Mendocino County Today: Monday, Jan. 31, 2022

Northerly Winds | Johnnie Pinoli | Rams Win | Peak Westport | MCHCD Conflicts | County Shorts | Valley Kids | Good Dog | Barefoot Bill | Mendo Maidens | Shed Bragg | Gaye Retires | 1920 Greenwood | Library Funding | Spyrock House | Laughable Bulbouts | Lady Hoopsters | Ed Notes | Fairy King | Corruption Index | Vienna Neighbors | Dropped Glock | Freedom Summer | Asymptomatic Spread | Yesterday's Catch | Toxic Legacy | Free World | Extreme Hypocrisy | Smoke Break | Favorite Audit | Two Tools | EV Batteries | Hep Cats | Voting Rights | Delivery Guy | Steam Laundry | Chanticleer | Printing Press | Weed Portal | Buckoltz Family

HIGH PRESSURE building off the coast will lead to gusty northerly winds across much of the region over the next few days. Another prolonged period of dry weather is on tap for the foreseeable future. (NWS)

COMING UP SHORT IN L.A. against Rams, 49ers face questions, deliver heartbreak

by Ann Killion

A final handful of stomach-churning seconds. How else would you expect the 20th game of this unexpected, roller coaster 49ers season to end?

With 106 seconds to play, the 49ers put the ball in Jimmy Garoppolo’s injured right hand and asked the quarterback that they want to fire to deliver them back into another Super Bowl.

And he couldn’t do it. On perhaps Garoppolo’s final play as a 49er, the ball was tipped and intercepted by the Rams.

For the first time in six games and three seasons, in the biggest game between the teams in more than three decades, the Rams finally beat the 49ers. The final score was 20-17.

And it will be the Rams who will be hosting the Super Bowl in their house in two weeks, facing the surprising Cincinnati Bengals.

For the 49ers it all ended too abruptly. They walked off the field that they had felt was their own and into the visiting locker room, where it finally hit them. The journey for this resilient, bonded team was over.

“That was an emotional locker room, like you’d expect,” said Garoppolo, who struggled with his own emotions in his postgame press conference.

For eight months, Garoppolo has heard the clock ticking. His time was going to come to an end and it really didn’t matter what he did, how he played. And all he did was get his team to the NFC Championship Game for the second time in three seasons. In both of his healthy seasons as the 49ers starter he took the team to the title game.

How did he handle it, day in and day out, he was asked.

Garoppolo swallowed hard, flashed his trademark smile and shook his head.

“I don’t know,” he said, his voice wavering. “Good people around me. It’s a great group. I love them like brothers.”

The fourth quarter was all too familiar to the 49ers. With a 10-point lead and victory within reach, just as in the Super Bowl two years ago, they couldn’t close the deal.

Garoppolo, of course, will be the one who is targeted for the game’s ugly final moments. Twice, the 49ers’ offense got the ball back in the final six minutes and 49 seconds. Twice, it couldn’t do anything with it. Garoppolo who threw for two touchdowns in the first half, was harrassed and rushed, took a delay of game, and looked rattled.

The scorn of social media landed squarely on his head.

But in many ways, it was the 49ers’ vaunted defense that allowed the Rams to come roaring back. They had no answer for Rams superstar receiver Cooper Kupp, who scored a touchdown to bring the Rams within a field goal. The Rams converted 11-of-18 third downs (61 percent) beating the 49ers at one of their own strengths.

Jaquiski Tartt dropped a sure interception and blamed himself for the loss. Jimmie Ward was called for a personal foul that moved the Rams down the field, where they eventually kicked a field goal to tie the game. And when the Rams got the ball back, they again moved easily into field goal range and kicked the game-winner.

Credit the Rams, who came into the game with all the pressure on them. Oh, to be a fly on the wall of the owner’s suite as the 49ers fans invaded SoFi and a “Beat L.A.” chant broke out in L.A.

Stan Kroenke built himself a $5 billion stadium. He mortgaged his team’s draft future for a quarterback and a team to win right now. To win Sunday’s game. To win the Super Bowl. To win the hearts of fans in Los Angeles. To elbow, at least a little, into a conversation that’s usually all about the Lakers and the Dodgers.

His gamble paid off on Sunday. The Rams beat the big brother that had bullied them for so long.

The teams are, in many ways, mirror images of each other, with hot-shot offensive coaches born from the same system, monster defensive lines and both featuring a star receiver. Anyone who thought this would be a lopsided game, in either way, was sadly misled.

One key difference? Rams coach Sean McVay went out and found a flashy new quarterback in Matthew Stafford. And Stafford, indeed, helped deliver the Rams to the Super Bowl.

So mission accomplished there. But anyone who doesn’t appreciate Garoppolo’s grace and gritty performance in this tumultuous season is missing the entire point of sports.

He has embodied the team’s resilience over the past four months. Counted out, flawed, erratic and injured, he battled back and, calmly, shockingly, led his team to win after win after win. And anyone who doesn’t think Garoppolo was the leader of this team wasn’t paying attention to the testimony of his teammates.

But the standard with the 49ers was set years ago by Joe Montana and enhanced by Steve Young. Getting to a conference title game simply isn’t good enough. No pressure there, Trey Lance.

On Sunday, Garoppolo completed 16 of 30 passes for 232 yards and two touchdowns. The interception at the very end came when the ball he flipped to JaMycal Hasty skipped off Hasty’s hands. It was his 16th loss as a 49ers starter.

Will history remember that Garoppolo had a mangled thumb and a sprained shoulder and gutted it out for the past month?

Maybe. It depends on the future. On what Lance does.

But given the parade of average 49er seasons and thoroughly forgettable quarterbacks the 49ers had before Garoppolo arrived and in the seasons when he wasn’t fully healthy, Garoppolo’s place in 49ers history might look better with the passage of time, rather than the scrolling kneejerk reaction of Twitter.

But that’s fodder for conversations about the 49ers in the future. And no one wanted to go there in the immediate aftermath of Sunday’s game.

Is this farewell to Garoppolo?

“I love Jimmy,” Kyle Shanahan said after the game. “I’m not going to sit here and make a farewell statement.”

On Sunday night, SoFi Stadium quickly emptied of the 60 percent or so 49ers fans who had filled it. The Rams played Randy Newman’s “I love L.A.” and dropped confetti in front of the remaining fans.

While the Rams are trying hard to win the hearts of L.A. fans, the hearts of the 49ers fans were left broken, once again.

So were the hearts of the players who bonded and battled and who will remember this season forever.

“You’ve got to be glad it happened,” Garoppolo said.

“Just smile and think about the good things.”

(sfchronicle.com)

UNPRESENT CONFIDENCE

by Chris Calder

Mendocino Coast Health Care District directors began 2022 in open conflict, judging by their first meeting of the year on January 27.

The meeting featured denunciations of board treasurer John Redding by board secretary Sara Spring and new board president Amy McColley, and Redding's explanation of why he referred an effort to pay Spring backdated health benefits, to the Mendocino County Grand Jury and District Attorney's office earlier this month.

Redding said he made the Grand Jury complaint as an effort to get a “cease and desist” order placed on the healthcare district issuing a check to Spring for $4200 she claimed in benefits from a board health plan that she was inadvertently not enrolled in immediately when she took office in 2020.

Though Redding acknowledged that he agreed to the payment to Spring last fall, he said Thursday night he later changed his mind and determined that Spring needed to provide more documentation. When McColley as board president issued the check in January, Redding as treasurer stopped payment. Then, McColley said Thursday, without contacting her further, Redding made his complaints to the Grand Jury and District Attorney.

Redding, McColley and Jessica Grinberg voted on Thursday night to grant the backdated benefits to both Spring and board member Norman de Vall, who was also enrolled in the health plan late.

But on returning to the meeting after that vote, during final statements from board members, Spring called out Redding for his overall behavior, which she characterized as “bullying.”

“Your actions are harmful to your fellow board members and your constituents,” Spring said.

McColley followed up with a similar statement, saying she had “found the last four weeks [since she was elected board president] extremely difficult” and accused Redding of “name-calling,” disclosure of legally protected personnel information, violations of the Brown Act public meetings law and needlessly calling in the Grand Jury and DA's office over a payment that had already been agreed on.

“My confidence in you is not present,” McColley told Redding.

Redding, who resumed the role of board treasurer at this month's meeting after refusing it in December, responded that he had come to believe that the payment to Spring was not backed up by adequate documentation and that he viewed McColley issuing the check to Spring as a violation of public trust, prompting him to call in the Grand Jury and DA.

“What I did was protect taxpayer money… I've called you and Sara to account for not doing your jobs. I think that is what is behind this,” he said.

