BACK IN JANUARY, ANIMAL CONTROL took possession of three Laytonville horses on accusations that the animals had been mistreated. DA David Eyster said Monday he will not prosecute the owner. “Based on my review of the reports provided, I find there is insufficient evidence to proceed with prosecution. Without going into every single fact and evidentiary issue, I will note that there is at least a partial to full defense to the allegations of abuse provided by the ‘health limitations’ (also known as heart murmurs) of two of the three horses, as determined by the examining veterinarian. According to the vet, ‘older horses with heart murmurs are hard to keep weight on, and require extensive care.’ Additionally, the owner voluntarily signed over ownership of the three horses to Animal Control, a care and control decision made by the owner that shows that she was keeping the long term interests of the horses in mind in deciding what was best. Such decisions may be difficult for some people and, in this case, are circumstantial evidence showing a lack of general and/or special criminal intent.”
EXPERIENCED HORSE PEOPLE, including veterinarians, argue that heart murmurs often occur in starving horses because they are starving, not because they develop heart murmurs and then become emaciated.
CALIFORNIA WATCH, aka the Center for Investigative Reporting, has filed a Public Records Act request for the name of every County employee, job title, base pay, other pay, medical benefits, wages subject to Medicare, employer share of retirement cost, employee share of retirement cost paid by employer, deferred comp or other additional income, long term cost of disability, medicare, social security, and so on. Why California Watch has made the request is not known. KC Meadows filed a similar request some time ago and had a heckuva time getting the information, finally getting an unusable and jumbled pile of computer printouts. The County, since it’s publicly funded, should be forthcoming; better yet, it should provide this information on demand, in readable form, to any citizen requesting it.
EXCELLENT REPORTING by Linda Williams of the Willits News reveals that the seven Mendocino Coast persons arrested as part of a Kansas-based drug trafficking operation began their involvement when the Kansas group began, in 2007, to buy bulk Mendo bud for $1800 a pound. Ultimately, some 8,000 pounds of California marijuana was transported to Kansas. Sarah and James Soderling of Fort Bragg apparently organized the California end of the supply chain.
“THE GROUP,” Ms. Williams wrote, “used a variety of techniques to get the marijuana and cocaine to Kansas and to transfer the cash back to suppliers in California. Sometimes the pot and cocaine were shipped by FedEx or driven to Kansas in private vehicles with hidden compartments. Eventually these methods proved insufficient to supply the expanding Kansas marijuana trade. After several of the alleged conspirators purchased a Kansas repair shop they began shipping large crates of marijuana and cocaine from California to Kansas labeled as automotive parts. The same shipping company would then ship “automotive parts” crates filled with currency back to California. The largest documented cash crate contained $850,000…”
FEDERAL WIRETAPS and direct surveillance captured several meetings between the Soderlings and other conspirators. From their investigations into the Soderlings “through proffer interviews, business records and drug ledgers, investigators were able to identify Henry McCusker, Richard Smith, Jeffrery Wall, John Paul McMillan and Erin Keller as sources of supply of high grade marijuana in California,” according to court records.”
“JAMES SODERLING also came to the agents attention when he received two packages in December 2011 at a Kansas location he was renting. Both packages were mailed from Fort Bragg through the US mail: one package contained 12.5 pounds of marijuana and one package had 7.3 grams of meth. Postal inspectors identified and opened these packages en route. Court documents allege these intercepted shipments were supplied by John Paul McMillan and Erin Keller.
McMILLAN AND KELLER allegedly joined the conspiracy starting in late 2010, according to court documents. “Keller and McMillan had a small marijuana grow in Mendocino, California; however, they were able to acquire large amounts of processed marijuana from other sources in California. McMillan transported approximately 40 pounds of high grade marijuana (street value $160,000) to Lawrence, Kansas in December 2010,” say court documents. Investigators have documented seven other trips to Kansas by the duo to allegedly pick up their cash proceeds.
McCUSKER, who is the only Mendocino County defendant not released on bail, was allegedly involved in the Kansas conspiracy since 2009. “McCusker is a grower of high grade marijuana, which he personally supplied to co-defendants. Since 2009, McCusker supplied co-defendants hundreds of pounds of high grade marijuana,” according to court documents. Court documents allege Smith and Wall were brought into the conspiracy by McCusker and they became regular suppliers of marijuana to the Kansas group. The last two marijuana shipments allegedly provided by these two men weighed 464 pounds and 222 pounds. The Kansas crew allegedly paid them $2,000 per pound.
CORRECTION: The caption below the Cheech and Chong drawing in the issue of 13 February should have read "A 2003 raid on Chong's Glass cost him $200.000 in asset forfeiture....." not 2,000 in asset forfeiture.
