Mendocino County Today: Saturday, Feb. 20, 2021

By AVA News Service on February 20, 2021

SCATTERED RAIN AND SNOW SHOWERS will taper off this morning. A period of drier weather is expected from this afternoon through the middle of the coming week. A few weak fronts will clip Del Norte County, bringing a slight chance of light precipitation. (NWS)

12 NEW COVID CASES and another death reported for Mendocino County Friday.

JUST IN FROM SUPERVISOR WILLIAMS: For those who received a Pfizer vaccination at the Mendocino High School Gym on Feb 2, please sign up for the second dose. It'll be on Tuesday, 2/23 at the same location.

mendocinocounty.org/community/novel-coronavirus/covid-19-vaccinations/vaccination-clinics

JUST IN: COVID VACCINE CLINIC OPEN TO ANY MENDOCINO COUNTY RESIDENT OVER 65 this Saturday, Feb. 20, 2021

HOPLAND RESIDENTS OPPOSE LARGE TRANSIENT TOURIST PROJECT PROPOSAL

Editor,

This letter is submitted on behalf of concerned residents of the Hopland-Ukiah area. The intension is to alert Mendocino County residents of seriously objectional aspects of the proposed Getaway House project that will be heard by the Planning Commission on March 18th.

The proposed project would be located east of Hopland off Highway 175. It would involve 45 tiny, square, unattractive units on small wheels on a 92-acre parcel zoned “Rangeland -160 Acre Minimum.”

Once in place the units would only be moved if repairs are needed. The fact that the units are on wheels also enables the project to avoid regulations that would typically apply to small recreational cabins.

In late Spring a letter in opposition to the Getaway project, which is attached, was circulated. In a matter of days, it was signed by around 40+/- long term area residents including:

Kurt Ashurst, Ken Seckora, Terry Bray, Bob Keifer, Ken Todd, Tony Stephen & Nancy Walker, Bob Gibson, Brandon Axell, Jim Bloom, Sandy & Ronald Hognestad, Frost Pauli, Susan Poor, Bernnadette Byrne, Bill & Janet Pauli, Tino Lucchetti, Jim Milovina, Wendel Nicolaus, M/R vineyard, John Fetzer, JK Ranch, Richard Henwood…

With a few more days of effort many more signatures could have been obtained.

The following is a reiteration of a few of the inherently objectionable aspects covered in that letter as well as an additional issue of great concern.

Fire Risk –

The project projects 85% occupancy and a 1 ½ day average stay.

This will introduce around 20,000 predominantly urban visitors per year - over 10,000 during the fire season.

These will be predominantly urban visitors who are inherently unaware of the area’s extreme fire risk.

The project is sited on predominantly steep terrain with abundant flammable material.

To maximize views most units are placed on ridge tops or adjacent to very steep slopes, increasing fire vulnerability.

In general, water availability for the project is extremely limited. In the event of a fire the amount of water dedicated to fire protection would only last for a very short period of time.

Each unit has an outdoor fire pit.

The project has an extensive trail network.

In this context, enhanced by inevitable off and on-site alcohol, etc. use, it is not hard to envision an errant fire pit cinder or inadequate cigarette disposal on a trail, regardless of signage, leading to an extremely dangerous fire.

The main access road is steep with an exceptionally steep, 800-foot, one lane section. Stated emergency egress would be on a steep, narrow one lane road.

Vehicles exiting the property on to Old Toll Rd must almost immediately navigate a 1 lane bridge over McDowell Creek a short distance from the 175 interchange.

Both on-site ingress and egress are located in steep terrain on the west side of the project. If a fire starts on the west side it could easily block ingress, egress, or both.

In a fire event, 50-60+/- project vehicles, plus many vehicles of area residents would be trying to get out and fire equipment would be trying to get in. The result would most likely be chaotic.

In summary, we believe Hopland-Ukiah residents, County Supervisors and Planning Department personnel and the Planning Committee should realize that the project will unacceptably increase the risk of area fire - potential loss of life, structures, and vineyard smoke taint rejections.

Location Suitability-

The project is located many miles from Hopland and represents bad planning and leapfrog development. The parcel has inadequate internal access, unacceptable fire risk, and severe impacts on flora and fauna. It would convert land zoned for “Rangeland – 160 Acre Minimum”. This would set a dangerous precedent, eroding the rural, open space and agricultural attractiveness that is a large part of Mendocino County’s appeal.

Traffic Impacts -

The intersection of Old Toll and Highway 175 is situated at the beginning of a straightaway just after west bound traffic emerges from the winding section coming down from McDowell Valley. As Tony Stephen noted in his recent Hopland MAC comment, over the years there have been numerous accidents and deaths on this general section of Highway 175. Two serious accidents occurred in the last few months- one resulting in a fatality. The project will significantly increase traffic through this dangerous interchange and onto a dangerous stretch of highway and greatly increase the likelihood of serious accidents and fatalities.

Agricultural Water -

The project well will tap into an extremely limited aquifer. The productive area on which the existing wells are located occupies only an exceedingly small number of square yards of surface area. At present the yield on the two existing irrigation wells is reduced when both irrigation wells are utilized simultaneously. The proposed agreement limits the daily draw from the project well. But, the addition of another straw in this limited aquifer will adversely affect the two irrigation wells especially in times of heavy demand - for example, droughts, multiple spring frosts or future fire events. Also, it is important to point out that this agreement can always be revised by current or future owners.

Others will address the continuing serious issues the project would have on flora and fauna including unavoidable serious erosion and sediment buildup on adjacent creeks, elimination of an important wildlife corridor, serious adverse effect on the mature and immature oak population and other plants.

Because of greatly enhanced fire risk, plus the factors stated above and many other objectionable issues, the Planning Department, Planning Commission, and the Board of Supervisors should turn down the Getaway application.

For further background in addition to the original opposition letter with multiple signatures, we have included additional comment letters from the Farm Bureau and other concerned area residents. The entire Getaway House submission can be accessed on the Mendocino County web site by clicking on Public Notices and scrolling down to the Getaway House section.

Thank you for your consideration,

Concerned Area Residents

Hopland & Surrounding areas

REDHAWK’S COMPLAINT

Dear Editor,

Please print this prominently for us in this hellhole so that people in the right places can see it and shut this jail down or at least get something done about this.

My name is Ira Redhawk Reyes. I've had the honor of being in your very real and truthful newspaper before. I nicknamed your paper the Treal newspaper. “True and real.”

I'm sitting here in the Mendocino County Jail on maximum security level 2 which I'm not supposed to be on. Classification officers and others like Sergeant Johnson, Sergeant Knapp, Sergeant Stender etc. have me in here. I'm facing charges that fall under the zero bail policy. I'm not on probation or parole. I bailed out on a $175,000 a few months back. General population. I'm from Covelo, Round Valley. I'm Wylacki, Modoc war chief bloodline and proud. My family is the Hoaglins, same as Georgie Hoaglin who gets your newspaper. It got me thinking about how to put this jail under a microscope about the inhumane treatment and unsanitary conditions, the cross-contamination of covid 19, this deadly virus, and how the jail officers, staff and nurses are treating us.

My cousin Georgie wrote you about this a very very true and sad story. But wait. People who love the truth should know the real story. And it gets worse, just some of the things I see every day sitting here in 400 block.

By cross-contamination I mean officers serve the covid positive inmates meals first without changing gloves, suits or spraying themselves down with any kind of virus killing sprays such as Lyson or other germ killing material. Then they come and serve us, inmates, human beings, our food. I am on hunger strike until this changes. They upped my security to maximum three which means I come out now one hour every two days by myself. But there was no incident report and no reason.

I see cells in the 400 block with urine and feces in them. People are still in the cell with it.

Back to my other incident that probably wasn’t logged or written about. I bet they have that footage of them taking me in a hallway in cuffs with my hands behind my back, slamming me to the ground. My forehead and the top of my head have concussion sized knots. They did this because I was rallying the inmates and people and human beings to stand up for themselves and wake up. They are doing this on purpose because no one speaks up. No one stands up to the so-called deputies.

For weeks I've been letting them know that I have been having constriction in my airways, throat, nasal passages, burning lungs. On the 9th, 10th and 11th it was really bad where I started to really freak out. The nurse came and put some kind of oxygen level tester on my finger and told me my oxygen level was fine. How is this device supposed to tell you there is something going on in my passages? The constricting of my throat? The burning in my lungs? When I try to take a deep breath? The dizziness I feel when I stand up? Or that I have diarrhea?

So they call in the cavalry -- ha ha. Here they come, shining gold stars, badges, pepper spray, batons, plastic shield, tazers. At this point the nurse and I are arguing. I can harp barely breathe. The more I try to yell our talk the dizzier I get. So they threw me to the ground and said they were going to take me to medical to another nurse, not a physician. I was taken to the main jail where I thought I would get some kind of oxygen treatment and maybe go to the hospital. Instead we left through another door and there it was: the dungeon. This is a cell with no windows, rubber walls, a grate in the floor where you go #1 and #2. There is urine, feces, vomit splattered everywhere. Two dim lights, a camera conveniently covered in vomit, black mold, the smell of urine and feces is so strong. When I saw this I tried dropping to the ground. I asked Sergeant Johnson, “You guys are putting me in the rubber room?” He said, “[Bleep] you, [bleep] yeah.” So I tried to resist by talking and begging to go to one of the holding cells where there is no feces or urine or vomit that looks like the inside of the commode or a porta-potty.

