Letters (December 5, 2023)

• Superior Court Of California, County Of Mendocino
• The Nelson Brothers, Finnish Americans, Fort Bragg
• Dam Removal Impacts
• Robo-Abuse
• The Non-Public Utility
• Jake Louis Kooy
• Genocide Joe
• Horrified And Heartbroken
• Middle East Math
• Say Something Encouraging
• Setting The Record Straight On Israel And Palestine
• Deadly Organized Religions Block Human Progress
• Memo Of The Week

SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF MENDOCINO 

November 21, 2023

RE: Your request to restore the former calendar access process.

Dear Mr. Anderson,

I write in response to your letter of October 16, 2023 to Presiding Judge-Elect Keith Faulder, asking that the court return to its former system of publishing court calendars. I do not know what six-step process you are referencing in your letter, but the court’s current publication of calendars is not overly burdensome, even for technologically challenged users.

There are two ways you can view cases on the court’s calendar. 

First, you can view an alphabetical listing of parties with cases on calendar each day on the court’s website at: https: //www.mendocino.courts.ca.gov/daily-court-calendar. 

Second, you can use the Case Information Portal at: https://portal-camendocino.tylertech.cloud/Portal and “Search - Hearings” by date, judicial officer, case number or party name. 

If you search by judicial officer, you can sort the list alphabetically, by hearing time, hearing type or case number. 

The public has given the court positive feedback on the way these calendars facilitate their ability to locate hearings.

I hope you will find these methods straightforward and simple to use. Thank you for sharing your views and opinions with the court.

Very truly yours,

Kim Turner

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MARK SCARAMELLA NOTES: The “Daily Court Calendar” offers a list of courtrooms and is supposed to provide parties or defendants for the current day. But that’s all. When we checked it on Sunday, of course, there were no cases listed. There’s no way to select a different day, making this “feature” essentially useless because you’d have to check it every day and there’s no way to look into the upcoming week or further to see what’s scheduled.

There’s also a “Calendar Plan” summarizing cases by courtroom. Unfortunately, when we checked it on November 26th it listed cases for the week of August 1, 2023 and nothing else.

The “court information portal” is basically broken. We entered names of cases that we have entered successfully in the past (e.g., Grewal, Harinder) and it first produced: “No cases match your search.” Upon retrying we got: “There was an error while processing your request. Please try again later.” When we tried again later we go the same result.

The “Search Hearings” feature produced nothing for Courtroom A for the next month, which we doubt is true. We gave up at that point.

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BOB ABELES ADDS: The court calendar is clunky AF, but as of right now it shows a schedule for today. That said, it looks like someone hastily stuffed a link to a PDF in last night to make it look like it’s working. As a bonus, it tried to sign me into a Microsoft account when I accessed it. Pure amateur hour, IMHO. 

THE NELSON BROTHERS, FINNISH AMERICANS, FORT BRAGG

Dear Historical Society member,

We're really looking forward to our upcoming December Membership Meeting, Sunday, December 17, 2023, 11:30 at the Wharf Restaurant, 32260 North Harbor Drive, Fort Bragg. Our guest speaker will be Sylvia Bartley talking about “The Nelson Brothers: Finnish-American Radicals from the Mendocino Coast.” Sylvia co-edited the book by that name, which will be on sale at the event at half price ($12.50). Following lunch, the Historical Society is partnering with the Fort Bragg-Mendocino Coast Historical Society for a tour of the Guest House Museum.

Lunch will be served to those who RSVP with a menu choice by Thursday, December 14. Cost: $25.00

Remember to RSVP with your menu choice to the Historical Society of Mendocino County office by Thursday, December 14. 707-462-6969 or info@mendocinocountyhistory.org 

Pay at the event or in advance by mail (100 S. Dora Street, Ukiah, CA). Make all payments out to the Historical Society of Mendocino County.

Lastly, as we close in on the end of 2023, now is the time to remember us if you want to make a tax-deductible donation to the Historical Society of Mendocino County. 

Send us a little (or a lot) of holiday cheer so we can keep these membership benefits coming your way. 