IN A BRIEF conversation with Supervisor Pinches on Monday, the Supervisor said the recent study confirming that predators are largely responsible for a reduction in the state's deer herds, is consistent with his views. "For years, Fish and Game said coyotes did not kill fawns. I guess they've changed their minds on that one." The Supervisor was annoyed at our criticism of the Willits Bypass project. We reminded him that way back we'd seconded his support for a bypass to run along the railroad right of way through the Little Lake Valley because, as Pinches pointed out long before the project was approved, "During the big floods of '55 and '64 the line through Willits didn't move." Meaning, the railroad surveyors at the dawn of the 20th century placed the track on the likeliest geological path through the Little Lake Valley. "The bypass route now," Pinches said, "is a regional project all the north counties want, but it's been designed not so much by engineers as it has various agencies. You know under CEQUA (California Environmental Quality Act) there's a no-build option, but everyone came back and said, 'We need a bypass.' The environmental process is over. Caltrans should escort the protesters off the site because it's now a construction site. There's $35 million in local funds committed here and the bypass will divert about 40 percent of the present traffic that now goes through Willits, including all the fuel trucks. We're lucky we've never had an accident downtown involving them."
STEVE TALBOT WRITES: If you need a break, like old movies, and want to hang out in the hipster Mission, join me at the Roxie this Thursday evening for a double bill of my Dad's movies, "Fog Over Frisco" and "Heat Lightning". My sister, Margaret, will be there to introduce the films and talk about her book, "The Entertainer: Movies, Magic and My Father's Twentieth Century."
PIE IN THE SKY THEATER Presents
A Pair Of John Mcnamara Comedies
Banned In Potter Valley*
Directed By Phil Baldwin of the Ukiah City Council
March 15, 16, 20, 22, 23
Saturday Afternoon Clubhouse
Church & Oak streets, downtown Ukiah, CA
8:30pm, $10 General & $5 Students
Advance tickets on sale at Mendocino Book Company
“Banned in Potter Valley” is, of course, a PR ploy for our March production of a pair of comedies by John McNamara. Yet one of these short plays, “Personal Effects,” after six sold out Potter Valley High performances in 1998 and 2000 under two administrations, was, indeed, disallowed for production in 2008 by a third administration. Since I consider it a tremendously funny and empathetic play, I determined to bring “Personal Effects” to Ukiah when I retired from teaching. That time is now, so we’re offering five shows March 15, 16, 20, 22, 23 at the Saturday Afternoon Club with the cast of Jesse Brennan, Elizabeth McKeon, Noah Taxis, Thea Sharp, Oscar Montelongo, Dominic Silva, Zephyr Girard, Gabe Suddeth, Ray Harrison. While most know me as a local politico and Ukiah city councilmember, few are aware I directed plays in Potter Valley for some ten years, enjoying work with unbelievably talented teens in our productions of Euripides’ tragedy, “Medea,” “Bad Seed” by Maxwell Anderson, and Aristophanes 2500 year old comedy, “Lysistrata,” which sold out two performances at Ukiah Players Theater in 2002.
COAST HOSPITAL'S board of directors was scheduled to meet last Thursday at 5pm before a room full of employees angry that the County's only publicly-owned hospital appears to be trying to make up its budget deficit by laying off workers. But the meeting was put off until Monday night. More on this one to come.
A READER WRITES: Did you guys know that April is National Government Month?!? Please find appropriate ways to help us celebrate. Also, note the enclosed communication from Carmel Angelo. Two sentence (fragments) are particularly noteworthy. One says she is happy to be “helping to grow our community” and the other says “with a more informed public we can grow this feedback…” I assume this is the new government buzzword lingo. Use it often.