It took nine officers to walk one human being for some reason only they know.

Thinking about the people these officers have killed in the past kind of spooks me a lot so I really struggled. They slammed my face to the floor, on the hallway doors, the ground, the windows and they got me in there but I ain't no punk so it took a while. They put this yellow strap on the cuffs and pulled it through the porthole and then they pulled so hard that my forearm snapped my hand flat against my forearm. There’s camera footage by the way, there are cameras of this incident.

I'm pretty strong so I pulled back until finally I got my hands smashed and back through the porthole.

This is what I'm going through in here. I started a movement called inmateslivesmatter.com. I'm trying to get attention from the right people. My mother's name is Arlene Hoaglen, a warrior woman. She is trying to get me legal help and bailing me out of this hellhole. Her number is 354-2498.My sister is Rindy Hoaglen at 707-354-5674. My brother's name is Lennox Choc-lit Reyes, his number is 707-680-0477.

I love my mother, my babies. I'm human just like you. I love my baby's Mama. I have eight kids with two on the way. Please don't let me die in here by these killer cops or should I say killer clowns of covid 19.

Since this rubber room thing happened twice, after the second time on the 11th I was in there on Saturday. They purposely threw my food from commissary in with the Northern Nortenos Hispanic gang that were conveniently covid 19 positive and then tried to give me some kind of chips and soup that those same northerners had given them to try to make up for it. Cross-contamination!

With love and respect,

Ira Redhawk Reyes, Savage in the warrior society

Mendocino County Jail, Ukiah

YOU THOUGHT ORTNER WAS GONE?

by Mark Scaramella

They are — but…

Tuesday Supes Agenda:

“Item 5d) Discussion and Possible Action Including Adoption of Resolution Granting Chair Authority to Issue Subpoenas Regarding Documents Related to Behavioral Health Services (Sponsors: County Counsel and Health & Human Services Agency-Behavioral Health)”

Attached to this cryptic item title (The Supes already have subpoena power under their “quasi-judicial” powers and duties) is a proposed resolution which in main part reads:

“WHEREAS, the State of California Department of Health Care Services is preparing to engage in a regular audit of Mendocino County regarding its contracts for specialty mental health services, including but not limited to Board or Supervisors Agreement No. 13-016 with Ortner Management Group (“OMG”); and

“WHEREAS, subsequent to the termination of the County’s contract with OMG, OMG dissolved its corporate form; and

“WHEREAS, County staff have requested, verbally and in writing, that the persons who formerly served as officers or agents, or who may currently be successors in interest, of OMG provide to the County documents related to OMG’s provision of services pursuant to the County’s contract with OMG, including all documents between OMG and any contractors, subcontractors or vendors used by OMG to provide services to the County; and

“WHEREAS, the those [sic] persons contacted for this information have failed to comply with the County’s requests to provide said documents, which are essential to the County’s ability to respond to the forthcoming audit by the State; and

“WHEREAS, authorizing the issuance of subpoenas in this matter is necessary and important to the County in order to have all records and documents relating to the OMG contract available for the State audit, as well as for the County’s ability to analyze OMG’s performance under the contract for the County’s own purposes…”

Translation: Ortner Management Group, aka OMG of Marysville, the now apparently “dissolved” outfit that the County contracted with for adult mental health services through a bidding process that was rigged by former Ortner Manager Tom Pinizzotto, hasn’t provided the necessary documentation to support a state audit of services.

If Mendo can’t provide the documentation to the state, millions of dollars in state reimbursements for services alleged to have been rendered more than five years ago might be withdrawn by the state’s green eyeshaders.

AVA Readers might recall that Ortner started off with a convenient documentation deficit because of a large water leak in the Mental Health Department offices on Dora Street just before Mental Health Services were privatized in 2014. That leak destroyed or damaged lots of mental health paperwork that Ortner could have used to get started on a risky, but plausible, yet unprecdented, one-of-a-kind privatization of services project that soon turned into a FUBAR of the First Order.

Ortner got the adult services contract under circumstances that were so obviously corrupt that the Grand Jury wrote it up, saying the contract had “an appearance of a conflict of interest” because it “appeared” that Mr. Pinizzotto, first hired as a consultant and then brought in to manage/privatize mental health services, had steered the contract to his former employer, Ortner.

Splitting hairs on an otherwise bald contract head, the Supervisors said that since Pinizzotto no longer worked directly for Ortner nothing overtly illegal had occurred!

Ortner’s adult services contract lasted for three years before local doctors and cops started complaining about OMG’s services and response times and Ortner’s contract was terminated and turned over to Camille Schraeder who, it is presumed, does a better job with the paperwork. (But who knows? These things take years to process.)

The Grand Jury also found that because the County (i.e., Pinizzotto and staff including the County Counsel’s office) had prepared a “poorly written contract” that Ortner had taken advantage of the loose language to shortchange severely mentally ill patients. Over the three years of the Ortner Contract, the seldom seen Ortner was paid well over $20 million for alleged services.

Don’t forget that 1) Ortner didn’t even provide many of the services, instead they subcontracted out most of the local activity to existing smaller providers — what the above resolution calls “any contractors, subcontractors or vendors used by OMG” — with probably minimal oversight and even less required documentation; and 2) Ortner didn’t know how to properly bill for these services in the first place — the contract called for Mendo staffers to train them! (Anyone with medical billing experience knows how ridiculously complicated medical billing can be — which would be greatly simplified under Single Payer.)

Back in 2016 (five years ago now) during the turnover from OMG to Schraeder & Co. (Redwood Community Services), Mental Health staff assured the Supervisors that although there were a few hiccups in the transition, Ortner was providing the necessary documents to facilitate the transfer to Schraeder & Co.

In June of 2016 we wrote:

“Supervisor McCowen asked why Ortner seemed to be slow in providing various documents that the County wanted. Dr. Miller explained that if Ortner had not been terminated prematurely, these documents would have been due in a matter of years, not right away, due to the long delays in billing and reimbursements. But since Ortner is being terminated, Ortner needs to provide the docs earlier than expected, and it’s taking time. So much time that Ortner needs an extra $64k (over the $400k to close out the contract) to maintain staff to provide the billing documents before Ortner becomes one more sad chapter in Mendocino County history, bunco division. Ms. Moss-Chandler added that ‘these items are being resolved and OMG is working cooperatively to deliver all the items called for’.”

“Supervisor Gjerde asked if there was a 10% holdback provision in the Ortner contract ‘to make sure of performance.’

“’All prepayments have been made already’,” replied HHSA Director Ms. Moss-Chandler. ‘There’s no contract provision that states that.’

“CEO Carmel Angelo added, ‘I am in communication with Mr. Ortner, so these questions are being asked. I have assurance for a successful closeout. What you will see on June 21 [2016] is the [$64k] four-month contract [extension] to cover staff to continue billing for rest of the contract.’

“Translation: Mendo has to pay Ortner to bill the County, but apparently Mendo hasn’t paid enough. ‘Billing’ is clearly the most important ‘service’ Ortner provides. And they’re not very good at that either.

“Supervisor Gjerde said he would ‘reluctantly’ vote for the additional $400k and the $64k, adding, ‘But staff should hold back additional funds to make sure documents are submitted in timely manner’.”

Based on this latest proposed resolution, however, whatever may have been paid for and/or provided back in 2016 obviously wasn’t enough to support the state’s standard years-delayed audit — an audit that County staff knew in advance would eventually arrive.

The primary justification invoked by CEO Carmel Angelo for privatizing mental health services in the first place was that county mental health staff had been unable to respond adequately to earlier state audits, which resulted in millions of dollars worth of state reimbursement withdrawals.

Instead of solving that reimbursement paperwork problem through training or farming out the mental health billing to a professional billing outfit, Angelo brought in Pinizzotto, who in turn brought in Ortner, his former employer, and turned the annual $20 million mental health department over to his former employer, creating one of Mendo’s most infamous, longest lasting, most costly, most unnecessary, most convoluted bungles in recent memory. Hundreds of mental patients and their families suffered.

Ortner’s contract started in 2014 and lasted for the aforementioned three years before it was terminated.

Now the state wants Mendo — which has already paid out the $20-million-plus to the no-longer-in-existence OMG — to justify its bills. Hence this latest, but seriously belated, “resolution” to give the Supes specific subpoena power to try to get the documents from Ortner’s former managers and staff and contractors from more than five years ago.

Sadly, not only was this predictable, we actually predicted it.

In November of 2016 we wrote:

“Supervisor Gjerde’s question about the mental health financial audit was never directly answered. The ‘clinical audits’ (EQROs) [that Dr. Miller talked about] are nothing more than the usual state rubber stamps. What Gjerde was obviously getting at was how much the County is liable for during the three years of Ortner’s inadequate mental health services which the County may not be reimbursed for. But for reasons that remain unclear, Gjerde didn't press the point. No one said where those five year audits are or when they will be posted or whether Ortner’s bills qualify for reimbursement. In fact, these audits will never be online nor will they be explained or reported on. No one knows how much liability the County has regarding Ortner’s three years of unsupervised, failed service, and nobody will worry about it again until a multimillion dollar bill appears at the supervisors’ doorstep in a year or two or five. And everyone will pretend to be shocked.

