INTERIM COUNTY COUNSEL DOUG LOSAK submitted his resignation to the Board of Supervisors late Monday afternoon. Reliable sources say the Sheriff and District Attorney were prepared to force the issue by declaring a conflict of interest with the County Counsel's office and demanding the County hire outside counsel, at beaucoup bucks, to represent their interests. In the face of the cascading uproar, Losak has decided to step aside. He will be replaced by Terry Gross in the interim top slot. Ms. Gross has long labored in the County Counsel's office. She's smart and articulate and, presumably, seldom if ever careens around the County late at night with a couple of joints and a gun.
LOSAK, 52, was arrested at about 2am last week (July 3rd) near the intersection of 101 and Lake Mendocino Drive where he was stopped for speeding and because the license plate light was out on his car. The police report said deputies found “three to four ounces of marijuana,” which turned out to be not anywhere near that much; measured in grams it would make up about two joints. Losak volunteered the information that he also possessed a pistol in a locked box. The gun was registered to Losak who told the arresting officers he was in the process of obtaining a concealed weapons permit. Losak said he was carrying the gun because he'd been threatened. He was cited and ordered to appear in court on “suspicion of possessing marijuana in a moving vehicle, an infraction, and carrying a concealed weapon, a misdemeanor,” according to MCSO spokesman Kurt Smallcomb. As of July 23, Losak was slated to become acting County Counsel in place of Jeanine Nadel. Mrs. Nadel has been appointed to the Mendocino County bench.
IN THE DAYS FOLLOWING, the Losak Affair attracted much attention. Outgoing County Counsel Jeanine Nadel and County CEO Carmen Angelo approved a raise for The Midnight Rambler amounting to $3,000 on top of the $143k per year salary paid County Counsel, the 3 thou being for travel, as if $143,000 a year isn't sufficient to cover an occasional overnight away from Ukiah.
THEN SUPERVISORS Hamburg and Pinches, in a positively weird story by Glenda Anderson in Friday's Press Democrat, said Losak's misdemeanor 2am adventures shouldn't be held against him. Hamburg went even further, saying, heck, lots of County officials have run afoul of the law and lots regularly toke the bazooka. Him, for instance. The story suggested that here in Amnesia County, Losak, who probably would have become the County's top legal advisor if he hadn't resigned, was merely in the grand tradition of Mendo's office-holding stoners. Glenda dutifully listed a few of yesteryear's more notable miscreants neglecting, of course, her love interest Mike Sweeney, the County's lead garbage bureaucrat and still the only viable suspect in the car bombing of his ex-wife, the late Judi Bari.
SOMEONE HAS GONE to a lot of trouble to fake a letter-to-the-editor having to do with the MacKerricher Dune Rehabilitation Project. Renee Pasquinelli, Sr. Environmental Scientist for State Parks, Mendocino District sent these corrections to Connie Korbell of the Fort Bragg Advocate: “Hello Connie: The California Geologic Survey (CGS) forwarded to me their response (below) to the fraudulent letter to the editor that was printed under the headline entitled ‘Summary conclusions,’ and incorrectly attributed to ‘Tlina L. Bedlossian, California Geologic Survey.’ After rereading some of the letters that I’ve received regarding the MacKerricher Dune Project, I came across a series of letters written by Ed Sander (see attached). The letter printed in the paper, which modified the CGS conclusions and used the same misspelling of the author’s name (Tlina L. Bedlossian, instead of Trinda Bedrossian), is the same letter that Mr. Sander sent to me and cc’d to a number of organizations, including the Advocate. It appears that the Advocate may have printed Mr. Sander’s letter mistakenly as a letter from California Geologic Survey. Other information contained in Mr. Sander’s letters are incorrect and taken out of context, including his portrayal of the Howell’s spineflower population. I continue to encourage the public to read the entire environmental document, including appendices, for factual information. Although a new Initial Study/Mitigated Negative Declaration is being prepared and will be circulated, the reports contained in the original document, including the CGS report, are still accurate. Thank you in advance for printing the letter of correction from Dr. John Parrish, State Geologist of California. Regards, Renee.”
