Supervisors’ vote on tourism spending serves to confuse many

By Victoria Metcalf

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The celebration in the chambers of the Supervisory Board this afternoon proved short-lived for proponents of tourism in Plumas County. It appeared that a 3-2 vote that awarded $ 55,000 to three local chambers of commerce was a win, but during the hiatus that was convened after the vote, it turned out 3-2 not enough.

With four-fifths of the vote required to remove funds from Plumas County’s budget, a second request for funding from three local chambers of commerce with $ 55,000 was accepted at the regular meeting of Plumas County’s Board of Directors on Tuesday, June 15 , declined.

Overseers Dwight Ceresola and Jeff Engel cast dissenting votes on a proposal from Overseer Greg Hagwood to fund Chambers during the busy summer months. Hagwood recommended that funding come from the county’s remaining general funds.

Traditionally, prior to a roll-call vote that requires four-fifths approval, prior to the vote by the secretary, the supervisory board is notified. The chairman of the board could explain this requirement, in this case Engel, or the district councilor Gretchen Stuhr could have explained it.

In a simple majority vote with no explanation of budgetary requirements, the Lost Chamber of Commerce members thought they had won and won with votes in favor from Hagwood, Kevin Goss and Sherrie Thrall. Thrall voted against a proposal two weeks ago when Richard Aiple, general manager of Nakoma Resort and representative of the Lost Sierra Chamber of Commerce, requested $ 200,000 to help the chambers in their efforts to bring more tourism to Plumas County.

After a five-minute break, Stuhr explained the legal requirements for the fourth to fifth roll-call voting.