“IF THE SUPERVISORS and staff can't speak clearly about the mental health situation, they certainly can’t expect it to improve. After lots of self-congratulatory baffle-gab about cooperation and understanding and challenges and coming together and how amazing and great everyone is and so forth — and we assume Redwood Quality Management is doing a somewhat better job than Ortner even though Ortner set the bar so low that practically anything would be better than Ortner — they can't get direct answers to direct questions. And the Supervisors won’t push for direct answers because their hard-earned reputations as Nice People would be jeopardized. Pathetic. Truly pathetic.”

Mendo is about to open yet another Chapter of “The Ortner Fiasco,” a travesty that just keeps on giving. Incompetence of this magnitude, in ordinary circumstances where public money goes missing without so much as a receipt, is called fraud.

It will be interesting to see how the current Board reacts to this hail-mary subpoena power request. Of the five currently sitting Supervisors, only Dan Gjerde was on the Board during Ortner Time. If it was us, we’d ask staff: “How much do we stand to lose on this entirely avoidable crap?” Followed by, “How much will the outside lawyers cost to pursue this?” and, then, “What happens when Ortner and his pals can’t provide the paperwork which they probably don’t have and which may not even exist?”

What's left of Sears (photo by Annie Kalantarian)

ED NOTES

THE SUPES are being asked to pay San Francisco lawyers $350,000 to beat back the lawsuit brought by Harinder Grewal because he maintains he was fired for no reason. Grewal briefly replaced the also purged Diane Curry as the county's Ag Commissioner. The whispers say he behaved “inappropriately” with some of the temptresses he supervised, but he obviously denies that he did. And given the emergency request for another 150 grand on top of the nearly quarter mil Mendo has already forked over to the Frisco legal firm, we can assume the $350 team, is losing to Harinder's lawyer. Or lawyers. (It takes teams of them these days.) Good money after bad? Undoubtedly.

THE $350k appears on the Supervisor's consent calendar this Tuesday. The consent calendar? $350k here, $350k there, pretty soon you're into serious money, especially for a broke-ass rural county with a mere 90,000 mostly broke-ass people with not much in common beyond their broke-assed-ness and their citizenship.

$350k IS A LOT OF MONEY to wave on through via the consent calendar. Here's hoping one of our intrepid five reps pulls it for discussion, perhaps beginning that discussion with this, ah, global question: If County taxpayers fund six lawyers (at least) full-time, why the uppity-dippty hell is it that every time our CEO flips out and fires someone for no apparent reason do the taxpayers have to fund someone's Frisco legal pals to travel up and down 101 at $300 an hour plus B&B to defend Mendocino County against another wrongful termination suit when we have six-plus or so lawyers already on the payroll, all of them with law diplomas, all of them presumably having passed the dumbed down BAR exam? How many wrongful termination suits are still pending? How much are arbitrary firings costing the county?

SPEAKING of consent calendars, Biden's certainly getting a free pass so far from the On Bended Knee Gang these days. Here's Anderson Cooper to Biden at last week's lemming's stuffed CNN Town Hall: "How do you like living in the White House." I caught a clip of Biden last night stumbling through his teleprompter about the Mars landing but didn't hear from him on the Texas disaster until Friday. (He said Friday that was thinking about going but “didn’t want to be a burden.”

AN ON-LINE comment: “Don’t worry, President Biden will be ready for the Prime Time State of the Union presentation; the best makeup artists from Hollywood are being flown in to perform their magic and craft Sleepy Joe into a young Rock Hudson; added to that, the White House physician — Dr. Feelgood — will administer thru IV his special elixir, a mixture of meth and steroids, giving Joe a close simulation of being alive and lucid. With the earpiece where messages can be received telling him what to say, all will be well.”

STATE SENATOR McGUIRE'S Redwood Trail kicked off in Ukiah. The Ukiah stretch of the chimerical path will allegedly run the length of the state. But at $4.5 million for not quite three miles of the dreary, unpeopled Ukiah stretch, and not counting the additional expense of irrigation for “native plants,” it's a good thing the whole production is fanciful, that it will never happen, that it's simply more cynicism from Democrats in lieu of anything that might actually be of practical help to the beleaguered people of the Northcoast, not to mention the rest of America.

THE IMAGINARY Redwood Trail is a much larger swindle than it appears, a swindle pegged to a question that Democrat-controlled California will never ask: How did it come to pass that former Congressman Doug Bosco and the Democrats of the Northcoast came to control the railroad tracks and adjacent right of ways running from Sonoma County to Eureka?

HERE'S one reaction to McGuire's zoomed “town hall” this week touting the Redwood Trail:

“From: Robby

To: Senator Mike McGuire via Senator Mike McGuire <drupaladmins@lc.ca.gov>; senator.mcguire@senate.ca.gov

Sent: Thursday, February 18, 2021, 6:03:48 PM PST

Subject: Question

The Redwood Trail seems like a scam to get the State of California to buy up the holdings along the right of way from former Congressman Bosco. This nature walk is taking we the taxpayers to the cleaners and only benefits the former Representative and half owner of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.

What's in it for you, Mike?

My friend Robby asked this impertinent question at my suggestion and never got an answer. I watched the show through the solon's link as well as switching over to Youtube while it was live. I became literally sick while hearing the parade of pro-trail “experts” praise and shout pre-recorded praise to McGuire in order to get their air time. Don't know if any commentary critical of the Bosco Relief $trategy of Financial Rescue was ever brought out. Your readers can see this political porn on Youtube where it will be until the End Times and decide for themselves.”

Background:

https://www.theava.com/archives/104351

https://www.theava.com/archives/107444#7

https://www.theava.com/archives/120261#10

https://www.theava.com/archives/119083#13

DR. PACE RESIGNS LAKE COUNTY JOB

This is awful news. Something else is going on with our Public Health Department (the Director, who is also Cal OES’s local pandemic “Incident Commander” has been undergoing some invasive surgery and associated “downtime”). Saw the bizarre announcement of Mendo’s new ding-dong Public Health Department director, and have followed the never-ending saga of your Public Health Officers — PLURAL — and read (painfully) the pronunciamentos of Dr. Coren (indigestible). So, in addition to the lethality of the disease (SARS-CoV-2) caused by the virus (COVID-19) — or do I have that backwards? — the impact on governance and the senescence of county management (verging on cognitive impairments mixed with madness, a major dilemma in the USA now) is the irreconcilable conflict between politics and the people.

Pace: “Serving Lake County during the COVID-19 pandemic has been one of the most rewarding experiences and greatest challenges of my career”

Pace resigning as Public Health Officer, effective mid-April

Lake County, CA (February 19, 2021) — This week, I made the very difficult decision to begin the process of resigning as Lake County’s Public Health Officer. My official last day in the role will likely be in mid-April, and I expect to provide support over a longer period, if needed. The Board will discuss a strategy to replace me during this Tuesday’s meeting.

Serving Lake County during the COVID-19 pandemic has been one of the most rewarding experiences and greatest challenges of my career. Particularly over these past 11 months, I have given all I had the capacity to give. I sought to listen to the needs of local residents, and provide safety measures and other health recommendations that best reflected the available science, knowing they would often be widely criticized.

While my primary responsibility has been to protect the health of Lake County’s communities, it has been truly heartbreaking to see the many types of consequences that have come for individuals and businesses in the past year.

The nearly 48,000 deaths in California, alone, have shook every one of us; no one can be unaffected. Many of our children have missed a full year of in-person instruction, and social barriers to educational attainment that are consequential even during the best of times have been greatly exacerbated. Add to that the still-mounting consequences to businesses of all sizes; relief has often come in the form of deferment of obligations or loans - the debt burden taken on by even businesses that have been able to survive the pandemic will reverberate in our communities for many years to come. We also continue to count the costs associated with mental health effects of the rapid social changes of the past year, and the social isolation that has too often stemmed from “social distancing” mandates.

I worked for over twenty years in family medicine, and am returning to clinical practice in the coming months. The effects things like this happening on even a small scale can have are well known to me, and this pandemic is in many respects an unprecedented disaster, bringing personal and economic tragedy to far too many families around the world.

Now, we stand at an inflection point in our pandemic response. The high boil of the initial crisis has transitioned toward a sustained, long-term-focused response that will require intensive partnership with the State and other organizations in our communities. Our COVID-19 vaccination effort, so key to a return to some kind of “normal,” is still in the early phases, but there is hope supply and distribution will continue to ramp up in the coming months.

While it won’t be as your Public Health Officer, I look forward to continuing to be a part of the broader pandemic response, and helping to see patients through the days ahead.

My greatest sadness is leaving the relationships that have developed over the past few years. Thank you, to the many that have supported my work in Lake County. The team at the Health Services Department, under Denise Pomeroy’s capable leadership, is truly remarkable. I have seen people at all levels of the organization do incredible things, and that lends great hope for the future.

I am also grateful for the way Board Members, Administration, and Department Heads and staff throughout County service have stepped up to support our pandemic response. There are many dedicated, capable people working to ensure Lake County residents have the best possible opportunity to emerge from this situation and build a bright future.

It will be a great honor to continue to work with many of you over the next month or so, and I truly believe better days are ahead for Lake County.

Gary Pace, MD, MPH

THE WHYS OF DR. PACE'S DEPARTURE

by Betsy Cawn

Subject: Lake County BoS, Administration, Public Health Department COVID-19 Status Report On the heels of the February 18, 2021, announcement that our Public Health Officer (Dr. Gary Pace) will be leaving the County of Lake “in the next couple of months,” some concerned citizens contacted me about their concerns that his imminent department might be related to the creation of a “secret committee” for making decisions about the distribution of available vaccines in the face of a certain shortage many Americans are experiencing.

