LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — At the Board of Supervisors’ first meeting of 2025 on Tuesday, newly elected and re-elected supervisors were sworn into office and they elected the board’s new chair and vice chair.

District 1 Supervisor Helen Owen, a longtime Middletown rancher, and District 4 Supervisor Brad Rasmussen, Lakeport’s retired police chief, officially took office as the county’s newest supervisors. They succeed outgoing supervisors Mike Simon and Michael Green, respectively.

District 5 Supervisor Jessica Pyska, who won reelection in March, is starting her second term.

Supervisor Eddie Crandell was elected as the chair and Supervisor Rasmussen as the vice chair.

In the meeting, outgoing supervisors made their final remarks.

“Just want to thank everybody who supported me throughout my two terms,” said Simon, who expressed special thanks to the county administration and employees for their hard work.

Supervisor Green said being a supervisor does not only mean to represent the constituency and workforce, but also “the municipal corporation that is the county itself,” where “hundreds of millions of dollars flow through the County of Lake to provide services.”

“I do want to thank county administrative staff and all the department heads for their support, patience and understanding during my brief yet rewarding term,” Green said. He was appointed by the Governer’s Office as District 4 supervisor at the end of 2022 to succeed Tina Scott.

Lake County Registrar of Voters Maria Valadez administered the oath of office individually for all candidates who were to start a new term of service for the county, including the three supervisors and the new Sheriff-Coroner Lucas Bingham, who won his election unopposed in March.

‘Double election’ of the board chair and vice chair

The process of electing a new chair and vice chair generated some confusion.

After taking the oath, new supervisors Owen and Rasmussen were asked to take a seat at the table right below the dais, while Green and Simon stayed in their seats.

“Stay right there,” said Green to Owen and Rasmussen. “We’re going to do an election, and then we’re going to get you up here.”

“And this, ladies and gentlemen, is how we do a peaceful, orderly transition of power,” Green added, and the audience in the chamber applauded with light laughter.

Green, who was stepping down from his role, went on to take nominations for the chair and vice chair for the new board.

Pyska nominated Crandell — who was the vice chair in 2024 — as the chair, which was the only nomination for the position. Green moved on to have the vote by the sitting board that included the two outgoing supervisors.

It turned out that the seven “supervisors,” incoming and outgoing, all said “aye” in favor of having Crandell as the new chair.

Owen then nominated Rasmussen as vice chair. Pyska immediately raised a question.

“According to our board policy, you have to have one year to be vice chair or chair,” Pyska said. “It’s in our board policy.”

“I don’t believe it’s a hard shall-not,” said Supervisor Bruno Sabatier.

While the board policy does not have a written prerequisite for the vice chair position, it does have one for the chair.

County Counsel Lloyd Guintivano said in the meeting that he found the rule from the Board of Supervisors’ policy manual which states “a member shall not be elected to serve as chair unless he or she has been a member of the board for the preceding calendar year.”

Guintivano noted in the situation where the chair is not available, “whoever’s sitting as a chair must be a member of the board for the preceding calendar year.”

“In reading that language, it appears that your board may consider other nominations for the vice chair in light of that clause,” Guintivano added.

“I would say, that particular clause, the most strict application? Yes,” said Green. “But if we want it to be that strict in that application, we should have added the term ‘vice chair’ to that same clause.”

He added, “As the sitting chair, that’s my outgoing act — I don’t think the strict application is necessary at this point. And most importantly, we don’t have any other nominations.”

During the discussion, a member of the public called in on Zoom saying that she wanted to nominate another candidate. It was stopped by Green, who said that the public would not be entitled to make nominations. While the woman did not identify herself, Lake County News staff believe it was Julia Bono of Middletown.

The board went on to have the vote and all voted in favor of having Rasmussen as the vice chair.

After a brief recess, Green and Simon left the dais and Owen and Rasmussen moved up to take their seats.

The new board then voted again to select the chair and vice chair, with the same results, with unanimous approval.

While both rounds of votes generated the same outcome, Assistant Clerk to the Board of Supervisors Johanna DeLong said only the votes of the five supervisors of the new board would count.

“They were all sitting there saying aye, but I think the only ones that count are technically the new board,” she said when Lake County News called to verify the voting action details. “There were only five seats; we don’t have seven supervisors.”

The new Board of Supervisors now includes Helen Owen for District 1, Bruno Sabatier for District 2, Eddie Crandell for District 3, Brad Rasmussen for District 4 and Jessica Pyska for District 5, with Crandell serving as the new chair and Rasmussen the vice chair for 2025.

Email staff reporter Lingzi Chen at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..