After Spring's statement, de Vall had asked Spring if she wanted a “no confidence” vote to be taken on Redding. Spring said yes, and de Vall replied by voicing his support for Redding, while McColley made her statement of no confidence. Grinberg declined to state either way, but urged some kind of vote on Redding since “leaving a meeting with that noose around his neck seems unfair.”

Redding, aside from an overall defense of his actions as protecting the taxpayer — “the corruption and ethics in politics act takes precedence over the Brown Act,” he said — added “I guess I'm going to have to call for a vote of confidence on you and Sara, if you're going to play that game.”

In the end, no votes of confidence were taken. There was a reference to a special board meeting to be called Feb. 2 to discuss things further, but no meeting was scheduled before Thursday's meeting ended.

Hospital/Clinic Update

Adventist Health Mendocino Coast president Judy Leach gave an update on the hospital and clinics. She said scheduling delays reported last year have been relieved considerably after Adventist Health hired a call center to help with scheduling appointments and other communications. Wait times, she said, have eased, while the number of visits to the clinics has soared over the past year, from around 25,000 in 2020, to more than 32,000 last year.

Leach said a fault with an AT&T cable knocked out internet to the hospital this week, and while communications in and out of the hospital are affected, patient care was not. She said she had no time line for repair as of Thirsday night, but hoped to know within a day.

Hospital Rebuild/Sherwood Oaks

Members of the public asked for updates on plans to refurbish the hospital, and on the status of Sherwood Oaks Health Center, which is threatened with possible closure due to extreme staffing shortages. Neither item was on the board's agenda. Board member Jessica Grinberg said she has been working with community members on Sherwood Oaks and that she sees a “glimmer of hope.” The Coast Democratic Club is hosting a forum on coast healthcare via Zoom Feb. 3 at 6 p.m., at which new details on Sherwood Oaks and hospital plans might be discussed. Event details are on the Coast Democratic Club's Facebook page.

COUNTY SHORTS

by Mark Scaramella

We hope we’re not the only ones finding some serious irony in this post from Supervisor Maureen Mulheren:

THESE TWO CHARTS in the Planning and Building presentation set for Tuesday’s Supervisors meeting caught our eye.

SELECTED ANONYMOUS COMMENTS to Strategic Plan consultants:

[1] “While grant funding is all well and good and aligning available monies with strategic initiatives is smart, the financial sustainability of the County is at risk due to the cannabis market crash. It has been what our County’s economy has been built upon for decades and it is coming to a rapid close. We need to find ways to attract value added, living wage jobs to our County. We need new sources of tax revenue and thus far the City of Ukiah has outmaneuvered the County at every turn (Costco). We need something like an Amazon fulfillment center that could potentially generate sales tax revenue.” 

[2] “Calls for PHF, CRT and training center which were promised under Measure B but despite collecting $25 million+ from taxpayers, four years into this I am not aware of a single client that has been helped and I’m a Measure B Committee member.”

[3] “It has become clear to me that we need a better way of tracking measurables. While we have spent lavishly on mental health over the last several decades I don’t think anyone believes we have improved the level of mental health problems in the last 30 years. While some would argue that we have better services and methods, few would argue we have better results. There is much ado about holding agencies accountable, it hasn’t happened yet.”

POT BUREAUCRACY EXPLODES AS POT PRODUCTION PLUMMETS…

(From Tuesday Supervisors Board Meeting Agenda Package)

Mendocino Cannabis Program (MCP) Staffing Update 

(Feb 1. 2022)

The Mendocino Cannabis program has interviewed for planner I, planner II, chief planner, admin assistant, staff assistant, department analyst, office services supervisor, and program administrator, During the first round of interviews the program hired 1 – planner I, 1 – staff assistant, and 1 – program administrator all of whom on boarded with the program in November and December 2021. The program opened a second recruitment period for planner techs, planner I, planner II, senior planner, chief planner, staff assistant, admin assistant, department analyst, office services supervisor, and program manager. 

The program currently has 6 – planner tech, planner I/II positions, 1 – planner cartographer, 1 – staff assistant, 1 – admin assistant, 1 – department analyst, 1 – office services supervisor, 1 - senior planner, 1 – chief planner, and 1 – program manager position available that we are currently interviewing for. Additionally, the MCP is working to complete a Request for Proposal (RFQ) seeking qualified contract planners to temporarily assist with the review and processing of applications and appendix g CEQA checklists. 

CANNABIS PERMIT PORTAL UPDATE

The MCP has completed the review of all 990 portal application submissions and is working with County Counsel and outside counsel to determine next steps for those with incomplete submissions. Once staff has completed this process with counsel we will provide an update to the public, agents, and applicants. The MCP intends to provide a minimum of 30-day notice to those who are eligible to correct deficiencies via the 30- day corrections portal. 

JEFF BURROUGHS wonders if you can identity the Valley kids in these photos.

In twilight quietly
My good dog sniffs sampling scents
Here in our garden

— Jim Luther

BRAD WYLIE NOTES: “Last week I received a phone call from a gent in Crescent City, chatty fellow and childhood friend of local ‘adult’ softball league barefoot star Bill Fleisher. Some readers may recall I wrote last year a couple of reminiscences about our weekly athletic follies over forty years ago. Well, the caller had grown up with Bill and his sisters in suburban Concord, and he provided me with their names and phone numbers. I will call them this week hoping they will want to be the beneficiary of Bill’s elegant fielder’s glove. For the first time in years I oiled it in anticipation they become the appropriate possessors of the mitt and the memories it brings back to us. When I drive down to Navarro Beach I always look the other way on the first upstream corner where Bill died in that auto accident.”

NEVER TOO LATE

Editor: 

I read with interest the front-page article about a Fort Bragg citizens’ committee convening to consider whether the city should shed the name of Braxton Bragg, a Southern slaveholder and Confederate general. I urge people to read about John C. Fremont, Kit Carson and Andrew Kelsey, just to name a few other individuals who have towns named in their honor despite their known mistreatment and massacre of Native Americans. People who are known to have taken part in despicable acts should not be honored. I was taught that it’s never too late to right a wrong, if it can be done.

Tom Holtzen

Geyserville

PRESS DEMOCRAT EDITORIAL: GAYE LEBARON

We try to maintain a certain detachment in our editorials, but this one is different. This one is a fan letter to Gaye LeBaron.

Gaye is a friend, mentor and beloved colleague for all of us at The Press Democrat, where she has told the stories of Sonoma County across an extraordinary 65-year career.

Her final column is — where else? — on the front page.

True to Gaye’s self-effacing nature, she saved her own news for last.

“I want to be very clear,” she wrote. “I haven’t been fired. I’m not sick. I’m not leaving town. I have just run my course and it’s time to make room for others.”

And what a course it has been.

Gaye has written approximately 8,500 columns for The Press Democrat, meeting daily deadlines for four decades before switching to a twice-a-month schedule in 2001. Along the way, she covered presidents, the World Series and even Queen Elizabeth. But that’s pack journalism, practiced at a distance. Gaye made Sonoma County her beat, and she owned the story.

Her columns — mixing commentary, wry observations, news tidbits and scoops — are like the best letters — chatty and knowing and always written, as a colleague once said, with a smile, not a sneer.

She is, of course, a gifted storyteller. But sustaining a newspaper column for so many years takes something more. Gaye is a reporter’s reporter, building and tending a network of contacts that stretches into practically every corner of the community.

She’s also the co-author of two informative histories of Santa Rosa.

Few newspaper columnists have ever been so closely associated with one city for so long. Herb Caen and San Francisco, Mike Royko and Chicago, Gaye LeBaron and Santa Rosa.

It’s no coincidence that her face is painted alongside the likes of Charles Schulz, Luther Burbank and Jack London in a mural on the side of the The Press Democrat building honoring 50 people who helped shape Sonoma County in the 20th century.

Gaye also helped shape generations of Press Democrat journalists — answering our questions, sharing history, drawing connections, opening doors, passing along tips, trading stories. We’re grateful for her patience and generosity.

In recognition of all that she means to The Press Democrat and the community at large, as well as her love of good storytelling and affinity for Santa Rosa Junior College, we are creating a Gaye LeBaron Writing Scholarship.

The scholarship from The Press Democrat Community Fund will be awarded annually to an aspiring writer attending the junior college, where Gaye studied before transferring to UC Berkeley and earning degrees in English and history.

Allow us to finish with a personal note. Gaye, you have distinguished The Press Democrat since 1957. Thank you, and should you get the urge to write, we’ll have a spot waiting. As you read our work, we hope it will reflect the same devotion you have shown for your craft and Sonoma County.

---

MIKE GENIELLA: “So love this individual. Gaye is our close friend and my longtime newspaper colleague at The Press Democrat. She became a mentor when I arrived on the North Coast in 1985. I learned so much from Gaye about the people and the history of this region. We also share an ancestral connection to the Azores (her Portuguese mother was from Pico island and my grandfather was from neighboring Sao Jorge). Our relationship wasn't all work. Once we danced the jitterbug together in our kitchen on Spencer Avenue in Santa Rosa while celebrating St. Patrick's Day. She's good at that too!”

