Supervisors Approve Travel Reimbursement Increase Despite Acknowledging Possible ‘Blowback’

Michelle Bushnell in her white pickup with Whale Gulch Volunteer Fire Company Chief and company in 2023 discussing the state of the road to their School. It can take a couple hours to travel from the southwestern tip of her district near Whale Gulch* to the northeastern reach past Bridgeville.  [Photo by Pamela Lauer]

Though public “blowback” to it was alluded to, increases in travel expense reimbursements to Humboldt County supervisors has gotten approval.

A majority of the Board of Supervisors voted for the annual increases, which amount to 7.5 percent for the next fiscal year plus an additional $5,000 annually for supervisors in larger districts.

The current annual travel allowance is $10,300 per supervisor, a level that hasn’t changed in about 10 years.

The increase proposal was agendized by Supervisor Michelle Bushnell, whose Second District is one of the larger ones.

Bushnell is over the $10,300 annual reimbursement limit and she said “this is always a hard discussion to have” but the amount needs to be evaluated.

“I’ve really drawn back from going on some conferences that I’ve wanted to because I know that my mileage often exceeds that,” she said, adding the proposal is a “fair conversation” to have.

She also nodded to controversy about it, saying it “gets beat up in the media, which is not fair” but “it is the work we do for the county” and gas prices are rising.

Board Chair Mike Wilson noted that travel in his district — which is largely made up of Arcata and its greater area – and the Eureka-centric District 4 involves much less distance than districts 1, 2 and 5.

“The differential between the districts in terms of travel budget has only grown,” he said. “What I mean by that is for two of us, most of our population and the issues we deal with are fairly close to where we live.”

There are public objections when supervisors vote to increase their pay and reimbursements but Supervisor Natalie Arroyo vouched for the return on investment.

“This item often gets a lot of blowback and I understand where people are coming from, but I also want to say that this is travel for us to attend trainings, meet with colleagues around the state and discuss policy approaches that they’re taking,” she said. “I have really valued the opportunities to go and meet with folks outside of our community and learn how they’re doing things and so I appreciate that the opportunity exists, and I just want to speak to its value as a way of bringing back information to this community to see how we can improve.”

Bushnell’s comments about media fairness included allusions to “negativity” but she later clarified that “often the blowback is the comments and sometimes the headings are not always the friendliest but it is to capture the eye.”

Supervisor Steve Madrone’s District 5 is one of the larger ones and he said he’s foregone an annual allowance of $3,000 to attend the California State Association of Counties conference “so that I can have the funds to be able to do my district work.”

Madrone noted the status of the county budget.

“While our costs have gone up, our county budget is in really bad shape so I’m willing to live within the amount that I’m currently allocated,” he said.

“I’m very aware of the costs, the monies and I’m very conservative with it,” said Bushnell. “I am very active in my district and it’s a very large district as well.”

She said exceeding the travel reimbursement threshold has “been an issue for District 2 for quite some time.”

With Madrone voting against, the board voted to increase the current $10,300 level by 7.5 percent for the fiscal year beginning July 1, with increases of 2.5 percent in subsequent years.

That’s the across-the-board increase, with the larger district supervisors reimbursed up to $5,000 more per year.

*While Whale Gulch is barely over the line in Mendocino County, students from Humboldt County attend school there.