Letters (November 17, 2022)

• Wake Up, Staff Up
• Appreciation
• Fort Bragg's New Clinic
• Fear Stalks The Young
• Auditor Explains School Bond/Property Tax Errors
• Costly Jury Service
• San Jose North?
• JT Says Thanks
• Return To Philly (Corrected version)
• Please
• Local Shul Vandalized
• The Real Problem
• Eel River Clean-Up 2022
• Was Pop Right?
• Refund Blues

WAKE UP, STAFF UP

Mendocino County is in the midst of a severe staffing crisis that is leaving residents in a lurch. Consider the following vacancy rates:

Public health nurses: nearly 30% positions vacant

Family & Children's Services social workers: 40% positions vacant

Employment & Family Assistance eligibility specialists: 20% positions vacant

Mental health clinicians: almost 70% positions vacant

Department of Transportation road crews: 32% positions vacant

This means that Mendocino's most vulnerable residents -- including abused and neglected children, seniors, and people with disabilities -- are not getting the services they need in a timely manner. Meanwhile, the County acknowledges that it may have to let some county roads go back to dirt or gravel roads because they cannot maintain them.

All of the above positions, with the exception of DOT road crews, get state or federal funding. Yet Mendocino County administration seems content to do nothing to make these positions competitive to retain existing staff and recruit new staff.

Please take just a moment to email the Mendocino County Administrator and Board of Supervisors and tell them that it's time to staff up to keep Mendo running.

Mendocino County's severe short-staffing of crucial positions is harming county residents, including and especially the most vulnerable residents. Extraordinarily high vacancy rates for public health nurses, Family and Children's Services social workers, benefit eligibility specialists, and mental health clinicians are endangering abused and neglected children, seniors, and people with disabilities. A 32% vacancy rate in our Department of Transportation road crews are leaving our roads in abysmal condition, making driving more dangerous and leaving residents in more rural areas more disconnected from emergency services and everyday necessities.

In other counties facing such staffing crises, county management is offering substantial raises, bonuses, flexible schedules, and other benefits to retain existing staff and recruit for vacant positions. However, in Mendocino County, management is doing the opposite: Offering not even a cost-of-living adjustment to employees -- in the face of skyrocketing inflation and a severe housing crisis -- even as they leave faster than they can be replaced for positions in the retail and hospitality sectors or leaving the county altogether.

It is your responsibility to ensure that county management fulfills its obligation to keep county services running smoothly. Please direct county management to settle a fair contract with county workers now that will prevent more cuts and delays to the services our residents desperately need. Thank you.

 (SEUI Local 1021 Presser)

APPRECIATION

Dear Defendant,

I was the oldest of the jury, and I was honored to be part of such a thoughtful group, who did act out of love and wisdom.

I am praying for your Spirit to keep you knowing you are beloved. I appreciated you being respectful in the courtroom. I believe you are able to experience and be Love, beyond any personal love you’ve known so far.

No matter where you are, what pain you go through, Defendant, I believe you are completely understood, accepted and supported by your Spirit. Your best is good enough. Please remember — each of us is treasured, and all this Earth offers comfort, nurturance and joy.

Please open to the three meanings of “appreciation” — increasing good (like money in the bank), savoring (like a great taste), and gratitude.

Kay Lieberknecht

Ukiah

FORT BRAGG'S NEW CLINIC

Editor,

I'm Dr. Barbara Kilian-

I have been getting a lot of questions by email and facebook and as I go and introduce our new clinic in Fort Bragg. If appropriate, I thought I would make an announcement here as well.

I have been working as a physician in the area since 2011, primarily in the ER.  I also work at Mendocino Coast Clinic-we opened the Open Door Clinic (LBGTQ) and I also started helping with primary care.  I also work with our Opiate Addiction program there. I still work in the AHMC ER.

