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Public presenters urge stricter ROV hiring standards, rural recovery housing and vote-documentation changes
Summary
At a public-presentation slot Feb. 24, speakers urged the board to require stronger qualifications and community engagement for the Registrar of Voters hire, to expand recovery housing into rural Kern County, and several speakers read or advocated a proposal requiring documentary proof of U.S. citizenship for federal voter registration.
Several community members used the meeting’s public-presentation period to press the board on staffing standards, rural behavioral-health services and proposals affecting voter-registration documentation.
Jess Sanders and Mercy Pena addressed the board about the Registrar of Voters (ROV) position and recommended minimum qualifications and stronger community engagement. Sanders highlighted duties of the incumbent position and argued the county should hire someone with prior ROV experience and appropriate education; Mercy Pena emphasized leadership, integrity, mapping and ballot-distribution accuracy, and timely counting practices.
Caitlin Payne of the Kern River Valley urged the board to prioritize equitable expansion of recovery housing and behavioral-health services into rural parts of Kern County, saying the county’s latest point-in-time count recorded more than 2,200 unhoused people and that roughly 20% live outside Bakersfield. Payne said there are no county-operated sober living homes or detox centers in the Kern River Valley and that residents must travel more than 50 miles for most services; she asked the board to refer her letter to Behavioral Health and to consider allocating funding and technical assistance to establish local recovery housing.
Multiple speakers also read from or advocated for changes to voter-registration requirements. Glenn Clayton and Andy Hensel read language from what they identified as a ‘‘Save America Act’’ that would require documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote for federal office; Charles Shin and others continued passages outlining verification, information sharing and removal procedures as framed in the read text. These comments were presented as advocacy and public comment; no motion or formal board action on voter-registration policy occurred during the morning session.
Donna Hermann and Tina Carmona of the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life invited the board to the May 2 survivor event in Bakersfield and requested support; the board thanked them and several supervisors said they would attend the survivor lap.
What’s next: The board did not take formal action on ROV hiring standards, rural recovery-housing requests, or the voter-registration proposals during the morning session; Supervisor Couch indicated Ms. Payne was already coordinating with Behavioral Health and asked that her letter be referred to that department.