ED NOTE: Also a long-time fan of Ms. LeBaron although we clashed a few times over the long years. In its prime, before the cyber-monster ate America's newspapers, the Press Democrat was a daily must read on the Northcoast, as was Gaye's column. It's truly the end of the end with Gaye retiring.

FLASH WILLIAMS: 

A week or so ago, there was a post regarding the proposal for an additional tax to support the Mendocino County Library in the face of declining revenues. Most of the responses and many of the comments ignored the various reports issued by the Mendocino Grand Jury regarding the funding of the Library. I am attaching the most recent of those reports (only the introduction actually) to give everyone a better idea of the scope of this funding concern. I will note, as the Grand Jury does in this introduction, that the Library precedes Prop 13 and its limits. The Library is a special district and that means its funding should come from the general property tax base - which is not precisely what has been done. The report below is much more precise and clear than I am perhaps being, but it is a worthy read. 

THE LIBRARY

May 27, 2015

SUMMARY

This is the second time in two years the Grand Jury has chosen to review Mendocino County’s handling of the County Free Library.

During the investigation, a frequent answer to many of the Grand Jury’s questions that dealt with why the County is using a particular method of handling an issue was, “I don’t know” or “Ask the Auditor.” These responses seemed a bit strange to the Grand Jury when coming from the staff responsible for constructing the budget for presentation to the Board of Supervisors. When the Grand Jury looked at the listing of revenue and expenses in the Library budget, the only change from the 2013-14 FY to the 2014-15 FY was a line item labeled A-87.

The County administration still does not recognize the Library as a Special District, despite State law and clearly stated conclusions by previous County officials conceding the issue.

The State Revenue and Taxation Code1 states:

“…any special district authorized to levy a property tax by the statute under which the district was formed shall be considered a special district. Additionally, a county free library established pursuant to Article 1 (Commencing with Section 19100) of Chapter 6 of Part 11 of Division 1 of Title 1 of the Education Code and for which a property tax was levied in the 1977-78 fiscal year, shall be considered a special district.”

Prior to the enactment of Prop 13, the Mendocino County Free Library was supported by a property tax levy in the 1977-78 fiscal year. Therefore, after Prop 13, the Library in Mendocino County is still a Special District entitled to its pro rata share of the property tax.2

The 2013-14 Grand Jury pointed out that the Librarian’s salary is required to be paid out of the same fund as that of other County officials as stated in Education Code §19147. This reading of the code section is categorically rejected by County officials.

Their current interpretation of this code section relies on changing the word “same” into “same kind of” and on ignoring the companion section, Education Code §19148.

Many of the questions asked by the Grand Jury of County officials were answered by referring the Grand Jury to the County Auditor for answers. The Grand Jury then asked the County Auditor the questions and one of the responses the Grand Jury received was (in the case of why items were reflected in the budget a certain way), “We have always done it this way.”

The Grand Jury heard from various staff and officials that they do not understand many, if any, of the A-87 rules and regulations. The Grand Jury found this to be disappointing given the report from last year that raised serious issues about the propriety of A-87 costs for equipment and building use.

1 Revenue and Taxation Code Article 1 §95. This section is under the heading of Implementation of Article XIII of the California Constitution – otherwise known as Prop 13.

The other primary response to issues concerning the various A-87 costs was that the State Auditor accepted the reports issued by the County Auditor on A-87 costs. The A-87 cost plan is audited by the State to determine if the plan is correct for the State and Federal cost accounting purposes only. The County applies the plan to the Library for a different purpose. The Grand Jury believes that the staff working on the budget and the Board of Supervisors voting on the budget should question if doing the budget “the same way” is either the proper or correct manner of enacting a budget.

The Grand Jury devoted time and effort in reviewing the responses to the Report from 2013-14. It was clear that fuller explanations in the responses, as required by Penal Code §933.05, would enhance the public’s understanding of the issues. The full report and all of the various other reports on the Library can be found on the Mendocino County Web Page under the heading Grand Jury.

SPYROCK MEMORIES

WALLPAPERING OVER THE DRY ROT

by Tommy Wayne Kramer

The next thing they’ll do is repaint all those bulbout curbs black so the hundreds of tires that rub against them daily won’t leave telltale marks.

After that, they’ll block State Street off from vehicles entering between West Henry and Mill Streets. This will be explained as a “Pedestrian Safety” measure following a study conducted by the city suggesting downtown sidewalks “pose grave risk and imminent danger” from reckless drivers making unsafe righthand turns onto State Street.

What they’ll never do, despite having years to study and prepare, and despite the input of consultants, traffic engineers and construction workers, is admit they were wrong about their multimillion dollar State Street revamp project and the laughable bulbouts.

This was the City of Ukiah at its haughtiest and most arrogant, armed by an administration that declined all input, ignored advice repeatedly offered at meetings and in letters to the editor, and proceeded with calm and certainty toward an embarrassing and disastrous finish.

Everything was perfection-plus about the brilliant Streetscape plan except when finished most trucks and some cars couldn’t drive on it.

Other than that, just another quiet year at Fort Ukiah.

‘PUT MY HANDS UP, NOW!’

I only recently learned a lawsuit has been filed against various local police agencies and their officers for alleged misconduct by making illegal traffic stops on Highway 101. 

One of the officers named is former Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman, now a Deputy Sheriff for the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office. Let’s imagine Officer Allman quietly approaching a small house on the eastern outskirts of Willits.

Raising a bullhorn to his lips he shouts:

“Alright, I’m under arrest! I know I’m in there and I’ve got me covered; if I don’t come out with my hands up I’m coming in after me!”

LIFE NEEEDS TWO-MINUTE WARNINGS

It’s Super Bowl time, another sports extravaganza I’d happily avoid even if it didn’t exist, but it gives us one more opportunity to kick around the hapless Cleveland Browns. (It’s not nice to kick a team when it’s down, but the Browns are never up.)

Q) What do you call a Cleveland Brown with a Super Bowl ring?

A) A thief.

Q) How do you keep the Cleveland Browns from trampling all over your front yard?

A) Put up some goal posts.

And finally, from the Last Will & Testament of a suburban Clevelander who requested six members of the Cleveland Browns serve as pallbearers at his graveside services, “So they can let me down one last time.”

FUND RADIO SHACK TOO!

There’s noise about another tax increase so more money can be funneled into our obsolete library systems.

This is a drive motivated by sentiment and nostalgia, based on rosy recollections in the lives of (elderly) enthusiasts for long-gone experiences in libraries that bear no resemblance to today’s.

There was a similar tax hike 25 years ago to “Save Our Libraries” but we’d all be better off, at least financially, had it failed. The only thing 21st century libraries supply is a place indoors for transients and a central location to herd children who would rather be somewhere else. 

Teenagers have more information in their phone than all the libraries and librarians in Mendocino County put together, times 1000. There is no more pressing need for libraries today than for Sears & Roebuck outlets, Beta Max videos or Newsweek Magazine. All died of natural causes. 

To keep the local library system on life support prolongs the inevitable with tax dollars better off in our own bank accounts. We could spend the money on vacations to Cleveland, tires for the car and lots of new books on Kindle. 

A Kindle has more to read at the click of a button than you’ve ever read in your life, and more inside a 5 x 7 slab than all the books County libraries have ever handled. The collected works of Edgar Allan Poe for a penny, everything by Shakespeare, 99 cents. Bestsellers at a discount. Lots of books free or under a dollar, and anybody who self-publishes can sell it on Amazon Books. 

The reason we don’t still have a thriving Pony Express service is obvious to anyone but library workers, baby boomers and progressives who can’t wait to plant “Help Save Libraries for Our Children’s Future!” signs in the front yard. 

The new signs will be a virtue-signaling exercise to assure neighbors of the commitment to help bring healing to our community. Those old “We Can Do Better Racism” and the blue-and-orange “No Matter What You Did, Come Live with Me” signs are suddenly no longer fashionable.

They’ll also want bumper stickers.

(Tom Hine says giving money to the library is like sending money to any other county agency, like the Department of Weights and Measures or Social Services. TWK thinks libraries should hold bake sales, twice a week if necessary.)

ED NOTES

A GUY NAMED ZWERLING is leading the Fort Bragg name change offensive. I've exchanged thunderbolts with him to no mutual agreement, but he's open to discussion, which doesn't endear him to me but at a minimum indicates he's amenable to reason, unlike most of the anon censoring prigs of cancel culture. And don't think they'll stop at a name change. They'll be in the schools, at all sorts of public forums, agitating to re-write history according to their very dim lights, which only switched on with the murder of George Floyd, a career criminal magically elevated to martydom.

