According to a passing mention in the Ukiah Daily Journal’s Justine Frederiksen’s report on possible Ukiah Library expansion, Supervisor Maureen Mulheren is reported to have been “involved in discussions with representatives from the city of Ukiah ‘about a possible opportunity [for a new library] near the new courthouse’.”
Frederiksen added, “[Mulheren] plans to ‘bring an item to the Board of Supervisors for discussion about possible relocation of the library, and maybe the District Attorney’s office, to the board for discussion,’ possibly on the March 24 agenda, or possibly in April.”
Notice that the Ukiah representatives are unnamed so that us dupes outside of Mulheren’s private circle who are expected to pay for this “item” stay in the dark.
Last month District Attorney Eyster told the Supervisors:
“I have great concerns as I stand here today about the costs and efforts with where we are at right now with regard to the District Attorney‘s Office relocation. In regards to the courts moving ahead. I see that there is already disagreements and problems starting to come up with what had been a long-term plan to move from the days of [former CEO] Carmel Angelo to the days of [current CEO] Darcie Antle. I think there needs to be a lot of thought. What I’m hearing is a lot of money is being pushed around, buying lots, building buildings, things of that sort. And I hear that you folks [the Supervisors] don’t have much money. This is going to be problematic in the short term, but also in the long-term.”
At their February 24 Board meeting the Supervisors quietly approved a CEO recommendation to spend $100,000 for “architectural design for DA Office move” without Board discussion, identification of who will do it or how they arrived at the $100k.
What are we to make of these tea leaves? Hard to tell specifically. But it looks like Supervisor Mulheren and those unidentified “representatives” of the City of Ukiah are not only meeting in secret, but they are discussing potentially costly real estate and property deals without including the correct players. They are probably listening to realtors who stand to make nice transaction fees, vacant property sales, and/or have personal agendas in such deals as well as the Ukiah officials — but not the Library Director nor the DA. The last time Mulheren did something like this, she cooked up and sprang an unworkable tax sharing agreement on her colleagues that she had arranged in secret with Ukiah “representatives” (she’s a former Ukiah City Councilperson) without involving key county staff, only to have the agreement and the annexation proposal collapse after Ukiah officials tried to use the agreement to rush an annex of such large proportions that the affected Ukiah Valley residents balked en masse and both the tax sharing agreement and the annexation proposal have since disappeared from discussion or consideration. Similarly, it’s unlikely that anything of practical value will result from these Mulheren-led discussions and the DA will be left stranded in the old Courthouse long after the judges are gone and their new Courthouse opens for business, leaving the DA and his staff scurrying back and forth “problematically” between the courthouses in downtown traffic every work day like feral cats.
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