MCT: Wednesday, May 8, 2019

• Mild Weather
• Tentative Agreement
• Open Studios
• Eel River
• Wildflower Show
• Useless Info
• Adult School
• Chinatown Exhibit
• Double Decker
• Cannabis Village
• Richardson Grove
• See Paradise
• Ed Notes
• CCC Candidate
• Book Signing
• Yesterday's Catch
• Caretaker Handyman
• Thrones Stuff
• CFMC BBQ
• Warmongers
• Nuclear Risk
• Corporate Warning
• Improv Show
• No Democracy
• Bliss Divine
• Festival Jobs
• One Man
• Art Exhibits
• Berning Question
• CAAC Pulled
• Found Object

AREAS OF LOW CLOUDS and breezy conditions will keep the coast cool today, with another sunny and warm afternoon inland. Offshore flow will bring very warm weather to the Redwood coast with sunshine most of Thursday and Friday. A return to more seasonal weather and coastal clouds is expected for the weekend. (National Weather Service)

MALCOLM MACDONALD WRITES:

Announcement from MCDH interim CEO Wayne Allen on a tentative agreement between MCDH management and the hospital union:

• Term of Agreement: a two year agreement from July 1, 2018 through June 30, 2020
• Wages: 1% retro back to July 1, 2018 and a 2.5% wage increase effective July 1, 2019
• Increases apply to all employees (union & non-union) but must be on payroll at ratification dates for the retro increase
• Subject to a favorable union ballot ratification by May 17, 2019 and then ratification of the MCDH Board on May 30, 2019

No changes in benefits or pension funding.

Full story later in week.

ANDERSON VALLEY OPEN STUDIOS - a treat to look forward to on Memorial Day weekend

by Yoriko Kishimoto

Anderson Valley is known for its magical alchemy of redwoods, vineyards, goats, great food and wine… and of course artists!

On Memorial Day weekend, Anderson Valley Open Studios asks local artists to clean up their private studios a little (just a little) so you, the public, can find your way up windy roads, under green canopies of trees, across creeks and squeeze into the studios to see where they work, check out some of their new work, and connect with the creative process.

The yellow signs up and down 128 will lead you to the artists’ studios from 11 to 5 pm on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, May 25th-27th.

The artists this year are:

• Steve Wood - architectural renderings, models and photographs
• Charlie Hochberg - photography of “painterly” panoramas
• Judy Nelson - glass beads and jewelry inspired by the valley
• Xenia King - paintings in oil and acrylic, oil pastels and photographs
• Laura Diamondstone - paintings and drawings with mixed and upcycled media/materials
• Yoriko Kishimoto -oil and watercolor from the four winds
• Saoirse Bryne - scarves, wraps and fabric ottomans incorporating art of rope making
• Kate McEwen - printmaking, photography, art: time and the obsolete
• Marvin and Colleen Schenck - post-impressionist landscape painting, printmaking, jewelry, mixed media
• Jan Wax and Chris Bing - porcelain and stoneware art pottery
• Deanna Thomas - plein air paintings in oils and pastels with an expressive brush and tonal palette
• Michael Wilson and Susan Spencer - art assemblages in their Beat Gallery
• Nadia Berrigan - photography of landscape and light, composition and its abstraction
• Rebecca Johnson - a poetic and contemporary interpretation of place, painting and sculpture
• Doug Johnson - crystalline glazed and wood fired salt glazed ceramics
• Rachel Lahn - mixed media sculptural paintings and encaustics that capture the elemental rhythms and forms

In an era where we spend too much time on the computer and phone, connect with the part of you that is hungry for that hands-on, creative process. This is a free and a unique opportunity - I hope everyone will visit at least a couple studios if not all. Check out https://andersonvalley-artguild.org/open-studios for more info on each artist and a map! We welcome you to visit, get inspired, and perhaps get an original piece of art!

KATHY WYLIE ON THE ROAD TO COVELO

The beautiful Eel River this morning - on the way to Round Valley

WILDFLOWER SHOW 2019

Dear Editor,

Climate disruption was evident this year with our flower collecting. Some flowers were late in blooming, others had come and gone. In spite of this we had a beautiful sampling. Our show this year was dedicated to Paula Kesenheimer, a most beautiful lady, who helped inspire and encourage others to learn about the flora that grows here. She managed past shows for over 30 years. We dearly miss her.

