Hot Interior | Noyo Gull | Strike Vote | Big Redwood | Skyhawk Warning | BOS Priorities | Trail Workshop | Kennels Full | Winter Sculpture | Antique Museum | Suspicious Caller | Rabbani Carving | Ed Notes | Surgical Revenge | Ukiah Construction | Immigrant Exhibit | Conductor Nies | Travel Agent | Yesterday's Catch | Affirmative Action | Agave | Doing Nothing | Former Wannabe | Shall Do | Marco Radio | Red Balloon | Covid Rising | Guru Wachter | Pulling Flagellum | Grander Destabilization | Immortal Speech | Paddy Wagon | Fun Day | Titanic Survivors | Cocaine Mystery | Ukraine | Spring 1938
TEMPERATURES WILL PEAK today across the interior with high of 100F to 112F. Excessive Heat Warning for Trinity, interior Mendocino and Lake counties remains on track. Seasonably temperatures are forecast to persist along the coast with the onshore see breeze and stratus clearing each afternoon. Otherwise, no rain is forecast to occur during the next seven days. (NWS)
STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): On the coast this Saturday morning I am going with 55F & patchy fog. It is dark at 5:21am so hard to tell for sure. The fog remains right along the coast so like yesterday it will likely play tag with us thru the day. The NWS is calling for sunnier days & windy for next week, again.
YESTERDAY'S HIGHS: Covelo 103°, Ukiah 103°, Yorkville 102°, Laytonville 100°, Boonville 94°, Fort Bragg 61°
COUNTY OFFERS ‘SLAP IN THE FACE’ to employees; strike vote underway.
SEIU 1021 Mendocino County Chapter
Update: The Official News Source for Negotiations / July 13, 2023
Dear Mendocino County coworkers,
We met with the County again this morning [Thursday, July 13] for negotiations. The County finally provided a written response to our proposals. But most of the team said it felt like “a slap in the face.” The County proposed 0% this year, 1% July 2024 and 3% July 2025. They refused to move longevity pay up to what other bargaining units at the County are getting. They want employees to pay for the 12.26% increase In health insurance January 1st. They will not increase the paltry on-call rates [for CPS, largely]. They reject our proposals to improve the pension. And they are refusing to add extra steps to the 21 classifications that had steps deleted in the last contract because they were so low. With the projected increases in the employee health plan costs and increases next July in employee pension costs, this will still be a pay cut even before you consider inflation.
We recognize the County is experiencing financial and leadership challenges, but we have repeatedly explained to them how they can be financially prudent while still supporting their employees. In fact, not supporting their employees will put the County in an even deeper hole. The County has rainy day funds for a crisis [probably a reference to the $28 million general fund reserve]. We are in a crisis. It is time to tap those funds. The County has acknowledged that they have failed to collect millions in revenue that is due to the County. This is money that should and can be providing staff with a living wage and affordable benefits.
The Board is just not hearing us or recognizing the seriousness of this situation. You should be receiving your Strike Vote ballots in the mail this week. Make sure to fill them out and mail them back or bring them to the BBQ in Ukiah on Thursday, July 20. The Negotiating Committee is recommending that members vote VES to authorize a strike.
We will be counting ballots at the Union Hall on Friday, July 28. Until the Board of Supervisors takes us frontline workers seriously and listens to our recommendations, the County will continue to drift and flounder.
Mark your calendars for the next Board of Supervisors meeting: Tuesday, July 25 at 9am, before the supervisors take a month off for their “summer recess.”
Our next negotiating session with the County is set for Thursday, July 27. Remember to wear purple!
For the Union,
Julie Beardsley, Ryan Bushnell, Leif Farr, Jacqueline Otis, Tracy Wright and Patrick Hickey, Mendocino County Chapter Negotiating Committee. “Stronger together.”
VIA EVERETT LILJEBERG
WHOSE PAIN? NOT TED’S
Editor:
I’m reading right now, The Major’s report on Supervisor Williams proposing to balance County Budget, by slashing staffing levels in already depleted, bare bones departments. I may be the last person in the County who remembers or even cares how candidate Williams glammed the voters with his razzle dazzle talk in 2018 when we were both candidates for the 5th District seat. At that time the Supervisors had just voted themselves a hefty pay raise that provoked a lot of resentment against them and a lot of pressure on us as candidates to vow that we wouldn’t take it. To which Williams breezily stated “I don’t need it.” Williams, it is widely assumed, had well-positioned investments when tech started taking off and he made a LOT of money.
When he and I were both with the Albion Little River Fire Protection District he would often be away for periods of time as he worked on Verifone pay machines.
All this is to point out that Williams is obviously a well-heeled man, and has through his tech savvy investments, and his tech nerdiness positioned himself as “not needing” a pay raise, then moved to cutting from the County payroll actual working people, which will hurt County residents; with no indication that he is willing to share anyone’s pain.
Beware this man.
Chris Skyhawk
Fort Bragg
ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY #1
Of course Photo-Op Mo supports the Great Redwood trail, she needs a new picture to post on her Facebook account! She is probably the one who suggested the Ad-Hoc Committee for the HR Director, Ad-Hocs are her second most favorite thing to do. She suggests these committees that never get anything done, but form a good excuse. When she is asked about failure she replies, “You know we formed an Ad-Hoc Committee, you should go talk to them.” And did you notice Haschak admits he was just on a Ad-Hoc Committee with McGourty that accomplished nothing.
Every time this board meets they just prove their name, Board Of Stupid! But let’s talk Rail Trail, while our employees form picket lines at the Courthouse and threaten to strike. Priorities People!
SCAMARAMA MAGNIFICO!
CROWDED MENDOCINO COUNTY ANIMAL SHELTER ASKS FOR PUBLIC’S HELP
With its dog kennels nearly full for several months, the Mendocino County Animal Care Services shelter in Ukiah is asking for the public’s assistance to avoid the need to euthanize dogs in order to free up space for new strays, county officials announced this week.
“Mendocino County Animal Shelter dog kennels have been at almost 100-percent occupancy for many months and this is the new norm,” officials explained in a press release. “Dogs are staying here longer, not being reclaimed by their owners and not being adopted, (placing) the Animal Shelter in the difficult position of euthanizing healthy dogs to make room for the other free-roaming stray dogs to come in to the shelter.”
Local officials added that they are not alone, as “animal shelters and animal rescues throughout the country are experiencing unprecedented times,” describing the majority of them as “filled up with animals and having very little available space for other stray animals to come into their facilities,” forcing “hundreds of animal shelters (to face) the reality to having to euthanize animals for space.”
County officials also explained that the situation is made worse “when citizens opt to embellish, lie or deceive on the circumstances of the stray dog in order to get the dog picked up by Animal Protection or impounded at the Animal Shelter as a drop off. As an example, we had a couple come to the Animal Shelter this past week and state they found a ‘stray dog,’ (but) when Animal Shelter staff scanned the dog for a microchip, it came back registered to the couple.”
