Stanislaus County Supervisors Watch

By unanimous vote, the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday:

• Kicked off a televised "adopt a pet" feature. Animal control officers showed an orange cat named Bobby and a Chihuahua puppy named Blakely while supervisors Chairman Jim DeMartini read descriptions of the animals. "When looking for a pet, try looking at our shelter," DeMartini said.

• Agreed to let the district attorney's office close 30 minutes earlier, at 4:30 p.m. although staff will continue answering phones until 5 p.m. Closing at the later time was resulting in overtime because customers would keep staff members working up to 40 minutes after quitting time.

• Approved paying Modesto $25,000 per year to use three bus bays at the city's downtown depot. For at least 15 years, the county has leased space for each StaRT bus trip, paying $24,300 last year and $25,000 the year before. A fixed charge helps both agencies know what to count on, said Diane Haugh, county public works' business manager. The five-year agreement includes raising the lease 3 percent each year.

• Passed a resolution supporting a high-speed rail segment from Merced to Bakersfield, giving the Northern San Joaquin Valley better access to 220-mph bullet trains than if the line from Southern California ends in Fresno. The county's resolution, however, does not match proposals framed by the California High Speed Rail Authority, which cites a $932 million option from Merced to Fresno and a $1.6 billion option from Fresno to Bakersfield. Other options: $2.5 billion for a segment from San Francisco to San Jose, or $4 billion from Los Angeles to Anaheim. California intends to apply for a share of $8 billion in competitive federal stimulus grants set aside for rail projects.

• DeMartini took the rare step of responding publicly to a letter to the editor published in Monday's Bee. Jose Garza of Modesto had chastised county leaders for spending $1.87 million on a boat launch improvement at Woodward Reservoir while ignoring poor neighborhoods in need of sidewalks. DeMartini said the county has spent millions of dollars upgrading infrastructure in various communities. He said that funds for the boat launch came from a state waterways grant designed for such projects. "That money could not be used to put sidewalks in south Modesto or anywhere else. It's restricted money," DeMartini said.