Off the Record 8/6/2025

SUPERVISORS AGENDA HIGHLIGHTS, Next Tuesday, July 29, 2025

by Mark Scaramella

Board Chair John Haschak will try yet again to make symbolic cuts to the Supervisors budget by proposing to “eliminate $4,500 from Special Department Expense, $3,500 from Education/Training, $1,500 from Transportation In-County, $6,000 from Travel Out-of-County, $4,000 from Communications, and $1,000 from Office Expense

Haschak also wants to “Reduce the Yearly Base Salary of the Board of Supervisors from $110,715.00 to $103,008.50 and to Eliminate Associated Management Training Benefits and Telecommunication Allowance.”

Haschak has made several previous attempts to institute these modest Board budget reductions and has yet to get even a second to his motion.

In closed session the Board plans to continue to discuss Auditor-Controller/Treasurer-Tax Collector Chamise Cubbison’s years-long, ever-escalating civil suit, and a new one: “Significant Exposure to Litigation Arising from a Complaint from a Former Employee of the Mendocino County Air Quality Management District.” In neither case is any action proposed to be taken.

In a related open session item, with a possible indication that they think the County is spending too much on outside lawyers, Supervisors Ted Williams and Bernie Norvell want to ask CEO Darcy Antle “to Conduct a Five-Year Cost Trend Analysis of Aggregate Legal Services Including Expenditures on Internal and External Counsel; Direction to County Counsel to Provide the CEO with an Operational Overview and Department Utilization Data to Support this Review; Direction to the CEO to Present Findings and Recommendations from this Collaborative Assessment for a Long-Term Legal Services Model that can Best Meet the Future Legal Service Needs through an Effective and Sustainable Service Model; and Authorization to Use Necessary Support Services Within the CEO’s Existing Purchasing Authority.”

The proposing Supervisors further explain:

“We propose a proactive, forward-looking review of the County’s legal services to better understand trends in cost, staffing, caseload, contracts, and service delivery over the past five years. The goal is to ensure that legal services, including both internal and contracted resources, remain strong, sustainable, and aligned with the County’s evolving needs. This reflects responsible governance through periodic evaluation of essential functions to confirm that structure and investment are appropriate for long-term service effectiveness and fiscal efficiency. The review is not in response to any deficiency or concern. It is a best practice that allows the County to plan thoughtfully, without causing unnecessary disruption for staff, while supporting a close examination of how to maximize public value.

Over the past five years, Mendocino County has approved numerous contracts for external legal services related to litigation, labor negotiations, CEQA compliance, annexation, tax matters, and other specialized needs. These include agreements such as the second amendment with Colantuono Highsmith & Whatley PC for up to $500,000 in legal services (Mendocino County Board of Supervisors 2022), the fourth amendment with Renne Public Law Group increasing the total to $460,000 for labor and employment advice (Mendocino County Board of Supervisors 2025), and the second amendment with Liebert Cassidy Whitmore increasing the total to $400,000 for personnel matters (Mendocino County Board of Supervisors 2025).[ms notes: “Personnel matters”? Mainly the Cubbison civil case.] Additional firms have been retained for a variety of purposes, with total external counsel expenditures over the period amounting to several million dollars based on Board approvals from 2020 through 2025.

This item would authorize the CEO to review the following:

• Five-Year Cost Trends, including disaggregated data on spending for internal legal operations and contracted services by firm.
• Service Structure and Planning, assessing whether the current mix of internal and external legal services is the most effective and efficient approach for meeting current and future demands.
• Staffing and Workload Patterns, including attorney and support staff capacity in relation to caseloads, mandates, and statutory obligations.
• Caseload Analysis, examining trends in volume, type, and complexity, and whether current legal resources align with the County’s operational priorities.

The CEO is expected to incorporate data and input from County Counsel, financial and budget records, outside contracts, and departmental utilization patterns to produce a cohesive and informative assessment. This review should not only account for direct legal expenditures but also examine how demand for legal services originates and flows through the organization. Because legal service costs are influenced in part by how departments under CEO leadership utilize counsel, effective cost management will require a coordinated understanding of departmental practices and operational needs.