County officials asked residents who find a stray dog to “please be prepared to hold the dog for several days if the Animal Shelter is full with dogs. With your assistance we can upload a picture of the dog on our ‘Lost & Found’ webpage in an effort to get the dog reconnected with their owner. When kennel space becomes available, we will contact you to bring the dog to the Animal Shelter. If you are adamant that we take the stray dog, other shelter dogs are subject to be euthanized for space to accommodate the stray dog.”
Officials further explained that this information is being shared “to make the citizens aware that we are doing the best that we can, but there are many variables causing this situation and unfortunately there are not a lot of answers, thus we need the community’s assistance. When judging or criticizing the Animal Shelter if euthanasia for space has to take place, please remember the decision is not an easy one, we have exhausted all our available options and your fellow county residents that have failed these animals are responsible for the unfortunate outcome.”
In conclusion, county officials requested that “when there is posting on our website indicating that the dog kennels are full, we need immediate assistance with owners reclaiming their stray dogs as soon as possible, or we are running an adoption special to free up kennel space. Please note that if there is minimal response from the community, then healthy dogs will be euthanized for space to free up dog kennels in order for us to take in more stray dogs. In the past we were able to work with other Animal Shelters & Animal Rescues in transferring dogs to them, but due to their facilities also having a high occupancy rate this is not an option.”
(Ukiah Daily Journal)
LITTLE RIVER MUSEUM ANTIQUE TRAIN & TOY exhibit Saturdays and Sundays, 11 to 4. We're the little white house at the north end of the Van Damme State Park curve 8185 Highway One. The little white house hides the two story assembly hall of the Good Templars. Summer exhibits include the Little River Pioneer Cemetery and Civil War Veterans map, Pomo Indian, bottle dump, local wildlife, the train exhibit and much more. Admission is FREE.
POLICE SEARCHING FOR FORT BRAGG INTRUDER CAUGHT ON CAMERA CARRYING AN AX AND DUCT TAPE
by Matt LaFever
The unidentified man who intruded on a Fort Bragg residence this morning. He is visibly carrying a roll of duct tape and an ax.
A Fort Bragg resident’s security camera captured an unidentified man this morning as he intruded on the property. The stranger rang the doorbell several times before vacating the premises. The most troubling aspect of the sighting was what he carried in his hands: a roll of duct tape and an ax.
The resident, who asked to not be identified, lives near the location of the old firehouse near the intersection of State Route 20 and Babcock Lane. They told us the man appeared on their property around 8:15 this morning.
Upon noticing the trespasser, the resident sounded their car’s alarm to alert the man he was being watched. He proceeded to ring their resident’s doorbell several times, which elicited a robotic warning, “Hi! You are being recorded.” At that point, the man vacated the property.
Quincy Cromer, the Public Information Officer for the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, confirmed deputies responded to the area immediately after getting reports of a suspicious person. As of 4:30 p.m. today, the subject has not been located but extra deputies are patrolling the area “until we are able to locate and identify the subject. “
The surveillance images depict what appears to be a white male adult with a baseball cap wearing a blue hooded jacket, possibly a blue/white flannel tied around his waist, blue/gray pants, a blue backpack, and black/white shoes.
If you have any information, please contact the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office at (707) 463-4411
JEFF GOLL: I hadn't got a photo of the Johnny Winter sculpture at the Navarro Store, so after taking a picture of that, I went to Elk and in front of the Artists' Collective there was Rabbani Kenyon doing his wood carving. He created amazing wood sculptures in his past and is still working his craft today. He mentioned he now lives inland from Point Arena (the Coastal abodes he said are $750 - a week). He had a difficult time with the decline of health and eventual passing of his wife Cleo. Though as I was talking with Rabbani during a carving pause, folks stopped by and talked so he is still very engaged with folks.
ED NOTES
“I’M BEATING BIDEN in the Polls by the biggest margins ever. I assume that means there’ll be another Indictment & Arrest coming down the tracks very soon. These Radical Left Democrats, Communists, Marxists, and Fascists are destroying our Country but, have no fear, we will MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” -Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
THIS STATEMENT reflects no known reality, but somehow resonates with the Trump base. There are no radical left Democrats. Bernie would be about as far left as Democrats go, and he's the tamest socialist in the history of socialism. Communists and Marxists? If, combined, there are a hundred thousand I'd be surprised. Fascists? Lots and lots. I think, though, that Orange Man, in wild, nonsensical statements like this, is talking in code, that, decoded, his statement, which he often repeats, means everything gone awry in the country, from lawlessness to gender bending.
AT RANDOM: The Caltrans “interchange” on 101 at Redwood Valley wiped out 169 acres of pleasing semi-rural landscape and tripled the number of roads at the site.
SUPERVISORS get elected, bumble through their terms, then disappear from the public life of Mendocino County.
TOM LUCIER, the amiable Willits Republican and mortician known around town as “The Jolly Reaper” is still collecting North County corpses, but he’s as silent as his clients. Colfax? McCowen, Shoemaker? Carrie Brown? And on and on. Norman deVall still keeps a public eye on things, as does Johnny Pinches, but other than these two the rest of the former county leadership is long gone. Can’t say that they’re missed, but collectively, the silent ones represent how unserious they were and are.
THE ADOLESCENT YEARS have, as we all know, become almost a literal minefield in this country. Young people drink, they drive, they drug themselves; they even drive, drink, drug, and shoot each other all at once so often it doesn’t even surprise us when we read about versions of it every morning. Ditto for mass shootings. And now fentanyl.
EVERY KID who ever lived doesn’t figure out until he’s about 30 that he isn’t bulletproof, that he can die, that his life, everyone’s lives, dangle from a very thin thread.
NOT a single Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee said they opposed Biden’s decision to sell cluster bombs to Ukraine, even though the sale is in contravention of US law. But some 50 Democrats have opposed the sale.
OK, YOU CONVINCED ME. I'll stop. An MSNBC op-ed claims that regular exercise is linked to far-right politics and says that exercising at home is just the latest fascist trend that glamorizes hyper-masculinity. Cynthia Miller-Idriss claimed that “white supremacists' latest scheme to valorize violence and hypermasculinity has gone digital.”
YOU'D THINK lib media like MSNBC would be more careful about giving dingbats air time, but then given the air time given over to dingbats on Fox and the rest of neo-fascist media it all probably evens out.
BILL BOGNER at Jack's Valley Store, commented the other day that he hasn't seen swallows “the last coupla years.” At Bill's mention, it occurred to me that I haven't seen any either, so I went out at dusk one evening last week specifically in search of the charming little winged creatures, dipping and soaring on their sundown rounds, so much a part of the natural vistas we so take their presence for granted we may not notice when they're gone. I spotted a few bats but no swallows. Readers?
