LAST WEEK, in Mendocino County Superior Court, the City of Fort Bragg presented its defense against a request for a preliminary injunction filed by a group opposing the City Council's decision to pass through State Community Development Block Grant funds to the Mendocino Coast Hospitality Center (MCHC) for the purchase of the Old Coast Hotel property. Judge Richard Henderson said at the outset of the hearing that he would not make a decision from the bench. He heard the petitioners' case and the response provided by the City, the State Attorney General's Office, and Mendocino Coast Hospitality Center (who was granted the right to intervene in the underlying litigation). The judge did not grant the request for a preliminary injunction, but indicated that he would issue his ruling on the request for a preliminary injunction by June 23rd.
THE SAN FRANCISCO lawyer representing the City of Fort Bragg, Ms. Zutler, not only ran up another big bill on Fort Bragg for her time and travel to Ukiah for the hearing on Old Coast Hotel in Judge Henderson's courtroom, she was ill-prepared, claiming not to have received documents that the other attorneys had received.
THAT HALF-PAGE AD in this week's Advocate lists the names of people opposed to the recall of Fort Bragg mayor, Dave Turner. To us here at the ava, it's like a visit to a blind acupuncturist — random pricks in painful places. We read the names out loud, gasping out despair as a virtual parade of nuts, crooks and middle-of-the-road extremists marched by. Of the names we recognized, almost every one, to us, was a recommendation FOR the recall election.
DAVE & THE BOBBLEHEADS by Judy Valadao: Linda Ruffing is a very smart woman and you can’t fault her because the Mayor’s head is always looking to the left for guidance. Watching the Council meetings makes one think of the “bobble head dolls” people used to have in their rear windows. All heads shaking in agreement with whatever. They seem to have lost sight of the fact they answer to the community and Management answers to them. Again, you can’t fault Ms. Ruffing for that. Meeting with Management and the board of the Hospitality Center and giving “100%” support 2 months before the public was even aware of what was going on is in the view of many no different than closed door deals. People attended meeting after meeting and all the while the decision had all ready been made. Once more I’ll ask, how many other decisions have been made this way and how many more are on their way to being made in the same way? The recall isn’t about the vote, it’s about how the vote came about. It was the straw that broke the camels back. With all the credit Turner gives himself for everything done around Fort Bragg why do we have 4 other council people when only one is needed, after all “he” did it all. Even during the recall process he is “Turning on the Turner Tactics” and even poor Doug is out trying to express himself about why there shouldn’t be a recall.
THE MEDIAN rent in San Francisco is now $4,225 per month. In the Anderson Valley, I daresay it's upwards of a thou, and a thou in on the low end.
SHEILA DAWN covers Mendocino Public Radio for the mighty AVA. She is often treated with the boorish contempt characteristic of KZYX management, a small example of which Sheila relays here: "… [Stuart] Campbell also refused by email to give me requested information on the frequency of announcements, stating he wasn't going to use staff time to provide information that was only of interest to myself."
SEEMS THAT CAMPBELL doesn't quite understand Ms. Dawn's reportorial function. Let's spell it out. Got your pencil and notebook, Stu? Ready, go! The reporter asks the public entity's rep the question on behalf of all the people who aren't present. The reporter writes the public rep's answer down, and when it's published the rest of us are informed. It's been done this way for years, outside of Philo anyway.
RECOMMENDED READING. The Killing of Bin Laden by Seymour M. Hersh, London Review of Books, 21st May. Hersh confirms what a lot of us suspected — that Bin Laden, rendered globally inoperable because of his notoriety, was under a kind of house arrest by the Pakistani military. He'd been holed up a mile from a Pakistani military base for some time. His whereabouts were not discovered via ace sleuthing by the CIA. Nope, the Pakistanis gave Bin Laden up, allowed the Seals to fly in and do him up while the Pakistanis did a lot of post-assassination harrumphing about violated air space and the rest of it. Hersh is a great reporter, and has been a great reporter for many years. This story was turned down by The New Yorker on the grounds that Hersh's "sourcing" was dubious. I wonder how The New Yorker would go about a hyper-sensitive story like this where everyone involved has taken great risks to reveal any information at all? You can probably find it on-line some place. BTW, the LBO often runs stories about the Middle East our wimpo, government-handout-dependent media back off from.