AND, THIS LETTER confirming the epistolary attempt to mislead the public about the MacKerricher dunes and Haul Road work: “Editor: The Advocate-News on June 21 ran a letter under the headline Survey conclusions regarding the proposed removal of a haul road at the Inglenook Fen-Ten Mile Dunes Natural Preserve. The letter was attributed to Tlina L. Bedlossion of the California Geological Survey (CGS). There is no employee by that name at CGS. Senior Engineering Geologist Trinda Bedrossian was one of several CGS scientists involved in reviewing and commenting on the California State Parks plan. Neither she nor anyone connected with CGS wrote the letter that appeared. We have attached a PDF of the CGS sand analysis; as you can see, some of the conclusions in the letter you published have been modified and one key conclusion has been left out entirely: Natural coastal dune formation processes are likely to be re-established, including the formation of foredunes perpendicular to the shoreline along the west side of the three main dune lobes. The fraudulent letter submitted to you gives no context to the conclusions presented and is incorrectly being used to argue that, as a result of the project, sand movement will impact private properties on the eastern fringes of the dunes. Additionally, the positioning of the letter between two others from residents opposed to the project would seem to imply that CGS is in opposition to California State Parks proposed project. That is not the case. CGS made some written recommendations and comments to State Parks regarding its proposed plan, but strictly from an impartial, scientific standpoint. CGS requests that you print this letter as soon as possible to notify the public of the fraudulent misrepresentation of CGS's work. — Sincerely, Dr. John Parrish, State Geologist of California, California Geological Survey, Sacramento.
ANOTHER INADVERTENT ADVERTISEMENT for careers in the drug trade occurred last week in Mckinleyville when police raided a house on Halfway Avenue, where, according to the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office, they found 65 pounds of packaged bud, six loaded guns, two of them equipped with laser sights, a shotgun, six grams of heroin, more than 100 “controlled prescription tablets, scales, packaging material, a list of who owes who how much, and $68,657 in cash.” Most people would waive the pills and the guns if they thought they could make that much quick cash, which is probably why every year more and more people get into the marijuana business.
TRIPLE A says gasoline prices in Eureka are the highest in the United States at an average of $4.32 a gallon. The reason seems to be that Eureka is just a little too far from Bay Area refineries for tanker truck drivers who, due to the road rules they work under, have to rest up overnight; they aren't permitted to drive to Eureka and back to Richmond in one day.
BLUE WHALES, the largest whales of all, are being spotted in large numbers off the Northern California coast. Their favorite food — the shrimp-like creatures called krill, has appeared in abundance this year, hence the appearance of the great blues of whom only about 10,000 are left worldwide, 2,000 in our neighborhood. According to marine biologists the creatures maintain themselves far from shore, beyond the disturbing reach of whale watchers.
ACCORDING TO a report by Linda Williams of the Willits News, Caltrans’s motion to have the enviro lawsuit against the current design and route of the Willits Bypass dismissed was denied by the US District Court last week. The enviro groups — Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club, Willits Environmental Center and the Environmental Protection Information Center — say that Caltrans didn’t really evaluate a two-lane option (the current plan is for a four-lane Bypass, with a two-lane as Phase I). Caltrans says that their traffic studies show that they will eventually need a four-lane Bypass which is why they needed to buy up and clear four lanes worth of land over the five-plus mile route while only building two lanes until more funding becomes available. The enviros say Caltrans’ traffic studies are flawed. The enviro groups also say that the five-years worth of construction work in the area was not adequately studied or mitigated. And the enviros say that there was no evaluation of the impact of Caltrans buying up the 2,000 acres of ag land in Little Lake Valley for construction or mitigation. All of these failures (and other smaller ones) require a supplemental EIR, say the enviros. The suit will now move forward into the slo-mo “management conference” mode where a federal judge will try to get the two sides to settle their disputes before an actual trial.
ONLY IN MENDOCINO COUNTY could you screw up big time and still get yourself a big raise. Bruce Richard is the long-time boss of the Mendocino County Transit Authority, basically a fleet of heavily subsidized, lightly patronized buses.
RICHARD is freshly responsible for Dirt Gate, his decision to haul contaminated dirt from MTA to the Ukiah Fairgrounds, from where, at huge expense, it has had to be hauled outtahere. The dirt came from an MTA construction project, a combination bus barn and lavish suite of offices under construction for Richard, as his “legacy,” we assume.