I THINK the sanitizing of American history, as the name changers would have it, is very dangerous because it's already cutting both ways, with the fascist right also clamoring to excise the more discouraging events and practices of American history. Our history is what it is, as the young people say. The most encouraging thing about it is the country somehow hanging together as long as it has.

AT BOTTOM, the censors, left, right and wrong, don't trust people, don't trust us to discern truth from untruth, which is the minimum standard definition of sanity. Truth to tell, my faith in the ability of my fellow citizens to distinguish truth from untruth was rocked when half of them elected Trump president. I still don't see how anyone in full possession of his faculties could look at and listen to that preposterous clown and emotionally and intellectually, enthusiastically, vote for him. 

ALMOST DITTO regarding the obviously incapacitated Biden, but he was elected by default because he wasn't Trump, and Trump himself was elected because he wasn't Hillary. America's in major default mode. Recent elections indicate that America is winding down. Still and all, regardless of the sheer amount of untruth heaped on us during our every waking moment, canceling people and opinions we don't like will be our undoing, and that undoing is underway.

TAKE IT AWAY, ZWERLING: 

The Ad Hoc name Change Commission reported to the City Council on 1/24/22 after some 50 private meetings over 18 months. Now we can see how far we have come and how far we have to go.

The Commission came up with six proposals they had agreed to unanimously and I think we can all support their ideas for an indigenous cultural center, more historical education in local schools, etc. And the City Council received those ideas with words of support which may or may not be matched by action in the months ahead.

On the issue of the name change itself “the Commission was divided.” This is not surprising since the Council appointed advocates for and against the name change to the Commission. In that sense, no other outcome could have been predicted. City Council members who spoke that night, Rafanan, Albin-Smith, and Peters, all spoke in opposition to the name change.

However, the Commission had undertaken an unscientific poll of residents on the issue online and through paper questionnaires attached to water bills and reported that 38.2 % supported the name change and 57.4% opposed.

I think we can see several implications:

1) there is a large (and to my mind growing minority in favor of the name change. After all, 38% is not far from a 51% majority and the demographics of Fort Bragg keep changing as the City grows.

2) the other proposals form the Commission (education, outreach, honoring cultural diversity) can only increase an understanding of why a name change is necessary

3) the process of changing our name will likewise lead to educational meetings, cultural events, and resident-to-resident interactions that will improve life in our City.

I think we should embrace the work and suggestions of the Commission and continue work to change the name of Fort Bragg.

PG&E PROBATION, HATE SPEECH, GROCERY PRICES, AND CORRUPTION INDEX

by Jim Shields

Hate Speech Nonsense

I recently wrote a column featuring former county supervisor John McCowen’s thoughts on retiring CEO Carmel Angelo’s tenure in Mendo County.

Believe it or not, some PC lunatics called McCowen’s insider insights “hate speech.”

Are you kidding me. We’re talking politics here, not all this “woke” crap emanating from neurotics.

Here are folks comments responding to the BS hate speech charges.

Beth Bosk: I shared John McCowen’s post [critical of CEO Angelo] to both the Mendocino County 4th & 5th District group sites. It was immediately dumped as "hate speech" by the manager of the 4th District group site. Folks are commenting on it on the 5th District site, but that may be in an adjunct "Community" site established by Bruce Broderick. Retelling a personal history that involves criticism of one public official by another is not hate speech, it's lived history.

John McCowen: A few days ago the Administrator of the [Fourth & Fifth] District pages deleted the following comment which was considered to be bullying or hate speech: "The mismanagement starts at the top with CEO Angelo who is more concerned with rewarding her friends and punishing her perceived enemies than with managing the county for the benefit of the public." If this is hate speech or bullying then either the Administrator lived a very sheltered life or is personal friends with the CEO.

Dickey Weinkle:  I shared it on the Willits Fan Page Community page. It was approved with a notation at the bottom that it was hate speech. What a pile of poop.

Supervisor Mo Mulheren: Recent editorial comments have been “interesting.” The fact of the matter is that Mendocino County has five Board of Supervisors [sic] that represent the community and will need to decide what needs to happen next with this [CEO] position. So before anyone goes jumping to conclusions please know that the decision about how to move forward, will be agendized for the January 25th meeting. This has been an ongoing discussion the last year that I’ve been on the Board, please feel free to ask questions and share opinions but know that NO DECISIONS have been made yet.

Douglas Coulter: Is it hate speech to say Adolf Hitler did great things for Germany's economy but destroyed any who opposed him. Book burning, propaganda, censorship, intimidation all backfired to leave the name Hitler as a curse and his nation in ruins. Read the praise for Adolf from America's media and government up until 1939. His methods work for quick results but do not endure, they create backlash.

PG&E’s Probation About To End

If PG&E’s five years on federal probation was intended to rehabilitate the state-authorized electrical monopoly, it’s been a failure

With PG&E’s criminal probation set to expire as I write this, one can only hope that a last-minute change will keep the company under a federal judge’s supervision.

However, the handwriting is already on the wall as federal district Judge William Alsup said last week that he would not seek to extend PG&E’s time on probation because federal prosecutors did not take him up on his offer to continue probation.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for California’s Northern district declined the judge’s offer, writing that a hearing was not “necessary,” citing uncertainty about the court’s ability to impose more punishment.

“The fact that the federal prosecutor will not take the judge’s lead and keep these people on probation so that they are scrutinized, so they cannot kill another person, is a slap in the face,” said Paradise town council member Steve Culleton. “It is a slap in the face to everybody that survived the Camp Fire and the 85-plus people that died.”

Disaster survivors slammed U.S. Attorney Stephanie Hinds and her office for deciding not to try to set a precedent, given PG&E’s repeated offenses.

Judge Alsup’s investigations of probation violations have revealed countless details of PG&E’s involvement in wildfires that most likely would never have come come to light.

PG&E’s probation officer filed violations last November because PG&E had been charged with dozens of new criminal offenses in the 2019 Kincade and 2020 Zogg Fire.

The charges include felony manslaughter of the four people killed in the Zogg Fire.

“At this juncture, it appears that the state courts are the proper forum” for those issues, the U.S. Attorney’s office said earlier this month.

That’s a copout because if a drug dealer on federal probation commits crimes in the last couple of months of supervision, he’s tossed back into prison.

Many survivors of PG&E disasters have made it clear that they wanted probation extended.

If the judge were to extend probation, most legal experts say PG&E would certainly appeal and would have a strong argument due to the five-year maximum set by federal law.

However, it can also be argued that since PG&E has been convicted of deadly crimes during their probation, continuing it would be more than appropriate and justified.

I found that Santa Clara University law professor Catherine Sandoval, who represents PG&E customers pro bono in the probation, hit the nail on the head when she said, “This isn’t just detention at school. You have 115 people who have died due to PG&E’s actions while on probation. If they were a person, not only would they be in jail, but they’d be looking at a death sentence.

In his comments last week, Judge Alsop indicated extending probation was a step he wasn’t willing to take without having prosecutors on record ready to defend the move if it were appealed by PG&E.

“In the absence of a motion by the United States Attorney to extend probation, the Court will not do so on its own,” Judge Alsup wrote last week in a filing that said PG&E had “failed” to rehabilitate and “has gone on a crime spree and will emerge from probation as a continuing menace to California.”

If no further action is taken, PG&E’s probation will end shortly after Jan. 25 once all the paperwork is finished.

Let’s hope Judge Alsup has a last-minute change of mind and does the right thing: Extend PG&E’s probation, a move that truly would be justice for all Californians who have been damaged by its unlawful behavior for far too long.

California Farm Production, Drought, and Escalating Price of Groceries

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, food prices are up 5.3 percent over the past year, but some grocery items have shot up much higher. For example, meat is up 16%, fats and oils (for cooking, I presume) are up 9.1%, and fish, seafood, and eggs all rose 8%.

Booze is a relative great buy since prices increased only 1.3%. That makes it easier for shoppers to get soused after spending 50 bucks for a small bag of groceries.

While all the economic experts cite the nebulous “supply chain” as the culprit for consumers price spikes, there’s also direct linkage to what’s happening down on the farm.

California farmers and ranchers who rely on the State Water Project were hit hard back in August when the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) cut off surface water supplies from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Now DWR is increasing deliveries from the State Water Project to 15% of requested supplies for 2022, which hopefully will lead to some reduction in store prices.

According to the California Farm Bureau, citrus farmers face rising costs and smaller harvests for bringing their crops to market. The California Citrus Mutual trade association says farmers are facing price increases in water, labor, fertilizer, pesticides and transportation. Amid drought and pandemic-related supply-chain challenges, 4% of last season’s citrus crop was neither picked nor sold. This year, a down-year growing cycle, the navel crop is expected to drop by 20% and mandarins by as much as 45%.