I spent several hours reviewing video-recorded meetings of our Board of Supervisors (February 2 and 9) to learn more, and discovered that the County’s Administrative Officer had been in contact with other counties who have created such advisory bodies to ensure that available vaccines are distributed “ethically.”

On February 2, the Lake County CAO explained that “The local need for vaccines is too great for the [amount] being allocated by the state, so prioritization is needed, and in addition from time to time special circumstances arise promoting the need to reconsider the prioritization in order to avoid or manage an outbreak in certain priority groups. So we have drafted some ethical principles for this committee, this draft would be pending the convening of the committee, and the committee will be weighing in and adopting these or any reasonable variation of these, but the intent of the committee is to achieve maximum community benefit by optimally protecting the health and well-being of our citizens, referring to both socio and economic well-being to ensure that each human life is treated with dignity, worth, and value, to mitigate disparities in the disease impacts on different populations, to ensure fairness and impartiality, to act transparently, and to make decisions based on the best available evidence. We have invitations pending to a number of local representatives in these groups: the Latino and Native American communities [because …], a hospital representative, a primary care clinic representative, a representative of the agricultural industry, particularly with ag workers in mind, a business representative, and an ‘at large’ member as well. We will convene this committee on an ‘as needed basis.’ I will support this committee along with Lake County Public Healh staff, and the initial task for this committee is to establish and confirm its ethical principles, something along the lines of what we’ve drafted here, and then also review and make recommendations on the existing plan which Dr. Pace is about to show you in just a couple of minutes, and then of course on an ongoing basis to assess situations that come up that [result in] the need for changes in the prioritization plan. So that’s what the committee structure is looking like.” [Words enclosed in brackets are my best approximation, the rest is as close to verbatim as I can produce.]

During the February 9 COVID update by Dr. Pace, members of the public voiced their concerns that the proposed committee would not agree to its members names being available to the public, adding the term “secret” to the word “committee” in referring to it, and more than one asked me if I thought the conflicts over the committee could be a “reason” for Dr. Pace’s announcement.

Another member of the public suggested to me that it was because one of our elected officials has openly stated his objection to “masking” — and his established resistance to providing resources to enforce the local Public Health Orders issued by Dr. Pace, in alignment with his authorities and responsibilities under the State Department of Public Health.

Comments on Facebook group pages (like “(M)asking for a friend”) reflect the presence of some foaming-at-the-mouth idiots opposed to the loss of the “Constitional rights” — the same ones our elected Sheriff swears he will protect even while ignoring blatant violations of our COVID-19 public health emergency compliance orders. Statements that Dr. Pace “should be hung,” for example, cannot be helpful to maintaining one’s morale on the job in the face of less than full support from our elected officials.

Other than the scant documentation available from recorded legal public hearings and opinions voiced by intelligent public citizens — most of them great community watchdogs who appreciate Dr. Pace’s contributions to our survival for the past 11 months — there is nothing to report here. A man of Dr. Pace’s professional stature and proven service could have a hundred reasons for deciding to move on to his next “challenges and opportunities,” and I for one will truly miss him but always wish him well.

Betsy Cawn Upper Lake, CA

UKIAH STREETSCAPE PROJECT CONSTRUCTION UPDATE - February 19

This is what it takes to move the electric underground. One of the benefits? Increased reliability. Another benefit? Poles and overhead lines like the ones in the background will go away!

Weather permitting, we’ll be done with the utility underground portion of the project in about two more weeks. Then, all the focus turns to sidewalks, landscaping, new lighting, new trees, and more. Are we ever going to repave the streets? Absolutely! But that’s like the icing on the cake—it’s one of the very last parts.

Construction Overview

Wahlund Construction (Clay – Mill):

Monday and possibly Tuesday: Utility work near the intersection of Mill/State. Note: State Street will be closed between Safeway and Mill Streets; access will remain to the State Street driveways of Safeway and the businesses in the movie theater complex.

Tuesday/Wednesday-Friday: Electric undergrounding on the east side of State Street in the area of Mill. State Street will remain open in both directions, but East Mill Street between Main and State will be closed through traffic. (Access to driveways will remain open.)

Construction hours: 7am – 5pm

Looking ahead roughly two weeks—businesses/residents will be contacted individually by the construction team regarding the electric changeover, which will result in short power outages. At least 72 hours advance notice will be provided.

Ghilotti Construction (Perkins – Clay; plus possible work on North State):

February 22-26th: Continued work on the east side of State Street between Clay and Perkins Streets, including excavating for new curbs and gutters

East Stephensen Street will be closed to through traffic for the next few weeks – Community Care and The Maple will have access to their parking lots from Main Street.

East Church will be closed intermittently during this phase.

Construction hours: 7am – 5pm

North State Street between Perkins and Henry: Contractors will likely be working on North State Street installing the decorative brick band on the outside of the sidewalks and working on the tree wells. At the time of printing, additional details were unavailable.

Have a great weekend!

Shannon Riley, Deputy City Manager, City of Ukiah, w: (707) 467-5793

PS. With clear weather ahead of us, Ghilotti is a bit ahead of schedule. They will continue working on the east side of State Street and, starting Monday, they will begin working south from Clay Street demolishing the sidewalk and replacing with temporary gravel walkways. Every attempt will be made to work around business hours, and pedestrian access to businesses during operational hours will be preserved. All work described above will also continue.

CATCH OF THE DAY, February 19, 2021

MYQ ATTANASIO, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol. (Frequent flyer.)

TYLER BOCHMAN, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

RYAN ELDERKIN, Oroville/Ukiah. County parole violation.

JEREMIAH MCGINNIS, Oakland/Ukiah. Controlled substance, paraphernalia, parole violation.

IN CONTRAST TO 'USELESS REPUBLICAN LEADERS,' AOC Helps Raise $2 Million in Direct Relief for Texans in Crisis

Ocasio-Cortez's use of her massive social media platform to raise relief funds was quickly contrasted with the actions of the state's Republican leadership, which critics say has been missing in action throughout the emergency—with Cruz's vacation trip to Mexico in the middle of the crisis serving as an illustrative example. "Cruz is emblematic of what the Texas Republican Party and its leaders have become: weak, corrupt, inept, self-serving politicians who don't give a damn about the people they were elected to represent," Gilberto Hinojosa, chair of the Texas Democratic Party, said in a statement Thursday.

commondreams.org/news/2021/02/19/contrast-useless-republican-leaders-aoc-helps-raise-1-million-direct-relief-texans

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

I’m just shaking my head at how instantaneously the hard-out “conservatives” – especially ‘round here – jump onboard with the bullshit story that Texas went dark because all the windmills froze, ipso facto AOC and the GND (which isn’t even a ‘thing’ yet) are to blame, because idiots like Tucker Carlson say so.

The actuality is that, without any level of regulation in the Texas electrical production and distribution system, there was no requirement or incentive to carry sufficient excess capacity to deal with a dramatic weather event. Windmills can operate if they have de-icing systems installed, as required in other states & foreign jurisdictions but not required in unregulated Texas. Aside from the frozen windmills, you don’t have to dig very deep to learn that all manner of FF systems also failed due to the extreme cold.

https://apnews.com/article/why-texas-power-grid-failed-2eaa659d2ac29ff87eb9220875f23b34

‘Texas has a stand-alone power grid that’s deregulated.

The majority of the state’s power is controlled by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which is known as ERCOT. It’s a competitive pricing market, meaning it trades on supply and demand. Companies are trying to bring the cheapest form of energy to the market, which can come at the expense of building out more reliable infrastructure systems.

“Texas has chosen to operate its power grid as an island,” noted Rice University’s Cohan, which means the state can’t import power from other states when it’s most needed. He added that the impacts are also felt in the fall and spring, when Texas has an abundance of power that it can’t export.‘

WHY ARE WE WORN OUT? Why do we, who start out so passionate, brave, noble, believing, become totally bankrupt by the age of thirty or thirty-five?

Anton Chekhov

WHEN RUSH LIMBAUGH WAS TOO RACIST for The NFL

by Dave Zirin

In 2010, Rush Limbaugh had a bright idea: The right-wing shock jock would buy an NFL team, specifically the St. Louis Rams, bringing him a new level of power and respectability. The response by players in the league—even in those pre-Kaepernick times—was pretty unequivocal. “I don’t want anything to do with a team that he has any part of,” then New York Giant Mathias Kiwanuka said to the New York Daily News “He can do whatever he wants; it is a free country. But if it goes through, I can tell you where I am not going to play.”

The overwhelming dislike of Rush among the ranks of players was rooted in his racism and bigotry. The NFL players, 70 percent of whom are Black, knew Rush Limbaugh as the guy who said, “The NFL all-too-often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons.” He was still known for his infamous stint at ESPN where he spewed filth for four entire weeks—his chief target being Black quarterback Donovan McNabb—until he was shown the door.

It turned out that NFL franchise owners, even though many of them shared Rush’s politics, found him to be too vulgar, too gauche, and too much of a media headache to be let into their little club. So they turned down his bid. (In this regard, Rush was very much like the man spawned from his seed-sized heart, Donald Trump, who had made a similar bid to buy the Buffalo Bills, but franchise owners found Trump to be a boorish sleaze and showed him the door. Ironic, given their future fulsome financial support, but these franchise owners like to do their business in the shadows.)