ITEM 11 on the MTA's board meeting for June 28th reads merely, “General Manager’s Contract and Salary.” Which is where Richard's annual take was boosted to $106,000. Of course MTA's board of trustees consists of other public agency and non-profit drones who include former supervisor Richard Shoemaker and former Ukiah Mayor Jim Mastin. Mastin distinguished himself last year with a Kim il Sung-like tribute to Richard that set a new local record for the most laughably untrue praise for a local official.
RICHARD'S BLUNDER in foisting off fuel-contaminated soil on the Ukiah Fairgrounds from where it has had to be shipped to the landfill at Vacaville, should have gotten him fired, but Mastin and Shoemaker et al got him a big raise instead.
MTA'S WEBSITE claims that MTA ridership “has increased to 401,000 trips per year in a county of only 90,000 residents.” And, “Today, MTA operates nine fixed bus routes running five to seven days (one of which runs trips every 30 minutes), two Dial-A- Ride services and two flex routes.”
LET'S DO THE MATH: 401,000 trips per year with about 360 operating days per year (after holidays) translates to about 1100 trips per day. About five of the routes are only once per day which, assuming (generously) 15 people each way, could be as high as 150-200 trips per day for those routes. So the other 950 rides per day would have to be over the remaining 4 urban routes and dial-a-ride. That translates to 950/5, or about 190 trips per day per route. If they operate eight hours a day that would be about 190/8 or 24 people per hour per urban route. If they operate 12 hours a day that would be more like 18 people per hour per urban route. (On average; probably varies a lot which would explain why they seem empty so many hours per day.)
IT'S POSSIBLE that these numbers are more or less in the ballpark, but since they're Richard's figures, Buyer Beware.
AT THE ANNUAL love-in among so-called transportation professionals last year, Mastin puckered up to say, “Bruce has led the Mendocino Transit Authority with vision, courage and leadership. This award is recognition by his peers of his work and spotlights the MTA as a well run, forward looking agency.”
A DEMONSTRABLY untrue statement as anybody who has ever tried to go from, say, Boonville to Ukiah, between the hours of 8-5, and don't even try to go to and from Laytonville or Covelo.
“LEADING THIS AGENCY is not hard,” Richard responded, “with a progressive, intelligent Board of Directors and 60 other employees who are professional and care about our passengers,” a Heep-ish statement that would have inspired a torrent of lethal thunderbolts straight at Richard's lying head if God had been paying attention.
SOME INTERESTING ITEMS on this week’s Board of Supervisors agenda:
ON JULY 10, 2012, The Board of Supervisors, self-alleged to be in full austerity mode, is slated to auto-approve another $80k per year consulting contract with Rick Haeg of Nickolaus and Haeg (based in Humboldt County) for “Labor Consulting Services.” Haeg’s “fee schedule” for July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2013 is: $150 per hour for consulting services provided off-site; $150 per hour with a guarantee of a minimum of eight (8) hours of pay per day for any day worked on site in Ukiah, and $50 per hour travel time for travel to and from Ukiah for on-site meetings.” If you like the way the Board handled last year’s labor negotiations, you’ll love paying another $80k for another year of “labor consulting services” on a month to month basis.
HERE’S ANOTHER INDEFENSIBLE EXPENDITURE slated for consent calendar approval on Tuesday: “On August 2, 2011, the Board approved agreement with HealthyRoads, Inc. to provide Wellness services in conjunction with the County’s current Wellness Program. Effective July 1, 2011 at an amount not to exceed $137,475 for the fiscal year for “Biometric Screening Services.”
FOR THE $145k (the “not to exceed” amount) the County will get about 565 “fingerstick screening” blood tests providing: (i) Total Cholesterol, (ii) High Density Lipoprotein (“HDL”), (iii) Low Density Lipoprotein (“LDL”), (iv) Triglycerides, (v) Coronary Risk Ratio, (vi) Fasting Glucose, (vii) blood pressure, (viii) weight, (ix) height, and (x) calculated BMI (body mass index) at $52 per screening. If a doctor does the test outside the County's loving embrace, the County will pay $12 per patient for that data to be included in the report.
WHY NOT just put all the County fatsos on a weight loss program for $0,000 per year?