Likewise, California’s anticipated tomato production shrank last year due to water shortages and higher production costs. Some processing-tomato growers who once paid $3,000 per acre on their crop say they’re paying more than $4,000. Last year, state processors intended to contract for 12.1 million tons of tomatoes. By the end of harvest, that figure had dropped by 1.3 million tons, as farmers adjusted production forecasts downward.

U.S. 27th On World-Wide Corruption Index

I came across a new study from Transparency International, an independent nonprofit group that, according to its website, “work[s] to expose the systems and networks that enable corruption to thrive, demanding greater transparency and integrity in all areas of public life.”

Last week, the group released its annual Corruption Perception Index, a score-based system that "ranks 180 countries and territories around the world by their perceived levels of public sector corruption. The results are given on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).

As anti-corruption efforts stagnate worldwide, human rights and democracy are also under assault.

The global COVID-19 pandemic has also been used in many countries as an excuse to curtail basic freedoms and side-step important checks and balances.

While corruption takes vastly different forms from country to country, this year’s scores reveal that all regions of the globe are at a standstill when it comes to fighting public sector corruption.

At the top of the CPI, countries in Western Europe and the European Union continue to wrestle with transparency and accountability in their response to COVID-19, threatening the region’s clean image. In parts of Asia Pacific, the Americas, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, increasing restrictions on accountability measures and basic civil freedoms allow corruption to go unchecked. Even historically high-performing countries are showing signs of decline.

In the Middle East and North Africa, the interests of a powerful few continue to dominate the political and private sphere, and the limitations placed on civil and political freedoms are blocking any significant progress. In Sub-Saharan Africa, armed conflict, violent transitions of power and increasing terrorist threats combined with poor enforcement of anti-corruption commitments rob citizens of their basic rights and services.

The United States comes in a tie for 27th place — with Chile. Both have a Corruption Perception Index score of 67. 

By way of comparison, the least corrupt countries — Denmark, Finland and New Zealand — all have a score of 88. Among the countries with healthier scores are many of the major democracies of Western Europe, including Germany (80) and the United Kingdom (78).

The United States' Corruption Perception Index score had been on the decline for several years. In 2015, the US was at 76. In 2016, 74. By 2020, the US was down to 67, where it remained in 2021. 

Why? Simple, according to an analysis from Transparency International: 

“The country’s lack of progress on the CPI can be explained by the persistent attacks against free and fair elections, culminating in a violent assault on the US Capitol, and an increasingly opaque campaign finance system,” according to the report.

(Jim Shields is the Mendocino County Observer’s editor and publisher, and is also the long-time district manager of the Laytonville County Water District. Listen to his radio program “This and That” every Saturday at 12 noon on KPFN 105.1 FM, also streamed live: http://www.kpfn.org)

THE TEENAGER’S GHOST GUN

On Friday, January 28, 2022 at approximately 2152 hours, a Ukiah Police Officer was conducting uniformed patrol in the area of E. Gobbi St. and S. Orchard Ave. when he observed a motor vehicle with an equipment violation. A traffic stop was conducted on the vehicle where five occupants were subsequently contacted. When the UPD officer approached the vehicle, he observed the front seat passenger of the vehicle open the door slightly, and drop an unknown item onto the ground. An arriving cover officer was alerted to this fact and quickly discovered what appeared to be a firearm directly under the passenger door of the vehicle. 

For officer safety concerns, the UPD officers drew their department issued firearms and moved to positions of safety. After additional cover officers from UPD, CHP, and MCSO arrived on scene, the subjects were called out of the vehicle one at a time during a high-risk traffic stop. 

After all the vehicle occupants were detained, the vehicle was searched and deemed safe. The firearm was secured and it was discovered that the handgun was a 9mm “P80” Glock style semi-automatic pistol. These types of firearms are unlawfully manufactured and do not bear serial numbers and are often referred to as “ghost guns.” The firearm was found to have an unlawfully possessed high capacity magazine that had 6 rounds of live 9mm ammunition loaded into the magazine which was located inserted into the magazine well of the firearm. 

After concluding the investigation on scene, it was determined that the front seat passenger had been the possessor of the firearm and was discovered to be 16 years of age. He was arrested for the above listed charges and was transported to the Mendocino Juvenile Hall after being medically cleared for incarceration per COVID 19 protocol.

The Ukiah Police Department would like to thank the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office and the California Highway Patrol with their assistance in this matter.

KEEP NURSES SAFE

To the Editor:

Nurses want to spread care, not COVID.

The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) recently announced dangerous guidance allowing asymptomatic health care workers who test positive for COVID-19 or who have been exposed to the virus and are asymptomatic to return to work immediately without isolation or testing.

The pandemic is not over. We are in the midst of a record-breaking surge of Covid-19 driven by the Omicron variant. California is running out of hospital beds, and nurses and other health care workers are already reporting extreme levels of moral distress and injury. It is unconscionable that CDPH allow infected asymptomatic workers back to work. I guess they want to accelerate the pandemic into the endemic status.

Any healthcare worker who tests positive for COVID-19 must isolate for at least 5 days, whether symptomatic or not, or until their tests are negative. Eliminating the isolation time and sending, infected health care workers to work will guarantee the transmission of more infections, hospitalizations, and deaths. We have already had 111 deaths here in Mendocino County since the pandemic began.

Hospitals and clinics must provide daily screening for those exposed and recovering from COVID and provide protections like optimal PPE and notification to other health care workers of known exposures.

CDPH must rescind this new guidance in order to protect patients, and keep nursing colleagues healthy and safe on the front lines.

Robin Sunbeam, RN, MSN, PHN

Ukiah

CATCH OF THE DAY, January 30, 2022

JENNIFER BOWMAN, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, failure to appear.

DAVID CEDENO, Fresno/Laytonville. DUI-alcohol&drugs.

CARLOS CRUZ-BARRERA, Ukiah. DUI, no license.

JESSE DAVENPORT, Willits. Controlled substance, bringing alcohol or drugs into jail, evasion, failure to appear.

DEBORAH HELLER, Willits. Protective order violation.

GILBERTO HERNANDEZ-FRIAS, Ukiah. DUI, no license.

NATHAN MAXWELL, Ukiah. DUI with prior.

NAOMI MILLS, Ukiah. DUI.

AVERY PARSONS, Fort Bragg. Domestic battery, criminal threats, protective order violation.

SHANE PORTER, Fort Bragg. Domestic battery.

MARTIN SOTO-MORA, Ukiah. Sale/transportation of marijuana.

THE RICH WILL ABANDON US

To the Editor:

The ultra-rich and their corporations have destroyed the viability of the planet in order to maintain their way of life. Be sure the one percent are developing escape plans to leave our toxic, destroyed planet for cleaner ones they can pollute anew.

A burning hot planet, collapse of planetary ecosystems. Their insidious power and influence is responsible for misleading “the masses” into accepting the destruction of the planet they depend on.

Science, which these people have always ignored because it doesn’t benefit them, says a “planetary boundary,” the point at which human-made changes to the Earth begin to destroy the stable environment of the last 10,000 years, has been breached. “The toxic chemical planetary boundary is the fifth of nine that scientists say have been crossed; the others are the destruction of wild habitats, loss of biodiversity, and excessive nitrogen and phosphorus pollution.” This doesn’t even take into account greenhouse gasses. With a 50-fold increase in the manufacture of 350,000 toxic chemicals since 1950, the weight of Earth’s man-made toxic chemicals now surpasses that of all Earth’s mammals combined.

This is the legacy of death that planetary control by the ultra-rich from the last 100 years have left us. I hope their fancy rocket ships explode in the vast emptiness of space and they float, breathless, through eternity.

Lynn Gulyash

Potter Valley

U.S. TO RUSSIA: DO AS WE SAY, NOT AS WE DO

by Norman Solomon

Hidden in plain sight, the extreme hypocrisy of the U.S. position on NATO and Ukraine cries out for journalistic coverage and open debate in the USA’s major media outlets. But those outlets, with rare exceptions, have gone into virtually Orwellian mode, only allowing elaboration on the theme of America good, Russia bad. 

Aiding and abetting a potentially catastrophic -- and I do mean catastrophic -- confrontation between the world’s two nuclear superpowers are lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Like the media they echo and vice versa, members of Congress, including highly touted progressives, can scarcely manage more than vague comments that they want diplomacy rather than war. 

Imagine if a powerful Russian-led military alliance were asserting the right to be joined by its ally Mexico -- and in the meantime was shipping big batches of weapons to that country -- can you imagine the response from Washington? Yet we’re supposed to believe that it’s fine for the U.S.-led NATO alliance to assert that it has the prerogative to grant membership to Ukraine -- and in the meantime is now shipping large quantities of weaponry to that country. 

Mainstream U.S. news outlets have no use for history or documentation that might interfere with the current frenzy presenting NATO’s expansion to the Russian border as an unalloyed good. 

