LAKEPORT, Calif. – Over the past two months, through a retirement and working conditions that caused one veteran employee to decide to leave, the Lake County Registrar of Voters Office has lost its two main employees, whose departure has resulted in the loss of seven decades of institutional memory.

It’s a situation that is all the more serious considering that the special election for the Lakeport Fire parcel tax is coming up this spring, the process to elect three county supervisors and a judge will begin later this year and the department is in need of new voting equipment after years of staff working with obsolete machinery prone to breaking down.

Longtime Registrar of Voters Diane Fridley retired Dec. 28, after 41 years on the job with the county of Lake, where she was hired in 1977, as Lake County News has reported.

Following closed session interviews with candidates on Nov. 20 and a separate closed session on the appointment on Dec. 4, the Board of Supervisors appointed Maria Valadez – the county’s longtime deputy registrar of voters – to fill the county’s registrar of voters job on an interim basis, effective Dec. 29, the day after Fridley retired.

However, Valadez has since been hired by the county of Mendocino, where she said she will serve as the assistant county clerk-recorder-registrar of voters.

When Valadez left her office at the Lake County Courthouse in Lakeport for the last time on Feb. 22, she took with her nearly 30 years of experience in local elections. She started her new job in Ukiah last Monday.

Valadez worked as an extra help employee from 1990 to 1992, and was hired permanently with the County Clerk-Auditor-Controller’s Office in November 1994. She was transferred to the Registrar of Voters Office the following June.

With Lake County’s propensity to hire from within – as well as its longstanding recruitment and retention challenges – Valadez was the obvious choice to succeed Fridley, who had made known her plans to retire well before her departure. In addition to her decades of expertise, Valadez also had the support of staff.

But late last year, there was a move by the County Administrative Office to change the basic educational requirements for the job that promised to disqualify the entire registrar’s staff.

Fridley warned the board of that during the October meeting in which County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson proposed making a political science bachelor’s degree a requirement, without the ability to substitute on-the-job experience for education.

The proposed changes were couched in Huchingson’s request to research how to fill the job and to consider whether to return the elections office to the umbrella of the county clerk-auditor’s office, from which it was separated nearly two decades ago. Huchingson said the county’s fiscal challenges make it necessary to consider such restructuring.

Huchingson also had told the board that the proposed changes in educational requirements were meant to make the registrar of voters job consistent with other county department head positions.

By that time, Huchingson had taken to the board a proposal to change the qualifications of the elected office of tax collector as part of a proposal to consolidate that office with the Auditor-Controller’s Office. That effort will require state legislation, which the board, during a September discussion, agreed by consensus to pursue.

Regarding Huchingson’s statement about making department head jobs consistent, a review of the job descriptions on the county’s Web site reveals a hodge-podge of requirements, with no consistency among either department head or other key supervisory positions, some of them overseeing far more employees than the registrar’s job.

The Animal Care and Control director spot – which will be vacated this week by longtime Director Bill Davidson – has no bachelor’s degree requirement, and many other jobs continue to allow for a combination of education and experience.

Notable examples that emphasize experience include the central dispatch manager, which prefers – but does not require – a bachelor’s degree. The chief deputy district attorney’s job, key to running the District Attorney’s Office, has no bachelor’s or even juris doctor requirement, although it states a requirement to be a member of the State Bar, and that’s also the case with the county counsel’s job. In California, lawyers can take the bar exam without a degree if they participate in an apprenticeship.

The air pollution control officer requires experience plus graduation from an accredited four-year college, while the Community Development director’s job combines experience and “education equivalent to graduation from a four year college or university” with a major in planning, or a closely related field.

Fridley told the board in October that the registrar’s office had been separated from the county clerk’s office for the reasons of transparency and giving the board control over the department head. That structural change was ultimately made possible by state legislation that went into effect in 2002, when the Registrar of Voters Office became its own separate department.

Before her retirement, Fridley told Lake County News that having the elections office as a freestanding department had worked quite well, and added that she was uncertain as to whether a reconsolidation would ultimately save the county any money.

Interim appointment and a vacancy

Fridley’s input at the October meeting led to the board deferring plans to change the job classification. That cleared the way for Valadez to be appointed in December.

However, at the same time, the board decided to do a six-month best practices study before recruiting a full-time registrar, Valadez said.

After Valadez’s interim appointment, she said the county didn’t ask her to stay on in the job in a permanent capacity.

It wasn’t until after she turned in her resignation in February that anyone with the county asked her to stay. Supervisor Rob Brown, who said he felt the county didn’t do right by Valadez, spoke to her. However, Valadez didn’t change her mind to go to Mendocino County.

