June 3, 2025
To: Ukiah City Council and Staff:
Mendocino County Farm Bureau is opposed to the City of Ukiah’s Annexation plan. The proposed plan would endanger farmland through urban sprawl, increase conflict between urban residents and agricultural producers carrying out farming operations, lead to higher taxes, and destroy the rural character of the Ukiah Valley.
There has been insufficient effort to prioritize the preservation of farmland or to protect the property rights currently held by existing agricultural operations and rural residents. Many land use entitlements and activities that are allowed in non-incorporated areas, such as open air burning, raising livestock, use of firearms, drilling of wells, etc., are prohibited or carry substantial restrictions in the City.
Rural residents love living in the country and do not want to see their community become urbanized.
The annexation process lacks transparency. MCFB has been engaging with City staff since December, bringing forward issues and concerns expressed by our members, most of which have not been adequately addressed. We have not seen an analysis of the tax implications for newly annexed properties or what the increase in obligations would be.
By and large, we are being inundated with messages through social media and the City of Ukiah website singing the praises of annexation, but we are not convinced.
We doubt the City of Ukiah’s ability to provide services at the same level or better than the County currently does in the proposed annexed areas.
If approved, this annexation would siphon away significant tax revenue from the County which is already facing budgetary shortfalls and looking at making deep cuts.
While the responsibility for providing services in newly annexed areas would shift from the County to the City and result in a level of cost savings for the County, we believe the loss in County tax revenues would be greater than the savings. The resulting net loss will strain County departments, hindering their functions and provision of services.
Rural residents living in unincorporated areas far from Ukiah’s sphere of influence would suffer most from this decline in the County’s ability to provide services.
For these reasons, MCFB opposes the City of Ukiah’s Annexation plans and insists they be abandoned.
Estelle Clifton, President
Mendocino County Farm Bureau
June 3, 2025
To: Board of Supervisors and Staff:
Mendocino County
501 Low Gap Road
Ukiah, CA 95482
The Mendocino County Farm Bureau (MCFB) is a non-governmental, non-profit, voluntary membership, advocacy group whose purpose is to protect and promote agricultural interests throughout the county and to find solutions to the problems facing agricultural businesses and the rural community. MCFB is submitting comments on the City of Ukiah’s proposal for annexation and reorganization.
Mendocino County Farm Bureau is opposed to the City of Ukiah’s Annexation plan. We have serious reservations regarding the scope and scale of the annexation plan and deep concern regarding the negative fiscal implications this would have for County finances.
Mendocino County Farm Bureau’s stated mission is to protect and promote agricultural interests in our county and to preserve our rural character. Such a rapid expansion of the City of Ukiah would endanger farmland through urban sprawl that would lead to an increase in conflicts between agricultural producers conducting everyday farming activities and neighboring urban residents. Rural residential residents would see the rights and entitlements they currently enjoy being eroded, their taxes increasing, and the rural character of our community destroyed.
The County is experiencing serious financial hardships and structural deficits. It is struggling to finance and provide many of the core services, such as law enforcement and road maintenance, that residents look to the County to provide.
If the City of Ukiah’s annexation plan is approved, it would have extremely negative consequences for the County’s budget to the detriment of its ability to provide services. Rural residents in unincorporated areas would see a profound decline in County services and quality of life would decline as a result.
Even for the residents that would be annexed or live near the City of Ukiah, it is unlikely that annexation would be beneficial. We have serious doubts that the City of Ukiah’s is able to provide at minimum the same level of service that the County currently delivers, much less provide better.
MCFB is requesting that the County conduct an in-depth analysis on the potential economic and operational impacts on County departments, services, and longterm liabilities if the proposed annexation is approved.
We believe that when the Master Tax Sharing Agreement was approved in June 2024, the potential annexation plans presented by the City of Ukiah were different from what is being proposed today, and that the City of Ukiah is operating in bad faith.
We request that the County insist that the City of Ukiah abandon their annexation plans, and if they will not, that the County rescind the Master Tax Sharing Agreement. We look to your leadership in protecting the vested interests of the rural residents and agricultural operations of Mendocino County by opposing the City of Ukiah’s annexation plans.
Estelle Clifton, President
Mendocino County Farm Bureau
—> Once upon a time, the Farm Bureau big ag wine mob orchestrated the Mendocino Board of Supervisors, which thru its CEO gradually chipped away at the reins of pleasant public participation,.
Daylight was curtailed in subsequent board chambers meetings halls over the years, library days reduced to shorten access to public agenda items detail, Clerk of the Board office was closed on Fridays, and redesign of board agenda packet software made downloads printing a challenge to sort. Some gave up as a fool’s errand, and we have what we have.
The wine grape lobby treasures have soured, and elected puppet reasoning has broken loose out of the barn, except perhaps for those who are cashing in, with strings.