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Letters (August 17, 2023)

By AVA News Service on August 17, 2023

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WHO KILLED BOONVILLE’S WHITE EUCALYPTUS?

Letter to the Editor

I’m a coastal resident who drives through Boonville often enough to have fallen in love with the two, gorgeous white eucalyptus trees gracing the Main Street.

On August 9th, to my horror, I saw that one tree nearest the road had been cut, nearly to the ground. I saw the beautiful, white, and perfectly healthy rounds stacked alongside the the destroyed tree. 

I was shocked!!

Apparently, PG&E took it upon themselves to do this.

Have they never heard of “trimming” a branch or two?!

That would have been the kind and responsible thing to do.

I pray that the remaining white eucalyptus tree is safe, and kept that way.

Loraine Toth

Albion

ED NOTE: I'm not sure the slaughter was at the behest of PG&E, and I doubt the owner of the property, Tom Cronquist, would have wanted the trees down. Tom's in the VA Hospital in San Francisco where he's being treated for Parkinson's. As it happens, I remember when he planted those trees because the AVA was located on his premises at the time. I also remember laughing with Tom when an old timer declared, “Them trees will never grow there.” Boonville needs all the trees it can get. I'll try to find out why these two beauts were taken down. 

Update: Tom did authorize the tree being removed. It was getting in the way of something or other, and…

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WRITING CLASS IN AV

AVA,

My name is Melinda Misuraca and I'm a writer and teacher. I'll be teaching a creative writing class this Fall in Boonville. It's a non-credit class open to adults of all ages and is offered through Mendocino College. 

ENG 503-0783. For adults of all ages and levels, $12/semester. Tuesdays, 2-5:10pm, Sept 5-Dec 12 at the AV Adult School. 

To register: www.mendocino.edu

For more info: mmisuraca@mendocino.edu

Regards,

Melinda Misuraca

Ukiah

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POT PERMIT HELL

Editor,

This is the state of our Cannabis Department. This is ONE grower, on ONE parcel, headed to Planning and Building, to deal with their permits. No wonder it takes 200 hours to approve a license and years to get it done. There are no other Ag producers with this much red tape from the County. I was frankly shocked at the amount of paperwork, hence the photos. I don't think the public knows the hoops (pun intended) these growers are having to jump through, for years. Also, if you are in the process of getting your license, you are not paying an annual fee. This again points out how un-business friendly our County is. The Board of Supervisors wonders why it can't balance its budget when the supposed “savior” that was Cannabis has its hands tied by the very County it was suppose to help support. 

Shaking my head,

Carrie Shattuck

Ukiah

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CODE ENFORCEMENT REPORT

Editor,

Today (Monday) I was able to observe Mendocino County Code Enforcement follow through on an investigation of a personal cannabis garden. The garden had been located using satellite surveillance. 

The land owners had medical recommendations to use cannabis. They met the setbacks of 100 feet from the property line and 200 feet from another residence. The Code Enforcement officer verified these facts, came to the conclusion that the property owners were in compliance and closed the investigation.

The process was quick and professional. I can't say that every action taken by Code Enforcement has gone as well but, what I witnessed today did.

Cannabis is, and will continue to be a hot button issue. People have the right to enjoy their property. Some people do not enjoy the smell of cannabis. The required setbacks seem reasonable to allow those who are offended by cannabis the ability to enjoy their own property. 

Those who want to consume cannabis for medicinal and/or recreational uses should have the right to produce their own as long as it is done in a way that protects their neighbors rights.

Being part of a community means have consideration for others. This depends on communication and sometimes, compromise. Regulation and Code Enforcement are a poor substitute for being good neighbors. 

I liked being able to see enforcement in action. Sometimes with controversial issues, the truth is obscured by personal emotions. Hopefully, the situation continues to evolve where people's differing viewpoints can be heard and result in respectful dialogue. The more we can communicate, the stronger our community will be.