By authorizing this review, the Board takes a responsible step toward gaining a comprehensive understanding of legal service trends and ensuring that resources are used effectively. While the Board regularly considers legal agreements on a case-by-case basis, a broader perspective will help inform future policy and budget decisions. Any consulting services or tools required to support the review will remain within the CEO’s existing purchasing authority, and no budget augmentation is requested.

Achieving this goal will require collaborative input from both the CEO and County Counsel, each of whom reports directly to the Board.”

A bit late for this, wouldn’t you say? After all, as the item notes, the Board approves every outside contract and every outside contract extension, some of which the Board itself has unjustifiably initiated. (E.g., the Cubbison fiasco and the attempt to charge the Sheriff for ordinary budget overruns.) They’re basically saying, We know we’ve never asked any questions about the millions of dollars worth of outside lawyers we’ve already rubberstamped, but we now want a “broader perspetive” before we continue this practice.

We will be very surprised if this one gets approved, much less if any significant changes ensue. But the discussion and pushback from the CEO and County Counsel might be interesting.

IDAHO JUDGE HIPPLER said the heartbroken families may never know why Kohberger killed their loved ones. “The need to know what is inherently not understandable makes us dependent upon the defendant to provide us with a reason, and that gives him the spotlight, the attention and the power he appears to crave,” he said. “In my view, the time has now come to end Mr Kohberger's 15 minutes of fame.”

IN FACT, Kohberger has already had multiples of his 15, and is likely to be forever besieged by media eager to give him many more. In the global home of The Lone Nut, the guy's pure gold, right up there with Zodiac, Manson, Dahmer.

FRANKLIN GRAHAM, hells spawn of Billy, popped up between segments of David Muir's ABC Evening News, just before Dave wrapped up with his usual maudlin sign-off, this one four minutes of a Down Syndrome children's basketball team. Franklin asked, “Are you ready to stand before God?” Yes! I shouted. And I'll be delighted to see Him, always having suspected that this was it, 86 years of life, from incomprehension prior to, I dunno, oblivion? Given that alternative, standing before God would be most welcome. I'd begin, “Yes, I've sinned, Sir,” and I carry the mortifications to this day, and thank you for agreeing to see me. Do I repent? Absolutely. But I have a favor to ask, assuming Your absolution and a pass through Your pearly gates. Please, God, don't place me eternally with any of the Grahams.

STATEMENT from one of the District Attorney recallers: “More than 7,000 signatures are needed from registered voters to get a recall on the ballot. Mr Eyster’s abuses of power and misogyny cannot be tolerated any longer. Covering for a rapist cop, retaliating against a domestic violence victim in order to protect his friend, the perpetrator; wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayers’ money pursuing a lawfare vendetta against an honest elected official who had the temerity to question his misuse of public funds is totally unacceptable. We need a DA who will focus on his or her job of protecting public safety and not on their personal agenda.”

SHOULD DA EYSTER be recalled? Yes. As the signature gathering process begins, and it's not easy in far flung Mendo unless the recallers have a goodly team of gatherers out there. Of course Eyster, as Mendocino County's lead law enforcement officer (six) should be removed from office for using his authority to pursue purely personal pique against elected Auditor Chamise Cubbison for daring to do her job in challenging his attempt to have the taxpayers pick up the tab for his annual Christmas party at the Broiler Steak House.

OFTEN HAPPENS here in Lilliput that an elected person comes down with terminal magalomania, as all us rural midgets assume the prone position at the foot of the elected person like he or she is some kind of big shot. The salaaming is especially intense at the incestuous Proletariat Processing Center at the County Courthouse and the Board of Supervisors where ungrounded Lilliputians soon come to believe they're the cat's meow. Who dares talk back to them? Where are the Blefuscudians?

