The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a resolution authorizing the County Counsel's office to represent special districts within Mono County.

County Counsel Christopher Beck presented a draft resolution that formalizes the office's representation of special districts (where not otherwise restricted) and provides up to 10 hours of free legal assistance per district. Beck said his office already represents certain entities by statute (for example, LAFCO and the grand jury) and that this resolution would make representation of local special districts explicit, subject to capacity.

Key elements of the resolution and presentations:

- Up to 10 hours of noncharged legal services per special district, per year, subject to the county attorney's office capacity and the county's status as the client.
- After the 10-hour baseline, additional representation would be billed at the office's fully loaded hourly rate; the resolution allows for carve-outs such as litigation, labor/human resources matters, and other high-cost areas that the county counsel's office said typically require outside counsel.
- County Counsel proposed providing targeted trainings for special district boards, including the Brown Act, Fair Political Practices rules and the Public Records Act; he said training sessions would likely be scheduled on Zoom to enable multiple districts to participate cost-effectively.
- County Counsel and supervisors discussed capacity limits and agreed the county office must retain the ability to decline representation when capacity is exceeded.

Supervisor comments suggested the 10-hour baseline should be conditioned on participation in at least one annual training to promote proactive governance; the board directed counsel to include training language and to coordinate MOUs with districts that accept county representation.

The motion to adopt the resolution and direct counsel to finalize MOUs passed 5-0. County Counsel will distribute the draft MOU to districts and schedule training outreach in coordination with LAFCO and other local partners.

Ending: The resolution was adopted and staff will follow up with MOUs, training schedules and a contact outreach plan to special districts.