SUPERVISOR MAUREEN MULHEREN posts CEO job offer on her facebook page:
This might seem random but while the official recruitment for CEO has not hit the County website it’s been on my mind so I’m putting feelers out. Do you know anyone who’d make a strong County CEO? IMO they need to have big picture management, strong mediation and financial skills. I’m not sure if they are local or if they are from out of the area. This is a key leadership position for being able to lead our County forward. If you have someone in mind I’d love to connect with them or point them in the direction of the recruiter. Of course I’m just one person out of five so while all Board members might not be looking for the same thing I want to start throwing it out there. LMK if you know the “right” person and keep the channels of communication open.
Mark Scaramella notes: “The recruiter”? “mediation skills”? “big picture management”? Mendo is so doomed.
Mendocino County is seeking our next Chief Executive Officer.
This is a pivotal leadership opportunity at an important time for our County. With increasing fiscal pressures, infrastructure needs, and evolving state and federal policies, we are looking for a strategic, collaborative leader who can guide day-to-day operations while helping shape a resilient future for our communities.
The CEO serves as the primary administrative officer for the County, overseeing operations, implementing Board policy, coordinating departments, and managing a $694 million budget with approximately 1,092 employees. This role requires strong fiscal management, experience in public administration, and the ability to work closely with elected officials, department heads, partner agencies, and the public.
Mendocino County offers an exceptional quality of life, from our Pacific coastline and redwoods to our vineyards and rural communities. We are looking for someone who appreciates that balance and is ready to lead with integrity, clarity, and vision.
Application deadline: Monday, April 6, 2026
Anticipated start date: July or August 2026
To apply: submit materials to [email protected]
If you or someone you know has senior-level public management experience and a commitment to public service, I encourage you to review the full recruitment brochure and consider applying.
More information is available at www.mendocinocounty.gov.
Please help us spread the word.
Mark Scaramella Notes: The contract for Mr. Charles McKee, the previously described $325 per hour South Lake Tahoe attorney/administrator who has been contracted to “assess” the County Counsel’s office and provide “executive management services,” runs out on March 31, less than a week before the application deadline the County has established for CEO applications. Another indication that Mendo has pre-selected the new CEO and is going through the motions of an unbiased recruiting process. After more than three full-time months performing his ill-defined and wasteful “executive management services,” it’s highly likely that Mr. McKee will be able to claim that he can successfully accomplish the challenging and complicated task of “balancing” Mendo’s “Pacific coastline and redwoods to our vineyards and rural communities.” But if you want to help the County pretend that the CEO recruiting is open, merit-based and above-board, feel free to apply. We also doubt the “anticipated start date” since it’s likely that current CEO Darcie Antle will leave sooner than that by taking her remaining accrued vacation and other time off. (PS. Pure fantasy, of course, but wouldn’t it be interesting if the next CEO somehow turned out to be Chamise Cubbison?)
MEMO OF THE WEEK
(Mendocino County Treasurer-Tax Collector Chamise Cubbison seems to be finally getting serious about collecting delinquent taxes. — Mark Scaramella)
Date: February 9, 2026
Memorandum
To: Honorable Mendocino County Board of Supervisors
From: Chamise Cubbison, Auditor-Controller/Treasurer-TaxCollector
Re: Request to add 2 Senior Revenue Recovery Specialist Positions to TC and to recruit for Revenue Recovery Specialist I & II
I am requesting the addition of 2 Senior Revenue Recovery Specialist Positions to TC to increase the department’s ability to collect additional revenue through deploying multiple collection techniques beyond what the current staffing levels presently allow.
Ongoing challenges with the Property Tax System, the increased number of Property Tax Payment Plans, and the need for some staff to focus on critical tasks related to Auctions has increased the demands on current staff and is resulting in lost opportunities for more timely collection of revenue as well as the ability to employ more aggressive efforts to collect delinquent or defaulted bills.
This request is for 2 Senior Revenue Recovery Specialist positions that will be used to recruit or promote Revenue Recovery Specialists within the series of Revenue Recovery Specialist I, II, and Senior. The positions may be filled at their classification or underfilled within the series depending on budget and recruitment results. The positions will initially be requested to be filled at Revenue Recovery Specialist I & II.