WHEN a young person dies in a public way as often happens in Mendocino County as it does everywhere in the United States, the grieving never seems to include the specific culpability of the other persons involved such as, for example, the person who gave the pretty young woman the drug that caused her to drop dead near the entrance to the Boonville Fairgrounds a few short weeks ago. The rumors say it was cocaine cut with fentanyl, and it was the fentanyl that killed her. Where did she get it? It's been almost a month but no announcement that this terrible death of a young woman still not 30 is being criminally investigated.
UKIAH CONSTRUCTION UPDATE for the Week of July 17th
The sewer main line has been installed between Norton and Gobbi and work is now underway to replace the laterals (the part that connects the main line to each of the buildings). During the week of 7/17-7/21, the laterals will likely be completed and work will begin on replacing the storm drains. As with the other parts of the project, this work will begin on the north side near Norton and progress to the south. No driveway closures or interruptions of sewer service are anticipated.
At the current pace, the sewer crews may begin work on the 100 block of Scott Street on July 24th. During that work, that block will be closed to traffic during the day, open at night. When work is occurring in the intersection of Scott and School Streets, there may be adjacent street closures to prevent through traffic, but residents will be allowed to access.
Where will the work occur?
Sewer later work will occur on North State Street between Norton and Henry. Storm drain replacement may also begin next week, beginning near Norton and progressing southerly towards Henry Street.
What are the construction days/hours?
Construction hours will be Monday-Friday, 7 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Will there be dust and noise?
Yes. There will be some dust and fairly significant noise while trenching and breaking up concrete.
Will there be any disruptions to parking access or streets?
Yes. On-street parking in the construction zone will be closed. Access to businesses will be maintained at all times. If there will be any disruption to driveways, advance notice will be provided by the contractors. Through traffic on State Street will be allowed in both directions.
More information can be found online on the City’s website at ukiahstreetscape.com; plus, follow our Facebook page for updates and project photos at www.facebook.com/UkiahStreetscape/.
Have a great weekend!
Shannon Riley, Deputy City Manager, City of Ukiah
Why so noisy? Look how deep these sewer lines are!
The sewer laterals connect the main line (in the street) to the buildings. Typically, this entire section would be the property owner’s responsibility. By replacing them as part of this project, we are reducing the likelihood that these building owners will have expensive repairs in the future!
GRACE HUDSON MUSEUM; SUN HOUSE & WILD GARDENS
Our exhibition "Something's Happening Here: Artistic Reflections on the Back to the the Land Movement" has been open for almost 2 months! So, what's it all about?
Imagine living among the oaks, manzanitas, and pines, growing your own food, and living a life more connected to nature.
That’s what a crowd of newcomers, mostly white and college educated, envisioned as they made their way to Mendocino County in the late 1960s through the early 1980s. Often from cities, they were fleeing consumerism and conformity, seeking lives they could define on their own terms in the country, which offered affordable land and a sense of freedom. They were idealistic, determined, free-thinking, and a bit naïve. They didn’t arrive as an organized group nor were they homogeneous.
Many wanted to live on the land, build their own homes, grow gardens, can vegetables, and raise chickens. Some wanted to live together communally, while others came together less formally. They helped each other, founded alternative schools, and combined their efforts to create theatre, music, and community celebrations. Several developed crafts as a way to live simply and be self-sufficient. Some explored new ways of thinking using psychedelics, others grew pot to help make a living, and others avoided drugs altogether. Some sought alternative spirituality. Many advocated for social and environmental causes. Some considered themselves hippies, while others disliked the term and identified more closely as counterculture; many embraced the idea of being back-to-landers, and still others did not identify with any of those terms.
At first they were outsiders, which sometimes led to conflicts with those who were already here. Over time they became part of the fabric of the community, and eventually many of them moved into town. They have certainly left their imprint, establishing Ukiah Natural Foods Co-op, Plowshares, Real Goods (Solar Living Center), Willits Center for the Arts, art galleries, theater organizations, alternative schools, non-profits, and businesses.
This exhibition explores the Back to the Land Movement in Mendocino County through art and crafts. It does not pretend to be comprehensive, either as a history of the time nor in its exploration of art from that period. Rather, it offers a glimpse into the lives and art of those who were part of a migration that forever changed and shaped our community.
Stay tuned as over the following months, we share the art and stories of those featured in this exhibition. We hope, if you're in the area, you'll stop by before it closes on October 15th.
SYMPHONY OF THE REDWOODS: We have invited Bryan Nies to be the new conductor of Symphony of the Redwoods! You will recall that Bryan was the conductor at our April concert set. He treated us to performances of Copland’s Quiet City, Haydn’s Concerto for Trumpet featuring Scott Macomber, and Dvorak’s Symphony No. 5. It was a wonderful weekend. Our deepest thanks go to our Search Committee for their thoughtful and thorough work to bring this recommendation to the Symphony Board, taking into account all the input from both our musicians and our audiences.
We have already begun meeting to plan our program for the upcoming 2023-24 Symphony Season. We are very excited to begin this new chapter in the nearly 40 year history of our Symphony, and we hope you will join us in welcoming him at a Gala in his honor to be held near the end of September.
COME FLY WITH ME…
Hi Neighbors,
My name is Gabrielle, I live locally in Little River. I wanted to share with you, that I have just started a Travel Agency. Should you or anyone you know be looking to plan a vacation, I would love to be able help you/them to do so.
There is no additional charge to you for using my services. Do not hesitate to reach out to me, if you have any questions.
Please see below for details of the services I offer.
Have a Beautiful Day!
Gabrielle Williams, Owner/Advisor, Truly Tailored Travel, TrulyTTravel@gmail.com, 925.586.9772
Client Consultation: I will discuss with you, your travel preferences, requirements, and budget. Itinerary Planning: Based on your preferences, I can create a detailed travel itinerary that includes destinations, transportation options, accommodations, and activities. This will be based on dates, budget constraints, and any specific requests you might have.
Reservation and Booking: I can handle the booking process for flights, hotels, rental cars, and other travel-related services. I will ensure that all bookings are made accurately and efficiently, securing the best available rates and deals for your travel.
Travel Documentation and Logistics: I will ensure you have or recommend that you obtain any necessary travel documents such as passports, visas, and travel insurance. I can handle logistical aspects like seat assignments, baggage allowances, and transportation arrangements.
Knowledge of Destinations: I personally possess knowledge or have resources about various destinations, including popular attractions, local customs, weather conditions, and safety considerations. Customer Service: I offer exceptional customer service throughout the entire travel process. I will address any inquiries, help resolve any issues or concerns that may arise, and provide support during the trip.
CATCH OF THE DAY, Friday, July 13, 2023
ANTONIO AMADOR, Willits. DUI causing bodily injury.
CHARLES BOWEN JR., Fort Bragg. Trespassing, paraphernalia, resisting, probation violation.
