SHERIFF KENDALL ON BLACK MARKET MARIJUANA:
(Statement to Supervisors, Tuesday, May 22, 2025)
If anybody has read the news lately they’d know that we had a lot of homicides last week. A lot of people were shot. That has an impact on us. A lot of that is on overtime. I had to bring in Spanish-speaking deputies, pull them off the street to be able to work with detectives and so forth. We are going to leverage the funding we got from Senator McGuire on that. We are also going to leverage federal funding for cannabis suppression. But for the last several years, every time I met with our federal partners about the problems we are having — we are having some serious issues with transnational drug trafficking organizations. We are! Do not think that we are exempt from that in Mendocino County. Up to this point, the federal government wants to have no conversations regarding marijuana. But I will keep beating the drum on this because I’m afraid that pending legislation in the state of California will create an even more serious issue for our locals. We don’t want to see that. In 2019 or 2020, I met with the State Department of Cannabis Control with the sheriffs from Humboldt and Trinity counties. We predicted what we would be seeing. And they didn’t want to hear us at all. Right now we have a failing legal cannabis industry in Mendocino County. We have a thriving black market. The people who invested time, money and so forth trying to get into the legal realm have basically just been run over by some very bad actors. It’s not fair to anyone. It’s not fair to our residents who have to put up with this either. It’s a dangerous situation that everybody’s in right now. So I will keep beating the drum on that. And we will see what we can get. If we don’t keep pushing on this problem, it will be the end of us in rural areas.
COUNT ME AS DENSE, perhaps, but even with my years of military experience I didn’t at first know what Board of Supervisors critic Teresa McNerlin was referring to Tuesday when, after calling the ridiculous Cubbison affair a SNAFU and a FUBAR (which most of us know), she went so far as to call it “Charley Foxtrot.” This morning it belatedly dawned on me that “Charley Foxtrot” is NATO code speak for CF which is short-hand for Cluster-F_ _ _.) Since Ms. McNerlin is an Army veteran we now understand and appreciate her characterization.
(Mark Scaramella)
A FORT BRAGG READER WRITES: For all the people who need affordable housing you might consider a manufactured home. Today at the Harbor RV Park near the Outlet and the Noyo River Grill there is a brand new double wide going into space #2. What people may not know is that it is possible to get a mortgage with a new one. Also there are many upgrades and features in a new one so for the cost of a rental you may be able to own something. I am living here in a new one and I recommend the people who are installing this one. They are very experienced and make sure it passes inspection. The space rental is $700 a month which includes water and sewer. Metered propane is available.
LINDA BAILEY (Boonville):
Interesting to note that [Ukiah Councilmembers] Crane, Rodin and Sher all specified that the City Council had not discussed potential demolition of Alex Thomas Plaza, i.e., no PUBLIC discussion or dialogue. Reminds me of the old song “What’s going on behind the closed doors?”
MIKE GENIELLA:
Well, I suspect few people, except those participating, know what’s happening behind closed doors. I do know, however, that creating a public space on the current courthouse site, if the Stalinesaue structure is ever torn down, is not a new idea. Ask Tom Liden and others who, two years ago, were talking about relocating functions of the Mendocino County Museum to the beautiful old limestone courthouse annex and creating a square on the rest of the courthouse site. There is strong community interest in the state of the current Thomas Plaza, and what happens to the current courthouse and its historic site as construction of the new $144 million courthouse proceeds. It seems the time has come for city and county representatives to get serious and begin public discussions so people can weigh in and agree on something that could prove positive in a few years for a struggling downtown.
ED NOTES
FROM THE ARCHIVES, 2013: Ten acres of dissipation or a political celebration? Dissipation seemed preponderant at San Francisco’s civic center Saturday but, as a child of the 1950s, I’m still adjusting to new realities. I do remember, though, that the first gay parades in the early 1970s occurred in an overall political context emphasizing all kinds of liberation, from ethnic to sexual. Anymore, especially this year, Gay Pride Day seems heavily corporate, heavily Democratic Party, heavily mainstream with Bradley Manning, a gay hero if there ever was one, purged as the parade’s grand marshal. He, Assange and now Snowden, are well outside the great Frisco Consensus as defined by Willie Brown, Nancy Pelosi and Dianne Feinstein. Like a great, gray poison fog, the grasping talons of the Democrats enfold us all in their lethal embrace. The Republicans aren’t even good for a laugh anymore. They’re just dumb and mean.