Rush became enraged at this rejection, and went after the media. He was particularly upset with me and Bryan Burwell, the late columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, who wrote extremely critically about Limbaugh’s efforts to buy the hometown team. Rush called us “state-run-media scum.” I joked upon hearing that Rush died that I put that on a business card. But the truth is, especially as a young journalist, the experience was quite jarring.

To be sure, “state-run-media scum” is positively tame compared to what Rush said about Jesse Jackson, Sandra Fluke, AIDS victims, Muslims, and all manner of people he made his daily business to dehumanize. It also sounds quaint, considering what too many people—particularly women and people of color—deal with in the sewers of social media. But what made it frightening was his “dittoheads,” his army of followers ready to rumble at Rush’s call to arms. I wouldn’t say I was deluged with communiqués threatening violence against me, but they did come.

I also received an e-mail from Rush’s lawyers threatening legal action. Their charge was that I had defamed him by calling him a racist. I should have laughed it off—I mean that’s like saying one would be defaming water by calling it wet—but I consulted a lawyer out of fear that I was about to be destroyed by legal costs and an ever-swirling whirlwind of personal attacks. (They never pursued their suit, but damned if it didn’t scare me something fierce.) If something positive came out of the entire situation, it is that I reached out to Bryan Burwell to see how he was responding to the attacks and we became friends through the correspondence. Bryan passed away in 2014. I believe he is a forgotten pioneer as one of the great, trailblazing Black sports journalists of his time and someone who was never afraid to bring a political slant to this allegedly apolitical world of sports. Bryan wasn’t scared a lick by Rush, and his courage was contagious.

As for Rush, the threats faded as did his interest in our persecution. Rush didn’t dwell on his rejection by the NFL because it would have meant criticizing the rich, white billionaires to whom he had spent his career in slavish service. Rush still lived on to launch Donald Trump and put his permanent stamp on the Republican Party as one rooted in white grievance, bigotry, and incitement to violence. He was the worst kind of bully: one who would only attack the vulnerable and cry in a corner when the beaten-down dared to strike back. He called us scum for calling out his racism, but as Martin Sheen said in the movie Wall Street, “If that’s scum, I’ll take it over a rat any day.”

SOME OF YOU MAY RECALL that Limbaugh had a recurring segment in the 1980s where he’d mockingly read off the names of people who’d died of AIDS, while Dionne Warwick’s “I’ll Never Love This Way Again” played in the background… — Jeff St. Clair

I TELL PEOPLE Mike can probably change more people than anybody because people will look at Mike and say, “If Mike can change, I can change.” Mike didn't ask for all the things that happened to him as a kid. Then when he became a fighter, people were telling him how he needed to act and everybody liked him for how tough he was, but nobody liked him as a person. All of a sudden he's trying to be Iron Mike the whole time instead of being Iron Mike when you get in the ring and a different person when you're out of the ring.

— Evander Holyfield

CLIMATE INDUCED WARS COMING?

Can the Issue of Climate-Induced Wars Stick to the UN Security Council Agenda? The UK Tries It Out

passblue.com/2021/02/18/can-the-issue-of-climate-induced-wars-stick-to-the-un-security-council-agenda-the-uk-tries-it-out/

CALIFORNIA AND TEXAS ARE WARNINGS: blackouts show US deeply unprepared for the climate crisis

The crises in California and Texas are different, in scale and severity. One faced fire, the other an ice storm. But experts say the power outages in both states make one thing clear: neither is prepared for the chaos of the climate crisis.

theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/19/power-outages-texas-california-climate-crisis

PRIORITIZE TREES

Editor,

Regarding “West Marin touted as next wine hot spot” (Front Page, Feb. 15): Rising temperatures, erratic weather and wildfires threatening inland regions are cited as reasons why vintners may well end up fleeing the likes of Napa for the coast. One of the causes of climate breakdown that is fueling these conditions is deforestation. One of the drivers of deforestation in Napa is the conversion of woodlands to vineyards. David Morrison, Director of Napa County’s Planning, Building and Environmental Services Department, estimated that about 500 acres of land in the county is converted to vineyards annually with an additional 10,000 more acres of forest estimated to be transformed by 2030. The Napa wine industry is, in effect, contributing to its own demise. Let us hope West Marin does not follow suit. Truly, if the human species is to survive, we should prioritize trees that produce the oxygen we breathe, release moisture into the atmosphere, and keep carbon out of the atmosphere over even the best Cabernet.

Jennifer Normoyle

Hillsborough

THE FREE SOUL IS RARE, but you know it when you see it – basically because you feel good, very good, when you are near or with them.”

Charles Bukowski

KEEPING THE DARK SIDE OF HUMAN NATURE IN CHECK—the Paradox of the Mountain

by Dr. Nayvin Gordon

Ever since humans have walked the earth, history has revealed the dark side of human nature- the human propensities for rage, violence, aggression, unscrupulousness, domination, and tyrannical behavior. All previous forms of social organization have demonstrated the truth of this fact.

Many philosophers, economists, and scientists from Karl Marx to Stephen J. Gould have agreed that human nature is determined in a specific social and historical formation as well as being in part biological. This fact has too often been neglected or given insufficient attention. The human brain, transmitted through evolution, is the biological basis for human nature:

The famous scientist Stephen J. Gould commented, “Violence, sexism and general nastiness are biological since they represent one subset of a possible range of behaviors. But peacefulness, equality, and kindness are just as biological…” Gould believed that humans are a peaceful species and that the commonplace human tendencies are cooperation, empathy, and kindness. The dark side of violence and aggression are unusual, rare, and contrary to our everyday nature. This asymmetry is in our human nature. “The problem is… how to put commonplace human tendencies firmly and permanently into the driver’s seat.” https://condor.depaul.edu/mfiddler/hyphen/gould-humanature.htm

The commonplace tendencies of cooperation, empathy, and kindness have been in the driver’s seat of most hunter-gather societies, which are generally egalitarian, with equality of members and no centralized power. The rank and file, the 99%, enforces equality through, exposing, limiting or punishing those who exhibit the dark side of humanity and wish to dominate, bully, control, and manipulate. Equality is enforced through reverse hierarchy, the constant vigilance of the rank and file. https://books.google.com/books?id=ljxS8gUlgqgC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

On the other hand, violence, and aggression have been in the driver’s seat of social status hierarchies with centralized decision making--chiefdoms, and states. The resulting positions of leadership “open the door for a plethora of injustices and cruelties that come with warfare, slavery, and other types of exploitation by unchecked power-wielders. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237066826_Beyond_War_The_Human_Potential_for_Peace

S. J. Gould states--“But the center of human nature is rooted in ten thousand ordinary acts of kindness that define our days. What can be more tragic than the structural paradox that this Everest of geniality stands upside down on its pointed summit and can be toppled so easily by rare events contrary to our everyday nature—and that these rare events make our history.” https://condor.depaul.edu/mfiddler/hyphen/gould-humanature.htm

Understanding the paradox requires seeing the essence within. Contained within the upside-down mountain is another mountain standing right side up-the mountain of status hierarchy. The few at the top, the 1%, have centralized power and decision making, allowing the dark side of human nature greater ability to expand its power and influence, and then topple the desires of the 99%.

Resolving the paradox requires that the inner hierarchy of centralized decision making be reversed so as to become a “reverse hierarchy” where the vast majority, the99%, becomes the decision makers, thus conforming to the geniality of human behavior. The mountain can now remain stable, standing upside down on its pointed summit.

Discouraging, limiting, restraining; and punishing tendencies of the dark side of human nature requires a militant egalitarianism, a society of economic, political; and social equality. Through eternal vigilance and control by the rank and file, equality can flourish, while the dark side of human nature is kept in check.

(Dr. Nayvin Gordon lives in Oakland and writes on health and politics. gordonnayvin@yahoo.com)

COVID OR NO COVID

by James Kunstler

The absence of the big orange You-Know-Who at center stage of American life has changed the mood of the scene from a five-alarm fire to just another day in a collapsing civilization. Texas went medieval after an ice storm took the power down for millions, with ramifications accreting by the hour — especially the countless burst water pipes that will take forever to repair. (How many plumbers are there in San Antonio?) Food went scarce overnight. People died in their cars. The political blowback has barely registered yet, except for Senator Ted Cruz slinking back home from a luxury resort in Cancun, whoops, and Beto O’Rourke shooting his mouth off like a cholo with a Saturday night special at a low-rider parade on Cinco de Mayo.

Covid-19 cases are going down fast across the country. If it actually goes away, imagine the giant hole left in the national narrative. No more arguments over lockdowns, kids could go back to school to learn about the scourge of whiteness, and Americans could see each other’s faces again. The “progressives” in power would have to hunt up some new reasons to cancel the bill of rights. That shouldn’t be too difficult for a party adept at making shit up. Right wing extremism would be my bet, even if Antifa and BLM go back to partying in the streets like it’s 2020 when the weather warms up.

What won’t go away is the nation’s fantastic economic mess. In just a few months since Thanksgiving, the financial system has gone through an epic shift, barely noticed by citizens preoccupied with unpaid bills, skipped rents, and empty refrigerators: the stock markets are now based on Bitcoin, which is to say on less than nothing. A whole new dynamic has emerged with publicly-held companies buying the stuff hand-over-fist. An outfit like Tesla, rumored to manufacture electric cars, invested $1.5 billion in the crypto-currency, which has shot up to over $50,000-a-coin in recent weeks. The move was so splendidly shrewd that Tesla’s stock price also shot up, though they don’t make a profit on those cool cars. Of course, $1.5 billion is chump change for the charismatic Elon Musk, whose share of the American GDP can be seen from outer space, like the Great Wall of China.

