In 2002, at the urging of labor and with the endorsement of management, the county Board of Supervisors approved a more generous set of pension benefits for all current workers. The change, fueled by salary increases and combined with other workforce trends, is now seen as driving the upward spiral in pension costs.

A little-known perk termed ‘administrative leave’ amounts to a guaranteed cash bonus or extra vacation for some upper-level government administrators and elected officials in Sonoma County.

Valerie Brown’s surprise decision not to seek re-election to the Board of Supervisors means Sonoma County will have seen almost a complete turnover in leadership over a four-year period. Change is good, but is this too much at one time?

Grant Davis, the interim head of the Sonoma County Water Agency, has been hired as the agency’s general manager. The appointment puts an end to a process that was surrounded with political intrigue a year ago, when then-Supervisor Paul Kelley was widely rumored to be seeking the general manager’s post.

It was a day of celebration at the Sonoma County offices Tuesday as two new supervisors were sworn in. But the question remains, who will emerge as the true fiscal leaders on this new board now that those behind the county’s last major reform attempt – the health benefits rollback – are all gone amid controversy.

Paul Kelley, the recently retired Sonoma County supervisor, says he is not seeking the general manager’s post at the county water agency. About 40 candidates submitted applications for the position, which pays more than $175,000 a year. Kelley says he is looking to work as a consultant on water and transportation issues. “At this point I am hunting for a job,” he said.

Yet again, the Dutra asphalt plant comes to the Board of Supervisors this week. So far, the board has been in favor, tentatively opposed and, now, tentatively in favor again.

The debate continues over the merits of a controversial land deal, tentatively approved Tuesday, involving publicly protected Sonoma County farmland. The 3-2 vote has fueled continued discussion over whether the deal provides public benefits and its policy implications for the county’s 20-year-old Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District.

A prolonged effort by agriculture interests to craft a program that would oversee local vineyard and orchard frost operations to help the Russian River’s endangered fish earned unanimous support Tuesday from the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors.

A split Sonoma County Board of Supervisors gave their blessing Tuesday to a controversial land proposal that would use county-protected private ranchland to help developer John Barella replace rare tiger salamander and frog habitat that will be lost to his Roblar Road quarry project.