We would like to thank everyone who made the 2018, Wildflower Show such a success. The Sanhedrin Chapter of the California Native Plant Society returned this year and had books and posters to offer and was kept busy with many visitors questions. Susan Robinson’s beautiful pressed flowers in frames was our second vendor.

Returning again was a display of bryophytes; which are mosses, liverworts and lichens. Jade Paget-Seekins was responsible for this extensive display and along with a detailed poster, showing these miniature wonders of the plant world.

Thank you to Anderson Valley High School’s art instructor, Nadia Berrigan, whose students produced photos and paintings for display at the show. The Garden Section Club voted on the art and photos and the top three winners received $50 each.

An invasive plant table with specimens, pictures and information regarding the damage these plants cause to native species provided a necessary counterpoint.

Another component for the show was a Lyme disease exhibit presented by Sue Davies. Many brochures and even live ticks (in a covered jar), were available offering extensive information about preventive measures and dangers associated with Lyme.

Joining us this year were two information tables from Hendy Woods, and the Land Trust.

A special Thank You to Mary Ann Grzenda, for gathering raffle gifts from every corner of Anderson Valley resulting in the largest number of contributors ever! This was in addition to our own members who provided gifts.

Thank you to the following: Farmhouse Merchantile, AV Market, Poleko Roadhouse, Debra Ka Dabra, Puzzle People, Judy Nelson, Andy Jones, AV Brewery, Buckhorn, Mosswood, AV Historical Society, Boontberry, Rossi Hardware, Lizzbys, Laurens, Lynn Muller, Boonville Hotel, Lemons, Redwood Drive In, Jackie Blattner, Northwest Tire and Oil, John Hanes, Lula, Pennyroyal Farm, Green Door Antiques, Whispering Winds, Navarro Winery, Susan Robinson and CNPS Sanhedrin Chapter.

A big thank you to Shirley Hulbert, and company for the delicious food served in the tea room.

We wish to thank the following people who helped our club members with collections, identification, the raffle, plant donations, set- up or cleanup:, Jade Paget-Seekins, Sheryl Green, Lynn Halpern, Wally Hopkins, Hans Hickenlooper, Kristy Hotchkiss, Scott Hulbert, Sarah McCarter, Rick Bonner, Melanie Holloway, Tom Shaver, Rachel Lahn, Anita Soost, Angela Dewitt, Susan Robinson, Sue Hopkins, Geri Hulse Stephens, Bob Sowers and Keith Gamble.

Our wildflower collectors this year benefited again from updated and a much improved collection route book courtesy of our own Nancy Wood.

Thank you to Jody and the Fairgrounds staff for all their help. Thanks to Robert Rosen, the Anderson Valley Brewery and the AV Methodist Church for allowing us to place our banners, advertising our event, on their respective fences.

We are extending an invitation to community members to join us in next year’s wild flower adventure. We would love additional collectors, and especially those interested in identifying plants. Contributors with new ideas can only help to improve this community event. We want more of our community members to be an integral part and help make this show even better. Interested? Please contact Robyn Harper at 895-2609.

Anderson Valley Unity Club Garden Section

Robyn Harper

Boonville

SUMMER HIGH SCHOOL EQUIVALENCY PREP classes at the Adult School! Call 895-2953 for more info!

This summer we offer preparation classes to take the high school equivalency exam! Call 895-2953 for more information

KELLEY HOUSE MUSEUM SPRING EXHIBIT May - July 2019

May 17-July 22 Kelley House Museum Spring Exhibit

The Look Tin Eli Story: Exclusion & Citizenship on the Mendocino Coast

This is one exhibit you won’t want to miss! Funded by the California State Library’s Civil Liberties Public Education Program, “The Story of Look Tin Eli: Exclusion & Citizenship on the Mendocino Coast” examines local historic ties to a topic that is still very much with us today.