Adam Gaska

Redwood Valley

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MENDO DESERVES BETTER

Editor: 

It is certainly not my wish to continually rehash the ugly events that occurred during my 2018 bid for Mendocino County 5th District Supervisor seat, except where those events are instructive to the County’s current dysfunction. Thus I find this Lee Edmundson a fascinating character. To briefly review; I had attacked Williams who is independently wealthy, having bragged during his 2018 campaign that he did not need a Supervisor’s salary. He is now keeping every dollar and benefit of the position while the County stands on the brink of an SEIU strike. And Edmundson jumped to Ted’s defense closing his screed with this tasty morsel: “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,” referring to the fact that I had taken Ecstacy (for therapeutic purposes) on the day of my stroke.

I think unpacking Lee’s disgusting comment is instructive about Williams and his uncaring attitude toward the county he ostensibly is supposed to be serving. The moral depravity and emotional callousness of Lee’s comments are, I think, transparently obvious. Further: I think the comment is revealing of a man who is in possession of a very sick psyche and a very diseased soul. I believe this analysis needs no further explication. And they track closely with Ted’s recent remark to Mendocino Voice reporter Dave Brooksher that the public probably wouldn’t notice a strike!

The massive insensitivity of such a remark is difficult to get my brain damaged mind to wrap itself around!And it begs the question, If Ted sees county services as irrelevant to the public, what the actual F! is he doing in this job? 

As for Edmundson, as the County faces what will be upcoming turbulence I hope his voice will not be seriously considered by those actually seeking to solve our problems since, outside of being Ted’s campaign manager and ongoing apologist, he has not been politically relevant for years. And though he feels comfortable dispensing thinly veiled moral advice to me and the county, while aggravating his COPD with daily cigarettes, unable to control his personal addiction, I would not recommend we accept advice from a man with a death wish.

I have stated about Ted: “beware this man.” I’ve had a front row seat to much of Ted’s career first as an ally on our Fire District in Albion where we accomplished many things together. Later as opponents for the same seat. I have learned there is something quite wrong with Ted. He is very cunning and skilled at showing different faces to different people at different times. He hides behind the various faces he constructs and then trusts that no-one will track him over time, that they will just stay satisfied with the face he just showed them, and not track his contradictions, outright lies, or his record of abysmal failure, or his acts of callousness.

Politics should not be a blood sport. It is apparent to see how moral midgets like Ted and Lee deserve each other but Mendocino County deserves neither!

Chris Skyhawk

Fort Bragg

PS. I want everyone to know that although I struggle with physical limitations, and while I accept people’s good hearted concerns, no one need feel sorry for me. My life is filled with love and beauty. I might write more at another time, but my stroke has been an extraordinary and illuminating experience that is still unfolding. Thank you.

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FORT BRAGG SUPPORTS ITS YOUNG

Editor,

I am writing in response to statements made that perhaps the city, the police department, nor the City Council prioritize in any way our youth. I would like to make a few things very clear. This council, the city, and our police department take the development of our youth, their involvement in our community, their safety, and their success seriously. 

Some of the initiatives the City has undertaken in recent years to prioritize youths; include allocating the Transient Occupancy Taxes- Measure AA/AB funds, approved in 2016. A total of $140,000 has been allocated to the Fort Bragg Unified School District over the years to improve the school’s fields which are utilized by the community and the schools for several sports, including soccer. We have purchased a tractor to help facilitate maintenance of the fields, an aerator attachment for the tractor, and funded the rebuild of its water system at Dana Gray, allowing them to properly irrigate the fields. Most recently, the City allocated funds to help refurbish the dilapidated four tennis courts at the middle School. The refurbishing included converting tennis courts into eight Pickleball courts and restoring two tennis courts. The public is allowed to use these courts after School and on weekends or any time school is not in session. The remainder of the time, the schools and the students get to take advantage of these new courts. 

