Off the Record 4/8/2025

GALINA GOES INTERNATIONAL. Galina Trefil is the young-ish Coast woman burning up facebook with allegations that her father, Jon Trefil, is a serial killer and life perv. These tributes to her Dad have, predictably, garnered widespread attention and, natch, mobilized the perpetually aggrieved on Galina’s behalf. Meanwhile, thoroughly basted in libels, Dad lies dying at Sherwood Oaks in Fort Bragg, unaware, we hope, of his daughter’s lies.

Hi Bruce Anderson,

My name is Sheila Flynn, and I’m working on a story about the Galina Trefil claims and her colorful family history. I saw you first met the woman years ago, and I’d love to chat with you about your experiences with her and any other observations or insights you might have had in the intervening time period. I can be reached at any point at the below contact info, and I hope to hear from you soon! Thanks so much,

Sheila Flynn

Senior Reporter, DailyMail.com

BRUCE ANDERSON REPLIES: Unfortunately for me and probably lucky for you, I’ve been left voiceless after a recent throat surgery, but I can say that the police have found zero evidence that Galina’s charges are true. In England, I understand, a person can be jailed for wasting police time. Galina would be doing life without if we had that law here. Unlike many garden variety nut cases, Galina is articulate, hence the huge, approving attention she’s received from the legions of Neurosis International. I first met Galina years ago when she was still in high school, as I recall. I wish I could be more helpful but this is about the extent of my knowledge of Rabbi Trefil.

Best to you,
Bruce Anderson, editor, Anderson Valley Advertiser, Boonville, Ca

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BILL KIMBERLIN quotes MLK: “I am as deeply concerned about our troops there as anything else. For it occurs to me that what we are submitting them to in Vietnam is not simply the brutalizing process that goes on in any war where armies face each other and seek to destroy. We are adding cynicism to the process of death, for they must know after a short period there that none of the things we claim to be fighting for are really involved.” — Martin Luther King

THEN MR. K OBSERVES: I believe the editor here recently has stated that joining the military can be a good thing as the likelihood of being killed is remote. He does not mention that giving up every right you have as a citizen will cause you to do things under order that will most certainly appall you.

YEAH, the editor said that. He’s always been promiscuous with his opinions, many of them dubious he concedes. But in the context of his dubious opinion cited by Mr. Kimberlin the editor was referring to the common case of the high school kid with no skills and a bleak future, especially in the context of our country’s ever more specialized economy with its fewer options than ever for the under-educated, unskilled young person. Yes sir, the Army seems like a viable option in the circumstances. I forget the exact ratio, but for every person at the front, ten or so soldiers are in the rear with the gear, besides which in today’s volunteer military the fighting is done by elite volunteer forces, the guys who are really good at it and really love it, meaning the average enlisted dude in it for job security is unlikely to ever be in a position to be appalled or to commit the appalling.

THE LATE LEONARD CIRINO and I even enjoyed what you might call an ironic political relationship. Back a few decades, Leonard was appointed to the County’s Mental Health Advisory Board before the inland fascisti got their hands on Leonard’s mental health history.

THE LATE Marilyn Butcher, then functioning as a County Supervisor, soon declared that she thought it was a little much that a man who’d decapitated his daughter would be considered for, of all things, an appointment to a mental health board, not bothering to point out that Leonard, a recipient of mental health services, would occupy the “client” seat.

A COUPLE of years later, I applied for an appointment to the same board. The County’s mental health bureaucrats were looking for people to fill numerous vacancies and I’d hoped to get an inside look at services I suspected ranged from non-existent to incompetent. The Board itself existed as the usual funding pretext public agencies require to keep state and federal monies rolling their way. (Mendocino County has at least 50 of these phony advisory boards, few of them at any one time with a full complement of stooges.)

I WAS SURPRISED to be invited to be interviewed by a panel of “clients,” meaning the tamer crazy people Mental Health trotted out Potemkin-style as living testimony to their sterling work with the mentally ill. I went over mondo-boffo with the certified clients. They unanimously approved me for the Mental Health Board, but their opinion was ignored by the “sane” people on the board who voted me down. I didn’t get the appointment, Leonard did. He and I both thought it was funny.

