A large crowd in the Board of Supervisors Chambers witnessed the swearing in of new and returning elected Nevada County officials.
Judge B. Scott Thomsen, Superior Court of California, County of Nevada, welcomed electeds, officials and the public. “They have been elected by you, their constituents, to serve their terms of office, both individually in their roles and really in their leadership capacity and their ability to work collaboratively with those in our community.”
He administered the oath of office to Natalie Adona, Clerk-Recorder/Registrar of Voters, Jesse Wilson, District Attorney, Shannan Moon, Sheriff-Coroner/Public Administrator, Susan Hoek, District IV Supervisor and Tina Vernon, Treasurer-Tax Collector. Each of them signed their oath of office, witnessed by Judge Thomsen.
Supervisor Sue Hoek was the first one to address the audience, saying, “First, I want to say wow. Thank you all for being here. We’re going to start 2023 off with a bang. I love this place. I love all of you. I love this county, and I just feel honored to be here today and that I’m going to represent especially district corps and this county for another four years. We’re going to get a lot of new work done. We’re going to get a lot of the old work that we’re going to finish, and you’re going to see all these smiling faces up here on the bias and in these offices, because those are the ones, as we do here in this county, everyone. We love and appreciate who we work for, and that’s all of you. So thanks for being here today and as my cousin told me today, I think this needs to be the year of the heart. I really do. I think that we can really live up to that. I think that we can be courteous. I think that we can be genuine, and I really think that we can get things all done together. So let’s work on that. Year of the Heart, 2023.”
Tina Vernon, re-elected for a fourth term as the county’s Treasurer-Tax Collector spoke next.
“I just want to thank everyone. This is my fourth term, so thanks, everyone, for voting out there for me. I just put my heart and soul in the job. I could not do it without the wonderful staff that I have behind me and all of you. Collecting taxes is not an easy job, by any means. I’m sorry I have to take your money, but it really is what makes the rubber hit the road. I appreciate all of you and I look forward to 2023.”
Next was Sheriff Shannan Moon who is starting her second term. “I’m definitely honored to be the sheriff of my hometown. This is a place where everybody has a choice where to live, and I was fortunate enough to have been born here, and I choose to remain here and raise my children here because of this great community. 2023 again, I told our staff, many of which are here, ‘to ‘put your seatbelts on because it’s going to be epic,’ so an epic heart year. I’m okay with that. I would not be here today if it wasn’t for my parents who are at home. They had some power outages, and they’re in their early 80s, so they they chose to stay home today, which I certainly appreciate. I am a product of amazing parenting, and and they have definitely guided me to where I am today. I would have never had been elected if it wasn’t for my wife. When I got elected in 2018, my mom said, you realize you would have never gotten elected without Amy. I would have never ran without being 100% supported by my family. I could not have done it without your guys’ support the whole time. This community is a wonderful place. The staff at the sheriff’s office are amazing men and women that I have the privilege to work with every single day. They have a front row seat to some of the saddest days of people’s lives and the happiest days of people’s lives, and they do it with such courage and such compassion. They are amazing men and women, and it’s just wonderful to live and work in this community. So thank you all.”
DA Jesse Wilson echoed some of the previous remarks and added, “When I was first thinking about taking this position and coming back to Nevada County in the capacity of District Attorney, it was going to be quite the upheaval for my family as a whole, for where we were living, where we had put some roots down in Eldorado County. When I first came and told Lisa about that, she didn’t hesitate, knowing that it was something that I cared about, even though it meant rooting the kids up from where they went to school and their friend groups and our whole social situation there again – she never hesitated. She works full time, she raises four kids, and she enjoys life truly. Thank you to Nevada County too. It’s an honor to serve the community, and it’s an honor to be part of the community as well. So thanks for everyone out there.”
Next was Natalie Adona, the newly elected Clerk-Recorder/Registrar of Voters.
“I’ll keep it short because I know I’m standing between Lisa and Rolf taking their oaths of office. But I have nothing but thanks to everybody here, the voters of Nevada County, also to the employees and staff of this county who have been tremendously supportive and welcoming to me as I learned my job. Thank you Greg Diaz, who’s here for hiring me and thanks to my family for making it up here. My grandmother is here. I think when she moved to this country from Japan over 60 years ago, she didn’t quite picture this. And my mother, who has been nothing but supportive. Thank you very much, everybody.”
Sheriff Shannan Moon administered the oath of office to the new Assessor Rolf Kleinhans and District 3 Supervisor Lisa Swarthout.
Kleinhans, who will be in charge of assessing property taxes in Nevada County, spoke first.
“I expected not to say anything, but it is a privilege to be in front of all of you, the constituents who did elect me and Lisa and everybody else here. I speak for me as I’m totally grateful for the opportunity and I do plan on having fair, accurate and transparent assessments for all. That’s an important part of anything that we do when it involves you and your finances and your families, which it does. So my path here is a little convoluted. Twelve years ago, I ran for this office and lost to an excellent assessor, Sue Horne, who I have the privilege of following in her footsteps. And then I hooked up with the sheriff’s office and privileged to work with that organization. Truly one of the finest organizations in our community who support everyone in every way they can. I had the privilege again to work for Sheriff Royal and Sheriff Shannan Moon. Thanks, Boss! That’s what she swore me in today. It means a lot to me personally. Again, thank you for the opportunity. I look forward to doing whatever I can to keep your taxes fair and preferably low, but we do have to follow state guidelines. Thank you.”
District 3 Supervisor Lisa Swarthout added her thanks to Sheriff Moon for the swearing in and continued, “Thank you so much for being here. I would not be standing here today without support of my friends and family and many of you in the audience. I just want you to know how much I appreciate how much everybody did to help me get elected. To my family, my dad and my mom, my brother defended me and helped me through all of this. My husband sign-waved and just did a lot of things out of his comfort zone for me. I just want to say that I really concur with Supervisor Hoek and let’s make this the Year of the Heart. I collect hearts and I’m going to bring my heart collection into my office to remind me that every decision that I make needs to come from the head and the heart. So thank you for those words of wisdom. My second family, the Moon’s, thank you all for your support and being here. I love you guys. Let’s get started. The election is a great part, but I’m really here to start the work. I will be here to serve the community. So thanks for your support. Thanks for being here.”
Chair of the Board Sue Hoek concluded the ceremony, “I’m not going to rattle on, but I’m going to leave you again with this, okay? This is the year of the heart. May we have the courage to reach out with kindness, compassion and integrity where our fruits of our labor yield gratitude, generosity to the building blocks of our community. Let’s live on that for 2023. And thank you all for being here. Have a good celebration if you’re here with your families, because I think that’s what’s all about because they just committed to four more years of this craziness. And I know that everyone that does this really loves it for her because we care about all of you. So with that, I want to thank this staff up here that really keeps things going for us, really, like Julie and Jeff kind of keep us all stable and you’re going to find that out, Lisa. That how this staff in our office really comes together for us. Julie has been there when I’ve had the meltdown. And Alison and Kit, you know, you guys keep this place and keep us all in line so that we must get to make these decisions. But you keep us in our in our will of house and that’s really important for us. Julie especially, and Tine who is going to be just moving into that role, I can keep going on here and all the ladies that are upstairs. We had a lot of change in our office, a lot of retiring this year, I guess, you know, that last meeting, how many people that we got to say goodbye to you and now we say hello. So you guys, have a great day. Remember, we are all accessible. Give us a call if you need anything. Again, Happy New Year. Happy 2023.