Mendocino-born businessman Look Tin Eli led the reconstruction of San Francisco’s Chinatown after the earthquake of 1906. Mr. Look hired American architects to rebuild it as a tourist attraction using bright colors and swooping pagoda-like roofs attached to typical western structures. It became a wildly popular destination for visitors, and its style and concept influenced other Chinatowns throughout the world.

This thought-provoking exhibit can be viewed during museum hours, Fridays through Mondays, 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM. Admission is by suggested donation of $5.

Kelley House Museum

PO Box 922

45007 Albion Street

Mendocino, CA 95460

707-937-5791

kelleyhousemuseum.org

DOUBLE-DECKER IN OLD LOS ANGELES

HUMBOLDT COUNTY APPROVES ‘CANNABIS VILLAGE’ With Onsite Sales and Consumption for Reggae on the River

by Ryan Burns

In a move that promises to thoroughly transform SoHum’s flagship music festival, there will be weed at this year’s Reggae on the River.

Okay, okay, we kid. Anyone who’s even driven past the three-day riverside event over the past three decades has seen and smelled the dank-ass bank of ganja smog. It’s a reggae festival! In Southern Humboldt!

What’s new this year is that the weed sales will be fully permitted by both the state and the county. The venue (once again at French’s Camp on the South Fork Eel River) will include a 40,000-square-foot “cannabis village” featuring more than 120 exhibitor tents, five security gates and a designated consumption area.

On Thursday, the Humboldt County Planning Commission unanimously agreed to modify the event’s conditional use permit, clearing the way for the cannabis village as well as music performances into the wee hours (from 12 a.m. to 4 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights) and changes to parking.

What’s unclear at this point is how many of the village’s exhibitor tents will be offering product from local growers. For the second year in a row, the Mateel Community Center has enlisted High Times Productions Inc. as event organizer and corporate sponsor.

Last year’s event was a financial disaster, losing about $1.6 million and putting the nonprofit Mateel on the verge of bankruptcy.

Legal cannabis sales represent a promising new revenue stream, but with the unprecedented level of competition from licensed cultivators up and down the state, local growers and their advocates are worried about being crowded out by corporate vendors from Salinas, Berkeley and Santa Barbara.

Holly Carter, a Southern Humboldt resident who co-owns a small cannabis regulatory compliance company, submitted a letter to the Planning Commission outlining a number of concerns about the changes to the reggae festival.

For one thing, she noted the dramatic increase in the number of vendor booths compared to previous years.

“A hundred-and-twenty booths is a lot of booths,” she told the Outpost. Many locals supplement their income during the summer months by selling merchandise at festivals such as Reggae on the River, Carter said, and she worries that packing more in threatens to dilute revenues for local retailers.

She also wonders whose pockets the event’s revenues will wind up in.

“I have vended before at High Times events,” Carter said. “What I know is they’re really good at selling booth space.” They’re less good at ensuring vendors share in the profits, she said. In her experience, booths at events like this are expensive, with rent for a 10-foot-by-10-foot tent costing $3,000 to $4,000 and large tents costing $20,000 to $30,000.

We emailed High Times in hopes of learning the exact rental fees for Reggae’s cannabis village but have yet to hear back.

At Thursday’s meeting, Humboldt County Growers Alliance Executive Director Terra Carver addressed the commission, speaking in support of giving local cannabis businesses the opportunity to participate — “or the exclusive opportunity even, potentially,” she said.

Planning Commissioner Noah Levy asked staff whether it would be possible to limit the event to local vendors, but Assistant County Counsel Natalie Duke was skeptical.

“I have some serious concerns about that on a legal front,” she said.

Later in the meeting Commissioner Melanie McCavour said she, too, thought High Times might open itself to lawsuits if the company limited permits based on geographic location at this stage in the game, though she suggested that in future years perhaps organizers could bill it as an exhibition for weed from Mendocino and Humboldt counties specifically.

Commissioner Peggy O’Neill suggested to the High Times representative in attendance that his company conduct an outreach event to help local vendors apply.

The High Times rep said he’d be happy to encourage local participation but the company has no intention of limiting competition by discriminating against non-local applicants.