For the soccer fields at Bainbridge Park conversation, which began at a council meeting where community members requested that in our grant application process, we change the proposed use of that area to an all-weather soccer field (this is also a water-saving project). This was met by unanimous support from the full council. In 2021, the City applied for California State Parks Program Grant (SPP Prop 68) to enhance Bainbridge Parks benefiting the community and our youths. Improvements to Bainbridge park have been a priority for the City Council for many years, as defined in the Bainbridge Master Plan . Unfortunately, the City was unsuccessful in being awarded the Grant funds but scored very high compared to other applications. Subsequently, the City secured some funding of $177,952 from the Department of Parks & Recreation. Understanding how important the soccer fields would be to our community we proposed a new source of funding to be combined with the grant funds, including funds from the Asset Forfeiture Fund, the General Fund, and Facilities and Maintenance Funds. Much to our disappointment, the bids for the soccer field came in $500,000- $800,000, 2 to 3 times more than the budgeted funds of $250,000. We then made the hard decision to postpone the soccer fields again and allocate the grants received toward replacing all the playground equipment. 

The SPP Prop, 68 funding of $2,241,000, was finally awarded in July 2023, and the City Council has directed Staff to put out a Request for Proposal (RFP) from qualified firms to rehab and build various new amenities at Bainbridge Park. This includes the construction of two artificial surface soccer fields with lights, a complete renovation of the playground with new equipment, a multi-use pavilion, Camera systems, and Public Art and landscape throughout the park. The entire project is bundled into one RFP to save time and money. The soccer fields will be built, and the youth and the community will benefit tremendously.

Moreover, the Police department holds a strong commitment to our youths as well. Over the last several years, the Chief and his department have committed over $123,000 to our youths in the form of sponsorships. One project that I personally hold dear to my heart is the opioid grant the department received. Under the Chief's direction, these funds were used to build a program to help our community. The program is referred to as "Project Right Now", More specifically, the age groups between 12-24. The department has collaborated with the judicial system, including Judges, the DA office, probation, and the public defender’s office. This program allows our CRU team and success coaches, all of which work out of the police department, to work closely with our youth that have addictions and are going through the courts due to crimes committed. All the departments mentioned above have agreed to allow our team to take part. The team will reach out to our youth while in juvenile hall or jail and help them navigate the struggles of addiction and rehab. More than one with court approval, have been picked up from detention and taken straight to detox and or rehab. The police department is currently in the process of certification with BSA t start a Police Explorer program for youths ages 14-21 and Boy Scouts, which now includes all genders. Project right now also goes to the schools teaching about drug addiction and offering alternatives to a better lifestyle. 

Finally, numerous City employees including police officers volunteer their time to coach youth soccer, little league, football, and other youth sports. As I’ve mentioned above, the City Council, the Police Department, and the entire City Government are committed to the safety of and improving the lives of our youths and the community.

It has been my experience that anyt ime government is part of the process, the obstacles and red tape are high and frequent. The process of getting work done at a governmental level can be confusing and frustrating. Whenever anyone finds themselves not understanding the process, please do not hesitate to reach out to your government. We work for you. 

Mayor Bernie Norvell

Fort Bragg

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LET’S SEE YOUR ART, TWK

Letter to Editor:

I see the Carolina Carbuncle is back at work, leaking his purulent crap on the Grace Hudson Museum’s exhibit of what Tommy Wayne Kramer/Tom Hine/P.J. O’Rourke-wannabe calls “the Back to the Land fad.” TWK clearly doesn’t know shit about the Back to Landers, a movement he claims was composed of East Coast elites driving 2500 miles to “pretend to be part of a vast agrarian network on a mission to cram love and harmony down the throats of locals.” (These elites — elites are “college educated” — are standard fare in Trumpian rhetoric, shoving them “woke” ideas down the throats of God-fearing ’Mericans.) In TWK’s view, the movement/fad lasted “an entire summer and part of the next winter,” or 5 to 8 months, depending on what they did in that missing autumn, besides “building flimsy shacks, growing stunted crops, and eating brown rice,” failing so ineptly that they soon cut their hair and took showers before “snagging employment sincecures in Mendocino County schools and government offices,” which neatly explains Mendo’s crummy schools and appalling administration.

So after his interminable five paragraph introduction to immigration, though it’s difficult to immigrate to a country you live in — more often called “moving” or “traveling” — and after blaming Mendo’s notorious travails on those educated but faint-hearted Back to Landers, TWK (Tweak as he’s known to both his fans), now turns his alleged attention to his museum visit, where, if only to display his amazing intellectual versatility, he adds “art critic” to his already demonstrated cultural punditry.