Many thanks, 

Tim Buckner, Executive Director

Historical Society of Mendocino County

Ukiah

DAM REMOVAL IMPACTS

Editor,

The loss of Scott and Cape Horn dams will affect all of Mendocino, Sonoma and even Marin County’s as Marin buys water from Sonoma Water. Marin Municipal Water District gets 25% of its water from Sonoma Water and wants more. They are currently looking at a $100 million pipeline to get more water from East Bay Municipal Utility District.

Potter Valley has a special district, Potter Valley Irrigation District which charges for water. They are the only ones that have paid anything for the water, albeit not very much. PVID is also a part of IWPC, a JPA that includes the City of Ukiah, County of Mendocino, Redwood Valley County Water District and Russian River Flood Control. Ukiah is concerned enough to be an active participant in the future of the project, Sonoma Water as well. PVID has already secured grants to look at the best places in Potter Valley to do groundwater recharge and to do preliminary studies on two reservoirs. While Potter Valley will be hit the hardest, the effects will trickle down. Property values in Potter Valley are already declining as is seen in current property prices which eventually will effect county property tax revenues. With an increase in the cost of water, some crops will become unprofitable. The grape market is in a glut/slump that likely will persist for years. There is no easy high value, low water use crop that can only be grown in Mendocino County. Less gross revenues will equate to less sales tax revenue which will especially hurt the City of Ukiah which has already been hurt by the decline of cannabis.

We are lucky last year was a wet one. Flow levels have been good enough that there wasn’t curtailments. PG&E has already drastically cut down the diversion rate. If we hit a dry year, curtailments will kick in early without the water that historically was coming from the PVP during the summer. Any and all right holders along the Russian from Lake Mendocino to Alexander Valley will be cut off from direct diversions. Most do not have enough storage to see them through summer. Municipalities will kick in conservation measures and rely heavily on groundwater. Sonoma Water is moving to annex Healdsburg into the Lake Sonoma district and give them a water contract.

Even if we magically pull off putting in new infrastructure to divert water in the winter from the Eel to the Russian, we need more storage capacity. What’s the point of diverting water if the Army Corp of Engineers dumps it out of Lake Mendocino for flood control?

It looks as though most of Mendocino County is economically disadvantaged, including Potter Valley. 

One of the problems is that the water PG&E was using to generate power was “abandoned” so it was available for free to anyone with an appropriative water right which the state gave out a lot of water rights based on the historic volume of water. PG&E never wanted to charge as they are not in the water business. So now these users need to get organized and form some kind of JPA or district to charge for water.

If it is a pay to play situation, then it goes to housing developers and ag/open space loses out.

Water rights are held by individuals and in some cases, government agencies. In Mendocino County, most water rights are held by individuals. They are free to use the water as they wish.

As for the rail, the Great Redwood Trail is hoping to turn it into a walking/biking path and remove the option for rail service to return north of Cloverdale.

Adam Gaska

Redwood Valley

ROBO-ABUSE

Editor,

I know I'm farting in a whirlwind here, but I thought I'd send you. It may be good for a chuckle. 

On Monday, November 13, I called AT&T and talked to "Page" about robocall reduction and was told that caller ID runs $7 or $8 a month but she couldn't help me. She transferred the call to "Grace." Grace tried to be helpful but with her high-pitched voice and difficult to understand accent it was hard to communicate. She told me of caller ID and call blocking for $14 a month each. She couldn't tell me how to use it or how it works. Something about star 67, but it also blocks calls from family, friends and other calls we do want to receive, calls that are not a nuisance. That day we got ten calls and only one to confirm a dentist appointment starting at 7:06 AM.

I asked for a supervisor. None were available but they would call back within an hour. Then Grace went into the AT&T/Direct TV spiel. The same one I'm trying to stop. Of course, the supervisor never called back. And sure as there is no snow in hell, AT&T/DirecTV called at 3:54! 

Is there no mercy?

There are called blocking machines, but you need caller ID at $14 a month. That would more than double my phone bill for calls I don't want and shouldn't have to pay to not receive.