ASHLEIGH ESTES, Garberville/Willits. Probation revocation.
COREY HEINE, Ukiah. Vandalism.
COLE ICKES, Fort Bragg. Trespassing, parole violation.
BURGESS LESLIE, Fort Bragg. Probation revocation.
MICHELLE NGUYEN, Upper Lake/Ukiah. DUI, failure to appear.
DYLAN OUGH, Ukiah. Disobeying court order.
CYNTHIA PHILLIBER, Ukiah. Battery, disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation.
JONATHAN SANCHEZ, Fort Bragg. Failure to appear, probation revocation.
NAKEA SIMS, Ukiah. Probation revocation.
MARGARETT YAMAMOTO, Santa Rosa/Ukiah. DUI.
AFFIRMATIVE ACTION AND ME: A TALE OF AN OLD BOYS’ NETWORK, TEACHING & POLITICS
by Jonah Raskin
In the late 1980s I felt guilty about using an old boys’ network to secure a teaching position at Sonoma State University (SSU), a branch of the California State University system. I even discussed my sense of guilt in therapy with a psychiatrist at Langley Porter Psychiatric Hospital and Clinic. He suggested that I had done a lot of good in academia after I was hired for a tenure-track position in the communication studies department at SSU. I suppose I did.
I served as the chair of the department for 16 years, coordinated the internship program for students, taught three or four classes a semester and wrote and published three books, as well as dozens of book reviews for newspapers and magazines. I tell my story now because of the recent Supreme Court decision overturning affirmative action.
I do not support that ruling and I also do not mean to boast that I found a loophole and used it to be hired. I might be an exception, though that’s not clear. Others will have to come forward to tell their stories before we know the big picture. Like the military, corporations and the White House, academia breeds secrets and secrecy.
I turned to an old boys network because I had been unable to secure a tenure track position, though I had a Ph.D. and had been a lecturer at SSU for six years, teaching composition and literature, though the chair of the English Department told me, “You’re overqualified.” Bull shit. As a Fulbright scholar, I taught American literature at two Belgian universities for a year and lectured in France about the novels of Alice Walker. When I returned to California I learned that I was no longer in the pool of applicants eligible to teach at SSU and had lost my seniority.
I was hurt and angry, but I didn’t hire a lawyer and go to court. Instead, I called my friend Mark Rosenberg, once a member of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and then a movie producer at Warner Brothers. I told Mark my story and asked if he could help. He promised to contact his friend, Stanley Sheinbaum, a regent at the University of California.
Soon after my conversation with Rosenberg, David Benson, the president of SSU, called me into his office and offered me a tenure-track position in communication studies. “We can’t hire you in English because the department is top heavy with white males, but if you’re willing to move to communications the job is yours,” he said.
The university advertised the position. I was interviewed by a committee of three faculty members. I was hired and at the police department on campus I was fingerprinted and swore to uphold the constitution of the State of California.
I jumped at the opportunity, reinvented my academic career and taught journalism, film, and the history and theory of communications with lots of help from the writings and the ideas of Marshall McLuhan and Malcolm Gladwell. When I met Sheinbaum at a Hollywood party and thanked him for helping me. He smiled and said “You owe me big,” though he never asked for anything in return.
Victor Garlin, a member of the California Faculty Association at SSU, insisted that no one on the campus was ever hired through any old boys’ network, but rather because of one’s academic record and achievements. “We’re a meritocracy,“ he said. Most of my friends outside academia told me, “It’s not what you know, but who you know,” or as they said, “who you blow.”
I like to think that in my case it was some of both. For years, what I knew and what I wrote hadn’t worked for me.
Because of affirmative action the SSU English Department hired women and some members of minority groups, though no Blacks. Students told me that they were inspired and given confidence when a teacher looked like them and had come from a similar background or ethnic group.
Through an old boys’ network, the university also hired controversial figures such as Mario Savio, who had been unable to find a teaching position on a college campus, perhaps because he was white and male and perhaps because of his notoriety as one of the leaders of the Free Speech Movement at Berkeley. Some qualified candidates seem to be discriminated against, not because of gender, ethnicity or class, but because of political beliefs and actions. Savio is a prime example of that.
Academic freedom is supposed to mitigate against discrimination, but academic freedom has never worked perfectly in the U.S., especially during McCarthyism. It was no “ivory tower” then and it’s no “ivory tower” now. It’s also under attack once again and in need of defending. I’ll go to bat for it and for affirmative action, too, though for the time being it looks like a lost cause.
Until 1964, the Free Speech Movement also looked like a lost cause. Lost causes are the kind of causes that need to be embraced now as much as ever. May the playing field be equal and may every student in California and elsewhere have the right to an education. Back doors will always be open, and will always provide a way into academia as a teacher or student. But let’s hope qualified teachers won’t have to do what I did.
ANYBODY OUT THERE?
This is a recommended gem, to replace being stuck in the abominable spiritual bankruptcy of postmodernism, at the heart of the failed American experiment with freedom and democracy. Am sitting easefully at the Ukiah Public Library on computer #1, tap, tap tapping away, not identifying with the body and not identifying with the mind. Hey, I don't give a pile of faecal pig matter who the next president of the United States of America will be. Who cares? Nobody is going to shut down in time the coastal nuclear power plants, (in lieu of the eventuality of rising sea water inundating them due to global warming). Earth First! isn't capable of accomplishing that! Nobody is. And I do not believe that Divine Intervention will happen, although it could. Focus on the fact that you are the Divine Absolute, the Eternal Witness of the mental factory, and of the passing show of samsara.
I've nothing whatever to do here in Mendocino County, save one more post-operative appointment with Adventist Health Cardiology-Ukiah next Thursday afternoon. The body-mind complex sleeps at Building Bridges Homeless Resource Center and otherwise is at the public library, and when it is closed, walks around reciting vedic sourced mantrams. Otherwise, nobody makes contact to actually do anything. Nobody sends money (except "Tech Guy" who sent via PayPal $20). And it is heat wave time. The only good news is that the local MTA buses are air conditioned.
Isn't it clear that something else, something much deeper than this mundane stupidity is going on right now? What do you know that to be? Hello...anybody out there? 😃
Craig Louis Stehr
ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY #2
I was alive in the 50’s, and the only really bad part of it that I remember was the apartheid that was in place here in the south. Black people were openly discriminated against, and I can remember riding buses with signs up stating that black folks rode in the back of the bus. And the bus stations had four separate public bathrooms instead of two. Blacks weren’t allowed in public swimming pools and many restaurants and motels were closed to them. That was the one thing that needed to be changed. I’ve got no complaints about anything else, and as far as I can tell the insanity really started taking hold in the late sixties when I became a short lived feminist dope smoking wannabe hippie.
THIS IS WHAT YOU SHALL DO
Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.