A STORY in the Chronicle issued this invitation: “Grand tour of BART’s bathrooms — from the pristine to the pathogenic.” Pathological is more like it? Even the automated French jobs in the city are frequently fetid. Public bathrooms should all be privatized, one to each entrepreneur who would agree, as part of the deal, to work on-site for a minimum number of hours a week to ensure quality control. Rather than enter the toxic dank of the typical public lavatory, wouldn’t you pay a buck to use scrupulously clean facilities manned or womaned by a smartly uniformed attendant who hosed you down afterwards and handed you a fresh towel? Why, think of it! The national transformation of the public bathroom experience! Clearly an opportunity for free enterprise!

A READER WRITES: I bought this a few years back and it actually has worked quite well.

ANON: Hey all! Wondering if anyone knows the owner of the old Rookie To gallery? Over the last week I’ve noticed the front door has been open all day and night. My concern is that it’s been broken into. I think I heard at one point it was an Airbnb. Anyway I think maybe the owner should be notified or if someone is living there maybe they need a welfare check.

THERE ARE THREE ROADS that can be taken in addiction recovery. There is the clean path of sobriety, and there is the road to relapse. The third way is the fast out. That’s when the traveler realizes that relapse is just a slow suicide and there’s no reason to wait.

— Michael Connelly, ‘The Brass Verdict’

DAVID TAYLOR:

Wow, 84 years! I never met the man, and wish I had. We are steadily losing our elders, the holders of our history. The rest of us need to remember to talk with those that remain to preserve the oral history of this place; ranchers, natives, OG hippies, they all hold parts of the story. Growing up in an urban area, sterilized of oral history by endless development and rootlessness, as a teenager discovering this place it was clear it was special, with a complex history worth remembering. History gives us an opportunity to do better. Smooth trails ahead, Mr. Taylor.

SUPERVISOR BERNIE NORVELL:

Supervisor reports/budget…

Supervisor reports are exactly that, report outs. It is not meant for budget discussion or how to attack it. In my opinion, we got way into the weeds on a non-agenda item during supervisor Haschack’s report out. The supervisor could’ve easily submitted an agenda item to discuss this which would’ve allowed for public comment and feedback from supervisors. Department heads, meet with the CEO and submit their budget requests and for the most part are asked to rework them if they are over budget. There will be a budget workshop I believe in Willits and a listening session in Fort Bragg, where the public will be able to come and give their opinions on where the money should be spent, and if and where cuts should be made. I have personally and I’m sure other supervisors as well met with some department heads to try and gain a better understanding of their needs and Priorities. All of this information should be brought back to the supervisors to make the final decision on The best way to balance the budget. Again, Supervisor report outs are not the place.”

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Mark Scaramella comments: Haschak loves “workshops.” They are a great opportunity for him to posture while doing nothing. So his mentioning of the upcoming budget workshop was predictable and would otherwise have gone unnoticed. But then he couldn’t keep from jumping the gun by asking for “ideas.” He should know better than to ask for “ideas” when Williams is in the room. Maybe in the future Mr. Norvell will interrupt his colleagues when they are stumbling into the weeds. PS. The department heads are not likely to be too forthcoming in volunteering budget cuts. So, if Supervisor Norvell is serious about addressing a multi-million County General Fund deficit, he might want to look back at the last time the Board faced a significant budget deficit in 2010 for some “ideas.” Most of the Supervisors who were on the Board for that difficult period are still around and would probably be happy to discuss it. (And, ahem, our coverage of that tense period is in our archive.) So I suggest you invite Carre Brown, John McCowen, John Pinches and Dan Gjerde as panelists for your workshop. Kendall Smith? She’s still around, I think, but you better set aside an entire day for her alone. Hamburg? He’s long since given up on Mendo (although still deriving a nice pension from his time on the Board) and moved to Oregon leaving Mendo in the dust, last I heard. A lot can be (and was) said about those days when Carmel Angelo took some painful steps with reluctant if not grudging support from fhe Board. But in the end they did succeed in balancing the budget. As best I recall, most of the actions they took have not even come up for discussion lately.