I have kept a call log from June 1 through November 11, 160 days. I'm still logging them and it's getting worse. The total count for that period was 404 calls not counting those days when we went to town, 11 days.

It adds up to 22 calls before 8 AM, 42 calls from AT&T/DirecTV, 76 calls where no one is there but the line is open and 211 assorted calls from "your TV service," "your utility company," health advisor, Medicare, accident adviser, MasterCard/discover, and many others. There were only 64 legitimate calls from family, friends, doctors, dentists or PG&E. If only one minute is wasted per call (usually more by the time one stops your meals, laundry, etc.) it adds up to 5.65 hours of my time. It wouldn't be unfair to figure it at 10 or 11 hours. Since AT&T only gets paid if the call is completed or answered, it seems they are using me to charge the robocallers. They are also using me to educate the artificial intelligence machines. I should be in on the action and get paid a percentage rather than having to pay for calls I don't want!

Grace also told me about a "local" no call list, but didn't offer to put me on it. I've been on the national no call list for over five years to no avail. After six months AT&T/DirecTV should realize that no, no, NO! I do not want DirecTV! That alone would be a 10% reduction.

This strikes me as cruel and unusual punishment on the verge of torture. Much akin to water torture. It's a form of elder abuse. Could this be a court case? I will never believe they don't have the know-how to stop this.

Being driven crazy,

Casey Pryor

Willits

PS. Copies of this letter have been sent to the California Public Utilities Commission, the FCC computer complaints line, Governor Newsom, Senator Mike McGuire, and Assemblyman Jim Wood.

THE NON-PUBLIC UTILITY

Editor: 

A recent article discussed how utility bills have increased over the years and how the Public Utilities Commission has approved yet another increase to PG&E utility bills for infrastructure repairs. 

I could understand an increase to improve infrastructure if PG&E had, in the past, maintained the transmission system. Unfortunately, it didn’t and ended up being responsible for massive wildfires that destroyed communities and caused the deaths of many people. Why didn’t PG&E maintain the transmission system? Because it is expensive and cuts into shareholder profits.

PG&E has no competition. We don’t have a choice between utility providers. Local municipalities have choices when it comes to choosing a trash and recycling company for a contracted period of time. We don’t have that option with PG&E. We are subject to a PG&E monopoly.

Something has to change. PG&E needs to be converted from a for-profit company to nonprofit organization. That way profits will go toward ongoing maintenance and continue to provide good wages and benefits the hardworking employees deserve for keeping the lights on.

Mark Ferguson

Petaluma

JAKE LOUIS KOOY

Editor,

It’s been sometime since we have seen Jake Louis Kooy in the booking logs.

I have been curious where he has been. I often see him around but it’s been a bit. Usually he is quite disheveled and erratic and has obvious psychosis, always talking to the voices in his head.

He has been kicked out of most stores due to theft, Safeway, Rite aid Big lots and others. He was stealing from Walmart, his theft items are typically beer and ice cream.

I saw him late this afternoon, I was actually in shock seeing that he looked quite cleaned up, haircut and all. He was not having a convo with the voices but clearly not quite right in his mental capacity. I saw him from 10 feet away and decided I would have a chat with him. I turned to walk towards him in the ice cream aisle as I was doing so he opened the freezer and very non-chalantly grabbed a half gallon of frozen ice cream and shoved it down the front of his pants. He turned around walking funny and went into the next aisle, sheepishly looking at the sodas. I came around the other side, curious how he was gonna fit a 6 pack of pop in his pants along with the ice cream. He seemed to be waiting for the right moment to grab the goods, but before he could, the clerk saw him and told him he had to leave. He did not say a word, he complied with no trouble as she walked behind ushering him out the door with the ice cream in his pants that she had no clue he had stolen.

When I came out of the store he was long gone.

Interesting that it is freaking cold and of all the things to steal food wise, ice cream is the go to. Not really a rational choice, besides, he has no home, probably not even spoon to eat it with. Nor money or even food stamps to purchase food, makes ya wonder how he gets a hold of all the drugs and paraphernalia? His aunt provides him meals or did until she filed a restraining order against him.

