New Human Resources Department also to be formed at Supervisors’ behest
By Charles Douglas
Humboldt Sentinel
Community Development Services director Kirk Girard’s job will no longer exist come springtime.
In a stunning move which may well rock the decade-long Humboldt County General Plan update process just as it approaches completion, the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on Tuesday to adopt a breakup of CDS into two parts, restoring the old Department of Planning and Building which CDS succeeded in 1999, and also creating a Department of Economic and Resource Development, effective Mar. 19.
In what might be the most sweeping single motion made by a Supervisor in recent years, the Third District’s Mark Lovelace and the First District’s Jimmy Smith gave blanket approval to a plan by Phillip Smith-Hanes, the county administrative officer, which also merges the Personnel Department and the CAO Risk Management Team into a new Human Resourced Department. All county offices providing for indigent defense, or the legal services provided for poor people, are also to be merged and the position of Conflict Counsel is to be eliminated upon the retirement of the incumbent.
Smith-Hanes, who gains additional authority to directly oversee the performance evaluations of the new ERD position, the old Conflict Counsel position, the Public Defender and the Child Support Services Director, said the big changes served up weren’t about personalities, but about achieving efficiencies.
“People in the community have said various things over time about the Community Development Services Department, love him, hate him, whatever,” he said. “The reality of the situation is that Community Development Services has been very focused on very specific programs and as a result as they’ve gone through the economic crisis they have hollowed out or have not allocated positions at the middle management level…I think that stretches a person too thinly.”
Girard, who was in the audience for a General Plan Amendment dealt with in short order beforehand, sat silently as a line of public speakers thanked the Board for their move in deconstructing the department he’d spent over a decade building.
“I see what you’re doing here today as a tremendous opportunity. I think it’s an opportunity because you all know how polarized we are about this in Humboldt County…the communication hasn’t been good,” McKinleyville resident and former Supervisor candidate Ben Shepherd said. “I’m not here to assign blame but we all recognize that there’s an issue…there can be a very successful process, I don’t get the sense that’s where we are with the General Plan Update, so where we are is an opportunity to bring people together so we can develop trust and we can end up with something that all these disparate groups can come together and support.”
Perhaps the most trenchant critic of Girard’s regime was HELP or Humboldt Economic and Land Plan, which launched a number of legal actions against the county over the last several years concerning its Housing Element and other planning matters. Registered lobbyist Kay Backer crowed that HELP had recommended splitting up CDS in 2004, and she also called for the centralization of more power and authority in the office of CAO.
“We believe there’s evidence that there needs to be a more systemic reorganization at this time,” she said.
Jim Furtado of the Northern California Association of Homebuilders was pointed in his demand that the interim DPB director not be a “current employee” of the county, voicing clearly the interests of local developers anxious to show Girard the door. Supervisors were silent on the matter, although Smith-Hanes made it clear that the directors of both new departments would go through the routine hiring process, where the Board meets in closed session, only letting the public know after the fact what their decision is.
Smith, often seen as the swing vote on the Board, was diplomatic — but left little doubt that Supervisors were looking to move on and make a fresh start.
“Ultimately, if you are elected, you go out and meet people…that pulse, that you’re a part of the public and you’re accountable to them, that’s something that as good as your dpeartment heads are, they’re not out there all night every night, so that’s the sense the Board members bring to those meetings and those evaluations,” he said. “It’s the people speaking through their elected representatives and that’s the bottom line.”
The new vacancies will be publicly noticed in the coming weeks, and it’s expected that the Planning Commission will stick to its current schedule and make its final votes on remaining General Plan elements prior to the breakup of CDS. Costs of the organizational reorganization is estimated to be under $40,000 for the remainder of fiscal year 2011-2012.
Girard sat down with the author for an episode of Sentinel Interviews in late 2011, where he defended his record in balancing public and private interests during his tenure at CDS.
Excellent and unbiased report. Great job Charles, you’re the only news source to really pick up on this important story.
Thank you.
He`s gone gone gone, Mr G. is gone.
He will not be missed, no no no
We will rejoice rejoice rejoice.
In an otherwise excellent report, we read (yet another) self-indulgent insult, this time, characterizing someone’s speech as “crowing”, it would be a relief to read routine and well-deserved critiques of Key Baker’s actual performances.
She is a despicably under-reported Arkley lobbyist dominating local, public hearings for years. During hearings, she has openly accused her critics of being “social engineers” (commies) while aggressively advocating social engineering by the highest bidder, regardless of public costs…(commie-welfare for this area’s speculators).