I have also worked for a small clinic called CityHealth in various capacities for the last 6 years and recently became Chief Medical Officer.  Part of our growth plan is to open more clinics and since I live here, I proposed we open a local primary care clinic here.

City Health offers *Primary Care, Same Day appointments (like an urgent care), and we also have a 7 day a week virtual urgent care you can access at home.

We are located in Ft. Bragg.  I have included the website in case anyone has questions.  We are real, we are local, we see people in person and virtually.

https://www.cityhealth.com/fort-bragg/

Telephone number is 707-941-0971 email is fort.bragg@cityhealth.com

We take most insurances, including medicare. We are not currently able to take partnership

Dr. Barbara Kilian

Fort Bragg

FEAR STALKS THE YOUNG

Editor: 

Losing faith — As a junior at Santa Rosa High School, I hear horrifying stories from my peers, regardless of their gender or sex. I’ve been told countless times by my mother, as many others have, that I should never talk to or trust a stranger. I knew it was a threat, but I never felt it truly concerned me.

Come high school it seems as though every fifth person I talk to has at least one story of being assaulted or almost abducted or a close friend having an experience like that. After getting into the dating pool, pessimism really sets in. If you’ve never had your loved one confide in you about what people have done to them, it is heart crushing and optimism shattering. I lose more faith and trust in humanity each day.

As a man, I see girls and guys my age afraid and anxiously looking over their shoulders. I recently walked past a girl from school who was in her car, and I heard the doors lock. If we care at all about the future and health of humanity, this needs to be fixed. Change needs to happen.

Ethan Scott

Santa Rosa

AUDITOR EXPLAINS SCHOOL BOND/PROPERTY TAX ERRORS

Editor,

On Friday, October 28th, 2022 the Superintendent of County Schools, Michelle Hutchins, sent a letter to myself, the Auditor-Controller/Treasurer Tax-Collector, and the full Board of Supervisors siting difficulties the County school districts have had with completing compliance and reporting requirements some of which the Superintendent describes as persisting for over a decade and recommending establishing a “working group” to meet monthly to confer. Unfortunately, due to significant demands on my time I have not yet responded to the Superintendent’s letter. However, I did address some of the issues raised in the letter during the Board of Supervisors’ meeting on Tuesday, November 1st. I am unaware of all of the issues the Superintendent may be referring to over the last decade as I have only been in the Auditor-Controller’s office since 2018 and the Auditor-Controller/Treasurer Tax-Collector since July 2022.

As has been discussed in open sessions of several Board of Supervisors’ meetings over the last year, the Auditor-Controller’s office has experienced delays in the ability to provide information due to issues with the Property Tax System Conversion as well as the unanticipated early retirement of the former Auditor-Controller in September 2021 and the Board’s decision to not appoint an Auditor-Controller. Additionally, the office has been very short staffed. Unfortunately, the County is still working to resolve outstanding conversion issues with the Property Tax System vendor. The combination of these circumstances resulted in delays of information and distributions to the School Districts over the last year and the current fiscal year end close.

Despite working with reduced resources, Auditor-Controller’s office staff resolved the distribution issues and has been working diligently to provide information as soon as possible to the various agencies. The office has only very recently been able to hire additional staff, who need to be trained before adding significant capacity to the office. 

Specific issues raised in the Superintendent’s letter related to the ability of the County to provide final interest apportionment amounts for the last quarter of the fiscal year, reports that relate to the fiscal year end close and Bond Tax Rates. 

The delay in the interest apportionment (which was provided October 11th) was largely related to the staffing shortages in the Treasurer Tax Collector’s office. Those vacancies are because of the Board’s decision to consolidate the Offices of the Auditor-Controller and the Treasurer Tax-Collector which resulted in the unanticipated early retirement of the Treasurer Tax-Collector in March 2022 and the departure of the Assistant Treasurer Tax Collector in June 2022. There remain vacancies in the Treasurer Tax-Collector’s office. 

