Former Supervisor John Pinches Remembered At Laytonville Celebration

On Saturday, July 26, Johnny Pinches’ Friends, family, neighbors, and constituents, showed up at the Laytonville Rodeo Grounds to honor, respect and share stories and remembrances about Laytonville’s native son.

Here’s part of what I said about Johnny at the event held at the Rodeo Grounds. (By the way, Pinches was the principal organizer and founder of the Laytonville Rodeo Association, so the Rodeo Grounds was a fitting site for his memorial.)

Johnny was a good, good, good man who always cared about and represented the best interests of working people and salt-of-the earth ordinary folks who had no one fighting for them. And he accomplished it all with old-school charm, down-home witty humor, and a fierce commitment to finish what he started, even if he didn’t always win.

Current District 3 Supervisor John Haschak spoke at the event saying that Pinches was an inspiration and model for his approach as an elected official.

Pinches served on the Board of Supervisors for a total of 12 years, first from 1995 to 1999, and again from 2007 to 2015.

Johnny and I worked together for many years, he as a supervisor, and me as an advocate for good government. We won some and we lost some, but overall we had one hell of a good time doing what Johnny called “Knocking ‘em in the head.”

I’ve always said the job of politicians is to solve problems not create them. Pinches definitely understood that his primary job was problem-solving for his constituents.

Pinches was justifiably proud of his tenure on the Board given that he was instrumental in planning a fiscal turnaround from near-bankruptcy to a position of solid solvency with cash reserves. It’s a story that’s been related here many times before, so I won’t repeat

As a Supervisor, Pinches’ philosophy was that tax dollars should be spent to the maximum on providing a full array of services to constituents, while eliminating bureaucratic waste and departmental redundancies. His slogan was to “hold the department heads accountable” for their actions and job performance. He successfully fought attempts by the Social Services Department to cut general assistance payments to those folks down on their luck. “If this country can afford to build billion dollar B-2 bombers, we can certainly afford to give a few hundred dollars to the poor and single moms who can’t work through no fault of their own,” he said at the time.

In keeping with his philosophy of fiscal responsibility and departmental accountability, he was able, for example, to ferret out millions of dollars hidden away in the Department of Transportation budget. This money resided in a “rainy day” account for years, increasing over time, but never used for its intended purpose: To repair and maintain county roads and bridges. Once Pinches discovered the secret account, he “liberated’ it, using it as seed money to begin a long overdue program to repair roads in neglected rural areas.

Most of the Supervisors don’t understand their role as elected officials. Elected officials are supposed to carry out the wishes/demands of clear majorities of constituents unless what they’re asking is unlawful or totally unfeasible, neither of which are applicable with 99.9% of the issues they deal with. It’s not the Supervisor’s job to substitute their judgment for that of their constituents when those constituents overwhelmingly demand a different course of action than that contemplated by the Supervisors.

The voters didn’t elect consultants, facilitators, and other outside third parties to represent them in establishing and implementing priorities. That’s the job of the person they elected, and no one else.

John Pinches understood that principle of governing.

That’s a characteristic and belief not shared by most elected officials.

I can say with no fear of contradiction, we most likely won’t see another Johnny Pinches in our lifetimes.

What Johnny Got Done

Here’s some of the accomplishments of John Pinches:

• Initiated studies for Brooktrails second Access road for the safety of residents.
• Implemented fully funded programs to build or repair roads, bridges and infrastructure.
• Laytonville Library
• Harwood Park Parking lot lighting
• Covelo Rodeo Grounds lights
• Successfully saved the Willits Library and County Museum from closing.
• Closed Landfills and opened Recycling Centers in Laytonville, Covelo and Willits.
• Initiated water project Wente (Scout Lake) that will bring additional water to Willits and Brooktrails.
• Initiated Amnesty Program for Building Permits.
• Supported funding for the Arts.
• Established and funded the Resident Deputy Program in Covelo.
• Laytonville Highway 101 realignment and pedestrian pathway improvement project.
• Laytonville High School Tin Gym Bathrooms.
• Safe routes to school projects in Laytonville and Covelo.
• Covelo Airport has been paved and lighted.
• Funds for Covelo sewer upgrade.
• Formation of HHSA allowed efficiency in Public Health, Mental Health and Social Services.
• Local Vendor purchasing policy.
• Emphasis on maintaining or increasing service while reducing administrative cost/overhead.
• Created the program to use Air Quality monies to dust coat rural county roads.
• Personally supervised a strict departmental budget review and established operational analysis systems.
• Stopped herbicide spraying along highways in Mendocino County.
• Opposed ground or aerial application of “Garlon” on county forest lands.
• Branscomb Road paved to the coast.
• Implemented the “junk car” cleanup in Laytonville, Willits and Covelo.