MENDOCINO COUNTY is spending between $7-8 million a year to a private business based in Yuba City called Ortner Management Group. In return, Ortner is supposedly taking care of this county's unattended mentally ill. How many people does Ortner treat, maybe even rehab? Nobody knows or can know because a former employee of Ortner, an oleaginous little fellow called Tom Pinizzotto, reports to the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors on what Ortner is doing, and these reports do not include much if anything in the way of statistics.
MEANWHILE, as all of us know from the evidence presented to our own eyes, every community of any size in the county has a floating population of seriously disturbed, free range individuals who wander around until, inevitably, they are arrested and briefly housed in the County Jail. An Hawaiian woman named Janie Kaaihue, for example. She's about 55-60 years old, has been on the streets of Ukiah for at least a month. She is visibly deranged, and has been arrested at least twice. So, where's Ortner? Where's the unprivatized part of Mendo Mental Health?
THIS HELP WANTED AD appeared in last week's Independent Coast Observer on the Coast: "Caregiver needed for male intellectual with Parkinson's Disease in Sea Ranch. $200 per 24-hour shift, 2-3 days a week. Bring positive energy, be able to lift a heavy man, light house-cleaning, cooking. email redwoods6666@gmail.com."
WHENEVER I HEAR a Mendo person referred to as an "intellectual," I think of the Khmer Rouge definition as anybody who wears glasses.
ER, any intellectual who can write "Bring positive energy" in a non-ironic context is overdue for a credentials check. "Come on fat boy," the attendant laughed, "put the book down and let's brush your teeth."
WHEN ASKED OF MEN what do you fear most about women? The men replied, being laughed at. When asked of women what do you fear most about men? The women replied, being killed. (unattributed)
REGARDING the Mendocino County Grand Jury's stinging criticism of the County's Children's Protective Service's functioning, Chuck Dunbar writes: "I am a recently retired Mendocino County CPS social worker supervisor of 18 years. I believe the Grand Jury report contains important information that should matter greatly to all county citizens. The full report, worth reading in its entirety, can be found on the Grand Jury website. The report is a telling, lucid and accurate account. It truly 'tells it like it is' and reflects my past experience as a CPS unit supervisor on the coast in this complex and demanding work. I hope that caring citizens will encourage the Board of Supervisors to take the findings and recommendations in the Grand Jury report seriously, and that the Board will mandate the essential changes in County and CPS policy and practice that are required. The dedicated and hard-working CPS social workers in our county deserve better. Most essentially, the
clients of CPS – at-risk Mendocino County children and their struggling, stressed and often impoverished families – deserve better.
POTTER VALLEY DOUBLE SUICIDE? Last Wednesday morning deputies were dispatched to a remote property on Dashiell Ranch Road in the area northeast of Potter Valley near the Lake County line. A caller had reported that "two male subjects" at that address had committed suicide. Deputies duly confirmed that they'd found two dead men, ages 21 and 50. "Witnesses indicated the two men had committed suicide." And that's where the story ends. So far anyway. Stay tuned.
A PICTURE IN TIME: The local jail stats for January through May 2015 tell us that 71 defendants have been committed to state prison by the Mendocino County Superior Court, while 42 defendants have been ordered to serve a local prison sentence pursuant to the "realignment" laws passed by the Legislature in 2011.
ODD THAT UKIAH'S OUTGOING city manager, Jane Chambers, would cite among her accomplishments a new County Courthouse. Rather than re-model the old County Courthouse, the judges want brand new courtrooms. For themselves. And nobody else. This edifice would be about a quarter mile east of the present County Courthouse and would hold only the judges and their courtrooms, leaving the old Courthouse semi-abandoned in the middle of a town struggling to maintain at least a semblance of coherence. The new Courthouse would harm, if not destroy a number of downtown Ukiah businesses. And it would be ugly, another glass-and-steel-and-concrete eyesore in a town already stuffed with eyesores. Rather than celebrate the new Courthouse, which literally everyone except the judges is opposed to, a reputable city manager would urge the Ukiah City Council to oppose it. Instead, it rumbles on outside all the usual planning processes. What their majesties want, their unopposed majesties get.