I’d footed it up Market from Union Square with Castro Street as the goal. I wanted to see what the celebration was like only hours after the Defense of Marriage Act had fallen. I didn’t know that the Civic Center had become a weekend celebration set aside, admission $5, to a mob scene of people, many with their bums hanging out from leather coveralls reminiscent of baboons. Earlier in the day, I’d seen lots of citizens in odd costumes all over downtown, none with their reproductive organs in view. But there are always odd people downtown. Farther up Market at the official celebration area in front of City Hall, the revelers didn’t seem particularly gay, but more that the whole sexual panoply seemed present — from the inevitable naked guys to nubile young women, and everything in between. I thought back to my deformative years when gays weren’t part of the national consciousness.
I remember feeling sorry for a high school classmate who’d been arrested with an adult barber for “unnatural acts,” or whatever the euphemism was then. It got into the newspapers, and only later could I fully imagine what it must have been like for that kid to have everyone pointing him out like some kind of secret freak. Gays weren’t gays yet, either, and the other prevalent pejorative, fag, was also unknown. In 1957 a fag was a cigarette. Homo, queer and fruit were the terms then applied to male same sexers. I don’t recall a derogatory term for lesbians, probably because they were even more invisible than male gays.
I had a baseball coach who constantly grumbled that the frustrations presented by both the team and the game were “driving me fruit.” Or, “For Chrissakes, you guys are enough to drive a guy fruit.” But I don’t remember anybody associating the coach’s perpetual road to fruit with homosexuality, although shrinks pointed out that those who constantly invoked fruit were probably closet cases.
In Marine Corps boot camp our DI routinely denounced Californians as “a bunch of damn queers sent to sabotage my Marine Corps.” We all laughed at that one, but not in front of him; he scared the shit out of all of us and often talked about how he’d like to choke us all to death, especially the Californians as I wondered if this guy is on my side, how bad can the Russians be.
All this stuff seems ancient now, and very crazy. People nostalgic for the 50s weren’t there, but the 50s were twice as bad for same sexers. I suppose like most heteros, it wasn’t until those first gay marches in San Francisco that I realized how awful it had been for gay men and women. Now, freshly enslaved by the Democrats, the 50’s seem almost an era to be nostalgic for.
ON-LINE STATEMENT OF THAT DAY: “A story about gay puppets receives a prominent position on SFGate’s website. This was to be expected now that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are over, Gitmo has been closed, the unemployed have become employed and Obama has locked up those responsible for the financial crisis.”
DEBBIE L. HOLMER, archivist of the Fort Bragg Advocate, remembered that back on June 20th, 1911, “Jack London, the celebrated novelist, accompanied by his wife and a Japanese servant, drove into town behind four little ponies. The North Bay Counties Association has engaged this prominent writer to write an article for Sunset Magazine, boosting the resources of the seven counties. After a short visit, Mr. London left for Eureka Tuesday afternoon and intends to make a complete tour of the seven counties collecting data for his articles. This makes Jack’s second visit to Fort Bragg. He passed through here on horseback for the first time shortly after the great earthquake and states that he is surprised to see the rapid strides of improvement our little city has made in the last few years.”
SUPERVISOR QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
Supervisor Maureen Mulheren offered this keen insight during last Tuesday’s budget discussion: “Our budget is not balanced because we have more expenses than we have revenue.”
