Mendocino County Today: Thursday 4/18/24

Warm | Ridgewood Ranch | Hopland Farmers | Laytonville Fundraiser | AVUSD News | Footsteps | Rhodie's Recommended | Irv Sutley | Chamber Music | Free Soup | County Budget | Succulents | B Realities | Hair Care | AV Village | CA Amenities | Harden Parole | Phone Service | Advertise AVA | Yesterday's Catch | Malmgren Departure | Respect Women | Longmire Refill | Tax Day | Protest Feedback | Punt Gun | Unresolvable Situation | Meeting Frida | Zoo Turmoil | Relationship | Berliner Resignation | Hang On | Ruling Class | White Man

DRY, MILD TEMPERATURES are expected to continue for the remainder of the week. A shallow marine layer will return early Friday morning. Temperatures will begin a cooling trend this weekend as a fast-moving shortwave trough and a weak cold front moves through, with very light precipitation or sprinkles in Del Norte on Saturday. Breezy NW winds will redevelop along the North Coast with a shortwave ridging building over the area on Sunday. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): 43F under clear skies this Thursday morning on the coast. Spring time weather continues thru the weekend. Some showers are in the forecast for mid next week, we'll see?

MIKAYLA ADAMS:

If you plan to be a vendor at our Hopland Farmers Market this year, please remember to get your application in to me today. I do not need your certificates and insurance information yet if it’s not ready, but I do need a starting list of vendors

I will continue to accept applications past today, but would like a solid list of vendors to provide to the county who do plan to join us this season and that needs to be handed in to them this week. Email your applications to HoplandCFM@gmail.com or drop off to me, payments can be dropped off or mailed- message me for information.

FOR OUR FARMERS: I would love as many vendors as possible to be at our first market, but if you don’t think that you will have product until June - message me and we will work that out too.

AV UNIFIED NEWS

Dear Parents/Guardians of Seniors,

We are in the final stages of your student’s high school career and we look forward to celebrating with you and your student. We look forward to seeing you at the Senior Awards Diner on Monday, April 22 at 5:30 p.m.

I want to review a few items NOW, so that students remain eligible for graduation:

No Checking Out

Students are required to be in school. Do not check your students out unless you can provide a medical note. Your cooperation is appreciated.

Senior Trip Behavior

The Senior Trip is a beloved privilege and it is an important tradition. However, safety is the number one priority. Any students that engage in vaping, drugs, alcohol or misbehavior of any type will be ineligible for graduation. Please be clear with your student that appropriate behavior is required and any incidents will impact their participation in graduation.

Senior Pranks and/or Senior Cut Day are not Allowed

The landscape of school and school insurance and liability has changed dramatically over the years and senior pranks and cut days are not permitted and will result in loss of privilege such as graduation ceremonies. Please be clear with your students to not take this risk.

I know traditions are important. I also know you understand that student safety is our primary focus. I want to be transparent and clear about the ramifications of our Seniors’ choices.

I am sure they will do the right thing.

Sincerely yours,

Louise Simson, Superintendent

AV Unified School District

A READER WRITES: Restaurant at The Gardens! I had heard that Queenie's Road House was closed and Queenie had taken over Rhodie's at the Botanical Gardens south of Fort Bragg. Tried it for lunch yesterday, and WOW, great food, large portions, great service, reasonable prices, outdoor dining in a beautiful setting. And, you don't have to be a member of The Gardens or pay admission to go to the restaurant, tho we wanted to see the rhododendrons in bloom, so went back and paid admission after lunch. Highly recommend!

IRV SUTLEY

Irv Sutley died of diabetic-related causes on March 23, 2024 in a San Rafael care facility. Irvin Hamilton Sutley, Jr. was born June 9, 1944, in Ross, California, to Irvin H. Sutley, Sr. and Willetta (West) Sutley. 

He grew up in Mill Valley and graduated from Tamalpais High School. After a brief period in the U.S. Marines, he moved to Penngrove and attended Sonoma State University for several years. However his participation in peace and justice issues soon became his major activity to which he devoted the rest of his life. In 1967 he was a founding member of the California Peace & Freedom Party and became Chair of the State Party for the 1970-72 term, as well as perennial chair of the local party Central Committee, and his friends forever after referred to him as “The Chairman.” 

The Black Panthers were also founding members of Peace & Freedom and Irv put his Marine background to use in offering firearms training to them.

Convicted for possession of marijuana in 1969, he organized his friends into bringing picnics on visiting day at the Honor Farm and visiting inmates with no one else visiting. He then ran for Sheriff of Sonoma County in 1970 and advocated for jail reforms and a more civil liberties-based approach in law enforcement.

Irv was a Peace & Freedom Party candidate in local Assembly and State Senate races several times, and he recruited and promoted others as candidates, particularly women. He also led numerous voter registration efforts, drawing praise from the County Registrar’s office for the accuracy of the volunteers he trained. In 1972 he was part of a coalition that elected a young liberal majority to the Cotati City Council, which drew national attention. Also in 1972, he hosted Dr. Benjamin Spock, the Party’s candidate for President, who spoke in Cotati and at a local TV station. Charles Schultz came to theTV station and Irv got to witness the meeting of these two famed proponents of children. He also actively helped run Peace & Freedom Congressional campaigns in the 1990’s which resulted in a P&F candidate drawing enough votes to cause a loss by the Democratic representative of whom peace and justice advocates were critical.

