News never rests, it just snoozes

Buzz Eggleston

Votes on our Calaveras County “Person of the Year” ballot are pouring in. Some people, it appears, even voted several times, just like they used to do - and some say still do - in real elections.

Our judges will discard those their discerning eyes tell them are multiple ballot stuffers.

Ballots appeared in the Friday, Jan. 18, edition of the Enterprise. Readers nominated 11 individuals from all walks of life who they believe deserve the praise and honor. They included community volunteers, public officials and other do-gooders, people from all four corners of Calaveras. In the eyes of those who suggested them for the recognition, the nominees did the most to make Calaveras County a better place for all of us in 2007 or they best represented the spirit of our county.

Each day’s mailbag continues to arrive with more ballots, so we’ll let the voting continue for a while longer. If you haven’t voted, go out to your recycling bin and retrieve that Jan. 18 edition of the newspaper. Clip out the ballot, mark your choice and mail it in now.

After the ballots are counted, we’ll send our reporters out to profile the nominees and then we’ll announce the winners in an upcoming edition you won’t want to miss.

For the winner and all the runners-up, just being nominated means that your work on behalf of all your neighbors is being noticed and appreciated. Congratulations to all of you.

Bill Claudino’s announcement last week that he won’t seek a second term on the county Board of Supervisors shouldn’t have been a big surprise, but somehow it was. Claudino’s first foray into public office was a shoe-in after former supervisor Lucy Thein decided to step down and Claudino was the only candidate to step up.

That was the election that also saw hard-fought campaigns by Steve Wilensky and David Studley for the District 2 board seat. Wilensky won, but both candidates spent loads of cash. And in District 4, incumbent Tom Tryon easily beat challenger Trudy Lackey.

On Claudino’s watch, county government entered a new era. Its focus was the launch of a general plan update, organizational changes - which included the departure of one county administrative officer and some long-time planning and building officials - and progress toward building a new jail, sheriff’s offices and, eventually, a new courthouse. Much of this was driven by a rising public interest in preserving the quality of life in the county while building its prospects for a long-term stable economy.

Claudino, 64, deserves a lot of credit for his part in advancing change. He wants to spend some time now with his family, particularly his three grandchildren, and that is as it should be. But we can’t let up on him just yet. He will continue to serve as District 1 supervisor for nearly another year.

By the way, the Internet is a wonderful thing. We found this picture of a youthful Bill Claudino in a Rory Calhoun pose.

County Counsel Jim Jones called last week to say his staff was preparing to send us a copy of the settlement agreement the county reached with former chief building official Ray Waller. It arrived the next day and you can read about it elsewhere in this edition.

Waller’s departure from county service was widely discussed in coffee shops and elsewhere in the county for much of 2007, but actual public details were few and guarded out of respect for his privacy. It was widely known that Waller contested his termination. Officially, little else was said. In settling his grievance at the end of November, the county said nothing about its substance or the amount of cash it paid him. Two weeks ago, the Enterprise formally asked the county to make the settlement agreement public. It did so, disclosing that he was paid $37,500.

We may never know more about how our government conducted the public’s business in this instance. That’s a shame.

The same can be said about Martin Redmond’s case. He was a long-time plan checker who also was terminated in the shakeup involving the building and planning departments. We’ve asked county counsel to give us a copy of any settlement agreement between Redmond and the county, but so far we’ve heard nothing.

Contact Buzz Eggleston at editor@calaverasenterprise.com.