The department anticipates meeting the assigned attrition factor for TC [Tax Collector] and covering the Fiscal Year 2025/26 remaining salary projection through savings from the vacant Investment Operations Analyst position.
Assumptions used to calculate the above amounts:
- Step5 Health Insurance - Gold Employee Only
- Revised retirement rates for FY26.27
- PP0826 start for FY25.26
Thank you for your consideration of this request.
In a related move, Ms. Cubbison has put a collection services procurement item on the consent calendar for a $1 million contract with American Financial Credit Services out of Indianapolis to:
“Definition Of Services
County shall refer to Contractor with those delinquent personal property tax accounts, which County desires Contractor to skip trace, bill and recover. Contractor shall work those accounts, utilizing acceptable methods and procedures in a professional and ethical manner, in accordance with all federal and state laws.
To the extent permitted by law, County agrees to supply Contractor with the following information on each account referred via a medium agreed upon by the parties:
All necessary biographical and billing information in its possession.
Accurate balance due information.
Any other pertinent information or documents upon which the parties shall agree in writing.
Contractor shall provide County with notification of all County accounts on which it requests approval prior to filing a writ of execution to seize taxpayer assets or proceedings supplemental when freezing taxpayer bank accounts.
Notwithstanding any other provision of this Agreement, Contractor will not take any action required to seize taxpayer assets without the express written approval of the County.
Contractor will not settle or compromise any account referred to Contractor unless authorized by County or County Designee in writing.…”
(and so forth… with several more pages of accounting, tracking and contractual boilerplate)
We cannot find another example of a Califonia County contracting with a collection agency for delinquent taxes. It is usually done with in-house staff. It looks like it is rare, so there are likely to be some bumps in the road.
According to their website:
“American Financial Credit Services provides ethical and effective debt recovery services. Dedicated to collaboratively working with county offices to increase revenue by addressing their tax delinquencies. Committed to education and resolution for taxpayers, our highly knowledgeable team exceeds expectations, making a meaningful impact in the communities of our county partners. Through innovative and fair solutions, we restore financial integrity by empowering individuals and businesses to navigate their tax obligations.”
Their list of states that AFCS has customer counties in does not include California.
COUNTY COUNSEL CLAIMS WORK OVERLOAD; WANTS TO FILL A VACANCY; SAYS BUDGET IS ALMOST $1.7 MILLION (or more?)
(from a memo from County Counsel Kit Elliott to the Board of Supervisors for the Tuesday Board meeting…)
“At the Board of Supervisors meeting on February 3, I agreed to delete one (1) FTE Deputy County Counsel. I am requesting to fill the remaining vacant position in the County Counsel’s department. Eventually, we would recruit for an attorney who would perform half-time general County Counsel work and half-time work for Children and Family Services (“FCS”). In the interim, I am requesting to temporarily underfill the position with a retired annuitant who previously worked in our office for FCS and has agreed to return part-time and either another retired annuitant or a temporary intern in order to save money and not lose the position.
“The total adopted budget for the County Counsel’s Office is $1,660,322, which this request should not affect. Salaries and Benefits are $2,674,938 of the total budget (which included the two (2) Deputy County Counsel positions). County Counsel’s budget is unusual due to the fact that we receive both Revenue (estimated to at $512,000) and Intrafund transfers (estimated at $923,403). County Counsel’s budget depends heavily on reimbursement from the from certain [sic] departments through direct billing. Therefore, a large portion of our Salaries and Benefits are reimbursed through Intrafund and Revenue and show as greater than the adopted budget, which represents our office’s cost to the general fund.
“Currently we have an Interim County Counsel filling in for the County Counsel position and there is (1) vacant Deputy County Counsel position. The cost of that position would be approximately $60,526 if hired in PP 09-26 (4/12/26) [part of a year]. Due to the deleted and vacant positions, our budget includes a 12.08% Attrition Savings of $323,250. We believe that a substantial portion of the time billed would be reimbursed via Intrafund (which would not include such costs as holiday, vacation, sick and personal time).