A lifelong supporter of the First and Second Amendments, Irv protested saying the Pledge of Allegiance at the age of 10 because of the addition that year of “under God” to the Pledge. For many years he was a fixture at local government meetings protesting prayers and calling for the separation of church and state. The American Atheists presented him with an award and a lifetime membership for these efforts.

A strong environmentalist, Irv helped his friends compost, set up worm bins, and recycle. He worked with Earth First! organizing demonstrations against clear-cutting in Mendocino County. But after the bombing of activist Judi Bari in 1990, Bari accused him of being implicated in smearing her to the police. Irv’s longtime friends and colleagues attempted to mediate with no success but found the allegations absurd.

He was married three times, to Lynn Plank for two years, to Toni Novak for five years, and to Janet Jones for eight years, with whom he moved for a time to St. Paul, Minnesota, to help her raise her two children. He had no children of his own, but was a friend and protector to the children of his friends. 

He leaves behind three siblings. His family and friends are very grateful to Ron King and John Hall for the care and comfort they provided this past year. He was always proud of his family’s Kansas heritage and his remains will be interred near Speed, Kansas, site of the Sutley family farm. 

A Legacy page has been set up at everloved.com/life-of/irv-sutley. 

A Zoom celebration will be held April 28 and a potluck celebration at Finley Park, Santa Rosa, on May 18, 1- 4 PM. 

For more information contact toni.novak1967@yahoo.com

OPUS CHAMBER MUSIC PERFORMANCE at Preston Hall, Mendocino, this Sunday, April 21st at 3pm.

The Cayanan Duo Ensemble: Long time friends and chamber partners Alison Lee, piano, and William Cayanan, cello, from the Bay Area, but both with national and international repute, will present a program of “B’s and Beyond”, playing works by L. van Beethoven, J. Brahms, W. Bolcom, and more. The duo is excited to perform pieces spanning the long partnership of cello and piano chamber music.

Coffee, tea and cookies will be available 30 minutes before the concert and during intermission! Come and join the fun! Opus Chamber Music - Grand Music in an Intimate Setting.

More info and tickets at symphonyoftheredwoods.org

HANDWRINGING WON’T BALANCE THE BUDGET

by Mark Scaramella

In his latest Supervisor’s report, Supervisor John Haschak bemoans the difficulty he and his colleagues are having trying to balance next fiscal year’s General Fund budget. 

Apparently, Haschak thinks that the “efficiencies” he insists are “happening” combined with “cuts will be made” will magically bring Mendo’s General Fund budget into balance. But, then Haschak frets rhetorically, “Where in the County do cuts come from that won’t affect our safety or wellbeing or the wellbeing of our neighbors?” Haschak and his colleagues have repeatedly insisted that “public safety” and “revenue generating” positions will be exempt from cuts. 

Depending on your definition of “public safety” (e.g., does it include the Public Defender’s office? Probation?) that means that somewhere between $5 million and maybe up to $10 million or more would have to be cut from the $90 million General Fund expenses after exempting at least $50 million in public safety and revenue generating slots. Trying to find $5 million to $10 million worth of efficiencies and cuts in the remaining $40 million budget is impractical because many of those offices are small, already understaffed and overworked, and would be effectively crippled by further cuts. (With the exception of the fully staffed and well compensated County Counsel, Executive and the Supervisors offices themselves, which are also probably magically exempt from cuts.)

Not once in Haschak’s latest report does he mention revenues or tax collection, despite the Board’s frequent requests for staff to get busy adding parcels and properties to the tax rolls and Supervisor Gjerde’s recent failed attempt to get a monthly “tally” of properties newly added to the tax rolls. 

Of course, putting un- or under-assessed properties onto the tax rolls won’t generate much near-term revenue. But making sure unpaid taxes are paid with penalties and interest would. So you might expect that tax collection would be a priority. Unfortunately, we have never heard Haschak or any of his colleagues ask about the status of tax collection from non- or underpayers. Especially the big ones that everyone knows are out there.

Whatever Haschak may mean by “efficiencies,” they are not “happening” in any way that will make a noticeable dent in the budget gap. Haschak’s example of the pot department’s too little-too late efficiencies is irrelevant in this context.

Mendo still doesn’t know how big the deficit is. Their fancy budget portal lists the “current fiscal year” as FY2021-22 with information in it “updated” on 5 Dec. 2023.” Notice that the link even has the words “latest” and “transparency” in it. FY 2021-22 ended on June 30, 2022, almost two years ago. This is what passes for “transparency” in Mendocino County. 

Back in 2009/2010 when Mendo faced a similar budget deficit, “public safety” was not exempt. Neither the Sheriff nor the DA didn’t like it, but then-CEO Carmel Angelo pushed for and got a series of budget cuts in the Sheriff’s and the DA’s Office. Yet so far, no one has even asked the Sheriff or the DA what they can do to reduce their budget. (In fact, the Sheriff has said that he’ll need at least ten more corrections officers when the new wing of the jail is opened next year.)

Back then no attempt was made to identify which positions were “revenue generating.” Everybody had to pitch in with cuts.

The Board today seems to think that the half-dozen newly added appraiser positions in the Assessor’s office are “revenue generating.” But so far, according to Assessor-Recorder-Clerk Katrina Bartolomie, those positions have not even generated enough new assessment value to cover their cost — if the assessments ever translate to actual revenue. 