Do you suppose he is stealing because he is hungry? Or possibly the theft is to get a jail cell and food? Or he is just compelled by an unseen force to snatch up something he likes and knows and is comfortable with?

Regardless, the fact remains he is a man with Schizophrenia and addiction who is in need of a serious structure of support and treatment that does not exist and that we are unwilling to provide.

Mazie Malone 

Ukiah

GENOCIDE JOE

Editor,

Genocide Joe. How well those two words go together – the alliteration and the actuality.

A Commander-in-Chief must make difficult decisions to defend his country. He must be able to declare war when necessary and condemn thousands, even millions to injury and death.  In the case of Israel and Palestine, the slaughter of the Palestinians does not make America safe. Actually, it is the reverse.  Since 1948, Israel has adopted the behavior of its former persecutors by engaging in the systematic brutality, incarceration and genocide of the Palestinians, which we Americans see in our homes every day. The US Administration staunchly supports Israel’s behavior for its own hegemonic interests..

Gaza is destroyed, Israel is not necessary for America’s defense. We have a dozen bases in the area. Why not turn our aid and efforts to an effective two state solution.  It just might end the conflict.

By the way, the Ukraine war is lost. It is Vietnam redux. Let’s cut their losses and ours.

Joan V.

San Francisco

HORRIFIED AND HEARTBROKEN

Editor: 

I am an American Jew, horrified and heartbroken by Hamas’ attack on Israel and the Israeli government’s response. I’m saddened that many Jewish people are using our historical trauma to prioritize our feelings over Palestinian lives and politicians following suit.

This is not the Holocaust, and it’s not Jewish people who are being slaughtered by the tens of thousands. Stephens claims Israel is “one of the world’s most successful movements of national liberation.” Does he care that this “success” is predicated on denying basic human rights to generations of Palestinians? Does he care that “success” is a never-ending cycle of violence that deprives Israelis and Palestinians of even the hope of a secure future?

We all must acknowledge the facts of Israel’s creation and ongoing discrimination against those born into different circumstances. We must do everything we can to stop the bloodshed and destruction in the short term, and in the long term ensure Palestinian’s rights to freedom, equality and justice. Wanting these things is not anti-Jewish. It’s just the only way forward.

Ellen Forman Obstler

Petaluma

MIDDLE EAST MATH

Dear Editor,

Middle Eastern mathematics:

Israel’s Palestinian prisoners + Hamas’, Israeli and other nation’s prisoners = A gGOD swap: one small POSITIVE (+) step forward for both nations.

A first OFFICIAL sign of the end of constant hatred and war?

Frank H. Baumgardner, III

Santa Rosa

SAY SOMETHING ENCOURAGING

Editor,

We are experiencing a crisis of human connection. Rates of depression and anxiety continue to rise. And the pandemic threw gasoline on an already simmering flame of loneliness about which our surgeon general has written so eloquently 

In fact, a rich body of evidence suggests that the tiniest daily interactions actually do matter and can have a positive impact on health, well-being and a sense of belonging. In fact, one clever study demonstrated that people who have even the smallest gestures of connection with their barista experience a more “positive affect.” These connections with strangers can be delightful and deliver some of the most unexpected joys.

So just say hello to someone, hold a door open, make eye contact, remember the name of the server at your regular coffee shop, thank the kid bagging your groceries.

Less is not more when it comes to the need for human connection.

Reena L. Pande

Milton, Mass.

SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT ON ISRAEL AND PALESTINE

Editor,

Sorry, but even stretching it a bit, your response to the reader (Off the Record, Nov.15) who inquired why the media never publishes maps that illustrate the “ethnic cleansing” of 750,000 Palestinian Arabs from their homeland and destruction of 500 Palestinian villages by European Jews who arrived there before World War One--already planning to “transfer” the Palestinians across the borders--does not past muster, in particular, as to why the US supports Israel and what Oslo was all about.

