Health summit or political stunt? Why invite from GOP lawmakers riled El Dorado supervisors

The El Dorado County Board of Supervisors is embroiled in a fierce and public dispute over a conference led by Republican state lawmakers who are critical of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak.

Five GOP lawmakers sent the board a letter this month asking them to send a delegate to a conference about the pandemic involving officials from more than a dozen mostly rural Northern California counties.

What sparked infighting between board members was the tone of the letter and the decision by board Chairman Brian Veerkamp to send someone to the event even though his counterparts voted against allowing him to appoint a delegate for the meeting.

The invitation plainly takes aim at Newsom. Two of the lawmakers behind it, Assemblymen James Gallagher and Kevn Kiley, in fact, are suing the Newsom administration in Sutter County Superior Court in a case that turns on the governor’s use of emergency powers this year.

“In these trying times, the disconnect between the state government in Sacramento and our way of life in Northern California has never been more painfully clear. The extended state of emergency has destroyed even the appearance of representative government and left our communities as mere subjects of overreaching state power,” the letter from the lawmakers’ reads. Newsom’s “machinations have been guided by politics and the influence of Sacramento special interests more than public health and the well-being of our citizens. We will call it exactly what it is: an autocracy, and not a benevolent one.”

On Friday afternoon, Supervisor Sue Novasel alleged Veerkamp abused emergency powers by unilaterally deciding to send County Sheriff John D’Agostini to the conference.

But Veerkamp said a chance to meet with lawmakers openly looking for input on coronavirus is too important to pass up.

“If you don’t go discuss things with elected representatives, they’re hard to get a hold of at times,” Veerkamp said.

But Novasel said the event was little more than a stunt.

“This letter is so incendiary,” Novasel said of the lawmakers’ invitation. “This is nothing but political fanfare.”

COVID-19 conference

Republican Sens. Brian Dahle, Jim Nielsen and Assembly members Megan Dahle, Gallagher and Kiley together represent a substantial portion of Northern California spanning from Fair Oaks to the Oregon border, an area that has often voiced critiques of Newsom’s approach to restricting the economy in light of COVID-19.

The group’s conference, scheduled for Thursday in Red Bluff, was meant to address some of those concerns, ranging from the “arbitrary and capricious rules that restrict and severely limit the ability of our citizens to pursue their livelihood” to “inadequate distance learning when our schools could be safely re-opened.”

The letter’s bottom line: “The metrics have changed several times, yet each time have worked against counties like ours.”

The California Department of Public Health was not invited, according to Don Ashton, El Dorado County’s Chief Administrative Officer.

El Dorado supervisors took up the contentious letter at a Tuesday meeting, as members weighed how to respond.

Throughout the meeting, Veerkamp jockeyed for a larger say in the decision to send a delegate, as opposed to having the board decide on a person. They eventually outvoted a motion Veerkamp had put forward that would allow the chair to choose the person who would attend the conference.

Veerkamp, who is termed out after having served Placerville and Diamond Springs for eight years, leaves office in January. He’ll be replaced by former Placerville Mayor Wendy Thomas, who won in March.

Novasel, who represents the Highway 50 corridor from Pollock Pines to South Lake Tahoe, was the most vocal opponent to Veerkamp’s position during the meeting, objecting to the conference on the basis of its politically-charged nature.

Two county residents who joined to offer public comments disagreed with Novasel’s perspective. They supported efforts to send a representative to the conference.

The contents of the invitation resonated with Ken Greenwood, who riffed on the oft-repeated aphorism that California leads the nation. “Into oblivion,” he added.

“It is incendiary,” he said of the letter. “And quite possibly for a reason.”

Sheriff volunteered to go

Shortly after public comment, D’Agostini phoned in to throw himself into the running as a delegate to the conference. He cited numerous concerns regarding coronavirus that he would like to address to lawmakers and other attendees, such as crowding in jails.

“If it starts going down party lines I’m walking out,” D’Agostini said, but rejected Novasel’s claim that the event was too politically charged to attend: “In all due respect ... you are a politician. This is political, absolutely, and unfortunately, this whole issue has turned into a political issue.”

Ashton was significantly more reserved in his stance.

“If I am asked to go, I would be comfortable sharing data, and mostly I will do that and listen and take notes and report back to the board,” Ashton said.

A motion to send Ashton was rejected 3-2. Both Novasel and Veerkamp voted against the motion. Veerkamp argued that he should be able to pick a delegate, with input from Ashton, and presented his own motion which would authorize him to do just that. That motion failed, too, by another 3-2 vote.

“We as a board decide who goes, not you unilaterally because you’re chair,” Supervisor Shiva Frentzen said.

After the vote, Veerkamp seemed to agree.

“Nobody’s going,” he said. “Unless they want to go on their own, which we can’t preclude.”

Veerkamp, Novasel spar over emergency powers

But by Friday things had evidently changed. Veerkamp sent out an announcement declaring that D’Agostini would be attending the conference.

“The board was unable to pass a majority vote on who the representative would be,” Veerkamp said in a prepared statement. “Due to the importance of the issue that will be discussed, I believe it is imperative to have representation from our county. Therefore, as chair of the Board of Supervisors I asked Sheriff John D’Agostini to attend and he has agreed to do so.”

Veerkamp cited a less overtly charged selection from the invitation, which described the event as an attempt to “seek common ground on topics such as the re-opening of the economy and our civic life, the re-opening of our schools, and actions in response to the state of California’s threat to withhold entitled funds of the counties.”

In response, Novasel argued that he was in violation of protocol in her own statement the same day.

“It is my sincere hope that Supervisor Veerkamp will reconsider using county funds to send an elected official from our county to a politically motivated event ... attending a political conference is not an emergency for the chair or anyone else in the county,” she said.

Veerkamp, speaking with The Sacramento Bee on Saturday, said that his use of emergency powers was perfectly justified and that just because the board could not collectively decide on who to send does not forbid him from exercising his authority as chair.

Still, he said, the move “wasn’t taken lightly.”

He’s been receiving calls from hundreds of constituents who want someone from the county to attend the conference, which he characterized as “a very innocuous meeting to gather information.”