The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors elected Fifth District Supervisor Michelle Estrada as chair Tuesday in a unanimous vote, capping a reorganization meeting that lasted all of eleven minutes.

Estrada replaces outgoing chair Steve Madrone. She takes over a board that spent most of 2025 fighting about cannabis enforcement budgets and will likely spend 2026 doing the same.

“I’m not going to pretend we all agree on everything,” Estrada said after the vote. “But we agree the county needs to function. That’s the bar. I intend to clear it.”

Second District Supervisor Rex Bohn nominated Estrada. Third District Supervisor Mike Wilson seconded. Nobody offered an alternative. The vote was quick and unremarkable, which is itself remarkable for a board that couldn’t agree on meeting room temperature last spring.

Fourth District Supervisor Natalie Arroyo takes over as vice chair.

Cannabis tops the priority list

Estrada outlined four priorities for 2026. Cannabis policy reform came first. She wants to revisit the county’s penalty structure for unlicensed cultivation, which she called “a system that punishes small growers for not being able to afford compliance while the big operations lawyer up and wait us out.”

The other three priorities: wildfire preparedness, road maintenance funding, and what she described as “getting our permitting timeline below embarrassing.”

On cannabis specifically, Estrada said she’ll push for a joint workshop between the board and the county planning department before March. She wants to address the backlog of conditional use permits that have sat untouched since the DCC restructured state licensing requirements in late 2024.

The backlog currently stands at 247 applications. Some have been pending since 2021.

“People filed their paperwork, paid their fees, and heard nothing,” Estrada said. “That’s not regulation. That’s abandonment.”

Budget reality check

The chair inherits a cannabis tax situation that isn’t improving. Revenue from the county’s cultivation tax came in at $4.1 million for fiscal year 2024-2025, down from $5.8 million the year before. The county had budgeted $6.2 million.

Estrada acknowledged the gap but didn’t offer specifics on how she’d address it. She said the midyear budget workshop in late January would “lay everything out.”

Board watchers expect the cannabis tax discussion to get contentious. Bohn has pushed for maintaining current rates. Wilson wants to lower them. Arroyo has floated a tiered system based on canopy size. Estrada hasn’t committed to a position, which is either strategic patience or indecision, depending on who you ask.

What changes

The chair position in Humboldt County carries more procedural power than legislative. Estrada controls the agenda, runs the meetings, and represents the board in dealings with state and federal agencies. She can’t unilaterally set policy.

But agenda control matters. Madrone used it to keep several cannabis enforcement proposals from reaching a vote in 2025. Estrada has signaled she won’t do the same.

“If there are five votes for something, it should get a vote,” she said. “That’s how this is supposed to work.”

The board meets next on January 14 for its regular session. The midyear budget workshop is scheduled for January 24.

Estrada’s term in the Fifth District runs through 2028. She represents the communities of Trinidad, McKinleyville, and the unincorporated areas north of Arcata. Before joining the board in 2022, she worked as a program director at the Humboldt Area Foundation.

Her predecessor in the chair, Madrone, said the transition would be smooth. “Michelle’s prepared. She’s been preparing since November, frankly.”

He paused.

“The board’s got problems. But lack of leadership isn’t one of them anymore.”