I really can’t believe that you believe your assumption that anyone in the US government cares one whit whether Israel has a democratic government there or a democracy anywhere else. Clearly, if Trump, his supporters and his Supreme Court appointments have demonstrated nothing else, it is that our “democracy” is a cruel hoax. Hell, there is nothing in our Constitution that even guarantees all Americans the right to vote.

There is one primary reason for US support for Israel, with nothing else remotely close. It was expressed back in 2011 by the New York Times columnist, Tom Friedman, no shrinking violet, whose Zionist credentials are impeccable, after watching a joint session of Congress give Israeli PM Netanyahu 29 standing ovations, three days after he had dressed down Obama as if he was an errant schoolboy. “The US Congress,” wrote Friedman, “is bought and paid for by the Israel Lobby,” what Rep. Ilhan Omar would later face fire for by referring to those payments as “the Benjamins.” Other than their annual feeding of the weapons manufacturers, support for the billions for Israel each years is the one issue that finds a Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer walking arm and arm with, let’s say Lindsay Graham, Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton.

You really blew it with your description of Oslo and Arafat. Although in his early years he earned a reputation as fierce freedom fighter, by 1973, he had made contacts with the CIA and Henry Kissinger and made no secret of his desire to sit in Washington’s lap. The Oslo agreement came along at a time when Arafat’s reputation had sunken lower than ever before and it was essential for Israel and Washington that he main his position, just like both countries have supported his successor, the collaborator Abbas, afraid what will happen if the PA falls apart.

As for the Oslo agreement itself, there as nothing in it that point to a two state “solution, nothing in it for the Palestinian people other than being ruled by a tin-horn Arab dictator who literally swooned when Shimon Peres referred to him as “Rais,” or president. But what Arafat did was commit the worst betrayal by the leader of an oppressed people’s struggle (that frequently comes after victory) when he legitimized Israel’s presence in 60& of the West Bank (Area C), arguably a violation of international law and agreed that the new PA militia that would be trained by the CIA, would prevent any further resistance to Israel occupation. At the same time, Rabin made no commitment to curtail Israeli settlements and they kept on growing even after the applause for their Nobel Prize had long died out. Not one single Palestinian intellectual supported the agreement and none have since. On the day Oslo was announced, I was at a meeting in San Francisco with a number of Palestinians and the famed Egyptian poet, Nawal al-Sadawi, and she announced that “Arafat has just become Israel’s sheriff.” Everyone nodded.

Arafat, to be sure, did not come away empty handed. Every month, Israel deposited $8 million USD into his private bank account. It was not for his personal enrichment but to pay the salaries of the FOURTEEN separate “intelligence” agencies under his command that were functioning in the West Bank and Gaza. It so happened that Natan Shransky, a celebrated Russian immigrant who had written a book on democracy which had appealed to George W Bush, and was an Israeli cabinet minister, complained to his fellow cabinet ministers that Arafat was running an “undemocratic Palestinian Authority,” and putting aside the irony of the allegation, no truer statement could have been made.

About that time an editorial appeared in Fatah’s English Language weekly, Al-Fajr, which called for readers to report instances of PLO corruption, and Arafat promptly closed the paper (just after I renewed my subscription and it never reappeared.) When the great Palestinian historian and member of the Palestinian National Council, Edward Said, apologizing for not having spoken before, condemned Arafat and the PLO corruption, Arafat immediately banned all his books and writings from being sold in the West Bank and Gaza and he was allowed to get away with it, as most Palestinians in Palestine as well as the diaspora, I suspect, are ignorant of that any of what I have written here on Arafat.

Three last points: As ugly as was Hamas’ attack on October 7, it was not nearly as deadly as the massacre of an estimated 2000 to 3000 defenseless Palestinians. mostly women and children in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila on the outskirts of Beirut in September 1982. Over a day and half, under the orders of Israel’s Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, the Lebanese Falangist Forces turned the camps into a killing field while Israeli soldiers stood guard, preventing Palestinians from either leaving or entering the camps, feeding the Lebanese killers, firing flares during the night so the killing could continue and providing bulldozers to bury the bodies. The reason those in the camps were defenseless was that under an agreement, negotiated by the US and UN with Sharon, all of the Palestinian fighters, led by Arafat, who had resisted Israel’s vaunted military during a 76 day siege of Beirut, agreed to evacuate the city by boat for Tunis.