Tweak notes that the Hudson exhibit is confined to one small room mostly full of paintings. Here’s the entirety, in all its depth and detail, of his artist judgment: “Some of the paintings are good. But I’d not allow a single one of these Adventures in Painting inside my home, though I might agree to a few nailed on an exterior wall of the garage.”

(The “good ones,” a reader presumes.) “The rest might patch a roof.” And then he adds, parenthetically of course, (“Your tastes may differ.”)

But how would we know? No painting is described, no artist is mentioned. Tweak, like Trump and his Magat allies, is clearly a master of chickenshit criticism: no facts, all judgment.

However, in fairness, there was a rumor that Tweak was going to post photographs of the art work in his house, what his impeccable artistic judgment has led him to grace the very interior of his dwelling with, but the black velvet absorbed the flash and the large, luminous, teary eyes of the children washed all details into oblivion. And oblivion, one hopes, may prove the proper repository of such weak literary efforts like this latest attempt from Tweak.

Jim Dodge

Manila

PS. Maybe those “stunted plants” were actually squat hash plants from the Hindu Kush? That might explain the missing autumn. I have no idea how Tweak judges an accomplishment, since he gives the Back to the Landers an emphatic “zero,” but a horticultural innovation like sinsemilla, and the 40 years of economic survival it provided for the resource-raped northcoast, might be considered as something.

TWK REPLIES: Love this. I couldn’t improve on it if you gave me a dozen paragraphs.

JIM DODGE ADDS: For reasons that elude my technical incompetence, my signature/name kept getting deleted from the missive. Please add my name between the body and PS.This one [above] is decidedly for publication. In fact, if I didn't have to get my ass on the road, I would respond to his craven linking of Jim Jones, Parnell, Tree Frog, etc as deserving of plaques as back-to-landers absent the slightest evidence they were anything other than visitors or residents. Many back-to-landers grew up in the communities they settled. Tweak seems to think any outsider is a back-to-lander. Hey, how could you guys let Jim Jones settle in your county? You even met Tree Frog, right? Why didn't you shoot him? 

ED REPLY: I didn't shoot Frog when it was explained to me that he “didn't talk to straight people.” I was so flattered I dropped my gun.

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THE EEL RIVER CANYON

Editor,

I tend to agree with John Pinches regarding the idea of a way to use the right of way through the Eel River Canyon to allow the public to access this marvelous stretch of almost wilderness in Northern California. But as in all things, what about the details? How can this actually be done? Watching the over ten year process to try to get a three mile bike and pedestrian path constructed right alongside the highway in Round Valley, which is now finally being constructed at a cost of over $3 million, I have serious reservations about what to do about the rail to trail idea. If it cost a million dollars a mile to build a bike trail on flat ground, with no landslides or culverts, one bridge, no tunnels, how can this rail to trail through the Eel River canyon be built for anything less than a billion dollars? The Round Valley trail project was tangled up for years with right of way issues and conflicts, the environmental concerns for wetlands and rare species took time and mitigation expense, lots of clipboards inspecting and reports to be generated, and the actual construction gets delayed because when it rains the dirt might get into the creek. And this is on flat ground. We are talking the Eel River canyon here, landslides all the time, steep cliffs, all kinds of environmental issues. How is this really supposed to get built? I truly suspect this is just one huge billion dollar boondoggle. A good idea in the abstract, and appealing to many people. Yes public access for hiking in the canyon seems great, but I really doubt California can get it done, not in ten years and not for a billion dollars. I really wish the proponents of this project would be straight up about the cost/benefit and not keep promoting the Great Redwood Trail in a manner which is not honest.

Lew Chichester

Covelo

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CDC SENTENCE REDUCTIONS

Editor,

I am often contacted regarding the outcomes of criminal investigations. Many victims become frustrated when they feel justice wasn’t served. We can all point to an injustice, those are often easy to see, however if we had 10 people who witnessed the same situation and then asked them what would be a just outcome, we would likely receive 10 different answers. Strangely everyone in the room would likely be right, based on their experiences. The real question would be, what does the victim in this particular case think justice is? Where a person stands, is often dependent on where that person is seated, if you’re in the victim’s chair, chances are your view will be different.

