Off the Record (July 1, 2015)

"JUDGE REFUSES to halt homeless center in Fort Bragg." Haven't seen the judge's decision so it's impossible to evaluate his logic. And, we understand Judge Henderson's ruling will be appealed. However the Old Coast Hotel saga plays out, the term "homeless" needs a serious re-working. Back when words had meaning, "homeless" meant a person who had not only lost his shelter through no fault of his own that homeless person desired to re-shelter himself. The term didn't mean people who were beyond the capacities of their families to endure, or people who preferred to live the vagabond life, or chronic drunks, incapacitated drug heads, or crazy people.

EXCEPT FOR VAGABONDS, aka bums, who generally keep movin' on, Mendocino County's present free range homeless population is composed of drunks, druggers and crazy people who used to be the collective responsibility of all us, and we took responsibility by housing the incapacitated in a state hospital system where some of them were able to regain themselves. People who were unable or unwilling to care for themselves were not permitted to live plein air, so to speak.

WHEN THE REAGANAUTS gutted the state hospital system, legions of college-educated hustlers, haphazardly educated in psychological treatment fads, took over well-paid responsibility for the walking wounded in privately owned group homes, outpatient operations run out of county social service and mental health bureaucracies, and temporary shelters like Hospitality House in Fort Bragg. These operations were supplemented by free lunch programs run by churches.

A CAREER MENDO DRUNK or multiple substance abuser or mentally disturbed person can live outside and get a free meal and a shower when he feels the need as he goes on drinking and drugging with only periodic interventions by the police when he or she goes off in public. The cops haul the chronics to the County Jail where they are crucial to the County's ongoing catch and release program cynically presided over by the Superior Court of Mendocino County. Mendocino County's police forces have become de facto caretakers, if not caregivers, for the "homeless."

THE "HOMELESS" now being big business presided over by handsomely compensated people like Anna Shaw, and Mr. Ortner of Yuba City, and a raft of publicly-employed people at Mendo Social Services and the County's half-privatized and perennially half-assed Mental Health bureaucracy, this entire apparatus has a vested interest in things as they are.

PRIVATE BUSINESSES like the Ortner Management Group make money by cherry picking and “treating” the reimbursable homeless, as they now claim they will do more of when/if they take over the Old Coast Hotel in downtown Fort Bragg with, of course, the more attractive spaces in that graceful old structure becoming offices for the mental health professionals allegedly rehabbing maybe a half-dozen or so dry drunks, lightweight tweekers, and non-volatile crazy people. Fort Bragg's (and Ukiah's) homeless population will remain largely homeless, and probably grow as more and more of the no hope young retreat to the temporary solaces of dope and the bottle, permanently handicapping themselves for even a shot at a more or less "normal" life. But, of course, they will provide endless employment for the "helping professionals." Asterisk: I know of a perfectly self-reliant homeless guy, maybe twenty-thirty percent off but not nearly as crazy as any number of housed AV residents. He lives hidden away in the hills of the Anderson Valley as a kind of mountain man, and does much good as a kind of roving eco-monitor. This guy recently hand-carried spawning steelhead from a rapidly drying pool on an overdrawn stream to a much deeper pool where the fish are much more likely to survive. He bothers no one and, of course, should be left alone.

THIS COUNTY has no way of evaluating the success of the Ortner Management Group's services. We don't know what Mendocino County is getting for the $7-8 annual million Ortner rakes in for allegedly treating the County's mentally ill. There will be no way of gauging Ortner's rehab successes at the Old Coast Hotel, just as there is no honest procedure for determining how successful he is at rehabbing his present clients. Nor is there is any way to evaluate what exactly Hospitality House does in the way of getting people off the streets; they simply announce that they're doing a swell job (as they bill by the minute) and the fuzzy warms feel warm and fuzzy as they retreat to their comfortable but fortified homes. Anybody who questions the workings of the County's professional homeless helpers is of course denounced as heartless, cruel, "stigmatizing," and so on.

THE DISCUSSION of homelessness in Mendocino County is cynically self-interested because it's dominated by people who profit from it. Our political leadership doesn't discuss it all with a view to effective local strategies.

