by: George Marchenko LS 6964

Recently we discussed the requirements for counties to have a County Surveyor and how that is accomplished.

At the Chapter meeting September 17, I spoke regarding the CLSA Board bringing up the topic of contract County Surveyor to our chapters. I have done a little research, some online artificial intelligence (AI)  assisted research, and I made a few phone calls.

First, to correct myself, I called the Mariposa County Surveyor, and he told me that he is staff- meaning he is a county employee. I stated the opposite at our chapter meeting. Corrected.

Colusa,  Modoc, and San Benito counties are contract (contracting with a private firm).  I verified this by phone or from first-hand knowledge.

Then I was told by someone ‘in the know’ that Modoc, Mono, Inyo, Madera, Merced and maybe Trinity and Siskiyou counties  are contract. We can add to that Colusa and  San Benito. On the other hand, Butte County , which is another small county, there the County Surveyor is staff, which I verified by phone call. My  guesstimate is that about 10 counties, out of 58, have contracted out.

Some questions I had were can a county contract out the position? Are there any County Surveyors in California via an elected position? Is the County Surveyor an officer position that a county is required to fill?

 I took a deeper AI dive. I have to say AI, pound for pound seems to do a good job, although I am told it drinks a lot of water. I asked AI and was told that yes AI data centers have large cooling requirements and require lots of water. Confirmed.

AI, are any California County Surveyor’s elected? AI says no. The way the state law is written is that they need to be elected unless the county has an ordinance that allows the Board of Supervisors to appoint a County Surveyor. Fair to say that is the case for all counties. San Benito has such an ordinance for example.

It is important to note that California recognizes two types of counties: General law Counties and Charter Counties. General law counties must follow all state laws, while charter counties have more local autonomy through a “home rule” system, allowing them to create their own local laws and ordinances, provided they don’t conflict with state law.  For example, Orange County is a charter county. San Luis Obispo County is a general law county. Yeah, for law… good law that is.

Is a county required to have a County Surveyor?  I got some AI wiggles on this one. First response was yes; it is a required position. So, I dove deeper. And the Answer was: in California, a charter county is not required to have a county surveyor if its charter provides for a different arrangement. While state law lists a surveyor as a standard county officer for general law counties, charter counties have more flexibility to manage their own affairs. Hello Orange County.

Lastly, I asked “can a county in California appoint a county surveyor who is under a contract and not an employee of the county?” AI says “in California, a county can appoint a county surveyor through a contract with a private firm or individual rather than as a county employee. Many counties appoint the surveyor rather than electing one, and the individual serves “at the will of the board””.

So, after all that what is the craziest thing, I learned in my first AI dive? It was a video I found. A tech person used two AI devices to simulate or actually perform an inquiry to hold a wedding reception for 150 people at a hotel. Pretty mind blowing for a surveyor who started his first day of surveying pulling a fixed length cable we called a chain and set pins with flags in the snow. Anyway, check it out the video here and see how your flag flies after that: