Board Expected to Renew CAO Contract

The Board of Supervisors is expected to renew interim Chief Administrative Officer Harry Hufford’s contract through next April at its meeting Tuesday.

Hufford was hired by the Board of Supervisors in January on a $134,000 seven-month contract, which expires July 31.

He will be paid an additional $144,500 for an eight-month contract that would start in August, with an extra $16,000 set aside for living expenses, a raise of approximately 7%.

In her recommendation, Supervisor Kathy Long praised how “Hufford has guided the county through an extremely difficult budget process [and] has worked to develop the foundation for future financial stability.”

In April, Hufford offered to extend his stay, citing a number of challenges facing the county, including its budget turmoil and an attempt to fend off an ongoing initiative campaign by Community Memorial Hospital that seeks to transfer all of the county’s share of tobacco settlement dollars to private health-care providers.

The county has faced even more hurdles since then, including a sales tax scuffle with the city of Ventura.

When he first offered to extend his contract, Hufford said that whatever supervisors decide, he has a standing commitment to his wife: That on April 1, 2001, “I stop working, whether it’s here or my consulting business.”