THEN THERE’S THIS dead-ender from Supervisors Hamburg and McCowen: “Strengthening our local economy, including local government, is a priority for the Board of Supervisors. While ‘buy local’ efforts have become more popular [not to mention completely ineffective], untold millions leave our county (ed note: including newspaper advertising revenues to chain-owned corporate papers because department heads prefer to do end-arounds locally owned publications, especially this one) to pay for things that we either don’t produce or don’t produce in sufficient quantity. Purchases for food and energy are major contributors to this outflow of dollars and efforts are underway [unidentified efforts, of course] to keep more of this money circulating locally. Another part of this outflow is capital, a large amount of which leaves Mendocino County seeking greater returns and more security through banking and investing with large financial institutions, many of which are based on the east coast and abroad. The Public Banking Institute (PBI) was formed just a year and a half ago with the mission of facilitating the implementation of public banking at all levels — local, regional, state and national. PBI’s vision is to establish a distributed network of state and local publicly-owned banks that create affordable credit, while providing a sustainable alternative to the current high-risk, centralized private banking system. This network will act in the public interest, using its counter-cyclical credit-generating capacity to stabilize potential credit crises, maintain a floor against threats of asset devaluations, build infrastructure, and fund expansion of critical industrial productive capacity. Most important, public banking will create jobs, by partnering with local banks to fund local business, advancing credit for public infrastructure, and augmenting government revenues. The Board will receive a presentation by Marc Armstrong, Executive Director of PBI, and ask any questions it deems appropriate.”
WE WROTE to the supervisors about why locally owned papers were stiffed for most legal advertising the County does with the chain-owned Ukiah Daily Journal. Our inquiry was, of course, ignored.
SO? WHY NOT place the County's money with the Redwood Credit Union?
FUKUSHIMA SPEAKER IN UKIAH JULY 30 Mr. Yastel Yamada, a retired engineer and founder of the Fukushima Skilled Veterans Corps, will speak in Ukiah on July 30 about repairing the failing cooling system at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan. The event will be held at the Ukiah Unified Methodist Church social hall, beginning at 7:00pm. A question and discussion period will follow the presentations.
MENDOCINO RECREATION DISTRICT Programs at Risk of Closure! On Tuesday, July 17th, 2012, the Mendocino Unified School District (MUSD), will vote on the fate of the Mendocino Recreation Center programs, funded and operated by the Mendocino Coast Recreation and Park District (MCRPD), a decision which, by all indications, will negatively impact the future of our town, and strip the community of the funds needed for the Mendocino Recreation Center to continue as the vibrant and essential community force we've enjoyed for the last 28 years. I have taught recreational gymnastics at the Mendocino Recreation Center for the past 26 years. The Recreation Center traditionally operates at an annual deficit of $75,000 or more. This deficit is balanced through property taxes received by the MCRPD. Over the almost 30 years that the Recreation Center has been open, the MCRPD has contributed over $2 million to the Recreation Center. In November of 2010, the MCRPD was in financial turmoil, and the board of directors discussed the possibility of closing both the C.V. Starr Center and the Mendocino Recreation Center. Following impassioned pleas from several community members, MCRPD gave us the opportunity to raise funds to keep the Recreation Center in operation through the end of the school year.
In September of 2011, a non-profit group formed in support of the Recreation Center. I was elated. This group signified community support which could keep the Center in operation in the event MCRPD could not afford to continue its programs. The Recreation Center could clearly benefit from the energy and care of a group willing to actively provide counsel and support to MCRPD. At the first meeting of the group, some expressed a desire to separate from MCRPD and to create a separate program which would dispense with MCRPD's tax support. I told the group I believed it was in the community's best interests to work with MCRPD and have access to at least $75,000 of available annual tax support. Soon afterwards, one of the leading members of the group told me I should refrain from further participation with the group. I very clearly responded that it was not my intent to exclusively support MCRPD and that my first priority was to ensure the continuation of the important programs offered at the Recreation Center, including the very valued after-school program. I also stated that the group stood to benefit from my more than 25 years of involvement with the Recreation Center. I stressed that I have a deep and abiding love and concern for the health of the programs and that my loyalties were with them and not necessarily with the agency supporting them. I was asked to trust the group, and reluctantly, honored this request, and stopped attending their meetings. In time, it became clear that the new group was seeking full governance of the Mendocino Recreation Center. I suspect this was their intention all along and the reason they sought to exclude me from participating. In the following months, the group prepared a community survey seeking signatures in support of a “community run” community center. The survey failed to explain to its signatories that the new group would cause the loss of $75,000 in tax funding, and the burden of making up for this loss and the extensive fund-raising required to balance the budget would be shouldered by our community.