The remaining delays in the fiscal year end process and reports are impacted by the delays in the ability to fill positions and get staff fully up to speed to be able to spread the workload. Some staff members have been working long hours, including nights and weekends, without vacations for the last couple of years. The County has experiencing significant loss of long-term fiscal staff and filling those vacancies with highly qualified candidates has been challenging. This issue is not unique to Mendocino County. State and National Associations all report issues with the contraction of the finance labor pool. 

In September, the Government Finance Officers Association issued a Press Release and a Report entitled Meeting Demand for State and Local Public Finance Jobs. The report shows that many other sectors, including private sector finance, have added back jobs lost during the Covid-19 pandemic, but that there are still 30,000 fewer state and local public finance workers at present than in 2019. 

At the same time, the report charts how demand growth in state and local public finance outpaces its private sector counterpart and the economy overall – aggregate worker demand as measured by unique online job postings is up 92% for state and local public finance in the first half of 2022 compared to the same period in 2019, versus 60% for private sector finance and 41% for the public sector overall. 

Regarding Bond Rate Calculations: 

• Mendocino Unified - There was an issue with the understanding of how the County calculated Bond Rates for the Bonds issued under the Measure H 2020 election for Mendocino Unified. Proceeds from the initial issuance included funds that were deposited into the Debt Service Fund for Mendocino Unified Bond Debt Service. The Bond was structured with the intent that those funds would be spread over the first four years of payments due starting with years ending 8/1/2020. Unfortunately, that plan was not based on an understanding of how the County calculated Tax Rates. The result was much lower than anticipated Tax Rate in the initial Tax year and much higher Tax Rates in the subsequent three years, ending 8/1/2023. 

• Anderson Valley Unified - There was an error in the calculation of the Bond Rate for Debt Service for Anderson Valley Unified School District for the 2021-22 Property Tax Year for Measure A 2010 issued debt. The Rate assessed was 0.007 per $100 of assessed value and it should have been 0.059. Unfortunately, due to issues with the conversion to the new Property Tax System the County was not able to issue Corrected Bills. If the County had been able to issue a Corrected Bill, the additional amount would have been due in 30 days from issuance of the Corrected Bill. The result of not being able to issue the Corrected Bills is an increase to the 2022-23 Bond Debt Service Rate of 0.052 per $100 of assessed value, resulting in a final Bond Debt Service Rate of 0.158 for the 2022-23 Property Tax Year, split into two installments with the usual 2022-23 Property Tax payment deadlines. 

• Potter Valley Unified - I am aware anecdotally that there was an issue with the initial rate for Potter Valley Unified 2015 election Bonds issued in 2016, but I have no details as to what the issue may have been.

Due to the issues with the Mendocino and Anderson Valley Rates, the Auditor-Controller’s office took additional steps this year to implement a process which confirmed the Debt Service Requirements for each District as well as the calculated Tax Rate with the District for the 2022-23 Property Tax Rates. Those Confirmations and Rates were sent to all Districts as well as their relative Bond Advisor if requested. Responses were received from all Districts and/or their Bond Advisor. The County has also contracted with debt tracking software that the County is in the process of implementing to help track the various bond issuances.

As the Auditor-Controller/Treasurer Tax-Collector, I am open to discussing increased communication with the Schools and the Office of Education. However, it’s unfortunate that the Superintendent did not reach out informally to gain a more accurate understanding about what measures had been taken this year with the Tax Rate verification, the status of the year end close or to discuss the proposed working group before issuing a formal letter. The Superintendent issued her letter to the Auditor-Controller/Treasurer Tax-Collector and copied the Board of Supervisors on a Friday afternoon and a little over a week later issued a Press Release escalating the issue and creating additional demands on staff to correct information and respond to requests for comment that take them away from completing the critical remaining tasks to wrap up the fiscal year end process.

