TC Business Council Hears About CDD Changes, School Bond Measure, PG&E Challenges

Published Sep 18, 2026 9:22 am

Tamera Blankenship speaks to the Tuolumne County Business Council - Photo by BJ Hansen

Sonora, CA — Over 20 business leaders in Tuolumne County attended a monthly luncheon this week hosted by the Tuolumne County Business Council.

Held in the Mother Lode Job Training conference room, it began with an overview from Tamera Blankenship about her new split role as Tuolumne County Transportation Council (TCTC) Executive Director and Tuolumne County Community Development Department (CDD) Director.

She stressed that it isn’t a merger of the two entities, but they are sharing a leader. TCTC is a regional transportation commission that works to acquire funding and oversee projects benefiting both the City of Sonora and unincorporated parts of the county. On that end, she reports directly to the TCTC board of directors, made up of two board of supervisors, two city council members, and an at-large member. As Community Development Director, overseeing development projects and related items for Tuolumne County government, she reports directly to the five Tuolumne County Supervisors. She talked about work done behind the scenes to make the transition work and ensure there are guardrails in place to avoid any legal or operational conflicts between the groups involved.

Related to CDD, she talked about efforts to stabilize the organization after going through a recent period of transition. She praised the CDD staff and spoke about needing to “give them the tools to do the job.” She also talked about creating a “get to yes” culture in CDD. The idea is that instead of being a roadblock for projects, working with developers to find solutions to get projects to the finish line as quickly as possible.

She noted that three of the current top CDD priorities are rebuilding the code compliance division, creating a low-impact camping ordinance (and a short-term rental ordinance around the same time), and developing a data center ordinance.

Blankenship also responded to questions about the impacts of audits that are behind, and how it has negatively impacted available funding for some projects.

The second presentation was an overview of the proposed $3.4 million Measure C Bond going before voters this November. Summerville Elementary Superintendent Ben Howell and supporter Kaenan Whitman spoke about how the money would go to things like needed roof repairs on campus, HVAC upgrades, fire safety system improvements, plumbing, sewer and electrical updates, and other general repairs. They noted that there are around $15-16 million in critical infrastructure needs, so they are also actively exploring available state grants and other funding sources to cover additional items. The school opened in 1867 and currently has around 520 students, from Transitional Kindergarten through 8th grade. They talked about the community pride surrounding the school and how much has remained the same over generations of students.

The Measure C cost to property owners in the district would be $30 per $100,000 in assessed value. The bond would be repaid in 28 years. It was stressed that the money could only go to infrastructure improvements and not things like staff and teacher salaries, pensions, or benefits.

The end of the meeting featured a video call with some leaders of PG&E about failed efforts in California to overhaul the state’s wildfire liability rules by the legislature this year. It resulted in several California utilities, including PG&E, seeing their stock plummet by about 20% in late August (when legislation stalled). It has created financing/borrowing challenges for utility companies, and PG&E has announced that it will be deferring $2 billion in capital improvement projects next year. It was noted that it will not impact wildfire-related spending. A coalition is working to raise awareness and hopes the legislature will consider pushing the issue forward to find a workable solution next session. There is much uncertainty, though, with a new governor and legislature taking office at the end of the year, and uncertainty about what the new priorities will be.