No amount of empty rhetoric or claimed “efficiencies” or even a few vague “cuts” will make any real difference to the budget gap. So far, only four people have taken the County up on their early retirement offer, and only two of those were in General Fund departments.

If Haschak were serious, rather than just mouthing buzzphrases and publicizing pointless questions, he would make a specific proposal for balancing the budget with an outline of how to proceed, what cuts could be made, and at least get the conversation started. But so far, neither Haschak nor his colleagues have any practical idea how to deal with the upcoming multimillion general fund budget gap.

Budget hearings for next fiscal hear (July 2024-June 2025) are scheduled to begin next month. Will anybody propose any specific budget balancing measures? Or will they continue with the Haschak approach of whistling past the train wreck?

MEASURE B FRUSTRATION

Editor,

I was very involved in mental health planning in the county from 1996-2012 as I ran a contracted agency. I remember when Measure B was adopted and have always had a lot of doubts about whether this Psychiatric Health Facility (PHF) would happen. Not because there isn’t a strong need for services. There is. What people may not understand that in the state/county mental health world, there are various regulations that are required which are important but much harder for small counties to implement. That’s why the PUF closed [in 1999]: they were required to have a certain ratio of staff to patients and not just any staff but staff with specific credentials. We all know how hard it is to find and hire and most importantly retain qualified mental health staff in Mendo. Or any human service staff but that’s a whole other issue. 

It’s much easier to have buildings; it’s really the day-to-day expenses that are the problem. The income to pay for these expenses usually comes – at least a great amount of it – on the county being able to bill for services to the state. A facility requires the same staffing regardless of the number of clients present. So if you have 10 beds, you need to pay for the staffing still if you only have 6 residents. Your budget to pay for these expenses is highly dependent on you being able to bill for the services for each client. Less clients=less billable services=less income to run the program. 

You think, well, there’s no shortage of clients. In the county as a whole, yes. But having however number you need and the required staff is hard unless you can mostly get to this with people in the Ukiah – maybe Willits – area. 

That’s why the coast can’t do a facility. When [former Sheriff Tom] Allman started talking about the need for this, I didn’t support it because of these issues not being addressed adequately. And after all these years, still nothing. I think these services need to be provided in a way which is not focused on facilities but services, using existing resources. It’s sickening that this is still running around after all these years. The clients in the system are so right in their frustration.

Karin Evon Wandrei, PhD, LCSW

Rohnert Park

ANDERSON VALLEY VILLAGE

Please take this survey to help us refine the topics that will be addressed as part of "The Rest of Your Life" series. There will be hard copy surveys you can take at the Monthly Village events if you don't want to do it online.

And

Join us before our monthly gathering for a presentation by Victor Presley about gardening and growing flowers.

Chat with Victor Presley, Owner of Daily Blooms this Sunday, April 21st, 3:30 to 4 PM, Anderson Valley Senior Center

AV Village Monthly Gathering: Local Writers Showcase this Sunday, April 21st, 4 to 5:30 PM, Anderson Valley Senior Center

Refreshments served. Come hear your fellow community members share their work. Note: this is not an open mic event.

Consider carpooling. Village members, let us know as soon as possible if you would like a volunteer driver and we will try to find one or bring a friend that can give you a lift. More info & to Please RSVP: Anderson Valley Village: (707) 684-9829, andersonvalleyvillage@gmail.com

LAKE MENDOCINO MURDERER SERVING LIFE NOW DEEMED SUITABLE FOR PAROLE/RELEASE.

The man responsible for the brutal 1993 murder at Lake Mendocino of a Redwood Valley Water District employee was approved on April 4th for release from state prison on parole during a contested hearing held before appointed commissioners from the state’s Board of Parole Hearings. 

Inmate Troy Harden, now 53 years old, formerly of Willits, was convicted by jury verdict of murder in the first degree by means of a knife and sentenced in March 1994 to 26 years to life for the stabbing death of Larry Stephenson, a husband and father of two who was at that time living in Upper Lake but working in Redwood Valley. 

The victim was stabbed multiple times and had his throat cut while he was performing work at the Lake Mendocino water outlet tower.

Troy Harden’s brother, Ron Trevor Harden, and another man, John Jensen, were at the scene and convicted of being accessories to the murder. 

In one of Mendocino County’s worst recorded murder-suicides, Ron Harden killed four family members and himself before he could be sentenced for his involvement in Stephenson’s murder and attempted cover-up.

The April 4th parole hearing got off to a really bad start. The obviously confused Board members started the hearing by attempting to prevent the Mendocino County deputy prosecutor from appearing to argue against Harden’s parole. 

Because there had been a change of venue to Humboldt County due to pretrial publicity in Mendocino County, the commissioners were of the mistaken belief that the Mendocino County District Attorney had no standing to even appear at the parole hearing (despite having appeared at all prior parole hearings), let alone to argue against Harden’s parole. 

Delaying the hearing, it was eventually made clear through official records that the Mendocino County DA – not the Humboldt County DA -- was the prosecuting agency that handled the murder trial against Harden in Eureka in front of a Humboldt County jury. 

The Board members eventually had to relent and begrudgingly allow the Mendocino County DDA’s appearance and listen to her vigorous arguments against granting Harden parole.