Humboldt County Senior Planner Steve Lazar said this represents the first proposal in the county for such an outdoor cannabis sales-and-consumption facility at an event, though it’s not the first in the state. The Northern Nights Music Fest, which takes place July 19-21 at Cook’s Valley Campground on the Humboldt-Mendocino border recently announced that it will feature sales and consumption of cannabis.

As with that event, Reggae’s “cannabis village” will be limited to people 21 and over, and it will be separated from alcohol sales, as required by state law. The village will be open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, and consumption will only be allowed within its confines, according to the permit.

Attendance for the event is capped at 9,000 people, including 6,500 ticket holders and 2,500 others (staff, performers, vendors, etc.), though as noted above, Reggae has failed to sell out the last couple of years.

This year’s festival will be held Aug. 2-4. More information can be found at the event’s website.

(Courtesy, LostCoastOutpost.com)

COURT HALTS RICHARDSON GROVE HIGHWAY PROJECT Yet Again; Environmental Groups ‘Elated’ at Federal Judge’s Order

https://lostcoastoutpost.com/2019/may/6/court-halts-richardson-grove-highway-project-yet-a/

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ERNIE BRANSCOMB COMMENTS:

Although I have heard it pronounced both “Richardson Grove” and “Richardson’s Grove”, I have never seen anyone be confused about the location or significance of the area.

I believe that a truck path through the grove could be constructed without damaging any old growth trees. However, I trust no one involved. Not the Hollywood sponsored “environmentalists.” Not the Caltrans “Experts,” not the judges mostly concerned with Legal matters. The situation has become so contentious that I don’t think a sound decision can be made.

At this point I strongly advocate placing a new freeway section, east of the grove, across the river as originally planned back in the 1960s. The freeway will be built in a mudbank, removing many trees and brush at great expense. However, it can be done, and the problems can be mitigated.

It is time that the North Coast opens itself up to environmentally friendly business and tourism. It does no good to try to knock down progress.

(Full discloser: I am a friend of Kym Kemp, and a fellow generational native of the Eel River. I also have considerable experience with redwoods)

JUDGE ORDERS PG&E DIRECTORS TO VISIT PARADISE, SIX MONTHS AFTER CAMP FIRE WIPED OUT TOWN

A federal judge ordered PG&E’s board of directors Tuesday to visit Paradise to better understand the devastation the utility caused when its equipment failed and apparently sparked last November’s Camp Fire.

sacbee.com/news/state/california/article230129959.html

… Earlier this year, angered by PG&E’s safety record, Alsup threatened to order the utility to implement a stringent safety plan this summer involving inspections of all 100,000 miles of its power lines, a huge increase in its tree-trimming program, and major blackouts during high winds or other dangerous conditions.

PG&E complained that Alsup’s program would cost $75 billion to implement. It then filed its own safety plan with the state Public Utilities Commission that’s essentially a scaled-down version of what Alsup was contemplating.

The judge agreed to PG&E’s plan, but with an additional condition: He said PG&E can’t resume paying shareholder dividends, to make sure it has the “sufficient resources, financial and personnel” to carry out its plan.

ED NOTES

TIM POOL is a new name to me, but he's a breath of fresh journalistic air. Take a look at the kid in this video: https://youtu.be/7wo4-hp1pwQ

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THIS MORNING, the Supervisors pulled the McCowen-sponsored item aimed at creating a climate change committee with people from the torpid Mendocino Environment Center. The MEC people want to insert Alicia Little Tree Bales as boss at $94,000 a year. John Sakowicz spoke against it as a committee requiring a lavishly paid director position, suggesting a volunteer climate change committee.

I RECEIVED this e-mail from Ms. Tree via Sakowicz:

"Please check out this bizarre and hate filled attack from John Sakowicz, submitted to the board of supervisors, about me and the climate committee and ask yourself if John wants ‘peace.’ I feel that this public attack on me and MEC has crossed a serious line, and actually puts me in danger. John portrays me as corrupt, motivated by money, and even suggests that I am violent—a ‘warrior'. He also drops a sick and familiar misogynistic trope that I am romantically involved with Supervisor McCowen. Of course none of this is true, and John Sakowicz’s reputation as a liar is well known. But still, this actually scares me, it looks like an effort to discredit me and even incite violence and hatred against me. I am planning to report this letter to the police, just in case."

