LAKEPORT, Calif. – As the county works to rebuild the staff in the Registrar of Voters Office, the Board of Supervisors is set to interview next week the candidates in the second recruitment to fill the registrar’s job on a permanent basis.
At the same time, the county is holding a formal recruitment for the deputy registrar’s job, which is set to close later this month.
The Registrar of Voters Office, led for decades by Diane Fridley who was assisted by Deputy Registrar Maria Valadez, lost those two key staffers within a two-month period, as Lake County News has reported.
Fridley retired at the end of December and Valadez left in February to take a job with the county of Mendocino.
Valadez’s departure followed her appointment as interim registrar in early December. She received no permanent job offer, which she said was put off while the county did a six-month study.
County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson has had a direct role in the turmoil in the Registrar of Voters Office.
She attempted to have Valadez disqualified for consideration to succeed Fridley when last fall she proposed to have new educational requirements introduced for the registrar’s job that would have necessitated a bachelor’s degree with no ability to substitute experience.
The board did not accept Huchingson’s proposal and at the start of December, weeks ahead of Fridley’s retirement, the supervisors appointed Valadez as interim registrar.
After Valadez took a job with the county of Mendocino in February, county leadership attempted to offer her the registrar’s job at the higher Mendocino County rate, but she declined.
Meantime, Huchingson, in an odd development in the situation, was appointed by the board as interim registrar in February upon Valadez’s departure.
The Human Resources Department – which the board gave Huchingson control of last year – conducted a brief recruitment in February which yielded a field that boiled down to only two interviews. Neither of those two candidates were selected.
That prompted the county to reopen the recruitment, which Huchingson said has resulted in 19 applications.
Huchingson said the board will conduct interviews at its meeting April 23.
At the same time, an open recruitment also is now under way for the deputy registrar’s job, which is being held on an interim basis by one of Huchingson’s staffers, Marcy Harrison. The Board of Supervisors appointed Harrison to the job on an interim basis on April 2, as Lake County News has reported.
The county Human Resources Department’s Web site shows that the job opened on April 11, but daily checks of the county Web site’s open and promotional jobs listings didn’t show the job being posted until this week.https://agency.governmentjobs.com/lakecountyca/default.cfm
The deputy registrar’s monthly salary is $4,493 to $5,879, and the application period closes at 5 p.m. Sunday, April 28.
Training and experience requirements are five years of previous work experience performing a variety of election administrative and support functions comparable to that of an Elections Assistant I/II with the county of Lake which included at least three years equivalent to that of an Elections Assistant II, with experience in a lead or supervisory capacity is preferred. Special requirements include possession of, or ability to obtain, an appropriate valid California driver's license.
It’s so far unclear if a new registrar will be selected and in place by the time of the May 7 Measure M fire tax measure that the Lakeport Fire Protection District has put before voters.
Adding to the challenges is that the county has purchased new voting equipment and software in order to comply with state rules, which decertified as of August the county’s old system.
However, Fridley has confirmed that she is volunteering and is helping the department during the upcoming election.
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.
Board of Supervisors to interview registrar candidates; deputy registrar recruitment under way
- Elizabeth Larson
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