I understand the frustration and waning patience with the delays over the last year. We are working hard to resolve staffing shortages and resume more timely reporting and sharing of information. I hope that everyone can grant myself and my staff a little more time to catch up and work to improve processes and response times. None of us asked for the issues with the Property Tax Conversion, the consolidation of the offices or the additional workload that has been the result of both situations. We are simply the public servants that have been willing to undertake the challenges and they have truly been monumental challenges. I ask that the staff in both offices – Auditor-Controller and Treasurer Tax-Collector - be treated respectfully as they are doing as much as possible with the time and resources available to them. 

Chamise Cubbison, Mendocino County Auditor-Controller/Treasurer-Tax Collector

Ukiah

COSTLY JURY SERVICE

Letter to the Editor

I believe Jury Duty is a civic responsibility that should be undertaken with pride and professionalism. Yes, it is disruptive to one’s normal schedule and can have long periods of boredom while waiting to be called to a jury pool. But without jurors, justice would be dispensed by a single person sitting in judgement and not by a jury of peers. 

Per the Mendocino Courts website: “No jury service fees are paid for the first day of service. Beginning the second day, jurors are paid $15.00 per day plus 34 cents per mile one-way from home to court for each day of service.”

Given that gasoline prices have doubled in the past two years, 34 cents a mile one-way doesn’t cover just the price of fuel let alone wear and tear driving Mendocino’s decrepit road network. Federal Courts now pay 62.5 cents a mile BOTH ways which is more in line with what the IRS has established for mileage reimbursement.

Interestingly, I found that Assembly Bill No. 1981 signed into law by Governor Newsom on September 15, 2022 established that mileage is to be reimbursed for travel ROUND trip. “(c) All jurors in the superior court, in civil and criminal cases, shall be reimbursed for mileage at the rate of thirty-four cents ($0.34) per mile for each mile actually traveled in attending and returning from court as a juror after the first day.” This is still a shortfall from the true cost of travel which is more like the Federal rate of 62.5 cents per mile driven. And the daily pay rate of $15 (after the first day) barely covers the cost of lunch in Ukiah or Fort Bragg.

Perhaps it's time for Jury Duty to be brought into the modern world. Attendance could be via electronic attendance such as using Zoom or Teams. 

Perhaps just for the initial questioning and jury selection. Sitting in a jury room waiting to be called is a sentence of boredom. Jury pay and mileage reimbursement should be improved to lessen the burden on citizens. 

Paying the current IRS allowed mileage rate for travel both ways should be legislated and implemented ASAP. Also, payment should be set at least at that of the State’s minimum wage (currently at $15 per hour) which should include that of the first day’s service.

How to pay for these reasonable reimbursements to jurors? For Civil trials, it seems fair that the losing party should pay the full costs of a pool of jurors allocated to the duration of the trial. For Criminal trials, the costs should be paid as a fine should the defendant lose or by the State’s General Fund should the State lose the conviction. Seems reasonable. 

Walt Watson

Point Arena

SAN JOSE NORTH?

Editor: 

I am an unhappy voter. I am a Democrat, not a progressive, but for the first time since Arnold Schwarzenegger, I will vote for a Republican in one California race. I will vote for Lanhee Chen for state controller. I will leave the remaining state races blank on my ballot. 

The controller can measure the effectiveness of our massive state spending. I question the billions spent on homelessness and housing during yearslong droughts and with deteriorating roads and soaring energy costs. Particularly in Sonoma County, I find state mandates for high-density housing and no water an issue, not to mention the threat of wildfires. Are we creating future slums quickly to cover politicians’ need for higher office? Are we to become San Jose north? 

It is not healthy for us to have every statewide office and the state Senate and Assembly held by one party in perpetuity. I am making my one small change by my one small vote for Chen. He is eminently qualified. I suspect the state will not collapse by voting across party lines. 