EYSTER'S an odd case. Prior to his pursuit of the intrepid Ms. Cubbison he was a pretty good top prosecutor, fair and proportionate. Then came his failure to max out a psychotic cop and then Cubbison. The guy's always had the latent monarchical tendencies that finally took him over, but one would think after all his years in office, reputation unsullied, Eyster wouldn't have lost his head over a mere challenge from the County's auditor over a small amount of money. (How dare that woman!)

BUT WITHOUT the inexplicable assent of the five craven supervisors at the time, Eyster would not have been able to persecute and prosecute Ms. Cubbison. (Ms. Kennedy was collateral damage.)

SUPERVISORS Mulheren, Williams, Haschak, McGourty, and Gjerde, along with Eyster and his suburban lawn, in a just world, would be held personally liable for costing county taxpayers millions of dollars the county doesn't have. And, when Cubbison's bill comes due, the taxpayers will be on the hook for millions more. Meanwhile, the three remaining sitting dolts sail on as if nothing happened, and retired supervisors McGourty and Gjerde collect their fat retirement checks paid out by the county they helped bankrupt.

ADAM GASKA:

The Great Redwood Trail Authority should stay in its lane and focus on maintaining the easement. That $126,000 they recently approved for “outreach” would be better spent hiring people to weed whack, clear brush, hauling off trash, fixing culverts, etc. They should also be patrolling the easement for security to prevent trespass and vagrancy. They are not an agency that provides human services nor do they have the bandwidth to assess if the money they appropriate on service providers are providing the services they hope for. It would have been better if they helped fund the CORE program (Community Outreach Response & Engagement).

Hire guys with weed whackers, masticators and dozers to clean the trail so that law enforcement could easily access the tracks and the fire hazard is abated. Send some funds toward the Sheriff to offset the cost of responding to incidents on the tracks and do the occasional patrol.

My guess is they are trying to buy some political cover to help with the blowback from it becoming public that they have been paying Lear for security.

FRED GARDNER: Gorbachev

To: Adam Mintz:

Thanks very much for recommending Werner Herzog’s Gorbachev film.

I flashed on Dennis Peron saying goodbye on the last night of the SFCBC in ‘98. He saw how Prop 215 was being disimplemented, and what lay ahead for the movement, “But for one brief, shining moment,” he said, "there was the San Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club.”

The lesson of history is: they don’t let the people win. (Not to mention that Galicean who they crucified).

Here’s two pieces re Gorbachev:

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/05/19/irrefutable-proof-russian-election-meddling-documented/

https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/2btfpiwkwid6fq6qrokcg/home/how-harvard-lost-russia

EYSTER'S SLUSH FUND

George Hollister: “Auditor Chamise Cubbison for daring to do her job…” Correct me if I am partly, or totally wrong. My understanding is the money in question that was being spent was asset forfeiture money, and that the Board of Supervisors has no control over that. The auditor may not have any control of that either. Does that mean the DA has a lot of discretion regarding how that money is spent? I don’t know. Who decides what an “education” event is? The underlying issue here is asset forfeiture, and how it is handled. In my mind, allowing the law to confiscate money and hard assets from accused or convicted people opens the door to abuse.

Anon (Ukiah): Are you kidding? The underlying issue is DA Dave created false payment request calling it training. He committed fraud, which last time I checked is felony.

Anon (Willits): GH, I get your point. However, a young man who grew up with my kids eventually landed in the illegal marijuana business. During this so-called forfeiture process, before legalization, on two occasions, this guy walked $35,000 into the DA’s office, handed it off to somebody, and never even got a receipt… Oversight, what the fuck was that? There is no defensible argument that holds an ounce of credibility for what they did to Ms. Cubbinson and Ms. Kennedy. The point is, the party was a sham dressed up like an educational gig. And if legit, why were the spouses there? This county will likely lose millions due to an inside baseball hustle for a $2500.00 booze and food tab at the Broiler Steakhouse. Ask around.

Norm Thurston (retired Auditor’s Office senior staffer): Also, the county has written policy on when meals are reimbursable, and when they are not. It has historically been the Auditor-Controller’s duty to refuse payment on reimbursements that fall outside the policy, and that is what Cubbison did.