In brief, Mendocino County Deputy District Attorney Jamie Pearl argued that Harden remains unsuitable for parole because, despite the rehabilitative efforts undertaken during his years of incarceration, he still poses an unreasonable risk to public safety, citing the underlying reasons for this factual and legal conclusion. 

It is also noted that members of the victim’s family also appeared and argued against parole for Stephenson’s killer, the next of kin also sharing their beliefs that Harden continues to pose a public safety risk outside of a structured prison setting.

However, changes in the law undertaken over time by the Legislature in Sacramento have made Board findings that convicted murderers serving life sentences are now suitable for parole an easier result, if not a probable outcome. Because of his age in 1994, Harden has been classified as a “youthful offender” with special parole rights.

A youth offender is an incarcerated person who was under 26 years of age at the time of the crime for which he or she stands convicted. 

The Board members are now required at youthful offender parole hearings to give great weight to factors "specific" to "youthful offenders." 

For example, the Board is required to give great weight to the non-specific general perceptions of diminished culpability of juveniles as compared to non-specific general perceptions of the culpability of adults, the “hallmark features of youth,” and any subsequent “growth and increased maturity” of a “youthful offender” inmate. 

Less weight, if any, is afforded the specifics of the crime and the forever impacts on the victim’s family, friends, and co-workers.

Given the Board’s finding that Harden is now suitable and should be granted parole, he will be eligible for release immediately after the decision granting him parole is deemed “final” (which takes about five months). 

The Board decision granting parole is subject to the Board’s decision review process and the Governor’s separate review process.

For those wishing to express their agreement or disagreement with the Board’s parole suitability decision regarding Troy Harden, letters can be sent to:

Board of Parole Hearings

Post Office Box 4036

Sacramento, CA 95812-4036

For those wishing to further express their agreement or disagreement to the final decision-maker regarding Troy Harden's parole suitability and release, respectful letters may be sent to:

Governor Gavin Newsom

1021 O Street, Suite 9000

Sacramento, CA 95814 

For those interested in communicating with Governor Newsom via email on the Board's Troy Harden parole decision, access to the Governor’s email portal is available at https://www.gov.ca.gov/contact/ . 

Once at the portal page, for the topic use “Parole Issues/Concerns” and click on “Leave a comment.” When you click and navigate to the second page, you will be asked to check whether you are “pro” or “con” on the parole issue/concern, before being able to type your comments.

* * *

ED NOTE: The DA is unlikely to ever include statements from the prisoner on why he thinks he deserves parole. It would be interesting to hear how this guy has done in prison, what his plans are if he gets his freedom and so on. Not to be too pollyannaish about a man who commits a senseless crime this awful, but he's probably not the hopeless psycho now at age 53 he was 31 years ago as a 22-year old. 

ANDERSON VALLEY ADVERTISER, January 11, 1984

Listen up, hogs! If you want a real paper in this county, you’d better get off a few bucks for ads and subscriptions. Good writing isn’t free. And the country won’t be free much longer unless real papers are supported in real ways, i.e., cold cash. We note the local tendency of business to place ads where it is guaranteed they won’t be read. That is, in every other paper in the County. People actually read this one, as do a number of state and federal police agencies. The Anderson Valley Advertiser may be your last chance for a bona fide forum in these parts, so if ideas, truth, justice, and an occasional giggle are worth something to you, put in some dough. And sell something in the process.

CATCH OF THE DAY, Wednesday, April 17, 2024

DAVID BYER, Willits. Failure to appear.

JAMIE COLLINS, Lakeport/Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, parole violation.

ROBERT FULLER, Fort Bragg. Probation revocation.

JUSTIN HARRIS, Ukiah. DUI.

ROBERTO PERALTA, Chicago/Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol&drugs.

CARMELLA ROSEVEAR, Philo. Domestic battery, obtaining money by false pretenses.

ANDERSON VALLEY ADVERTISER, April 25, 1984

Editor’s Desk

MY PREDECESSORS, Betty and Steve Malmgren, left town the other day. Prior to their departure, they were subjected to a last harangue delivered by an old bag who has never worked a day in her life but fancies herself some kind of female Horatio Alger, never hesitating to pass out advice based on a lifetime passed in comfort in Boonville. The gist of her diatribe to Betty and Steve was that she knew they could not make a go of it in Boonville. The fact that Betty and Steve lost a lot of money here to some exceedingly unscrupulous persons, seemed to give the cancerous old crone vast sardonic pleasure.

A NEWCOMER TO THE VALLEY once asked me, “Is it just my imagination, or are there a lot of nuts around here?”

THERE ARE A LOT OF NUTS, my son. Proceed with this knowledge in peace.

ACTUALLY, people here are no different than in any other part of the United States. A little bit uglier, perhaps, a bit dumber, but not any crazier than anywhere else.

BUT WE HAVE A HANDFUL OF PERSONS sired by beasts in joyless grapples too grim to ponder without shuddering and recoiling in horror. These persons made life very difficult for Betty, a sensitive and kind person, whom I’m afraid let the nasty bastards get her down.

I WOULD OFTEN SAY TO HER, “Whenever you get ready for revenge, sell the paper to me. I love to battle these scums. I get high on it.” She’d just laugh until one day she showed up with an offer I couldn’t refuse.

