The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors may reconsider its vote on next year’s Board Chair and Vice Chair.
This comes after a testy October 3 meeting where Supervisor John Gioia blatantly misled supervisors by rewriting history and used identity politics to nominate Federal Glover as its 2024 chair and Ken Carlson as its vice chair—thus skipping over Candace Andersen and District 2 in the rotation (watch meeting).
After its meeting, this week, Supervisor Diane Burgis requested reconsideration to the appointments. She confirmed the request, but offered no further comment due to the Brown Act while adding she had faith in her colleagues that this could be fixed.
During the meeting, Burgis challenged Gioia’s statements several times while citing District 3 had only been chair one time in a decade while Gioia had served as board chair three times. Burgis said she believed they would be continuing the rotation and that each District, whoever is representing them, that they have that benefit of having the chair position.
According to multiple sources at the county, staff is working on if County Administrator Monica Nimo can place reconsideration of the vote on an upcoming agenda should Supervisor Gioia not agree to place it on the agenda. Sources say this will likely come back in the near future.
Multiple insiders say Gioia made the political move in an effort to create a political alley with Carlson given the Board dynamics will change next year with Glover allegedly not seeking re-election–so far, Mike Barbanica, Jelani Killings, and Shanelle Scales-Preston have announced they are running for the District 4 seat. Its also a way to prevent Andersen from making important committee appointments while the county will have major discussions on several items that year.
Gioia defended his position during the meeting citing a chart which was not provided to the public while calling the appointment of Carlson “historic” . He praised Carlson for being openly gay and will be the first LGBTQ+ chair for the county. Gioia utilized Carlson’s sexuality to bat down arguments against opposition or discussion items by Andersen and Burgis.
Throughout the discussion, Gioia bullied Andersen and Burgis by shutting them down while they were speaking and then hijacking the conversation to repeat the same statements several times—both stated Gioia’s behavior marginalized them and was divisive to the board.
Gioia and Carlson also shared the opinion there was no pattern of a rotation as Carlson claimed he was unaware he would be nominated as vice-chair by Gioia. The Board ultimately voted 3-1 with Andersen the lone no vote and Burgis abstaining.
After a week to think about what transpired at the meeting, Andersen said this week she believes reconsideration should be given.
“Absolutely this should come back for reconsideration. The staff report on this item was minimal, presumably because in the past we had always unanimously followed the rotation, unless agreed to by the affected Supervisors,” stated Andersen. “I would like to see this brought back with an extensive report from both the Clerk of the Board and the County Administrator’s offices as to past practices.”
She highlighted the report did not mention that prior to 2019 there was never any board discussion about who was chair, as the rotation was so set. The members of the Board of Supervisors showed up on the 2nd Tuesday in January and got voted in as Chair and Vice-Chair, and sworn in at that time, with only a vote and no discussion.
“We also have new information, that was not available to us at the time of our last meeting, from former Supervisors who were able to provide clarification as to what occurred in the earlier years,” shared Andersen. “We also have staff members who worked in Supervisors’ offices who can provide additional information about this rotation. I am very hopeful that no board member will seek to prevent us from reopening this discussion and reconsidering this item. The item last Tuesday involved so much speculation, misinformation, and we need facts.”
Former Board of Supervisors Susan Bonilla, Karen Mitchoff and Mary Piepho all stated that the Board of Supervisors follows a traditional rotation by District — barring circumstances of newly elected board members becoming chair too quickly.
Piepho says while she was on the board, there had been a consistent respect of colleagues to follow a regular chair and vice chair rotation while acknowledging the difficulties in being new to the board and having to learn everything.
“When I came on the board in 2005, I deferred an immediate chair appointment although it was the regular rotation,” stated Piepho. “I wanted to get to know County staff, process and procedures more deeply before taking that level of leadership. We skipped District 3 and went to the next District. We slipped III back in, I believe, in 3 years. I served as vice Chair and Chair twice each in 12 years.”
Piepho added that if a supervisor is skipped in the rotation, there should be a very strong defense as to why.
Mitchoff shared that since she came on the Board in 2011, there has been a rotation that did not deviate from district rotation. With the death of Gayle Uilkema, Andersen took the chair in 2016 and with the retirement of Piepho in 2016, Glover took the chair in 2017.
“Since Diane (Burgis) had just been sworn in, and we went to an updated rotation with Diane for 2021. A normal rotation is once every five years, but with the death of Gayle and Mary’s retirement, the rest of us rotated on a four-year timeline,” stated Mitchoff.
Mitchoff disputed Gioia’s version of history on appointments while stating she would give Carlson the benefit of the doubt of what he said during the meeting because she believed he was misled by Gioia on the impact the appointments would have on others but does say a phone call was made from to Carlson from Gioia informing him of the appointment plan.