— Walt Whitman, Preface to Leaves of Grass, 1855
MEMO OF THE AIR: Good Night Radio show is on all night tonight!
Fuzzy deadline to email your writing for tonight's (Friday night's) MOTA show is somewhere around 6 or 7pm. If you can't make that, send it whenever it's done and I'll read it on the radio next week. There's no pressure on you. I have plenty of material; I'd just like yours, too. I have more recordings to play tonight from Bill Mulvihill's project of digitally archiving 1970s great local performers and putting the music on Soundcloud. Speaking of which, that's here, and there's more here all the time: https://soundcloud.com/arts-mendocino
Tonight I'll be playing on MOTA something that isn't yet on the project's page: An hour-long recording of Judy Mayhan singing and Diane DiPrima reading poetry one night in January, 1977 at the fabled Toad Hall. I'm not sure when I'll put it on. Probably at the end. I guess I'm still not feeling 100-percent and I want the option to go as long as I can, reading stories, and then wrap it up with the gold (Judy Mayhan, Diane DiPrima), whatever time that turns out to be.
Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio is every Friday, 9pm to 5am PST on 107.7fm KNYO-LP Fort Bragg as well as via KNYO.org. Also the schedule is there for KNYO's many other terrific shows.
Furthermore, any day or night you can go to https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com and hear last week's MOTA show. By Saturday night I'll put up the recording of tonight's show. And besides all that, there you'll find plenty of enjoyably educational material to occupy yourself with until showtime, or any time, such as:
The BBC presents the logical bassoon, the high-speed bassoon of the future.
"They were just ordinary troublemakers as long as they lived, but they returned from beyond the grave with superhuman powers, unleashing an unholy reign of terror that holds an entire community in the grip of psychomania!" (via b3ta)
And how to save a soaking-wet book. We tried a simplified freezer method many years ago on a Thomas Brothers map book-- that's how long ago it was. No plastic bag, and no book-squeezing press; just using how the freezer tends to freeze things dry to do the job. It came out a bit rumpled but usable.
https://theawesomer.com/how-to-save-wet-books/483568/
Marco McClean, memo@mcn.org, https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com
PS. Previously I announced on various vehicles for announcement that I'd be playing at some point on tonight's show a recording of Judy Mayhan and Diane DiPrima that was made at Toad Hall in 1977. It turns out I can't do it, for reasons. On some future show, for sure but, for now, sorry. The whole rest of the show's lineup is unchanged. I'll put on Firesign Theater or Boston Blackie or Chandu The Magician or something for that place.
Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio is every Friday, 9pm to 5am PST on 107.7fm KNYO-LP Fort Bragg as well as via KNYO.org. Also the schedule is there for KNYO's many other terrific shows.
IS CALIFORNIA’S COVID CALM COMING TO AN END? Here’s what the numbers show
Declines in hospitalizations and ICU admissions have leveled off while the test positivity rate is rising.
by Aidin Vaziri
California’s period of relative calm in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic may be drawing to a close. Whether it’s the renowned UCSF physician, Dr. Bob Wachter, a coworker, or even your neighbor, it feels like COVID-19 cases are starting to pop up again.
It turns out the numbers back that up.
After months of falling hospitalizations and ICU admissions, declines have leveled off, while the state’s rising test positivity rate suggest a possible growth in new infections.
This reflects a broader national trend where key pandemic metrics are either stalling or reversing. While new weekly COVID-19 hospital admissions have plummeted by 86% since the beginning of the year, they have now plateaued in most regions of the United States. Two areas — the South and the Pacific Northwest — have seen increases for two consecutive weeks.
Infections among nursing home residents, another early indicator of previous surges, are also increasing. In three southern parts of the country where past waves of COVID-19 have originated, the concentration of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in wastewater is rising, though it still remains relatively low compared to previous periods. Emergency department visits for COVID were up 2% from a week ago, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“It’s the cycle of the virus — we’ve reached a point where immunity, particularly among older individuals, is waning,” explained Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at UCSF. “Wastewater and nursing homes serve as sentinel indicators of what’s to come.”…
sfchronicle.com/health/article/numbers-show-california-s-period-covid-calm-18201207.php
ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY #3
So, big Covid Guru Wachter contracted Covid himself, despite all the precautions he took. What does this tell us? Covid will eventually get you, no matter how hard you try to avoid it! And that’s what the data tell us as well. Sweden, a country that did not shut down like US or most other European countries did, had no more Covid deaths than other countries. But the shutdowns caused serious problems for children, people who were isolated and couldn’t see their families for a long time, people with other diseases who couldn’t get treatment. Most of the Covid measures, except for vaccinations, were a disaster, and medical experts like Wachter are responsible for that.
Nevertheless, I wish Wachter a speedy recovery.
PUBLIC HEALTH UNDER THE GUN
via Betsy Cawn
How a Combination of Covid Lawsuits and Media Coverage Keeps Misinformation Churning (kffhealthnews.org.)
“For public health officials, it’s not merely the potential outcome of the courts’ rulings but also the publicizing of the theories that poses a risk.
“‘Even one win, despite countless losses, for some will provide supposed evidence and vindication that questions need to be answered, liability needs to be assigned, or a wrong needs to be righted,’ Castrucci told KFF Health News. ‘But the decision of any one trial can’t and shouldn’t supplant the findings of clinical trials enrolling nearly 70,000 Americans.’
“‘I think this is part of a grander destabilization of public health, through the judicial system,’ Castrucci said.”
(Brian Castrucci is president of the de Beaumont Foundation, a public health nonprofit, and cited in the article as a public health advocate.)
DARLING, for a speech to be immortal it need not be interminable.
— Mrs. Hubert Humphrey
A FUN DAY
by James Kunstler
NATO has lost this war. Biden has lost this war. The lunatic Democrats have lost this war. The uni-party warmongers have lost this war. The EU has lost this war. Ukraine and Zelensky have lost this war.
— Kim Dotcom
Somebody in the “Joe Biden” White House apparently thinks that the operations already underway are not enough to destroy our country fast enough, so a little extra push, such as nuclear annihilation, might get’er done.
By operations underway I mean things like mRNA vaccines stealthily deleting kin, friends, and public figures from the scene… decriminalizing crime… undermining the oil industry by a thousand cuts… liquidating small business… making little children insane over sex… flooding the land with illegal immigrants… devaluing the currency… queering elections — all of these things done on purpose, by the way. And if you complain about any of it, here comes the FBI or the IRS knocking on your door.
So, to make sure that a collapse of the USA comes on-schedule, there is the useful fracas created by our government geniuses over in Ukraine that creeps day-by-day toward a quick American assisted suicide. Just to remind you, here’s how that started: In 2014, the US fomented a coup against Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych. In short order, the Russian language was banned (despite the fact that Most Ukrainians speak Russian). A piqued Russia re-po’d the Crimean Peninsula. When ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine (the Donbas provinces) tried to go their own way, Ukraine shelled and rocketed them for eight years. That was the setup.