News of the massacre drew 400,000 Israelis into the streets of Tel Aviv demanding the firing of Sharon. After a hearing by a commission set up to investigate the massacre, Sharon was forced to step down as Defense Minister. But the Israelis are a forgiving people, at least of their fellow Israelis. In 2001, 19 years later, he would be elected to two terms as Israel’s Prime Minister whose actions would provoke the Second Intifada.

Finally, Israel has no right to exist. No state, in fact does. The idea that the PLO would have to recognize Israel’s right to exist was the brainchild of Henry Kissinger which Washington used as a prerequisite for talking with the PLO. Rather, I would argue, the expulsion of the Palestinians and the establishment of Israel on their depopulated land, just two years after the liberation of Auschwitz, was the first war crime of the post war era. And that is the context that must not be ignored when discussing Gaza.

Jeff Blankfort

Ukiah

ED REPLY: Like most Americans, I know more about the NFL than I do the IDF, so I’ll defer to your vastly superior knowledge on this harrowing subject, and thank you for correcting my flawed understanding.

DEADLY ORGANIZED RELIGIONS BLOCK HUMAN PROGRESS

Editor,

Humans have created between 4,000 and 4200 organized religions. Many of these have used violence to empower one belief over another. Some of the worst and most popular are the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Islam and Christianity). These three believe in a singular male God with a common male patriarch, Abraham.

Matthew White’s The Great Big Book of Horrible Things said religion caused eleven of the world’s deadliest atrocities. An estimated 1.7 million people were killed in the “holy” wars in Europe and Asia. These included the three Crusades between Islam and Christianity which lasted from 1095 until 1291. During the Spanish Inquisition (1478–1834), two thousand people were burned at the stake by officials who didn’t believe they were Christians. The Grand Inquisitor acted as the head of the Spanish Inquisition. The Inquisition killed 32,000 people. The Inquisitors expelled 300,000 people from Spain. The ecclesiastical jurisdiction that the Inquisition had received from the Vatican empowered it to name deputies and hear appeals.

Christian missionaries first arrived in Japan on Portuguese ships in the 1540s. Almost all Japanese at that time were Buddhist and every funeral was a Buddhist ceremony. Christianity briefly flourished, with over 100,000 converts.

Japanese support soon disappeared. In 1587 Imperial Regent Toyotomi Hideyoshi banned Jesuit missionaries. Christianity was repressed and called a threat to national unity. The Japanese executed thousands of Christians during the Tokugawa period. In 1638, approximately 37,000 people (mostly Christians), were massacred after the Christian-led Shimabara Rebellion. According to University College London (UCL), during the 100 years after the European arrival, the indigenous population of the Americas was devastated. It was reduced from from sixty million to only six million.

The European colonists brought warfare, torture, waves of epidemics and famine. The colonizers justified their abuse and killing of indigenous people by calling them godless heathens.

The 1838 Mormon War, also known as the Missouri Mormon War, was a conflict between Mormons and non-Mormons. It lasted from August to November 1838, the first of the three Mormon Wars.

The Mormons murdered 120 men, women and children in southern Utah in 1857. This was the Mountain Meadows massacre. Mormon militiamen planned and carried it out. They lured emigrants to Utah from their circled wagons with a false flag of truce and slaughtered them.

The Nazis killed more than six million Jews during WWII. In 1931, German Bishops excommunicated the nazi leadership and banned nazis from becoming members. The ban was modified in 1933 after a law was passed that all citizens had to be be members of the Nazi Party.

A church tax was introduced into Austria by the German government in 1939 after the 1938 German takeover of Austria. This was a bribe to silence religious public criticism and it worked.

Pope Pius XII never publicly criticized the nazis for the mass murder of European Jews. He knew from the very beginning that mass murder was taking place. Various clerics and others were pressing him to speak out and he didn’t.

