The county would have even more money within its budgets had the Sheriff's Department and the Probation Department not finished the last fiscal year in the red. Still, the county's fatter reserves are not nearly as big as they should be. Supervisor Barbara Kondylis called on the county to come up with a plan so the Sheriff's Department does not continue to spend millions of dollars a year in overtime. The proposal by Vacaville Councilwoman Rischa Slade to add an electronic timer to City Council meetings to govern public speakers lacked majority support and lay dormant at the end of the meeting Tuesday. Slade said a timer with a yellow warning light and a red stop light, such as those used by the Solano County Board of Supervisors and the Fairfield City Council, would not only limit redundancy in public comment but also help speakers focus and make points concisely.
Some people just take a little longer to form what they're speaking.
Vice Mayor Len Augustine called the timer impersonal. The current, loosely enforced standard for public comments is five minutes per speaker, but the relevant city ordinance provides only three. Also on Tuesday night, the council unanimously approved a proposal by Eller Media to remove six older billboards along Interstate 80 and replace them with three news displays elsewhere along the freeway. The six older signs vary from 12 to 17 feet in height and 25 to 50 feet in width. The three new signs would all be 14 feet high and 48 feet wide.