Mulheren went on to complain about the “budget process,” saying that her colleagues’ approach to budget balancing — asking all departents to file budgets with 10% cuts for board consideration — “does not get us where we need to be as an agency.” But, of course, Mulheren offered no alternative approaches. After upwards of an hour of aimless discussion the Board voted 3-2 (Mulheren and Bernie Norvell dissenting) to ask the Departments for budgets with 10% cuts, even though nobody particularly liked the idea. (Norvell thought that law enforcement should be excluded from the request.)
Explaining her no vote, Mulheren said that asking for across the board 10% cuts even if they’re just on paper for consideration “does more harm. It’s not thoughtful. There’s a way we can get there as a community.” What way? Mulheren again did not say. Nobody even brought up the distinction between General Fund departments and non-General Fund departments.
The Supervisors say they are still about $3 million short of what the General Fund Departments say is the minimum funding they need for the July 2025-June 2026 fiscal year. But that $3 million is after dubiously assuming that they’ll get $8 million in savings by leaving a bunch of funded positions vacant next year. As we have noted before, there is no reasonable math that gets you to $8 million in general fund savings by leaving positions vacant, even if they can go without filling all the positions they predict will be left vacant, also a dubious assumption. Among other things, the prediction ignores the distinction between General Fund departments and departments which are primarily funed by state grants and special projects.
No one asked the departments about ways to enhance their revenues through such things as what Sheriff Kendall likes to call “leveraging” other state and federal revenues.
(Mark Scaramella)
A READER WRITES:
It's distressing to read that rodeos continue in these times, like that at Potter Valley noted in the AVA, but then these times are showcasing cruelty on all levels. The above is from the East Bay Times:
COVELO SHOOTING VICTIM IDENTIFIED
As a part of an continuing homicide investigation, Mendocino County Sheriff’s Investigators have positively identified the decedent in the May 14, 2025 shooing off Mina Road north of Covelo as Jorge M. Zavala Estrella, a 30-year-old male from Vallecito, California. Investigators identified and notified the decedent's legal next-of-kin and informed them of Zavala Estrella's death and of this homicide investigation. A post-mortem examination was conducted on May 17, 2025, where the forensic pathologist provided a preliminary cause of death being multiple gunshot wounds. The official cause and manner of death will not be finalized until all pathology reports and tests have been completed. During this investigation, Deputies uncovered evidence which is indicative of illegal marijuana cultivation and sales under the control of a drug trafficking organization. Additional information related to the suspected drug trafficking organization will not be released to maintain the integrity of this investigation. Anyone with information related to this investigation is requested to contact the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office Communications Center at 707-463-4086 (option 1). Information can also be provided anonymously by calling the non-emergency tip-line at 707-234-2100.
TIM PERRY (Fort Bragg attorney, commenting on the County’s motion to move the Cubbison case to Marin County):
This motion is a loser. It doesn’t even pass the red face test – “Can I argue this without total embarrassment?”
First, Judge Moorman, not a jury, will decide the basic question of whether the County had the right to suspend Cubbison. So jury bias is a straw man. The county knows it has no chance of removing Judge Moorman for cause based on a claim she is biased, so it is trying to achieve the same result by moving the case to another county.
Even in criminal cases where there is much more solicitude to protect defendants against a biased jury pool, transfers such as this are very rare. Here there is apparently no objective evidence of a biased jury pool nor, more importantly, that the usual procedures of questioning potential jurors to assure they have an open mind would be insufficient for the County to get a fair trial. Although this case may be sensational in revealing the County administration’s incompetence and malfeasance, it has not been sensationalized by the press. The facts are shocking, that’s all.
Worse, to the extent the County fears an award of damages for violating Cubbison’s civil rights to a fair hearing, it is shooting itself in the foot. Lawyers representing plaintiffs try very hard to get cases heard in urban areas rather than rural counties like ours, because it is an article of faith that juries in rural areas give much lower damage awards. Are the county’s attorneys ignorant of that?
The County’s defense has been one Hail Mary after another for two-plus years. The Supervisors need to settle the Cubbison case now rather than running up more fees and losing anyway. Either they are getting terrible advice or — more likely in my view — they don’t want to face the music. At $125,000/year for a cushy part-time job the five could just kick in a year’s pay and get this over and done.
