Opinion | Supervisor Howard Gaslights the Public Over Step C Hires

Opinion by Samuel Strait

The “traveling man,” better known as Supervisor Chris Howard, found himself with a little taste of “being in the frying pan” at the last circus known as the Del Norte County Board of Supervisors (BOS) meeting on October 28.

Granted, as a politician, he should have known that blaming the public for calling attention to bad hiring practices—initiated in early 2025 by the County BOS—wasn’t exactly a smart move. Long-term abuse of hiring new employees at Step C by one of the County’s department heads, Ranell Brown, Director of Health and Human Services (DHHS), five during this particular version of the circus, has landed members of the BOS squarely in the frying pan following regular and pointed objections by members of the public.

This prompted Supervisor Howard to attempt to shift the blame for the BOS’s lack of action to correct the County’s employee compensation scale—to the public—calling them “unreasonable.” Bravo, Supervisor Howard, for this accomplishment.

The public is most certainly in a position to correct a major oversight by the BOS—years in the making.

For those in the county who are unfamiliar with the struggle to acquaint the geniuses on Del Norte County’s BOS with their dereliction of representative responsibility, this sorry saga began nearly a year ago when it was learned that patrol deputies at the Sheriff’s Office were making little more than a burger flipper at McDonald’s. While grudgingly, the BOS was coerced—after months of public attention—into improving deputies’ wages to slightly more than burger flippers, the minimal improvement to compensation for the County’s Road Department was next, followed by pleading from employees at DHHS.

Again, the BOS’s response was to increase the wages under duress for the Roads Department and tell remaining county employees to wait for an expected compensation study, due in February 2025, before further action could be contemplated. Due to the BOS’s resistance to addressing pay disparity at the time, attention shifted to the alarming vacancy rate within County departments—mostly due to low pay. Authorization from the BOS allowed department heads to use Step C as entry-level for new employees. Most department heads resisted, citing the obvious morale issues for current staff.

Not so at DHHS. For the past eight months, Director Brown has utilized the policy to hire a steady trickle of “difficult-to-fill” positions at Step C. Vacancy rates within the department do not appear to have changed much. New hires in, older and more experienced employees out—to jobs where they feel more respected.

Finally, the expected compensation study—originally scheduled for February—arrived in August and revealed what everyone already knew: the County’s compensation scale is roughly ten percent below average for nearby rural counties and likely well below urban counties to the south.

Nothing happened following the report—at least immediately. “Wait until bargaining has concluded,” was the response. Business as usual from the BOS. A couple more months pass. DHHS continues hiring at Step C. Five new hires were up for approval at the October 28 meeting. Only then, after eight months of automatic Step C hires for DHHS, did the embarrassment level reach a point where BOS members could no longer continue the charade that Step A was a fair and reasonable entry-level compensation.

Supervisor Wilson pulled the five hires from the “Consent Agenda”—remember, the “noncontroversial, nothing to see here, folks” list. A discussion ensued, and the normally brief public comment period turned into a public lashing over the Step C policy used almost exclusively by DHHS Director Brown. The five position increases—normally an automatic 5–0—failed to materialize.

Needless to say, the unelected genius at DHHS did not take rejection well, and Supervisor Howard found it difficult to accept a thorough trashing by the public.

Unfortunately, this is not Supervisor Howard’s first venture into inserting his proverbial foot in his mouth. Nor is it likely to be his last. Perhaps a long-overdue tutorial on the responsibilities of being a representative of the County’s residents is in order. A willingness to understand commonly accepted practices—where representatives respect the comments made by the public and become less dismissive and more open to the possibility that BOS members are human and make mistakes like anyone else—would be refreshing.

What a concept: listen, check your ego, and process before putting said foot in mouth.
Humility is not a bad trait for responsible and mature adults.