* * *
"Dear Mendocino County Employees: Greetings: One of my New Year’s Resolutions to you is to commit to monthly messages sharing items of interest with you. It has been a busy first couple of months of the year 2013 so far, and the Executive Office is deeply engaged in a number of high-priority items, not the least of which is the development of the County budget for the upcoming fiscal year that begins on July 1. Also quite important is the distribution of the soon-to-be-released County Communication Plan; this will be quite important for us as an organization to shape our communication strategies going forward. I’m excited to launch a more personal and timely mechanism for delivering County information and receiving feedback from all of you. More information on this initiative is forthcoming. I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge that April is National County Government Month, an annual opportunity to showcase local government services. This is an appropriate reminder for me of how important our role is in the community, and to serve the public as best we can. County government is one of the most closely watched and impactful levels of government there is. It is an opportunity to prove to citizens whether or not elected – and appointed – officials truly are responsive to the residents they serve. A robust discussion is at the heart of our local democracy, and I am encouraged every time a local citizen chooses to engage in the political discussion in an open forum. It is a reminder to myself of how critical it is to deliver excellent services to Mendocino County. Please take a moment to recognize, along with me, the role you play in helping to grow our community. In addition, I welcome any highlights you have that you would like to share, or even to acknowledge an instance of “above and beyond” service that one of our employees has displayed. Finally, the Executive Office is planning to embark on a number of budget presentations in the coming months in an effort to foster a more educational relationship with County employees and residents. It is my hope that with a more informed public, we can grow this feedback mechanism and share this critical knowledge with our Supervisors and our County leadership. Thank you for your continued commitment, Carmel (County CEO Carmel Angelo)"
WE GET THESE grotesquely insincere communications from all levels of government people — Congressman-elect Huffman is already a master of mealy-mouthism — but we still wonder who takes them seriously? Even the most committed nuzzlebum has to privately say to himself, "These people are either crazy or they think I'm a moron." Ms. Angelo isn't crazy in any obvious way, but if there were any way of knowing what she really thinks, I'd guess she assumes County workers are indeed morons, that she has to write these things because it's somehow expected from her as Boss County Worker. And expected from the congressman. And expected from the president, as per Obama's transparently false assessments he recently peddled as the state of the union. The true state of the union is frightening and getting scarier by the day even if one judges only from the rapid rise in fuel and food prices just over the last month.
LAST TUESDAY’S Board of Supervisors agenda included “an Informational Presentation and Initial Introduction on ‘Approved Source’ Issues Relating to Locally Grown Food” in Mendocino County. According to the Agenda summary, “State law only allows food preparation facilities (like restaurants and cafeterias) to utilize food from an ‘approved source.’ The concept is simple: food that will be used to serve the public must be protected from contamination at all stages of the process, and the approval process allows officials to ‘trace back’ a food product to its source if a health-related problem occurs. Locally grown, fresh fruit and vegetables benefit consumers, the environment and the community as a whole. The Environmental Health Director and the Agricultural Commissioner have started the process of addressing Approved Source issues as they relate to using locally grown foods for the preparation of meals consumed by a third party. We are hoping that eventually a program would be in place to expand the use of fresh fruit and vegetables from gardens in Mendocino County. This informational presentation will identify the underlying issues and the need for the program. We will explain the process tentatively planned at this point and summarize the program’s envisioned basic structure and components, which will include the electronic issuance of Approved Source Certificates to growers. As envisioned, staff anticipates that a Mendocino County Approved Source Program could be operational by the end of 2013.”
THE COUNTY’S LIST OF TAX DEFAULTED parcels for this year includes the usual lengthy list of undeveloped Brooktrails parcels, and also includes 18 parcels owned by legendary Elk resident Bobby Beacon whose 18 parcels are in arrears to the tune of $212,600.
ANOTHER INTERESTING parcel on the list is a Laytonville parcel co-owned by Ms. Dana Wuerfel, wife of attorney Mark Wuerfel. The tax defaulted Spy Rock Road parcel has a rather large minimum bid of $12,200. A couple of years back, in a lawsuit following a drug task force raid at Wuerfel’s Laytonville office, Wuerfel famously said he was growing pot in Laytonville so he could provide clean water to Indians. Wuerfel’s highly complicated wrongful prosecution case limped on for years in Mendocino County Superior Court with Wuerfel saying things like, “I move to continue the motion to continue.” But we haven’t heard much from the Wuerfels lately.
DOUG LORANGER WRITES: "Just a note that Joseph Frank, Dostoevsky's biographer, died recently: "From the obituary in the New York Times: 'It’s now regarded as the best biography of Dostoevsky in any language, including Russian, which is really saying something,” Gary Saul Morson, a Dostoevsky scholar and professor of Slavic languages and literature at Northwestern University, said in a telephone interview, referring to the five-volume work. “That’s more or less universal. And this is my opinion, I don’t know if others will agree, but it’s the best biography of any writer I’ve ever read.'
LORANGER ADDS: "It looks like his 5-vol. bio has been condensed into a more manageable single volume entitled 'Dostoevsky: A Writer in His Time.' I can't recommend this highly enough (I read through most of the 5 vol. set over the years)."
LAST WEEK Friends of the Gualala River (FoGR) announced that they were celebrating the announcement that The Conservation Fund (along with several other well-heeled environmental conservation groups) has agreed to purchase the 20,000 acre Preservation Ranch property in the Gualala River Watershed in northwest Sonoma County. The Conservation Fund, together with their funding partners — the California Coastal Conservancy, Sonoma County's Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District, and the Sonoma Land Trust — will preserve the property as working forest. The FoGR press release singled out “the constructive role played by Sonoma County's Fifth District Supervisor, Efren Carrillo, in bringing about this welcome announcement.”
