A new county counsel was appointed Tuesday by the Board of Supervisors. A board that, political experts say, is very powerful, because nobody pays attention to it. Neon Tommy zooms in to highlight the torrent of changes enveloping the board.

The coming year represents the biggest shake-up the Board of Supervisors has ever seen.  

Mark Saladino, the county’s current treasurer and tax collector, was appointed to the position of County Counsel, at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting. His position has an annual salary of nearly $290,000. His first day in office will begin mid-October.

District Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas was the only one to vote no on his appointment. 

Historic changes are coming to the L.A. County Board of Supervisors. (Signe Larsen/Neon Tommy)

When asked why the board did not wait to appoint its new chief counsel, Tony Bell, a spokesperson for Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich  said:

“The county needs a county counsel to serve now and not in December. There is no county counsel now. He has retired, so the board moved to act to fill the position immediately because he is needed immediately. It wasn’t up to the board when the previous county counsel retired. That was up to him and was not a decision by the board.” 

Today’s appointment of Mark Saladino gives a taste of the many changes that will occur in the coming year. In fact, two open seats on the L.A. County Board of Supervisors is a rare historic circumstance. The last time this happened was in 1997, when Don Knabe and Gloria Molina were elected. 

Two of the current supervisors, Gloria Molina and Zev Yaroslavsky, will be termed out of office in 2014. Former Secretary of Labor  Hilda Solis, who will be sworn in on December 1, will be replacing Molina, who will be running for the Los Angeles city council. Yaroslavsky’s successor will be elected in a month and a half. 

Rivals Sheila Kuehl and Bobby Shriver, both Democrats, are already competing for veteran Yaroslavsky’s district covering the Westside and the San Fernando Valley. 

READ MORE: L.A. County Board Of Supervisors Candidates Debate

Kuehl comes with 14 years in the state legislature and draws support from unions representing public sector employees. She is considered to be more labor-friendly compared to Shriver, who has received endorsements and financial backing from the business community. 

And the election outcome could have a crucial impact on the makeup of the board, says Sherry B. Jeffe, professor of the Practice of Public Policy Communication at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy. 

“It may be possible with Hilda Solis coming in, Sheila Kuehl and Mark Ridley-Thomas that the labor unions will be able to access three votes on the board. That is significant."

The current two supervisors’ turnover is a result of Measure B that was passed in 2012. Since then, the supervisors have been limited to 12 years service, meaning three consecutive four-year terms. 

The new law, curbing the power of the supervisors will cause more frequent turnover, political experts say. 

(Signe Larsen/Neon Tommy)

But two new supervisors are not the only changes the board will see. New positions that need to be filled include Chief Executive Officer, Treasure of Tax Collector, Sheriff, County Assessor, two Supervisors and a new Public Health Officer. 

In fact, Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, the longest senior-serving member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has never experienced so many different changes all at once. 

“There hasn’t been anything like this before. This coming election season will be the biggest change ever, ” his spokesperson, Tony Bell, said, calling it an “unprecedented change for the county.” 

The main function of the Board of Supervisors is to oversee the government of the county of Los Angeles with a $23 billion budget. This is a county that is larger than the state of North Carolina, home to 10.2 million people, and covers 88 cities and 134 unincorporated communities. The nonpartisan board legislates policy on health, infrastructure, prisons, county-owned art institutions, foster care and homeless services.

Despite its enormous outreach, the board, rooted all the way back to 1852, has seen a decrease in power in recent years. 

“Their power at one point was truly astronomical. They were called the five little kings, but that went way back before prop. 13,” says Jeffe.  

In 1978, California voters passed Proposition 13, which substantially reduced property taxes and took a lot of money away from the county. The money and the power shifted to Sacramento. However, this hasn’t been entirely a loss.  

READ MORE: L.A. County Supervisor Election Heats Up

“The supervisors are still significantly powerful and part of that is because nobody really pays attention to them. There is definitive lack of citizen oversight, transparency and accountability. People don’t know much about them and the Board of Supervisors is boring to the media,” Jeffe says. 

The Supervisorial Districts were drawn geographically to match some sort of equal representation, with District 1 to be a majority-Latino area and Supervisor District 2 to have a plurality of African Americans.

However, with the growing Latino population in the county, some argue that more representation is needed, and that there should be more than one Latino seat on the board.

Whether this will become reality is yet to be seen, but with two other supervisors, Michael D. Antonovich and Don Knabe, being phased out in the next two years, it is a possible scenario.

Reach Staff Reporter Signe Okkels here.

[Editor's Note: An earlier version of this article mistakenly described the counsel position with the incorrect spelling of 'council'. We apologize for the error.]