After months of debate, the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved using the term “climate change” in a county document to take a stance on its environmental perspective during President Donald Trump’s administration. 

The alteration was made in the county’s 2026 legislative platform, which is a document outlining the county’s positions on state and federal legislation. 

In November, the platform was amended based on recommendations from the county’s executive office. The platform was edited to replace words such as “climate change” with “climate resiliency.” One reason given for the change was to reduce the risk of the county being excluded from funding opportunities by the Trump administration, which has sought to dismantle prior federal efforts to address climate change.   

At Tuesday’s meeting, Supervisor John Haschak, who had advocated against changing the language in the legislative platform, said he was frustrated that the board wasn’t initially informed when the county executive office decided to amend the language.   

“It’s unfortunate that we have gotten to this point after several months of dealing with this,” Haschak said. “If originally the issue of ‘should we change our language’ to accommodate the current administration was brought to the board, we could have given direction at that point and saved a lot of back and forth.” 

At a meeting on Dec. 16, Supervisor Ted Williams suggested changing the language again and introduced a draft that used the word climate change to better reflect the perspective of Mendocino County residents. Haschak then asked Williams to incorporate climate-related language from both legislative platform drafts and bring the final draft to this week’s meeting. 

At Tuesday’s meeting, there was a consensus among the board members that the language should not be compromised out of fear of the Trump administration. 

Several community members agreed with this, including Helen Sizemore, a Ukiah resident. 

“I totally support this legislative platform that you’ve created, and I want to make sure that you all know that we want you to vote yes on it,” Sizemore said during public comment.  

The next Board of Supervisors meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. on Jan. 13 in the board chambers at 501 Low Gap Road, Ukiah. Meetings can also be watched virtually via Zoom. More information, including agendas, is available at mendocino.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx.