Mendocino County Today: Monday, Mar 9, 2015

• Wine Industry
• Ortner Contract
• Supervisor Woodgush
• Jail Full
• Intimate Segregation
• Rohrer Wins
• Acquiescent Silence
• Silent Treatment
• Bay Withdrawal
• SoCo Weedrush
• Money for Nothing
• Catch of the Day
• Santa 1900
• Brown Opposition

WHAT I FIND MAJORLY ANNOYING about the wine industry's domination of Mendocino County government is the casual assumption that it's “agriculture.” If grape growing is agriculture that concrete cattle fattening station, that grotesque high rise feed lot off I-5, is Home, Home on the Range.

OUR HARD-HITTING Planning and Building Department defined ag years ago as “food and fiber.” A Point Arena parrot farm had insisted that their operation was ag, and that insistence prompted Mendocino County to define ag for us. Their definition seems to have changed. And it will probably change again when marijuana is fully legal and wooza-wowza smoke will be defined as agriculture.

WINE PRODUCTION is an industrial process heavy on chemicals that's mostly dependent on seasonal immigrant labor, meaning exploitable labor in the 19th century sense. No immigrants, no wine industry. Wherever the wine industry touches down, most notably in Mendocino County in the Anderson Valley, it's been up to the non-wine community to provide a range of subsidies — health care, education, housing, even the finite waters of our local streams. I think the industry, some time ago, became a net negative, and last year's introduction of the mega-noise nuisance of frost fans, the wine industry has gone to double-neg status with lots of us. (Wine writing is an offense all by itself, but that's a separate complaint.)

ORTNER GETS OVER $7 MILLION for adult mental health services, but pays Hospitality House only $250k.

https://www.theava.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/OMG-Hospitality-House-Contract-signed.pdf

IT’S A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE CHAMBERHOOD!

Supervisor Tom Woodhouse's Supervisors Report, Tuesday, March 3, 2015: "I'd like to talk about the CSAC [California State Association of Counties] training I went to recently. As you all know I have a lot to learn. It's an invaluable investment that you get for your money there. It's just so timely. I feel like I'm just so totally connected and on and absorbing it. It's fascinating that they really have it dialed in. They said, Okay, you've been a supervisor for two months, you probably think this. Here is the reality and it's very humbling and very enlightening and then they tap you into your strengths and your weaknesses and it's the networking as well, it's so valuable to the other people and where they are in their process. There were people from the Senate and the Assembly that talked and they were just brilliant and the little things they say you pick up so much that I'm going to accelerate the class as I go to it and I'm sure you'll appreciate that and it's just a valuable experience. They talked just during launch, they cram in things, and the assembly and the congressmen said how much they loved being supervisors. They felt it was much more rewarding than what they are doing now. They were closer to the people. They were not away all the time. And they had such a direct impact on the citizens and they felt more useful. They admitted that all the agencies we've created over the 30 or 40 years really control things and they don't have much power anymore. I thought it was fascinating that they could be that open about that and realize the challenge we have so the people's awareness is rising and there will be push back and changes and we can keep protecting things that we all want but at the same time have business. All the counties talked about the exact same issues we have. Marijuana, needing jobs, economic growth and to put — have some freedom from all the regulations that keep you from doing anything. So it's great. The word is out there and we have great representatives there and I wanted to mention that we did go visit, Supervisor McCowen and I went to see Marilyn Melo and her board at the foundation and had a wonderful time and probably spent two and a half or three hours with them and got tuneups on the environmental damage and we feel like we are ready to go to the summit with some pertinent information that affects our county and the other thing I wanted to say it is about the sexual harassment training that was taught here, in these chambers, and you think well I already know all this stuff and you do but at some point to bring back things and to make it real the best part of it was the interplay and the questions that the audience would ask and discuss with each other. It really enable everybody to understand the risks that we have and the responsibilities, and how important our behavior is and how one little hurtful thing here, here and here adds up to harassment. And so it was very valuable and I came away feeling strongly and I want to talk to our CEO about all the trainings that we want for our employees. We may not be able to give them much money but there is a lot of trainings and I'd like to look at not just sexual harassment but everything we like to look at and prioritize it and not just give them an assignment where OK, go online and figure it out, that's not the same as a dynamic feeling that you get when you can really discuss something with your friends. It shows the respect that we have for them, not just words of what we want. It's showing we're investing in you and you are important to us and I'm going to push for that. So that's it. Thank you.

JAIL OVERCROWDING: SHERIFF PETITIONS FOR EARLY RELEASES

by Linda Williams

Overcrowding in the Mendocino County Jail has gotten so bad that last month Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman petitioned the court to allow him to release jail inmates up to 30 days early. This is the first time Allman has taken this step to reduce overcrowding but he anticipates needing a similar authorization this month as well.

As crowding issues became apparent, Allman and Mendocino County District Attorney Dave Eyster have met regularly to ensure those who pose the highest risk to the community remain behind bars and are not released early. This also includes ensuring violent suspects awaiting trial are not released prematurely.

Mendocino County inmates being offered early release are those who have behaved properly in jail and do not pose a threat to their community, says Allman.

The Mendocino County Jail is officially rated for 301 inmates at a time, according to jail Commander Tim Pearce. In February, the jail’s average daily population was 318 inmates. The inmates are split between 43 percent who are serving a sentence and 57 percent awaiting trial, Pearce said.

Mendocino County Jail overcrowding is a direct result of the California-wide “realignment” of the prison and jail systems set in motion by AB 109 in October 2011. This “realignment” essentially reduced state prison overcrowding by having most newly convicted felons serve time in their county jails instead of prison. Some aspects of the program began immediately and others have rolled out over time. The most recent step sends state prison parolees who violate parole to county jail rather than back to state prison.

“Realignment” proceeded in 2011 despite severe overcrowding in many county jails. County jails released 7,523 inmates “early” because of overcrowding in the month before “realignment” began. As of June 2014, the number of statewide early jail releases has grown to 10,400 each month, with more and more counties having no choice but to release inmates before their sentence has been served.

This increase has come despite realignment’s liberalized credit reward system for most prison and county inmates, which essentially halved the time spent in custody. A small percentage of inmates, considered extremely violent or sexually predatory, are denied the more liberal 50 percent credit and must serve 80 and 85 percent of their sentences.

When realignment began, the California county jail system was 95 percent full at 72,869 inmates; the system had the theoretical capacity to house another 3,762 inmates state wide. Since 2011, counties have added 1,510 new jail beds as of June 2014. Despite this modest increase, the jail population has overwhelmed the facilities, increasing to 108 percent of capacity statewide.

To prevent overcrowding and early releases this means counties must build more than 16,000 new jail cells to house county inmates. While the state has offered some financial assistance to counties for jail construction, counties typically must bear some of the expenses plus have the ability to fund the ongoing manpower and operating costs for a larger facility.

Mendocino County was fortunate at the beginning of realignment. In October 2011, the Mendocino County Jail had an average daily population (ADP) of 205 with a capacity to house 301 inmates. The jail population has steadily increased as “realignment” has rolled out. By January 2013, the jail population had swelled to 282 ADP; by June 2014 to 294; December 2014 to 296; in January 2015 it reached 309 ADP.

While on average, the Mendocino County jail population during 2014 was below the maximum capacity, in reality for many days the population exceeded the jail maximum, requiring inmates to sleep on temporary cots for several days at a time.

Another issue, especially as the jail population grows and has more inmates with prior prison experience, is that all inmates are not alike. Gang members need to be separated. White supremacists shouldn’t be housed with persons of color. Violent inmates shouldn’t be housed with nonviolent inmates. Each prisoner receives a classification to manage these delicate issues. This need to segregate inmates by classification results in some areas of the jail being significantly more crowded than others.

The increase in hardened criminals spending time in Mendocino County Jail has come with a tremendous increase in smuggling of contraband into the jail. “It is out of this world,” says Allman. This has led to assigning a dedicated canine to the jail.

“We are seeing a tremendous uptick in contraband including heroin, meth, tobacco and pornographic material,” says Pearce.

One group who has benefited from the jail crowding and concerns over contraband are those offenders sentenced to serve weekends in jail. More and more of these are being offered weekend home arrest; enforced by ankle monitoring.

(Courtesy, the Willits News / willitsnews.com)

ORGANIZED LABOR IN THE 1930s bypassed black workers and directed its campaigns at Hispanics. During World War II, blacks, unlike Hispanics, were excluded from employment in the shipyards and docks, or relegated to inferior jobs. It wasn't that Hispanic workers didn't suffer discrimination — they did. But often they were treated badly in jobs that black people couldn't get in the first place. A preference for Hispanic labor in the food and metal industries had become entrenched by the 1960s. Later, Black men, unlike Hispanic men, lost out in the great Southern California aerospace boom. Barred by racism early on, they were later marooned by geography as the industry moves to the suburbs where whites and Hispanics could more easily buy homes. Black people couldn't buy homes or rent in many of the new defense and aerospace hotspots, first because of restrictive real estate covenants, then because of de facto efforts to continue these covenants in defiance of court rulings. Blacks became trapped in a sunny version of Detroit, with long shuttered tire and auto plants as the rest of Southern California enjoyed a second manufacturing boom. Although public employment remained a bright spot, by the year 2000, black people in Los Angeles had lower labor market participation than their Hispanic counterparts who as a group were less educated and they still lived largely separate from whites, crowded into their own private Rust Belt.

This fit a national pattern. Blacks lived in figurative walled cities; Hispanics did not. Black people had long been vastly more segregated from white people than Hispanics and were more concentrated. In fact, Black people had remained more crowded together and isolated much longer than any other racial or ethnic group in America. "Black segregation was permanent, across generations," said the sociologist Douglas Massey. No one else had it as bad — not even residents of the Little Italys or Polish or Jewish immigrants to eastern cities of the 19th century. Black people couldn't outrun segregation if they tried. It followed them, reinforced by invisible dynamics like real estate steering. In the year 2000, decades after the court struck down restrictive covenants, black people in Los Angeles were no more likely to have white neighbors than they had been in 1970.

Segregation concentrated the effects of impunity. This helps explain why relatively modest differences in homicide clearance rates by race produced such disparate outcomes. Indices of residential segregation are strong homicide predictors. Homicide thrives on intimacy, communal interactions, barter, and a shared sense of private rules. The intimacy part was also why homicide was so stubbornly interracial. You had to be involved with people to want to kill them. You had to share space in a small, isolated world.

By contrast, America's lonely, atomized, upper-middle-class white suburbs were not homicidal. Their highly mobile occupants were not much involved with each other. They didn't depend on one another to survive. The occasional condominium board meeting might get ugly, but mostly there was enough law in such places — enough expectations of a legal response to violence — to keep the occasional neighbor dispute from getting out of hand. And if there wasn't — for example, if a young man grew tired of his brawling high school chums — moving somewhere else was easy enough.

— Jill Leovy, "Ghettoside"

AVA WRITER MAKES GOOD!

Maui Author Is the Grand Prize Winner at Pacific Rim Book Festival

Maui author Jake Rohrer of Ha`iku has been announced as the over-all Grand Prize winner at this year's Pacific Rim Book Festival for his memoir, "A Banquet of Consequences: True Life Adventures of Sex (not too much), Drugs (plenty), Rock & Roll (of course) and the Feds (who invited them?)"