When the C.V. Starr Center sales tax measure passed with the biggest turnout of voters ever in the City of Fort Bragg and MCRPD entered into an agreement with the City of Fort Bragg to support the C.V. Starr Center, it became clear that the MCRPD would have enough funding to continue operations at the Mendocino Recreation Center.
About a month ago, I learned that the MUSD was giving serious consideration to a proposal being pushed by the new group. MCRPD leases the Mendocino Recreation Center from MUSD. At stake here is the ouster of the MCRPD from the Old Historic Grammar School site (The Mendocino Recreation Center), in favor of an untested start-up with ambiguous funding sources. The risk of losing our historically successful and quite valued after-school and other programs at the Recreation Center is generating increasing concern in the community. Sixty community members signed a letter urging MUSD to continue leasing the property to MCRPD for Recreation Center purposes. I presented this letter to the MUSD board at its June 11th, 2012 meeting and advocated for the MCRPD to remain in the facility from which it has served the community since 1985. At the next meeting of the MUSD board on June 21, 2012, the MUSD passed a resolution to accept sealed bids for the lease of the property, which are to be opened at the July 17th meeting. MUSD revealed that the lease would be awarded to the highest “responsible” bidder. The Naylor Act (California Education Code 17485et seq.) requires that the lease must first be offered to a park or recreation district, such as the MCRPD. The Act requires the school district to first notify and offer to lease the property (A) To any city where the land is located, and then (B) To any park or recreational district within which the land is situated. The notified agencies then have 60 days to respond to the school district. When I brought these provisions to the attention of MUSD it sought to justify its intended course of action by citing Education Code sections which unequivocally require that a school district may only offer to lease property to a non-profit organization in the event the proposed lease is rejected by the entities having priority as specified above. MUSD failed to notify MCRPD, as required by law, of the terms of any proposed new lease, ignoring MCRPD's legally mandated “right of first refusal.” The sealed bid process illegally changes the game plan envisioned by the legislature, making MCRPD's exercise of its legal right to priority an impossibility. Therefore, the MUSD board must reject all sealed bids in their possession and comply with the law requiring the school district to first notify and offer the lease to MCRPD (California Education Code 17485et seq.)
Reported surveys show that newly formed non-profits have a failure rate of 75%. The group seeking to wrest control of the Recreation Center property from MCRPD appears to base its business plan on program fees, private donations, increased community participation (such as bake sales and raffles) and an expectation that this community has the resources for greatly increased facility rentals. The group sought to become a program of North Coast Opportunities (NCO). The board of NCO denied the group's request on the grounds that its business plan was inadequate. Under any reasonably considered scenario, the community will bear an extraordinary burden of raising sufficient funds just to maintain the current level of programs. Program expansion would be pretty much out of the question.
In 2009, MUSD created a 7/11 committee to survey the community about its desires for the Old Historic Grammar School site, commonly known as the Mendocino Recreation Center. An overwhelming 96% of the respondents wanted the use of the building and site to remain as it had been for the preceding 23 years. The 7/11 committee recommended that the MUSD enter into a 10+year lease with the MCRPD. They concluded that program, site, and facility management should remain MCRPD responsibilities. They also recommended the establishment of a “Community Committee” to help implement many of the valuable suggestions of the community. MCRPD responded to the community's requests by implementing many of the desired improvements, creating a fenced dog park, a Petanque court, and an enlarged community garden.
The wisest (and only legal) course of action is for MUSD to immediately offer MCRPD the lease for the Old Historical Grammar School site, also known as the Mendocino Recreation Center. Clearly, it's in all of our interests for MUSD, MCRPD, and the new non-profit group to work together in service of our community. The illegal sealed bid process must be abandoned and discussions should begin immediately to set aside differences and move forward in the spirit of cooperation and love to create the best possible after-school and community center we can for Mendocino. If we are unable to do this, I fear the loss of this valuable asset for longer than we may know, putting the children of our community at risk by depriving them safe environment to enjoy programs designed to broaden their knowledge, experiences, and imaginations. Such gifts are truly irreplaceable. — Sincerely, Kassie Hayes, Mendocino.
