The Tomales Village Community Service District is moving forward with a draft budget for the 2015-16 fiscal year that includes an administrator’s position chopped from full time to half time and a new bookkeeping position. Splitting the general manager position—currently held by the district’s longtime manager, Karl Drexel—into separate administrator and bookkeeping roles has long been discussed by the district’s board and was recently recommended by a professional consultant. The move will halve the administrator’s weekly hours to 20, at an hourly rate of $43. At the district’s monthly meeting last Wednesday, trustees voted to establish a contract with Melinda Bell to keep the district’s books starting July 1. The vote passed by a 3-0 margin, with two abstentions. Ms. Bell has worked as a bookkeeper for the Tomales Bay Watershed Council, West Marin Senior Services and the Tomales Regional History Center. “She’s more than just a bookkeeper,” said Deborah Parrish, the board’s vice president, referring to Ms. Bell’s experience writing budgets and reporting on grant expenditures. The district’s financial advisory committee has also drafted a new narrative to accompany the draft budget that will replace the text Mr. Drexel usually writes. Ms. Parrish took issue with the opening paragraph of Mr. Drexel’s narrative, which stated that he found it “difficult to prepare a reasonable Draft Budget for the forthcoming fiscal year without knowing the direction the Board is going with regards to the future administrative, financial and operational structure of the District.” Ms. Parrish maintained that the board has been clear all along that a majority of its members have intended to split up his position. On Wednesday, trustees also voted 4-1 to provide stipends for board members starting next fiscal year, for the first time since the district’s inception in 1999. The stipend was set at $50 per member per meeting—including committee meetings—with a maximum of six meetings a month. Bill Bonini, the board’s president, estimated the stipends would cost the district around $5,000 annually. Three out of the five seats on the board will be up for election in November, and several trustees reasoned that the compensation would help incentivize the often time-consuming volunteer work involved. As required by law, the district will hold a public hearing, set for 7 p.m. on Wednesday, July 8 at the Tomales Town Hall, to discuss the draft budget; a final version will be approved by September.