THE NORTHCOAST JOURNAL'S Ryan Burns writes: “Five of [Humboldt] County’s seven incorporated cities won’t see any competition on their November ballots: Arcata, Blue Lake, Ferndale, Rio Dell and Trinidad each qualified just enough candidates to fill the seats up for grabs. Eureka and Fortuna, meanwhile, have just three candidates running for two council seats apiece.”
BURNS suggests several reasons for the candidate gap: satisfaction with the status quo, lack of interest from political parties, the absence of status of local elected offices, a dearth of young up-and-comers, incompetent neophyte candidates, too many job demands, lack of ambition… And, “Former councilman and perennial [Arcata City] council candidate Dave Meserve offered an alternate theory: Since the Green Party (his party) lost its council majority in 2006, he said, the city has been taken over by ‘downtown business interests,’ and voters aren’t satisfied so much as complacent.
ASKED WHY HE wasn’t running this time around, Meserve said he’s focusing on Measure I (a novel proposal to tax high electricity use by grow houses). Plus, he said, ‘I don’t like to lose’.”
BURNS does not consider other possibilities for the dearth of candidates. There's also shrinking municipal budgets, meaning the person elected will spend his or her time saying NO a lot. And the mundane things that could be done to improve local government tend to be the unexciting government basics that your average “activist” or wannabe-politician really isn’t interested in.
IN MENDO'S most recent election, candidates, with the exception of DA Eyster, were vague to mute on specifics. The farther down you go on the electoral ladder, the sillier the campaigns. By the time you get to the school board level you find candidates getting up and saying stuff like, “Your children are the best looking, smartest little bastards I've ever seen. Elect me and I'll keep on lying to you.”
THIS SEASON'S SALMON catch is the best in years but, as we see in the attached statistics, woefully short of the great hauls earlier in the decade:
COMMERCIAL CATCH; 2001, 193,086; 2002, 391,655; 2003, 491,894; 2004, 502,110; 2005, 340,862; 2006, 69,728; 2007, 114,141; 2008, closed; 2009, closed; 2010, 15,088*; 2011, 69,783*; 2012, 150,000**; Source: Pacific Fisheries Management Council (*Limited seasons; **Through July 31) WE FIND THIS EXCHANGE attached to the latest Mental Health report to the Board of Supervisors:
QUESTION: I always hope effective administration results in reduced and streamlined 'administration' overseeing (more) robust service delivery. At first glance, it looks like half the FTE’s (full-time equivalents) are administrative positions. Is that accurate?
DIRECTOR STACEY CRYER’S REPLY: "The entire Mental Health staff in Behavioral Health and Recovery Services is now at 46 positions from 120 positions two years ago. The positions consist of 30 (65%) direct service staff, which includes clinicians, care managers, and crisis workers, 6 (13%) program support staff, and 10 (22%) administrative/fiscal staff. Administrative positions are essential positions which serve an entire system of service providers throughout the county. The services provided by the Mental Health Plan have been reduced by about 5%. Behavioral Health and Recovery Services administers the Mental Health Plan and is responsible for the services provided by Organizational Providers and contracts for Mental Health Services Act funding. Administrative positions but these are essential positions which serve an entire system of service providers throughout the county."
EITHER WAY, it’s top heavy. Ms. Cryer’s hair-splitting is basically saying that some of the admin people are administering other programs, but are being fully paid for out of the MHSA money, a common practice that makes it difficult to tell if anyone is really doing what they’re supposed to be doing. The questioner was right about the about half the “FTEs” being non-line workers because the list of funded positions shows: Director, Mental Health Services (1.0 FTE) Deputy Director, Clinical Services (1.0 FTE) MHSA Coordinator (1.00 FTE) Medical Director (1.0 FTE) Psychiatrist (0.5 FTE) Correctional Psychiatric Registered Nurse (1.0 FTE) Nurse Practitioner (0.8 FTE) Clinical Supervisors (4.58 FTE) Clinical Managers (2.0 FTE) MH Clinicians I and II (16.7 FTE) Program Specialist (2.0 FTE) Mental Health Rehabilitation Specialists (13.75 FTE) Department Analysts (3.14 FTE) Department IT Specialist (1.0 FTE) Account Specialist Supervisor/Supervising Staff Assistant (2.0 FTE) Account Specialists II & III (5.0 FTE) Human Services Worker (1.0 FTE) Quality Assurance Program Administrator/Supervising Clinician/Clinician (2.5 FTE) Administrative Services Manager (1.0 FTE) Support Staff (9.39 FTE).
BY OUR COUNT that’s about 34 line workers "delivering services" with about 35 admin and support people not delivering services.
ON FRIDAY, the State Legislature passed a bill which will prevent undocumented immigrants charged with minor crimes from being deported. Authored by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano of San Francisco, local police would be prohibited from detaining anyone on an immigration hold if the person is not charged with or has not been convicted of a serious or violent crime. The bill still needs Jerry Brown's signature to become law, and it is uncertain if Brown will.
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