TO HER ETERNAL CREDIT, she wrote stories no other newspapers in the country would touch. Of course the others aren’t actually newspapers but commercial ventures which print a few paragraphs of flabby, innocuous prose wrapped around two thousand ads for a bunch of useless crap that will kill you and you don’t need in the first place. It’s a shame too, because there are lots of good writers in Mendocino County, some of them presently employed on County papers. The rub is that the papers are owned by a gaggle of semi-literate Republicans who wouldn’t recognize a good newspaper if one walked up and kicked them in the ass.

THE OLD WHEEZE who publishes a Willits paper functions as exhibit A, the perfect metaphor for what’s happened to American Journalism. When TWK made an unkind but accurate remark about Willits businesses, she editorialized about how it is the function of the contemporary newspaper to support its advertisers no matter what they do. Small town papers have become nothing more than ad sheets. Their editors should be arrested for fraud each time they call themselves journalists.

BETTY, UPON OCCASION, broke out of this straitjacket. She covered the LCI story. She did a good job on the phony Ph.D. Her coverage of the school board was competent. And all the while she and Steve were forced to work amidst the squalor and chill of the Mannix Building.

I RECALL ONE NIGHT putting the paper together as raw sewage dripped from the ceiling a few feet from where we were working. The bathroom, a grim and scabrous facility at the rear of this depressing edifice, could only be reached by picking your way through what was essentially an indoor garbage dump.

DESPITE REPEATED APPEALS for help with the landlord, to local “authorities,” Betty and Steve had to operate a business in the place. The “authorities” never did a damn thing, of course, because Mannix himself is a longtime member of the Mendocino Old Boys network and recently functioned as a member of the Grand Jury. With these credentials he’s exempt from the rules in this the most corrupt and ethically deficient political jurisdiction in Northern California.

ANYWAY, wherever you are Betty, take heart, you fought the good fight and you did a credible and brave job, which is more than most of us can say.

CRAIG JOHNSON, author of the popular Longmire series of mystery novels on which the long-running Longmire A&E series was based, can be counted on to include anecdotes which sound very much like they’re based on real experience in rural Wyoming. This one, below, also sounded like it could have happened in Mendocino County not that long ago. Sheriff Walt Longmire was sitting in a coffeeshop with his old boss, retired sheriff Lucien Connelly, talking about an unsolved apparent suicide of a colleague when they were repeatedly ignored by an overstressed, older Mexican waitress whenever they raised their coffee cups for a refill.

"The waitress passed us again and both of our coffee mugs levitated from the surface like in some magic act. They hovered there for a while before slowly returning in tandem to the counter.... I asked Lucien another question about the case. Instead of answering, he flipped his coat back again and I thought he was going to rub his back some more. But instead he quickly drew his .38 revolver from its holster, extended his arm, took careful aim at the coffee urn and fired! The sound in the enclosed space of the cafe bar was like a falling tree. Lucien’s hand recoiled and the thing bucked against the bar wall like a wounded felon before spouting a single jet of coffee out onto the floor right behind the counter. The old sheriff holstered his Smith & Wesson, hooked the handle of his mug with a forefinger like a talon, leaned forward and held his cup under the stream to fill it. The young waitress appeared at the doorway with both hands covering her mouth. Lucien turned his head, grinned, and threw her a quick wave before she backed through the swinging door and ran away. After filling his mug, he took mine and held it just away from the gushing stream. ‘Cup of coffee?’”

(Mark Scaramella)

TAX DAY COVER OF WEST MARIN LOCAL PAPER

SF GAZA PROTEST FEEDBACK

OPINIONS WON’T CHANGE

Editor,

I don’t know what data the protesters who block traffic have to show they are being effective for their cause. I suspect few people caught up in Monday morning’s traffic snarls would say that their minds had been changed. 

At this point, opinions are pretty set, and I can’t see how the financial disruption the protesters said was their intention changed any minds about the horrible situation in Gaza. 

All they did was harden my position that these people should be arrested, detained, go to trial and pay for their disruption. Further, those who blocked passage with their cars and threw their keys into the bay should not only be fined a huge sum but lose their licenses and not be allowed to register a car for years.

David Eiland

San Francisco

* * *

ACTION COULD BACKFIRE

Editor,

Although I am sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza, I do not believe the protesters who shut down highways and bridges were productive in convincing people to join their efforts. 

Instead, by disrupting a large part of Bay Area traffic during work hours the protesters have lost the goodwill of many people who might ordinarily join with them.

While the protesters achieved their desire for TV attention, the negative consequences from the hours of disruption could impact public opinion to their detriment. 

Dorothy Friedrich

Rohnert Park

* * *

PUNISH PROTESTERS

Editor,

The Monday morning shutdowns of the Interstate 880 and the Golden Gate Bridge by protesters need to be addressed by prosecutors. 

An unmeasured amount of inconvenience, including missed flights and delayed medical procedures, caused by a handful of protesters must come with a price. The Bay Bridge disturbance a few months back delayed human organs destined for transplant patients. How would you feel if you were one of the patients? 

The Bay Bridge protests only resulted in the protesters getting a few hours of community service. No fine. No jail time. 

Without severe penalties, these events will continue. It’s not about which side you are on with these protests, the issue is that we, as citizens, are entitled to live our lives without disruption. 

Jim Gray

Rodeo

* * *

KEEP A LANE CLEAR

Editor,

While I support our right to protest, those who make it impossible to cross Bay Area bridges can create a grave danger to anyone needing emergency care. 

A law to ensure that one lane is kept open for emergency vehicles to pass during protests could be a lifesaver. Since one of our most important Bay Area hospitals is in San Francisco, if bridges are blocked, anyone who does not live in that city would be denied access to it. 

Passing such a law would protect our right to protest and provide a safety net for those in dire need. 

Caroline Fromm Lurie

San Francisco

* * *

CRITICIZE HAMAS, TOO

Editor,

I am a Jew who is appalled by the suffering in Gaza but was disheartened that protesters condemned only Israel and did not denounce Hamas.

Blaming Israel for Gazan suffering when Hamas created much of that suffering, belies a double standard: One for the Jewish state, another for Hamas. One-sided critique of Israel, when both sides deserve it will likely harden Israel’s political positions and render peace more remote. Wise up, protesters.

Judy Spelman

Point Reyes Station

* * *

ENOUGH ALREADY

Editor,

As I watch protesters disrupt our daily lives across America, I ask, when does it all get to be a bit too much? At what point do we react instead of allowing this to go on? And, most importantly, why are protesters allowed to interfere with our personal freedoms? 

Charles Scott

Castro Valley

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Humans, despite their self-vaunted abilities and ‘reliance’ on reason, and after millions of years of brain growth and adaptations, are still largely dominated by a dysfunctional autonomic nervous system.

In a highly stressful political situation, this tends (no surprise) to get ramped up more than what is usual. All it takes is one overreaction somewhere down the line for turbo-shit hitting the fan. One time.

Do you trust those in charge, in Israel and elsewhere, from what you can presently glean, to act coolly, with dispassion and sanity?

The situation is unresolvable, at least if you think the answer is diplomatic sense.

WHEN RIVERA MET KAHLO

"In the top of a high tree, I saw Frida in overalls, starting to climb down. Laughing gaily, she took my hand and ushered me through the house, which seemed to be empty, and into her room. Then she paraded all her paintings before me. These, her room, her sparkling presence, filled me with a wonderful joy. I did not know it then, but Frida had already become the most important fact in my life. And she would continue to be, up to the moment she died, twenty-seven years later."

— Diego Rivera

A GRIZZLY BEAR CHASE. A DEAD PENGUIN. 

Behind the scenes, the S.F. Zoo is in turmoil over safety

by Tara Duggan

One Saturday morning last May, a keeper at the San Francisco Zoo heard footsteps behind him in the grizzly bear grotto. Believing it was a co-worker, he turned, only to see the hulking brown form of Kiona. He thought he’d safely locked her in her den, but the door, which is operated from an adjoining room, had an unusual feature: Its lock could be fastened even without the door being securely closed.

The zookeeper began to run, and with Kiona in pursuit, he circled the grotto, according to people familiar with his account. He then sprinted through the door into the keeper area, according to surveillance video. When Kiona stopped briefly, the keeper escaped through a gate and closed it behind him.

At that point, the almost 500-pound grizzly ambled into the keeper area and was separated from the public by a gate, a regular door and a chain-link barrier, said Travis Shields, then the assistant curator of the zoo’s carnivores department, which includes the bears. Shields was away at the time but was briefed by workers who were involved or listening on the radio. 

Zoo employees who came to the keeper’s aid found him in a panic and the grizzly roaming the keeper area, Shields said. The zookeepers managed to coax Kiona into her other outdoor habitat and locked the doors. 

No one was hurt during the close call, which has not been previously reported. But an investigation by the Chronicle shows that it was one of several incidents in recent years in which employee safety or animal welfare at the San Francisco Zoo was compromised, a situation that has led many workers to resign or say they have lost faith in the management of the 95-year-old institution.

There’s a long history of tension between the zoo’s top brass and its front-line workers. The 100-acre, city-owned facility in the southwest corner of San Francisco has worked to rebound from high-profile troubles that rattled employees and shocked the public, including the Christmas Day 2007 killing of a guest by an escaped tiger and the crushing death of a baby gorilla in 2014.

But the continuing problems, including the previously unreported death last year of a young penguin struck by a “guillotine” door, have sapped morale and prompted high turnover among the staff trained to care for more than 2,000 animals, said Corey Hallman, a representative of the zoo’s 95-member labor union. The problems, in his view, could lead to further incidents. 

“Eventually something more severe is going to happen in the future if they continue on the same path,” said Shields, who resigned last July over what he described as upper management’s disregard of keepers’ concerns.

The Chronicle presented zoo leaders with details of recent incidents at the zoo that prompted concerns from workers. Edward Poole, a board member and chair emeritus of the San Francisco Zoological Society, the nonprofit membership organization that operates the zoo for the city, said by email that the questions were “predicated on outdated or simply untrue information” and were “uniformly objectionable and baseless.”

Poole said that the incident in the grizzly bear grotto did not endanger guests and that a subsequent U.S. Department of Agriculture inspection found the zoo in compliance with its license.

 “One of our zookeepers entered the grizzly bear’s habitat area at a time when it was believed that the bear was restricted to another part of its containment area,” he said. He wrote that “due to a number of safety measures employed, the situation was quickly resolved. … This incident underscores our steadfast commitment to ensuring the welfare of both our staff and the animals in our care.”

