Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Consolidation issue fails for NC elected officials

Voters in Nevada County will not get the opportunity to cast their ballots to consolidate some county offices.

At the August meeting of the Nevada County Quorum Court, there was discussion concerning combining the County Clerk and Circuit Clerk offices, along with the County Treasurer and Tax Collector offices. The court, then, decided to wait a month to get feedback from the people.

When the court met in regular session Monday, Sept. 8, the issue was again brought up.

Gary Lewis began by saying he doesn't enjoy conflict and didn't initiate the idea to cause any trouble.

"The reason I brought it up," he said, "is it's what I feel the county needs to do. We can disagree, but there's no need in getting mad."

Lewis pointed out the court wouldn't be voting to do the consolidations, but would be voting to let the people of the county make the decision. By combing the offices, he said, the county could save about $30,000 a year.

He reminded the court other counties of similar size have combined offices and saved money. He also said those counties have 3.17 employees working in the offices, with the number changing to 4.17 when the elected official is added. But, Nevada County has six employees.

"We will need the extra money," he said, "and I think this is a good way to get it."

The county, he said, has $8,000 in the budget for elections.

Myrna Waters, a member of the court, said the people she talked to opposed the idea of consolidating the offices.

Additionally, she said she couldn't see where any money would be saved in the long run as those doing the work would need to be given raises.

Justice of the Peace Curtis Lee Johnson said he received two calls on the issue and talked to about 25 others. Of this, he said, only one person was against consolidating the offices.

"I think the money we spend on an election would be wasted," Waters said.

The court actually voted twice on the issue. The first vote was to consider holding an election to combine the offices of County Clerk and Circuit Clerk. This issue failed with a 6-3 vote.

Next, the court voted on considering combining the offices of Tax Collector and County Treasurer. It suffered a 7-2 defeat.

County resident Louise Blevins talked to the court about the condition of the county road near her home. She said the road, Nevada County 329, is dangerous, washes out when it rains, has trees overhanging it and no ditches.

She asked Nevada County Judge James Roy Brown when the last time the road had been repaired and why no records on road maintenance are kept by the county.

Brown told the court Blevins had called him with this complaint about six weeks ago. At the time, he said, he told her what kind of equipment the county had and explained the work done when the equipment isn't broken down.

"There are 700 miles in the county to keep up," he said. "I agree we need more equipment and I told her the only way to get more money would be to pass a sales tax."

Brown said when the equipment is working, the roads in the area are graded approximately every 10 days.

Equipment is working all over the county, he said, and isn't pulled off one job to go somewhere else unless there's an emergency.

"We're doing the best we can with what we've got," he said.