State ruling: Supervisor Novasel not banned from all aspects of Meyers Area Plan
By Kathryn Reed
El Dorado County Supervisor Sue Novasel is allowed to engage her constituents in discussions about any topic. The same is not true when it comes to staff or other board members. And some items she won’t be allowed to vote on.
At the urging of county counsel she asked the Fair Political Practices Commission to rule on potential conflicts of interest. The FPPC made its decision in late June. Most electeds at the local level recuse themselves from time to time on issues. This is because they are not allowed to vote on a matter that could financially benefit them.
Sue Novasel
With Novasel, her two big issues – that are known today – are the inability to vote on the Meyers Area Plan and the proposed courthouse in Placerville. The former is because she has property in the plan area, the latter is because her husband through his company has given a loan to the property owner.
What the FPPC said is Novasel may discuss these issues with the public and media, but not with staff or other supervisors. The limit on staff-board interaction is so she is not influencing them in their work and decision making. She is allowed to receive all material that is available to the public.
“County counsel still advises me to be careful when discussing things with the public to avoid even the perception of influencing,” Novasel told Lake Tahoe News. “I can listen so when the plan goes through in whatever form I could help with specific projects that the community wants. I will be part of helping in any way.”
She wants to set up town hall meetings and/or coffees to hear what the residents of Meyers want.
“There are structural and design standards; what do we want for our roadways; if people want the bug station moved, I want to help. There are a lot of things in that plan,” Novasel said.
Once the plan is adopted, Novasel wants to be an integral part of moving it forward.
The supervisors will be having their annual Tahoe meeting on Aug. 31 starting at 9am at Lake Tahoe Airport. The Meyers Area Plan is anticipated to be one of the topics.
Novasel recognizes the frustrations constituents have with her not being able to vote on the Meyers plan, but it’s the law. She pointed out, though, that everyone in the county is represented by five electeds – not just one. And then each vote carries the same weight.
Her inability to vote on the Meyers plan will also carry over to the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Governing Board. However, the county has an alternate for that board.
As for the courthouse, the 88,000-square-foot facility is slated to be built on land owned by El Dorado County adjacent to the existing county jail just off Forni Road in Placerville as well as on an adjoining 5.2 acres owned by John Briggs, father of former El Dorado County Supervisor Ron Briggs, grandfather of ex-Placerville Planning Commissioner Brian Briggs and father-in-law of Superior Court Judge Steve Bailey.
Novasel & Schwarte Investments Inc. has loaned money to the Briggs Family Trust. This is the company her husband is a part owner and principal of. The supervisor has never worked for the company, but because she financially benefits from the company there is a conflict of interest that prevents her from voting on the courthouse issue. Since her election last November, she has had to recuse herself once.
While the company is incorporated in Nevada, it has filed the paperwork to exist in California as a foreign corporation. This keeps everything legal. The main office is in Meyers, with a branch in Zephyr Cove. Kelly Krolicki, step-daughter of Dick Schwarte, is part of this company. She is married to Brian Krolicki, former lieutenant governor of Nevada. All of the vetting of this financial company has been done multiple times because of Brian Krolicki’s various political offices.
The last three paragraphs made my spydey sense go off…
How come no one brings up the fact that Briggs filed BK?
They made such a big deal about Ski Bumb collecting unemployment.
Sunriser2, hasn’t Donald Trump filed bankruptcy 4 times? What is your point?
Bigger,
You don’t think it was ironic that a sitting county supervisor making financial decisions for the county and running for county treasurer couldn’t manage his own finances?
all those folks are inbreed.
Chief: Once again….spell and grammar content. Geeze.
Dumbfounded….funny, but true!
Wow, what tangeled webs we weave. Seems like a big ol mess of nepotism to me.
Nature, if what you mean is that people like to get loans from people they know and trust then I guess you are correct.
I am still a little confused on why the Placerville property would be a conflict. Sues husband is just a lender and is a little far from being a owner or really having a financial interest in the property, unless it is foreclosed upon.
As for recusals: Heavenly Epic Project (daughter works for Vail), Lake Tahoe Wildlife Shelter (on the Board), Meyers Area Plan (lest we not forget), Courthouse in Placerville…and the list goes on – how far, we don’t know. I’m sure her intentions are good, but if I represented my company on a Board and I had to recuse myself from this many votes, I’d be fired. Why pay me if I can’t do my job? And while she may be able to hear the community’s input, she still can’t represent us on the Meyers Plan (and who knows what else). Not sure how much this helps.
And to anyone who had the pleasure to speak with Mr. Veerkamp (our appointed Board ‘representative’) at the last Meyers “Public Workshop” – does anyone think he understands Meyers and will truly represent us to the County and TRPA??? Remember: that was his one and only appearance for the community. Want to communicate with him? Go to Placerville or email him.
Multi-generational sleazebag families like the Briggs and Nuttings in ElDo County sometimes lose track of just how many self serving deals they’ve made-bankruptcy is the easy way out and they resurface as some other entity-with some other governmental functionary doing their bidding-
it doesn’t take a genius to follow who runs the show-and it ain’t the working class taxpayer
This disclosure is probably all a result of the Nutting fiasco and people trying to abide by the law, which is good for a change. Not disclosing conflicts during the election, to my knowledge, is where the bad taste comes from. Intertwined people in positions of local government leadership making “deals” in this county is an old family tradition that was part of the “Good ol’ Boy” process which needs an end in this county. Awareness of who engages in it, and who is tied to who, is the key to defeating it.
The good ole boy process is alive and well in every state, county and municipality, and at the Federal level in America.
It is all about money and influence and to learn about all the interconnections of the Novasel family with other wealthy families in at least three counties and two states is not a surprise.
The shakers and movers and the wealthy in a given geographic area tend to run in the same social circles, their kids grow up together and wind up marrying one another to a certain degree. Keeps the money in the family, as European royalty (even in different countries) did in the middle ages.
This is just the way it is, and as long as the appropriate disclosures are made there is not a problem.
This county is far more about feuds and factions than family friends with money. That is the way it is. The truth is a crooked politician in this county is much more of an endangered species these days than ever before and there isn’t the ability to hide it like there was when media and internet weren’t around and the FPPC wasn’t aggressive and people didn’t look at the disclosures and donor lists like they do now.
Justice-
I am personally more concerned with just plain stupid and lazy in our county than crooked. Only stupid and lazy could explain all the mis hiring and power given to the bevy of so-called executives who have run this county and also nearby counties closer to bankruptcy than we will ever know.
The supervisors were too busy feathering their own nests for life after the BOS, so they placed the avaricious group in power and the rest is history.
I must believe the bevy of women they hired have something large on one or more supervisors or the county execs could not have survived.
Not completely, it was largely caused by the feuding factions. The one convicted, the others fired and termed out tried to take control from the voters and the voted in Department Heads and they did it in a way that was bound to fail and cost. In the end the taxpayers paid and the criminals got away. This isn’t the way it should be it is just the way it went down because the board was full of incompetents and the DA was a little shy after the Nutting case’s bad publicity. It didn’t go unnoticed though and next time they might not be so lucky as to escape the rule of law like they did in Amador.