DANA FRONEBERGER, Ukiah Notary.

(We have been informed that Ms. Froneberger was the third woman to denounce CEO Antle on Tuesday. This was confirmed when we found the following on her facebook page which is very similar to her remarks on Tuesday).

“Fix the Checks and Balances! Please sign the petition to change back the Mendocino County Treasurer/Tax Collector and Auditor/Controller offices back to 2 offices. The Board of Supervisors combined these offices with no thought, no plan and against their constituents and elected officials outcries of ‘This makes no sense.” Please sign and share.”

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“CEO Antle perjured herself on the witness stand about ‘not knowing anything’ or not ‘speaking with anyone’ about the miscellaneous 470 pay code in the ridiculous unfounded Cubbison trial. Turns out she knew about it 5 or 6 months before Cubbison brought it to her attention. Her testimony was found to be not credible by Judge Ann C. Moorman. She also stated on the stand that she and her deputy CEO each personally approve all 1200 of Mendocino County employee’s time cards every two weeks “so there’s two eyes on it.” This is terrible use of our chief executive’s time. If she wants to be a payroll manager, I suggest she apply for the position. And within the last month she has gone to the board and was relieved of a few of her responsibilities that were always done by the CEO since the position was created because she said she had too much of a workload. (Too busy doing payroll maybe?) I question her leadership decisions and abilities and I am calling for an investigation into her perjury and her role in the plan to oust our Auditor-Controller/Treasurer-Tax Collector Chamise Cubbison. I am also calling for the board of supervisors to wrap up the civil litigation and pay the woman her back wages and compensatory damages for this farce of an investigation and trial you put her through. You’ve spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars trying to defend yourself when you really don’t have a defense. Pay the lady! Are you with me? Feel free to share!”

FORMER COUNTY AUDITOR STAFFER & FORMER SHERIFF’S BUDGET ANALYST NORM THURSTON WRITES:

I always appreciate Mark Scaramella’s comments on the County budget. However, your comment today that law enforcement accounts for almost two-thirds of the general fund concerns me because of the use of the term “law enforcement”. There are many different interpretations of what that term means. In the most narrow sense, it may refer to just the Sheriff’s Office. After that, one might add the District Attorney, Probation, Jail, Juvenile Hall and Public Defenders (these could be part of “criminal justice” and “corrections costs”). In the broadest sense, “Public Safety” may include functions of Public Health, Environmental Health, and other non-criminal justice activities. If you look at the 2024-25 adopted budget page 60, you will see a table of Discretionary Revenue (basically this is revenue which the BOS applies to general fund departments). Total discretionary funds budgeted totals $99.9 million, of which the Sheriff’s Office is allocated $22.85 million, or 22.9%. It’s a lot of money and a large chunk of the total use of discretionary revenue, but far short of two-thirds.

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Mark Scaramella replies: Yes. The Sheriff/Jail budget is not two-thirds of the general fund budget. My point was that the Supervisors have said that “law enforcement” is exempt from cuts, without — themselves — saying what they mean by “law enforcement.” Or “public safety.” If you add up up the Sheriff, DA, Public Defender, Alternate Public Defender, Probation, the Social Services welfare cops, and code enforement, you’re probably going to get near two-thirds of the general fund budget because most of those are fairly high-paid positions. We will have to wait and see what the Board means by “law enforcement” being exempt from cuts before any evaluation can be made. You probably recall that back in 2010 law enforcement was not exempt, and it took a while for Sheriff Allman and CEO Angelo to resume their cordial friendship.

WE HEAR rumors that DA Eyster is planning to pull a Tom Allman and retire before his term ends so he can “suggest” his appointed replacement. According to my source, no one at the DA’s office is interested at this point, including his #2, McMenomey.

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Mark Scaramella adds: While we’re talking about DA rumors, I heard that Eyster’s former Assistant DA Dale Trigg who now works in the Sonoma County DA’s office, might be interested in the job. Reportedly, he still owns a house in Mendocino County.

