Supervisor Haschack?

In the days before the Brown Act passed in 1953, men (and of course they were all men) ran for County supervisor primarily to make sure that their friends and neighbors got fair (or preferential) consideration for road work and County hiring. In fact the term "supervisor" is a shortened version of "Road Supervisor." Pre-war local politics revolved around roads, where they would go, who got the contract, who benefited along the way, what standards they would be built to, and whether those standards would be enforced, etc. Elections tended toward the clannish and parochial with voting blocs forming in different areas of each supervisoral district in hopes that one of theirs would get elected. In Mendo’s Fifth District prior to the 1950s those areas tended to swing back and forth between Anderson Valley and the south coast with mini-Supervisorial dynasties ebbing and flowing.

Joe Scaramella (my late uncle) was a new breed who didn't represent road contractors or lumber companies or large ranch owners. He was a mechanic who owned a Point Arena garage. He had been watching the supervisors since the first time he ran in the 1930s and thought that a number of reforms needed to be made, primarily in the way of good government such as open meetings, open and competitive bidding, fair hiring practices rather than patronage, more services for regular people, more jobs, and more of an even playing field in agriculture. His advocacy for what is quaintly now remembered as “good government,” caused Mendo’s old timers to label him a “troublemaker.” They kept him out for 20 years during which time Joe Scaramella ran for Supervisor four times and lost each time, setting a record for persistence that stands to this day.

The ONLY other Supervisor since Scaramella who ran with a specific list of objectives if elected was former, recent Third District Supervisor John Pinches who wanted more money spent on upgrading county roads not squirreled away in Transportation Director Budge Campbell’s various slush funds. Pinches also wanted to balance the County’s fragile budget and either get more water for Mendocino back from Sonoma County or at least get some money for all the water that Mendo ships off to Sonoma County.

In his 20 years as Supervisor after finally being elected in 1952, Joe Scaramella eventually accomplished everything that he had set out to do when he was finally elected and a lot more: He created the Civil Service Commission and drafted the first civil service rules. He also got board meetings and budget processes moved out of private lawyer offices in Ukiah and into the Supervisor's chambers. Along with newly elected County Assessor Webb Brown, he raised the assessments on large landholders and timber owners who had been grossly under assessed by the older boards, which increased County revenues for necessary public roads and services. He wrote the first set of Board rules of procedure and he knew them and he insisted they be followed and he knew how to maneuver with them. (Several times when emotions rose on certain issues with a crowded Board room, Joe Scaramella would tacticly use one of his favorite rules, the rule that any one Supervisor can move to have an item continued until the next meeting without a vote of the Board, so that people had time to cool off and consider issues more carefully instead of voting in the heat of the moment.) He was Richard Wilson’s only supporter on the board of supervisors in stopping the Dos Rios Dam project, which would have flooded over 20,000 acres of prime agricultural land in Round Valley, taking all that acreage out of the County’s tax base.

Joe’s record of persistance, intention and accomplishment remains unmatched. Only Pinches comes close; Pinches did several things in office that he had set out to do when he ran, including two of the three things he wanted to do and made a good effort on the third.

Joe Scaramella (from an interview with the AVA in the mid-90s):

“When I ran for Supervisor in the 30s and 40s the issues were much more personal than public, more family and clan and locality. Roads were a critical thing. The issues were more about personalities and attitudes regarding representation on the board. The tradition was that you kept the old-timers there. They represented the real true values. That was a thing. I was thought of as a troublemaker because I wasn’t a rancher or timber baron or large landholder and I wanted to change a few things. In the early 50s a man by the name of John Ornbaun, from Anderson Valley, was Fifth District Supervisor. He was a good man but he liked to drink too much. That was the only reason I eventually succeeded. If I had had to run against anybody else, I wouldn't have had a chance because I was considered to be a troublemaker. A troublemaker was not desirable. But people were having trouble dealing with Ornbaun because he was drunk a lot of the time. Before Ornbaun there was a man by the name of Bill Lawson from the Anderson Valley. He was there for two terms. And before that there was Frank Reynolds, from Point Arena, he was there a long time. He lived out there as you come down the hill from Boonville, about two miles east of Highway 1. He had a ranch and a team and he moved ties and he wanted to make sure he and his crew got as much road work as possible. For more than ten years in the decades before Ornbaun there was a man named Ed Haehl from Anderson Valley, Yorkvillle. He was Board Chair. He was the power. He was the Board chairman for quite a number of years, mostly in the 30s and early 40s. He was said to have executive power. If you wanted ANYTHING done you had to talk to him. Finally he lost over the issue of the county hospital. A rank newcomer by the name of Joe Hartley from Hopland defeated him. And it had never been done before because Anderson Valley was clannish and they wanted a man from Anderson Valley, period. But then after some redistricting this fella from Hopland came forward and there was a rivalry there. Hartley was endorsed by District Attorney Jim Bush. The DA had quite a bit of political clout in those days. Much more than now. Now the DA has clout in other areas, but not in the political field. And that endorsement somehow swung the election from Haehl to Hartley.”