Anon (Ukiah): That’s why [Judge] Faulder called DA Dave out on his policy concerning mj growers. I believe Faulder at one point called it a form of extortion. I agree with your [Thurston’s] post, you’re right on the money.

Hollister: No argument from me. My primary point is if the money spent on the party-education gig was asset forfeiture money, then that fact needed to be part of the conversation from the beginning. It is also important to recognize that to a greater or lesser extent it is common to see government money spent for a stated purpose, while the primary or lesser purpose is to entertain. In the private world, company annual meetings are held in vacation venues, where a family vacation can be written off as a business expense. It’s a good way to make sure people show up. Expense accounts are another opportunity to abusively spend other people’s money. I am sure I could go on.

Thurston: Once asset forfeiture funds are received from the state or federal government, they become county funds. The Auditor-Controller’s Office reviews all claims against county funds, to determine if they are appropriate and in conformance with adopted county policy. To that extent, yes the Auditor-Controller has control over asset forfeiture funds. The county may add controls not provided for by the state or federal program, so long as it is not contrary to the state or federal rules. The A-C may also withhold payment, pending appropriate budgetary approvals. If one does not like the rules, one should put their efforts into changing the rules.

Adam Gaska: The Auditor-Controller has the responsibility to track all expenses and to make sure that they are used correctly.

The state has very strict guidelines on how asset forfeiture money can be spent. All agencies under the law enforcement umbrella can spend the money but must follow the guidelines. The guidelines are such to avoid incentivizing law enforcement agencies from seizing property to support their own budgets. Taking it even beyond supporting your own budget and using it for personal ingratiation is taking it to another level of abuse.

Norm Thurston: There are also guidelines to prevent counties from supplanting general fund contributions to law enforcement with asset forfeiture funds.

Mark Scaramella: Remember, years ago, before the ever-careful Cubbison started asking questions about Eyster’s travel, conference and “training” reimbursement requests, Cubbison asked for a legal ruling about whether asset forfeiture spending was subject to the same rules as tax money. The outside attorney (who happened to be from the same outside attorney office as the outside attorney (mis)handling the Cubbison case for the County) said, basically, Yes. Eyster didn’t like that answer, so he got a special dispensation from his friend, then-CEO Carmel Angelo, declaring his asset forfeiture expenses exempt from needing Auditor approval. Cubbison, as an independent elected official, disagreed and asked Eyster to justify his expenses before she would approve them. That’s when Eyster went into blast mode and voiced his strenuous objection to Cubbison being appointed Acting Auditor-Controller at that now famous Board of Supervisors meeting in the fall of 2021. Cubbison stood her ground. The next thing we knew Cubbison was elected by the public to be Auditor-Controller/Treasurer Tax Collector to the chagrin of Eyster and the Supervisors. She was then wrongfully charged with misappropriation for allegedly approving an obscure time card code for the County’s payroll manager based on a bogus investigation. And the Board, colluding with Eyster as it was later demonstrated via incriminating emails, intentionally citing the wrong government code section on the recommendation of their outside attorney, immediately suspended Cubbison without pay without even offering her a chance to respond prior to the suspension. Almost two years later Judge Moorman laughed the misappropriation charge out of court saying that County officials knew about the pay code all along and did nothing about it. To this day Eyster, the CEO, and the colluding Supervisors have evaded criticism over their roles in the sordid affair. And Cubbison is still trying to recover her losses and her reputation while steadfastly trying to do the job she was elected to do in a County administration that refuses to do the right thing because they don’t like having their high-handed actions questioned or opposed. So they are stonewalling and dragging out any reasonable settlement for as long as possible with transparent diversionary and costly legal maneuvers. (A change of venue motion for a judge trial? Come on!) It is truly shameful. In a rational County, everyone involved would be recalled or fired, not just Eyster. But this is Mendocino County where accountability stops at the top and incompetence, self-protection and malfeasance are rewarded.