JIM SHIELDS:

Our internet provider, Pacific.net’s email system has been down the last couple of days so we’re having to send emails using my daughter’s Laytonville.org system.

The season to-date rainfall total as of March 27th is 73.14 inches, which is 13.71 in. above historical average of 59.43 in. on this date. The annual historic precipitation for Laytonville is 66.7 in. It appears this rain event will remain with us through April 3rd, so season totals will continue to increase. Our rain year runs from July 1 to June 30. Hasta Luego,

SCOTT OSTLER ON THE GIANTS: The Giants will show some actual personality, like they’re having fun playing the game of baseball. I don’t know if that will contribute to the win total, but it can’t hurt. The Giants’ championship clubs all had personality, some color and style. The more the Giants feel like a baseball squad, the better. Time will tell if Posey will change the mood, but on Opening Day, when the TV camera zoomed in on Posey in the press box, I actually breathed a sigh of relief.

72 YEARS AGO from the February 18, 1940, edition of the Fort Bragg Advocate: “It was announced today by A.N. Cruikshanks, director of the Fort Bragg Community Forum, that a complete spring series of forums will be presented in this city beginning on Friday evening in Cotton Auditorium. The Forum was able to obtain an exceptionally fine group of speakers who were officially endorsed by their various governments. The list included representatives of Japan, China and Nazi Germany.”

HMMM, February of 1940? Kinda late to be inviting the Nazis to redwood country, wasn’t it? And one has to wonder what the Chinese had to say to the Japanese in the aftermath of Japan’s infamous rape of Nanking in December of 1937. (Iris Chang’s excellent book on that terrible event is recommended reading.)

THE JAPANESE remain in denial about that one, joining the Turks in their ongoing claim that the Armenians just sort of disappeared, and the Zionist insistence that they alone made the uninhabited desert bloom, and our very own Judge Hastings of Eden Valley and Benicia, in whose name the famous law school was named, personally initiated the slaughter of Northcoast Indians by persuading the California legislature to hire Jarboe’s Rangers to systematically hunt inland Mendocino County’s Indians down and murder them. Jarboe himself, incidentally, became Ukiah’s very first cop.

DARRYL CHERNEY and the affiliated ghouls still profiting from the car bombing of Judi Bari in 1990, produced a hagiographic movie a few years ago depicting themselves heroically NOT finding the bomber. Cherney literally can’t afford to find the killer. I say killer because Bari enjoyed perfect health prior to the bomb but died of cancer in 1997. The bomb murdered her in slow motion. Cherney made a cool $2 million off a phony federal lawsuit arising from the FBI’s and the Oakland Police Department’s bumblingly premature arrest of Bari and Cherney for knowingly transporting the device. Bari later publicly fingered her ex, Mike Sweeney.

OUT of the proceeds of the phony federal suit which, not so incidentally, was carefully co-edited by the feds and Bari and Cherney’s lawyers to excise any mention of who might have done it, Cherney and Bari, having raised several million on the promise that they’d plant whole forests of trees, bought himself a pot farm near Garberville. Maybe Cherney used some of the money to make the see-through film, stupid even by their dim lights. They called their film Who Bombed Judi Bari?, production values and script lifted from Kim Il Sung-like. (The winning proceeds from the federal suit never planted a single tree.)

THE NORTHCOAST being a kind of open-air witness protection program, where everyone is whatever he or she says he or she is, Cherney’s self-interested version of the spectacular 1990 events still prevails on the skepticism-short Northcoast where KMUD, KZYX and KPFA shut out contrary views of the cash and carry event. An honest inquiry into the bombing, portrayed in Cherney’s film as a “mystery,” was made by Steve Talbot of KQED in 1990. It’s also called Who Bombed Judi Bari? But unlike the mercenary crew who’ve produced Cherney’s epic, Talbot is a well-known writer and documentary filmmaker whose work is often seen on Frontline. Talbot’s film points to Bari’s ex-husband, Mike Sweeney, as the bomber. In fact, Bari told Talbot during his production of his documentary, that she thought Sweeney bombed her.