SO, MR. KNOW-ALL, what would you do about it? I'd begin with the assumption that no one unable or unwilling to care for himself be allowed to live on the streets. The County would re-route the millions now spent on pure blah-blah and exploitation by people like Ortner to a County-run farm on County-owned property staffed by people already on the County payroll as mental health employees. The homeless, all of them, would be required to live there and while there, earn their way. The Sheriff has had offers of donated property for just this purpose; the Point Arena Air Force Station would be a perfect site for a County-run, mandatory homeless shelter/camp. Which is what we used to have in this country before we lost our way.

OF COURSE if you think it's humane to allow people to drink and drug themselves to death on Main Street, or to allow the free range mentally ill to remain unhoused and uncared for, you're in good hands with the Ortner Management Group, the Mendocino County Mental Health Department, Mayor Turner's 3-2 majority Fort Bragg City Council, and the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors.

CHECK THAT. Supervisor McCowen spends a lot of his free time cleaning up after the homeless, especially the foul squatter camps that drain in to the Russian River. He's on a first-name basis with a lot of the inland homeless. McCowen knows the issue. And when the subject comes up before the Supervisors as a discussion of the Mental Health budget, McCowen and, increasingly, Woodhouse, ask the correctly skeptical questions. But asking the right questions and acting on their implications isn't enough. The entrenched industrial homeless complex, Mendo branch, must be politically moved on by elected people or the problem will only get worse.

JOHN FREMONT WRITES: "The next community meeting dealing with issues important to you will be held on Tuesday, July 14 at 6 p.m. at Town Hall in Fort Bragg (Main and Laurel Streets). After hearing your concerns, discussion will focus on the proposed Transfer Station on Highway 20. Charla Thorbecke, whose family has lived across from the slated garbage site for more than 100 years will lead the discussion with the assistance of a hydrologist and botanist. One week later, on July 21, at Town Hall, the Joint Powers Authority will consider Mike Sweeney's garbage proposal. For more information, email John Fremont at john@cypresshouse.com We meet monthly on the second Tuesday of the month. Come help us shape the future of the Mendocino coast."

MENDO’S TOP MANAGEMENT SALARIES

• Ukiah City Manager $ 252,000 annually to manage a "city" of 16,000. (Former City Manager Jane Chambers: $160k (plus…)
• Fort Bragg City Manager: $138,000 (2013)
• Willits City Manager: $101,000 (2013)
• Point Arena (for god's sake!) (Not listed)
• Mendocino County CEO Carmel Angelo: $180,000 (2013)
• Sheriff: $126,000. (2013)
• Transportation Director: $118,000. (2013)
• District Attorney: $126,000 (2013)
• Auditor Controller: $114,000. (2013)
• Planning and Building Director: $86,000. (2013)
• Health & Human Services Director: $125,000. (2013)
• (Santa Rosa, a city of 200,000 pays its manager $208,000.)

SAN FRANCISCO is not a happy place to be on a hot day, but I had a ticket for my favorite seat on top of the ballpark where you have a cliff's edge view of the diamond and an almost panoramic view of the Bay, soooooo. I used to have a secret parking spot safe from the meter maids, upon whose diligence rests much of Frisco's funding for its huge bureaucracy.  But the Maids found me a couple of years ago so I now pay $20 to stash the vehicle where it won't be towed. That same year my wife commanded me, as we drove west on California Street, "Buckle up!" I laughed and replied, "The San Francisco cops over their entire modern history have never written a seat belt ticket." And wouldn't you know a block later I got pulled over by a motorcycle officer who ticketed me for not wearing a seatbelt.  The cop, puzzled that I was laughing, said, "You must enjoy getting tickets." Now that insurance companies and lawyers run the country, another few years we'll all be required to wear full suits of armor whenever we leave our caves. Frisco's annual budget, by the way, is more than $9 billion, much of which, I'd say, goes to people who are paid way too much for what they do. Meter Maids rake in annual millions for The City.