PS. Take a look at Darcie Antle’s Linked-In profile: “ABOUT: Experienced Restaurant Owner with a demonstrated history of working in the wine and spirits industry. Skilled in Wineries, Food & Beverage, Retail, Customer Satisfaction, and Hospitality Industry. Strong operations professional with a Master of Science (MS) focused in Health Services Administration from St. Mary’s College of California.” Clearly a highly qualified government executive.
JEAN ARNOLD:
While I’m grateful to the Rotary Club and the Presbyterian Church for hosting the Town Hall and I learned a few new facts (who knew that the population of Mendocino County is only 0.2% of the State population, or that it costs close to a mil to repave a mile of two-lane road?), as a person who attended the last Town Hall there and the recent Budget Meeting in Ft. Bragg, I found most of it extremely repetitive.
I was especially disappointed when Ted criticized the media coverage of the Cubbison fiasco, saying that they get lots wrong -- but wouldn’t identify WHAT they got wrong, and didn’t/doesn’t provide any information to counter what they report. I see this as the equivalent of howling, “Fake news!” without making any effort to give us anything else. A reporter was sitting right in front of me, recording the entire meeting on her phone, not on a pad. I’ll be interested in seeing what she writes. Ted also tried to free himself from his responsibility for what is happening. The BoS decides what happens with the civil settlement, or lack thereof, in the case, not the D.A., and they want to move the case to Marin, which means employees will be driving down there for depositions (and as you may have noticed, courts often cancel hearings at the very last moment).
All I know for sure is that despite 75% of his remarks being about the gross lack of funding and how little can be done with what we have, cash is still pouring out the door to pay for these criminal and now civil cases. And CEO Antle allowed Eyster to “host” a steak dinner again, at our expense, this year -- after ALL THIS.
Our money. Your money.
KATHY WYLIE
It’s in litigation. Supervisor Williams is correct that board members shouldn’t be wading into the weeds, causing further speculation with the public, before it is adjudicated.
You can’t know all the facts that the Supes have yet.
I’m glad you took away that the county is very small, and the tax base here can’t keep up with the growing costs of the services the county provides to us residents.
We have an ongoing, growing structural deficit (crisis) in how Mendocino county is funded.
Read ‘The Municipal Finance Crisis’ by Mark Moses, for more.
And thanks again to Rotary for sponsoring these forums!
JEAN ARNOLD
I well know it’s in litigation, which I feel is yet another blunder in a blunderful series of decisions.
The question I was going to ask, was, “Why can’t the Board of Supervisors admit they were wrong, apologize, and settle with Ms. Cubbision?” It was deemed not to be a question, and the moderator discarded it(!).
Ted implied that he/they (the BoS) didn’t have control over what has happened and is happening, and that is most definitely NOT the case. They didn’t have control over the criminal case, but they do now over the civil one, and they do (or should!) have control over the actions of CEO Antle, and Ms. Pierce, who is refusing to support and work with Ms. Cubbison by doing a proper hand-over and explanation of her actions while covering for Ms. Cubbison. Topping it off, the Board is trying to force solely Ms. Cubbison into signing documents testifying to the accuracy of work she wasn’t allowed to perform while out on unpaid leave, defending herself from charges for which she was exonerated.
Would you sign a tax return that someone else had prepared in your absence, testifying to its accuracy? She’s asking that Ms. Pierce co-sign, which is a perfectly reasonable and logical stance.
They’re STILL trying to force her out, and creating a hostile work environment, which will likely result in a higher ultimate payout to Ms. Cubbison in the civil suit. It’s very hard to picture a scenario where Cubbison will lose, given the evidence and what she’s suffered.
You (plural) are welcome to respond offlist (though I’ll be out today). I don’t want to start a discussion, just correct any wrong impressions.
Jean Arnold
PS I don’t know, haven’t met, or ever spoken to Ms. Cubbison. Just a citizen here, watching all that’s transpired with horror.