Honolulu -- The colorful memoir of a man who served time for drugs and spent time on the road with Creedence Clearwater Revival is the Grand Prize winner of the Pacific Rim Book Festival. "A Banquet of Consequences: True Life Adventures of Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll and the Feds" by Jake Rohrer (Inkwater Press) is Rohrer's first published book and tells the true life adventures of an author who tells a no-apologies tale of his wild life in drugs, prison and music. It is alternately humorous, serious, and vivid, but always compelling, and winds up with a happy ending for the hero. Rohrer, who will be presented with a check for $1,000, and other winners of the competition will be honored at a private reception on March 31 at the Moana Surfrider Hotel in Honolulu. The event will be preceded by a daytime festival at the hotel featuring top authors and publishers from Hawaii and the Pacific Rim discussing today's publishing issues in the region.

LOUIS BEDROCK WRITES:

AVA:

This quote by Miguel de Unamuno is one of my favorite quotes because of the circumstances in which it was uttered. I translate it as, "At times to remain silent is the equivalent of lying because one's silence may be interpreted as acquiescence."

I'd like to recommend as a margin comment.

I began to translate a passage from a book by Luciano González Egido about the story of Unamuno's confrontation with Millán Astray, but found the Wikipedia article on the money except for the translation of the quote: I like "acquiescence" better than "assent".

The aged Unamuno called the good general a "cripple" to his face and had to be escorted from the event at the University of Salamanca by Franco's wife who saved him from being lynched by the crazed fascist mob.

I say, "¡Viva the vida y chinga la muerte!"

I imagine you both know enough Spanish to figure that out.

¡Siempre adelante!

(from Wikipidea)

On 12 October 1936 the celebration of Columbus Day had brought together a politically diverse crowd at the University of Salamanca, including Enrique Pla y Deniel, the Archbishop of Salamanca, and Carmen Polo Martínez-Valdés, the wife of Franco, Falangist General José Millán Astray and Unamuno himself. According to the British historian Hugh Thomas in his magnum opus The Spanish Civil War (1961), the evening began with an impassioned speech by the Falangist writer José María Pemán. After this, Professor Francisco Maldonado decried Catalonia and the Basque Country as "cancers on the body of the nation," adding that "Fascism, the healer of Spain, will know how to exterminate them, cutting into the live flesh, like a determined surgeon free from false sentimentalism."

From somewhere in the auditorium, someone cried out the motto "¡Viva la Muerte!" (Long live death!). As was his habit, Millán Astray responded with "¡España!" (Spain!); the crowd replied with "¡Una!" (One!). He repeated "¡España!"; the crowd then replied "¡Grande!" (Great!). A third time, Millán Astray shouted "¡España!"; the crowd responded "Libre!" (Free!) This – Spain, one, great and free – was a common Falangist cheer and would become a francoist motto thereafter. Later, a group of uniformed Falangists entered, saluting the portrait of Franco that hung on the wall.

Unamuno, who was presiding over the meeting, rose up slowly and addressed the crowd: "You are waiting for my words. You know me well, and know I cannot remain silent for long. Sometimes, to remain silent is to lie, since silence can be interpreted as assent. I want to comment on the so-called speech of Professor Maldonado, who is with us here. I will ignore the personal offence to the Basques and Catalonians. I myself, as you know, was born in Bilbao. The Bishop," Unamuno gestured to the Archbishop of Salamanca, "whether you like it or not, is Catalan, born in Barcelona. But now I have heard this insensible and necrophilous oath, "¡Viva la Muerte!", and I, having spent my life writing paradoxes that have provoked the ire of those who do not understand what I have written, and being an expert in this matter, find this ridiculous paradox repellent. General Millán Astray is a cripple. There is no need for us to say this with whispered tones. He is war cripple. So was Cervantes. But unfortunately, Spain today has too many cripples. And, if God does not help us, soon it will have very many more. It torments me to think that General Millán Astray could dictate the norms of the psychology of the masses. A cripple, who lacks the spiritual greatness of Cervantes, hopes to find relief by adding to the number of cripples around him."

SAKO WANTS TO KNOW

You at the AVA may get a response from Coate. Maybe. But I'm getting the silent treatment.

Sort of like dead air. But different.