Religious wars in Northern Ireland began in 1969 and lasted until 1998. More than 3,600 Protestants and Catholics were killed for their beliefs. Today we have the newest war caused by organized religion between Israel (Judaism) and Palestine (Islam) in the Middle East.

If we want to save Earth from the worst consequences of war and human separation, freedom from organized religion is necessary.

Ed Oberweiser

Fort Bragg

MEMO OF THE WEEK

(A legal review of the Board’s Action to Suspend of Auditor-Controller/Treasurer-Tax Collector Chamise Cubbison)

It is accurate the Government Code states:

“Whenever an action based upon official misconduct is commenced against the county treasurer, the board of supervisors may suspend him from office until the suit is determined. The board may appoint some person to fill the vacancy, who shall qualify and give such bond as the board determines.” (Government Code § 27120.)

[Government Code Section 27120 is the government code cited by the County’s SF Lawyer which they relied on to suspend Chamise Cubbison based on “an action based upon official misconduct against the county treasurer.”]

However,

“[F]orfeiture provisions are disfavored because they encroach on the fundamental right to hold office. “ ‘[T]he right to hold public office, either by election or appointment, is one of the valuable rights of citizenship ... The exercise of this right should not be declared prohibited or curtailed except by plain provisions of law. ...’ ” *266 (Helena Rubenstein Internat. v. Younger (1977) 71 Cal.App.3d 406, 418, 139 Cal.Rptr. 473, italics in original, quoting People v. Washington (1869) 36 Cal. 658, 662, 1869 WL 857; see also Carter v. Com. on Qualifications, Etc. (1939) 14 Cal.2d 179, 182, 93 P.2d 140.) Furthermore, the “law traditionally disfavors forfeitures and statutes imposing them are to be strictly construed.” (People ex rel. Foundation for Taxpayer & Consumer Rights v. Duque (2003) 105 Cal.App.4th 259, 265–266)

Appointments for a fixed term cannot be terminated except for cause (Welch v. Ware (1911) 161 Cal. 641, 643 [119 P. 1080, 1081]), in which case the officer is entitled to notice and the opportunity to be heard (Decker v. Board of Health Com'rs of City of Los Angeles (1935) 6 Cal.App.2d 334, 336 [44 P.2d 636, 637].)

“‘A public officer is not responsible for the acts or omissions of subordinates properly employed by or under him, if such subordinates are not in his private service, but are themselves servants of the government, unless he has directed such acts to be done, or has personally cooperated therein.’.” (O'Brien v. Olson (1941) 42 Cal.App.2d 449, 462 [109 P.2d 8, 17]. However, this rule is ‘limited to the liability of superior officers for damages for torts committed by subordinate officers engaged in the same public service.’” (O'Brien v. Olson, supra.)

The complaint on file herein alleges that Chamise Cubbison violated the law during a specified period of time which expired on August 22, 2022. During that time she was not the Treasurer-Tax-Collector, she was the Acting Auditor-Controller who was serving out the unexpired term of Lloyd Weer. That unexpired term has expired and she was elected by the People of Mendocino County to serve an entire term of a newly consolidated office as Mendocino County Auditor-Controller Treasurer-Tax Collector being sworn in to office for a term beginning January , 2023 

“In Smith v. Ling, 68 Cal. 324, 9 Pac. 171, it was held that a proceeding for the removal of an officer under [Penal Code] section 772, supra, could not be maintained after the accused had ceased to hold office. See, also, Woods v. Varnum, 85 Cal. 639, 24 Pac. 843. By parity of reasoning, an officer cannot, under the same section, be removed from office for a violation of his duties while serving in another office, or in another term of the same office. Each term of an office is an entity separate and distinct from all other terms of the same office. If defendant violated any duty imposed upon him as an incumbent of the office of sheriff during a former term, the law furnishes a mode or modes for his punishment, but to remove him from an office to which he has been subsequently elected is not the punishment for such violation of duty prescribed by any law of this state. There are other objections to the accusation or complaint, and the demurrer should have been sustained.” (Thurston v. Clark (1895) 107 Cal. 285, 287–288 [40 P. 435, 436].)