Other companies are buying Bitcoin on margin, taking advantage of super-low interest rates to make a fast killing. What a great idea! Even better than borrowing to buy back your own company’s stock to jack-up the share value. Don’t be surprised if half of the S & P jumps into the Bitcoin frenzy, bidding it up to six figures. Won’t that do wonders for US productivity and working-class wages? None of that will escape the attention of a “progressive” Congress, which will see a great opportunity to try to compensate for its fiscal profligacy by passing new taxes on “excess wealth” or “windfall profits.” Then, watch the rush-to-the-exits by shareholders in those companies that loaded up on Bitcoin, aggravated by the margin calls on the dough they borrowed to buy the stuff… as well as Bitcoin itself plummeting back to its actual true value: around zero.

Meanwhile, Covid or no Covid, there is now a very large class of people across this land who either can’t or won’t earn a living, and we are seeing last year’s idle chat about “guaranteed basic income” (GBI) rapidly congeal into solid policy proposals to supply just that. It’s insane, you know, having nothing to do with producing things of value, but such is the new faith in monetary techno-magic — of which Bitcoin is the exemplar — that the reigning grand viziers and necromancers of economics are unanimous that it’s actually possible to get something for nothing now. I’m sure enough Republicans would go along with it — in terror of their broke and wrathful voters — to pass GBI.

The wild card, though, is how quickly we will destroy the value of the dollar as all this occurs, that is, provoke a king-hell inflation, so the people will get their GBI in worthless money. Nobody believes it can happen after ten years of quantitative easing and other shucks-and-jives in the accounting thickets that seemed to hardly move the inflation needle, except on Wall Street. But anyone who sets foot in a supermarket these days must feel a little shocked at food prices. A dollar for one measly onion… eight bucks for a little flat of ground beef…? How do people with no jobs or lost businesses feed their families? Do they get a warm tingly feeling knowing that Tesla shares are also up? Or are they out in the old toolshed at midnight, sharpening the pitchforks and soaking rags in kerosene?

Perhaps Ol’ Woke Joe Biden will explain where all this is going in his upcoming State of the Union Address scheduled for next Tuesday, according to the Associated Press. Oh, you didn’t know about that? I wouldn’t blame you. There is absolutely no buzz about it in the mainstream media, like, they’d rather not think about it. Yes, the alleged President goes before a joint session of Congress in a few days, with every other dignitary in government on hand in the chamber except the lone “designated survivor,” off in a secret bunker somewhere. Won’t that be something? With the whole world watching on TV, too, including, no doubt, a few foreign heads-of-state who Veep Kamala Harris confabbed with last week because the, ahem, president was too busy… or something like that.

(Support Kunstler’s writing by visiting his Patreon Page.)

A CALIFORNIA STORY...

These are all California State Agencies...

California Academic Performance Index (API) * California Access for Infants and Mothers * California Acupuncture Board * California Administrative Office of the Courts * California Adoptions Branch * California African American Museum * California Agricultural Export Program * California Agricultural Labor Relations Board * California Agricultural Statistics Service * California Air Resources Board (CARB) * California Allocation Board * California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority * California Animal Health and Food Safety Services * California Anti-Terrorism Information Center * California Apprenticeship Council * CaliforniaArbitration Certification Program * California Architects Board * California Area VI Developmental Disabilities Board * California Arts Council * California Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus * California Assembly Democratic Caucus * California Assembly

Republican Caucus * California Athletic Commission * California Attorney General * California Bay Conservation and Development Commission * California Bay-Delta Authority * California Bay-Delta Office * California Biodiversity Council * California Board for Geologists and Geophysicists * California Board for Professional En and Land Surveyors * California Board of Accountancy * California Board of Barbering and Cosmetology * California Board of Behavioral Sciences * California Board of Chiropractic Examiners * California Board of Equalization (BOE) * California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection * California Board of Guide Dogs for the Blind * California Board of Occupational Therapy * California Board of Optometry * California Board of Pharmacy * California

Board of Podiatric Medicine * California Board of Prison Terms * California Board of Psychology * California Board of Registered Nursing * California Board of Trustees * California Board of Vocational Nursing and Psychiatric Technicians * California Braille and Talking Book Library * California Building Standards Commission * California Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education * California Bureau of Automotive Repair * California Bureau of Electronic and Appliance Repair * California Bureau of Home Furnishings and Thermal Insulation * California Bureau of Naturopathic Medicine * California Bureau of Security and Investigative Services * California Bureau of State Audits * California Business Agency * California Business Investment Services (CalBIS)

* California Business Permit Information (CalGOLD) * California Business Portal * California Business, Transportation and Housing Agency * California Cal Grants * California CalJOBS * California Cal-Learn Program * California CalVet Home Loan Program * California Career Resource Network * California Cemetery and Funeral Bureau * California Center for Analytical Chemistry * California Center for Distributed Learning * California Center for Teaching Careers (Teach California) * California Chancellors Office * California Charter Schools * California Children and Families Commission * California Children and Family Services Division * California Citizens Compensation Commission * California Civil Rights Bureau * California Coastal Commission * California Coastal Conservancy

* California Code of Regulations * California Collaborative Projects with UC Davis * California Commission for Jobs and Economic Growth * California Commission on Aging * California Commission on Health and Safety and Workers Compensation * California Commission on Judicial Performance * California Commission on State Mandates * California Commission on Status of Women * California Commission on Teacher Credentialing * California Commission on the Status of Women * California Committee on Dental Auxiliaries * California Community Colleges Chancellors Office, Junior Colleges * California Community Colleges Chancellors Office * California Complaint Mediation Program * California Conservation Corps * California Constitution Revision Commission * California Consumer Hotline * California Consumer Information Center * California Consumer Information * California Consumer Services Division * California Consumers and Families Agency * California Contractors State License Board * California Corrections Standards Authority * CaliforniaCouncil for the Humanities * California Council on Criminal Justice * California Council on Developmental Disabilities * California Court Reporters Board * California Courts of Appeal * California Crime and Violence Prevention Center * California Criminal * Justice Statistics Center * California Criminalist Institute Forensic Library * California CSGnet Network Management * California Cultural and Historical Endowment * California Cultural Resources Division * California Curriculum and Instructional Leadership * Branch * California Data Exchange Center * California Data Management Division * California Debt and Investment Advisory Commission * California Delta Protection Commission * California Democratic Caucus * California Demographic Research Unit * California * Dental Auxiliaries * California Department of Aging * California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs * California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control Appeals Board * California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control * California Department of Boating and Waterways (Cal Boating) * California Department of Child Support Services (CDCSS) * California Department of Community Services and Development * California Department of Conservation * California Department of Consumer Affairs * California Department of Corporations * California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation * California Department of Developmental Services * California Department of Education * California Department of Fair Employment and Housing * California Department of Finance * California Department of Financial Institutions * California Department of Fish and Game * California Department of Food and Agriculture * California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF) * California Department of General Services * California Department

of General Services, Office of State Publishing * California Department of Health Care Services * California Department of Housing and Community Development * California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) * California Department of Insurance * California Department of Justice Firearm s Division * California Department of Justice Opinion Unit * California Department of Justice, Consumer Information, Public Inquiry Unit * California Department of Justice * California Department of Managed Health Care * California Department of Mental Health * California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) * California Department of Personnel Administration * California Department of Pesticide Regulation * California Department of Public Health * California Department of Real Estate* California Department of Rehabilitation * California Department of Social Services Adoptions Branch * California Department of Social Services * California Department of Technology Services Training Center (DTSTC) * California Department of Technology Services (DTS) * California Department of Toxic Substances Control * California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) * California Department of Veterans Affairs (CalVets) * California Department of Water Resources * California Departmento de Vehiculos Motorizados * California Digital Library * California Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise Certification Program * California Division of Apprenticeship Standards * California Division of Codes and Standards * California Division of Communicable Disease Control * California Division of Engineering * California Division of Environmental and Occupational Disease Control * California Division of Gambling Control * California Division of Housing Policy Development * California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement * California Division of Labor Statistics and Research * California Division of Land and Right of Way * California Division of Land Resource Protection * California Division of Law Enforcement General Library * California Division of Measurement Standards * California Division of Mines and Geology * California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) * California Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources * California Division of Planning and Local Assistance * California Division of Recycling * California Division of Safety of Dams * California Division of the State Architect * California Division of Tourism * California Division of Workers Compensation Medical Unit * California Division of Workers Compensation * California Economic Assistance, Business and Community Resources * California Economic Strategy Panel * California Education and Training Agency * California Education Audit Appeals Panel * California Educational Facilities Authority * California Elections Division * California Electricity Oversight Board * California Emergency Management Agency * California Emergency Medical Services Authority * California Employment Development Department (EDD) * California Employment Information State Jobs * California Employment Training Panel * California Energy Commission * California Environment and Natural Resources Agency * California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA) * California Environmental Resource s Evaluation System (CERES) * California Executive Office * California Export Laboratory Services *California Exposition and State Fair (Cal Expo) * California Fair Political Practices Commission * California Fairs and Expositions Division * California Film Commission * California Fire and Resource Assessment Program * California Firearms Division * California Fiscal Services * California Fish and Game Commission * California Fisheries Program Branch * California Floodplain Management * California Foster Youth Help * California Franchise Tax Board (FTB) * California Fraud Division * California Gambling Control Commission * California Geographic Information Systems Council (GIS) * California Geological Survey * California Government Claims and Victim Compensation Board * California Governors Committee for Employment of Disabled Persons * California Governors Mentoring Partnership * California Governors Office of Emergency Services * California Governors Office of Homeland Se curity * California Governors Office of Planning and Research * California Governors Office * California Grant and Enterprise Zone Programs HCD Loan * California