“She was very helpful and always very professional with me,” District 3 Supervisor E.J. Crandell told Lake County News of Valadez.

Crandell said he didn’t get a chance to talk with Valadez about the situation.

While there are no major elections coming up immediately, Valadez said the mail ballot voting for the Lakeport Fire Protection District’s Measure M parcel tax will take place on May 7.

Then, starting in September, there will be the first steps for filing signatures-in-lieu paperwork to run for supervisorial seats for districts 1, 4 and 5, the judge’s seat held by Judge J. David Markham, dates which have been pushed months earlier because of the March 2020 primary election.

With Valadez’s departure, there are two part-time employees left, neither of which even has the five years of required experience to take her deputy registrar job, much less the department head position.

At the Board of Supervisors’ meeting on Feb. 12, Huchingson reported Valadez’s intended departure and asked for a closed session discussion to be added as an extra item. By that point, she had reportedly sent board members an email critical of Valadez for her plans to leave so soon after being named interim registrar.

The board came out of closed session that day to vote 3-1 – with Supervisor Rob Brown voting no and Supervisor Crandell absent – to appoint Huchingson the interim registrar of voters, an appointment which she said did not include additional pay. The appointment was effective at the close of business on Feb. 22, Valadez’s last day on the job.

Asked if there was any attempt made to keep Valadez, Huchingson said she couldn’t disclose the specifics of the board’s discussion in closed session, only the action coming out of it.

She said the registrar’s job cannot be left vacant while the county seeks a new candidate.

Huchingson also said she had no concern about the appearance of being appointed interim registrar eight months after the county unsuccessfully put a 1.5-percent sales tax – known as Measure G – before voters as “the interim appointment is intended to be very short-term only.”

She said her interim appointment is in effect until a new registrar of voters is appointed.

Matthew Rothstein, one of Huchingson’s deputy county administrative officers, has been assigned to ensure solid support for the office, “and is in very close contact with me. I am very grateful to Matthew for taking on this unique temporary assignment,” Huchingson said.

The county of Mendocino’s Web site shows that the assistant clerk-recorder/registrar pay range is $76,918.40 to $93,475.20 annually, compared to $67,164 to $81,636 for the Lake County registrar of voters job. Mendocino County’s job application period closed on Jan. 1.

Valadez, however, said it wasn’t about the money, a sentiment other county employees who have left for jobs elsewhere that offer better pay and work conditions have shared with Lake County News.

Moving forward on recruitment

After being unwilling to offer Valadez the job on a permanent basis, the county moved forward with an immediate recruitment for a permanent – not an interim – registrar.

The Lake County Human Resources Department reported that the registrar of voters job was opened to other county employees until Feb. 12, and then was open to the public at-large until Feb. 21. The department confirmed that it was advertised as a permanent, not an interim, position.

The county’s Human Resources Web site includes a job description for the registrar of voters that says it is directly reportable to the Board of Supervisors and that the pay range is $5,597 to $6,803 monthly.

Chief requirements are “five years of work experience performing a variety of election administrative and support functions; or five years of current high-level management experience in voter registration and election organization with responsibility for election planning, budget administration, and personnel management; or five years of full-time administrative or managerial experience in a position which requires the application of laws and processes.”

Last week, Huchingson told the board that the county has received 13 applications for the job, of which three were promotional candidates. Only three individuals met the minimum requirements.

Huchingson, who called the candidate pool “encouraging,” asked for board members to meet with staff after the meeting to talk about next steps for the registrar and Animal Care and Control recruitments and interview plans. Board Chair Tina Scott and Vice Chair Moke Simon agreed to meet with staff for that purpose.

Huchingson told Lake County News late last week that there will be no extension of time in the recruitment.

“We acted quickly to open the recruitment. The period in which the recruitment is open is the standard minimum recruitment done by our HR Department. The hope is to quickly secure a candidate pool for the board’s consideration,” she said.

Huchingson said the county is moving forward with a panel interview with the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday – it’s scheduled for closed session – in the hope of having finalist interviews ready to go for the board on March 5.

At the same time, the board will be interviewing candidates for the Animal Care and Control director, which also received applications for three qualified candidates, Huchingson said.

“We want to move as quickly as possible to provide the board with options for selection. However, if more time is needed, we’ll take it in order to be sure the board considers the top apps,” Huchingson said, adding it’s possible the interview process will continue to the March 12 agenda.

Also on Tuesday, ahead of those closed-door interviews the board will offer a proclamation for service to Animal Care and Control Director Bill Davidson, who is leaving after close to 12 years on March 8. It’s a gesture not uncommon for longtime county employees, not just department heads.

Valadez, with nearly 30 years of service to the county, received no such honor on her departure.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.