After Reconsideration, Andersen Named Vice Chair of the Board

On Tuesday, the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors reconsidered its vote and named Supervisor Candace Andersen as its vice chair for 2024. Supervisor Federal Glover will be chair of the board.

The move comes after a testy vote at its October 3 meeting where the board voted 3-1 with Andersen dissenting and Supervisor Diane Burgis abstaining to place Ken Carlson as its vice chair, thus skipping Andersen in the Board rotation.

The vote also blindsided Andersen as Gioia orchestrated the appointment of Carlson by providing limited information in a staff report, misled on the history of the board and claimed they didn’t follow a rotation between supervisorial districts.

The discussion also left Supervisor Candace Andersen and Supervisor Diane Burgis feeling marginalized as women for being skipped over in the rotation by men as Gioia defended the appointment several times claiming it was “historic” for Carlson, who is openly gay, to be the first LGBTQ+ chair for the county.

During the debate, Gioia continued to make disingenuous commentary while justifying his politically motivated actions by using Carlson’s sexuality, not experience or accomplishments, as reason to appoint him vice chair all in the name of “history” and “representation” thus making it about identity politics.

Gioia’s actions at the meeting prompted former County Supervisors Susan Bonilla, Karen Mitchoff and Mary Piepho to come out and issue statements that the Board does follow a District rotation.

On Tuesday, however, the Board reconsidered the vote as Supervisor Ken Carlson brought it back for consideration.

“I appreciate the opportunity to bring this back for further discussion. I just wanted to share some of my reflections after our last meetings and I also want to share my appreciation and gratitude for those who reached out whether it was in response to observing the meeting or the social media that came out. I appreciate all of the opinions and thoughts that came to me,” said Carlson.

Carlson admitted at the meeting that Supervisor John Gioia did call him stating there is an opportunity for an incoming supervisor becoming the chair in their first term and he was going to move his name forward.

“I had no reason to believe that it would become controversial,” stated Carlson. “When it came up, I got emotional, and I got protective. I have a responsibility to represent District 4 but being the first openly LGBTQ of this board I feel a greater obligation as well to respect and represent and protect the LGBTQ community. It never has and never will be my intention whether in any work I do to make anyone feel marginalized. I know what that feels like, so I don’t want our work to do that.”

He continued by sharing he believed the board has done strong work to make the communities in the county more inclusive and more accepting and that they needed to continue that work.

“What I did get out of this was there was no specific rotation, it really is how we choose to behave and work together, but it has been a female dominated board for the last 16 years until I came along. I feel like I am being very disruptive, the new guy comes and changes things,” stated Carlson.  “What it really did show me is the disparity in the rotation and representation of our Districts and that is really important to me.”

Carlson said he believed they all make an effort to work together because what is going on across the country, they see what political polarization can do and how it impacts the work that can be accomplished.

“It’s very important we are better than that,” stated Carlson while noting it was about the work of making the county more inclusive and equitable. “I want to apologize but I want to make it known I want to work together collaboratively.”

Supervisor John Gioia again highlighted two weeks ago they had “different interpretations” which often happens into how the board does its rotation policy.

“Unfortunately, I think the language turned into more personal and we focused on the differences rather than how we work together,” stated Gioia sharing he voted for former Supervisors Susan Bonilla and Mary Piepho to come into the rotation their second year in office as vice chair and voted for Supervisors Andersen and Mitchoff in their third years in office.  “I think there were honest differences in how we perceived our policy.”

Gioia continued.

“I think several of us did not agree with the framing and characterization that this was a men vs. female thing. I think that is unfortunate. If you look at the record of this board and us individually, one will see that is not the philosophy we hold here and that is to look at our records,” explained Gioia.

Supervisor Federal Glover thanked Carlson for his comments and recognize that the board is one that has worked collaboratively through the years—a lot of sweat equity went into doing things in an equitable way.

“As someone who has been marginalized through the years, I certainly want to speak to the fact that we do need equity and fairness and one of the things I’ve stated forever is when making policies we need to make sure that there is a box to be checked for equity in the processes we take,” stated Glover. “I appreciate you bringing this back for further discussion.”

Supervisor Diane Burgis asked a rhetorical question of how they could prevent this from occurring in the future and stated every person on the Board was a “good human being” and care about the county.

