Once a month, the 12 mayors of Monterey County’s cities get together. They meet for lunch and hear updates from each other about the various boards and committees they serve on: the Monterey County Water Resources Agency, Monterey Bay Unified Air Pollution Control District and so on. On Friday, Jan. 5, they gathered at Point Pinos Grill in Pacific Grove for the usual updates, and two inconsequential agenda items to start the year: adopt the 2018 meeting schedule, and elect a new chair and vice-chair.
The group rotates the vice chair each year between a Salinas Valley mayor and Monterey Peninsula mayor, and the vice chair slides over to chair. They usually don’t take a roll-call vote.
So it went on Jan. 5. King City Mayor Mike LeBarre wrapped up his tenure. Carmel Mayor Steve Dallas moved from the vice-chair position to chair and Soledad Mayor Fred Ledesma became the new vice-chair. All routine.
Except that Dallas is now the subject of an investigation by Carmel City Hall into alleged misconduct. While Dallas is entitled to due process, he’s also the only one of 12 local mayors (two are women) who’s been publicly accused of sexual harassment. Here was a chance to take those allegations seriously, to show the women of Monterey County its leaders are listening. Instead, business as usual.
It also served as a reminder appointments to various boards and committees has a lot to do with how elected officials wield their power – getting elected is just the first step.
Supervisor Luis Alejo became the chairperson of the County Board of Supervisors on Jan. 9, and his first order of business was to make assignments to various boards, ranging from the influential to the esoteric. Of the dozens of seats, he made just three changes: removing Supervisor Mary Adams from the cannabis committee (and replacing her with himself), removing Supervisor Jane Parker from the Local Agency Formation Commission (and replacing her with himself) and removing Supervisor John Phillips from the Monterey Bay Unified Air Pollution Control District (and replacing him with Adams).
Democratic Women of Monterey County sent an email blast the night before the meeting, urging members to speak up. “What is disturbing is that only two people are being removed from their committee assignments, and they both happen to be women,” the alert read. Under recommended talking points: “Both women on the Board are being removed from influential committees, because… why???”
By the time the supervisors convened Jan. 9, Alejo had gotten an earful. “Late last night some concerns were raised with inaccurate and misleading information,” he said. The Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) seat is a particularly coveted slot, as it votes on issues including annexations, like Salinas City Council’s recently approved (and controversial) plan to expand city limits outward into farmland.
Alejo said putting himself on LAFCO wasn’t meant to marginalize Parker, but to give members of his district – “some of whom are the poorest constituents” – a voice on issues that affect them and their economic opportunity.
Alejo offered up a compromise, keeping Parker and making himself an alternate. He also offered a reminder diversity is about more than gender: He’s Latino, represents a largely Latino (and largely poor) base, he’s the youngest of the supervisors – all true, and all worthy considerations.
“In all my years of politics, I have learned to be a good listener, to try to accomodate my colleagues,” Alejo added.
That listening worked as far as Parker’s LAFCO assignment. But it did not work for Adams.
“I want to point out that committee assignments change every year,” Alejo said. “I know supervisors had expressed wanting to keep their assignments. I only made three proposed changes out of 50 assignments.”
Two of those affect Adams, who was in Morocco on a family trip, and missed the Jan. 9 meeting. She writes by email that before leaving the country, she voiced her desire to keep the cannabis committee seat. “It is a critical issue for District 5,” she writes. “My hope is that the chair would reconsider this appointment.”
That will depend on how closely he is listening.