MENDO KEEPS CHASING THE HIPCAMP TAIL, but can’t seem to catch up.

by Mark Scaramella

Item 3h on next Tuesday’s consent calendar is a draft letter in support of the State’s latest attempt to permit “hipcamps” in rural areas. Mendo has been behind the curve on regulating hipcamps for several years. Typically “hipcamps” (a term invented on the internet where campsites are treated like AirBnB vacation rentals) are rented campsites on ag parcels with minimal facilities. A few years ago the Planning Commission was unable to get three votes for their first attempt at a permitting/regulation system, so they punted it to the Supervisors who dithered as usual. Meanwhile, several dozen official Mendo hipcampsites are registered on the “hipcamp” website but without any regulation. Nobody knows how many more may be out there that are unregistered.

The last official action the Supervisors took was to endorse a loosey-goosey state proposal a couple of years ago that basically just said hipcamps are fine with us, with minimal permits and regulation. It would have let the counties figure out how to manage them.

When the Board discussed hipcamps last year the only locals in support of them were people who wanted the hipcamp rental revenue. Everybody else was either opposed or supported them with strict regulation, especially regarding fire risk.

This year Assembly Bill 518 has popped up (sic) with a somewhat more restrictive set of rules for hipcamps. So, of course, Supervisor John Haschak put a letter of support for SB518 on Tuesday’s board agenda.

According to Haschak’s draft letter of support:

AB 518 establishes specific criteria for designating areas as LICAs [Low Intensity Camping Areas], allowing them to operate without a state permit, provided they meet local permit requirements. To qualify as a LICA, a camping area must have no more than nine campsites on a minimum of two acres, ensuring a maximum density of one campsite per acre. [?] All parking must be off-street, and the property should not be located within an urban or suburban environment. Importantly, a property manager or operator must be present and available 24/7. Additionally, the site must comply with local health and safety regulations regarding trash disposal, human waste management, fire safety, and noise control. The rental terms are capped at 14 consecutive nights per camper, with a maximum of 28 nights per calendar year for each camper. If a property owner meets all these guidelines, they will still need to obtain all necessary local permits to operate a low-impact camping area but will be exempt from additional state permitting. AB 518 creates an opportunity for interested local governments to develop a simpler permitting pathway for LICAs in their jurisdiction if they so choose.”

That sounds like an improvement over previous proposals. But questions remain.

How will these more restrictive regulations be enforced?, for example. Mendo is in no position to assign code enforcement officers to monitor hipcamps so their “complaint driven system” will have to suffice. Meaning that neighbors will end up having to complain about hipcamps — after they become a problem.

We have been unable to find any other rural counties rushing to support AB518. Santa Cruz County has written a letter of opposition and Humboldt County said they’d only support it if additional restrictions were included, such as:

• Establishment of a specific complaint program to support code enforcement related to low-impact camping areas.
• Require all low-impact camping owners or operators to post, in a conspicuous location, any permit or registration required by the county to operate the low-impact camping area, and providing contact information for the county for complaints or information related to low-impact camping areas.
• Impose “quiet hours,” or in the absence of applicable local requirements, enforce quiet hours from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.
• Comply with applicable local requirements for disposal of human waste, or in the absence of applicable local requirements, maintain sanitation facilities that are fully self-contained or connected to a permitted sewage disposal system serving the property.
• Comply with applicable state and local tax requirements, including, but not limited to, the payment of local transient occupancy taxes.

HumCo also complained about lack of adequate water quality protection, public safety impacts and unintended conflicts with existing rural and working land uses and neighbors.

Humboldt Supervisors also said that AB518 would “contribute to neighbor conflicts, habitat fragmentation and threats to local drinking water sources from inadequate wastewater and garbage management,” … would be “difficult to verify compliance with local ordinances,” … would not provide local governments with adequate tools to compel platforms to remove illegally operating campsites,” … adding, “many of our rural properties also lack adequate fire access roads and/or are not within fire districts, making emergency response very challenging.” Humco’s opposition concluded that AB518 “lacks adequate safeguards for wastewater, garbage, and emergency access, and could encourage the conversion of productive agricultural and timber lands into commercial camping operations. Unhosted sites in remote areas pose unacceptable safety risks, especially in high fire-severity zones.”