HERE IN MENDOCINO COUNTY, population not quite 90,000, about half of all employed people work in a public job of some kind overseen by people paid laughably high salaries out of all proportion to the demands of their jobs. Oh, you say they're supervised by elected people sworn to hawk eye the public's interest? Har de har.

SAGE SANGIACOMO, Ukiah, is paid $252,000 — plus the usual array of Louis the Sun King-quality fringe benefits — to "manage" a town of just over 16,000 people. I daresay this pay makes this guy the highest paid city manager in the country, maybe the world, in proportion to population managed.

THE UKIAH CITY COUNCIL agreed to Sangiacomo's preposterous salary because the money doesn't come directly out of their own fortified pockets. If this Sage dude walked into, say, the Apple Corp and said he wanted work at $252,000 annually, Apple would say, "For that kinda money we look for people with real skills, Mr. Sangiacomo. We've evaluated your training and experience and are prepared to offer you an entry-level position in either the mailroom or as the last guy in personnel. Sorry, knowing how to pronounce 'paradigm' and being 'proactive' may get you the big bucks in Mendocino County, but out here in the jungles of capitalism there's no way you're going to get a quarter mil a year from any of us big carnivores.

WHERE WERE WE? Oh, yes, at the ballpark where, footing it to and from the North Beach Garage, Thursday's heat rising, the usual faint odor of raw sewage more prevalent in the heat than it usually is, and the pervasive bad vibes characteristic of life in America these days more edgy than they usually are — two screaming road rage episodes on the way to, one on the way back — The City was limp in its globally warmed toaster-oven.

AT THE BALLPARK, however, the vibes were positively merry, and I was fortunate in my immediate neighbors, a suburban mom and her two teenagers, a boy of 16, who mom said runs a 2-flat 800 meters, an excellent time for a high school kid, and a girl of 14 "who plays all the sports." Mom asked me, "Always been a Giants fan?" Launching into full Old Coot mode, I replied, "All the way back before the Giants I was a dedicated Seals fan. I saw Dave Righetti's father, Leo, play shortstop at Seals Stadium, which was really a beautiful little ballpark, not a stadium but huge in the memory of all us old people. And on I went, rolling out my Baseball Geezer bona fides until it was obvious she was sorry she'd asked.

THE GAME was a lot of fun and, in the late innings downright exciting as the Pads came to within a run until the Strickland kid, humming fastballs in the high 90s, shut San Diego all the way down. Four triples, almost a great catch by Pagan, the seagulls arriving in force just as Tony Bennett was climbing his little cable car halfway to the stars.

ARRIVING back in Marvo-Marin about six, Comcast, without explanation, disappeared, meaning no phone, no computer, no television, no Netflix. It was nice to be totally incommunicado and, as always when the grid goes awry or fails altogether, a timely reminder how fragile it is, how fragile and failing everything is.

RECOMMENDED READING: Power to the People — Why the rise of green energy makes utility companies nervous by Bill McKibben. "..... Most of the technology isn't particularly exotic — these days, you can buy a solar panel or an air-source heat pump at Lowe's. But few people do, because the up-front costs are high and the options can be intimidating… The energy revolution, instead of happening piecemeal, over decades, could take place fast enough to actually help an overheating planet. But all of this would require the utilities — the interface between people and power — to play a critical role, or, at least, to get out of the way."

THE WILLITS BYPASS, Caltrans tells us, is "70% complete and will be fully ready by 2016." If it doesn't fall down again. Prediction: The aqueduct stretch of the Bypass will sink and fail with the eventual return of The Big Rains on Little Lake Valley, aka Willits.

SWING VOTE ON GAY MARRIAGE. No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were. As some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death. It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right. — Justice Anthony Kennedy

PRESIDING OVER A HELLISH, unplanned sprawl of a small town, one might think that the Ukiah City Council would have more urgent priorities than adding its confused voice to the marijuana cacophony. Trees anyone? A realistic approach to the wandering tribes of the self-medicating? A re-visit to the preposterous pay — $252,000 annually — for their city manager? Nope. At Wednesday's meeting the Ukiah City Council "may appoint two members of its board to serve on a Marijuana Legislation and Policy ad-hoc committee."