While we have had some good people as Supervisor — and a number of them worse than today’s sleepwalkers — I can’t think of a single candidate in the last 40 years (except Pinches) who campaigned on any kind of specific reform platform. Why do they bother to run? Yes, the pay’s a lot better than in Joe Scaramella’s day — but is it worth it to sit through all those pointless meetings for hours just to rubberstamp what Carmel Angelo puts on the agenda and never even try to get anything done?

Today, supervisor elections have deteriorated into shallow and vain personality contests similar to elections for high school class president. Candidates don't even bother to show up for board meetings in advance— many persons elected supervisor in recent years attend their first meeting after they’re elected — they pay no attention to the issues, have no agenda whatsoever, do zero homework and run simply on vacuous statements like, “I’m for the environment” and unsubstantiated personal self-assessments: “I’m totally dedicated.” “I’m proactive.” “I like the ocean.” “I used to be a hippie!” (Dan Hamburg actually used a picture of himself as a hippie in his early campaign ads. It worked.)

Which brings us to Willits Spanish teacher John Haschak.

Mr. Haschak first came forward when former Third District Supervisor Tom Woodhouse resigned after suffering a mental breakdown in the job. Haschak was one of a half a dozen or so people who applied to be appointed to finish out Woodhouse’s term. (Woodhouse never attended a board meeting, never took a position on any issue, did no homework, had not participated in any kind local government, and had no idea what he was getting into as a Supervisor. To this day we have no idea why he ran.) Governor Brown picked Willits veterinarian Georgeanne Croskey over Haschak, former Supervisor John Pinches and several other applicants — at least Croskey had the smarts to get through vet school and has acquitted herself adequately since her appointment, although she had never attended a board meeting or expressed an opinion of any kind on County affairs prior to her appointment. But unlike her colleagues, she has shown flashes of independence and she pays attention to the issues, albeit belatedly. Since she’s leaving with her law enforcement husband for work out of state maybe it could be arranged for the promising Croskey to tele-commute.

Why does Mr. Haschak think he should be Supervisor? Like Woodhouse and Croskey, Mr. Haschak has never spoken at a Board meeting, never expressed a public opinion on a County issue, has no political experience on any board or commission, yet here he comes from the perennially failed Willits schools.

According to a recent interview by The Willits News’ Ariel Carmona, Haschak says he’s “familiar with the communities” and is on the California Teachers Association’s (CTA) budget Committee which “makes him qualified to tackle some of the most pressing issues facing Mendocino County including the emergence of the legal cannabis industry, transportation and infrastructure and advocating for fiscal responsibility.”

No it doesn’t. That’s ridiculous, bordering on nuts.

Haschak says he’s “looked at” the Willits schools budget. He was “named Valedictorian” at Willits High School. He adds, completely irrelevantly, that he played a lot of basketball after attending San Francisco State, then graduated from UCLA in history and political science then obtained a teaching credential. He joined the Peace Corps and went to Guatemala for several years then worked for Migrant Head Start. “After a couple of years after that I got a call from Willits High School asking if I wanted to interview for a teaching position teaching Spanish. I took the job,” where he’s been for the last 28 years teaching High School Spanish for 18 years and elementary school Spanish for the last 10. Haschak “guesses” he has “that work ethic of ‘Just get in there and do it, and hope you make a positive change’.” He wants “to look at how we can really diversify our economy and entice well paying sustainable jobs to this area,” and “bring more programs to improve career and technical education into the area.” (Candidates have said that since 1970 and it’s not going to happen for lots of reasons, beginning with poor schools.)

At least he didn’t say, “I’m for the environment.” But then: “It’s all about creating a place that’s sustainable for our economy.”

Haschak boldly declares that he’s for “improved infrastructure and county roads.” He’s for water. He’s for more housing. “It’s looking at what are the roadblocks to creating more housing for people,” Haschak said. “I am not sure what those roadblocks are at this point [sic], but I think it is one of those critical needs for our county.” (Hint: The “roadblocks” are political. We used to have federally funded low interest housing loans in this country, and right here in "progressive" Mendocino County maybe the Supes could invest in low-cost housing, at least partially, rather than the crap shoot of the stock market. But that would require homework and an uphill climb with the rest of the Board and a staff that doesn’t much care what the Board of Supervisors says or does.)

If John Haschak is the best the Third District can put forward, we’re in deeper doo-doo than we thought.