THE CONSERVATION FUND would be justified in changing the name of the overcut timber tract to “Perseverance Ranch,” since FoGR has spent almost 20 years to bring about the buyout to prevent the property from being chopped up into dozens of highly destructive vineyards with accompanying McMansions.
ONCE OWNED by Willits timber broker Rich Padula, the 20,000 acres on the Mendo-Sonoma County border near Gualala, have passed through several ownerships since Padula sold it almost 25 years ago, claiming at the time that there was more timber on the land than there was. Successive owners have tried to cash in on the property with various wine-grape and upscale housing conversion schemes that depended on the ignorance of potential investors to the realities of the proposals.
THE LATEST SCHEME involved chopping up the property into vineyards and mini-palaces for the insensate. It was peddled by long-time Napa-based scofflaw William Hill who also owns Anderson Valley's Philoville Vineyards and its associated ponds on Anderson Valley Way, among other local properties. Hill operates Premier Pacific, which obtained financing from the California Employees Pension fund (CalPERS) by promising big returns on the huge timber-to-vineyard conversion.
PREMIER PACIFIC hired some big gun libs like Eric Koenigshofer, a former supervisor close ally of present SoCo supervisor Efren Carillo, to run interference for the project. But Koenigshofer underestimated the commitment of Chris Poehlman and his FoGR group to stop the grotesque scheme.
IN RECENT YEARS, political pressure organized by Poehlman and others not only exposed the great ecological damage Hill’s project would do, formal objections to the scheme raised the cost of the proposal so severely that CalPERS backed out, dumping Hill in 2011 and subsequently arranging a buyout by an association of conservation groups.
FoGR PRESIDENT Poehlmann was finally able to announce, “It takes a village to kill a monster like Preservation Ranch. We appreciate the power of many groups and individual supporters coming together to change the politics of destructive land use choices and to provide real citizen leadership. This broad coalition stepped forward to inspire CalPERS to switch from a position of developer to willing seller. And the community inspired its political leaders to take bold steps to protect our forested watershed instead of pursuing speculative, short-term profits."
"WE ARE ALSO RELIEVED that we are spared a conflict that could have dragged on painfully for years of controversy and political turbulence during environmental review as the Artesa project has,” said FoGR volunteer Peter Baye. “Preservation Ranch's final demise puts the nail in the coffin of a bankrupt business and land use model for North Coast forestlands.”
THE PROPERTY was purchased by Hill and his associates in 2004 for $28.4 million using CalPERS money. Under the terms of the conservation deal CalPERS will sell the property for $24.5 million, thus not only avoiding an uphill permit and environmental legal battle, but escaping a money losing conversion scheme that Hill had conjured. The Conservation Fund will contribute up to $6 million toward the purchase. In addition, the California Coastal Conservancy, will add up to $10 million, Sonoma County's Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District, could chip in $4 million to the deal, and the Sonoma Land Trust will contribute several more million. Public access “could result from the deal,” said the announcement, but the property would remain in private ownership with limited timber production and it will remain on SoCo’s tax rolls.
THE CONSERVATION FUND already owns and manages 55,000 acres of Usal Forest in Mendocino County in conjunction with the Redwood Forest Foundation, in addition to the 24,000 acre “Garcia River Forest,” and would use the new acquisition for sustainable timber production and possibly for the sale of carbon credits. The three tracts together would bring the Conservation Fund’s ownership up to almost 100,000 acres on the North Coast, making it the largest such working forest in California.
SCAM ARTISTS claiming to be health inspectors are attempting to prey on the County's ethnic restaurants. Environmental Health Division Director Dave Jensen of the Mendocino County Health and Human Services Agency said he knows of two Ukiah restaurants that reported in February that someone claiming to be a health inspector visited and said the facility owed fees and needed to pay immediately or face being closed down. “Health inspectors do not collect fees in the field,” Jensen said. "They also carry photo identification to show they are County employees, and anyone who is asked to pay an inspector on the spot is urged to ask for such identification, or to call the county Environmental Health Division at 234-6625 to verify that a payment is due."
MANBEATER of the week, Ms. Meredith Seifert of Willits. Meredith doesn't appear to be overcome by remorse. She popped ol' Whatshisface one and darned if he didn't have it coming. “Of course wimp that he is he called the cops, and also of course the cops had to arrest me because they've got to because they saw a barely visible red mark on ol' Whathisface's indignant puss.”
