LAKEPORT — Lake County supervisors merged two departments to save money, raised the salary range for the new director job and then appointed the man who had proposed the merger — after interviews held outside public view.
County records show the Board of Supervisors changed the public works director classification from M67 to M75 on April 28, the same day its agenda listed closed-session interviews and appointment of a public works director. The county’s staff directory now lists Lars Ewing, PE, as public works director.
The move puts Ewing in charge of a newly consolidated 110-employee department that combines roads, engineering and capital projects with parks, solid waste, county facilities and museum services.
The dispute is not about whether Ewing is qualified for the job. It is about whether Lake County has explained how he got it. Supervisors approved a reorganization presented as a way to cut costs, then raised the pay range for the top job and filled it through a process that left key details off the public record.
In March, supervisors voted unanimously to combine Public Works and Public Services into a single department of about 110 employees. The county said the merger would reduce staffing costs and simplify management by eliminating one director position.
The proposal came from Ewing, who at the time served as Public Services director and as interim director of Public Works. The recommendation reached the board through a Public Works ad hoc committee formed by board motion in October, made up of Supervisors Eddie Crandell and Brad Rasmussen, County Administrative Officer Susan Parker and Ewing himself. Under California’s Brown Act, ad hoc committees with fewer than a quorum of supervisors are exempt from the open-meeting requirements that apply to standing committees, allowing the deliberations that shaped the proposal to take place outside public meetings.
The April 28 salary item changed the public works director classification from grade M67 to grade M75, effective that day.
Under the revised salary table, the M75 range tops out at $18,798 a month, or $225,576 a year. Before the change, the M67 public works director range topped out at $15,428 a month, or $185,136 a year.
When the county posted the public works director vacancy after Glen March’s June 2025 termination by unanimous board vote, it advertised an annual salary range of $152,316 to $185,136. Ewing’s appointed salary is $40,440 above the top of that publicly advertised range. Lake County News reports the county has not issued a new public job posting for the consolidated director role since the merger was approved in March.
County staff presented the salary amendment as part of a broader management pay-table update covering July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2029. The agenda originally listed the item on the consent calendar — where routine items are approved in a single vote without discussion — until Board Chair Brad Rasmussen pulled it for separate consideration. Lake County News reports that Human Resources Deputy Director Diana Rico delivered an oral report on the changes that lasted about a minute and named no specific salary figures. The board then approved the management pay-table update unanimously.
The agenda materials do not include a salary study, candidate list, applicant count or written explanation for placing the public works director job at M75.
Lake County News reports the board appointed Ewing after closed session on April 28 at step five — the top step of the new range — and that Ewing was the only candidate interviewed during that closed-session item, citing Ewing himself. The Lake County News reporter on the story is Lingzi Chen, a 2024-2026 California Local News Fellow.
Three weeks earlier, the board had a separate item on its April 7 agenda to give Ewing a 15% to 20% raise of more than $40,000 as the new director. That item was continued without a specified date. The April 28 reclassification and appointment produced the same outcome — a $225,576 salary at step five — through a different procedural path.
The 2026 process has a precedent in Lake County’s own files. In 2011, then–Water Resources Director Scott De Leon proposed merging Water Resources with Public Works, became director of the merged department and received a 5% raise. Ewing worked under De Leon as a deputy director at the time. The 2026 reclassification of the consolidated director role represents an increase of roughly 22%, more than four times the 2011 figure.
Lake County News reports the county did not respond to repeated questions about how the reclassified salary was determined or how many candidates applied. The newspaper said it asked the county on April 6, April 24 and April 28 about the recruitment process and on April 24 about the salary methodology, and received no answers.
The new job gives Ewing responsibility for some of the county’s most visible services: roads, bridges, engineering, public buildings, parks, waste management and capital projects.
The public record shows the board raised the salary range and moved the appointment process into closed session. It does not show how many people applied, how finalists were selected or what analysis supported the new pay grade.
Those gaps leave basic questions for supervisors and county administrators: Who else was considered? What in the job’s duties changed to justify the M75 classification? How much money will the merger save after the director’s pay increase? And when will the county put those answers in public view?