SWEENEY, a man with connections to murders and bombs all the way back to the 1960s, is a cunning little sociopath who has went on to reinvent himself as a respectable citizen. As per the long local tradition of Mendo self-makeovers, Sweeney, with a big boost from the local Democratic Party, became Mendocino County’s well-paid chief garbage bureaucrat.

IN THE TURBULENT 1960’s and late into the 1970’s, Sweeney was affiliated with a Maoist terrorist gang calling themselves Venceremos. When the “revolutionary” fad ended, Sweeney, by then married to Bari, was living near Santa Rosa where he and Bari made a nice living shaking down Hewlett-Packard over the corporation’s development plans. It was in his Santa Rosa incarnation that Sweeney blew up a hangar at the old Naval airfield west of the Rose City. He was annoyed, you see, by the air traffic on weekends.

OUR HERO — presently retired to New Zealand — and Bari, having successfully made a nice hunk of dough off a lawsuit against H-P moved to Redwood Valley here in Amnesia County. They soon separated because Sweeney rightly objected to Bari’s affiliations with Cherney and other undesirables, especially as those undesirables influenced the couple’s two young daughters. (Whatever else you might say about Sweeney, he was a responsible parent.)

THE SWEENEY-BARI break-up was not a happy separation, to say the least. Sweeney threatened Bari with a court fight for custody of their children while Bari threatened to go public with Sweeney’s prior life as a political maniac. Women have been murdered for less reason, but somehow Sweeney, when the bomb exploded in his wife’s car in Oakland, was almost immediately excluded from the suspect pool, and has remained excluded by both the FBI and Cherney and Company, co-dependents, in my opinion, in an ongoing conspiracy to protect Sweeney. And here we are 35 years down the line and these creeps are still lying about the case and protecting the bomber. Or bombers.

VACAVILLE’S CLAIM TO FAME: I’m talking about “Last Resort,” the 2000 hit single by Papa Roach, which will probably outlive us all, much like the band’s namesake. Decades after its release on “Infest,” the rap-rock anthem is still cemented in the public’s collective memory, becoming a karaoke classic with more than a billion listens on Spotify and hundreds of millions of views on YouTube alone. Now, to commemorate the studio album’s 25th anniversary, Vacaville’s paragons of nu metal return to the stage for a victory tour across the U.S.

ED NOTE: OH, YEAH? Well, Green Day came outta Spy Rock (Deep Laytonville) and Willits, and you can ask Larry Livermore if you don’t believe me.

FRED GARDNER: Facial Recognition.

This PGE Regional Vice President…

moonlights in a Toyota ad.

I wonder why?

WILL THE GRAND JURY INVESTIGATE ITS OWN COLLUSION?

On Tuesday, the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors acknowledged the important work of the Civil Grand Jury by issuing a Proclamation Recognizing March 2025 as Civil Grand Jury Awareness Month. Most of the members of the current Civil Grand Jury and Judge Ann Moorman were in attendance at the Board meeting. Judge Moorman is responsible for impaneling, supervising and providing guidance, to the Grand Jury.

Civil grand juries are included in the California Constitution and have been in existence since California became a state in 1849. They perform a vital function in a democracy. They review the operation of local government, including the County, cities, school districts and special districts. They perform investigations of local government programs, and they make recommendations to those agencies on their findings with a goal of improving government operations and making government more responsive to the communities they serve. Each year the court solicits volunteers for a new civil grand jury. Jurors are impaneled to serve a one-year term, beginning July 1st of each year.

Mary Littem Thomas, current foreperson of the Civil Grand Jury, spoke about the important role it serves in the community. She stated that the Civil Grand Jury’s charge is “to provide oversight, mainly for the taxpayers and how their money is spent but [also] to work for the betterment of this county.” She added that the proclamation and Board recognition will help recruit members of the public to join the Grand Jury. “It’s a noble effort. We work tirelessly.” She noted that an added benefit is that grand jurors form friendships that outlast their tenure on the Grand Jury. “We build bonds and excitement in all the interests and investigations we do.”