MARCO McCLEAN'S idea to pay KZYX programmers is a bad idea. Too many deadbeats, and merely a transfer of funds from management to people who do what they do because they like it, and do it for free. His idea to scale back management salaries is a good idea. The best idea of all, ahem, originated right here with Boonville's beloved community newspaper — disband Mendo Public Radio and re-assemble it in Ukiah along the organizational lines of KMUD, Southern Humboldt's genuinely public radio station. KMUD is directly beholden to the community it serves. KZYX exists to serve its management and its programmers.
THIS YEAR'S DELINQUENT property tax rolls reveal some well-known Mendo personalities. In the North County, pot properties owned by the legendary Matt Graves and the less legendary but well-known Dana Wuerfel, both subjects of lengthy coverage in the ava, owe Mendocino County money. Graves is in for a mere $4 thou but Wuerfel is in arrears to the tune of about $60,000.
ANOTHER PROPERTY TAX DELINQUENT whose name will resonate with Point Arenans is Anthony Gaussoin. Gaussoin had big plans for the fog belt with himself running the place. He has since disappeared from public view but he owes a hundred thousand on four PA properties.
RE PABLO SANDOVAL'S poor performance in Boston from an on-line commenter: "Baseball works just like dating. Everyone wants to find out their ex has gained weight and fallen apart without them."
DR. PETER KEEGAN, sole suspect in the bludgeoning murder of his wife of thirty years, Susan Keegan, is pictured here with his new love interest, Libby Crawford, both of Ukiah, as they enjoy spring time in Paris.
Ms. Crawford writes: "We were at the Hyatt, Place de la Vendome, Paris for the last 4 nights of our trip. Usually 1,000/night, but we got it for free for signing up for a Hyatt credit card... I'm home now though, got back last night." We're still hoping that Lover Boy will spend next spring in state prison, dreaming of croissants.
A MAN appeared in the parking lot of the Willits Police Department Saturday morning about ten claiming to be in possession of a bomb which he said he'd detonate if the police didn't shoot him. Surrounded by a large contingent of local law enforcement, the would be suicide-by-cop surrendered and is in custody. The Willits Police haven't released any more details.
GOUGES, great huge hideous gouges have appeared on the hillsides west of Ukiah -- a vision to terrify the Edward Abbey in us all -- the work of CalFire, red, raw-earth scars along the ridges of mountain spurs to serve as firebreaks to save the houses in the west hills of the county seat in the highly likely event of forest fires as drought-stricken Mendocino County enters one of the hottest, driest summers on record. But this commotion of chainsaws and bulldozers has flushed out so much wild game that two yearling fawns were seen scrambling around downtown Ukiah on Thursday morning about ten. I followed them along Perkins Street to see how they’d negotiate Ukiah’s most deadly crosswalk at Perkins & State. They got across alright by ignoring the signal, no doubt, and went up the sidewalk to Schat’s Bakery, which was busy, as usual. But everyone had their noses in their smart (sic) phones and never noticed the siblings. Indeed, the crowd of caffeine-starved pedestrians blundered through the twins in an unconscious manner, in effect separating them — one darted across Perkins to the courthouse lawn and the other — cut off by a gaggle of yupsters with their eyes glued to the screens in their palms — scurried away on School Street, then turned West on Standley. A Ukiah Police officer left his patrol car to follow one of the four-footed westbound trespassers, and I stood dumbfounded as the other re-crossed State Street in heavy traffic and went through the CPS parking lot and thence south along Main Street. It would be a miracle if they got out of town alive. I later saw the city’s animal control officer going about his duties (picking up dead animals on the roadways) — not daring to ask, fearing the worst for these two displaced victims of the drought. The few people I spoke with who did look up from their phones to see the deer, commented that they were afraid their insurance companies would not fully protect their cars from these marauding Bambis who had had the temerity to come to a classy place like Schat’s without any money or insurance! (Bruce McEwen)
ANOTHER GREAT PIECE by the essential Tommy Wayne Kramer in Sunday's Ukiah Daily Journal. Called Wastin' Away Again in Marijuanaville. It begins, "People think growing pot in Mendocino County is a big bowl of gluten-free cherries but I’m here to say it’s tougher than you think. Yeah, sure: stick a start in the dirt, throw on some water that you pump out of the Eel River and the rest is easy, except for when you have to go visit some guy you’ve never seen before in a motel in Vallejo to exchange the weed for the cash and a little cocaine on the side, while your old lady waits out in the truck with a .357, and she doesn’t need any more coke, believe me."
