Packed agenda faces the Board of Supervisors on June 6
A 10-page agenda with 842 pages of backup material await the Plumas County Board of Supervisors for the June 6 meeting. The board’s last meeting was the third week in May, (the board typically meets the first three Wednesdays of each month), which means that the first meeting of the new month is busy. But this agenda is packed more than usual.
There are some important items to be considered including the new camping ordinance, as well as proposed rate hikes at the county’s solid waste transfer stations.
The board will hear reports from the Dixie Fire Collaborative and the Forest Service.
Supervisors are expected to authorize the filling of six vacant positions, and then accept the resignation of County Counsel Gretchen Stuhr and the retirement of Public Health Director Dana Loomis.
There is also the approval of nearly $1.75 million in agreements with the Behavioral Health Department and various outside agencies to address mental health issues. (This money comes from sources other than the county’s general fund.)
These are some of the highlights of the board’s agenda. The meeting gets underway at 10 a.m. in the board’s chamber on the third floor of the courthouse. The meetings are also livestreamed through the county website or available via zoom. A copy of the agenda is also available online.
Copy of public comment email to Plumas County Board of Supervisors:
As a Plumas County resident and taxpayer, I am requesting information regarding Docket Item 4. DEPARTMENTAL MATTERS; C. COUNTY COUNSEL on the Plumas County Board of Supervisors’ AGENDA FOR REGULAR MEETING on January 6, 2023.
The written intent of this docket item is “to ratify and sign Amendment No. 1 to the agreement between Plumas County and Municipal Resource Group, LLC for additional investigations; increasing compensation by $40,000 for a total amount not to exceed $48,000; effective February 14, 2023; approved as to form by County Counsel; discussion and possible action.”
Contractually speaking, ratification is the process of approving a contractual action or agreement that was previously made without the proper authority to do so, in order to retroactively make the action legitimate and legally binding.
I would like to know which Counsel Members were involved in making this previous agreement, without the legal authority, for the purpose of hiring a private company for investigative purposes, and to which other counsel members were left in the dark.
I would like to know what selection criteria select Counsel Members used to make a noncompetitive direct award to Municipal Resource Group, LLC without the proper authority to do so. The Better Business Bureau website database has no listing for Municipal Resource Group. And there were only two reviews listed in chamberofcommerce.com; neither one good. Specifically, one reviewer wrote in October of 2019, “MRG employs and contracts with unethical staff who, at best, give questionable HR advice and, at worst, are complicit with companies who engage in illegal activities. It was shocking to see how their HR “professionals” handled delicate HR issues.”
Reviews are not a reliable factor alone, but should have been an indicator that more scrutiny of company might be advisable. Would Municipal Resource Group or the involved Counsel Members like to address this general allegation?
It is a given that residents do not currently know what investigations select Counsel Members may be planning for the additional taxpayer funds to be ratified within Amendment 1. However, this secret action by select Counsel Members brings this resident little confidence in their intentions and abilities.
Please be more transparent to the extent you can. And please observe your proper authorities and provide ALL Counsel Members the awareness and opportunity to ask questions and voice their professional opinion to help regain public confidence in the future.
Sincerely, with invested interest,
Karen McKim
Municipal Resource Group, LLC also contracts with municipals for recruitment.
If any Board Members are secretly considering using this private company for this purpose,
I strongly advise them to be transparent in any attempts to obtain such services.