be located on Breslauer Lane. It will be a 64-bed medium security facility, providing dormitory style jail beds along with classroom and project space for rehabilitation activities. The project is expected to address the current shortage of beds in the main jail (a maximum security facility) , and to reduce recidivism in prisoners. The Board accepted the award, formalized the project budget, authorized a Request For Proposals for architectural services, and authorized studies pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act for the project.

Supervisors Leonard Moty and Bill Schappell and Sheriff Bosenko spoke clearly about how this program, in concert with other Corrections Realignment programs, are reorganizing criminal justice services from a failed state model to new services that should reduce the impact of crime and criminals on the County.

The Board approved an ordinance that provides that the County’s Chief Probation Officer will be appointed by the Board of Supervisors, rather than the Shasta County Superior Court judge for the juvenile court. The ordinance is the product of a collaborative effort between the Superior Court and the County Executive Officer. It is hoped that by aligning the authority to hire and fire with the authority to budget for juvenile hall and probation staff, the previous difficult relationships over probation issues will be improved.

Finally, the Board acted on various items related to Eastern Shasta County:

Catherine Camp is currently retired. During her career, she worked as a policy and budget analyst for the California Assembly and California Senate, in health and human services fields. She worked as a policy analyst and advocate for California’s public mental health system. Early in her career, she worked in the Community Action and Head Start programs in Shasta County.