Board Chair John Haschak thanked the Civil Grand Jury for promoting “transparency, accountability and efficiency in the County and all the other governmental agencies in Mendocino County.”

Mendocino County residents interested in joining the Civil Grand Jury for the 2025-26 term are invited to complete an application at Grand Jury (ca.gov) on the court’s website. Applicants must be US citizens, at least 18 years old, reside in Mendocino County, and be fluent in English to communicate both orally and in writing.

For more information contact:

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Mark Scaramella Notes: Not only does this unprecedented picture of the Grand Jury with the people they are supposed to be scrutinizing unprecedented and highly compromising, but when taken together with the Grand Jury Foreman’s remarks at the Board of Supervisors meeting last week, an clear indication that the Grand Jury has no intention of rocking any boats this year. Grand Jury foreperson Mary Littem Thomas told the Supervisors she and her colleagues were “glad to partner with you” the Board and that they have been “very impressed with what we have learned.” Mendo Grand Juries are toothless to begin with, but we have never seen them announce up front that they have no intention of doing their job.

PS. And why does anyone care if the grand jurors “form friendships that outlast their tenure on the Grand Jury”? (Ms. Littem Thomas is the fifth person from the left and to top off the palsy-walsyness of the group, Presiding Judge Ann Moorman is on the far left. Supervisors Mulheren, Norvell, Haschak, Williams and Cline are 3rd, 4th, 9th, 12th, and 16th from the left. But then, maybe they’ll surprise us.

PPS. The woman second from the right is probably not locally famous frequent flyer Kalisha Alvarez, but if it is, her presence would certainly make for some interesting Grand Jury discussions.)

ADAM HIGHT

Hello Laytonville! As many of you know, I took over the lease at It Takes Two to Tangle and Mendo Trim Tools. I believe in our town's future and didn't want to see another business close. While I didn't expect to make a profit, the amount of clutter to remove from the property has been challenging. Retail is tough here, especially when community support seems to favor Willits, making it difficult for local retailers to buy in bulk for discounts and profit. I also know talented stylists who could earn more elsewhere.

I want to create opportunities here and believe we can build something special. That's why I'm exploring ideas, including this grant application.

ON-LINE COMMENTS OF THE WEEK

[1] Isn’t it obvious that Trump’s across the board tariffs (as opposed to targeted protectionist tariffs) are just a backdoor way to shift the tax burden further from the wealthy and corporate to ordinary consumers in the most regressive way possible? All while convincing the dupes that it’s “good for America”?

[2] Of course there are probably some decent lawyers out there who do good for people. But the profession at large is a profession that produces nothing, contributes nothing and only takes. Will never forget the check I received for a class action lawsuit against a phone company. The company had to pay out billions. I got a check for $2.65. How much do you think the attorneys got? Yeah, they took 50% of the billions and divvied out the rest with the millions that were the true victims. The letter that came with the check bragged about their victory and how pleased we should all be that we won. Yeah, $2.65 is better than a kick in the teeth but the lawyers are the ones that really got the benefit of that class action. What did they produce? All they did was take.

[3] Musk was a Democrat until two years ago, for example. He simply changed horses. So was Trump, RFK, etc. etc. etc. They toss one label for another one, and suddenly they’re hated by the left and loved by the right. It’s nothing but political theater.

[4] This is what I find so disgusting about this administration. They treat people like they are thieves. What is the point of making life difficult for people on social security? Many with underlying health problems that make it hard to go to a social security office that is so poorly understaffed that they lose information and expect people to wait up to two hours to get help. Trump won on false promises and lies, and now he has a dufus ketamine addict ruining a system that's supposed to help our elderly and make their lives easier. Trump's lack of respect for humanity is one of the most deplorable traits about him.

[5] First you need to change American attitudes about cars and independence. HOV lanes have become a gigantic failure as government thought they could change the minds of Americans and did not. I would like to see America use a few billion dollars and build MAGLEV trains right down the middle of the Interstate highways. AMTRAK disappears overnight. The biggest problem? Government cannot figure its way out of a wet paper bag. Light rail in bigger cities have pretty much failed as income producers and have become debt producers.