All of the above was absolutely unnecessary, you understand. Ukraine had been going about its business the best it could since 1991 as a shlub nation with an aged-out Soviet infrastructure, some US-sponsored bioweapons labs, and no energy resources. It had been collecting royalties for allowing Russia to run oil pipelines across its fruited plain — of which, a lot of gas was siphoned off in transit by bandits. Ukraine attempted to compensate for its disadvantages by being an international money laundromat, though that only benefited its oligarch class (and the extended “Joe Biden” family).
After “Joe Biden” got “elected” in 2020, and news of his family’s sketchy business activities in Ukraine and elsewhere finally dribbled out, Ukraine was turned into a giant grenade and “JB” (or persons acting on his behalf) pulled the pin. NATO was dragooned into the quarrel as backup against its better judgment. If the objective was to weaken Russia, as stated by one of our strategic geniuses, SecDef Loyd Austin, it didn’t work out. Rather, it exposed the USA as a reckless global psychopath bent on wrecking every country it pretends to help — including the major countries in NATO.
Two-thirds of the world’s other nations then started backpedaling away from the US and its protective services to form an economic and security coalition around the BRICs group, as led by Russia and China. The Ukraine campaign itself was a loser from the get-go, relying utterly, as it did, on US and NATO support. This week’s NATO meet-up in Vilnius, Lithuania, showed how that’s going now: Not too well. The Ukraine army is shredded. It’s out of munitions. The US is also out of those very artillery shells most in demand. What to do?
The answer to that, as “Joe Biden” returns from Europe to a White House haunted by a cocaine-snorting ghost, is to send three-thousand fresh reserve troops to Europe and promise a bunch of F-16 fighter planes. Said planes, which were introduced in the early 1970s, will come out of our country’s “high-mileage” inventory. These F-16s will require a suite of highly technical ground support infrastructure. They will not come with the latest avionics upgrades and will be no match for Russian air defenses. Good luck with that, President Z!
It’s all fakery, of course. What do we aim to do with those three-thousand US reservists? Send them into battle in Priyutnoye? I’m sure…. At this point, we can only pretend to prolong this stupid and unnecessary conflict with such lame gestures. Germany and France know this is a lost cause. The United Kingdom (so called) is such a mess that it literally doesn’t know what it’s doing in far off and irrelevant (to it) Ukraine. Without those countries, there is no NATO, really. So, the whole vaudeville this week was a sham — led by a US President who was too puny to attend the opening night banquet with fellow NATO leaders, and too incoherent to make a point on departure.
Anyway, “Joe Biden’s” entire act is unspooling. He is a prank that the Democratic Party played on the American people. Sometime before Halloween he will have to exit the scene in disgrace, gruesome as the prospect might seem, with Kamala Harris anxiously draining vodka bottles as she awaits history’s call at the old Naval Observatory. That will be a fun day in the USA, all righty.
(kunstler.com)
TITANIC SURVIVORS Charlotte Collyer and her 8-year-old daughter Marjorie after they finally made it back to America, 1912.
MAUREEN CALLAHAN: Make no mistake: The Biden administration is laughing at us. We are meant to believe that the United States Secret Service, tasked with protecting the very life of the president, cannot crack the case of who left cocaine in a secure, hard-to-access part of the White House - despite facial recognition cameras, guest-book logs and security all over the most protected building in the Western world. The cover-up, as the Nixon-era saying goes, is always worse than the crime. At least this feels like yet another blatant White House whitewash. Here, in part, is the statement released by the Secret Service on Thursday. See if you can read this with a straight face. 'The investigation included a methodical review of security systems and protocols,' it says, noting that the baggie - which was initially tested for anthrax, its reported location changing three times over one week - was found in a receptacle used to store personal devices before entering the West Wing. But wouldn't you know, according to the Secret Service, there are no security cameras in the hallway that leads to the West Wing, to the Oval Office, to the hub of the most powerful person on Earth.
UKRAINE, FRIDAY, 14TH JULY
The United States is close to a decision on providing Ukraine with ATACMs, which are guided missiles with a range of up to 300 kilometers (about 186 miles), a top aide to President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday.
President Vladimir Putin called the Wagner Group's legal future into question and suggested a new commander for the private military force in remarks to a Russian newspaper.
Russian governors in regions near Ukraine are reporting fresh cross-border drone attacks, while Kyiv said a Russian drone strike hit the city of Kryvyi Rih.
Cannabis might soon be a legal form of treatment for wounded Ukrainian soldiers, as well as other people with serious illnesses after a bill to legalize its use for medical purposes passed its first hurdle in Ukraine’s parliament.
I had/have many swallows this year, more than I have had for quite a while. Bird boxes for Blue Birds have been partially occupied by Violet Green Swallows. I had a record number, for me, of them this year. For this year I had Violet Green Swallows, Cliff Swallows, Barn Swallows, and a pair of Purple Martins. Something to keep in mind, their population numbers depend on available food, and nesting spots. All these birds compete with each other for food, too. Swallows take food from the air, so don’t compete with Blue Birds that take food on the ground. They are all insect eaters, and good to have around. Yes, they do leave piles of poo. Get over it. Clean it up, and be happy for the insect control.
My Swallows have been nesting here and at times traveling to other locations for food. In those other locations, they may go unnoticed.
Your swallows must be feeding across the valley, I see a large flock flying around here every evening. It’s a nice sound too, they are very vocal.
RE; MSNBC. Wow that op-ed paints me right into the fascist corner, my pathological commitment to both home and gym exercise combined with my Celtic roots from both parents places me firmly in the supremacist camp. Thank you MSNBC for your proselytizing cause I didn’t have an effin clue.
To me, Ted Williams is a prime example of someone — one — who pulled himself up “by his bootstraps”. Self made man. I stand in awe and admiration of his accomplishments in his field of computer programming. If he’s made a lot of money doing so, it has been through his own personal efforts, dedication, intelligence and abilities. So be it.
Ted’s fault — it seems to me — is his blase approach to problem solving for the County. Pithy platitudes are no substitute for concrete policy proposals. Ted’s detachment from the everyday woes of County employees is a reflection of his colleagues’ detachment: I know of no County Supervisor rolling up their sleeves and getting knee-deep in this County’s problems. Of which there are many. It’s like they are all and each merely posturing. Collectively and individually. A Shame.
The County employees are absolutely right to strike. Their plight has been given short shrift by the Supervisors and CEO. There are many of us who have supported a County employee strike — for decades now — as the only way to truly capture the Supervisors’ , CEO’s and the public’s attention. Go For It. Strike!
As for Chris Skyhawk, he should never forget — and forever remind himself of — the fact that he scuttled his own campaign for Supervisor in 2018 by his own actions. He knows what they were. So do others. Ad hominem attacks — EG: Beware this man — against Supervisor Williams do Hawk no credit nor service. Nor does trying to bust Williams’ for having a successful independent career.
