Who Gets To Appoint The 5th District Representative To HBP Commission: Janet or Pat?

There's an interesting situation coming up at Tuesday's Board of Supes meeting. According to the agenda, 5th District Supervisor Pat Bates has agendized appointing Brian Probolsky  -- a resident of the 5th District -- to the Harbors, Beaches and Parks Commission.

And, 1st District Supervisor Janet Nguyen has agendized appointing Susan Caskey -- also a 5th District resident -- to the Harbors, Beaches and Parks Commission.

The problem is, the governing county ordinance doesn't allow for two residents of the same supervisor district to serve among the Board of Supervisor appointments to the HBP Commission. The Board gets five appointments to the HBP Commission (emphasis mine):

Sec. 2-2-15. Commission created; membership.

There is hereby created a Harbors, Beaches and Parks Commission consisting of seven (7) members. Five (5) members shall be appointed by the Board of Supervisors with one member from each supervisorial district. Two (2) members shall be appointed by the Clerk of the Board of Supervisors' "City Selection Committee," with one (1) such member to be a resident of the Cities of Seal Beach, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, Dana Point or San Clemente and the other member to be a resident of one (1) of the other cities in the County of Orange.

(Ord. No. 99-21, § 1, 8-31-99)

In other words, Janet Nguyen or Pat Bates both can't appoint 5th District residents. One of them will have to take back their current appointee.

In the interest of fairness and custom, Supervisor Nguyen ought to yield to Supervisor Bates. Since she represents the 5th District, she ought to appoint to 5th District representative to the HBP Commission.

We'll see what happens.

NOTE: Yes, Brian Probolsky is the brother of Adam Probolsky, pollster, blogger, strategist and -- among other things -- advisor to Janet Nguyen.

Comments

[One Who Knows]

Tell us a little about Brian Problsky.

He has a very famous last name.

[Adam D. Probolsky]

Brian is a Laguna Niguel Parks and Recreation Commissioner. He is president of his home owners association. He is treasurer of the board of governors of the Saddleback College Foundation and he is the father of a the cutest smartest four-year old in Orange County.

[Any kin of Adam Probolsky?]

So is Brian Probolsky Adam's father or his son?

[Any kin of Adam Probolsky?]

I see now that he is his twin brother. Thanks.

[Brian Thomas]

I think Brian is Adam's love child

[Oh boy]

Oh boy
That why people called JN so armature in her job. Make one mistate after to others. Im feel very sorry for her.

[AQ]

I wonder if County Counsel will provide some sort of legal opinion allowing this to go through.

If so then Janet would have an excuse to go ahead and appoint one of her cronies to the HBP Commission.

There are so many good and qualified residents in the 1st District that Janet can appoint, how about Darrell Nolta?

[Tansia]

Now why would any Supervisor appoint a person who actually knows and uses the parks when they can appoint political hacks whose job it is to ensure that developers are allowed to use park property to further their development projects.

[Jon Fleischman]

A couple of comments:

First on Brian. I have known Brian for many, many years and he would be an oustanding addition to the HBP Commission (joining Matt Cunningham). Brian is smart, savvy, conservative, and has a think for parks, beaches AND harbors (how convenient). What more could we want?

Now on this issue of appointments and districts. While it may not be required under county rules, but I would suggest that it is a great system to allow each of the Supervisors take the lead on the representatives from their respective districts.

I served for many years on commissions in my home town of Irvine and in our city, each commission has five members, one appointed by each Councilmember. This system works very well as it ensures that each elected councilmember has important input on each commission.

At the county level, I plan on holding my Supervisor (and his colleagues) accountable for what happens in county government. So I would just a soon that each of them had their own 'person' on each of these commissions.

Janet can make the case to Pat about why Pat should consider appointing someone else. But given Pat's outstanding nomination, I don't know how anyone else would be better than Brian.

Andy you are being a Brat!