Crime victims are rarely compensated for their losses, that’s simply a fact. When someone steals a car and crashes it, the victim isn’t truly compensated through an insurance settlement even if they are ensured for theft. The victim rarely receives compensation from the suspect who rarely has anything to give to the victim. Many times, items stolen are heirlooms, gifts from family or things that have great sentimental value. Victims will never be compensated for this when the items have already been fenced. Often the only compensation our victims receive is knowing the suspect will pay the state for his crimes. Well, we seem to be in a time when the state is no longer collecting those payments or giving dramatic discounts on something that doesn’t truly belong to them. 

Our bill of rights is set up to address the needs of the accused. The fourth, fifth and especially the sixth amendment are completely designed to protect the rights of the accused. I agree with this whole heartedly, we have an obligation to ensure those rights, however I am wondering how and when did legislation renounce our obligation to the rights of our victims. 

When our judges hand down a sentence whatever it may be, the victims leave the court room and complete a rough math equation in their heads and estimate when the suspect will be released. That’s simply human nature. When the suspect is released after serving less than half the time, they were sentenced to, it causes anger and frustration. These folks feel victimized again and it completely undermines the work of Law enforcement, our District Attorney, Defense and Judges. 

How and why is this happening? The state prison system has been calculating credits in some strange fashion that when explained makes no sense. Upon conviction the subject is transported to the California Department of Corrections intake. Somehow these folks at CDC are allowed to change the sentence thus circumventing the orders of our judges. 

The changes are based on credits inmates receive while in custody. Many of these credits are calculated at the time they arrive therefore they are entitlements and not earned. Eventually I fear sentences will be so low, and credits so high, by the time an inmate arrives in prison, he may be immediately released with an apology from the state for taking up his time. (that’s a joke, however with the way things are going I wouldn’t say it’s impossible). 

Many of my colleagues and I have had several conversations with CDCR officials who have attempted to explain how these reduced sentences are handed out. It always seems to become an exercise in someone attempting to help us outsmart our common sense and basic math skills. A gifted mathematician armed with a calculator and the good old abacus wouldn’t know if he was on foot or horseback trying to follow the logic on these releases. I’m nearly convinced It’s alchemy. I think the confusion is truly a portion of how this is happening. This is an example of how our victims are forgotten. I ask, when did our state forget about the victims of the crimes? When will our victims be treated fairly? When the only compensation they receive is taken, who will compensate them? How long will it be before our victims begin compensating themselves? These are unintended consequences and it’s a question I think we should all be asking.

Thank you

Sheriff Matt Kendall

Ukiah

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LEAVE TREES STANDING

Editor:

Santa Rosa is only miles from the Mendocino National Forest, a refuge that should be protected. The U.S. Forest Service has recently asked for public opinion on how to implement the president’s executive order to protect mature and old-growth trees in national forests to fight climate change. Why? Mature and old-growth trees are the most effective mechanism for removing carbon from the atmosphere.

But the Forest Service continues to chop down the most-effective natural solution to climate change on public lands. These trees take up and store millions of tons of carbon in their trunks, branches and soil, keeping it out of our atmosphere. They continue to work over their lifetimes, as long as hundreds of years.

Yet currently slated to be felled on nearly 370,000 acres are mature and old-growth trees in 22 national forests. We don’t have decades to wait for new trees to grow up and replace the work mature trees do now. Please take action now and tell the Forest Service to immediately suspend all timber sales that propose harvesting mature and old-growth trees.

Janet Doherty

Sacramento

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SHORTCHANGING UKRAINE

Editor,

Why aren't we giving Ukraine enough military aid it must have to win its war with Putin's Russia? It was made clear in public, via MSNBC yesterday, by a retired US CiA officer and a representative of a think tank, t*he Institute for the Study of War,* that Ukaraine is paying a needlessly high price in terms of dead and wounded soldiers in order to carry on its current counteroffensive. In addition Russia's bloodthirsty Kremlin and tyrant, V. Putin, on Monday carried out another attack on civilians in the city of Pokrovsk, a small city about 30 miles from the eastern battlegrounds. Five men, women and a child were known dead while at least 31 also were wounded.