“County Counsel bills Social Services, Family & Children’s Services Division (“FCS”). With an FCS attorney position unfilled, County Counsel will not be able to collect the anticipated Intrafund reimbursement ($359,954) as originally anticipated (calculated by taking the direct billable hours and multiplying it by the weighted rate). We anticipate that Fiscal Year 26/27 would be similar.
“Recognizing that the County Counsel’s Office is 1) Projected to be under budget for Fiscal Year 2025-26, and 2) additional salary savings are anticipated due to further vacancies, the County Counsel’s Office is requesting to hire one (1) Deputy County Counsel, per the County’s Strategic Hiring Process, while temporarily filling the position through retired annuitants or interns.
“The County Counsel's Office provides day-to-day advice and assistance to all County departments and offices. Much of the work performed by the deputies consists of advice and review every day on issues that the Board may not see. This includes tasks such as contract review, resolution and agenda packet assistance, responding to Public Records Act requests, managing litigation (both that handled internally and by outside counsel), and assisting on small to medium-difficulty requests for daily advice. Larger or more difficult projects (including but not limited to ordinance amendments, policy updates or novel contracts) require longer blocks of time, which requires balancing between resolving those matters versus handling the many everyday requests for assistance. The office handles many matters with firm deadlines, such as litigation and conservatorship matters, and must respond to time sensitive research projects, e.g., research connected to compliance with statutory deadlines, elections, grant application or contract deadlines, or personnel matters. With fewer attorneys, departments may be subject to a longer turnaround time, particularly on requests with flexible deadlines.
ACCORDING TO A CHART IN THE MID-YEAR BUDGET REPORT, The Supervsiors themselves are $150k over budget (16%). No explanation is offered. Also projected to be significantly over budget (more than $100k) so far this year are: Clerk of the Board, the Auditor-Controller ($116k over), the District Attorney (more than $1.2 million over), the Sheriff ($600k), and the Jail ($818k), Interestingly, the Treasurer-Tax Collector half of the Auditor-Controller/Treasuere Tax Collector office is slightly under budget, despite 1) their recent staffing increase, and 2) their recent plan to contract out to a collection agency at a cost of $1 million for collection of delinquent taxes. Perhaps they expect to pay that $1 million out of whatever may be collected.
Budget Notes (there is only one budget note, no other department budget variances are explained):
“The Jail will not meet the 6% staffing attrition reduction due to mandatory staffing levels in the Jail and staffing requirements necessary for the new Jail behavioral health wing, totaling $855,128. The Jail is actively seeking alternate funding for additional staffing, including a higher Community Corrections Partnership (CCP) contribution and funding from Jail Based Competency Treatment Program (JBCT) and the EAVES program for services offered in the Jail’s new Behavioral Health wing. … Jail costs are expected to increase in the next Fiscal Year due to staffing needed for the new Behavioral Health wing of the Jail. Staffing estimates project an additional $1.8 million in additional personnel expenses to adequately staff the new wing.”
(No notes are provided for the other departments that are projected to be significantly over budget.)
TUESDAY’S SUPERVISORS DISCUSSION OF THE MID-YEAR BUDGET REVISION DIDN’T OFFER MUCH NEW INFO, although it was interesting to hear Auditor-Controller/Treasurer-Tax Collector Chamise Cubbison summarize where she thought most of the (previously reported) surprise $12 million carryover from last fiscal year came from. (We will have an item on that coming up.)
There were also some clarity gaps such as this exchange between Supervisor John Haschak and Senior Deputy CEO Tony Rakes. Like us, Supervisor Haschak had noticed that the DA was projected to be about $1.2 million over his budget by the end of the fiscal year on June 30, 2026.
Haschak wanted to know why.
Haschak: “When we look at this chart on page 9, what we are seeing is, like, the sheriff’s budget has gone up, the jail goes up, and the district attorney is going up. Is that – would that be a new way of looking at that Chart? With this new number or projection?”
Rakes: “What – if there are any – this chart represents the revised budget and not the actual, so this chart doesn’t include that, let’s say, the estimated to be over by 1.2 because it is just what was budgeted for. If we were to adjust for what the actuals came in we would see obviously a variance in this year for the District Attorney. If it ends up, their budget being where we project it to come in at, if that answers your question?”
