Letters (January 15, 2020)

• Good Idea
• Pickpockets
• Vote For Bernie
• National Problem
• Trump U
• Questions For Sheriff Kendall
• Out The Window

GOOD IDEA

To the Editor:

Regarding the State Street renovation.

I would like to support the renovation of State Street as presented. I believe the City has explored all the possibilities available given the budget and the requirements of the businesses and general public.

I believe the renovation will draw shoppers to the downtown businesses by making the central portion of State Street more pedestrian friendly. And I support the idea of 3 lanes as a traffic calming solution without snarling existing traffic..

Roland Krausen

Ukiah

PICKPOCKETS

Dear Editor,

Happy new year. Isn't the first rule in the Communist manifesto, there shall be no private property? Well, that's exactly what we have here. If you think you actually own your property, try not paying your rent or taxes, and find out who really owns your property. It doesn't matter if you are a tenant in common, joint tenant, or sole tenant, the keyword is tenant. Towns like Ukiah are like giant chicken coops, only cache is collected, not eggs. And what a lot of cash. If you were a crook or a party member it would be best to be on the receiving end of this monstrous cash flow. Decide how much to stuff in your pockets and use the small part left to keep up appearances. Have you noticed that you can walk around with your wallet hanging out? Even at the county fair it is totally safe. All the pickpockets have moved into government and small local agencies where they can collect $300,000 or more per year risk free. Who pays for these attorney fees and settlements, etc.? I would follow the money and I suggest that what look stupid is actually not stupid but rather well-planned movement of cash from the chicken coop to the pickpockets.

Tom Madden

East Comptche

VOTE FOR BERNIE

To Vote for Bernie,

 If you want to vote for Bernie Sanders in the upcoming March 3rd , California primary election, you must either be a registered Democrat or registered as no party preference. If you are currently registered as a Republican or third party, you must change your registration to either Democrat or no party preference to vote in the Democratic presidential primary. I recommend reregistering as a Democrat which will guarantee that you will receive a Democratic ballot with Sanders' name on it. You can register or reregister to vote on the California State website at: www.sos.ca.gov/elections/voter-registration/ or pick up a voter registration form at your local Post Office. The final day to register is February 17th , 2020.

Sincerely,

Jon Spitz

Laytonville

NATIONAL PROBLEM

Editor: 

Our nation has more than 550,000 homeless people. Of them, 130,000, or 23%, live in California. If the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is forcing California to carry the burden of the nation’s social safety net — housing, mental health services, job training, medical care — we need money to cover the extraordinary burden on our state and local budgets.

Average citizens have lost access to public space and funding for local programs and live in social unease. California has a housing shortage. It is extremely expensive to build here. From the supervisors’ plan, it seems $12 million creates 160 beds; that’s $75,000 per bed to house 5.4% of the 3,000 unhoused. The average U.S. salary is around $56,000 per year. The federal government needs to give California money to address homelessness, and housing the homeless needs to be addressed nationally.

With a $3,000 subsidy, one could rent a studio apartment for six months in Alabama, Ohio or Michigan. For $9 million, you could offer a six-month, $3,000 housing subsidy for all of Sonoma County’s 3,000 homeless residents. In many states, you can buy a mobile home for under $50,000.

To solve homelessness, we need national solutions.

Kate Haug

Sebastopol

TRUMP U

Editor, 

I sent my brother a copy of the book, Trump U—- The Inside Story Of Trump University by Stephen Gilpin. 

Pg.117: 

"Sexton and Highbloom also made a startling request. They told several senior executives, including me, that Mr. Trump wanted to obtain a copy of Barack Obama's birth certificate, and had made a public announcement of this. They stated he was willing to pay as much as $150,000. I actually took the challenge, and… procured a copy of it, made copies and we passed them around the office, and we joked about it. 

”So what was the outcome? Was Trump told about my successful mission? If he was, he chose to ignore it. I never saw the prize money! Three years later, in 2011, when he was first considering a run for the presidency, Trump publicly embraced the birther conspiracy…" 

So what this book shows clearly is that Trump knew in 2008, that Obama had a legitimate birth certificate, but lied about it deliberately and repeatedly for political and personal gain. For six years Trump went on Fox News and lied about this, and still there are morons who believe it.

"On March 31st 2017, Judge Muriel approved a $25 million settlement for the three cases against Trump University." 

Overall I highly recommend this book for all good AVA readers, including you Mr. Philbrick. By the way, have you been bucked off your high-horse lately after shooting your gun at gophers? That was so crazy of you. How's your brain injury? Better I hope!

Best Regards 

Rob Mahon

Covelo 

QUESTIONS FOR SHERIFF KENDALL

To the Editor:

Dear Sheriff Kendall,

Welcome to your new job and a new type of controversy! I think that with the new law enforcement transparency laws, your agency will be under more scrutiny from the public who read news reports of the misdeeds or errors of law enforcement personnel.

I’m one of the readers of such reports, including the most recent one (and how much of a backlog is there?) in the recent article about the demotion of a Corrections Sergeant. I discussed the piece with friends at breakfast the other day, and they were both quick on the draw (ha!) to write to you and the paper, but I too had a commitment to write of my concerns.

Several questions come to mind. I know you’re hampered by human resource laws in terms of giving a thorough response, but perhaps you can suggest some answers about the situation.

1) I wonder how the reassignment was chosen — it seems a little like the fox guarding the hen house to have a deputy accused of misconduct vetting the backgrounds of other potential deputies.

2) Not a question, but it seems as if there was little consequence for the misdeed, other than to taxpayers who are footing this bill of $180,00.00 in some form or another, and I would prefer the deputy contribute in some way, other than no lost salary.

3) Is there review of relevant certifications such as the taser cert, which was expired in this case?

4) Is there ongoing de-escalation training for staff, along with means of reducing undue reactivity? I know the jail and all the work of the agency is both crucial and stressful, and I hate to think that the stress encourages poor decision making.

Finally, I salute the other deputies and nurse who were present and were willing to acknowledge that unnecessary force was used — I imagine that took some courage.

And thank you to all the staff who work conscientiously to keep our community safe.

Leslie Kirkpatrick

Ukiah

OUT THE WINDOW

Editor,

Our sweet, honorable, beautiful, ungodly awful governor is making a statewide ban on all gas powered tools like lawnmowers, pole saws, tree trimmers, weedeaters, chainsaws — anything gas powered will be banned statewide. Any day now. No more gas powered tools. That's our governor. It should make everyone sick and rise up and say, Hey, enough is enough! But no, no, nobody will do a goddamn thing. 

The other day they did tests at the DMV and discovered they registered 250,000 illegal voters. And California is already one of the most illegal voters voting places in the United States and they get away with it. But not for long. Mr. Trump will put an end to all this bullshit and the right people will be running this state before long. It's pretty damn sad how California people have to take what they are taking. 

God bless Donald Trump

Jerry Philbrick

Comptche

PS. Happy new year to Rob in Covelo. He's the heroic anti-American of the year. Keep it up, you're being a good anti-American.

PPS. The scumbag liberals are about to present the articles of impeachment to the Senate. Ha! Makes me laugh. They will throw it so far out the window that the birds won't even see it go by. A joke. $51 million for the Mueller probe and there was nothing there. $17 million for the Kavanaugh Supreme Court appointment. Nothing there. Lord only knows how many millions of dollars of our tax money they spent on this stupid hypocritical impeachment bullshit. We need to do something different in the United States. It's getting real bad and the people are suffering for it.