El Dorado County supervisors vote to disband Human Rights Commission, reduce ethics training

EL DORADO COUNTY, Calif. - Even with endless public comments in support of keeping the El Dorado County Human Rights Commission intact, the majority of supervisors voted to disband it during its meeting on Tuesday.

During its previous meeting, the Board of Supervisors had voted 3-2 to disband the commission in a first reading, then on March 21, the same 3-2 vote sealed the deal in a second reading.

Supervisors Brooke Laine and John Hidahl wanted to keep the commission, but the other three, Lori Parlin, John Turnboo, and Chair Wendy Thomas voted to pass an amendment of Ordinance 5175, dissolving the El Dorado County Human Rights Commission.

"The way in which this is being handled is unfortunate," said Laine, the supervisor representing Lake Tahoe.

Both Laine and Hidahl have asked their fellow supervisors to work on making the commission work better for all but to not disband prior to having another plan in place.

Laine suggested they at least wait until an upcoming Good Governance meeting to make the decision, but was turned down.

Besides the disbanding of the Human Rights Commission on the consent calendar, also approved was that change of which boards, committees, and commissions needed to go through implicit bias training. Now only those on the Assessment Appeals Board, Agriculture Commission, Civil Service Commission, Child Abuse Prevention Council, and Planning Commission must complete the course. All others are encouraged to attend but it is no longer required due to some supervisors saying they were having trouble appointing committee members due to the required training.

Prior to this, all committee and commission members had 30 days to complete the training, now it is just those mentioned above.