Well, whatever brought the police to Ms. Seifert's door it couldn't have been all that serious, not in the same category of the young Fort Bragg woman who dumped her immobilized boyfriend's catheter bag on him. That guy has a legitimate beef. Anyway, we've noted for some time that many of the people booked into the Mendocino County Jail are smiling, a fact we attribute to the professionalism of the person who takes these photographs, a person we regard as an artist whose Mendo mugshots can compare with the best photographic art in Northern California. Move over Muybridge! Seriously, would you rather look at an album of Mendo mugshots or drive over to a Mendocino gallery and look at pictures of seagulls and chipmunks? The booking guy (or gal) has a good eye, as the shutterbugs say. Like a portraitist, he apparently jollies up his subjects before snapping them. The photographer is particularly good with the Manbeaters. They're invariably smiling. Maybe he congratulates them. Maybe he said to Ms. Seifert, “Good for you, dear, for standing up for yourself.” The booking photographer not only takes great pictures, he seems to have the rare gift of making people in grim situations feel better. So, who is this guy? Who's the artist? We're working on it.
HEARTENING to see that poaching on the Garcia is finally getting more attention. Saturday’s Press Democrat nicely state’s the problem, the nut of which is jurisdictional. State Fish and Game officers can’t crackdown on poachers without a federal agent being present, and state law exempts tribal members from the state game code so long as they are fishing (gill netting is considered fishing) from tribal lands. Unfortunately for the fish, the Garcia flows between the Manchester and Point Arena reservations. So, despite years of restoration efforts on the Garcia, a handful of tribal poachers, citing pre-Whitey tribal practices, take as many spawning fish as they can muster the energy to take, thus imperiling the entire Garcia fishery.
TWO COMMENTS from Lost Coast Outpost on the suicide of Jeffrey Panutsos, 20, of Eureka:
COMMENT ONE. “Before a person, especially a person as young as Jeffrey, commits suicide, I wish they would consider a few other possibilities:
a) If the situation is very, very bad at home, run away. I’m totally serious. There are shelters and good people at them (along with bad people). Some people are awful parents
b) If you think you are no good, you should know that most people who are not sociopaths occasionally think they are no good. It’s a sign you are normal.
c) If you’re sad about a relationship, consider calling a suicide hotline, one such number is 1-800-273-8255. I can’t convince you, but the impossible-to-take pain will fade over time.
d) If you are hungry and don’t know where to turn, go to a fire station. Just tell the truth.
e) If you think the world is rotten, you can decide to spend a day improving it before committing suicide. That could take any form you like. Choose something you think you might enjoy, but one suggestion is to go to Food for People or another similar outfit and volunteer for a day. You can repeat that decision daily, and change your mind whenever you like.
You cannot change your mind once you’ve committed suicide.
COMMENT 2. “It's probably too early to make any comment other than one of extreme sorrow, but I just gotta say, every single frickin' day it seems I hear of some depressed person on pharmaceuticals losing their love of life sufficiently to do something like this. As I say, I don't know if this was the case here, but it reminds me— please kids, Don't do drugs! Especially the kind that aim to make you an addict for the next 60 years (unless you just off yourself first). If your parents and doctors try to put you on drugs, please ask for help from someone who you know really loves and cares about you. I doubt you could even go to the authorities (CPS) nowadays though—they would just back the docs and the drugs.
Again, I don't know if Jeffrey was a victim of this conspiracy against life, or not. I'm just saying it made me think of this issue, especially since I talked with a woman today whose grandchild consumed a whole bottle of her prescribed Zoloft in one sitting and almost lost it all before she was found and hospitalized. Condolences to the family and all who knew and loved this young man.” (Laura Cooskey)
A READER WRITES: “Bruce McEwen's account of DA Eyster's prosecution of Ms. LaValle was a good read, as always, but the conclusion that ‘bringing a pot case into court is a waste of time and money,’ needs some clarification. Before Eyster took office there was no consistency in how pot cases were charged or prosecuted. The only thing that was consistent was that they all dragged on forever and were eventually dismissed or pled down to nothing. Eyster, who handles all the pot cases himself, is not afraid to take a case to trial. He only charges what he knows he can prove. Ms. LaValle, with eight pounds of pot, could have paid the standard restitution fee of $500 a pound ($50 a plant for cultivation cases) and pled to a misdemeanor. For just $4,000 (far less than it costs to pay your average pot lawyer to take a case to trial), Ms. LaValle could have walked. The real take away from this case is that if Eyster charges you in a pot case, you better take the plea deal and pay the restitution, because if you take it to trial it will be a waste of your time and money.”
THE UKIAH TEACHERS ASSOCIATION (UTA) has overwhelmingly approved a new contract which gives teachers a 9% raise over the next three years. How are such raises possible for a financially strapped school district like Ukiah still struggling with the fallout of the economic collapse? Very simply, the three new UTA backed board members advocated paying for the raises by dipping into the district's reserve funds, which may be a great short term option for the teachers, but not sustainable for the long haul. And what impact, if any, will the federal sequester cuts have on local school funding?
