- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
DelValle departs as county’s Community Development director
On Tuesday, Michalyn DelValle tendered her resignation as Community Development Department director, according to county spokesman Matthew Rothstein.
Following the open portion of its weekly meeting, the Board of Supervisors had gone into closed session late Tuesday morning.
At that point, Chair Moke Simon said the items to be discussed included a performance evaluation of DelValle.
A closed session performance evaluation of DelValle also had been held at the board’s Feb. 3 meeting.
After Tuesday morning’s closed session, the board emerged to approve an extra item to take up the matter of the interim appointment of a Community Development Department director, according to County Counsel Anita Grant.
Once the extra item was approved, the board appointed Public Works Director Scott De Leon as the interim Community Development director, Grant said.
Rothstein said De Leon’s appointment as interim Community Development director takes effect on Wednesday.
Lake County News reached out to DelValle to seek comment, but she declined.
DelValle’s departure comes at a critical time for Community Development, which is overseeing a number of major development projects, such as the large resort development in Guenoc Valley, along with the ongoing efforts for fire-battered communities to rebuild.
Rising through the ranks
A Lake County native, DelValle had worked her way up through the ranks of the Community Development Department, where she had worked for more than 12 and a half years, according to her LinkedIn page.
DelValle, who has a bachelor’s degree in management, began with the county as a planner and later served as the department’s principal planner before she was appointed as Community Development’s interim director in April 2018, as Lake County News has reported.
In June 2018, the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to appoint her as Community Development director. At the same meeting, they had appointed David Cowan as Water Resources director, with county officials lauding both as “dynamic and collaborative leaders” and declaring a bright future for their departments.
During her two months as interim department head, the county credited DelValle with stepping “into a challenging situation, with understaffing and workload delays, and immediately began to take insightful and positive steps,” and bringing stability to her department.
She’d said at the time that there were opportunities “from small adjustments to improve the experience of our customers to substantive changes to our land use plans and zoning ordinances to create a more business-friendly environment.”
Since then, however, there had been reports of projects being stalled, protracted development project timelines, struggles for property owners trying to rebuild in the wake of the county’s numerous wildland fires as well as numerous staff departures in DelValle’s department.
On June 4, DelValle was evaluated in closed session on her annual appointment anniversary, as is standard practice, based on board meeting records.
Then, on Feb. 3, DelValle was scheduled for a closed-door performance evaluation with the board, followed by another on Tuesday.
If past practice is a guide, for the supervisors to have additional, off-schedule appointments of department heads indicates that they have issues with performance and, in some cases, are preparing to replace them.
DelValle was present during the board’s hour-long public session on Tuesday, giving input during the discussion of a resolution of intent to initiate a zoning ordinance amendment pertaining to industrial hemp.
In her last public comments as Community Development director, she had told the board that she was planning to send out a legal notice for the zoning ordinance amendment.
Following the closed session, she was said to have been escorted out of the courthouse on Tuesday morning, according to witness reports.
De Leon takes on additional duties
De Leon previously served as interim Community Development director before the hiring in 2016 of Bob Massarelli, who DelValle succeeded.
De Leon told Lake County News he had no notice of his being considered for the interim appointment prior to the board taking the action on Tuesday.
It will be another assignment added to De Leon’s already full plate.
When Cowan – hired as Water Resources director in June 2018, at the same time as DelValle’s appointment to Community Development director – left for a job in Texas in June, the board appointed De Leon as Water Resources’ interim director.
When De Leon was given the interim Water Resources director appointment in June, the board had indicated its intention to hold a full recruitment for the job. Online recruitment efforts show that the job was advertised with a mid-July deadline.
Then, in August, the board voted to reconsolidate Water Resources and Public Works, three years after it had voted to separate them.
De Leon said at the time that he planned to hire a Water Resources director to serve within the restructured department, but so far a hire of such a position hasn’t been reported and he continues to be listed as Water Resources director on the county website.
County officials so far haven’t indicated how they may proceed in choosing a new Community Development director.
The county has frequently promoted from within, as in DelValle’s case, and held full recruitments that have brought in candidates from other parts of the country, as with Massarelli.
Recently, the board also has discussed the consolidation of some departments – like the Treasurer-Tax Collector with the Auditor-Controller – in addition to taking action to rejoin Water Resources with Public Works in order to address staffing, leadership and succession planning.
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