The California Farm Bureau told the Assembly that AB518 “would help farmers and ranchers diversify their income through low-impact agrotourism [sic] opportunities.”

Santa Cruz County opposed AB518 because there’s simply not enough fire hazard mitigation, no rules on use and overuse of rural roads and because it could lead to increases in neighboring property owner insurance costs.

Even with these unaddressed issues, most of which have been brought up before in various Mendo deliberations, Haschak thinks AB518 is so straightforward that sending a letter of unrestricted support is so routine that it can be approved on the consent calendar without discussion.

Even with the opposition to date, it looks like AB518 will pass sometime this year. Has anyone considered what Mendo will do when it passes and how a permit and code enforcement system would work and be funded? Or will they dither again as usual, unable to arrange for an enforceable hipcamp permitting system while the unregulated camps themselves continue to grow?

A READER WRITES: Let’s UNPACK. Programs exist in name only. Not seeing a lot of if ANY results. Oodles of cash dumped on an eternal flame of BS and lies to keep the higher ups well fed while the low lifes below wobble and fall. Never you mind, the divide is wider and wider. We are comfortable and will not rock our gravy train from its tracks. Many upper staff ripe for or very close to retirement. Sitting on 900 hours of sick time to be rolled out to add months to the retirement service date. Managers so busy micro managing they do nothing else. Short staffed, behind, management will not or are not equipped to lead or pick up when they need to. They will defend non action. We are managers, we manage, we don’t actually work, we talk about how to work. We will cook you some B Bar S hotdogs! Now that’s work. The cover albeit shiny is far from what the interior reality is. BOS can’t see through the haze to see the deception poured on them. Circle talk, fraud, scams, abuse of power. What’s not to love about our Mendocino County CEO, COO, CFO, BOS, MCSO? They are great examples of exactly what’s wrong in the world today. Cripe!

“WHAT A LOUSY EARTH! He wondered how many people were destitute that same night even in his own prosperous country, how many homes were shanties, how many husbands were drunk and wives socked, and how many children were bullied, abused, or abandoned. How many families hungered for food they could not afford to buy? How many hearts were broken? How many suicides would take place that same night, how many people would go insane? How many cockroaches and landlords would triumph? How many winners were losers, successes failures, and rich men poor men? How many wise guys were stupid? How many happy endings were unhappy endings? How many honest men were liars, brave men cowards, loyal men traitors, how many sainted men were corrupt, how many people in positions of trust had sold their souls to bodyguards, how many had never had souls? How many straight-and-narrow paths were crooked paths? How many best families were worst families and how many good people were bad people? When you added them all up and then subtracted, you might be left with only the children, and perhaps with Albert Einstein and an old violinist or sculptor somewhere.”

— Joseph Heller, ‘Catch 22’

BETTER NOT TELL TRUMP

From the July 2025 Mendocino County CEO Report:

“July is Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) Awareness Month, Also known as Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month honors the memory of Bebe Moore Campbell, an American author, journalist, teacher, and mental health advocate who worked to shed light on the mental health needs of the Black community and other underrepresented communities.”

WILLITS POLICE DEPARTMENT

A metal cowboy hat was turned in to the department today after it was retrieved from the creek bed in the 100 block of North Main Street. The hat is heavily weathered and weighs about 15lbs. The hat appears to be a part of a statue due to a socket underneath, but does have some worn felt footings to rest on a flat surface.

If you recognize this property, we ask that the owner please call (707) 459-6122 so we can arrange to return it. The property will be held for 90 days pending an owner, with some form of proof of ownership, can be identified.