EXCELLENT THREE-PART SERIES by Tiffany Revelle of the Ukiah Daily Journal on what essentially amounts to the privatization of the County's dwindling mental health services. Privatization of dependent children and adults is quite attractive to the highly paid panjandrums of private non-profits because undefended children, especially, come with large amounts of state and federal monies, federal monies more than state monies. The discreet Ms. Revelle doesn't get into motives, and certainly doesn't get into the low intensity class warfare that converts the children of the poor into lucrative piles of cash, but she does get the perps talking more candidly than they usually do.
ACCORDING TO MS. REVELLE, 46 people presently employed by Health and Human Services will be privatized out of their jobs, a fact that rightly distresses the SEIU's Paul Kaplan, Local 1021. It means that the privatized employees, or that percentage of them who aren't shuffled into other County positions, won't be paying union dues for the SEIU's pathetic representation.
BUT PRIVATIZATION is a nice windfall for executives at non-profits like Tapestry Family Services, “contractors for children's mental health services.” Tapestry will get its insatiable hooks into more state and federal money that comes with disturbed children, a flexibly inclusive determination strongly influenced by mercenary considerations, but in living fact meaning this: You take a rambunctious kid, more often than not a male child, find him in need of “therapy,” and you can cash his therapy checks until his 18th birthday, at which magic moment, as with foster children, he is pushed out the door a lot crazier than he was when he came through the door and hooked on the prescription speed called Ritalin.
THE EFFECTIVENESS of helping professionals, public or private, is not overseen by independent third parties. It's a sinister state of affairs that sees the children of fragged and frazzled parents, many of them also products of the notoriously unstable foster system, serve as funding units for an array of middle class hustlers.
JAMES MARMON, a county social worker, posted this note on his Facebook page: “You all need to beware of this. The Agencies that are pushing this [Mental Health Privatization in Mendocino County] through are also adoption agencies. Therapists from these agencies are focused on treating children so that they adjust to their new homes, not for them to return to their families. I have been working for Mendocino County and/or some of these Agencies for the past 20+ years. My Master's concentration is Mental Health. All children in foster care receive services from these Agencies. There is good money in children, not families. We should spend more time and money fixing the parents of children than we do in foster care and adoption. The federal government is to blame for this because of the incentives they pay out to counties for speedy adoptions. Be aware of this please.”
MAN BEATER of the week: Miss Carolyn McGrew of Ukiah, bail set at ten thou. “I get all dressed up, get my make-up going for this guy, and does he even notice? Noooooo. All he does is ask me when's dinner. So I popped him one just to get his attention, wake him up a little. And he calls the cops. I ask you…”
SHERIFF ALLMAN tells Glenda Anderson of the Press Democrat that he's for drug testing Mendocino County employees, but the County employee manual already implies that suspected stoners can be tested: “Employees are expected and required to report to work on time and in appropriate mental and physical condition for work. It is our intent to provide a drug free, safe and secure work environment. The County recognizes drug dependency as an illness and a major health problem. The County also recognizes drug abuse as a potential health, safety, and security problem.”
IN OTHER WORDS, if we think you're loaded on the job we'll test you and compel you to seek therapy.
SHERIFF ALLMAN, a guy who doesn't look like he's averse to an occasional shot of Mother Cabrini, is a zero tolerance guy on drugs by virtue of both his position and personal inclination. Allman had made Tuesday's meeting of the Supervisors, preceded by a closed session discussion of the Losak Affair, more interesting than it might have otherwise been, but since Losak resigned late Monday afternoon, that may be the end of the issue. For now.
DRUG TESTING County employees, among them large numbers of closet stoners and, judging from the florid features of many, even more serious juicers, would seriously decimate the County work force. Factor in County employees on various prescription meds and you'd undoubtedly find what you find in the American population as a whole — a large number of fully narcotized citizens.
IF DRUG TESTING came to a vote, the Supervisors would go 3-2 against testing: Hamburg, Pinches and Smith would oppose. Brown and McCowen might also oppose testing but would at least speak to the now old fashioned notion that public employees, especially cops and officers of the court like Losak, should at least try to keep up a pretense of a commitment to lawfulness.
A FELLOW called Raymond Chadwick has been named interim superintendent of the Willits schools. In Jennifer Poole's account of Chadwick's appointment in The Willits News, we learn that Chadwick won his edu-bones as an administrator in the Ukiah school system. In fact, he ran the whole show for a while.
