On January 4th, the Board of Supervisors held our reorganization meeting and elected unanimously Supervisor Don Horsley as President and Supervisor Dave Pine as Vice President. In his opening remarks, Supervisor Horsley set his priorities as homelessness, continued work on equity and community safety. I look forward to our collaboration and work on all these important issues.

At this same Board meeting, we also approved the nomination of Peggy Jensen as Assistant County Manager. I have worked closely with Peggy for many years – she is a dedicated public servant, a true leader and has worked tirelessly on the past 2 years on COVID recovery efforts and the work to end homelessness. Congratulations Peggy - to a promotion well-deserved!

Many jurisdictions are taking up the issue of divesting from fossil fuels. At the January 11th Board meeting, our Board voted to direct our Treasurer to report back no later than 6 months from now with a plan to divest the County’s investments in industries tied to fossil fuels. It is an important step as we face climate change and its impacts to our county and region. Treasurer Sandie Arnott has already begun this work.