Riverside County supervisors Tuesday approved a tentative schedule for 2025, designating days on which no meetings will be held.
Board of Supervisors Co-Chair Manuel Perez, who will serve as chairman next year, initially proposed no board meetings on a total of 25 Tuesdays — the day of the week when the board is supposed to be in regular open session — but after discussion with fellow supervisors, one of the Tuesdays was restored for board business.
Perez, who last served as chair in 2020, expressed concerns that maintaining two board meetings in December would prove infeasible because “a lot of staff are … on vacation.”
“Some people are taking off three weeks, or the whole month,” he said, adding that it can result in complications when the supervisors are conducting meetings and there are insufficient personnel available to “respond to (the public’s) requests.”
However, after the supervisors discussed a compromise in which other days would be taken off the calendar during the summer, the December 2025 schedule was re-instituted. The board can always make adjustments to the schedule whenever it deems necessary and has done so in previous years.
Most of the Tuesdays when no meetings are planned generally coincide with, or immediately follow, holidays. However, six days will fall during the board’s quasi summer recess in July and August. Only three meetings are on the calendar for those two months.
A few other days were added to the list to clear supervisors’ calendars in March and April when legislative conferences are planned and religious holidays are observed. A traditional suspension of county business is also planned around Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s.
There is not one month next year when four consecutive weekly meetings are planned.
Following is the list of 2025 planned “dark days”:
— Jan. 21;
— Feb. 11 and 18;
— March 4 and 25;
— April 22 and 29;
— May 13 and 27;
— June 3 and 17;
— July 8, 15 and 22;
— Aug. 5, 12 and 19;
— Sept. 2, 23 and 30;
— Oct. 14;
— Nov. 11 and 25; and
— Dec. 23 and 30.
The board is on track to end the current year with 23 dark days — equal to the number in 2023.