SUPERVISOR TED WILLIAMS
Jean,
“and Ms. Pierce, who is refusing to support and work with Ms. Cubbison by doing a proper hand-over and explanation of her actions while covering for Ms. Cubbison. Topping it off, the Board is trying to force solely Ms. Cubbison into signing documents testifying to the accuracy of work she wasn’t allowed to perform while out on unpaid leave, defending herself from charges for which she was exonerated.”
The Board of Supervisors conducts the public’s business in front of the public. You (and any member of the public) can watch the actual discussions. Correspondence between staff and departments is subject to public records laws and available upon request. If you are in possession of documented refusals to work collaboratively, I welcome you to share and I’ll follow up. I have not observed any such refusals.
What was actually said by the Board and staff regarding this issue can be viewed at the following timestamp from last Tuesday’s public meeting: https://www.youtube.com/live/rrRqnK_Sp5I?si=iCbtKy53F7VvzBpw&t=2260
JEAN ARNOLD:
Thank you for responding, Ted.
I will check out the link, but I don’t have time to watch the whole recording (and I’m hearing-impaired), so I can’t have the whole story. The letter Haschak penned and went public was threatening.
If, as I understand, Pierce is not being made available, it seems to me that Cubbison is being denied what she needs to do her job, then being accused of not being able to do her job. And moving the civil case to another jurisdiction would require her to spend a lot more time away from her post than would be required if the case was tried here. A trip to Marin is pretty much a day shot.
I’d really appreciate your specifying any facts that you can show the press got wrong, instead of saying their reporting does not reflect what occurred.
JULIE BEARDSLEY:
The Board of Supervisors must admit they received bad advice and made a mistake removing Ms. Cubbison with no hearing, then depriving her of her salary and benefits for 17 months. Trying to stonewall a settlement and using delaying tactics, like trying to get the case removed to Marin, are not helping to improve this situation. Deputy CEO Sara Pierce was the Auditor Tax Collector for those months, and she is needed to finish audits taking place. Not allowing her to be available to Cubbison’s office has the optics of more “mean girl” politics, and is beneath the office of the BOS. Settle this case and let’s move on. Additionally, removing CEO Antle, and appointing a new CEO (I suggest Tony Rakes who is experienced and smart), would go a long way in restoring confidence in our county government.
ED NOTE: Williams was instrumental in the Cubbison fiasco and by permitting the ongoing Mean Girls treatment of Cubbison, at the expense of County functioning, he and the Supervisors are piling dysfunction on top of dysfunction. Of course Williams doesn’t dare say where the media coverage is wrong, media being synonymous with the AVA in this case. Julie Beardsley is right on.
MARK SCARAMELLA:
As Christopher Hitchens used to say: “What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence.” Williams has lost credibility on the Cubbison matter (as with many other of his self-serving remarks) since he is a party/defendant in Cubbison’s lawsuit, hardly a neutral observer. Of course he toes the Board’s party line, whatever it may be. (We don’t know because the Board is silent on the case, other than in their court filings.) Williams’ public record of leading the Board’s vindictive effort to “Get Cubbison” going back to 2021 when he first started whining about not getting budget reports that he should have asked his CEO for speaks for itself. I expect we’ll know more when/if the Cubbison depositions are released.
Ms. Wylie’s claim that the Supervisors are somehow in possession of facts that are not “yet” public implies that there might be some kind of reasonable explanation for the Board’s actions in the Cubbison fiasco. You’d think that if that was true at least some of it would have been presented at Cubbison’s preliminary hearing and therefore be public. Instead, the opposite was true: Everything that became public during the 17-month run-up to Cubbison’s Preliminary hearing put the County in a very bad light and Judge Moorman tossed the case in advance, criticizing the Mendo officials involved and praising Cubbison as a whistleblower. Even DA Eyster’s hand-picked $400 an hour outside prosecutor Tracy Carrillo could offer nothing to defend the County’s actions —after Eyster himself dumped the embarrassing prosecution on Ms. Carrillo.