Mr,. Zelensky has repeatedly asked for-but not gotten-aircraft, longer range ground-to-ground missiles, more heavy artillery, ammunition and tanks. Why not? It was repeated yesterday by these two military experts, “The US would not allow its military to fight the war Ukraine is having to fight!”

Frank H. Baumgardner, III

Santa Rosa

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WORST CHOICE EVER

Editor: 

Our country has survived living under a basically two-party system since its inception. We may not make it much longer. I find it truly disappointing that both parties are preparing to ask us to vote for their prospective candidates, Joe Biden and Donald Trump, both of whom are completely unacceptable and unqualified to lead our nation.

Biden is a tottering old man who displays all of the attributes of old age, Trump is a self-centered grandstander who only listens to himself and would probably spend, if elected, four years getting even with all of his opponents.

We need a young, smart, hardworking and dedicated person for our next president. Both parties have people that match these needs, but because of politics we may be forced to pick between two people who are the least qualified.

If there was ever a time for a third party, it is now. I will not vote for Trump or Biden. I will vote for almost anyone else if they show any signs of the qualities needed to be president.

Rex Schimmer

Fulton

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DEAD PECKER BENCH

Letter to Editor

Dropping yr gun at the mere acknowledgment of yr sexual orientation may qualify you for a seat on the Dead Pecker Bench, a place dedicated to old guys and their unheeded wisdom in front of any rural general store. Just drop yr application in the apple barrel. 

Jim Dodge

Manila

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US VS. THE NOBILITY

Editor: 

Columnist David Brooks describes a class war between professionals and workers, coastal elites versus “the rest of us.” What he misses is that this class war is being fought at the behest of the modern version of nobility, where wealth is passed from one generation to the next. Through their professional minions these families and billionaires write the rules that maintain their economic dominance.

Both Trumpian populists and progressive professionals do the bidding of the financial nobility. The last time the legal and political power of the uber wealthy was broadly challenged was the 1960s. The children of workers and professionals shared a common vision of a better world. Persons who were invisible because of skin color, sexual orientation, gender, age, ability and spiritual orientation began to have their voices heard, most for the first time.

The counterculture challenging the dominance of financial nobility was co-opted and cast as hippies, radicals, immoral, anti-American. Cultural transformation became an evermore sophisticated creation of markets and consumers. Children sharing the vision of a more just world reverted to their class to participate in maintaining the rule of the few over the many. Financial nobles continue to make the rules that generate tensions between populists and professionals.

Jeffrey J. Olson

Clearlake Oaks

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THE VOICE OF EXPERIENCE

To the Editor,

Interesting commentary by Jim Shields in the July 19 issue of the Advertiser entitled "Crime and No Punishment."

Mr. Shields found three people who conveniently share his lock ’em up and throw away the key mentality who he included in his article. Sadly he offers nor suggests a solution for the "crisis" he writes about.

This year's state budget allocated $12 billion for the California prison system. This is roughly 6% of the state's total budget, more than was allocated for the state's entire public school system.

This mentality has proven to be a disaster for the taxpayers of California and the prison system which has imploded due to the inhumane conditions caused by overcrowding which resulted in Governor Newsom completely shutting down several prisons with yet more on his hit list.

These new "catch and release" policies Mr. Shields refers to have done nothing to increase crime statistics across the board. 

While I appreciate Mr. Shield's opinion, I would be more appreciative of a constructive opinion in which a solution to his grievance is offered.

Alan 'Sunny' Crowe

Vacaville

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DEFENDING CAMILLE & DAN

To the Editor:

My name is Sarah Walsh. I work with Anchor Health Management. I also have family members who seek services through the county SMH system. I have worked with County Mental Health since 2001 in some capacity or another, and therefore have experience both professionally and personally in the BH system.