“Ken misspoke when he said he wasn’t aware this was coming up. He knew it. He also is misinformed, or chooses to believe what he wishes to believe, when he says that he reviewed the rotations in the past and didn’t see any system in place. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt in that he didn’t know the background as I’ve stated above,” stated Mitchoff.
Ultimately, Mitchoff believed the Board’s vote last week skipped Andersen and that the Board should reconsider its vote.
Bonilla stated that her recollection is that the selection of the vice chair and chair was done as a rotation.
“This helped with smooth transitions and ensured that all districts were equally represented,” said Bonilla who noted that the result of the vote taken is that Supervisor Andersen will be delayed in serving as Chair and also Supervisor Burgess will be delayed.
She also believed the vote should be reconsidered.
“I think there is great value in the board having a unanimous decision for the position of vice chair and chair. I hope the board continues to work towards a unanimous decision,” said Bonilla.
Supervisor Andersen sharing her thoughts on the appointment process and providing context which Gioia was omitting.
Andersen stated Tuesday she still believes she was bypassed and two women were being forced to give up their places in the rotation by three men.
“There is a very clear history of rotation by District, with changes in rotation occurring because someone left office and the new person was coming in at the same time as that district’s turn to be chair OR by the agreement of the person getting moved from their order of rotation, particularly if a district had lost their opportunity to chair in the past,” explained Andersen who added, “There is no history of recognizing new Supervisors and moving them up out of rotation because of their status. Federal was not given a special dispensation to pass over others because he was the first black member of the BOS. In fact, the rotation allowed him to be chair 3-years later, but that was per District 5’s place in the rotation.”
According to Andersen, in her 11-years on the Board, they have always discussed who is chair based upon the rotation and any changes in the rotation was by the consent of the person being bumped.
“Until last Tuesday, all votes have been unanimous in electing the chair and vice-chair. That’s how settled we were in our rotation and the respect we had given to each district’s right to lead the board,” explained Andersen.
Andersen said she believed Gioia was focused on the individual, not the Districts while saying there was never a policy about elevating new members just because they were new.
“No district has ever been chair twice in three years, as is being proposed here,” explained Andersen. “Similarly, no sitting Supervisor, with the exception of Supervisor Uilkema who developed cancer when she would have been vice-chair and then chair in 2010, has gone more than 5 years without being chair. There would be six years between my terms as chair, and given the new policy John has sought to implement – that he just needs two other votes and he can control who is chair– there is no guarantee that I will be chair in three years.”
Mike Barbanica, Shanelle Scales-Preston & Jelani Killings
Candidates for Federal Glover’s District 4 Seat Weight in:
Mike Barbanica stated he believed reconsideration to the vote should be given.
“It was my understanding that the Board of Supervisors follows a by district rotation that rotates each year by district. I think based on what happened at the meeting, they should reconsider their vote and make it right,” stated Barbanica who did not want to speculate on any reasons why members of the Board took the action they did.
Jelani Killings called what transpired at the Board of Supervisors disappointing and would have supported the motion by Burgis to place Andersen as vice chair.
“The vote orchestrated by Supervisor Gioia and supported by Supervisors Glover and Carlson was a disappointment. The board needs to adopt a policy – similar to what many cities in the County already have – to keep personal politics out of the board rotation. Good governance is based on fair processes, objectivity, and merit, not identity politics. The decision to appoint Supervisor Carlson as Vice Chair, bypassing the general board rotation that would have rightfully placed Supervisor Andersen in that role, goes against the principles of fairness and transparency in our governance. If on the board, I would have supported the original motion by Supervisor Burgis to appoint Supervisor Glover as Chair and Supervisor Andersen as Vice Chair. It’s crucial that our leaders prioritize integrity over political maneuvering to ensure that the board serves the best interests of Contra Costa County.”
Multiple attempts for comment by Shanelle Scales-Preston were unsuccessful.
District 3 Impacted by Board Rotation?
One has to speculate that in 20-years, District 3 has only had the chair position just three times and one time in the last 10-years. While this was certainly the work of dumb luck as to when a newly elected supervisor comes in, one has to wonder if this is why resources are so thin in the Antioch, Brentwood, Oakley and Discovery Bay areas.
Lack of services compared to other parts of the county include fire services, senior services, mental health services, homeless services, veterans services and others.
Ironically, while Burgis had been working on improving fire service with a 3-engine company East Contra Costa Fire Protection District covering 250-square miles and 250,000 people, the impossible happened when the District merged with Contra Costa County Fire while she was Board Chair.
While Supervisor Federal Glover calls the chair position “ceremonial” in nature, the Chair does set the agenda and can push for things others cannot—such as a merger of fire Districts.
Studies show several years ago that for every $10 in West County, just $1 was spent in East Contra Costa by the county.
Interestingly, Gioia, who represents West County, has served as Board chair four times since 2010, more than anyone else on the Board and more money is going to West County than other parts of the county.
Mike Burkholder
Publisher of ContraCosta.news
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