THE EDITOR'S SISTER is a Warrior's fan all the way back. She writes: "Going to the Warriors first game of the finals was a lot different than 40 years ago. In 1975, there were no Warrior girls, no lights flashing, no tee-shirts on the chairs nor shots into the stands, no 3-pointers, not much hype at all. Nobody expected the Warriors to make it to the finals, so the coliseum had been booked for the circus and the games were moved to the Cow Palace. No flash, just a red hot Rick Barry, Jamaal (“Silk) Wilkes, Clifford Ray and other names long forgotten. The demographics of the audience have changed too, and maybe not for the better. The VIPs announced included a rap singer we never heard of, a woman with lots of tattoos and piercings unknown to us and the biggest applause for Magic Johnson. No mention of Ronnie Lott or other locals we do know. I wonder if Al Attles was there? Or Rick Barry? If so, they should have been introduced and acknowledged. Don’t get me wrong. We had a great time and were swept up by the game itself. There was confetti and fireworks on top of the stadium as we waited to get out of the parking lot. Who knows what it will look like in another 40 years!? Just the point of view of an old fan."
NOT TO BE TOO MUCH of a fogey about it, but I find all this stuff so annoying, so distracting even if I could afford seats I'd stay home in The Major's grungy living room and watch it on tv where I can watch the big event with the sound off, which I left off because for some reason, Jim Barnett, the best play-by-play guy since Bill King, was missing. What happened to Jim? And, as Sis points out, where was the great championship team of '75? Not even a mention. Game One, I did not hear a single comment from the "experts" that wasn't obvious. I got a charge out of all the people waving "Authentic Fan" placards made in China, meaning they're doubly unclear on the concept. And I wonder which marketing genius came up with the idea of those thunderstick-noisemaker things? Factor in moron music blaring full blast the whole way, amped-up sex dances at every time out, and some tattooed cretin as the half-time "show," you can have it. Fortunately, the flea brains haven't figured out a way to screw up the game itself. I know the national attention span is down to about a second-and-a-half, but really.
GOOD NEWS FOR FORT BRAGG. Wading through the edu-ese, the long and the short of it is that Mendocino College will be offering a new load of classes at Fort Bragg's wheezing College of the Redwoods campus. Down the line, Mendo College will, perhaps, assume full responsibility for the Fort Bragg campus and full class offering.
REPUBLICANS TO MEET IN FORT BRAGG. Surrounded by libs, but unaware that local Democrats are also Republicans, the Mendocino County Republican Central Committee will meet Saturday, June 20, 2015, 10:00 AM — 12:00 Noon at the Moura Senior Housing Project, Community Center, 400 South St, Fort Bragg, CA 95437. For further information contact: Evelyn Hayman, (707) 948-6467 or go to www.mendocountygop.net.
THE MENDOCINO COUNTY District Attorney’s Office, which is handling the investigation into the death, is compiling a final report on the death of Daniel Cedar Saulsbury, a 39-year-old Fort Bragg man who died shortly after being subdued by multiple law enforcement officers by Tasers last November in Point Arena. Saulsbury’s mother, Janet, has filed a $10 million claim against the county alleging that mistreatment of law enforcement led to her son’s death. Eric Petersen, attorney for the Saulsbury family, also filed a subsequent claim on behalf of Saulsbury's children, Stanley and Ronin Saulsbury seeking 'in excess of $500,000' in damages of alleged wrongful death.
BACKGROUND: (from the Independent Coast Observer, the week after Saulsbury’s death.)
Saulsbury’s Last Day
by David Torres
On Wednesday afternoon, the day before Thanksgiving, what began as a seemingly minor incident in downtown Point Arena turned deadly. At approximately 12pm the California Highway Patrol and Redwood Coast Volunteer Fire Department Chief Mike Suddith responded to a call of a man allegedly throwing rocks at an adult and a child and stealing a diaper bag in the 200 block of Main Street.