SONOMA COUNTY SEIU members voted to approve a new contract with the county. Or did they? The vote was 52% to approve, but there are six bargaining units within Service Employees International Union 1021 in Sonoma County and four of the six units did not vote in favor of a new contract. Current union bylaws say the majority rules, but past practice within SEIU 707, which was eliminated in a 2007 corporate style northcoast merger, required every bargaining unit to vote approval. Following current bylaws ought to be simple enough, but Lathe Gill, lead negotiator for SEIU, says union officials will be reviewing the issue with attorneys. If the SoCo union invalidates the vote it could provoke a claim from the county. And either way it is likely to face an internal challenge and re-kindle the feud between those who supported the 2007 merger and those who did not. Opponents of the merger argued it would result in a loss of local control, with decisions being made at SEIU's corporate headquarters (Weep, Harry Bridges, weep at what unions have become), instead of by the local bargaining groups who can't even choose their own business agents.
SEIU OVERWHELMINGLY REJECTED a tentative contract with Sonoma County last December that called for a 3% cut in wages and benefits. SEIU correctly surmised that Susan Gorin, who took office as a Supervisor in January, would swing the balance of power on the Sonoma County Board of Supes in their favor. SEIU poured money and volunteers into Gorin's campaign and it paid off in a proposed contract that granted SEIU a 3% raise, one time payments up to $2,700 and a boost in the county contribution to healthcare which will go up to as much as $965 a month. Most workers would be happy to get a 3% raise, a $2,700 bonus and nearly a $1,000 a month for healthcare. Especially from a county that has a $353 million dollar (and growing) unfunded liability for retirement costs. But most employees have not been sheltered from economic reality in the same way as public employees who have come to expect that wages and benefits will always follow an upward trajectory.
FOLLOWING REJECTION of the previous agreement, SEIU fired its Sonoma County contract negotiator and went back to the bargaining table demanding up to a 17% cost of living increase over three years. The demands at the bargaining table were matched by militant calls to action to the rank and file, calling them to the barricades and threatening a strike. The leadership also pumped up the membership by railing against the exorbitant pay for the county supervisors and administrators. The Sonoma Supes have pledged to take a whopping 3% pay cut, but only after all rank and file employees have reached agreement. SEIU called off a strike originally set for February 28, based on the tentative agreement with the County. If SEIU decides that majority approval of the contract isn't good enough, it will mean both parties will go back to the table, but with increasingly less likelihood that agreement can be reached.
SEIU REPRESENTS 1,700 Sonoma County workers, but only about 1,200 were eligible to vote and only about three-quarters bothered to do so. SEIU, which demands transparency from the County, ought to disclose just how many of the 1,700 hundred county employees it represents are members of SEIU and how many are forced to pay dues because Sonoma County, like most public employers, is a closed shop. The fact that only 1,200 out of 1,700 represented employees were eligible to vote may be a pretty good indication that only 70% of the employees think SEIU is worth the price of membership. The remaining 500 are forced to pay for “representation” but are exempt from paying for political activities. SEIU always calls for transparency but is less than open about disclosing how much money it makes in union dues and how the money is spent.
A BAY AREA member of SEIU 1000, which represents state workers, formed “Occupy SEIU” and sued in an effort to force SEIU to disclose how it spends its members' money. SEIU fought the case all the way to the State Supreme Court which ruled last year that Mariam Noujaim could review two years of financial documents but only within a four-hour window. Noujaim was allowed to take notes, but not make copies. SEIU, to better control access to the information, selected the documents to be reviewed and rented a Holiday Inn conference room for the examination. Noujaim was not allowed to bring her attorney or an accountant and does not believe that SEIU furnished all the documents requested. Nevertheless, Noujaim was able to document lots of travel and restaurant expenses by the SEIU leadership. But because she did not understand the codes on the computer printouts, she was unable to document whether or not the SEIU honchos took pay cuts or furloughs during the state budget crisis. She was also unable to document any steps SEIU may have taken to reduce union expenses at a time when state programs were being cut. SEIU dismisses Noujaim as a Meg Whitman supporter, which she was, but why is SEIU so invested in shielding its members from an accounting of how the union spends their money?
MENDOCINO COUNTY SEIU also seems to be gearing up for a fight. As reported earlier, SEIU is suing in an effort to block the county from “privatizing,” or contracting out, mental health treatment services for adults. The county would keep control of contract administration, training and quality assurance, just as it does now for children's mental health services. We understand that SEIU does not want to lose any dues paying members. But no one can plausibly claim that the county is doing a good job providing adult mental health services now or at any time in the last 20-plus years. Local members of NAMI, the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, support contracting out locally as the only viable alternative to the current failed system.