THE WILLITS superintendent, Debra Kubin, is now running the Ukiah schools. (Will the circle be unbroken?!) Chadwick's photo accompanying the story doesn't exactly scream “Scholar!” but you could also say that about most scholars, Paul Tichinin of the Mendocino County Office of Education, for example, a noted philologist away from his day job.
CHADWICK says he's been "consulting and doing special projects" since leaving his Ukiah sinecure, and took the Willits post because he thought it would be "a lot of fun."
POINT? IS THERE a point to these sarcasms? Not really, other than to say that I've lived in Mendocino County since 1970, and in all that time I've met maybe three school administrators I'd trust with my own kid's education, and none of them were from Willits, Ukiah, Laytonville, or Covelo.
THIS JUST IN: “One-Two Punch Productions will exec produce through Sony Pictures Television and Taylor Sheridan will write. Grass Valley is the story of two brothers whose lives and livelihoods are inextricably tied to the marijuana boomtown of Ukiah, California. When the DEA launches an assault on California’s medical marijuana industry they begin at ground zero — Grass Valley. Spera , former Mark Gordon Co TV president, partnered with former Lifetime exec Grasso to launch One-Two Punch about a year ago. The two met while working on Lifetime’s Army Wives, which Spera had developed. Spera served as executive producer on Army Wives and CBS’ Criminal Minds during her tenure at Mark Gordon Co. Before that she spent eight years at Showtime, where she was VP of movies, minis and series. Grasso previously served as SVP of scripted series and current programming at Lifetime; as an executive at The WB, where she bought and developed Everwood, One Tree Hill and Supernatural; as well as at Warner Bros TV, Universal TV and Comedy Central. Spera and Grasso are repped by WME.”
PREDICTABLY, Wes Chesbro, Noreen Evans and Jared Huffman, have voted to fund, at the expense of public education and the immediately needy, the bullet train, mother of all boondoggles. The bullet train is Democratic Party-sponsored pork for their labor constituents. (They ride around together in the long, black limos, these days.) When a speedy train runs from Frisco to LA, most of us will be dead.
SENATOR JOE SIMITIAN of Palo Alto was one of only four Democrats who voted no, even though he supports the long-term “vision” for a bullet train. “This is the wrong plan in the wrong place at the wrong time,” he said. Which it is, especially given that the Governor is starving education and the needy to pay for it. Not to mention local government.
IN SUNDAY MORNING’S CHRONICLE there was an op-ed by Democrat herd bull, Willie Brown, who, in his usual inelegant prose, denounces critics of the $3.4 billion project as being so “into instant gratification” that they should consider the services of “a hooker.” He'd know more about hookers than most of us, but I guess that kind of instant grat is the only kind Brown can think of.
THE MULTI-BILLION BULLET TRAIN is a grander version of the Democrat's eternal promise of restoration of rail service between Marin and Eureka, which also serves as a jobs program for the party's better connected former office holders and their aides.
IF, SAY, it was still 1950 when Americans included people who could bring off large-scale projects, high speed trains would be a good idea. They're still a good idea, but we'd have to hire China to get them done as fast and as correctly as the Chinese have recently accomplished their own high speed train system. The Japanese, of course, and much of Europe, has had viable, high speed train service for years.
BUT THE BULLET TRAIN, and the even more conceptually preposterous Central Subway project for San Francisco that will keep North Beach to CalTrain torn up years, will cost billions and probably never be fully realized even if they attract the kind of rider volume their advocates predict.
THE COUNTY’S MENTAL HEALTH BOARD has recommended that Laura’s Law not be implemented in Mendocino County, preferring instead that a “Mental Health Court” be established, an extremely unlikely outcome given the lack of funding for programs.