* * *

The zoo made updates to improve the lock system in the 1930s-era grizzly bear grotto in the months following the incident, zookeeper logs obtained by the Chronicle show.

It’s rare for zoo animals, especially dangerous ones, to escape “primary containment” — meaning the specific enclosure areas designated for their use — said Dan Ashe, CEO of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, which provides accreditation to the San Francisco Zoo and over 250 other facilities worldwide. 

The close encounter between the keeper and grizzly occurred at a time when the San Francisco Zoo was already struggling to retain skilled animal care staff. The zoo typically has around 12 curators, or managers, but since 2020, nine have resigned and one has retired, according to interviews, LinkedIn profiles and internal emails obtained by the Chronicle. Though most curator positions have been filled, the employees who left each had between 10 and 50 years of experience in animal care.

The number of zookeepers and other union staff decreased by 19% between 2019 and late 2023, Hallman, the union representative and a former zookeeper, said, leaving remaining keepers in charge of more animal exhibits. “It’s a public safety and worker safety issue,” he said.

Poole said that “the zoo takes safety — and the concerns of its staff seriously,” noting that management hosts a regular safety committee meeting. The zoo has hired several zookeepers in recent months, according to Vitus Leung, the zoo's deputy director. Poole said that the ratio of keepers to animals has increased in the past five years, with the number of animals in major categories like apes, birds and carnivores declining. 

Three former employees said in interviews that they quit mainly due to disagreements with zoo administrators over animal welfare standards. Melissa Lory, a zookeeper from 2019 to 2021; Trisha Cassianni, a keeper from 2007 to 2021; and Dayna Sherwood, a keeper from 2006 to 2018, each cited a case or cases when, in their view, animals suffered because of decisions made by upper management about medical care or housing.

Melissa Lory at her home in San Leandro on Feb. 5. Lory, a zookeeper at the San Francisco Zoo from 2019 to 2021, was concerned about the living conditions of orangutans she cared for.

“I knew nothing was going to change as far as my welfare concerns I had for the animals I was responsible for,” said Lory, who was an orangutan keeper during a six-month period when, she said, the primates lived in an enclosure without access to a yard. “I knew it was going to continue getting worse.”

Cassianni, who also worked with the orangutans, described the zoo as “dysfunctional,” saying, “It just didn’t seem like the zoo cared enough about the animals.”

In his emailed comments, Poole said the zoo has provided excellent care to its animals, many of which are endangered or rescued, despite the “unprecedented challenges” of the pandemic. He touted the zoo’s conservation programs and noted that the zoo has received accreditation every five years by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and passed annual inspections by the USDA.

“Combined, these evaluations comprehensively assess our animal care, veterinary care and animal handling procedures,” Poole said. 

Fifteen additional current and former animal care employees shared concerns with the Chronicle about the zoo’s oversight of animal welfare standards and said they felt that upper management was dismissive of employee input. These workers agreed to speak only on condition of anonymity because they still work at the zoo or in the field and said they feared professional repercussions. Several said they remained shaken by what happened to their co-worker in the grizzly bear grotto. The Chronicle granted them anonymity under the newspaper’s confidential source policy.

One of the 15 employees said they had brought up concerns about grizzly bear security to management years before the May 2023 event. “I just felt intensely, but ambiguously, unsafe,” the person said in an email.

The zoo, which is overseen by the city’s Recreation and Park Commission, is recovering from the loss of income caused by COVID lockdowns. Zoo revenue dropped from $24.5 million during the fiscal year ending in June 2019 to $20.5 million the following year, tax documents show. Revenue then increased to $36 million in the 2022 fiscal year, leaving $9.7 million after expenses, the highest surplus in a decade. 

San Francisco provides $4 million a year in taxpayer money to support the zoo. Much of its remaining funding comes from admission fees, retail sales, donations and membership dues. The city’s annual contribution hasn’t changed since the Zoological Society took over zoo operations in 1993, and the zoo has not received a major influx of public funds to renovate its aging structures since a $48 million bond measure passed in 1997.

While the city owns the zoo and its animals, the Zoological Society’s lease agreement with the parks department makes it “responsible for all day-to-day maintenance and management of the grounds, buildings and facilities, including the animal enclosures,” Daniel Montes, a parks spokesperson, said in an email. Phil Ginsburg, the department’s general manager, declined a request to be interviewed.

The city is hoping to boost the profile of the zoo with the addition of giant pandas from China, though whether that will happen is unclear. Hosting the pandas would be a “great win,” Poole said.

* * *

Aftermath of a mauling

The ongoing turmoil at the zoo comes more than 16 years after a tragedy that prompted a management upheaval. Around closing time on Christmas evening in 2007, a Siberian tiger named Tatiana escaped her enclosure, killing a 17-year-old guest, Carlos Eduardo Sousa Jr., and mauling his two friends before being shot and killed by police. The same tiger had mauled zookeeper Lori Komejan a year earlier, permanently damaging her hand and arm.

Tatiana, a female Siberian tiger, is seen at the San Francisco Zoo in 2006. On Christmas Day in 2007, the tiger escaped her enclosure and killed one person and mauled two others, before being shot and killed by police. The year before, the same tiger mauled a zookeeper.