I WROTE to Miss Tree: "I watched Mr. S's presentation to the board this morning and failed to hear anything resembling a violent threat. Can you elaborate?"

MISS TREE REPLIED:

"Do not contact me again. I have blocked you, reported this email to Google as harassment, and I will be making a report to the local police as well."

SUPERVISOR McCOWEN should have excused himself from the discussion given his associations with the MEC and Miss Tree. But there he was with a weasel-lipped statement about how serious an issue climate change is and how "we" should all do our part to combat it.

SUPES SUPPORT FORT BRAGG MAYOR WILL LEE FOR COASTAL COMMISSION

There hasn’t been a rep from Mendocino County on the Coastal Commission and while qualified candidate Fort Bragg city councilman (and former mayor) applied with others for the vacancy recently - the Governor rejected all those who applied from Mendocino, Humboldt & Del Norte Counties & asked for another round of nominees. (via MSP)

MENDO THROUGH THE EYES….

Book signing Friday at The Gathering Place with local author Sondra Sula

Mendocino is a daily devotional about the wonders of the Mendocino coast as seen through the eyes of a Quaker mystic. She will have it on sale at MCSL’s Annual Spring Sale Friday, May 10th (the sale is Friday and Saturday from 10 am to 3 pm, but Sondra will be there just Friday from 10 am to 1 pm). She will also have her previous books Dialogues with the Divine and Reflections on the Fox River and Beyond for sale. A portion of the proceeds will go to Mendocino Center for Spiritual Living. Location: The Gathering Place at The Company Store, 303 N. Main, Fort Bragg, Mendocino Center for Spiritual Living, 964-1458. Please park in oceanside lot.

CATCH OF THE DAY, May 7, 2019

JOELL BECK, Gualala. Domestic abuse.

JUAN BENCES-LOPEZ, Clearlake/Ukiah. DUI.

JOSEPH DEDMAN, Portland/Ukiah. Controlled substance, loitering.

JASON DIAMOND, Ukiah. Infliction of injury on child.

GERARDO GONZALEZ, Ukiah. Criminal street gang member with loaded firearm, loaded handgun not registered owner, criminal threats, resisting.

WILLIAM GREEN, Calpella. Controlled substance, trespassing, disobeying court order, failure to appear, probation revocation.

BOBBY HILL, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, false ID.

RICHARD LUCIENTES III, Willits. Fugitive from justice.

MICHAEL MITCHELL, Lakeport. DUI, suspended license for DUI, no license, probation revocation.

RIVER STEWART, Clearlake/Ukiah. Parole violation.

RUSSEL TAYLOR, Redwood Valley. Pot possession for sale, maintaining a place for selling, giving, using drugs, controlled substance purchase for sale, controlled substance for sale.

GILBERT TRUJILLO, Pottery Valley. Domestic battery.

SHAWN WATERS, Willits. Controlled substance, resisting.

KEVIN WILLEY, Petaluma/Ukiah. Parole violation.

THIS GUY'S GOOD, KNOWS HIS STUFF

Caretaker Handyman Seeking a Place To Live…

I am a handyman and a caretaker looking for a place to live with my motorhome tools and trucks. I can be of great help to someone that needs help. I'm a skilled worker and my work is good, I have reference to back me on that. Some of the work I know how to do and i having the tools and the know how to do it ; carpentry, sheetrock tape and mud, framing out new window installations, doors and flooring of sort, mechanic of sort and small engine repair or overhaul, fencing wood or wire cemented posts or pounding of T-posts, deck building, plumbing, painting interior exterior cutting edges detailing, basic electrical-lights appliances and switches, roofing, metal galvanized or plastic rain gutter installations and down spouts, cabinet and vanity and toilet installations, repairs of dry rotted floors and walls, wood metal plastic fabrications, sandblasting and painting of crafts and things, welding of metal and cracked plastic, tile setting, professional weed whacking and grass cutting, climbing of trees with spikes cutting unwanted branches or topping of the tree, falling of tree and log splitting into firewood, brush clearing, dump runs, and much more. I survive myself providing handyman work for those that need my help in and around Fort Bragg area, and all I have worked for appreciate my good work. 707-409-4147

