Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2016 Editorial • Great news! The Jeffersonians don’t need our vote!

Publisher’s note: This editorial originally appeared in the Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2016 edition of the Lassen County Times.

Let’s be perfectly clear. The proponents of the effort to create the new state of Jefferson have absolutely no right to speak for the voters of Lassen County.

Last week, the Lassen County Board of Supervisors made good on a resolution it passed in March and passed a second resolution to put the question of seceding from California to join the state of Jefferson on the June 7 Primary Election ballot.

The newer members of the board — District 3 Supervisor Jeff Hemphill, District 4 Supervisor Aaron Albaugh and District 5 Supervisor Tom Hammond — voted to approve both resolutions while the veteran members of the board who will not seek re-election this June — District 1 Supervisor Bob Pyle and District 2 Supervisor Jim Chapman — voted no on both resolutions.

County residents and elected officials have come down on both sides of the issue, and the supervisors — responding to the call from state of Jefferson supporters — decided with so much at stake for all, the voters should make the call.

The pertinent part of last March’s resolution — a rewrite of a resolution prepared by the state of Jefferson supporters themselves — reads, the “authority to join this effort to separate from the state of California would be granted subject to approval of the voters of Lassen County at the June 2016 Primary Election by way of (an) advisory vote … ”

Yes, the voters of Lassen County were to weigh in on this matter in June, more than four months from now.

Ah, but here’s the rub.

According to the California Senate Journal for Jan. 6, 2015, Mike (sic) Baird presented petitions from Lassen, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, Ed Dorado, Mendocino, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, Trinity, Tuolumne and Sutter counties and the town of Ft. Jones “relative to the formation of the state of Jefferson.”

It’s true. Mark Baird, the Mugginsville businessman who has spearheaded the effort and chairs the state of Jefferson movement, served the California Senate with a “declaration and petition to the California State Legislature for the withdrawal of Lassen County from the state of California and to form the state of Jefferson.”

What? How can that be? Well, it all became clear at the Jan. 12 Plumas County supervisor’s meeting when a Jeffersonian told that board the group had collected signatures to present to the state legislature so the board (and voters in Plumas County) no longer had any role to play in the state of Jefferson process.

Portola resident Howard Thomas, speaking on behalf of the local Jefferson Committee, told the supervisors, “We, the members of the state of Jefferson Committee, have moved on without you.”

He told the supervisors the group had already presented a petition signed by supporters to the state government and the legislation to create the new state had already been written. The Plumas supervisors quickly responded by pulling the question from their June ballot.

Wow. Thanks for the honest revelation, Howard. Now that we know our vote is irrelevant and the Jeffersonians have already filed petitions in Sacramento in our name, Lassen County’s supervisors should also rescind the June ballot measure at today’s meeting and save the taxpayers the estimated $17,000 cost of putting the question on the ballot.