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The board of supervisors has been asked to help negate this year’s election allowing the Placer County Mosquito and Vector Control District to increase assessments on property owners. The request came from the Weimar/Applegate/Colfax Municipal Advisory Council (WAC-MAC), a non-elected panel that advises the supervisors on issues affecting that region. WAC-MAC’s membership is comprised of appointees of Board Chairman Bruce Kranz, who represents that area. WAC-MAC’s request was addressed in writing to Kranz.
According to John Greene, WAC-MAC’s chairman, the panel claims the
abatement district’s mail election might have been conducted in
conflict with terms of the state’s Proposition 218. WAC-MAC also claims that “the district violated the public trust by
including campaign literature along with the official ballot.” It
further charges that voters “were required to mail completed ballots to
an office far away from Placer County — to the paid consulting firm
hired by the district.” WAC-MAC now wants the supervisors to “initiate public proceedings into
both the practice and legality of this process...and with (any)
findings supporting our concern, move to reverse the assessment.”
WAC-MAC also wants the removal of most abatement district board members
as well as a “new, open election.” Placer County Clerk/Elections Chief Jim McCauley was not warm to the
fact that the district avoided using his office to conduct the
election. However, he said the county counsel’s office informed him
that the district’s mail election was legal. He added that the state
court probably will be the final arbiter in the matter. Lisa Buescher, Kranz’s chief of staff, said her boss has asked County
Counsel Tony LaBouf for a legal opinion as to what, if any, authority
the board of supervisors has in this matter. The election allowed an assessment hike of $7.97 per single family
home. Apartments were assessed $2.23 per unit for the first 20 units
and 79 cents per unit for more than 20 units. Agricultural properties
were assessed at seven cents per acre, and one cent per acre for dry
pasture and timberlands. The district claimed the increases were necessary to improve services
such as West Nile disease prevention, tick monitoring, rodent
management, community education, and emergency response. The added
revenue will also help pay for a permanent office and laboratory
facility for the district.
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