Health and Human Services Agency * California Health and Safety Agency * California Healthy Families Program * California Hearing Aid Dispensers Bureau * California High-Speed Rail Authority * California Highway Patrol (CHP) * California History and Culture Agency * California Horse Racing Board * California Housing Finance Agency * California Indoor Air Quality Program * California Industrial Development Financing Advisory Commission * California Industrial Welfare Commission * California InFoPeople * California Information Center for the Environment * California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank (I-Bank) * California Inspection Services * California Institute for County Government * California Institute for Education Reform * California Integrated Waste Management Board * California Interagency Ecologic al Program * California Job Service * California Junta Estatal de Personal * California Labor and Employment Agency * California Labor and Workforce Development Agency * California Labor Market Information Division * California Land Use Planning Information Network (LUPIN) * California Lands Commission * California Landscape Architects Technical Committee * California Latino Legislative Caucus * California Law Enforcement Branch * California Law Enforcement General Library * California Law Revision Commission * California Legislative Analyst's Office * California Legislative Black Caucus * California Legislative Counsel * California Legislative Division * California Legislative Information * California Legislative Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Caucus * California Legislature Internet Caucus * California Library De velopment Services * California License and Revenue Branch * California Major Risk Medical Insurance Program * California Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board * California Maritime Academy * California Marketing Services * California Measurement Standards * California Medical Assistance Commission * California Medical Care Services * California Military Department * California Mining and Geology Board * California Museum for History, Women, and the Arts * California Museum Resource Center * California National Guard * California Native American Heritage Commission * California Natural Community Conservation Planning Program * California New Motor Vehicle Board * California Nursing Home Administrator Program * California Occupational Safety and Health Appeals Board * California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board * California Ocean Resources Management Program * California Office of Administrative Hearings * California Office of Administrative Law * California Office of AIDS * California Office of Binational Border Health * California Office of Child Abuse Prevention * California Office of Deaf Access * Cali fornia Office of Emergency Services (OES) * California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment * California Office of Fiscal Services * California Office of Fleet Administration * California Office of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Implementation (CalOHI) * California Office of Historic Preservation * California Office of Homeland Security * California Office of Human Resources * California Office of Legal Services * California Office of Legislation * California Office of Lieutenant Governor * California Office of Military and Aerospace Support * California Office of Mine Reclamation * California Office of Natural Resource Education * California Office of Privacy Protection * California Office of Public School Construction * California Office of Real Estate Appraisers * California Office of Risk and Insurance Management * California Office of Services to the Blind * California Office of Spill Prevention and Response * California Office o f State Publishing (OSP) * California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development * California Office of Systems Integration * California Office of the Inspector General * California Office of the Ombudsman * California Office of the Patient Advocate * California Office of the President * California Office of the Secretary for Education * California Office of the State Fire Marshal * California Office of the State Public Defender * California Office of Traffic Safety * California Office of Vital Records * California Online Directory * California Operations Control Office * California Opinion Unit * California Outreach and Technical Assistance Network (OTAN) * California Park and Recreation Commission * California Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) * California Performance Review (CPR) * California Permit Information for Business (CalGOLD) * California Physical Therapy Board * California Physician Assistant Committee * California Plant Health and Pest Prevent ion Services * California Policy and Evaluation Division * California Political Reform Division * California Pollution Control Financing Authority * California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo * California Postsecondary Education Commission * California Prevention Services * California Primary Care and Family Health * California Prison Industry Authority * California Procurement Division * California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) * California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) * California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) * California Real Estate Services Division * California Refugee Programs Branch * California Regional Water Quality Control Boards * California Registered Veterinary Technician Committee * California Registrar of Charitable Trusts * California Republican Caucus * California Research and Development Division * California Research Bureau * California Resources Agency * California Respiratory Care Board * California Rivers Assessment * California Rural Health Policy Council * California Safe Schools * California San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission * California San Gabriel and Lower Los Angeles Rivers and Mountains Conservancy * California San Joaquin River Conservancy * California School to Career * California Science Center * California Scripps Institution of Oceanography * California Secretary of State Business Portal * California Secretary of State * California Seismic Safety Commission * California Self Insurance Plans (SIP) * California Senate Office of Research * California Small Business and Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise Certification Program * California Small Business Development Center Program * California Smart Growth Caucus * California Smog Check Information Center * California Spatial Information Library * California Special Education Division * California Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology Board * California Standardized Testing and Reporting (STA R) * California Standards and Assessment Division * California State Administrative Manual (SAM) * California State Allocation Board * California State and Consumer Services Agency * California State Architect * California State Archives * California State Assembly * California State Association of Counties (CSAC) * California State Board of Education * California State Board of Food and Agriculture *California Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) * California State Children's Trust Fund * California State Compensation Insurance Fund * California State Contracts Register Program * California State Contracts Register * California State Controller * California State Council on Developmental Disabilities (SCDD) * California State Disability Insurance (SDI) * California State Fair (Cal Expo) * California State Jobs Employment Information * California State Lands Commission * California State Legislative Portal * California State Legislature * California State Library Catalog * California State Library Services Bureau * California State Library * California State Lottery * California State Mediation and Conciliation Service * California State Mining and Geology Board * California State Park and Recreation Commission * California State Parks * California State Personnel Board * California State Polytechnic University, Pomona * California State Railroad Museum * California State Science Fair * California State Senate * California State Summer School for Mathematics and Science (COSMOS) * California State Summer School for the Arts * California State Superintendent of Public Instruction * California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS) * California State Treasurer * California State University Center for Distributed Learning * California State University, Bakersfield * California State University, Channel Islands * California State University, Chico * California State University, Dominguez Hills * California State University, East Bay * California State University, Fresno * California State University, Fullerton * California State University, Long Beach * California State University, Los Angeles * California State University, Monterey Bay * California State University, Northridge * California State University, Sacramento * California State University, San Bernardino * California State University, San Marcos * California State University, Stanislaus * California State University (CSU) * California State Water Project Analysis Office * California State Water Project * California State Water Resources Control Board * California Structural Pest Control Board * California Student Aid Commission * California Superintendent of Public Instruction * California Superior Courts * California Tahoe Conservancy * California Task Force on Culturally and Linguistically Competent Physicians and Dentists * California Tax Information Center * California Technology and Administration Branch Finance * California Telecommunications Division * California Telephone Medical Advice Services (TAMS) * California Transportation Commission * California Travel and Transportation Agency * California Unclaimed Property Program * California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board * California Unemployment Insurance Program * California Uniform Construction Cost Accounting Commission * California Veterans Board * California Veterans Memorial * California Veterinary Medical Board and Registered Veterinary Technician Examining Committee * California Veterinary Medical Board * California Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board * California Volunteers * California Voter Registration * California Water Commission * California Water Environment Association (COWPEA) * California Water Resources Control Board * California Welfare to Work Division * California Wetlands Information System * California Wildlife and Habitat Data Analysis Branch * California

Wildlife Conservation Board * California Wildlife Programs Branch * California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) * California Workers Compensation Appeals Board * California Workforce and Labor Development Agency * California Workforce Investment Board * California Youth Authority (CYA) * Central Valley Flood Protection Board * Center for California Studies * Colorado River Board of California * Counting California * Dental Board of California * Health Insurance Plan of California (PacAdvantage) * Humboldt State University * Jobs with the State of California * Judicial Council of California * Learn California * Library of California * Lieutenant Governors Commission for One California * Little Hoover Commission (on California State Government Organization and Economy) * Medical Board of California * Medi-Cal * Osteopathic Medical Board of California * Physical Therapy Board of California * Regents of the University of California * San Diego State University * San Francisco State University * San Jose State University * Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy * State Bar of California * Supreme Court of California * Teach California * University of California * University of California, Berkeley * University of California, Davis * University of California, Hastings College of the Law * University of California, Irvine * University of California, Los Angeles * University of California, Merced * University of California, Riverside * University of California, San Diego * University of California, San Francisco * University of California, Santa Barbara * University of California, Santa Cruz * Veterans Home of California .

Our government says that the only places they can cut expenses is Police and Fire...

It doesn't matter whether you are a Democrat, a Republican, or an Independent. This list is shocking. Over the years, our politicians have created this enormous pork barrel of agencies that employ over 350,000 people directly and countless more via contracts with the State.

Almost all of these people get salaries, medical coverage, and pensions at our expense and almost all are unionized.

THE BALLAD OF YOU AND I (by Hotel Lux)

25 Comments

Craig Stehr February 20, 2021

It is 12:09AM in Redwood Valley. Please refer to my evening posting on the Friday MCT online…which says it all, in relation to the current total chaos that the American experiment in freedom & democracy has become. To cut to the quick, my recommendation is for permaculture and Self Realization.

Reply
Lee Edmundson February 20, 2021

One of the first things Jimmy Carter did after being elected Governor of the state of Georgia in the 1970s was to empanel what was then called a Sunset Commission, charged with reviewing and evaluating the various and myriad panels, advisory boards, commissions etc. which had such a strong bureaucratic hold on the operations and efficiency of Georgia’s government. Many were terminated — sun-setted, so to speak. The success of this process bolstered his prospects as a candidate for president.
His attempts to streamline and lose the fat from the federal government ran upon the hard cold rocks of reality: ensconced bureaus strongly resist their own suicide/termination..