Haschak: “So the line that sloped down a little bit is re-budgeted, but the actual is going to be going up?”
Rakes: “Yes.”
There you go. No wonder the Supervisors ask so few direct questions about the budget reports. It’s nearly impossible to get a straight answer.
(Mark Scaramella)
TODAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY: 1967
During a special softball exhibition game, pitcher Eddie Feigner strikes out six consecutive major leaguers. The victims are Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Brooks Robinson, Harmon Killebrew, Roberto Clemente and Maury Wills.
STEVE TALBOT:
An indispensable young aide to Martin Luther King, Jr., the founder of PUSH in Chicago, a pioneering presidential candidate, an early supporter of people with disabilities and those suffering from AIDS, a promoter of Black empowerment, a powerful orator, Jesse Jackson had many achievements and great causes to his credit. Not least of which was his anti-apartheid campaigning and his support for the release of Nelson Mandela from prison at a time when Reagan and the U.S. government still supported the white minority regime.
As Jackson would always say, "Keep Hope Alive!"
CHUCK DUNBAR:
We have many, many motels, especially on the coast, as well as regular b and b’s, state park camping sites, etc. We had plenty of tourists, and tourist related jobs, before the scourge of airb&b landed here. Housing is a critical need that should not be sacrificed to folks who avoid going to motels and want to stay in a “home-like” site–at the high cost of taking those homes away from families who want to live and work here.
UKIAH MAN KEPT WOMAN HOSTAGE AT OAKLAND HOTEL TO FORCE HER INTO SERVITUDE
by Nate Gartrell and Jakob Rodgers
A 22-year-old Ukiah man allegedly held a woman against her will to force her to have sex with strangers for money, after meeting her on Instagram, according to court records.
Alexander Barger was charged with false imprisonment, human trafficking, pandering, robbery and domestic violence. Police say that on Feb. 17, the woman was reported missing by her mother, who told authorities her daughter was being held hostage at the Nights Inn Motel on the 800 block of West MacArthur Boulevard.
Police located Barger and the woman, but not without a little bump in the road. When officers arrived, Barger jumped from the motel’s second story in a failed attempt to get away, investigators said in court records. He was booked into Santa Rita Jail in Dublin and remains there, with no bail amount listed, records show.
Barger has pleaded not guilty. His next court date has been set for March 3. The criminal complaint says he has two prior convictions, for failing to appear in court and threatening someone, both in Mendocino County.
The woman told police that after meeting Barger online, they had an in-person rendezvous. The day after Valentine’s Day, he informed her she was going to be making him money as a sex worker, she reportedly told authorities.
She said he brought her to International Boulevard in Oakland, an area known for open-air prostitution and violence, and ended up taking $80 from her after one day out there. Then they went to the hotel, and he allegedly refused to let her leave, according to authorities.
(Santa Rosa Press Democrat)
ED NOTE: Alexander Barger has been arrested and booked at least a dozen times in Mendocino County going back to 2022 with a domestic battery bust. Since then he’s been arrested for drugs, stolen property, DUI, suspended license, vandalism, and criminal threats plus several failures to appear.
In March of 2025 Barger was arrested in Ukiah after Police officers spotted him driving a stolen Nissan after they got a traffic camera alert. The vehicle had been reported stolen from a distributor in Santa Rosa. Barger was booked into the Mendocino County Jail on charges of possession of a stolen vehicle, committing a felony while on bail, and driving on a suspended license due to a prior DUI conviction.
Why these ongoing menaces are repeatedly run through the sytsem yet continue to be released and at large despite all the money being spent on “public safety” (and a huge, wasteful courthouse) remains unexplained.
NEGIE FALLIS CHARGED WITH FOUR FELONIES IN COVELO SHOOTING
by Sydney Fishman
A Covelo man who is a person of interest in the high-profile disappearance of Round Valley Indian Tribes member Khadijah Britton eight years ago has been charged with four felonies in a separate case, a shooting that injured a man in November.
Negie Fallis, 45, was arrested by the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office in late January and booked into the Mendocino County Jail for his alleged involvement in a shooting in Covelo on Nov. 18.