BUDGET BUNGLING 4.0

by Mark Scaramella

Near the end of June, as the Supervisors were finalizing what they jokingly referred to as this fiscal year’s “balanced budget,” they emphasized that to have any chance of achieving that nebulous goal, they’d need to strictly follow their “Strategic Hiring Process,” aka a soft hiring freeze, because the the budget depended on finding around $6 million in salary savings from not filling vacancies (in General Fund departments) over the July 2025 to June 2026 period. This “process” was so important to this year’s budget management that CEO Darcy Antle and her staff included the following unusual item in their June 24 CEO Report:

“Strategic Hiring Process — On May 6, 2025, the Board of Supervisors directed staff to implement ‘Strategic Hiring’ as part of the recruitment process due to significant budget constraints heading into the 2025-2026 Fiscal Year. The Strategic Hiring Process, introduced during the County budget presentation on June 3, includes six phases: job analysis and design, workforce planning, approval to hire, recruitment, onboarding, and evaluation. This structured process promotes consistency, transparency, and informed decision-making while assisting departments in assessing needs, justifying requests, and supporting long-term workforce planning. As part of this process, Human Resources will introduce a standing monthly agenda item to the Board of Supervisors, during which Department Heads and Elected Officials will address the Board regarding their requests to promote transparency and accountability. This standing item will be presented to the Board of Supervisors for the first time on July 29, 2025.”

Accordingly, the Human Resources Department added this item to that June 24 CEO Report titled “Strategic Hiring Process”:

“Agenda Item: Human Resources will present a monthly agenda item to the Board of Supervisors, which reviews all departmental requests to fill vacant or soon-to-be vacant positions. Each request will include a justification outlining the necessity of the position, any legal or regulatory mandates, and the proposed funding source.”

At the time, we scoffed at that the idea that the Board or the CEO or her top staff would do anything like this because 1. They don’t do monthly reporting, never have; never will. And 2. They especially wouldn’t do this kind of reporting because not only is it beyond them, but the results would show that they’re not doing anything like what the CEO said they would do — i.e., managing vacancies and balancing the budget.

So it was no surprise to comb through the July 29 Board agenda and the July 2025 CEO report and find nothing about the Strategic Hiring Process. Repeat: Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

PS. With the exception of two relatively new Supervisors, these are the same people who complained on an almost monthly basis in the months before Auditor-Controller/Treasurer Tax Collector Chamise Cubbison was suspended without pay for not providing the Board with financial reports that should have been provided by the CEO.

WE WERE DISAPPOINTED to see that MendoFever’s Matt LaFever didn’t mention the County of Mendocino in his recent rundown of Ukiah’s unpopular Annexation plans for SFGate. The door to Ukiah’s original ambitious annexation plan was opened wide by an ill-considered tax sharing agreement engineered in secret last year by Supervisor Maureen Mulheren and some top Ukiah officials and approved in a hurry-up job by the Supervisors on a 5-0 vote without any County staff or public review. A few months into 2025, newly elected Supervisors Madeline Cline (large portions of whose district would have been included in Ukiah’s proposal) and former Fort Bragg City Councilman Bernie Norvell expressed disapproval of the tax sharing agreement and Ukiah’s annexation plan. Norvell said that Mulheren’s tax sharing agreement was good for the cities but bad for the County, and Cline invited several senior County officials and the public to describe how difficult and costly Mulheren’s tax sharing agreement would be to implement. County Sheriff Matt Kendall called Ukiah’s oversized annexation proposal “bait and switch,” saying that it was larger than the County had been lead to believe last year and that there would be no compensating reduction in his staff if the unincorporated annexed areas were policed by Ukiah instead of the Sheriff. There are still lingering questions about how much tax revenue the County would give up under Mulheren’s agreement — the amount of which depends on which parcels might be annexed. Cline and Norvell are part of an ad hoc committee which is supposed to be reviewing the tax sharing agreement. But now that Ukiah has withdrawn their overlarge initial proposal, the tax sharing agreement and the annexation are up in the air and the discussions are still being held in secret. There are some areas on the edges of Ukiah that may make sense for annexation. But now that the tax sharing agreement, and the annexation proposal are in limbo, along with the vocal opposition stirred up by Ukiah’s original proposal, the whole subject of tax sharing and annexation are on indefinite hold. As we have said before, any future tax sharing agreement should include a “no County tax revenue reduction” provision and the entire process should be handled in a public standing committee, not in secret which would only fuel more opposition from the annexees when Ukiah’s next, presumably smaller, annexation proposal appears. To us, much of the blame for this entire compound blunder lies at the feet of Supervisor Mulheren who should have conducted her tax sharing discussions in public and who should have called for a formal staff review of it before she presented to the Board as a fait accompli.