So far all we’ve heard from Williams or the Supervisors or the County or their attorney in the Cubbison civil matter are transparently lame tactical legal maneuvers including unsubstantiated media bashing and judge shopping. Judge Moorman’s pointed remarks about the County in Cubbison’s criminal case have gone unchallenged by the Supervisors and their attorney. There has been no appeal of Moorman’s highly critical dismissal of the County’s misappropriation case against Cubbison. The Supervisors have made no assertions of error or demands for correction. They have not issued a press release (like the one they released when they first tried to defend the Veterans Service Office relocation fiasco before reversing themselves months later) with whatever claims, complaints or corrections they may have. Of course, that would be subject to public review and scrutiny which would not help their case, as weak as it is. Much easier to make claims of false or biased reporting. (As if Williams himself is unbiased.) Williams knows that most of his coast supporters are not following the case (with the obvious exception of a few people like Ms. Arnold) or the Board meetings, so his unsubstantiated remarks are predictable, but tiresome.
PS. Supervisor Williams’ picky attempt to undermine Ms. Arnold’s description of the Pierce/Cubbison situation by pointing out a minor mistake in her otherwise correct statement proves nothing because Ms. Arnold is not representing herself as a member of the local media. In fact, although the Board seemed to prefer that everybody cooperate nicely last Tuesday (when the cooperation problem is only on the County side), they refused to ask CEO Antle to withdraw her ridiculous order that Cubbison put all her questions of Pierce in emails. PPS. We hope that Cubbison’s civil attorney, Ms. Cannata, adds the creation of a post-exoneration hostile work environment and the board’s ongoing refusal to even give Cubbison her back pay after being unjustly suspended without pay to her growing list of claims against the County.
KEITH LOWERY:
Re: Julie Beardsley’s remarks about the Cubbison case:
I agree with you. As a former employee who worked with the executive office and directly with the former CEO Carmel Angelo I was able to see and experience first hand the delay tactics and lack of any type of compassion when an employee fell out of favor and was not part of the clique club.
I don’t know the current CEO but I do know she was trained by Angelo and the cover up and collusion of the employees in the DA’s office (in closing the DA himself started on Angelo’s watch.
CEO Antle inherited a budget mess that years of hiding money and in my opinion utilizing money from department that are not part of the general fund to cover general fund expenses in my view crosses a legal line because much of those funds are meant specifically for those programs that if the public actually knew how dollars from departments like Child Welfare would be redirected or in many cases specific directions from the CEO to find a creative way for uses of those dollars in general fund departments.
I mention this because the DA in my opinion was only encouraged and ultimately authorized by the CEO to spend money frivolously under the guise of training sessions.
The former CEO would demand that leadership submit applications to participate in a training at the Benbow Inn where it was just one big party and yes there was a trainer there but that was not the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal was for the CEO to interact with leadership and determine who was loyal at any cost and who was not.
The current CEO has inherited a mess and continues to operate the only way she knows how. They are hoping to get Cubbison financially ruined before offering some type of minimal compensation with a Non-disclosure clause.
They don’t really have an interest in doing anything but a consistent stall tactic and cause Cubbison increasingly legal fees.
I hope Cubbison stays and that she wins and is reelected to her position as that the BOS return the two departments back to the way they were so that the public can receive the services that our tax dollars pay for.
I have seen this tactic first hand and unfortunately had to participate until a point where I could not continue to be part of what I felt was crossing a line when it came to funding, hiring and employee compensation. I had other issues as a County employee that I can’t discuss here but trust me the County does not have an individual employee's best interest at heart.
A basic principle I was taught from an early age was to do the right thing when nobody was looking.
Caring about doing the right thing apparently isn’t something that the CEO cares that much about because she and the yes people she is working with Including the BOS members
are doing this right under the noses of the citizens of Mendocino County without much pushback and getting away with it….What are their consequences ?
They have unlimited legal resources and if they spend more than they are budgeted for they will just likely move dollars from one of the many Social Services programs like for example foster care dollars that are designated for children that have suffered abuse and neglect.