I’ll continue supporting Ted Williams until the 5th District political landscape provides a better alternative.
In the meanwhile…
Well said.
Lee,
Thank you for the kind words.
From my point of view, most of the county’s problems are operational in nature. It’s not brilliant ideas for new projects or departments that are needed from the board. Rather, it’s basic management. Textbook management. What you witness on a Tuesday board meeting is the business that cannot happen outside of the meeting. Most of my effort is off camera, one on one with CEO, department heads and managers.
I genuinely believe the county government is heading toward a stronger footing. County operations are a composite of extremely hard-working public servants side by side with behavior most employers would never tolerate. Darcie Antle is tough and simply won’t tolerate the dysfunction I observed in my first years. The culture is changing for the better. Culture is as important or more important than absolute wages.
The county has spent every dollar of revenue on staff. If not wages, health benefits, structures, cars, supplies, training, etcetera. Look, $7M of one-time funds were used to balance the budget this year. Add $3M from the recent vote of the retirement board and the county needs to reduce operating expenses by $10M by next June. This is without a COLA. I’m actually supportive of a COLA, but reality check, the only way to pay for it will be reduced staffing. If I had my way, the county would invest heavily in revenue generation because that’s the path to fair wages, improved infrastructure, and services. Approximately 71% of discretionary revenue is sourced from property taxes, and we might be at 70% assessment. I can’t tell the Assessor how to do her job, but I certainly support funding revenue generation as an emergency endeavor. Outside of direct revenue generation, hiring more people to balance the budget is ridiculous. From time to time, I hear the fiction “hire more to bring in more money from the state”. It simply doesn’t work that way. There’s a finite allocation for the county to carry out social services, essentially on behalf of the state. Hiring more people won’t increase, and as the director clarified on Tuesday, July 11, it’s not possible to use state dollars for wage increases at social services.
Re: poor young woman who died of coke/fentanyl death: why, you say, has no one pinned down the person who gave her that substance that led to her demise? Cuz it’s Mendocino county. Drugs, whether using, creating or distributing, are part of the culture. Pot prices down, just move more coke. Doesn’t matter if you’re a well-established white boy or a hard-working Spaniard. It’s all part of the mendo hustle. No one does anything wrong around here unless you offend the supposed liberal status quo.
Perhaps she didn’t die of a drug overdose. I’ve not seen a cause of death announced.
Even if died of a drug overdose, she could have been unknowingly dosed, by a ‘friend’ giving her an over the counter non prescription substance, that wasn’t. But bring on the blame game. Supremacy for the living…
Drug OD rates are consistently higher in “red” states/regions than “blue” ones (as with Covid deaths). It’s more a class/socioeconomic issue, and a refusal to adopt policies and approaches scientists and doctors recommend.
But yes, let’s blame them “liberals” anyway. And of course those “Spaniards” (?) too.
Mental illness is higher in Blue States
Marmon
If so, it’s probably a case of the red states simply ignoring (and not adequately funding mental health care) the issue, or lying.
I don’t think it fair to say mendo culture is responsible… in this case the drugs can be assumed to be acquired at a festival. And anybody who has been to any festival knows drugs are a-plenty. The attendees of these events come from all over the country/world. Thousands of people…
Drugs seem to be a part of all American culture, just watch any movie or tv program. They are everywhere and often glorified in the theme and/or plot of the show. Desensitized viewers is an understatement. It goes without saying that violence falls into the same programing.
I feel that the local authority is doing pretty well and we readers often see large busts of pills/powders in the logs. Will they get all the bad actors and rid the whole place of dangerous drugs? Probably never. But the victims won’t turn in the perps either. Best we can do is educate our kids.
I’ll add that 20 years ago I traveled abroad in Western Europe. I was there for 2months and traveled to 5 countries and many different cities, islands, and towns. There wasn’t a single place (besides the county side) that would have prevented me from finding just about any mind altering substance.
What seems to have changed since then is how common lethal drugs are hidden in or cut or whatever into the crap. Very dangerous and very sad.
When we do see these large busts of fentanyl unfortunately it is cite and release. Desensitize and enable walk hand in hand. From what sheriff Kendal has said he would like more support in his efforts to slow drug crime.
I agree, and its a shame. I can’t offer any solution either. Which is why I will continue to be vigilant with my kiddo and peers. I can only hope they do as well or better than us.
You’re right. I should consider moving to Utah… or Riyadh
Aw Kirk, drugs are where the humans are. But there’s no place like home
Sensible post, our culture is indeed pervaded with drugs, some more deadly than in the past. It’s a sad, discouraging thing.
We had a family of swallows this year. They do nest in bluebird boxes. We usually get more than one family, and we get bluebirds and flycatchers too. I believe they are barn swallows.
Kunstler’s opening statement from Kim “Dotcom” has about as much basis in fact as the name of the person who made it. Likewise, Kunstler’s opinion piece lacks factual basis. Neither warranted a place in the AVA.
Fully agreed. I have to assume/hope he’s included here as some kind of comic relief, but how much of such “humor” is more than enough?
Euthanasia to begin mendo county. Please open your home to a cat or dog, for temporary foster care.
The provisions in the Senate Majority’s UAP Review Board legislation reference non human intelligences and extraterrestrials multiple times and asserts governmental control over recovered ET tech and bodies thru eminent domain (aimed likely at Lockheed Martin and other aerospace companies).
https://www.liberationtimes.com/home/congress-initiates-plan-to-reveal-recovered-technologies-of-unknown-origin-and-biological-evidence-of-non-human-intelligence
Whistleblower David Grusch has told NBC News he will do press interviews after Congressional hearings. Speaker McCarthy and Oversight chair Comer have okayed a hearing chaired by Burchett and Luna on July 26 and a more seriously regarded hearing by the Senate Select Cmt on Intel is slated for September. Ranking member Rubio has informed the press already that special access program people interviewed by Grusch (in his assigned role at the former UAP Task Force in the DOD) have revealed to them, in SCIFs, programs involving extraterrestrial tech.
Public adaptation to this news seems to be going thru an initial stage of disregarding this. Unfolding this will likely seem messy and awkward. In fact several AVA readers have literally gone incoherent with ad hominem jabs about how stupid and gullible I am. That’s all okay. We’re just babes now in the galactic woods.
Naw, you’re still stupid and gullible. I like YOUR choice of words.
Harvey, the literally incoherent and strictly ad hominem characterizations reveal you folks have no logical or factual counter argument. Given the subject, that’s understandable. It’s going to be especially difficult for very bright people who suddenly learn they aren’t top of the food chain here. When it comes to this subject, normally bright people transform into a bumbling Mr. Magoo, muttering and bumping into into walls.