“It is worth recalling how much the alliance has weakened world security since the end of the Cold War, by inflaming relations with Russia,” historian David Gibbs said last week. “It is often forgotten that the cause of the current conflict arose from a 1990 U.S. promise that NATO would never be expanded into the former communist states of Eastern Europe. Not ‘one inch to the East,’ Russian leaders were promised by the U.S. Secretary of State at the time, James Baker. Despite this promise, NATO soon expanded into Eastern Europe, eventually placing the alliance up against Russia’s borders. The present-day U.S.-Russian conflict is the direct result of this expansion.” 

The journalists revved up as bloviating nationalists on the USA’s TV networks and in other media outlets have no use for any such understanding. Why consider how anything in the world might look to Russians? Why bother to provide anything like a broad range of perspectives about a conflict that could escalate into incinerating the world with thermonuclear weapons? Jingoistic conformity is a much more prudent career course. 

Out of step with that kind of conformity is Andrei Tsygankov, professor of international relations at San Francisco State University, whose books include Russia and America: The Asymmetric Rivalry. “Russia views its actions as a purely defensive response to increasingly offensive military preparations by NATO and Ukraine (according to Russia’s foreign ministry, half of Ukraine’s army, or about 125,000 troops, are stationed near the border),” he wrote days ago. “Instead of pressuring Ukraine to de-escalate and comply with the Minsk Protocol , however, Western nations continue to provide the Ukrainian army with lethal weapons and other supplies.” 

Tsygankov points out that Russian President Vladimir Putin “has two decades of experience of trying to persuade Western leaders to take Russia’s interests into consideration. During these years, Russia has unsuccessfully opposed the U.S. decision to withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and build a new missile defense system in Romania, expand NATO, invade Iraq and Libya, and support Kyiv’s anti-Russian policies -- all in vain.” 

The professor nails a key reality: “Whatever plans Russia may have with respect to Ukraine and NATO, conflict resolution greatly depends on the West. A major war is avoidable if Western leaders gather confidence and the will to abandon the counter-productive language of threats and engage Russia in reasoned dialogue. If diplomacy is given a fair chance, the European continent may arrive at a new security system that will reflect, among others, Russia’s interests and participation.” 

In the midst of all this, what about progressives in Congress? As we face the most dangerous crisis in decades that risks pushing the world into nuclear war, very few are doing anything more than mouth safe platitudes. 

Are they bowing to public opinion? Not really. It’s much more like they’re cowering to avoid being attacked by hawkish media and militaristic political forces. 

On Friday, the American Prospect reported : “A new Data for Progress poll shared exclusively with the Prospect finds that the majority of Americans favor diplomacy with Russia over sanctions or going to war for Ukrainian sovereignty. Most Americans are not particularly animated about the escalating conflict in Eastern Europe, the poll shows, despite round-the-clock media coverage. When asked, 71 percent of Democrats and 46 percent of Republicans said they support the U.S. striking a diplomatic deal with Russia. They agreed that in the effort to de-escalate tensions and avoid war, the U.S. should be prepared to make concessions.” 

The magazine’s reporting provides a portrait of leading congressional progressives who can’t bring themselves to directly challenge fellow Democrat Joe Biden’s escalation of the current highly dangerous conflict, as he sends still more large shipments of weaponry to Ukraine with a new batch worth $200 million while deploying 8,500 U.S. troops to Eastern Europe. 

Asked about the issue of prospective Ukraine membership in NATO sometime in the future, Rep. Ro Khanna treated the situation as a test of superpower wills or game of chicken, saying: “I would not be blackmailed by Putin in this situation.” 

Overall, the American Prospect ferreted out routine refusal of progressive icons in Congress to impede the spiraling crisis: 

** “The 41 co-sponsors of a sanctions package moving through the Senate include progressive heavyweights like Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Jeff Merkley of Oregon. In a press release on the bill, Markey said the legislation was designed to ‘work in concert with the actions the Biden administration has already taken to demonstrate that we will continue to support Ukraine and its sovereignty.’” 

** “Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, put out a statement on Wednesday with Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA). ‘Russia’s strategy is to inflame tensions; the United States and NATO must not play into this strategy,’ the representatives said. The statement raises concerns over ‘sweeping and indiscriminate sanctions.’ But pressed on what, exactly, the United States should be prepared to offer in diplomatic talks, a spokesperson for Lee did not respond.” 

** “Reached by the Prospect, spokespeople for leading progressives, including Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), declined to comment on questions including whether the U.S. should commit not to bring Ukraine into NATO and whether it should provide direct military aid to Ukraine. Sanders declined to weigh in. In a statement, Warren said, ‘The United States must use appropriate economic, diplomatic, and political tools to de-escalate this situation.’” 

** “Spokespeople for Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib, who have previously criticized American interventionism in the Middle East, did not respond to questions from the Prospect, including ones on sanctions policy and NATO commitments.” 

Progressives in Congress have yet to say that Biden should stop escalating the Ukraine conflict between the two nuclear superpowers. Instead, we hear easy pleas for diplomacy and, at best, mildly worded “ significant concerns ” about the president’s new batch of arms shipments and troop deployments to the region. The evasive rhetoric amounts to pretending that the president isn’t doing what he’s actually doing as he ratchets up the tensions and the horrendous risks. 

All this can be summed up in five words: Extremely. Irresponsible. And. Extremely. Dangerous. 

(Norman Solomon is the national director of RootsAction.org and the author of a dozen books including Made Love, Got War: Close Encounters with America’s Warfare State, published in a new edition as a free e-book in January 2022. His other books include War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death . He was a Bernie Sanders delegate from California to the 2016 and 2020 Democratic National Conventions. Solomon is the founder and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy.)

MY FAVORITE AUDIT

by Mark Scaramella

There’s been an interesting mini-discussion about audits and auditing in the comment section of our website, since some readers seem to think they wouldn’t vote for a new library sales tax unless an audit of county expenditures was conducted first.

In my 25 year career before joining the AVA I had several audit experiences. Here’s just one.

In one of my many former jobs I was Senior Logistics Systems Staff Engineer for an engineering and manufacturing company in San Jose in the 1980s. Somehow we landed a large contract from the Army to refurbish and modify hundreds of multi-purpose flat-bed equipment trailers that the army had stockpiled from the 60s and 70s. The Army provided us with drawings of the original trailers and a description of the modifications they wanted made to accomodate the designs and configurations of newer (mostly larger and heavier) equipment that the Army was using and hauling around. 

The contract required the Army to ship the trailers to our manufacturing facility for refurbishment and modification. But when they arrived we discovered that not only were they in much worse condition than the Army had told us, but they weren’t all the same. The Army had modified some of them in the field to suit their operational needs. 

When we told the Army that it would cost a lot more than we had bid, they reluctantly told us to go ahead. But by that time the contract was ours, sole-source, and many (but not all) of the trailers had been delivered — nobody knew the extent of work that would be required. 

We proceeded with the work which of course was much more than anyone anticipated.

After the work was completed, I was asked to organize a claim for the millions of additional dollars we’d have to charge the Army.

Using commercial programmable database management software which I was an expert at, I organized the work into 19 separate claim categories which were common to most or all of the trailers, plus 247 special add-ons which applied to only certain trailers. Each claim component included man-hours by engineering and manufacturing labor category with various accompanying overhead rates, plus materials, all of which had applicable rates and factors applied to each cost. 

After about a month of set-up, data collection, and programing, I ran a detailed report on old-fashioned fan-fold computer paper listing each cost item with a sub-total for the “miscellaneous” cost, plus a separate sub-total for each of the 19 major claim items. As best as I recall, the total came to something around $6 million, which was more than our original contract bid. 

The last page of the inch-thick pile of paper with all the cost details and sub-totals, had the sub-total for 19th item and below that a “grand total” for the entire claim. 

Unbeknownst to me, when our company’s admin staff processed the claim through our attorney and contracts process, they broke the report down into 20 separate claims each with its own sub-total (or separate claim total). 

Somewhere in that processing, which took months of haggling and disputation about what we had or had not included and whether it was justified and required, sombody read my report’s “grand total” as the cost for the 19th claim item. So, again, unbeknownst to me, when the Army added up all 20 of the claims they thought what I had labeled as the “grand total” was the cost of the 19th item, producing a ridiculously high and incorrect new “grand total.” 

At first the Army contracting officer tried a standard claims contracting practice of offering us 60% of our (incorrectly overcalculated) claim on the spot, assuming that we had overpriced our claim. (We hadn’t but we certainly weren’t making a competitive bid either.) After more haggling, our contracts manager said we’d accept 75% of our claim and the Army agreed, thinking they were getting a 25% discount. 

But unbeknowst to all involved that 75% agreement was based on a wrongly over-priced total. 