This list of California’s panels printed herein is living testament to Carter’s aims.
Certainly there are similar entities choking the efficiency of county government here.
Perhaps it’s time for a general house cleaning.

Having the illusion of representative participation in government is not the same as having functional and operative participation therein. Time to begin a sunset process on both county and state levels. To insure participation is real rather than illusion.

Food for thought

Reply
- George Hollister February 20, 2021
  
  What we are talking about here is the swamp.
  
  Reply
Marmon February 20, 2021

RE: YOU THOUGHT ORTNER WAS GONE?

“WHEREAS, the State of California Department of Health Care Services is preparing to engage in a regular audit of Mendocino County regarding its contracts for specialty mental health services, including but not limited to Board or Supervisors Agreement No. 13-016 with Ortner Management Group (“OMG”)

This means that RQMC is finally going to be audited too. I think it was the infamous Dr. Miller who told the board a couple of weeks ago that the State was just getting around to Auditing the years when the County first privatized Mental Health Services. She said they were running about 8 years behind. Now and over the next few years we will finally get a look at just how good of a job RQMC has been doing.

The AVA’s obsession with OMG has become big “Red Herring”, Hey, look over here! All they’re doing is helping the County cover for Angelo and her failed privatized Mental Health system.

The same thing goes with the Grand Jury Report that only looked at OMG regarding any appearance of conflict of interest. They should have looked at RQMC for the same reason. I could write a book about that.

Where’s the money Camille?

Marmon

Reply
- Marmon February 20, 2021
  
  In the early ASO contracts there was no agreement that the ASO’s would be held responsible for any audit exceptions, that changed just a couple of years ago. The County is screwed.
  
  Marmon
  
  Reply
  - Lazarus February 20, 2021
    
    I found this on the Measure B agenda for the upcoming meeting. The meeting is scheduled for 1:00 PM 2/24/21, via Zoom.
    
    “3d) Discussion and possible action regarding a) Prioritization of development and adoption of a strategic plan, and b) Creation of an Ad Hoc Committee to discuss restructure of the Measure B Oversight Committee. ”
    
    Dismiss the 11 member committee, thank them for their service, and give the money to the lawyers the County will need for the Ortner deal…
    Be Swell,
    Laz
    
    Reply
    - Marmon February 20, 2021
      
      It was John McCowen who screwed up the Measure B committee because he wanted to defer to them instead of the County taking control and get things done. The Board should have been the decision makers and the citizen’s oversight committee should have only been providing oversight, not planning. I wrote about this several years ago when I first saw that the committee was floundering. The County should have created the business plan and the oversight committee should have either approved or disapproved such a plan. Nobody from the County employ should have ever been placed on the “Citizen’s oversight committee, that was a big screw up. Miller especially should not have been on the Committee. She should have been making recommendations to the board and then make herself available to explain things to the committee if they had any questions.
      
      John McCowen wanted the board to lead from behind, and that’s what they did.
      
      Marmon
      
      Reply
- Marmon February 20, 2021
  
  California Code, Welfare and Institutions Code – WIC § 14707
  
  (a) In the case of federal audit exceptions, the department shall follow federal audit appeal processes unless the department, in consultation with the County Behavioral Health Directors Association of California, determines that those appeals are not cost beneficial.
  
  (b) Whenever there is a final federal audit exception against the state resulting from expenditure of federal funds by individual counties, the department may offset federal reimbursement and request the Controller’s office to offset the distribution of funds to the counties from the Mental Health Subaccount, the Mental Health Equity Subaccount, and the Vehicle License Collection Account of the Local Revenue Fund, funds from the Mental Health Account and the Behavioral Health Subaccount of the Local Revenue Fund 2011, and any other mental health realignment funds from which the Controller makes distributions to the counties by the amount of the exception. The department shall provide evidence to the Controller that the county has been notified of the amount of the audit exception no less than 30 days before the offset is to occur. The department shall involve the appropriate counties in developing responses to any draft federal audit reports that directly impact the county.
  
  https://codes.findlaw.com/ca/welfare-and-institutions-code/wic-sect-14707.html
  
  Marmon
  
  Reply
izzy February 20, 2021

Personal Responsibility, etc.

Judging by the material revolving through my Facebook feed, there is plenty of gloating from those not impacted about the power outages and supply problems in Texas right now. All the Trump-loving idiots must certainly deserve it, right? Further evidence of the toxic social divisions being constantly inflamed in the former Land of the Free. And fire season will be back here soon enough, so get those jollies in while still possible, Libtards. At least AOC – current junkyard dog of the left, and that is not an insult – seems to understand the difference between the general public out in the cold and the political hacks.

Reply
- George Hollister February 20, 2021
  
  I was sort of thinking the same thing. Everybody from the right and left have tried to impose their political solution, with blame, on how the power grid is/was operated. Looks to me like the people of Texas were going to suffer from this near record cold event, regardless. Not like severe weather events haven’t caused similar outcomes in other places, including California.
  
  Frozen water is frozen water. Viscous oil is viscous oil. Lack of insulation is lack of insulation. Lack of storage is lack of storage.
  
  Reply
  - Stephen Rosenthal February 20, 2021
    
    “Frozen water is frozen water. Viscous oil is viscous oil. Lack of insulation is lack of insulation. Lack of storage is lack of storage.”
    
    And lack of political leadership is lack of political leadership, George. And should be subject to criminal prosecution for the widespread harm it does.
    
    Reply
    - Marmon February 20, 2021
      
      Would you be saying the same thing if the Texas leadership was democrats? California looses power all the time, I don’t see you blaming Newsom
      
      Marmon
      
      Reply
      - Stephen Rosenthal February 20, 2021
        
        Then you haven’t been paying attention.
        
        Reply
    - George Hollister February 20, 2021
      
      This is the coldest it has been in Texas in 70 or 80 years. Not a record, but a significant cold event. Hard to make the climate change argument, either. Every source of power in Texas suffered, because they were not prepared for an event few have witnessed, and no one thought they needed to prepare for.This cold is a black swan event, and of course like all black swan events there will be a chorus of people saying, “we should have known better.” Like Covid-19, the World Trade Center attack, Pearl Harbor, and the latest California fires. Wait for the next subduction zone earthquake off the North American West coast. That’ll be interesting.
      
      Reply
      - Harvey Reading February 21, 2021
        
        Not hard at all to make the climate change argument, Georgie boy. Climb out of your roundup bath and get to bed, then dream of slaughtering old-growth forests.
        
        Reply
  - Harvey Reading February 21, 2021
    
    When was the last time the so-called left imposed a political solution? The New Deal Days? “Both” sides are into unity and bipartisanship, a fascist trait that plays right into the hands of the rulers.
    
    Reply
Bill Pilgrim February 20, 2021

re: Early Vichy Springs photo.

The dapper gent ladling spring water bears a remarkable resemblance to Mark Twain.
Any chance it is so?

Reply
- Marmon February 20, 2021
  
  Yes
  
  It was during the Doolan and Redemeyer eras that the rich and famous in California history visited Vichy Springs. The Ghiradelli family, Abe Roeff, Presidents Ulysses S. Grant and William Harrison, Teddy Roosevelt and daughter Alice, Mark Twain, Jack London, Robert Louis Stevenson, bare fisted boxers Jim Corbett and John L. Sullivan.
  
  https://www.vichysprings.com/index.php/history-main/vichy-springs-history
  
  Marmon
  
  Reply
  - Bill Pilgrim February 20, 2021
    
    OK. Thank you.
    
    Reply
Michael Koepf February 20, 2021

Rush and Zirin

Shovel on.

We stand above his grave
shoveling dirt upon his head
a head whose thoughts we’ve never heard
save for the echos of our hate.
Shovel on says the man from the grave
you’ll be joining me soon
but, jealousy will be your only comfort here,
while I, on a stepping stone between the stars,
will be remembered for what I wrought,
love of country for a thousand years, and a mirror to every fool.

Reply
Jim Armstrong February 20, 2021

Has that vac clinic turned into a joke?
The link takes one to page that says the same thing, but without a working link.
Every time an event is planned, it “sells out” quickly.
Now is not the time to widen the scope.

Reply
- Marmon February 20, 2021
  
  I agree Mr. Armstrong, the most vulnerable should not have to compete with the young and healthy. They’re not dying.
  
  Marmon
  
  Reply
- George Hollister February 20, 2021
  
  I had the same problem at first. You need a smart phone, and send to get a security #. People without smart phones need to call the number.
  
  Reply
  - Betsy Cawn February 21, 2021
    
    And the people at the state’s hired operation, “my turn.ca.gov,” cannot help you if you do not have a “smart” phone. According to one report from a local resident here, when they called the phone number for personal assistance, they were told that the state-level clearinghouse online was operational only in three of the largest counties in the state. Certainly not here.
    
    Reply
    - chuck dunbar February 21, 2021
      
      The local Adventist website for Covid vaccine appts was simple and easy to use, did not require a smart phone, nor any ID numbers, worked perfectly. They responded by email to my desktop. Not sure how it would work without any kind of computer… But, I understand, per Supe Williams, that the state system may take over all other sites and be the sole one in use.
      
      Reply

Mendocino County Today: Saturday, Feb. 20, 2021

25 Comments

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