Mary Shea

Sonoma

JT SAYS THANKS

The partial tally is in and it appears that I have won a seat on the Mendocino Coast Health Care District Board. First, I want to thank the two women who agreed to undertake this campaign with me, Lee Finney, who also appears to have won a seat, and Susan Savage. I am particularly grateful for their skill and tireless work on the mechanics of running a campaign. Dawnmarie Risley-Childs appears to have won the third seat up for election, although she notified Katrina Bartolomie, Mendocino County Clerk-Recorder that she wanted to withdraw from the race. I am not sure what her plans are or whether congratulations are in order to her.

Additionally, I really want to thank everyone who contributed financially to the campaign. Being this far down-ballot, it is really difficult to get out the vote. Your financial contributions made our postcard effort and hand-outs possible.

Looking forward, the Mendocino Coast Health Care District is fundamentally responsible for supporting local health care for the roughly 29,000 people who live on the Coast, regardless of race, creed, gender, orientation, pronouns or political perspective. This new Board has its tasks cut out for it, to strengthen and make sustainable health care on the Coast for everyone. This will require working together with structure, comity and purpose. It will also take a lot more than the five of us to achieve what we need to achieve. We will need the creative participation and support of Coast citizens and health care consumers, on committees and with initiatives going forward.

In closing, I want to thank everyone who voted, for me, for Lee and Susan, for John and Dawnmarie. The consent of the governed through the ballot box is the cornerstone of our political agreement that allows us to live together peacefully. Health care starts with caring, contains the word “care”. My heart goal for this endeavor is to bring caring for each other to the forefront, and help us figure out how to do that together. Thank you.

Jade Tippett 

Fort Bragg

RETURN TO PHILLY (Corrected version)

Editor,

Thank you so much more in the lovely account by Terry Sites of her trip to Philadelphia. When she returns, I urge her do go in the spring. I lived in that beautiful city for over 13 years and also in several other eastern and midwestern ones and I must say that no other city has such a glorious spring as does Philadelphia. Californians deny it, but they don't know spring. Plants bloom here year-round. In Philadelphia, in January, all is pearly gray. No color at all. Then one day you see a slight green haze in tree branches. And then it begins! Like an orchestra warming up. Blips of color here and there, crocus first, and one by one it builds: hedges of forsythia, Eastern redbud, pussywillows, weeping cherries, white and pink dogwood, daffodils, banks of azaleas and rhododendrons of all colors (four acres around the Museum of Art) on and on, and carpets the violets!

One reason Philadelphia is so lush is that it has the largest landscaped park system in the United States, over 60 parks: 9200 acres, 10 times the size of Central Park (843 acres). Philadelphia does have horrid heat some summer weeks, but it's less than an hour's drive to beautiful ocean swimming: Long Beach Island, New Jersey, with great farmers markets lining the road.

Well okay, this is a promo for Philadelphia (go Phillies!). And yes, I would have moved back decades ago but my guy didn't want to deal with winters anymore which in eastern Pennsylvania aren't really “bad.” (I love winter and as Norwegians say there's no bad weather, just bad clothing.)

So thanks to Terry. As a final note I do have Welsh mining ancestors; mine settled in western Pennsylvania. I urge her and others to look up the hilarious Xenophobes guidebooks and she could check out the one on Wales. (Yes, I have the Norwegian one, too!)

Jayne Thomas

Berkeley

PLEASE

Editor,

Supermarkets that were cited for selling alcoholic beverages to underage customers now penalize all customers by asking if they are 21. Driver’s licenses are not demanded, just their ages.

“I have ties in my top drawer older than you are,” one elderly man said to a checkout youth after being asked his age for a six-pack of beer. A gray-haired woman was recently overheard saying, “My phone number is unlisted and so is my age,” after being asked about a bottle of wine. “It’s the law,” they assert. 

It is not.

Restaurants and bars rarely ask a patron’s age unless the customer appears underage. Yes, there are Dick Clarks and Reese Witherspoons here, but not many.

Another insult is handing back in pennies, nickels and dimes for an inflated bar or restaurant bill. This too is defensively called “the law” when in other cities and counties they round the bill off saving the hassle of pennies, nickels and dimes.