HIGHLIGHTS of the Mental Health Board’s Letter to the Supervisors: “Re: Laura's Law. On June 27, 2012 we held a special meeting of the mental health board to consider AB 1421, 'Laura’s Law.' Presentations were made by the Mental Health Director, Tom Pinizotto, and Public Defender Linda Thompson. The technical and financial considerations and advantages and disadvantages were reviewed. The Mental Health Board voted (six yeas and one abstention) to advise the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors to consider alternative options to Laura's Law and recommend the development of a program such as a Mental Health Court, expansion of full service partnerships and continue the utilization of conservatorships. We recognize that difficult cases of the past have developed when all departments of the county have not collaborated together to get the appropriate care for the one in need. The mental health staff, law enforcement and courts need to listen to family and significant others in making decisions. Integration requires that primary care, Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention, mental health, law enforcement and the judge at times all work in concert to bring about good care, safety and recovery. Provision of more assistance by a mental health specialist with a small caseload can save money in the long run when everyday help reduces jail and inpatient days. A system such as mental health court where all of these departments of the county will cooperate will do the job. Respectfully, Guy Grenny, Ph.D, Mental Health Board Chair”
Attached: “Advantages of implementing AB 1421 (Laura’s Law): 1. Provides an additional treatment resource for the community. 2. Allows family members to request service and may help noncompliant person in obtaining and engaging in treatment. 3. AB 1421 clients benefit from a higher staff to client ratio. 4. Provides treatment before an individual becomes gravely disabled or does harm to self or others.
“Disadvantages: 1. Lack of funding. 2. Offers only limited new tools. 3. Limits personal choice. 4. Civil liberty concerns. (Many clients are opposed to AB 1421 because of civil liberty concerns as are some client and patient rights organizations citing “choice, not coercion.” Involuntary mental health treatment is a sensitive topic that has long been debated in the mental health field. Opponents of AB 1421 argue that current provisions of the Lanterman-Petris-Short (LPS) Act rightfully uphold an individual's freedom and preserve an individual's rights to manage his or her healthcare. Under LPS treatments may not be provided voluntarily unless is proven that the individual is gravely disabled or is considered a danger to themselves or others.) 5. May not provide the type of enhanced treatment or avoidance of negative impact of mental illness that proponents hope for. 6. The effectiveness of voluntary outpatient care vs involuntary outpatient care is an open issue.”
THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS was scheduled to discuss possible implementation of Laura's Law and the Mental Health Board's disapproving memo along with a substantial amount of public input this Tuesday, June 10. Given the level of interest in the subject in the aftermath of the double murders of Matt Coleman and Jere Melo by a mentally disturbed Aaron Bassler last September, the discussion should be a wowser.
A 4.2 MAGNITUDE EARTHQUAKE, centered about three miles northwest of Fort Bragg, occurred at 5:05am Sunday morning. The mini-quake inspired the usual flurry of 911 calls to Mendocino County Sheriff's dispatch. Imagine the volume of police calls when a real earthquake hits, as communications instantly break down as the sillies all call in at once. Mendo's emergency services people ought to discourage 911 earthquake calls of the “Did you feel that?” variety every time we get a minor temblor.
A READER WRITES: “You know what a 'road hog' is. Well, we people pretty much all of us are environment and resource hogs. Even when we try to be good, there are so many of us that we have and are draining the water resources dry. The once huge salmonid resource struggles to survive at all due to our taking so much of the water necessary to power the streams and rivers. When you fly the county it is amazing to see all the ponds and trapped water that is unavailable to the fish and other species. What should have happened was that the state and the county should have stepped in much earlier to stop over drafting of the water resources. But fish and bears don't vote . . . and politicians need popularity (and money). We humans have done a piss-poor job on managing things and greed wins again. I'll see your outrage and raise you!”
APROPRO of nothing at all, in a Giants game last week Bumgarner, at the plate, growled at the pitcher for throwing too close to him when he squared around to bunt. The next day, Vogelsong threw his bat down and took a fighting step towards the mound when he squared around to bunt and the pitch came too close to him. Not that long ago pitchers were taught to throw at hitters who squared off to bunt before the pitch, the idea being that the hitter would have to put the wood on the ball in self-defense, hence few batters took up a bunting position before the pitch. When did pitchers stop doing that?
I HAVE fond memories of night classes at City College of San Francisco where I took biology and boxing one summer long ago. I hope the school isn't forced to close, but listening to a discussion of that possibility on KQED Radio last week led by a moist fellow named Iverson, it was difficult to figure out why it might close. Iverson constantly repeats statements as if translating for the mentally handicapped, getting in the way of the talk. Which anyway got in the way of itself with a barrage of cliches descended, I guess, from Therapy Land. “We need to be more flexible, creative, embrace change and focus on our incredibly awesome students who deserve a dynamic learning experience if we're to move ahead as the whole college comes together.” At the end of the hour, I still didn't know what exactly the probs were, but I supposed a combination of reduced funding and the usual entrenched boobery have put CCSF's survival in the Maybe box.
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