Daniel Cedar Saulsbury, 39, of Point Arena, led law enforcement officers on a foot chase and, after being tasered several times, died as paramedics struggled to revive him at the west end of Mill Street in Point Arena.
Saulsbury, who had been living with his mother in Fort Bragg, had been in the area for several days, said witnesses, and had been acting erratically at times. Saulsbury had a long history with drugs, alcohol and other run-ins with Mendocino County law enforcement.
One witness who asked not to be identified said she was playing pool with Saulsbury the night before and he seemed normal and happy. But on Wednesday she saw him walking east on Port Road, smiling but acting out of character.
Deb Parsons of Gualala said he was in the post office shortly before the police were called when Saulsbury hurried in and asked to "lock the door," saying people were after him. Saulsbury, then reentered the post office and repeated his plea to lock the door.
Parsons, who said she didn't know Saulsbury, thought perhaps it was a joke. “I didn't know what was happening,” she said.
Shortly after that, a CHP officer who was nearby responded to the call while Mendocino County Sheriff's deputies were en route. The CHP officer and later fire chief Mike Suddith followed Saulsbury around town when he failed to respond to demands.
One witness across the street from the Arena Theater who knew Saulsbury said Saulsbury climbed on top of a car and threw rocks at the CHP Officer. Saulsbury then entered the Arena Pharmacy parking lot where owner Chris Jorgensen saw the CHP officer with a taser gun in hand and a line going out of it into Saulsbury who was on the ground. According to Jorgensen, Saulsbury suddenly jumped up, seemingly unaffected, and began walking south down Main Street. According to radio scanner traffic, the CHP officer called for Code 3 backup.
A group of kids playing soccer on Mill Street saw Saulsbury walking toward them, rock in hand, with the CHP Officer walking 30 feet behind him with his gun drawn and pointed to the ground while Suddith followed in his vehicle.
According to several witnesses on Mill Street, Saulsbury was able to get behind the wheel of his pickup truck which was parked near the end of Mill Street. At that time three police officers approached Saulsbury and one banged his baton on the window and ordered him out of his truck. He was pulled out and placed facedown on the ground and handcuffed. The group of soccer kids said almost in unison that they had witnessed Saulsbury being tasered several times prior to being pulled onto the ground. The fire department and Medic 120 Coast life-support ambulance were staged close to the sea.
At one point Saulsbury, who continued to be combative, suddenly turned pale and unresponsive. CPR was administered for approximately 20 minutes said witnesses. According to a Mendocino County Sheriff's press release, Saulsbury died at the scene.
He was placed in the Medic 120 ambulance and taken to the Point Arena CalFire station where according to ambulance personnel he was airlifted by a Calstar helicopter and taken to a hospital.
Two crime scene areas were taped off in Point Arena, one on Mill Street where Saulsbury went down and one in the Arena Pharmacy parking lot.
Because this was an officer involved fatality, the Mendocino County District Attorney's Office is handling the investigation and will determine if there were any constitutional violations or use of excessive force in the incident said Terry Gross, attorney for the city of Point Arena.
According to Gross, Kevin Bailey (of the DA’s office) is the chief investigator on the case and he will be contacting witnesses obtained from the preliminary investigation. If people witnessed the incident and are not contacted by the DA's office by Monday, December 8 and have information they think is important to the case they should call the DA's office at 463-4211, Gross said.
Gross also said she reached out to the Mendocino County Sheriff's Department and CHP who both indicated they will do their own internal investigations to determine if officers followed appropriate practices and procedures.
Saulsbury had a three-year-old son who was apparently in his custody although he had a history of spousal abuse in Mendocino County. His mother told deputies that he had been clean and sober for several years but feared he had met up with the wrong friends in Point Arena when she was told about his death.
Saulsbury, who attended Point Arena high school, had a history of trouble with Mendocino law enforcement dating back to 2006, 2007 and 2009 when he was arrested for DUI and possession of narcotics. In 2007 he was also arrested for reckless driving resulting in injury and an additional charge of contempt of court. While on felony probation for domestic violence in 2011 he was charged with inflicting corporal injury on a spouse or cohabitant, child endangerment and battery. In September of this year Saulsbury was arrested for assault, domestic violence, inflicting corporal injury to a spouse or cohabitants.
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