Bartenders, checkout clerks and waiters hate these “rules” as do customers. Common sense, please? If a person appears elderly spare them the embarrassment of an age request. And handing back pennies, nickels and dimes for a $150 lunch bill is bad for business. Round it off, please.

Dave Heventhal

Windsor

LOCAL SHUL VANDALIZED

Dear MCJC community,

I am sorry to tell you that there was an act of vandalism at the shul yesterday. Here’s what Susan Tubbesing wrote to inform MCJC’s Board:

Sarah just came home from watering things at the shul with our Mendocino Coast Jewish Community sign, that had been fixed to the front of the building, to the right of the front door. She found it lying broken on the ground. Someone clearly pulled it off the building and had tried to scratch off the name of the shul. 

In addition, a few days earlier we found a scattering of pennies on the front step of the shul. This may have been an accidental spill, but throwing or stacking pennies has been reported as an anti-Semitic trope in other places. So this is of concern as well.

We have reported both of these incidents to the Sheriff. They took a detailed report and will patrol outside the shul this Saturday morning. 

Over the past two years MCJC’s Board has been involved in a longer-term project to make our shul safer, applying for grants and doing assessments to determine what our security needs are. We met with a Sheriff’s officer two years ago to get his advice and have kept current with safety information from the State. So far we have put up more outdoor lighting, and installed a phone in the library. We are using the kitchen door only to enter and leave the shul, keeping the front door locked. We are in the process of rebuilding the front access to the shul so that people can leave more quickly in a safe way if necessary. We are also improving the kitchen doors and adding cameras and more lighting outside.

These two recent events are deeply concerning, especially in a context of increased racial, political and religious violence in the country and world. We don’t feel that our safety in the shul is immediately threatened. But these events have heightened our attention to physical safety at the shul.

Even as I’m writing this, I am thinking back to the Shabbat after the horrible shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh — and how in the aftermath so, so many people from our community and especially from many of the local churches came to the shul the next Shabbat, sang outside, walked us individually into the building and showed so much love and concern. We didn’t even ask them — they just showed up. 

Over the past years MCJC has been strengthening relationships with the Latino community, with Indigenous neighbors, with the Caspar community and with the larger community through the Winter Shelter, the Mitzvah Freezer and other modes of building friendship and mutual support. Just now I am coordinating the re-emergence of an interfaith clergy group after many years. We don’t usually think of these things in terms of security, and that is not the primary intention of any of these outreaches. But over the long haul I really do feel like the care and solidarity of our neighbors is our most real security. 

In the meantime please be assured that we are working on materially securing our shul’s safety and that of all of us who spend time there.

With love, blessings of Shabbat shalom and prayers for peace, Margaret

* * *

Update:

More information is turning up since I wrote yesterday about the vandalized sign at our shul. We have learned since that there has been a streak of vandalism and other events around Caspar all related to one person who is presently living in Caspar. This morning during Shabbat services we could hear a man, presumably this same individual, yelling outside in the street in front of the shul. We called 911 and two Sheriff’s officers came quickly. They were aware of this man, who had gone inside since the time of the call. We don’t know if the officers made contact with him, but there was no further commotion while we were there. We can’t be absolutely certain that this is the source of the vandalism at the shul, but it seems very likely. I wanted to share this update because it appears that we have a problem with one deranged neighbor and not a more insidious anti-Semitic threat. It’s still not good, for the shul or for our friends in Caspar. MCJC’s Board and I are very appreciative of information and offers about security cameras and the like, and we will be following up on them. Other than this I know that the Caspar Community leadership is also working on finding out more about how to protect us all from this person’s damaging energy. I will let you know if there are further developments. In the meantime I wish you a sweet and safe week.

With love, 

Rabbi Margaret Holub

Mendocino

THE REAL PROBLEM

To the Editor:

The looming bankruptcy of the county is now coming to light. But we should have seen it coming.

