George Rebane
Nevada County Supervisor Nate Beason, who represents District #1, will be the speaker at the Nevada City Rotary Club luncheon today at noon in the National Hotel. Guests and visitors are welcome. I don’t know exactly what Nate will be discussing, but you can be sure his talk will be interesting and relevant to county affairs and current happenings.
During the Q&A I plan to ask my supervisor about his stance and performance on the Board of Supervisors that serves to minimize the regulatory burden on the county. As I pointed out in my last KVMR commentary, America is now known internationally as the ‘Regulation Nation’, and California is the world’s most enthusiastic regulatory poster child. Nevada County – small, rural, politically confused, and mostly voiceless – sits at the end of the regulatory funnel, being subjected to the worst of the worst of what comes out Washington and Sacramento.
The wishes of progressives notwithstanding, our county Board is the only thing that stands between our dwindling liberties and the government’s heavy hand. Nate Beason is an experienced and able leader in our county and region. As a three term elected official, his impact has grown over the years aided by his astute political shift leftward, a shift that the Left celebrates as his having moved to the ‘middle of the road’. According to the people I have listened to, the Right does not know what to make of Nate Beason’s recent ideological stance. His sparse attendance at (absence from?) local conservative events tells a tale that’s hard to fathom.
All that aside, I would like to know how Mr Beason sees the Board’s role in disposing of and implementing regulations that fall upon the county as mandates from above. Does he actively seek to minimize the impact of such regulations, if so by what means? Or is he one of the Board members who works to add on even more to county codes and strictures so that we can claim to be on the front ranks of compliance (super compliant?) when we report to the state and/or the feds. Everyone knows or should know that all these mandates come from on high with the promise of funds continuing or denied depending on how well we behave ourselves. And the usual response from the Board has been that there is nothing we can do at the county level except bend over.
I for one would like to know how our Board comports itself when such mandates hit our county. Specifically, I want my representatives to go public with how they are reacting to new laws and regulations which overwhelmingly are manifestations of government overreach designed to drive us into tighter and tighter circles. Are they adding on to the pain, or how are they being innovative in maintaining local control and liberties? In these matters, I don’t want them to be silent while claiming to work for our benefit – tell us loud and clear how we dodged this or that regulatory bullet, and/or how they have managed to retire/rewrite another batch of codes that drive people and businesses from Nevada County.
[update] After posting the above, I called Nate to give him a heads up and left a message on his voicemail. Nate was there when I arrived at the National; he had not heard his voicemail, so I told him about the post, and let him read my question which was preceded by some information on the financial impact of regulations taken from the KVMR commentary. He said he looked forward to the question, and we had more conversation about some pending county codes before the Rotary meeting got under way.
Nate’s talk was a classical page out of his public persona playbook. There stood a competent and concerned elected official, going through the particulars of California’s current affairs and how they might impact Nevada County. The delivered copy was full of details ranging from expensive county litigation on a fraud case now underway, through the bases for cost increases in Medical, to dangerous rural roads that are costly to maintain. Our supervisor pointed to some successes that the county has had, gave a heads up on future county pay increases that are long overdue, and finally slipping in a “we are overregulated” in anticipation of my question.
The Q&A began with the usual bevy of local issues questions about which constituents are always concerned. The answers were a bit lengthy but mostly complete – Nate knew what he was talking about and he was in his element. When he acknowledged me, I launched into my prepared question with the ‘informative preamble’ I had shown him before. But now we had a different Nate up there behind the podium. He was suddenly short of time as I came to my multi-part question. I was peremptorily cut off with a staccato ‘Yes, yes, and no’ and some brief remarks that again went into the details of particular issues – in short, he dove back into the weeds, wading through details guaranteed to keep the audience smiling knowledgeably during delivery, and subsequently walking away vacuous as to their content or meaning.
Admittedly my question was different and of an overarching and general nature that solicited his beliefs and how these would reflect on county policy. I was almost able to complete, “how you see the Board’s role in disposing of and implementing regulations that fall upon the county as mandates from above. Do you actively seek to minimize the impact of such regulations, if so, by what means? Or is your job to add on even more to county codes and strictures so that we can claim to be on the front ranks of compliance when we report to the state and/or the feds?” Before I was able to finish, Nate put on his Captain Beason hat and delivered his curt yesses and nos. I had hoped that we would hear him talk about what he and the Board had planned in their efforts to diminish our county’s contribution to the ‘Regulation Nation’. Perhaps there will be another opportunity.
rebanesruminations.com 
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