SEIU AND THE COUNTY agreed to form a “Labor Management Committee” (LMC) as a condition of the last contract in an effort to improve communication and build an improved working relationship. The LMC includes top county management and the contract negotiating team for SEIU. The previous contract negotiations broke down around a lack of communication and an absence of trust and mutual respect. According to SEIU newsletters, topics of conversation at the LMC have been the county communications policy (which cost the county a measly $8,000 for which the county got nothing in return), and how to improve employee morale. Lots of talk, but, as usual, so far no real action by either party. SEIU did acknowledge that the county was sharing more information upfront. For example, including them in discussions about plans for phase two of the Fort Bragg remodel of county offices that is part of the ongoing consolidation of the county workforce. And how has SEIU repaid the favor? The last LMC meeting was held right after SEIU filed its lawsuit, but before the county received notice of the suit. At the LMC meeting SEIU pumped the county for more information about the RFP, but never mentioned the lawsuit. After the meeting, at least one of the SEIU negotiators was openly crowing about the county not knowing they were about to get hit with a lawsuit.
THE LABOR MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE might also have been a great forum for SEIU to ask questions about the budget. During the past couple of years SEIU has either been missing in action when the Board of Supes discusses the budget, or they show up and say they don't understand the budget. Or they make comments that prove they don't understand the budget. But the so-called SEIU leadership seems to have very little interest in using the LMC to truly understand the County budget, improve employee morale, or improve the working relationship with the county. Instead, what SEIU seems to be interested in is a replay of the last round of bitterly contested negotiations which ended with a 10% pay cut after the county temporarily imposed a 12.5% pay cut because SEIU would not initially agree to 10%. (At least this time, with Kendall Smith gone, the union won’t be able to point at her petty greed as a negative negotiating point.)
SEIU IS ONE OF EIGHT BARGAINING UNITS in Mendocino County and all are coming up for contract negotiations this year. According to reliable sources within the other units, SEIU is already spreading the word that they intend to strike and is encouraging the other bargaining units to take a hard line. The SEIU leadership wanted to strike last year, but were forced to reach agreement when the membership demanded they accept the 10% cut instead of being stuck at 12%. Now the leadership is encouraging its members to think that they are going to restore the 10% cut which is just setting the stage for another slo-mo train wreck.
AFTER THREE YEARS of making tough, but mostly smart and disciplined budget decisions, it is not likely that the Board majority of Pinches, Brown and McCowen is going to suddenly reverse course and grant wage increases without knowing where the money is coming from to pay for it. Early indications, based on his public comments so far, are that new Supervisor Dan Gjerde will also be a reliable vote for fiscal responsibility, a quality that was woefully lacking in past Boards that went on spending binges to build buildings that weren't needed (Willits Justice Center and Service Center), pay inflated pensions (Pension Obligation Bonds), mismanage the Teeter Plan (doubling the debt), and pay inflated salaries that were unsustainable (Slavin Study).
THE COUNTY'S FINANCIAL CONDITION, although still precarious, is much improved over the last couple of years, largely because of the 10% staff pay cut. Supervisor Pinches is exactly right when he says, “We have more government than we can afford.” Sonoma County may be in a better position to offer some increased benefits because Sonoma County actually has a local economy where Mendocino County does not, at least not that is above board and taxable. Fishing is a shadow of what it used to be. The industrial timber giants cut inventory down to nothing, trashed the land and moved on. Most of the logging supply companies and the mills are all shut down with only one mill in Philo (off and on), one in Willits and two near Ukiah still operating. The manufacturing base of the county has been reduced to almost nothing. Tourism manages to keep a few people employed waiting on tables and pouring wine, but not everyone wants to make a living sucking up to yuppie travelers. The underground economy keeps a lot of money in circulation but usually not in ways that benefit local government.
FITCH RATINGS, as reported here earlier, has issued a report upgrading the outlook for Mendocino County from “stable to positive,” citing a recent history of balanced budgets and rebuilding reserves. The county issued a tepid press release touting the improved outlook, but also listed the areas of concern cited by Fitch which included the continuing long-term economic decline, high unemployment, stagnant population growth, wealth and income levels below state and national averages, long-term debt obligations, and a struggling local housing market. The press release quotes Assistant CEO Kyle Knopp (who seems to have been designated the official Mendocino County voice of budget doom and gloom) as saying “Fitch's revision to the County's outlook should not negate the fact that Fitch has real concerns about the overall economic picture in Mendocino County. A poor economic outlook directly translates to the long-term revenue outlook of the County.” The press releases concludes “Current projections show local discretionary revenue growth of less than 1% per year on average over the next five years. The poor revenue growth picture is complicated by cost increases associated with retirement, healthcare and other County obligations” (known to insiders as the County’s “structural deficit”).
