Tuolumne supervisors set "back to basics" priorities, pressing for public-safety staffing, roads funding and a county grant strategy

Tuolumne County supervisors used a one-day strategic workshop to re-center the county’s agenda on core services — public safety, workforce stability and roads — and to press for better grant capacity to pay for them.

Chair Supervisor Griefer opened the session by urging a return to fundamentals. “We’re here really to call this workshop back to basics,” he said, framing the board’s effort to produce a measurable, time-driven two-year strategic plan.

The board’s five elected supervisors described overlapping priorities. Supervisor Campbell pressed for stability in fire protection while the county waits to renegotiate a CAL FIRE cooperative agreement and proposed designating $2,000,000 a year of transient occupancy tax specifically for road materials and maintenance. “If we designate a certain share of that TOT to go to roads, I think we’re making a statement that this is a priority,” he said. Supervisor Kirk said the budget should be the deciding lens and urged follow-through on prior TOT commitments for fire, law enforcement and roads. Supervisor Grieffer put workforce pay and retention at the top of his list and urged development of alternative funding streams and a full-time grant coordinator to pursue state and federal dollars.

Department heads and elected officials used the workshop to connect those priorities to operations and budget risks. District Attorney Cassandra Jenecki told the board she has eight authorized attorney positions but only six filled and warned that staffing shortfalls cost the county revenue and prosecutorial capacity. “There’s nothing more important to this organization and to this community than the people who are willing to serve it,” she said, calling for targeted compensation policy to keep licensed staff.

Sheriff Dave Boscates described investments since 2024 that restored law-enforcement capacity — narcotics enforcement, school resource deputies and homeless outreach — and urged the board to make those staffing gains sustainable. ‘‘Sustainability is the key,’’ he said, describing reorganizations and use of grant funding to restore baseline public-safety services.

Office of Emergency Services Director Dorey Beets warned that OES relies heavily on grant-funded positions and urged the board to recognize OES as part of public safety and to back permanent staffing for sustained preparedness, outreach and mitigation work. “OES must be recognized as public safety,” Beets said, noting that grant-funded roles are vulnerable and that preparedness and mitigation reduce long-term disaster costs.

Several department heads urged a countywide approach to grants and compliance. Auditor-controller Donnie McNair and Treasurer Justin Birtwistle urged efforts to catch up audits and modernize collection systems; both said strengthening grant-writing and accounting capacity would reduce missed opportunities and audit risk. Public Works Director Blassen Scott Heim outlined a five-year pavement plan and said additional recurring funding — and workforce retention — are essential to expand in-house paving and maintenance.

Health and Human Services Director Annie Hockett described program wins — a navigation center that transitions about three in four participants into more stable housing, expanded behavioral-health housing and mobile crisis response — but flagged near-term fiscal risks tied to state policy changes affecting Medi-Cal and food assistance eligibility.

What the board agreed on, in practice, was a narrow set of next steps: keep the county’s public-safety baseline funded, pursue targeted compensation fixes for hard-to-fill and lower-paid frontline positions, and invest in grant and project-management capacity so departments can apply for and manage state and federal program funds. Multiple supervisors and staff described a county-level grant/analyst or grant-coordinator role that would track opportunities, manage compliance, and help translate one-time awards into sustainable programs.

The workshop closed with public comment that reinforced those themes: residents urged investments in emergency preparedness, easier permitting and clearer development paths, and stronger, more stable grant capacity to avoid losing eligible funding.

The supervisors postponed a final wrap-up of the draft strategic plan until a follow-up session; department heads will return with costed proposals and clearer timelines for priority items such as TOT allocation for roads, a county grant coordinator, and options to shore up OES staffing and long-term funding for fire services.