“For me, it was about Districts and the discussion about putting new members into chair positions was not something I’d ever heard of. After the meeting, I was able to speak with previous board members, including some you mentioned Chair Gioia, and none of them could recollect what you were talking about,” stated Burgis. “I am not saying that is what you recollected, but male and female members of the board did not corroborate that story.”

Burgis shared she supported Carlson, celebrates him and was proud to have an LGBTQ member on the Board, but she also wanted to stand up for District 3. She was thankful they could fix things.

Supervisor Candace Andersen also spoke to many former county supervisors and administrators who also said there was a clear rotation except when someone came into office they could not be chair the first year they were in office.

“Never was a passing over a supervisor forced,” stated Andersen. “Trades took place, but by accent. By agreement by people saying they cooperatively want to make this change. That is what we did for Federal Glover and what Federal did for Karen Mitchoff and yes it would put us back a year but it was collaborative and something we all agreed to.”

Andersen then stated there were far more pressing issues than who was chair and vice chair of the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors.

“But like Diane said, there is certainty and there is fairness from a very early age I care about people being fairness and people being treated fairly. That there be justice. One of the reasons I became a lawyer was because I cared about that,” shared Andersen. “Two weeks ago I was very surprised that my position, Diane’s position, had been offered up to honor Ken”

She continued saying there were many ways they could honor Carlson but uncomfortable that her turn in the rotation had been offered to him without any discussion with her or approach to her.

“I feel like I should be an equal to each of you on this Board of Supervisors,” stated Andersen. “We have always worked collaboratively, and a majority of our votes have been 5-0 votes. I really feel strongly that I was elected by my District to represent them but at the end of the day to have votes for the best interest of the entire county which is why a majority of the services in the county are not showing up in my District.”

Gioia again defended his actions stating he looked at the chart and they had various interpretations of it. He wanted to recognize various points of view based off the chart—again made it about women.

Burgis interjected.

“There were three woman on the board at the time so that is why those women came up. But I want to make sure it was very clear this was not a female vs. male, LGBTQ, straight issue, this was about each District having an opportunity being in the chair position and that it should rotate every five years,” states Burgis. “In the past there have been more females on the board. I am hoping we can go back to this rotation.’

Gioia again stated they supported women in the past.

Andersen responded that was again by District rotation.

Gioia asked if there was a motion. No on was jumping at the opportunity so Burgis asked Calrson if he wanted to make the motion since he brought it back.

“I brought it back for further discussion,” stated Carlson.

“Well last time I made a motion there was a secondary motion and then it got voted on first. So I will do the last motion,” stated Burgis.

Calrson then made the motion to nominate Andersen be the vice chair in 2024. Burgis seconded it.

After public comments,  Burgis offered a response to a public speaker stating she agreed with equity for everyone, except in this case it was for the districts.

“I just want to point out that every meeting we get a report out from a department head that talks about the services in east county. Before I came on the board there was a study that showed for every $10 spent in West County, there was only $1 spent in East County, now I am not saying that is because who was chair most, but I wonder if each of us have a turn that we could created equity for our seniors, veterans, our African Americans, our Latinx, for everybody. That is equity,” stated Burgis. “But I think its about equity across the Districts that we can provide services in these Districts so we can lift up the non-profits that do the work in each community in each part of our community to celebrate the diversity and get the needs.”

Gioia stated he did not like being called “misogynistic” for their vote and called it “out of bounds and no basis for saying that” who called it a serious comment to make which some members of the public did not appreciate.

Burgis again reiterated this was about districts.

“I think where the female thing came in was the way people interacted and I heard from a lot of women, county staff, from women every part of the county, different political positions that felt that the conversation was not appropriate,” said Burgis who said they all want to do better.

Andersen explained she and Gioia had a conversation the day after the vote before they knew this was coming back.

“I shared with you my comments about what had just happened. The question being out there for me was would you have brought this forward in the way it was if we were both men and that was my perception,” stated Andersen. “It was the way the conversation went two weeks ago and the totality of the circumstances that did make me as a woman feel marginalized and feel like this was more than just a political decision.”

She was confident that they could all move forward and have conversations where no one on the board would feel marginalized and feel like they were equals as supervisors and work in the best interest of the county.

The Board then voted 5-0 in favor of Andersen being appointed the vice chair.

Previous Stories:

• Oct 16 – Contra Costa Supervisors to Reconsider Vice Chair Appointment
• Oct 11 – Contra Costa County Supervisors to Reconsider Vice Chair Vote?
• Oct 4 – Contra Costa Supervisors Use Identity Politics to Select Chair Positions