Hello, good evening and welcome everyone to our annual celebration of ourselves and our self worth and our goals and achievements.
But first of all, to start things off, let’s stand, all of you! — all of us! — and congratulate ourselves on an unbelievable 2025 as we look forward to more grants and programs and administrative needs in 2026 Applause, please! It’s for you! And you and you and you! We did it!
Now before anything further let me take a moment for a proper Land Acknowledgment that we might pay respect to those who came before us to this great land in the great state of California and more pointedly to the spiritual home we call Mendocino County
Let us pause to give thanks and praise and salute the Italians who once strode these lands. They are not forgotten!
Italians are the ancestors that traveled the long long journey, the troubling dangerous distances across a very lot of numerous miles, some of them on water or even ice. Maybe jungles.
Anyhoo, they arrived bearing sticks and vines to this new land so they might produce spiritual intoxicants known as Gewurtztraminer, muscatel, spaghetti, bubbly champagne and fashionable wardrobe items. Gucci? Pinot Noir, chardonnay. Whatever. Fiats and chopsticks
They came before us but we hold their memory dear, and their deeds will live forever or until the last gallon jug of dago red holds out!!
A joke. That was, like, a joke.
And right now let’s give a big shout-out to the special group of hard working workers who implemented innovative strategies to dramatically reduce our client base and workload without any negative impact to our already meager budget.
The plan was brilliant. Simply by diverting all our clients to various other local agencies in Willits and Point Arena that provide the same overlapping and redundant services, we were able to free up much needed funding for staff bonuses and conferences in Hawaii and Monterey, plus tonight’s free dinner and drinks!
Let’s offer a toast to ourselves and to another amazing, awesome year of passion, community involvement, transparency, diversity and novel bookkeeping techniques that brought us our best year yet.
As we step boldly into 2026 let us take what we’ve learned and gained and shared with others to make tomorrow a better today.
Always remember, If We Can Dream It We Can Believe It and We Can Achieve It!
Live, Laugh, Love!
Put Cops On The Feet Beat
A great place for Ukiah city cops would be on Ukiah city streets.
Having police officers occasionally roaming around downtown sidewalks and neighborhoods puts some of our best ambassadors among local citizens.
Most cops are easy to talk to, happy to give their time and help, and sure bets to have friendly words and attitudes toward youngsters. Ex-Sheriff Jim Tuso was forever crouching down to talk with little kids at county fairs and the like, giving out gold-and-black MCSO “badges” that peeled off a sticky backing, then remained on a proud kid’s shirt for days at a time.
I can’t remember how long it was from the time Sheriff Tuso pasted a badge on six year old Lucas’s chest to the time I was finally able to put that shirt through the laundry. He knew the washing machine would destroy his badge, and he put up a fight to keep it lookin’ good until he graduated from high school.
Ukiah could use more officers pulling dog treats out of pockets for local canines, and pausing to ask people what they think are problems both in law enforcement and in city affairs. Most people have a few things on their mind and most cops are good listeners.
A knot of teens on School Street? “How you guys doin’?” asks the officer. “Things alright at school? Home? What book are you reading?”
And downtown Ukiah isn’t the only place they might wander. Out near WalMart and Costco are plenty of locals strolling here and there, and Pear Tree Plaza has more. Rotate a few pairs of officers in a handful of locations and I predict nothing but positive outcomes.
(We hope crowds have been gathering downtown on Fridays at 5 p.m. to celebrate our quick, clean invasion of Venezuela, and that there were numerous signs held aloft reading “NO BLOOD! ONLY OIL” as elderly unemployed protesters cheered. TWK and Tom Hine offer jolly waves from far-off North Carolina.)
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