Stanislaus County Supervisors Watch

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Supervisors Watch

The Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors is scheduled today to vote on:

• Significantly reducing public access to the sheriff's Central Area Command by closing on nights and weekends. The change would free a community service officer to respond to traffic accidents, traffic control and minor property crimes, giving deputies more time for other emergencies, according to a report. The command center, which has been open around the clock, would open at 8 a.m. and close at 5 p.m. on weekdays; an emergency phone outside lobby doors would be answered during closed hours.

• Dissolving the Stanislaus County Children's Council. Formed in 1992, the council's funding has dwindled from a high of $203,000 six years ago to $3,700 this year, not enough to pay a coordinator. Council members unanimously recommended disbanding the group partly because its functions are similar to the separate Child Abuse Prevention Council, created in 2002 as a forum for coordinating prevention and treatment of child abuse.

• Receiving a letter updating efforts on Project X, a 4-month-old consortium of veterinarians offering low-cost spay and neuter surgeries that hopes to stop county leaders from establishing a discount clinic in the county's future animal control shelter west of Ceres. Project X is "on target to hit our goal of 9,000 (alterations) the first year," wrote Susan Enz of Oakdale's Village Oak Veterinary Hospital. About half of Project X's 10 to 15 callers each week obtain surgeries for their pets close to their homes, without government funding, Enz wrote. "We urge you to postpone your decision on the taxpayer-subsidized spay-neuter clinic," she wrote.

• Allowing the library system to spend $325,000 of fees collected from developers. Librarians want to buy 12,000 books and other materials ($300,000); an automated phone system to notify customers ($9,000); four additional Internet servers ($10,000); better filters to keep Internet customers from inappropriate Web sites ($3,000); and software enabling monthly newsletters to be e-mailed to more 10,000 users ($3,000). The fund dedicated to libraries from development fees has accumulated $8.5 million.

• Moving an Area Agency on Aging social worker, previously scheduled to be laid off, to fill an unexpected veterans service vacancy in the same department. Otherwise, the social worker would be laid off this week.

• Accepting a $240,000 state Department of Insurance grant for the district attorney's office to fight auto insurance fraud. The unit investigated 108 cases in the year preceding July, 18 of which were felonies. This is the 13th year the state has awarded grants for such prosecution, though the expected amount this year was reduced from $314,500.

• Seeking a solar company to establish a solar farm at the former Geer Road Landfill. The county and Modesto created the 168-acre dump in 1970 and closed it when it became full in 1990. City Council members are expected Oct. 27 to review the solar farm idea as a joint project with the county. A final candidate would have a year to negotiate a lease with the agencies. County leaders three weeks ago asked for similar proposals to convert part of a 1,040-acre farm on county-owned land next to the Fink Road Landfill near Crows Landing.

Today's meeting of the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors starts at 6:30 p.m. in the basement chamber of Tenth Street Place, 1010 10th St., Modesto.