In my opinion much of what our Federal Government is boasting about finding waste, fraud and abuse and yet it is occurring right now with tax payer money all because the Country is taking the same playbook used by the top Federal employee (yes I mean the President) and drawing out litigation for as long as possible simply because they feel they have unlimited resources which is utilizing tax payer hard earned money.
Mendocino County: Settle With Cubbison, Demand The Resignation Of The DA And Admit The County was wrong.
JADE TIPPETT (Fort Bragg)
I am only half inclined to agree with Ted about Sara Pierce's requirement that all communications and questions from Chamise Cubbison be submitted via email. and half not. The advantages of Pierce's requirement are that it generates a digital paper trail to document all communications between the parties. It also, as stated, gives the respondent time to consider and compose their response. On the disadvantage side, requiring written communications is a well known and centuries old tactic for sandbagging, delaying and undermining the person who requires the information. It works quite well with the tactic of taking all questions literally and answering them minimally, necessitating the requester to send follow-up inquiries and wait the additional turn-around time. I am not saying this is happening here, although it sounds like something of that nature is at play, given the accusations of "mean girls games" being played. If the Board wants to undermine Cubbison, this is how I would do if I were in their shoes. If the Board is genuinely committed to Cubbison's success, now that the criminal issue has been resolved, the Board needs to put parameters, response, and turn-around times on Pierce's scheme. In short, it sounds like the County Administration needs some adult supervision and accountability that the Board seems unable or uncommitted to provide.
MARK SCARAMELLA NOTES:
There’s another possibility: The Board and the CEO are angry at Cubbison for exposing how inept and incompetent they are and they are simply retaliating and punishing Cubbison for it, even if it ends up costing taxpayers millions of dollars, damaging the County’s reputation, and they end up looking worse.
JULIE BEARDSLEY
I would like to add some thoughts to yesterday’s very cogent discussion of how the current environment at the County is hurting not just employees, but the public the County is supposed to serve. During the eight and a half years I was the Senior Public Health Analyst, responsible for providing data about the well-being of our residents, I saw the kinds of questionable things the Executive Office did to try and balance the budget. For example, the CEO often creatively assigned members of the Executive Office to other departments, and used grant funding that was specifically for certain programs to pay their salaries, thus saving General Fund dollars. In every case where I saw this happen, the Executive Office employee assigned to another department, lacked the subject matter expertise required, according to the grant stipulations. While this was technically defensible, and could be argued to be within the wording of a grant, it was not what the grant funding was intended for and took resources away from the public the grant was intended to serve.
The combining and un-combining departments, against the advice of the employees, has resulted in thousands and thousands of wasted tax dollars.
The cronyism at the top has resulted in a lack of confidence by the hard working boots on the ground.
The millions of dollars spent on litigation due to unlawful firings, is a huge drain on the County’s limited budget. I suspect the cost of the Cubbison affair is now reaching something well over $2 million of your money. The County needs to pull in their horns and settle this.
Now I understand that the County is mandated to provide certain services, such as public safety, child welfare and protecting the public health, with a shrinking tax base. (And the City’s proposed annexation will make matters worse.) But the Executive Office has historically been at odds with the very dedicated employees who provide the services. Despite repeated requests to listen to the employees, the EO tends to ignore the very people who can provide insight about organizational structure and real cost-cutting ideas.
Ultimately it is the members of the Board of Supervisors who are responsible for running the County. I am impressed by both Ms.Cline and Mr.Norvell – please keep up the good work. We elect the members of the BOS, not the CEO. I suggest it’s time for a change of CEO to restore public confidence, and improve the work environment overall.
ON LINE COMMENTS OF THE WEEK
[1] FORT BRAGG, an on-line comment:
I remember when Juniper Jay Redwood made good his escape from the Fort Bragg jail by squeezing under the door. He used grease from his hamburger to grease himself up. Fort Bragg really is a skanky, dumpy place. With the mills gone and fishing gone to hell, it really doesn't have a purpose anymore. I've often thought the best future for the place would be a nuclear power plant on the old mill property. For everyone out there that doesn't like the idea of nuclear power, my advice is that you learn to like it. It's the only thing that's going to keep the whole mess running.
