Bakersfield.com Quirks of the County Blog

Kern Quirks talks chicken at Bakersfield City Hall

Wed, 15 May 2013 17:05:54 PDT

It's chicken time for the Bakersfield City Council. Will they welcome the fowl on residential property inside the city limits or will they keep the status quo and forbid the coop community from roosting in Bakersfield?

Supervisors meet on to-do list items

Tue, 14 May 2013 08:31:23 PDT

Supervisors have had some quiet meetings the past few weeks and today's offering seems set to be quiet as well.

But you never know whose going to show up and apologize for hiring George Martin.

Supes to tackle oil vs ag fight, again

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 12:51:23 PDT

Kern County supervisors will, once again, tackle a proposed plan that would let agricultural interests and the oil industry bring disputes over oil industry drilling locations to the Kern County Board of Supervisors.

The idea, cheered by surface rights holders and agriculture interests from the Shafter area who have united under the name Committee to Protect Farmland and Clean Water, is opposed by owners of mineral rights -- generally those in the oil industry.

Supervisors consider plan for farmland solar plant

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 13:35:52 PDT

Kern Count supervisors will consider approval of a 20 megawatt photovoltaic power plant by Orion Solar on 265 acres of farm land three miles southwest of Arvin.

A nearby resident has protested the project and has hired a lawyer from Fresno who has handled some major environmental cases against Kern County governments, including the one that stopped the construction of the Wal-Mart Supercenter on Panama Lane for years.

Supervisors face health contract battle today

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 08:51:45 PDT

Kern County supervisors tackle their Third Party Administrator contract today in the morning session.

Last month the debate was aggressive, accusatory and took six hours to complete. Lots of people care about who gets the $11 to $13 million contract.

Round 3 coming in county health care fracas

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 07:47:42 PDT

The Kern County Board of Supervisors will engage in the third round of a fight Tuesday over the award of a hotly-contested $11 to $13 million county contract which controls health insurance for more than 5,000 county workers and their families.

Twice before, supervisors have been buffeted by debate about the "third party administrator" deal.

Supes agenda light on controversy, long on routine.

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 08:44:13 PDT

Today's meeting of the Kern County Board of Supervisors seems destined to be mellow. They are back after two weeks off, but most of both the AM and PM agendas are on the routine consent calendar.

We have some proclamations during the morning and the evaluation/review of Animal Control Director Jen Woodard in the private closed session meeting following the AM confab.

Supes meeting could be interesting after wild Monday

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 08:50:47 PDT

I can't complain much, after yesterday's busy news cycle, that the Kern County Board of Supervisors agenda today is a little calm.

In the morning supervisors will honor some retirees, including Airports Director Jack Gotcher, and talk about a deal with Kern Health Systems. The afternoon seems fairly mild as well, after what looks to be a busy closed session.

Supervisors face health insurance contract melee today

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 08:54:46 PDT

Managed Care Systems, the Bakersfield-based health care management system tied to three local hospitals and a ton of debate over its control of more than 5,000 Kern County employees' health insurance, has put on the full court press to keep what is, to it, a $13.9 million contract. County staffers are recommending a hybrid of three other providers. Supervisors are stuck in the middle of the highly contentious debate that has called the county's ethics into question for months.

This afternoon's meeting of the Board of Supervisors is expected to be a scrum with all of the providers who bid on the county contract trying to elbow the other guy's bid back back or fight their way into supervisors' good graces. There will be some preliminaries this morning as the Kern County Auditor-Controller reviews MCS' fiscal performance over the last three years.

Trashy yards, microchips and power plant make for a busy day for county supervisors.

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 08:56:09 PST

Supervisors will look at possible regulation of bank-owned properties today when they hold their morning meeting.

Without care and maintenance, the host of vacant properties that are sitting off the market, can become huge problems for neighborhoods and government.

Supervisors in for interesting afternoon

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 16:46:28 PST

You can expect that, while the morning session of the Kern County Board of Supervisors weekly meeting will be quiet, the afternoon session will be spicy.

Supervisors will be considering contracts with three companies that would, together, administer the biggest chunk of Kern County's employee health insurance system.

Pensions in the morning, budgets in the afternoon

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 08:41:26 PST

Kern County supervisors have a cash-centric agenda planned for this Tuesday.

In the morning session they're set to hear from the Kern County Employees' Retirement Association about the county's pension obligations and the performance of the investment funds that back them up.

LOIS HENRY: Maybe new board can learn from past mistakes

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 15:44:33 PST

I got called into the District Attorney's office early last week.

I know some of you are thinking "about time," but this wasn't about me.

Veteran county assessor Fitch to retire

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 03:00:00 PST

It took him a while, but after 39 years working in government, Kern County Assessor-Recorder James Fitch finally figured out that every day would bring new challenges and that there would always be another project to finish.

There would never be a perfect time to retire.

County health plan up for discussion

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 08:36:45 PST

Kern County supervisors will discuss a touchy topic this morning when they take up a plan to hire 15 new employees at Kern Medical Center. The new staff would run a new county health insurance system that could offer more than 8,000 county workers and their families coverage for half the price of the current lowest-cost plan.

Workers could still choose community physicians as their primary care doctors but would have to go to county-owned Kern Medical Center for their hospital care, prescriptions, most specialist care and testing.