SUPERVISORS DENY CITIZENS THEIR CONSTITUTIONAL VOICE

At the all-important Feb. 28 meeting of Kern’s Board of Supervisors, Chairman Gary Simmons of the Citizens’ Committee for Election Integrity opened his two-minute public comment with his committee’s mission to collaborate, cooperate and assist the county’s election department to assure future elections are free of fraud and full of transparency.

Despite earlier productive meetings to pursue this mission, responses from Election Department staff and the County Counsel’s Office have continually negatively obstructed the committee’s positive, constructive and collaborative overtures to assure future election integrity.

Why?

It’s understood a significant portion of community comments were critical and even provocative; however, this local citizens’ committee’s manner is positive, polite, constructive, informed and future oriented — not regurgitating past elections.

Even with the decision to extend the Dominion contract, the Board of Supervisors is well advised to reverse staff’s negative postures and, instead, welcome this professional (without fees, of course) counsel based on system and process improvement within the county’s effective Lean Six Sigma quality management culture, principles and best practices.

Staff obstruction and opposition are most unfortunate.

This opportunity should not continue to be obstructed. Instead, adequate time should be permitted for continued objective, productive, future-focused counsel until election integrity is evident to all.

That’s how public-private collaboration should work! — John Pryor, Bakersfield