John

To: "kzyxboard" <kzyxboard@lists.mcn.org>

Subject: dead air -- again

John Coate,

I'm getting calls from listeners at home. For how long was KZYX off the air on Saturday afternoon?

And what was the reason this time?

John Sakowicz

Ukiah

US MINE CORP WITHDRAWS GOLD ORE PROCESSING PROPOSAL

NEC/Baykeeper

Today, US Mine Corporation withdrew its proposal to pursue development of a gold ore processing plant at the former Evergreen Pulp Mill in Samoa. In a letter to Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation, and Conservation Executive Director Jack Crider, Scott Dockter, President of US Mine Corp, said,

“In our final analysis of the proposal, we determined we could not accept the risk involved with the significant effort and substantial cost it would have taken to receive agency and public approval.”

The proposed Exclusive Right to Negotiate would have given the company 60 days to submit a detailed proposal describing the proposed development, site plans, and funding sources.

Humboldt Baykeeper is relieved that US Mine Corp realized after the standing-room-only public hearing that its proposal was not a good fit for Humboldt Bay. Thanks to everyone who spoke up for a healthy bay, and against industries that would put our bay at risk.

We wish the District success in its search for environmentally-appropriate industries to use the former pulp mill.

For the Bay and coast,

Humboldt Baykeeper - Jennifer Kalt, Director and Jasmin Segura, Bay Tours Coordinator

POT PRODUCTION IN SONOMA COUNTY TURNS RESIDENTIAL, GENERATING NUISANCES AND CRIME

On one side of the fence, residents complain they are forced to live next to pot production facilities in residential neighborhoods. On the other, people say they are tending plants legally to treat real health ailments, a use approved by California voters in 1996. Still others exploit medical cannabis laws, filling entire houses with irrigation and lighting systems to grow pot.

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/3618253-181/pot-production-in-sonoma-county

MONEY FOR NOTHING

Now look at them yo-yo’s, that's the way you do it

You play the guitar on the MTV

That ain't workin', that's the way you do it

Money for nothin’ and your chicks for free.

 

Now that ain't workin', that's the way you do it

Lemme tell ya them guys ain't dumb

Maybe get a blister on your little finger

Maybe get a blister on your thumb.

 

We gotta install microwave ovens, custom kitchen deliveries

We gotta move these refrigerators, we gotta move these color TVs.

 

The little faggot with the earring and the makeup

Yeah buddy that's his own hair

That little faggot got his own jet airplane

That little faggot, he's a millionaire

 

We gotta install microwave ovens, custom kitchen deliveries

We gotta move these refrigerators, we gotta move these color TVs.

 

I shoulda learned to play the guitar

I shoulda learned to play them drums

Look at that mama, she got it stickin' in the camera

Man we could have some fun

 

And he's up there, what's that? Hawaiian noises?

You bangin' on the bongos like a chimpanzee

Oh that ain't workin', that's the way you do it

Get your money for nothin’, get your chicks for free.

 

We gotta install microwave ovens, custom kitchen deliveries

We gotta move these refrigerators, we gotta move these color TVs.

 

Now that ain't workin', that's the way to do it

You play the guitar on the MTV

That ain't workin', that's the way you do it

Money for nothin' and your chicks for free

— Mark Knopfler

CATCH OF THE DAY, Mar 8, 2015

JOHN BOLTON IV, Ukiah. Drunk in public. (Frequent flyer.)

TOMAS FERNANDEZ-RODRIGUEZ, Boonville. DUI, driving without license.

ENRIQUE GARCIA, Hopland. Probation revocation.

SALINA GARCIA, Covelo. Possession of smoking-injecting device, probation revocation.

KENNETH SMITH, Redwood Valley. Dog theft.

LOGAN RYMEL, Ukiah. Vandalism, conspiracy, probation revocation.

ANTHONY MARTINEZ, Ukiah. Vandalism, conspiracy, probation revocation.

