LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Historic Courthouse Museum in Lakeport will be closed on Sundays until March while the county hires and trains new staff.
The Boards of Supervisors on Tuesday voted to allow the temporary Sunday closures at the request of Public Services Director Caroline Chavez.
Chavez said her department has 38 less employee hours than it had at the beginning of October.
She's trying to hire an assistant curator – now a term position that only runs through the end of July – and has lost funding for eight hours, or one-fifth of an assistant curator spot, that was used to cover the museum on Sundays.
She offered the board a variety of options, including closing the museum on Sundays through the end of June until it was decided if the assistant curator job would be extended; approving 10 hours a week for an extra help employee to help cover the museum and other facilities; recruiting an extra help employee for just four hours a week of coverage at the museum; or trying to recruit a volunteer.
Chavez said the museum also could be supplemented with marketing funds, and offer marketing-type visitor services.
“What we looked at primarily was the availability of staffing,” she said.
Her department currently has some extra help workers not willing to commit to the Sunday hours.
Chavez said she's in an active recruitment mode and is considering two highly qualified assistant curator candidates.
Currently, the number of museum visitors on Sundays is very low, less than 10 per day, with donations averaging less than a dollar, Chavez said.
She said the visitor numbers usually increase in March.
As such, she said her recommendation was to close on Sundays temporarily until at least March to allow her to recruit staff, and complete background checks and training.
She said she also hoped the board would reclassify the assistant curator job from a term position to a permanent one – a consideration not taken up on Tuesday.
Board Chair Denise Rushing said she didn't like temporary positions. “I think that puts everybody in a holding pattern,” with the county not getting the people it needs.
Rushing added that she supported hiring extra help as soon as possible.
Supervisor Jeff Smith said he wished the county had a place where it could offer RV parking in order to recruit RVers as seasonal workers. He said an RV spot had been included at the harbor at Redbud Park in Clearlake for that purpose.
Smith moved to approve the recommendation to close on Sundays through March – as well as to close the museum on Labor Day – with the board voting 3-1.
Rushing voted no – saying she doesn't want the museum to close on Sundays even temporarily – and Supervisor Anthony Farrington was absent for the discussion.
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Supervisors approve temporary Sunday closures of Historic Courthouse Museum
- Elizabeth Larson
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