THE PRESS RELEASE seems like an obvious message to the employee bargaining units: “With increased retirement and healthcare costs that won't quit and a lousy 1% revenue growth projected for the next five years, don't even dream that the 10% wage cut is going to be restored anytime soon.” But the SEIU leadership seems caught between economic reality (there is no spare money) and the need to show the employees that there is a reason to keep paying their membership dues. And hope seems to spring eternal that if only the SEIU can bring enough pressure to bear on the Supes, and make their lives miserable enough, they might capitulate. Except SEIU tried that tactic last time around and all it did was destroy employee morale and result in a 12.5% pay cut when the county only wanted 10%.
THE POINT ARENA SCHOOL BOARD chose Robert Shimon to fill a vacancy on the Board created when Susan Sandoval resigned. The vote, taken last month, was by secret ballot. Local government in general, and school boards in particular, are much more comfortable making decisions in private. (cf the Boonville school district.) Shimon cited his 40 years as an educator in local schools and his involvement in coaching and committee work as his qualifications. But one of his primary qualifications, at least for the school board, was probably that he was not Lauren Sinnott, the other applicant for the vacant post. Sinnott has now achieved the dubious trifecta distinction of being recalled as Point Arena mayor, losing the race for City Treasurer to a write in candidate, and now being passed over for appointment to the school board. The memory and reach of the re-callers, who have developed what seems like a pathological dislike for Ms. Sinnott, shows no signs of abating.
CLAUDIA HILARY, former Point Arena City Clerk, whose termination sparked the recall campaign against the then incumbent City Councilmembers, has settled her wrongful termination lawsuit which was filed against the re-called City Councilmembers. The lawsuit was decided recently by Hilary's friends on the City Council who took office following the successful recall. The settlement provides that Hilary will be paid $90,000 but only $5,000 will be paid by the City of Point Arena. The rest will be paid by city insurance. Local residents who were waiting outside the meeting hall when the closed session to decide the issue took place, reported hearing applause and loud shouts of approval, presumably when the vote to approve the settlement took place. Which may be the only time that members of a City Council have cheered the prospect of paying out $90,000 in public funds to a disgruntled former employee.
THE PA CITY COUNCIL also got an update last month on the on-going saga of the Sea Shell Inn, which is apparently even more dilapidated than it appears from the street. The Sea Shell had become a refuge for ne'er do wells and rumored illicit activity including commercial sales of drugs and sex, with the owner, Ken LaBoube, failing to maintain the property or even attempting to weed (sic) out his unmanageable tenants. Ben McGrew, the court-appointed receiver to oversee the property, reported that a potential buyer had backed out after a thorough review of the options. According to McGrew, the options include demolition of all the buildings and sale of the property; demolition of the buildings on the west side of Main St. and renovation of the rest; demolition of the western buildings and a portion of the eastern buildings, with renovation of what is left; or dividing the various parcels and selling them off individually. The properties currently have a lien against them of approximately $600,000 which may exceed the value of the property under any of the scenarios that were suggested. Further complicating matters, the creek that borders the south side of the property has been designated as an Endangered Species Habitat Area for the Point Arena mountain beaver (a gopher, actually), thereby requiring a 100-foot setback for any new construction. The property has been listed for sale with Certified Commercial Investment Members which specializes in commercial real estate. Point Arena is hoping for a deep pockets investor with a love of salt air.
CONTRACTING SHOULD GO FORWARD. We understand why the SEIU (the union representing county employees) wants to stop Mendocino County from contracting out mental health services. The union's mission is to preserve as many county jobs as possible. We get that. But by suing the county now to stop the contract process, the union's timing is way off and appears to miss two important points. First, the county has been moving forward with contracting out mental health services for at least a year. Where was the union at the beginning of this process? Second, the union cannot with a straight face argue that the county is now providing good, or even adequate, or even barely adequate, mental health services. To try to argue in court that a change would somehow damage a healthy system of care is ludicrous. This county has a long record of failure in delivering mental health services. The time when anyone could legitimately claim that it's all because the state mental hospital in Ukiah was closed and all these crazy people were left wandering around here is long, long past. When the county closed its mental health lock-up — known as the “puff” for Psychiatric Health Facility — it lost the lion's share of its capability to even try to help the many seriously mentally ill people living here. The county blamed its budget, but we still believe the county simply let it happen because it didn't know how to go about reforming its mental health staffing. Mental health care has suffered ever since. It's time to let someone else try. All the union is doing now — and family members of mentally ill people here are telling us this — is prolonging the period of time their loved ones will continue to go without mental health care. (K.C. Meadows. Courtesy, the Ukiah Daily Journal)
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