I am here to address a few concerns I have with the Board of Supervisors repeated claims regarding the data they say they do not receive from Anchor Health. Anchor Health has gone out of its way to provide the information to the members of the Board. We participated in an ad hoc commitee to provide client outcomes and taken individual requests from Board members. Furthermore, we’ve listened to feedback from the community and incorporated their input into the reports. We submit reports to the County annually, quarterly, AND monthly, at the bare minimum, all of which include client outcomes. 

Despite what the Board has repeatedly claimed, those outcomes are NOT reached by a sampling method, but take the whole population we serve into account, with the sole exception of client satisfaction surveys. Board members espouse “Transparency!” as justification to continue to disbelieve what is being presented. It is disingenuous to not only hard-working staff, but the constituents you serve.

During the ad hoc I participated in with members of the Board, we provided not only the summary of the outcomes, but the actual excel report itself so that the board could confirm sampling methods hadn’t been used to skew the data. 

Still, the Board continues to claim that outcomes were and are never provided. This is false. Even after that ad hoc, the Board researched what outcomes other counties report on and couldn’t locate a county that reports the type of intensive data that the Board requires of AHM. The Board has gone so far as to suggest that we press other counties to report similarly to ensure there would be data for comparison. With this and the derogatory manner in which the board speaks to the public about AHMs provided data, one could reasonably conclude that the Board has an agenda in this matter, and no amount of requested data will suffice. However, if no agenda exists, then ignorance on how the system works IS the only other line of reasoning I can come up with.

Our county mental health system is robust comparatively, and without the creative thinking of Camille, Dan and Tim to maximize the dollars that have been allocated to this county, your adult services would be confined to just the mandated services, which only include medication management and crisis — what sort of outcomes do you think that would result in? In reality, those three individuals are the architects of the current specialty mental health system in Mendocino County.

Your lack of understanding to how the system works was very apparent a few weeks ago when you took RCS out of the system equation, without a transition period. Anchor Health works collaboratively with not only the providers within the system, but also with outside agencies and members of the community. We have a “no wrong door” policy and meet weekly to ensure that, when an agency may be struggling, there is another agency ready to serve the client. When you remove an agency from that collaboration, the system breaks down, and suddenly the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing, leaving the clients to suffer. Currently county BH is not equipped to take on a piecemeal system.

We have received exceptional grades not only from the California External Quality Review Organizations yearly review, but also from the triennial state audits. I think this is because at Anchor Health we work as a full functioning team where we are allowed to disagree with each other and have meaningful conversations on how best to meet state/county guidelines AND provide the best we can for our clients and community.

At the last Board meeting Dr. Miller tried to tell you about the new changes with CALAIM and what that means for the ASO. AHM is fully aware of what it means. We had already been in discussions with Dr. Miller about whether the ASO would still be an appropriate option for this county with the new state structure AND we were already preparing that this could be a transition year just in case. Our team at Anchor Health feel we accomplished the tasks we were contracted to do to help the County.

Are we a perfect system? No, but we strive to be, and we are a much beter County than most. You can thank Tim, Dan, AND Camille, who especially goes out of her way to ensure that Anchor Health and the providers are doing ALL that they can to serve Mendocino County beneficiaries, even in the rural areas. Again, our system is not perfect, but it’s not bad, not even remotely.

Sarah Walsh, AHM Employee

Ukiah

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THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO GIUSTI

To the Editor,

Could you have mercy on an old timer in prison land ex-colleague of the journalism field?

I must compliment you on your personal articles. Reading your writing isn't a waste of time. Scaramella is also a great journalist. He should run for Congress! But his supervisors stories about crooked politicians are way too complicated and depressing for this old coot.

After reading the July 26 stories severely slandering Braxton Bragg and praising "Greasy Thumb" McCowen, I have had trouble with my morning nap. I had to awake and write this. I don't have to work on my prison yard job until 2:15 PM when I'm supposed to pick up garbage 40 hours a week for the grand paycheck of $3.20 a month, which they gouge half of for restitution!

Please don't get grouped with statue bashers.

Keith Faulder definitely illegally told the department of corrections that I owe Mendocino County $10,000! I'm currently trying to work with Judges Mayfield and Moormon to get my stolen funds returned. The Department of Corrections has taken about $1800 from my prison trust account so far! What a rip. It's like Nevada which now charges prisoners rent and utility payments!