Al Nunez, Thank You

YOU ARE INVITED to our 25th Anniversary BBQ

Community Foundation of Mendocino County

Our mission is to offer people effective ways to engage in advancing the well-being of our communities. Please join us in celebrating our 25th anniversary! This is a reminder that you are cordially invited to attend our 25th Anniversary Barbecue June 2, 2019 1:00 - 3:00pm Nelson Family Vineyards 550 Nelson Ranch Road, Ukiah.

We are celebrating 25 years of giving in Mendocino County honoring the contributions of our donors, founders and board members. With a special highlight on our scholarship program. Please join us beneath the Oaks for a BBQ lunch prepared by Mac Magruder and Kristin Myers. Local wines. Live music by Schindig!

Space is limited - Please RSVP by May 10th https://communityfound.eventbrite.com or rsvp@communityfound.org

Please RSVP to attend by registering at the link above or email rsvp@communityfound.org

PUBLIC ACTION NEEDED TO REDUCE NUCLEAR WAR RISK

Report from the United Nations Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Conference

Beloved friends, Barbara and I just returned from a United Nations meeting of worldwide activists focused on avoiding nuclear war. Barbara chaired a workshop on Nuclear War Risk Reduction, a very influential event at which I presented information and analysis developed over months of email collaboration with activists from Australia to the US Air Force. I'll be posting this on my website www.avoidingnuclearwar.com http://www.avoidingnuclearwar.com as I recover from the ordeal of the ten-day trip to New York City.

Consensus at the conference is that this is the most risky time in history for "accidental" nuclear war, because of escalating tensions and nuclear weapon threats between the US and Russia. All agreed that a major factor increasing the danger of all-destroying nuclear war is public disengagement from this issue. So, for my first report on this amazing event, I'm asking everyone to take a few minutes and call the US Congress (202)224-3121 in support of HR 921, Rep. Adam Smith's one-sentence bill that could make us all a lot safer: "It is the policy of the United States to not use nuclear weapons first."

I called this morning and was immediately connected with Rep. Jared Huffman's office. I asked him to join our former representative, Rep. Mike Thompson, in co-sponsoring this vital bill. There is a worldwide effort to convince all nuclear-armed nations to join China and India in renouncing first-use of these weapons, which really are instruments of suicidal omnicide (destruction on all) which must never be used.

Heartfelt thanks to friends and family who supported our effort. It's so great to return to Mendocino with the burgeoning life here! Let's all make a little effort to keep it going.

Love, John Lewallen

Philo

HIT & RUN THEATER REDWOOD SENIOR CENTER BENEFIT

May 25

Dear Mendonesians!

Hit and Run Theater will return to the stage Saturday, May 25, 2019 at 7:00pm at the Redwood Coast Senior Center at The Fort Bragg Middle School, 490 N. Harold St., Fort Bragg, CA 95437. The Senior Center Benefit will follow on Hit and Run’s first show at the Senior Center last spring. The show will be fully improvised with all skits and songs based on audience suggestions. For this evening, Hit and Run Theater will include Jill Jahelka, Ken Krauss, Doug Nunn, Kathy O’Grady, Christine Samas, Dan Sullivan, and Steve Weingarten. For ticket info for this benefit, please call the Redwood Coast Senior Center at 964-0443. We look forward to a lively evening to benefit the Senior Center. Hope to see you there!

Doug Nunn and Hit & Run Theater, dnunn@mcn.org

CRAIG, FOLLOWING HIS BLISS

Bliss Divine

Sitting at an outside

Table in perfect sunny

Lightly cool weather,

Microsoft laptop on,

The German shepherd

Is napping on the porch,

The duck and chicken are

Elsewhere, and the large

Bunny rabbit is up at the top

Of the driveway guarding the

Magic Ranch in Redwood Valley.

Birds are chirping.

I am happy.