Be it deficit of the county health insurance plan or the underfunding of the county pension system or be it the deficit in the county cannabis program or the manufacturing of fake reserves by all the vacancies in the county job chart, the Mendocino County Grand Jury has known for a long time how broke the county really is.

Kathy Wylie, the seemingly perennial foreman of the grand jury and a long-time sycophant and enabler of now-retired County CEO Carmel Angelo, should now be brought to task by the judge who oversees the grand jury, the Hon. Jeanine Nadel.

But there was little oversight. Why? Because Ms. Nadel owes her original appointment to the Mendocino County Superior Court to Carmel Angelo. Let’s not forget that Ms. Nadel was Angelo’s county counsel for years. Ms. Nadel was also a sycophant and enabler.

It disturbs me that people are now pointing the finger at retired county auditor Lloyd Weir for dereliction of duty for not pointing out the various financial failures of the county when he was auditor.

Untrue.

Untrue and unfair. I’ve known Lloyd for years — I sat with him on the Retirement Board for five years — and he is a good man.

The problem? The real problem with trying to audit county finances? Lloyd never got the financial information he needed from the CEO’s office to do his job. Carmel Angelo hoarded that information. And she also kept it from the Board of Supervisors.

Information is power and Carmel Angelo was all-powerful. The one check on that power was the grand jury but it failed us.

John Sakowicz

Ukiah

EEL RIVER CLEAN-UP 2022

To the Editor:

The Potter Valley Tribe is a major sponsor of the 31st Annual Eel River Cleanup. With the assistance of volunteers and local residents, a 10-mile stretch of the main stem Eel River below Lake Pilsbury is inspected and cleaned. This year’s events included 29 participants, and removed a total of 8¼ cubic yards of refuse, including tires, recycled materials, and hazardous oil.

The Potter Valley Tribe would like to thank Solid Waste of Willits for donating dump fees, Beb Ware, local residents and volunteers, Dave Dick and the Hartstone Bible Camp, and the Palma Real Estate Group for organization and participation in this year’s event. The Tribe provided a crew and equipment, and the Tribal Environmental Office provided safety gear, supplies and lunch.

After 31 years of cleanups a total of 522 cubic yards of trash, 649 tires, and five cars have been removed; 1946 volunteers have participated. This conservation effort helps ensure that the beauty of this pristine section of the main stem Eel River will be there for future generations.

Gregg Young, Environmental Director 

Potter Valley Tribe

WAS POP RIGHT?

Shine on, Republic

Editor--

When I was much younger & sincerely feared for our republic once a decade, my old man would smile his bemused, saintly smile, sip his martini, and say, “Well, boy, the Republic will survive.”--Until yesterday (11/11/22), when repeating that anecdote I'd conclude with “I'm glad he didn't live long enough to find out he was wrong.”--Today (11/12) I have reasonable hope that Pop was right, if by a much slimmer margin now than in the 1950s, 60s, & I suppose 70s & 80s & 90s & 00s & 10s & early 20s.

Jonathan Middlebrook

Redwood Valley

REFUND BLUES

Editor,

I received the middle-class tax refund from the state in the form of a $700 debit card. I took the card to my bank, intending to deposit it in my account. However, the transaction would not go through. The teller asked me if there was an accompanying letter. I said there was, but I didn’t bring it with me. I went home, retrieved the letter and brought it to the bank.

The teller pointed out that in the letter, in five-point type, it says a maximum of $600 can be charged to the card at any one time. Further, the teller informed me that, because the first time I tried to transfer the funds failed I could not transfer the $600 until the following day. I dutifully returned the following day and was able to complete the transaction. However, I was charged a fee of $1.25. This was not from my bank, but the card (i.e. the state). The teller told me that every time I used the card, I would be charged $1.25.

Probably dreamed up by our clever governor.

Michael Burwen

Petaluma