Before the deal was finalized, the Army required that the Defense Contract Auditing Agency (DCAA) to “audit” our claim. 

DCAA had a reputation for doing pretty hard-nosed IRS-audit-style audits and I (like the rest of our project team) was nervous about the DCAA audit. 

DCAA sent in an experienced CPA to conduct the audit and he, of course, immediately noticed that the numbers didn’t add up. How did we get a grand total that was more than the individual items added up to? (He was the first person to actually look at the inch-think computer print out.)

The DCAA auditor came into my office cubicle and asked me to explain the discrepancy. I took one look at the summary sheet that he had assembled from my report and noticed that he was incorrectly using my “grand total” as the cost of the 19th item. I got out my copy of the computer print out and pointed out that the last item cost was the sub-total for that item, not the grand total.

After some discussion, we realized that somewhere in the breakdown of my report into separate claims, someone had picked up that incorrect number and created a new, much larger, “grand total.” 

After some simple math, the error was corrected, and the Army was so happy that the corrected (lower) price had been found, that they quickly offered 80% of our corrected claim value and we accepted it and that was it. The DCAA auditor was called off and the deal was finally done after years of work and subsequent haggling. 

The point? We avoided a nerve-wracking detailed audit, the kind of detailed audit that might have created even more accusations and charges of overcharging. In the process, I learned a few things about what a real audit involved, and was very relieved that we didn’t have to go through one. In fact, I was so confident in the numbers we had assembled (admittedly we had included every single cost that we could reasonably include) that I started another claim log in case we had to file another claim for the cost of the audit itself. 

Fortunately, we never had to do that.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN MILLIONS OF ELECTRIC CAR BATTERIES GET OLD? - California Has No Ev-Battery Recycling Plants And Few Plans

by Martin Wisckol

As California accelerates its push toward 100% zero-emission new car sales by 2035, hundreds of thousands of electric-vehicle batteries will be finishing their freeway lives — and it’s not clear what’s going to happen to them.

Currently, many of the massive used batteries — the Tesla version weighs about 900 pounds — appear to be stockpiled in hopes of greater reuse and recycling markets. But eventually, those batteries, along with the toxic chemicals that can leach out of them, could end up in hazardous waste landfills.

There are no EV-battery recycling plants in California, and only five up and running nationwide, according to CalEPA. That’s despite the fact that used lithium-ion batteries contain valuable minerals that otherwise must be mined from the earth, mostly from overseas operations.

“There still aren’t enough people who understand (retired) batteries well enough to responsibly handle them,” said Zora Chung, co-founder of Signal Hill’s ReJoule Inc. “Ultimately, we need more education, and to have a more efficient marketplace to re-deploy these batteries into a second-life application.”

Chung’s EV-battery diagnostic company has launched a state-funded pilot project to adapt the used batteries for solar storage, a repurposing that could extend their lives by a decade or more — and forestall actual dismantling and recycling.

ReJoule’s nascent effort reflects a growing awareness of the battery dilemma hurtling down the pike.

Thanks to its progressive environmental policies, California currently accounts for 42% of the nation’s electric vehicles. And, for several years, state legislators recognized the potentially toxic consequences posed by the battery-powered vehicles.

Assembly Bill 2832, signed into law in 2018, called for an electric vehicle advisory group to develop legislative and regulatory recommendations to ensure that “as close to 100% as possible of lithium-ion batteries in the state are reused or recycled at end-of-life.”

That group’s 19 members include regulators, automakers, waste and recycling interests, environmentalists, and a battery trade group. After 2 1/2 years, it completed a draft report in December and are taking public comments on the recommendations until Feb. 16, at which point the document will be finalized and forwarded to the Legislature for action.

But some say the proposals are only a beginning, and that the broad range of interests represented in the group made it impossible to win majority approval for key items.

“The report identifies several policy solutions that have been proven to work for other products in California and for batteries in countries around the world,” said Nick Lapis, a member of the panel who represents Californians Against Waste, a nonprofit environmental research and advocacy organization.

“However, I think the policies that would actually solve the problem didn’t garner a consensus.”

Obstacle course ahead

The state was home to 636,000 light-duty, zero-emission vehicles by the end of 2020. The tally by the California Energy Commission includes 369,000 electric vehicles, 259,000 plug-in hybrids and 7,000 fuel cell vehicles.

While that was by far the most of any state, it was only 2.3% of all California’s light-duty vehicles.

That number needs to grow quickly if California is to reach its 2035 goal of 100% zero-emission new light-vehicle sales. (The state has set the 100% goal for medium- and heavy-duty trucks at 2045.)

In 2019, before the pandemic dampened new-car availability, 2 million new cars were sold in the state, according to the California New Car Dealers Association. That means 2 million or more new EVs should be hitting the road annually in 13 years, with steady growth in annual sales in the meantime.

Significant challenges remain for getting all Californians in zero-emission cars, such as creating electric-vehicle charging options for people who live in apartments.

But obstacles to reusing and recycling the batteries in those cars could prove even greater, in part because there hasn’t yet been much need for developing used-battery markets and regulations.

With the average car on the road for about 12 years and electric vehicles just gaining traction in the last half dozen years — Tesla’s Model X came out in 2015 — it hasn’t been an major issue. There just haven’t been that many batteries retired so far.

Those batteries that have reached the end of their lives have not been closely tracked, and it’s not clear what happens to them. One common scenario finds the aging or wrecked electric vehicle ending up at auction, where it’s purchased by a dismantler for parts.

“Those batteries may be stockpiled, awaiting better economics for recycling or resale,” said Alissa Kendall, a UC Davis engineering professor and lead author of the state’s draft report. Or perhaps they’re recycled out of state — or out of the country, she said. Or maybe they find their way into the hands of hobbyists.

“We just don’t know,” Kendall said.

No quick fixes

Beside there being no thorough process to track EV batteries, there’s no system to coordinate their collection, post-car reuse or disposal once the warranty runs out, the report says.

“Without a mechanism to collect stranded batteries, they may be unsafely accumulated, illegally abandoned, or improperly managed domestically and abroad,” it says.

A key recommendation is assigning responsibility for making sure the batteries are reused, repurposed or recycled. That responsibility would fall to the battery supplier if the battery is still under warranty, the dismantler if the car has reached its end of life, or the vehicle manufacturer if the retired car does not go to a dismantler.

A proposal to make the vehicle manufacturer responsible for most, if not all, batteries at their end of life — including covering recycling costs — didn’t muster a majority vote, although the Legislature could consider taking up such a bill.

An environmental handling fee, to be collected at the time of vehicle purchase, was also rejected.

The host of other approved recommendations include labeling the batteries so that recyclers know exactly what’s inside, providing economic incentives to recyclers, and supporting the development of domestic battery manufacturing, as most are now made overseas.

(Courtesy, Southern California News Group)

DEFEND VOTING RIGHTS

To the Editor:

The recent Ukiah Daily Journal column by Byron York is loaded with so many fallacies it’s hard to know where to start.

So just to tackle one of them…. If a person thinks we do not need the Voting Rights Act, please read up on how polling places are hard to come by in certain areas of the country, how you can use an NRA ID card to vote, but you can’t use a student ID, and on and on. There are many small seemingly innocuous rules in place in some states that are directed at specifically making it harder to vote for certain populations.

The original Voting Rights Act eliminated poll taxes, and tests that were aimed at specific populations hence unevenly enforced. People were beat up, intimidated and yes, sometimes murdered for trying to vote. Read history. It’s all there. Facts count.

Voting needs to be easy, and accessible for all. This is a non-partisan sentiment, keeping in mind that many who are now against the VRA, at one time fully supported it. The only thing that has changed in the meantime is the division, flow of false information, and deteriorating access to voting that our country is experiencing.

Wendy DeWitt

Ukiah

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Had an interesting encounter out front today. Old guy in a pickup with a camper asking me if I’m Montoya as I head out to get provisions. Looks like an interesting type so I go out to tell him that Montoya lives just down the street. Find out he’s a private contractor with no obvious affiliation delivering Amazon packages for USPS. Apparently that’s “a thing” now. 

So I get to talking with him as I’m wont to do, and find out he’s a genuine artist. Does sculptures in brass, paintings, murals, the whole shebang. Breaks out his phone and shows me some of his work. Totally impressive! Does the delivery thing on the side, no complaints.

What’s the meaning here? I dunno, probably none. Good people find a way, I guess.

YES! CHANTICLEER

The UCCA season launches with Chanticleer! It's going to happen! After a five-month delay, the UCCA 21-22 concert season is kicking off with Chanticleer in Ukiah on Sunday, February 6 at 2:00 pm! 

