While no actual baton got passed, this Tuesday morning, Supervisor Laura Capps — perhaps the most outspokenly liberal member of the board — vacated her seat as board chair for the past year and made way for Supervisor Bob Nelson, the most outspokenly conservative member of the board, to take her place wielding the ceremonial gavel. For Nelson — now in the second year of his second term—it will be his second time as chair.
Mostly, it’s the job of the chair to manage meetings but the position offers sway on when some issues get heard. But the chair also can exert limited body English on board direction. Nelson, who praised his colleagues for voting to appoint him despite his penchant for casting dissenting votes, said he will introduce an ordinance to streamline the county’s regulatory process.
“We need quicker yeses. We need quicker noes. And we need to charge less for both,” he stated. It’s all about affordability, he said. “People need to make more money and things need to cost less.”