The zoo settled a lawsuit with Sousa’s family for an undisclosed amount and later settled another lawsuit with his friends, brothers Kulbir and Amritpal Dhaliwal, for $900,000, sources told the Chronicle at the time. The zoo renovated the tiger enclosure after its walls were found to be 4 feet lower than national standards when the attack occurred. Komejan also settled a lawsuit with the city of San Francisco for an undisclosed sum.

Tanya Peterson, a former lawyer for Hewlett-Packard who had served on the zoo’s board, was brought in as interim director in June 2008. She was charged with taking over an institution beset by what the zoo’s board chair told the Chronicle at the time was a “horrific communication and morale crisis.”

Peterson stayed on and became CEO and executive director, a post she still holds at a $339,500 annual salary as of the 2022 fiscal year. Through Poole, she declined an interview request.

Tensions between staff and management that were present before Peterson’s tenure have continued.

Workers’ criticisms of Peterson extend beyond animal care practices. They cite the zoo’s recent hiring of her daughter as a paid intern at a time when the zoo had cut back on internships, and of her fiance, Gregory Dayton, to perform concerts there. Payments made to both were confirmed by Leung, the zoo’s deputy director. Recruitment and interview guidelines given to hiring managers at the zoo, and obtained by the Chronicle, state that “employment decisions are based on merit” and recommend “blind” hiring.

Some employees note that until recently, Peterson’s main Facebook photo showed her lying on a beach just a few feet from a seal, though federal guidelines say that “Taking ‘selfies’ with seals or sea lions from close distances is illegal.” 

Peterson did not respond to a request for comment on these complaints.

“The board has great confidence in the leadership of Tanya Peterson,” said Elena Asturias, who left the board in March after being a community representative for 20 years. She praised Peterson’s fundraising abilities and said the zoo is a complex public-private partnership with stakeholders “bonded together by love of animals.”

"A love affair has to do with immediate personal satisfaction. But marriage is an ordeal; it means yielding, time and again. That’s why it’s a sacrament: you give up your personal simplicity to participate in a relationship. And when you’re giving, you’re not giving to the other person: you’re giving to the relationship. And if you realize you are in the relationship just as the other person is, then it becomes life building, a life fostering and enriching experience, not an impoverishment because you’re giving to somebody else … This is the challenge of a marriage."

— Joseph Campbell

ON URI BERLINER'S RESIGNATION FROM NPR

by Matt Taibbi

Last week, NPR senior editor Uri Berliner rattled the media world with a tell-all piece in The Free Press, “I’ve Been at NPR for 25 Years. Here’s How We Lost America’s Trust.” He detailed a series of problems, including what he described as a transition from a “liberal bent” to a more “knee-jerk, activist, [and] scolding” posture, representing the “distilled worldview of a very small segment of the U.S. population.” He also described serious coverage failures surrounding Russiagate, the Hunter Biden laptop story, and Covid-19.

The ghoul pools in the media world started immediately. It’s one thing for a former employee to out so many serious newsroom problems (including a devastating account of one of NPR’s “best” journalists admitting to being glad to not cover the laptop story, because it “could help Trump”), but it’s rare for a still-working senior employee to drop that kind of bomb. Berliner in fact was hit with a five-day unpaid suspension last Friday, but this wasn’t announced until Tuesday, when I wrote, “The Vegas over/under line on Berliner’s days left has not been released.”

Whatever that line might have been, betting the under would have been smart. Berliner resigned today, taking a direct shot at new CEO Katherine Maher in the process, writing in an email:

“I cannot work in a newsroom where I am disparaged by a new C.E.O. whose divisive views confirm the very problems at NPR I cite in my Free Press essay.”

We all saw this coming, but many journalists reacted angrily to this news. A lot of people in media still have affection for the old NPR and wanted this moment to become its turnaround. Finding a way to keep Berliner around would have been a powerful message that the network intended to try to fix its problems. Sadly, this was never going to happen, as we learned in the last week...

racket.news/p/note-to-readers-on-uri-berliners

In 1973, E.B. White wrote the following reply to a Mr. Nadeau, "who sought White's opinion on what he saw as a bleak future for the human race."

"Dear Mr. Nadeau:

As long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate woman, the contagion may spread and the scene is not desolate. Hope is the thing that is left to us, in a bad time. I shall get up Sunday morning and wind the clock, as a contribution to order and steadfastness.

Sailors have an expression about the weather: they say, the weather is a great bluffer. I guess the same is true of our human society—things can look dark, then a break shows in the clouds, and all is changed, sometimes rather suddenly. It is quite obvious that the human race has made a queer mess of life on this planet. But as a people we probably harbor seeds of goodness that have lain for a long time waiting to sprout when the conditions are right. Man's curiosity, his relentlessness, his inventiveness, his ingenuity have led him into deep trouble. We can only hope that these same traits will enable him to claw his way out.

Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day."

AROUND THE MID-1800s humanity began to notice it doesn’t make sense for a small group of rich people to own everything and for everyone else to continually give that group labor, rent and expenses just to stay alive, and ever since then the media, the mainstream culture and the foreign policy of the ruling class have been intensely devoted to aggressively erasing this realization from humanity’s memory.

— Caitlin Johnstone

A HIGHLAND NEW GUINEAN is shocked to see a white person for the first time in his life, in 1930. Before 1930, Highlanders thought they were the only living people in the world!

"We believed our dead went over there, turned white, and came back as spirits. That's how we explained the white man: our own dead had returned." Those were some of his words...