Patti Campbell's long-running record of duplicity and damage to Fort Bragg and the 4th District of Mendocino County hit another low point this week with the loss of funding for the Pudding Creek Trestle Bridge Trail.
State Parks received over $1 million for restoration of the Pudding Creek Trestle Bridge and Haul Road as a pedestrian/equestrian/bicycle route from Fort Bragg to and through MacKerricher State Park in 1993.
Due to the demands made by Patti Campbell and her allies on the Ten Mile Foundation Board, including her planning commissioner Nancy Barth and Ten Mile area property owner Margaret Smith, State Parks announced this week that it has to return all the construction money to CalTrans.
Patti and her allies have insisted that the trail go all the way to the Smith-Perry motel site at Ten Mile, even though several biologists and ecologists, both local and statewide, have stated that it would be an environmental disaster due to the numbers of endangered plants and sensitive nature of the dune area. Also, as a practical matter, the trail would need never-ending major maintenance as the dunes covered it up and winter storms washed it away.
Taking the trail down to the beach north of Ward Avenue would be a viable alternative for pedestrians and horses, while CalTrans has said it could construct a bicycle lane next to the highway from Ward Avenue to Ten Mile.
By refusing to separate the Trestle Bridge project, which would be of great benefit to everyone and link Fort Bragg to the park and ocean, from the dune trail, which is very problematic, Patti and her allies have sunk the whole project.
At any time during the long process, if Patti had exerted her self-vaunted "leadership" skills, she could have made sure the Trestle Bridge got fixed. Construction could have begun 3 years ago, and we could all be enjoying it now. Instead, she used her position to ensure that it would not happen.
This is the latest in a long series of governmental plunders and blunders executed by Patti Campbell in her 6 years as Fort Bragg citycouncilwoman and 3 years as county supervisor.
She left the city of Fort Bragg in administrative and financial shambles. The planning process was completely corrupted under her watch, culminating in the North Cliff Motel fiasco, which was merely the largest visible expression of a city government that had almost completely broken down under her "leadership.".
Patti actively supported giving almost $2 million in tax money to Dominic Affinito for his infamous Glass Beach plunder, for which the city's taxpayers are now in hock for 20 years at the cost of almost $200,000/year.
She cut Fort Bragg's downtown adrift by cutting off all funding for its downtown organization and using all the city's redevelopment money, some of which was initially targeted for downtown revitalization, for Affinito's project instead.
The City of Fort Bragg's financial situation worsened steadily during her tenure, culminating in last year's deficit of over $1 million that the new city council is now burdened with. Instead of dealing with the city's finances directly, she relied on development "magic bullets" propounded by Affinito shill and then-city finance director Roy Mitchell (who resigned rather than face conflict-of-interest charges)that only made the situation worse.
Patti has played a less visible role as supervisor, partly because she isn't seen very often in the 4th district.
But behind the scenes she has been quietly pushing her agenda of development favors for her friends, such as the Noyo Redevelopment proposal, which would, once again, bring great benefit to Dominic Affinito and his properties with failing septic systems south of Hare Creek. Last year she appointed Jim Burns, the redevelopment "expert" who put together Affinito's Glass Beach redevelopment program, to sit on the Noyo Harbor District Board.
While fighting for benefits for her select few, she has abandoned the general interests of the district, letting Fort Bragg's streets and the county's roads crumble while she supports massive inland highway projects. Out of $23 million in Transportation Enhancement Act funds, she voted to spend only $1.2 million in her own district.
She claims credit for the paving of Branscomb Road, when all the real work and securing of funding was done by former Supervisor John Pinches.
She takes credit for open space acquisition projects such as Point Cabrillo and Glass Beach Headlands, but she didn't lift a finger for either of them and her staff ("planner" Scott Cochran, who was finally fired by outgoing City Administrator Jim Murphey last year) actively put obstacles in the way of the Glass Beach Headlands purchase.
Underneath the vapid, smiling, "non-partisan" veneer lies a tenacious, highly-partisan vindictive politician who consistently brings home the bacon to a few of her wealthy supporters and leaves crumbs for the citizens of Fort Bragg and the Fourth District.
Campbell's 1996 Contributions explain why the 4th District's Road Funds went to the Willits Bypass in 1998, the Willits Railroad Museum in 99/00, the salmon restoration money went to pave the 3rd District's Roads, and there is no Grading Ordinance…
Patti Campbell's Major Contributors ($100-$500 each)
1996 Schedule A Campaign Reports
• Al Beltrami (Inland County Employers Association, vocal opponents to Grading Ordinance)
• Anderson Logging
• Bailey Investments (Laytonville)
• Barnum Timber (Eureka)
• Baxman Gravel
• Bud D'Arezzo
• Bud Kamb
• Caspar Cattle Co. (Oscar Smith-Caspar headlands land-owner received several million in tax-dollar buy-out.)
• Eastman Trucking
• Ed Taubold (Affinito's North Cliff architect)
• Frank Creasy
• Fred Holmes Lumber
• George Hollister (Logger-5th District)
• Harrah Industries (Willits)
• Harwood Products (Branscomb)
• J&J Forestry (Boonville)
• Jared Carter (Attorney for Dominic Affinito, et al)
• Carol Cotton
• Jere Melo (Georgia-Pacific)
• Joe Mayfield (Mendo Mill-Ukiah)
• Joe Moura Construction
• Louisiana -Pacific
• Margaret Perry (Ten Mile Inn developer)
• Marilyn Leroy (Women in Timber)
• Matson Building Materials (North Cliff Motel)
• Mendocino Cattleman's Association (Inland vocal opponents to Grading Ordinance)
• Mendocino County Associates (Developer PAC operating illegally as a public benefit non- profit-Nancy Barth Ten Mile Trail Foundation)
• North Coast Plumbing (North Cliff & other motels)
• Parnum Paving (Ukiah)
• Peter Koch (Willits)
• Redwood Valley Vineyards (Inland)
• Rossi Building Materials
• Tara Well Drilling
• Tom Hill (Realtor -Ukiah)
• Walter Puffer (Empire Waste)
• Watkins Sand & Gravel
• Wayne Miller (Orinda)
• Mendocino Coast Petroleum
January 2000 Schedule A, Campaign Report
• Barbara D'Arezzo
• Beachcomber Motel
• Brad Welter Trucking
• Carol Cotton
• Connie Mitchell
• Eric Harter
• Harwood Investment
• Hollister Partnership
• Jeannie Bailey (Vocal North Cliff Motel supporter -lost bid for City Council seat)
• John Mayfield (Willits bypass supporter)
• Joseph Sparks
• Larry Wagner
• Leland Pierce
• Maribelle Anderson
• Mendocino Coast Petroleum
• Norma Rhoads
• Origin Construction (Former City Financial Officer & Mitchell Bro. Construction, Affinito's North Cliff Contractor)
• Tommy's Marine
• Anderson Logging
• Brenda Holen
• Cindy Barker
• Dana Blencowe
• Ft. Bragg Plumbing
• Madeline Melo
• Tunzi Inc.
• Willard Mahan
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