[2] Trump is Trump. I expect nothing good from him. The real villain in the piece is the Biden administration. All they had to do — literally all — was stop a genocide. And they didn’t do it, and not a single Democrat has anything intelligent or strategic to say on this disaster. Not one. (Bernie Sanders is not a Democrat.)
[3] I’ve never seen a “rich” man that’s in charge of the wealthiest, strongest, country in the world get so giggly about a used 13 year old plane. Who does that? It’s embarrassing that “we” are accepting some other country’s hand me downs. It’s an insult.
[4] Practically, the only thing that can save Democrats is Democrats. And if that doesn’t scare you even sillier than the fact already has, you’ve still got a ways to go.
[5] In my lifetime, I can remember the defiance of Richard Nixon who, despite the allegations of financial impropriety, kept the Cocker Spaniel he had been given by Lou Carrol in the name of the “great state of Texas” because his daughters loved the pup and had already named it “Checkers.” Now we have a president who is embarrassing on so many levels but mainly because it is so obvious that he would sell his mother for one plug nickel. And those who could stop him just stand around and watch and hope for the crumbs from his table. How did we ever come to this?
[6] Democrats in the House and Senate need to "stop having the spine of a gummy bear" and AOC is helping with that issue. With the likes of Sen. Schumer and his gang of 9 other Democrats who enabled Trump by passing the recent spending bill. It is time we elect "Democrats from the Democrat Wing of the Party" and primary any one Democrat who is a Trump enabler.
[7] Memorial Day. A lot of Americans died, in my lifetime, and killed a lot more third world natives, some armed, many civilians. For what exactly? What did they accomplish?
Every veteran who died, or was maimed, or wounded during the past century, did they really die for this country? Was America really threatened by faraway forces? Were the Germans going to land on Long Island or Martha’s Vineyard? Even the “Japs”…. it was the US embargoes and bellicose US policy that compelled the Japanese hawks to say “let’s hit them before they hit us”. All the Japanese wanted was to conquer and exploit other Asians the way Europeans and even Americans did. Those dastardly “gooks” from Korea and Vietnam, were they a stone’s throw from Hollywood and the Golden Gate bridge? The Iraqis and Afghans? These were all mortal dangers to the Republic? LOL!
Or did they die for “ideas, policies, world peace, national interests”--all a veneer for the big finance and the US elites, elites who are globalists and money-grubbers FIRST, and Americans where it suites them, to retain control of this country and continue to grow richer and more powerful, at the expense of the other 99% in general, and Middle America (defined as people who actually PAY taxes and work, “work” meaning they trade their time for money, doing something, versus making money with money) in particular.
Of course, I’ll go along with the charade and I fly my flag. I fly it because the people who were SACRIFICED, the vast majority of them gave their lives to try to survive and save their comrades, and that I respect. And until 1973, many of them were drafted and had no choice.
[8] Trump's Rococo fashion preference should carry over to the Great Leader's June 14th, self-centered military parade. Gold details on Abrams tanks would be essential. The soldiers themselves should retain their "war-fighting" uniforms but their Commander in Chief, Generalissimo Donald J. Trump should wear a special uniform. On account of his continuing battle with bone spurs, he can't be expected to march at the head of the column. But he could be driven in a golden golf cart wearing a gold lamé uniform. His service ribbons would have to include a bone spur ribbon, but more come to mind. A ribbon commemorating his ear's survival from the Butler, PA assassination attempt would be one of them. Another should honor his service in New York's 1970s club scene. Ribbons should also commemorate each of his primary victories in 2016, 2020, and 2024. His personal win against Covid deserves a ribbon, as do each of his "Club Championships" at his golf clubs. Most importantly, Trump should have more combat ribbons than any other Commander in Chief, living or dead.
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