Former Tuolumne County employee Michael Roberson is asking the Board of Supervisors direct questions about transparency, budgeting, staffing, fire services, OES, and public trust. These are questions every resident deserves to understand.

Tomorrow, the Board of Supervisors is scheduled to move the Office of Emergency Services under the Sheriff’s Office. This is not a simple department move. OES is tied to emergency planning, evacuations, disaster response, recovery, emergency spending, and countywide coordination. The concern is the process. The current ordinance says the County Administrator is the Director of Emergency Services, but the proposed resolution appears to move that authority to the Sheriff now and update the ordinance later. Emergency services are too important to rush, and the public deserves the full picture before any vote.

In one meeting we had serious allegations against a sitting supervisor, the unexpected resignation of our OES Director, and a decision to cut fire protection. This isn’t normal and it should concern every one of us.

With ballots going out May 6, now is the time to look beyond the noise and understand how county decisions are really made. Who sets priorities, who does the work, and how those choices impact your daily life.

This piece breaks it down clearly… and asks the questions every voter should be thinking about before they cast their vote.

This campaign started with a simple idea rooted in service and community. Nearly a year later, it has grown into something strong, built by people who are showing up, speaking up, and choosing to be part of the process.

Now we enter the final stretch. The next two months are the most important, where conversations turn into action and engagement turns into votes.

In a place where we all know each other, local politics should be about respect, honesty, and getting the work done. Lately, it feels like we’ve drifted from that. This is a look at what decency in local leadership is supposed to be.

On paper, putting emergency services under one roof sounds like common sense. But real-world examples tell a different story. Before we make this change in Tuolumne County, we need to take a hard look at what works, what doesn’t, and what’s actually at stake.

After weeks of knocking on doors across District Three, and plenty more to go, one thing is clear… people are tired of the noise and want their county government focused on real work. Roads, fire protection, water, tourism and preparation for the future. With the Board of Supervisors gathering for their annual workshop, now is the moment to listen.

What if the real measure of leadership is not how well we respond to crisis but how many crises never happen at all?

In every community, we invest heavily in reaction. We build systems to prosecute, to intervene, to rescue. And those systems matter.

But what if the harder, quieter work is prevention? What if the strongest strategy is not just pulling people out of harm but reducing the number who ever fall in?

This piece asks an uncomfortable but necessary question. Are we only willing to fund what we can count or are we willing to invest in what truly changes the current?

Winter finally showed up… and with it, a reminder of how much Tuolumne County depends on snow. Dodge Ridge is coming back to life. Local businesses are getting the relief they have been waiting for. Visitors are returning to experience something they cannot find anywhere else.

But this snowfall is more than a celebration. It is a test. A test of our infrastructure. A test of our preparedness. And a reminder of what truly brings people here… and what short sighted decisions could drive them away.

Learn more about what this moment means for our economy, our leadership, and our future.

What happens when the snow doesn’t show? Local businesses feel it first… and so do county services funded by tourism dollars. In Tuolumne, our economy is tied to the seasons, but it does not have to stall without them. Other counties are getting creative. We can too.

In our foothill communities, a mild winter is the best time to get serious about the next one.

Other counties are already building smart tools like live plow trackers, community storm hubs, and better emergency communication. Tuolumne deserves the same.

In this post:

What other rural counties are doing right? What we can learn from them? How we rebuild trust after losing Station 56?

Plus: Winter cleanup matters more than ever. If it is safe and permitted, every day is a burn day in Tuolumne County — and we should be using that time wisely.

February is usually a time of snowstorms and slow travel — but not this year. With dry hills and clear skies, we are facing a winter unlike most. And while that’s bad news for local business, it’s also an opportunity: right now, every day is a burn day in Tuolumne County.

That makes this the perfect time to clean up brush, create defensible space, and get ahead of wildfire season while the weather allows it.

How do county budgets really work? Why insurance risks matter and why it WILL affect our bottom line. Why does running government like a business quietly put our community at risk.

In Tuolumne County, fire insurance is no longer a “just in case” policy. It is a make or break part of whether people can keep their homes. Whether they can rebuild. Whether they can afford to stay.

And right now, more and more residents are being priced out, not by the cost of land, but by the cost of protecting it.

The 3 to 2 vote to remove CAL FIRE funding from Mono Vista Station 56 has shaken this county so deeply. And it is why people across all five districts are speaking out.

On January 6, 2026, the Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors voted to remove funding from CAL FIRE Station 56 in Mono Vista. Since then, explanations have been offered that do not fully reflect what occurred in the meeting.

If you live in District Three, chances are you’ve got at least one road that makes you flinch. Maybe it has a pothole the size of a canoe. Maybe it gets plowed three days after the storm. Or maybe it’s just where your coffee always spills on the way to work.

When I first decided to run for Supervisor, I believed had a strong sense of what mattered most.

If you live in District Three, chances are you’ve got at least one road that makes you flinch. Maybe it has a pothole the size of a canoe. Maybe it gets plowed three days after the storm. Or maybe it’s just where your coffee always spills on the way to work.