Thursday, August 17, 2006 12:03 AM PDT

County supervisors to go digital within weeks

By: Gus Thomson, Journal Staff Writer

Placer County Board of Supervisors meetings are targeted for the World Wide Web within the next few weeks.

Supervisors were told during the second day of budget workshops Wednesday that final testing is currently taking place to make streaming video of regular meetings accessible on the Internet.

Administrative Services Director Clark Moots said the board meeting Web casts could be followed by similar availability of Planning Commission meetings.

The commission is now meeting in the newly completed Community Development Resource Building, which has been equipped for webcasting.

Supervisor Bruce Kranz, the first supervisor to have a district Web site up on the county's home page, praised the work by the Administrative Services Department to provide a new option for tuning into Board of Supervisors sessions. The meetings are already taped for replay on local cable television stations.

"Internet availability to the public is extremely important," Kranz said.

Kranz said that the Web streaming function will soon allow someone to log on a computer day or night and get information on how a particular issue was handled by the county.

Supervisors are wrapping up the third day of workshops today, with decisions to be made on spending issues that include whether to fund a $3.2 million helicopter purchase for the Placer County Sheriff's Department. Sheriff Ed Bonner made his department's pitch for the new chopper Tuesday, saying it could be used on a regional basis for firefighting and well as policing.

Supervisors also heard a report Wednesday from Personnel Director Nancy Nittler on her department's efforts to fill job vacancies. Over the past year, the Personnel Department filled 708 vacant positions. The county's work force is just under 3,000.

Excluding promotions, the county made 395 new hires last year. A total of 136 people retired, leaving with an average of 16 years of job experience and an average age of 57. A total of 128 people retired the year before, representing an average of 15.5 years of service.

Nittler pointed out that projections in 2004 were for 200 people retiring yearly, so the fewer retirements could be credited with county efforts to encourage older employees to stay working. More than 30 percent of the county's employees are 54 or older and a third of the work force will be eligible to retire in the next five years.

The County Counsel's Office has already received an OK to increase its full-time staff from 24 to 26, with the addition of two more attorneys. County Counsel Anthony La Bouff said that while Home Depot is the first controversial development in several years that won't be challenged in court, the department's 15 attorneys will be dealing with west Placer County development issues as well as growing labor, child support and mental health caseloads.

The Journal's Gus Thomson can be reached at gust@goldcountrymedia.com.