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Humboldt supervisors approve two sheriff’s office hires despite countywide hiring freeze
Summary
The Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 to allow two full-time hires in the sheriff’s office — a public information specialist and a property/evidence technician — after department leaders told the board the posts are critical to records, transparency and evidence chain-of-custody. The property role is largely funded by Drug Task Force funds.
The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously March 11 to grant the sheriff’s office an exception to the countywide hiring freeze so the department can fill two full-time positions: a public information specialist and a property/evidence technician.
The board’s action follows a presentation from the sheriff’s office describing workloads that officials said exceed current staffing and can create liability risks and service gaps. Sheriff (Humboldt County) told the board the public information specialist “coordinates all of our public records and our FOIA requests” and manages critical incident communications, press releases and the sheriff’s transparency portal. He said the office receives “approximately about 250 public records requests a year” and issues “probably 200 to 300 press releases, social media posts every year.”
Why it matters: Board members pressed department leaders on whether the hires are essential at a time the county is trying to reduce general-fund…
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