My main beef with the media of course is the slander of Braxton Bragg. I've met Braxton's grandkids and I can tell you truthfully they are the nicest tourist kids I ever met. Being from Fort Bragg you must know that I have met thousands of tourists in my day. Most of them seemed too nice to be the type to file a lawsuit against any newspaper. Neither the Advertiser nor the Santa Rosa Press Commie-crap have yet printed the documented facts about Bragg's alleged plantation in over three years. He was a documented career military man, no time for "slavery foolishness" as President Jefferson Davis phrased it!

Can you get a printout of the deed to this alleged slave plantation off the Internet? You won't even tell us Bragg's date of birth nor his birthplace nor his grave location. Please Google away the BS and research the real truth for not only me but Braxton's kids and yourself since you claim to be so concerned about the Fort Bragg name change. I really want to see a good slap in the face to the imbecilic statue bashers and greedy back to the landers (bogus hippies who now wear their hair short and tailored suits after carpetbagging land from old-time Mendolanders.) These ex-hippies are as bad as Hoyle, Faulder, Eyster, and McCowen.

Concerning the Greasy Thumb McCowen bogus praise: my mom is his mom Virginia McCowen's second or third cousin. Of course my dad, a World War II hero, would never brag about being relaIated. I only met John twice in 2020 after he had been slandering me for years. I guess because my mom refused to buy his poached abalone?

I am thoroughly convinced that all during fall and winter of 2023 Faulder, McCowen and crooked Ukiah police had me under constant surveillance. They definitely sent those two thugs to my camp on March 20, 2020, to instigate my murder or arrest! I will prove this eventually. You can tell Eyster, Hoyle and Marcus Young I continue my quest to see them in prison too! They sure worked hard to kidnap me to this 18 to life sentence! Now they want to shut me up!

How would you feel if people slandered Judi Bari and praised her bombers? You have to understand now how I feel about Bragg's condemnation and "high marks" for evil dudes like McCowen. As Doc Holliday said of murderer-thief Johnny Ringo, 'There is a hole in his heart that enough hate can't fill.' That's the way I feel about Johnny Ringo McCowen, a.k.a. Greasy Thumb!

Greasy Thumb gets high marks?

I like reading off the record in the Advertiser when it prints the truth and many times it is very true. I like what was printed in the July 26 edition. It was off the wall and way off contemporary fact except for praising McCowen.

I remember once he tried to sell my mom poached abalone. Shortly after that in about 1985 he began slandering my name. This really took me by surprise since I never met the idiot until March of 2020! A note in the AVA stated that McCowen comes from an old Ukiah family. But they omitted the fact of the few generations of McCowen semi-incest. A peek at Greasy Thumb's genealogy will prove his parents were cousins and obviously his dad, "Hanging Judge McCowen" (who dodged World War II to attend Stanford Law) had parents who were first cousins! This family tree has a bit too much kissing cousins in it for me to admit my mom is a distant cousin to Greasy Thumb's mom!

I really doubt if John McCowen is on a mission to help the homeless nor to clean up after them. I also observed him having secret meetings with the thugs who invaded my private homeless camp. (He just snitches homeless and our camps to Faulder and company.) This was about a day before my arrest behind CVS in Ukiah. Thanks to CEO Mommy Dearest and Supervisor Ted Williams who were helping me construe who the real snakes in the Mendoland grass are. This embezzlement ring sounds like a law firm: Faulder, Hoyle, Eyster and McCowen! When it comes to these four who are breaking the Mendo bank, all concerned Mendolanders should band together and vigilante up. Like I stated before if this was the 1800s the tar and feather salesmen could make a mint in Ukiah!

I am in need of more evidence.

David ‘Detective Youngcault’ Giusti

California Men's Colony-East

San Luis Obispo

PS. Hopefully all home boys and girls will read more of the Bible and hold more revival meetings. Here are some New Testament verses to share with your readers:

1 John 4:7-9: Beloved, let us love one another for love is of God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us that God has sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him.

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