According to Mendocino County sheriff’s spokesperson Capt. Quincy Cromer, a 28-year-old man had arrived at Adventist Health Howard Memorial, a hospital in Willits, with a gunshot wound to his foot.
Earlier in the day on Nov. 18, the victim was visiting a residence on Airport Road in Covelo to collect money he was owed. About 10 minutes later, a vehicle arrived. The victim got into the vehicle and spoke with the driver, who was later identified as Fallis.
After a short period of time, an argument ensued, and Fallis exited the vehicle with a firearm. After a struggle between Fallis and the victim, the gun discharged, striking the victim in the foot.
“We don’t believe it was accidental. If there is an intent to shoot someone and you are struggling over a gun, it’s still attempted murder. It comes down to him brandishing and displaying the gun against the victim,” Cromer said in a recent interview.
Fallis has been charged with four felonies — attempted murder, assault with a firearm, possession of a firearm by a felon, and transportation of a controlled substance, as well as potential sentencing enhancements.
Fallis has been investigated for the disappearance of Britton, a woman who was last seen at her home in Covelo in February 2018. According to Cromer, Fallis is still a person of interest in that case.
The shooting case against Fallis is set to return to court on Feb. 27 to potentially set a date for a preliminary hearing.
ED NOTE: Fallis is the presumed murderer of Ms. Khadijah Britton of Covelo. In February of 2018 Khadijah Britton, 23, disappeared from her father’s Covelo home a week after having a violent altercation with her boyfriend, career criminal Negie Fallis, during which he wielded a hammer and swore he would kill her. Witnesses said Fallis pulled Ms. Britton from the home at gunpoint the night of February 7. Initial evidence indicated that it was very likely that Fallis did kill Ms. Britton, but after thousands of hours of investigation by the Sheriff and the DA charges were dropped a year later with the DA citing a lack of sufficient evidence. Ms. Britton’s body has never been found. Fallis has been in and out of jail over the years for various felonies including firearm possession. The Sheriff remains hugely disappointed that he hasn’t been able to make a sufficient murder case against Fallis. “We’ve got more than 4,000 hours into the search for Khadijah and we’re still looking,” he said at the time. “We meet all the time to talk about unsolved cases.” Any roster of Mendo's free range scumbags places this guy at the head of the list.
MORGAN BAYNHAM (Philo):
Reading the AVA this morning reminded me just how small this county really is, and how short our time here can be. I was so sad to learn of Gary and Yvonne Niesen’s tragic accident on Covelo Road.
I only knew Gary for a short time, but it meant a lot to me.
In 1983, I was struggling to make payments on my first logging truck and our first house. Logging was slow, and I needed steady work to keep up. Out of desperation, Jack Campbell Logging out of Covelo took a job on Mountain View Road and needed trucks. Laura and I were living in Boonville then, with my truck parked right in our driveway.
One day Gary came knocking on our front door, asking if I needed work. I sure did.
Gary was the truck boss for Campbell at the time. The crew was camped out on the Piper Ranch for the season. That job carried us through a tough stretch, and over that season our friendship grew. Gary would often come by for dinner. He talked about Yvonne and the pies she made. Laura baked plenty of apple pies for Gary and the crew that year.
Later, when Laura worked as the school nurse in Covelo for many years, she got to know Yvonne too.
What a loss. Just good, good people.
LINDY PETERS:
Poor TWK. Apparently he knows nothing about Dozy Don. Here is a test for the rest of us who are actually paying attention.
Q) If Donald Trump ever discovered a potent new energy source at Lake Mendocino he most likely would.:
A) Privatize it immediately, monetize it strictly for the Trump family and outlaw every other type of energy production.
B) Blame Joe Biden for not discovering it earlier.
C) Demand a Nobel Prize for scientific achievement.
D) All of the above.
MAZIE MALONE:
Re; TWK and the homeless individual in the rain.
The image TWK described, someone hunched in the rain at State and Gobbi, is not easy to ignore. Sadly we do it all the time. So it’s important to say this plainly: he isn’t the only one. On cold, wet days and nights in Ukiah there are multiple people walking, sitting, or trying to stay dry under awnings because there is not enough shelter, not enough supportive housing, and not enough real pathways that move people from the street into housing.
