Lake County supervisors are set Tuesday to appoint an engineer from a private firm as the county’s road commissioner, a post state law reserves for a registered civil engineer. Public Works Director Lars Ewing held it until he resigned Sept. 10.
Ewing, 49, died the next day in a collision with a semi truck in Colusa County.
Stephen L. Carter Jr., the county’s interim public works director, wrote the memo for the 10 a.m. hearing. He recommends appointing a California registered civil engineer from one of three engineering firms the county already has under contract: EBA, RSA+ and NCE. The road budget would cover the cost, the memo says, out of “salary savings from the vacant Public Works Director position.”
Statements of qualifications from two of them, RSA+ and NCE, are posted with the agenda.
RSA+, which has offices in Lakeport and Napa, put up its principal and vice president, Paul Warnock, a licensed civil engineer. The firm wrote that it understands the job “is a temporary position, to fill the role until a licensed civil engineer is hired as a permanent employee of the County.” It would bill time and materials at the rates in its existing on-call contract with the county, and said Warnock would be on site within two hours for after-hours emergencies.
NCE put up Scott De Leon, who was Lake County’s public works director and road commissioner from 2011 to 2024. NCE offered him for eight hours a week, two half-days in the department’s offices, at $250 an hour, down from the $350 rate in the firm’s on-call contract. It estimated the cost at $8,200 a month.
The NCE proposal keeps De Leon to road commissioner duties, which it lists as oversight of construction, improvement and maintenance of county roads and bridges. It leaves out personnel issues, after-hours public meetings and airport operations. NCE also proposed that De Leon stay out of preparing, reviewing or approving the county’s solicitations for engineering work, so the arrangement wouldn’t hurt the firm’s chances at design work on other county projects.
Under the state Streets and Highways Code, the state controller can’t make any payment to a county from the Highway Users Tax Account, the state gas tax money counties spend on roads, until the county has complied with the road commissioner requirement. A county that loses its commissioner gets 180 days to appoint a new one before payments stop, as long as a qualified acting commissioner appointed by the board is serving in the meantime. Counting from Sept. 10, the 180 days run through March 9, 2027.
Lake County reported $3.4 million in highway users tax revenue in the 2023-24 fiscal year, the most recent year in the state controller’s local government finance data.
De Leon ran the department until 2024. The board appointed Glen March director on July 1, 2024. In June 2025, it named County Administrative Officer Susan Parker and Ewing interim directors, and in April of this year it made Ewing the permanent director of the newly consolidated Public Works Department. Carter now holds the job on an interim basis.
Supervisors already changed the rules for the director’s job. On Sept. 22, the board voted 4-0, with Supervisor Eddie Crandell absent, to approve a revised job description under which registration as a professional civil engineer is “preferred, but not strictly required” for the public works director. The director “may,” rather than “shall,” serve as county engineer and road commissioner. A memo from Parker and three of her staff, including Carter, then an assistant county administrative officer, said state law allows both roles to be contracted out. In a separate 4-0 vote, the board approved an amended on-call engineering agreement with RSA+ of up to $75,000.
The meeting is at 255 N. Forbes St. in Lakeport, with Zoom participation and written comment through the county’s Legistar calendar.