How to show up in Merced County
Surveillance is approved by people who hold public meetings any resident can attend. This page lists the bodies that do that in Merced County, what we have confirmed about attending each one, and where each publishes its agendas.
We do not publish meeting dates. A schedule we cannot check often enough would eventually send someone to the wrong place on the wrong night. Each body below links to wherever it publishes its own agendas and schedule, and that is the copy to trust.
Countywide
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Merced County Board of Supervisors
Watch this oneNo surveillance decision by this Board has been read. It is the governing body for the Sheriff's Office and therefore where any equipment purchase or military equipment policy has to appear.
- When
- Two Tuesdays a month. Closed session at 8:30 AM and the regular meeting at 10:00 AM.
- Where
- Board Room, Third Floor, Merced County Administration Building, 2222 M Street, Merced, CA 95340
- Remote
- Meetings are streamed on the county's Facebook page and from its own meetings page, and broadcast on Comcast channel 96. Someone wanting to comment remotely registers through Zoom.
- Public comment
- Comment on agenda items other than public hearings is taken in one period at the start of the meeting. Three minutes each, and the Chair can shorten that.
- Written comment
- By email to publiccomments@countyofmerced.com, or by post or delivery to the Clerk of the Board, by 5:00 PM on the Monday before the meeting. General comment can also be left as a voice message on 209-385-7319; anything received before 9:00 AM on the day is played at the meeting as time allows. The county notes that email or phone comment sent at other times does not become part of the official record.
- Who to ask
- Clerk of the Board, 209-385-7366, 2222 M Street, Merced, CA 95340 (checked )
Minutes, audio and video go back to 2000. The voicemail line is unusual: a recorded comment left before 9:00 AM is played aloud at the meeting, which is the only route we have found in California that gets a resident's own voice into the room without them being there.
Confirmed ·
What this list does not cover yet
These are the bodies we have confirmed, not every body in the county. Merced County has other commissions and committees, and other school and special districts, that we have not documented yet. Several of the county's own committees publish on the same county portal linked above.
Before you go, and after
Civic action
Read what is already on the record for Merced County first. A resident who has read the contract changes the room.
What is documented in Merced County →Personal protection
Knowing which systems operate near you also tells you where your own choices still matter.
EFF Surveillance Self-Defense ↗