There is literally nowhere for many of them to go.
Our shelter is small. It has roughly fifty beds. That is the extent of our formal shelter capacity in this area. So when someone is sitting in the rain, it is not because there is some open, warm option being refused. We simply do not have enough places for people to go.
We also do not have a coordinated, real time system that activates when conditions become dangerous.
We already have multiple programs in this county addressing homelessness, addiction, and mental health. The issue is not the absence of programs. The issue is that they do not operate as a unified, functional response when someone is in crisis.
Protocols exist.
Meetings happen.
Collaboration is discussed.
But in reality, after 5 PM, intervention largely disappears. There is no real time coordination that expands shelter, creates immediate placement, or moves people quickly out of unsafe conditions.
And being outside in freezing rain with nowhere safe to sleep is a crisis.
The narrative that people “just refuse help” is false.
In 2020, during COVID, people were moved indoors rapidly. Motel rooms were secured. Placement happened. When the will and structure aligned, housing was provided. That moment proved that rapid coordination is possible.
What we are seeing now is not a mystery.
The system, as it currently operates, manages homelessness. It does not resolve it.
Until shelter capacity increases and real time coordination actually functions in practice, not just in meetings, we will continue to see people sleeping in the cold and rain, not because they refuse help, but because the system does not respond in the moment it is needed.
MIKE GENIELLA:
Lindy Peters and Mazie Malone nailed it regarding Tommy Wayne Kramer’s relentless criticism of local homeless issues and the slavish defense of his political icon, Donald J. Trump. What a waste of Tom Hine’s talent. Hopefully, he too becomes weary of his recycled observations that offer no alternatives. Hine makes no mention of $500 billion in new defense budgets, or Trump’s plans for a gaudy new ballroom that will dwarf the historic White House in size. He fails to bring up Trump taking $10 billion in taxpayer money to fund his “Board of Peace” so he and his pals can convert Gaza, the global center of homelessness, into golf courses and luxury oceanfront resorts. Get a grip, Tom Hine. Your polling numbers are falling as fast as Trump’s.
ON-LINE COMMENTS OF THE WEEK
[1] I have a question, given that independent journalists are of interest to the various governments, does any of this surprise or shock you? Back in the 1970s the press and the government had a very adversarial relationship. It is only somewhat recently, 20-30 years, that this has changed. Are you surprised at the depth and breath of the corruption, malfeasance and pettiness of these people? Anyone who points out errors, corruption, thinking differently has a file on them. Writers, artists, community leaders, students, everyone, now has a file about their activities, hobbies, and work. This goes far back to WW2. We know now that we are being spied on by our own government whether or not legally or illegally. Just a fact.
[2] I don't give a hoot or a holler what happens in Gaza. None of my affair. What I care about it what is happening here in my own Country. I've never been to Gaza. I will never go to Gaza. It doesn't concern me. What concerns me is the bankrupt state of the United States of America and what my children and grand children will inherit from us when we are dead.
[3] Messages are in the air we breathe. All communication is symbolic. It comes with being human. Language and art are the best we can do. Each of us brings his own context. We can’t escape the particularity of point of view, but we can observe/read/listen carefully, and use our brains to interpret.
[4] IRAN. There's only one country in that region with illegal nukes, and it's not Iran. It's also unrivaled in the "nutty" aggression category. Worse, they have the chutzpah to to perform all manners of heinous acts because they know the US has their back no matter what they do and even foots the bill with our own blood and treasure. Disgusting.
[5] Any long-term improvements where adults will be allowed to re-take the reins will most likely require citizens of good character operating outside of the existing political machines. And that will most likely be a long slog through the muck of collapse and rebirth, and that process can go so many different ways the odds are slim we end up with anything resembling a Republic on the other side…
[6] Too many people can't give up self identifying with the "D" or the "R" by their names. "I was born a Democrat and by God I will die a Democrat." Who cares if the Democrats no longer represent anything they actually believe in. My father-in-law is vehemently opposed to abortion and supports gun rights but he is a card carrying Democrat. I tried to point this out once and he gave me the quotation above.
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