LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The newest member of the Board of Supervisors was sworn in on Tuesday morning during a session in which the board heard an update from the interim Public Health officer on COVID-19.

Registrar of Voters Maria Valadez administered the oath of office to Michael Green, who Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed last week to fill the District 4 supervisorial seat vacated by Tina Scott in July.

The swearing-in was added as an extra item to the agenda since Green’s appointment announcement came out on Friday afternoon, after the agenda had already been posted.

Before he took the oath, Green read a letter his mother had written in 1963 about the importance of elections, representative government and majority rule. He said his motives were the same as his mother’s, and hoped that his actions on the board would be consistent with them.

Green served on the Lakeport Planning Commission from 2017 to 2021. Since then he has served on the Lakeport City Council.

Lakeport City Manager Kevin Ingram and Assistant City Manager/Finance Director Nick Walker were in the board chambers for Green’s swearing in.

Also on Tuesday, the board met Dr. Karl A. Sporer, the county’s interim Public Health officer.

At the Sept. 13 meeting, the board appointed Sporer to the position on an interim basis as part of its consent agenda. The professional services contract with Sporer is for a term of six months, with the monthly amount not to exceed $6,000.

Sporer is a former University of California San Francisco School of Medicine clinical professor who has worked as an emergency physician in New York, New Orleans and San Francisco for 20 years, and also has worked for the same amount of time with county governments on emergency medical services and disaster related issues.

He lives in Sonoma County and said he’s trying to retire from his work in Alameda County.

Sporer said his public health background is fairly thin, noting that everyone has pivoted toward COVID-19 in the last three years.

“COVID is waning at this moment. It's low. We’re very fortunate,” he said. “We’re concerned about a wave this year.”

Based on anecdotal evidence — including checking with his local Walgreens for COVID vaccine appointments, with available slots five days out — Sporer said it appeared people are getting shots.

Sporer said influenza will be an issue in the months ahead. There are no significant variants coming from the East Coast or Europe, but there is expected to be an increase this winter when people gather for holidays. Other diseases seem to be under reasonable control.

He said that in local wastewater treatment monitoring for COVID-19, a 10% increase in the incidence of the coronavirus was identified in one of the three wastewater plants, and they’re watching it to see where it goes and if there is a trend.

Supervisor Bruno Sabatier, who tracks the coronavirus data from the California Department of Public Health, or CDPH, noted, “We’ve been looking really good for awhile.”

Sabatier said the situation is better for schools and businesses. “That means that we’re all being more productive, being more able to participate in the things we want to participate in.”

Sporer said he hoped to meet on Tuesday with the fire chiefs and the hospitals.

Green, who until Monday had worked in the Lake County Social Services Department, said he is interested in the evolving understanding of aerosol permissible diseases and how to harden workspaces, and would like to hear more about that in the future.

Sabatier said that Gov. Newsom intends to end the state’s public health emergency due to COVID-19 in February and was curious about Sporer’s thoughts on the county continuing its emergency, which is important due to financial support.

Working with the guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and CDPH is probably the right thing to do in the future, Sporer said.

“Early on in this pandemic, CDC was always like about four months behind, and we had to make things up,” he said, adding, “That was very problematic.”

Sporer added, ““You have an existing local emergency and you’re probably going to need to rescind that soon,” so the county needs to think about how to manage that between now and February.

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.