—Craig Louis Stehr

JOB FAIR MAY 11 from 10am-2pm

General Labor

Mendocino Music Festival Office

45100 Main Street, Mendocino Upstairs

We are looking for full time and part time tent and stage crew workers. Must be able to lift and carry 30+ lbs. most jobs will pay $12 per hour. A few skilled positions are also available & pay will be based on skills and experience. Work starts June 26th. Bring picture ID and a Social Security Card or Birth Certificate.

“Some girls they want to collect their men,
They wear 'em like notches on a gun.
Oh honey, but I know better than that,
I know that a woman only needs one.”

—Janis Joplin “One Good Man”

SECOND SATURDAY GALLERY RECEPTION

Saturday, May 11, 5pm-8pm • Free admission

Mendocino Art Center

The Mendocino Art Center hosts a free Second Saturday Gallery Reception each month. See the new exhibits, enjoy snacks and wine, and meet the exhibiting artists.

On exhibit through May 27, 11am-4pm daily…

Mendocino Figure Drawing Collective

11th Biennial Exhibition • Works by 19 Artists

mendocinoartcenter.org/MyLasso/MainGallery.lasso

Agnes Woolsey Retrospective

http://www.mendocinoartcenter.org/MyLasso/GalleryTen.lasso

Judith Hale Retrospective

http://www.mendocinoartcenter.org/MyLasso/GalleryTen.lasso

Mendocino High School’s Amelia Aum & Sophie Barrett and students of ceramics

http://www.mendocinoartcenter.org/MyLasso/NicholsGallery.lasso

CAAC PULLED

Editor

Wow!

At the suggestion of County Counsel, the BOS just pulled Agenda Item 4-i.

Agenda Item 4-i is also known as the resolution in support of the Climate Action Advisory Committee (CAAC). It is also known as John McCowen's gift of a political platform to the his tenants -- the self-proclaimed "climate warriors" at the Mendocino Environmental Center (MEC). Clearly McCowen was building a voting block in support his re-election to the BOS in 2020.

Pulling the Agenda Item 4-i also means that the gift of a $94,812 contractor's job for the MEC's president, Alicia Bales, was pulled. That job was cronyism, pure and simple.

County Counsel will bring the item back in June.

It's all on the video of today's BOS meeting…2:45-3:00, approximately.

My congratulations to County Counsel and the BOS for doing the right thing.

Incidentally, to protect the county against charges of cronyism, I agree with the suggestion from several members of the BOS that the Mendocino County Resource Conservation District should administer the CAAC.

I also agree with the Supervisor Williams' suggestion that the person hired as CAAC program manager be a "domain expert" on controlling carbon emissions, and should not be a mere activist or political extremist.

Also, I agree with the suggestion from the BOS that the $110,00 budgeted in general funds from the county is start-up money only. It will be expected that the CAAC seek sustaining federal and/or state funding.

California AB-32 provides for some of that funding. See: https://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/ab32/ab32.htm

Finally, this is a courageous decision by the BOS to pull Agenda Item 4-i. It was a half-baked resolution.

Everyone agrees that the planet is imperiled by global warming. It is my hope and prayer that the county's efforts in this area are not corrupted by "tribal politics" nor by one personality.

Alicia Bales recently took down her Facebook page. But on her Facebook page, one would have seen boastings that Ms. Bales claimed to be Judi Bari's protégé and that she was the heir apparent to Judi Bari.

Judi Bari was not a hero.

Time and time again, Bari asserted she was an anarchist. She married to Mike Sweeney, a Maoist.

Moreover, Judi Bari was not consensus builder. She was a bully. Judi Bari was not even effective. Other environmentalists were more effective in saving the redwoods.

Bari had no respect for government, nor for process, nor law enforcement. Some historians of the environmental movement have viewed her as a malignant narcissist. In other words, Bari did more harm than good.

What Mendocino County does not need at this point in time in fighting global warming and controlling carbon emissions is "Judi Bari- The Sequel".

The CAAC should be truly independent of tribal politics. It should be led by a licensed environmental engineer or scientist, recycling and waste management engineer, climatology scientist, licensed hydrologist, solar energy engineer, or other such expert.

John Sakowicz

Ukiah

FOUND OBJECT