None of this is routinely reported, making insults appear bitter and spiteful…hardly convincing.
What a relief to read that Ben Shepard and Kay Baker can feel “trust” again, once their perceived opponent is marginalized.
So it’s bad for Charles to say Kay Backer was crowing, but good for you to call her despicable. Thanks for clearing that up.
In addition to this good article, you make points to consider, ALS. You know, having fine standards and offering such contributions deserving more merit and a wider audience, I’d enjoy seeing an article by you here. Really, I do. You have much to offer: articulate knowledge, history, fairness, and a good sense of observation and reporting. I think you’d be good with it. Please consider this.
“So it’s bad for Charles to say Kay Backer was crowing, but good for you to call her despicable. Thanks for clearing that up”.
If only you could read.
I never wrote that. And if I had, I certainly wouldn’t call it journalism.
Journalists are part of this community and they used to get outraged like the rest of us, by finding the guts to publish the facts that enable others to make up their own minds. It’s powerful stuff when done professionally.
Thanks Skippy, your material is in another league…far from here. I hope we live long enough to see the return of community-interest media.
I’m really missing the point of your continual taunts.
If you don’t like our take on journalism, you’re welcome to look elsewhere. Nobody is forcing you to come here and spew negativity on a near-daily basis.
If you don’t think we represent “community-interest media” then you’re welcome to daydream about the return of the Humboldt Advocate, or the Edge City Magazine, or whatever it is you’re pining for that no longer exists.
Otherwise, you might think about doing something constructive — like quit pissing and moaning about the state of local media, and get in the game yourself.
You, my pal, ROCK!
I support the Arkleys and conservatism. I also support Douglas and his good reporting. I do not always agree & your not suppose to. Keep up the good work.
“I’m really missing the point of your continual taunts”.
Oh, I get it now!
You publish your reporting, provide a venue for critique, then cry “taunted” and “love it or leave it” when accurate criticism is offered.
Sure you’re not a John Bircher deep down?
Putting yourself in the face of Eureka’s corrupt politicians and their backers has unusual potential, right up until you undermine all credibility on adolescent insults and vendettas.
Readers deserve waaayyy better!
Please read Skippy’s excellent reporting for guidance.
I’ll be baaack.
Sure, there’s deep-seeded corruption in Eureka City Hall.
There’s also deep-seeded corruption in Arcata City Hall — that’s the point where I lose most doctrinaire liberals.
Additionally, there’s deep-seeded corruption in some of the (self-appointed) leading actor-vist groups — that’s the point where I lose most doctrinaire radicals such as yourself.
I don’t play favorites. Newspapers should have no friends.
“I don’t play favorites. Newspapers should have no friends”.
Of course, the opposite of “playing favorites” would be, for example, demeaning your subjects with personal insult, baseless mis-characterizations, and vendettas, which is equally unacceptable, ineffective, self-defeating, and wholly unprofessional as “playing favorites” is.
Taking some kind of solace in the anger that your gratuitous insults generate, by labeling it as “media has no friends”, demonstrates a devious defense of the indefensible.
Surely you’re not that confused.
You’re wasting your time Charles. Pissing and moaning are what George does best. No use encouraging anything different from him.
Had you exposed any “deep-seeded corruption in some of the (self-appointed) leading actor-vist groups”, (what?) as opposed to the unprofessional, gratuitous insults and vendettas in your “reporting”, I would be the first to excuse a self-serving “reporter”, such as yourself.
I wish you well in exposing Arcata’s corruption. Having lived in this area for 35 years, I assure you, Eureka’s corruption is on a far-larger scale.
So Kirk Girard has an empire? Did he conquer other departments, steal their women, salt their offices and burn down their offices? You point out critics of Girard at a Supes meeting and yet you offer no explanation about how the consolidation happened in the first place.
“Girard, who was in the audience for a General Plan Amendment dealt with in short order beforehand, sat silently as a line of public speakers thanked the Board for their move in deconstructing the department he’d spent over a decade building.”
You provide no information to support this assertion, you toss it out there and expect readers to take your word for it.
Why not a follow-up? How did Girard’s office become an empire? Why did these responsibilities end up under his purview?
You may call yourself a journalist, but this article is nothing more than three quotes surrounded by sophistry — an example of the syllogism this piece argues — Kirk Girard is head of a very large and complex county organization. Because Girard is head of this large and complex organization, one he created and governed and that is very bad. Because it is bad and because Girard is head of the department it is now being dismantled because … magic underwear?
We get along with Girard just fine, as the hour-long interview demonstrates. It’s a bureaucratic empire, not a military conquest built with blood and iron.