Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors Watch

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By unanimous vote, Stanislaus County supervisors on Tuesday:

• Created a new process for property assessment appeals. Hoping to clear a backlog of 382 cases within a two-year deadline for hearing appeals, supervisors established the position of assessment hearing officer. Current members of the three-person Assessment Appeals Board will hear uncomplicated cases individually, as is done in 10 other counties, while continuing to handle complex cases together. In 2007, 1,540 property owners disputed their assessments. The assessor's office recently lowered assessments on 62 percent of homes, reducing values a combined 7.7 percent to $37.3 billion.

• Accepted $2.5 million in a federal Community Oriented Police Services grant, as announced in late July. The grant preserves the jobs of two deputies in Riverbank and two in Patterson, both of which contract with the county for law enforcement, and allows the department to hire four more to patrol Empire, Denair, Salida and Keyes. The grant covers salaries and benefits for three years and requires that agencies keep officers on the job at least for a fourth year. By then, their annual compensation will have grown to a combined $908,000; Riverbank and Patterson agreed to pay $227,000 each, or the full amount for their officers that year.

• Gave $40,000 in redevelopment money to the Monterey Park Tract Community Services District to attract a $200,000 state safe drinking water grant for a study. The neighborhood's two wells produce water of questionable quality. Officials will drill a test well on a parcel acquired by the county after a home burned in 2001 and could drill another close to the tract if the first doesn't produce good water. An option might be to hook the tract's 38 parcels to Ceres' water system. Four neighborhood residents addressed the board, including Francisco Diaz, who said, "We want to thank you for helping give us better water quality."

• Approved a $5.4 million budget for the county's redevelopment agency. Some projects can't be done because the state will take most of the agency's money, $2.8 million, for its own fiscal crisis. Of the rest, $1.3 million will cover payments for past or ongoing projects, including sewers in south Modesto's Bret Harte neighborhood, storm drains in Salida and Keyes, and down payment loans for home buyers in need. The state dropped its appeal of a court ruling against a previous raid on the redevelopment agency, the California Redevelopment Association announced Monday. "The state has just come in, I think unconstitutionally, and stolen the money," said Supervisor Jim DeMartini.

• Sold retiring sheriff's K-9 Zeus to his handler, Deputy Jesse Grogan, for $1. The 9-year-old Australian shepherd's failing health has produced more than $1,600 in veterinary bills the past two years. Zeus has worked for the department since March 2005.

• Agreed to pay $350,200 for a new storm drain cleaner. Also known as a "suction truck," the Florida-made machine unclogs storm drain inlets and could be delivered in February.

— Garth Stapley