Supervisor Williams Proposes To Reverse Another Blunder He Previously Supported

Item 4f on next Tuesday’s Board agenda:

“Discussion and Possible Action Including Adoption of a Resolution Terminate BOS Agreement No. 24-085 (Master Tax Sharing Agreement) Between the County of Mendocino and the Cities of Ukiah, Willits, Fort Bragg, and Point Arena, due to Fiscal and Operational Impacts Arising from the First Proposed Annexation Under the Agreement; Authorize Notification of the Signatory Cities and Mendocino LAFCo; and Direction to Staff to Notify Mendocino Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) that the County Anticipates the Proposed Annexation would Create a Substantial Risk to the Provision of Mandated Public Protection Services, Consistent with the Framework Established by Mendocino County Policy #13 (Annexations) (Sponsor: Supervisor Williams)”

According to the accompanying proposed resolution, “Policy #13 (Annexations), adopted June 17, 1986, states that annexations will not be favored by the County until a formula for distribution of public revenues generated by areas to be annexed is developed to pay for continuing County obligations.”

That should have been known last June when the Board blithely voted for Supervisor Mulheren’s “optimistic” Master Tax Sharing agreement.

Williams’ resolution continues: “Subsequent to approval, the first annexation proposal by the City of Ukiah has revealed unforeseen implementation burdens, including significant workload, financial strain, and administrative overhead.”

“Unforseen”? They didn’t even try for “forsee” anything last year, they just voted for it sight-unforseen.

There’s also: “The projected loss of property tax revenue under the [tax sharing agreement’s] formula, coupled with the magnitude of work needed to process and evaluate the annexation, threatens the County’s ability to maintain adequate staffing for core public safety services including the Sheriff’s Office, which is essential to fulfill the County’s constitutional and statutory obligations to provide for the public welfare.”

When they voted for Mulheren’s Folly last year, the projected property tax revenue loss was roughly estimated to be at least $3 million, so they knew it was a bad deal for the County and voted for it anyway.

In his remarks explaining his Yes vote last June, Supervisor Williams said, without any basis or analysis whatsoever, that he thought that the tax sharing agreement would not only lead to a “vibrant” and “flourishing” Ukiah, but that the benefits would overflow to the County too as development in an expanded Ukiah would magically produce additional revenue for everyone. He also said that although there might be some problems with the agreement, the County had waited too long for an agreement and that Mulheren’s agreement, bad as it was, should be voted in because it was now or never, good or bad.

Next Tuesday’s proposed resolution concludes: “The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors hereby terminates Agreement 24-085 (Master Tax Sharing Agreement), based on the County’s legal and factual determination that performance under the current agreement would materially impair its ability to fulfill its constitutional and statutory obligations.”

This blunder reversal comes on heels of several other major Board blunders in recent years, all but one of which have been either reversed, or terminated by Judge Ann Moorman:

• The crazy threat to make Sheriff Kendall personally pay for ordinary budget overruns which ended up costing almost $400k in legal fees.
• The failed attempted hostile takeover of the Sheriff’s computer system which was known to be illegal at the outset, not to mention compromising the security of law enforcement computer systems and information.
• The ill-advised consolidation of the Auditor-Controller and Treasurer Tax Collector offices and the accompanying “Get Cubbison” project which lead to a failed criminal prosecution and an ongoing and losing civil case and which has seriously disrupted county finances and will end up costing hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars.
• The ill-advised relocation of the Veterans Service Office which was first staunchly defended by the Supervisors but months later reversed, costing tens of thousands in lost state rent money — the original purpose of the relocation.

And now, a year after voting for the tax sharing agreement without any analysis or public review, here’s a belated proposal to terminate it for reasons that should have been obvious last June when the Board voted 4-1 (Haschak dissenting) for it.

What do they all have in common? Supervisor Williams voted for them.

Now Supervisor Williams wants to claim credit for undoing another failed idea he blindly supported, in a transparent attempt to spin his blunder into the positive by pretending to be doing to what the public wants.

Given that Supervisor John Haschak opposed the agreement last year, and that Supervisors Bernie Norvell and Madeline Cline have expressed disapproval, the termination of Mulheren’s Big Tax Sharing Agreement looks to be a foregone conclusion.

Now all that’s left to do is settle the Cubbison case blunder before it gets even worse so they can move on to the next big screw up and reversal.