Covid Protocols

With the pandemic still a serious concern, we have chosen the spacious Ukiah High School Cafetorium for this event and want to assure you that the safety and comfort of our audience, performers, and staff is our first priority. These Covid protocols will be strictly followed (No exceptions): •Proof of full vaccination will be required at the door. •Masks (not bandanas) must cover mouth and nose throughout the concert, including during intermission (no refreshments will be served). The Cafetorium has a good HVAC system, but N95 and KN95 masks are recommended. Double masking is too. 

Socially-Distanced seating will be ensured by ushers and seat markers. Doors open at 1:30--Please arrive early! It will take a lot of extra time to get your vaccination card checked, and have our ushers seat you, all the while maintaining 6' socially distancing.

About Chanticleer

In case Chanticleer's fame hasn't reached your eyes and ears yet, it is a GRAMMY Award-winning vocal ensemble, hailed as the "world's reigning male chorus" by The New Yorker, and renowned as an "orchestra of voices" for its wide repertoire and dazzling virtuosity. Founded in San Francisco in 1978 by singer and musicologist Louis Botto, Chanticleer quickly took its place as one of the most prolific recording and touring ensembles in history. The group has sold over one million recordings, performed for thousands of audiences around the world, and was inducted into the American Music Hall of Fame in 2008. Tickets 

We have a robust number of season members but since we are using a large venue for this once-in-a-lifetime event, there will be individual tickets available on our website, and at Mendocino Book Company in Ukiah and Mazahar in Willits. Tickets are $35 in advance and $40 at the door (if seats are still available). Since this will be just the first concert of a full season (see schedule below) you can still buy a four-concert membership for the same low price of $100 up until the end of the Chanticleer performance. We will apply your ticket price to the season membership.

Students ages 18 and under, and Mendocino College students 24 and under and enrolled in 12 units or more may reserve a $5.00 ticket in advance by calling 707-463-2738 and providing your name, phone number, and email. Discounted tickets are limited so call early to reserve. All must provide proof of vaccination and wear a mask during the concert. No exceptions.

Find us at the ticket table to pay and receive your ticket. For questions or further information, call us at 707-463-2738. Here is our season for winter/spring of 2022, adjusted for Covid-caused postponements and rescheduling (all concerts begin at 2:00 pm): 

• February 6, Chanticleer, Ukiah High School Cafetorium 
• March 13, Lindsay Garritson, Mendocino College Center Theater 
• April 24, Los Tangueros del Oeste, Mendocino College Center Theater 
• May 15, Le Vent du Nord, Mendocino College Center Theater 

With warmest regards for health and good fortune in 2022, The UCCA Board of Directors

MENDOCINO CANNABIS ALLIANCE AND MICHAEL J. KATZ KEEP ON TALKING BUT ARE THE SUPES LISTENING?

URGENT CALL TO ACTION for the Licensed Mendocino Cannabis Community

This Tuesday the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors will be considering Consent Calendar agenda item Item 4f - Discussion and Possible Action Including Acceptance of an Update from the County of Mendocino Cannabis Program.

It is our understanding that some Supervisors are not fully aware of the various challenges being faced by operators in the program, and we believe it is essential that we as a community provide this critical insight for consideration so they can better understand the continued challenges that applicants and permit holders face. This is especially needed since most reporting by Staff concentrates on the program’s achievements and does not accurately present the continued difficulties from the applicant’s perspective. A good example is how the Equity report does not list the fact that ZERO money has actually been distributed to grantees. Another example is that MCP keeps reporting how many “incompletes” applicants had without explaining how many of them were due to staff errors or confusing instructions or portal technology limitations.

The more direct outreach each supervisor receives on these important issues from their constituents, the more they will hopefully understand the need to take immediate corrective measures, such as the ones outlined by Hannah Nelson and MCA in our Op Ed of January 12 and Hannah’s subsequent Local Fallowing Program proposal. She is also submitting a legal memo regarding the stalled processing of Contiguous Expansion Affidavits and the potential requirement that even those applications now go through a full SSHR referral to CDFW. We are so grateful to Hannah for her superhuman pro bono efforts on behalf of the entire Mendocino cannabis community, often at the expense of her personal life. But she can not do all of this alone.

We strongly feel that at this time the most effective way to educate the Supervisors is for individual operators in the program (YOU!) to be very clear about your personal experiences with the program, and the challenges you are facing. 

Specifically, we are recommending that you write directly to your District Supervisor and the full Board, copying MCA, for Agenda Item 4f on Tuesday with your answers to some or all of the following questions (details below), or by using the linked form ( https://bit.ly/MCP_Update_Form ) provided for your convenience. We have separated these questions into three categories. Ultimately the goal is to let the supervisors know about the effectiveness and clarity, or lack thereof, of communications between you and MCP.

We invite you to either send an email addressing some or all of the items suggested below, or to use a form we have created that enables you to say YES or NO to the items that apply to you with space for additional comments. Whichever method you choose, it’s essential that we as a community make our voices heard on these issues.

1. Portal Questions

Have you been told in an email or other method of communication what standards must be met for an application to be deemed ‘complete’?

Have you been told in writing what the standards of proof are if you have to disprove a wrong assumption made by staff that could be the basis of a denial?

Do you feel an error or incorrect assumption made by Staff has led to you being deemed incomplete’?

​​Do you know what the policies and procedures of MCP are for the Portal? 

Do you know how to locate them?

Did you understand the portal questions and instructions?

Were you able to upload the documents you needed/wanted to in the portal system based on the questions you were asked?

Do you feel that you have been provided clear directions on how to address any incomplete items?

Are all the forms and instructions clear and without errors by the MCP? 

Does the Portal allow you to attach the documents you thought you needed to attach? 

Did the instructions cause you confusion as to what items to attach in what location of the portal? 

Did you find that if you checked the box you thought was applicable, that you were not able to upload documents that you thought you would be able to upload because there was no place to do it unless you changed your answer?

Have you been marked incomplete?

Have you been marked incomplete more than once?

Were any of those times due to MCP error or Portal Limitations?

If you received multiple incompletes were the reviews consistent?

How effective has MCP been in answering your questions about the Portal?

2. Equity Questions

Do you feel that MCP & Elevate Impact have clearly informed you of policies, procedures and standards of success versus failure for your application?

If you are unclear on those policies, procedures and standards of success from MCP & Elevate Impact, how effective are they at providing clarity when you present them with questions?

Do you find it difficult to get timely responses from MCP & Elevate Impact?

Do the webinars offered by MCP & Elevate Impact provide you with useful, clear information?

If you have been required to make revisions to your specific grant application or budget, were you given all the corrections at one time or did they happen in small successive installments? 

If in successive installments, do you believe that the information could have been presented to you more efficiently?

Do you feel like the goal posts have changed during your grant application process?

3. General Program questions

Do you feel that you have a clear understanding of MCP policies, procedures and standards of success versus failure for your permit or application?

If you are unclear on those policies, procedures or standards for success in the program, how effective is MCP at providing clarity when you present them with questions?

Do you find it difficult to get timely responses from MCP?

Do the webinars offered by MCP provide you with useful, and meaningful way to obtain clear information?

Do you feel like you can participate effectively in MCP webinars?

Do you know what the policies and procedures of MCP are? 

Do you know how to locate them?

Are all forms you need on the website? 

Are they in the location they should be for the task you must perform?

In addition to these suggested items, we recommend including any challenges or frustrations that you have experienced related to communications with MCP to provide the Board with your personal experience.

If you would like to provide this feedback to the Board, but do not want to be identified for whatever reason, you can send your email, including your District #, to MCA’s Executive Director Michael Katz at michael@mendocannabis.com and he will remove identifying information (except for District #) before forwarding on to the Board.

This is a critical time to speak up about our collective experience and MCA is here to help in any way we can.

Please send all communications to your district supervisor directly as well as to bos@mendocinocounty.org, cobsupport@mendocinocounty.org and info@mendocannabis.com 

Make sure to include Email Subject: Comment for Agenda Item 4f on Feb 1, 2022

District 4 – Dan Gjerde gjerde@mendocinocounty.org,

District 3 – John Haschak haschakj@mendocinocounty.org,

District 1 – Glenn McGourty mcgourtyg@mendocinocounty.org,

District 2 – Mo Mulheren mulherenm@mendocinocounty.org,

District 5 - Ted Williams williamst@mendocinocounty.org

If you do not want to send an email, but would like to leave a message for the Board of Supervisors instead, you can leave a voicemail comment to be played during public comment:

- Call 707-234-6333 and leave a voice message, up to 2 minutes in length, to be played during public expression/public comment, as it relates to the agenda.

- Speak clearly, being sure to state your full name and Agenda Item 4f at the beginning of the message

- Anonymous phone messages will not be played back during the meeting

Please feel free to reach out to Michael Katz at michael@mendocannabis.com with any questions about this Call to Action.

And be on the lookout for more communications from us in the next few days as we get closer to the Board meeting! The more engagement we can bring as a community the more likely we are to truly being heard.