AARON KOSKI, Fort Bragg. Probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

POLL REVEALS MOST CALIFORNIA VOTERS OPPOSE BROWN'S 'BIG GOVERNMENT PROJECTS'

by Dan Bacher

A Field Poll released on February 24 revealed that Governor Jerry Brown continues to receive "strong approval" from California voters, but the same voters oppose his big government spending projects, including the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to build the twin tunnels.

The poll results find nearly 56% of the state's voters approving of Brown's performance in office, while 32% disapprove. (http://www.field.com/fieldpollonline/subscribers/Rls2499.pdf)

However, then asked to consider three negative statements that have been made about the Governor, a 57% majority agrees with one of them – “favors too many big government projects that the state cannot afford right now.”

Although not specifically mentioned in the survey, the "big government projects" they were referring to include the high speed rail project and the twin tunnels plan, the controversial "legacy" public works projects of the Brown administration.

This view is held by 76% of Republicans and 56% of the state's non-partisans, but a smaller percentage (45%) of the state's Democrats.

Restore the Delta (RTD), opponents of Governor Jerry Brown’s rush to build water export tunnels that would drain the Delta and doom sustainable farms, salmon and other Pacific fisheries, responded today to the Field Poll finding that the majority of California voters believe the Governor "favors too many big government projects the state cannot afford right now.”

The voters’ response is understood, including by the pollster, to include the Delta tunnels, according to RTD.

“Voters do not support the massive water export tunnels project," said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director of RTD. "Governor Brown must rethink his water policies, and embrace a new, sustainable water solution. Governor Brown does have the vision and experience to recognize a dead end, and to abandon the doomed BDCP tunnels, which violate the Clean Water Act, degrade Delta families’ drinking water, and threaten salmon extinction.”

“For $67 billion, Californians get no new water, lose our fisheries and spend generations paying to subsidize huge, unsustainable industrial agriculture on unsuitable, drainage impaired Westside San Joaquin Valley lands," stated Barrigan-Parrilla. "That money would be better spent on alternatives that will make more water available to all Californians: recycling, storm water capture, conservation, groundwater cleanup and recharge etc. It’s time for a new, sustainable solution that makes new water, creates long-term jobs, promotes regional water independence and preserves fisheries and sustainable farms.”

She compared Governor Brown's massive tunnels with a sustainable water solution, as embodied in the Environmental Water Caucus Responsible Exports Plan. (http://www.restorethedelta.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/RESPONSIBLE-EXPORTS-PLAN-MAY-2013.pdf)

The tunnels would cost $67 billion, while a sustainable water solution would cost $20 billion

The tunnels would create no new water, while a sustainable water solution would create 5 to 10 million acre feet of water.

The tunnels would create 10,000 short-term construction jobs and destroy thousands of Delta farming and Pacific fisheries-related jobs, while a sustainable water solution would create thousands of long-term jobs installing water-saving devices and replacing the infrastructure.

The tunnels would mainly benefit huge mega-growers irrigating toxic, drainage impaired land on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, while a sustainable water solution would benefit ALL Californians.

There is no doubt that Governor's Brown's approval ratings would slip well below 50 percent if the mainstream media and corporate "environmental" NGOs would stop greenwashing the Governor's environmental record and report the truth about Brown's war on fish, water and the environment.

Not only has Brown rushed the Bay Delta Conservation Plan to build the peripheral tunnels, but he has overseen the expansion of fracking in California; has approved the creation of oil industry-friendly "marine protected areas" under the corrupt Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative; has presided over record water exports from the Delta in 2011; and has brought Delta smelt, longfin smelt, Central Valley steelhead and Sacramento River winter-run Chinook salmon closer to extinction.

For the truth about Governor Brown's environmental record, go to: http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/09/24/big-oils-favorite-governor-jerry-brown/ or http://www.eastbayexpress.com/SevenDays/archives/2015/02/16/meet-the-biggest-threats-to-californias-environment-the-winners-of-the-annual-cold-dead-fish-awards