You know what won’t age well over the coming weeks and months are remarks made now. As a matter of fact, after Senate hearings things on this front may move real fast.
Good lord, man. It’s my considered opinion that you need psychiatric help, and NOW. You peddle BS about things that never come about, and then you just never mention those things again. Now, in a time when respect for guvamint is very low, when they’re desperate to move public opinion to other subjects, away from their own incompetence, you fall for their diversionary tactics. And, like the nonsense you peddled in the past about discussions taking place regarding trade with the ETs, nothing real will result, but at least some people will NOT be thinking about guvamint incompetence…for a short time–maybe long enough to get brain-dead Biden reelected. Jeezus, man, wake up and smell the cat poop in the bag!
You have yet to provide any proof whatsoever that ET is here. It (or they, the universe is some bigger than Mendocino County) probably exists somewhere, maybe at many places, in the universe, but the crap you peddle is just pure nonsense.
Your opinion on what I need is completely worthless.
You also seem to be completely unaware of the actual, real-life news emerging on this matter.
The fact that you can only resort to ad hominem attacks rather than find online the pdf of the stunning provisions in the Schumer bill I mentioned yesterday and address the actual provisions therein….or respond to what Marco Rubio reported in basic ways re testimony being given by people in SAPs (confirming David Grusch’s characterizatíons of what he found in interviews).
The big giveaway that this subject bothers you is that you can’t help yourself from reacting when seeing updates. It also obviously distresses others here. Probably why this matter will be faced awkwardly, in a messy way. Look at how disturbed-acting Neil deGrassi Tyson gets when this subject comes up!
Updates my butt. Just more of your wishful thinking.
When different species of swallows hunt insects in the same fields they will often “niche forage,” based on height off the ground. Less competition, more food!
‘Hare Krishna Mahamantra’ at Vedanta Society of New York
About the city of Ft. Bragg’s decision to hire the chief of police as the city’s assistant manager (AVA/MCT 7/14/23 – FORT BRAGG CITY COUNCIL HIRES CHIEF CERVENKA AS NEW ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER):
In 2008 the city of Lakeport asked the Chief of Police (the late Kevin Burke) to serve as its city manager after its previous official was “called to serve” as a national military reservist (alleviating the agony the city faced over his warranted dismissal, but that’s another story).
Chief Burke worked in the City administrative offices, a few blocks away from the Lakeport Police Department offices (since moved into south Lakeport), and had absolutely no difficulty managing both capacities. So many of the official duties of the city manager involve compliance with state mandated functions that are well beyond any discretionary choices available to elected officials, and certainly the ability to comprehend legal requirements is a benefit to any administrator, as well as developing effective public relations with the residents, businesses, and multi-disciplinary agencies (such as the county law enforcement services). I seriously doubt whether the new assistant manager and simultaneous head of the city’s police department will have any difficulty serving effectively in this position.
Regarding the lack of swallows…my observation.
I had swallow nests on my barn for a number of years. I have watched the ravens or crows or whatever they are destroy the nests to get the eggs and if that wasn’t successful they will perch on the roof waiting for the fledglings to try to fly and pick them off as a tasty meal as they exit the nest.
I am so done with those nasty black birds.
They have killed our pullets, they chase the bobcat off when it is hunting rodents, they have taken a gopher and mice from a cat, they worked at destroying the windows in my home and an out building. They harass the horses when I feed and love to shit in the horse feeders and water trough. I dare not leave a storage container out with anything in it including nails as they will work to destroy it. They have taken the weather stripping off the horse trailer and are working diligently at getting the roofing paper pulled out from under the roofing on the barn.
To all of those folks who feed them, don’t please. All you are doing is inviting more damage to wildlife and structures.
The swallows do not have a chance.
@Craig Louis Stehr… I would like to have a chat, you can email me @maziemalone@yahoo.com !
Skyhawk,
“by slashing staffing levels in already depleted, bare bones departments.”
Is ~337 employees in social services “bare bones”?
ted
Mr. Williams:
Please note the following, from the recent Grand Jury report on Mendocino County Family and Children Services:
“The most recent Grand Jury report about the dire conditions at Mendocino County’s Family and Children’s Services division came out earlier this month. The report warns that understaffing, specifically the lack of personnel with proper experience and education, is a leading factor in the county’s low performance metrics, compared to state averages. While the report notes that “Understaffing does not appear to be related to funding issues,” it does appear to hamper timely investigations, leading to a work environment that former staff have described as “hostile” and “toxic.”
“This year’s report notes that the situation has been the subject of two previous Grand Jury reports: one in May of 2015, and another in June of 2017. Eight years ago, the Grand Jury announced its investigation with this grim summary: “The Mendocino County Family and Children’s Services Agency is one of the lowest scoring child protective services agencies in the State of California (State). In spite of a dedicated, caring, hardworking staff, the agency appears to be falling further behind. Every performance indicator points to understaffing as the main culprit.”
This dire and unacceptable situation fits the term “bare bones” pretty well, I think.
Do you have a real answer–a way to address and correct it– for this serious problem, or just another smart aleck response that leads us nowhere?
Chuck,
Fix the workplace culture by removing any and all responsible for “hostile” and “toxic” work environment.
Slice the pie fewer ways. Pay market wages and expect market performance. Establish hiring standards and leave position vacant instead of hiring just anyone.
If that’s still not enough, notify the state that their funding is inadequate for us to carry out their work.
ted
If you really mean this, Mr. Williams, especially as to the first point, what is the actual plan you and your fellow BOS members will put in place to address and correct these issues? These same issues have been noted over the last 8 years in 3 Grand Jury reports. Still, they persist, with results that detract greatly from this division’s ability to assist struggling families and insure the safety of children.
I worked in this division, for 18 years on the coast. 15 of those years were as the unit’s social worker supervisor. We had a strong, responsive coast service team, with a generally good reputation for helping families. But now, where we once had 15-18 staff in the best of times, and 8-10 staff when I retired in 2015, there are now only about 5 staff in the coast office with no on-site supervisor. This downsizing results, I can tell your from experience, in a primary focus on crisis management–trying to keep-up with serious issues where child abuse has already occurred. That’s too late. Little social work time is available for preventive services early on, before families descend into serious behaviors that put kids at risk.
It really is time for the BOS and upper management to tackle and fix this ongoing problem in an area of critical service–it is an issue of pubic safety. We will all be watching to see what progress is made.
Again, what is the plan of action, with specifics set out?
It’s operational more than policy. Antle has heard from me that I expect it fixed. If she can’t fix it, I’ll raise an agenda item, but at present I’m supporting her shift in strategy. There’s nothing right about me airing specifics of personnel concerns, but I’m not blind to what’s been transpiring.
“no on-site supervisor”
This doesn’t work for me.
Thank you for your response. I hope this approach works. Child Welfare work itself is very hard, very stressful. To have a “toxic workplace” on top of that is untenable.