(Mark Scaramella)

SUNDAY'S COVELO FIRE

Lew Chichester (Covelo)

The current suspicion for the cause of Covelo’s Medicine Fire on Sunday was morons burning garbage. This has happened before, same location, same incident cause, five years ago with a different moron roasting oysters on an open flame on a hot day with the wind blowing. This is an abandoned grow site, accessible from a dirt road near the transfer station, and this place is a magnet for broken down cars, garbage, and low life characters. It’s private property, in violation of just about every land use ordinance one can imagine, county code enforcement has been there and wrote a letter. That’s it, wrote a letter. Put it in the file. We could definitely use some serious abatement action out here.

ON-LINE COMMENTS OF THE WEEK

[1] So starving people who haven't gotten proper food or water in a month are being shot in the head for the unspeakable crime of checks notes walking to food distribution sites, there's a forced relocation affecting 50 percent of Gaza, 80 percent or more of all buildings are destroyed, hospitals bombed, infrastructure exploded, and in the West Bank, Jewish terrorists beat and kill Palestinians with impunity. But it's not, in the illuminated, all-knowing mind of the NYT, a genocide-genocide, so I guess it's just a good old-fashioned atrocity? I feel so much better.

[2] I started construction at 15 during summer breaks. It's all about labor costs and money. Every contractor I ever did business with decried they couldn't make money while miraculously driving the newest pick up trucks and houses while the workers struggled with payments on their pos used trucks and a double wide . Then the good times ended as real wages never kept up and illegals would work for far less. The good hard workers left the trades, and contractors would complain about American workers being lazy. Capitalism turns out to be one way. Labor doesn't go up with demand as long as you can cheat by hiring illegals. The last laugh will be on everyone else with the coming AI robotics replacing degreed workers.

[3] Seven in 10 Scots have a negative opinion of Trump. For various reasons, many from before he even became POTUS. His shenanigans around getting his golf course built (they even made a movie about it in 2011!) and big broken promises to get it built certainly didn’t help. Oh, and his landing in Scotland right after Brexit and congratulating the Scots on getting “their country back” when Scotland had voted overwhelmingly to remain. Though that last one lead to some of the greatest Scottish disses ever.“ludicrous tangerine ballbag” is still my personal favorite.

[4] Darrell Royal once said, "When You Pass The Football, thee are 3 things that can happen. 2 of them are bad."

A civil war May be coming and may be necessary…But

When you start a civil war there are 4 things that can happen. 3 of them are bad

1. You Win.
2. You Lose.
3. Neither side wins and the damn thing goes on and on until no one really remembers why it started.
4. You win, but in winning to destroy that what you were fighting for.

Be Careful What You Wish For. You Just Might Get It.

[5] MAGA is a problem, but much of MAGA has been misled by the Conservative elite, and the Democrats have the same problem. There is a lot of misdirection about the left from the Democratic elite. They want a 'softer' more forgiving version of elitism, but they still want all their perks. The want the protection. The want the unwashed masses kept at bay. But just kept more comfortably at bay. The elites are the problem. Right along with the ultra wealthy. Fix one for our problems? Go back to the tax structure of 1965. Run that for at least ten years, then adjust, with the full historic knowledge of what a fiasco 'Reaganomics' or supply side economics has been for the middle and lower middle class. The numbers are horrific.

[6] It will take a generation to restore any sense of integrity to the DOJ after this sad and dangerous era. Of the endless malfeasance of this administration, its sanguine attitude about destroying our institutions tops the list. Who do these people think they are? And why are we all sitting around and letting it happen? Trump was elected by about 30% of eligible voters. What are we doing?!