THE COMBINATION of Governor Brown's realignment and Prop 47 aren't good for any community, but for an outlaw-heavy community like remote Covelo the twin measures are likely to be lethal. Realignment basically dumped a lot of bad boys on County Jails, and Prop 47 basically decriminalized hard drugs. A disproportionate number of Mendocino County's realigned population is now out of the County Jail and back in Round Valley, the result being a measurable uptick in violence in a community already suffering from violence, historical and contemporary. Recent episodes include the pistol whipping of a young man and a crazed-looking dude walking around in a neighbor's yard with a gun, neither of which prompted responses from law enforcement. A Covelo friend said that "after dark when all the tweakers come out it's like The Night of the Living Dead around here." Covelo badly needs a constant police presence, as Sheriff Allman himself readily concedes. But the Sheriff's Department is presently under-staffed and it's always been difficult to find deputies who will agree to live and work in Round Valley, where the West is still wild.
UKIAH SENIOR CENTER honcho, Diana Lynn Clarke, 65, and Peter Francis Fennell, 42, a former computer operator for the Mendocino County Superior Court, are being charged by the State Attorney General's Office with 11 felony counts of accessing and sharing private and confidential e-mail, and bilking Consolidated Tribal Health of more than $65,000. Fennell was arrested in June 2013 for a domestic violence-related crime involving a local court reporter that seems to have been handled informally, meaning probably at the victim's request.
JUDY VALADAO writes about Fort Bragg's reigning City Council majority's crumb bum move in not putting the conversion of the Old Coast Hotel to a homeless facility to a public vote: "The Fort Bragg City Council agreeing to talk about the initiative does nothing to get it on the November ballot. The timeline has passed and everyone knows it (our should have known it). They can talk about it until hell freezes over, it will not be on the ballot in November. The Council could have made the decision to allow it on the November ballot weeks ago but made the decision not to do so. Now when it’s too late they want to discuss it? Is this just another way to make the people think the Council is willing at last to listen when in fact they know it is a moot discussion? You be the judge. By the way, does anyone know who will be paid to conduct the Tai Chi classes at the Old Coast Hotel? Of course money has nothing to do with a persons willingness to speak out for or against projects. Right!!"
FROM MATIER AND ROSS in the Chron: Starting this fall, students applying for undergraduate admission to UC campuses will have the option of picking among six genders and four sexual orientations when asked how they want to be identified.
I WAS STUMPED. Six genders? I thought there were only versions of the two, male and female.
READING ON, I learned that in addition to male and female, there are now trans male, trans female, genderqueer/gender nonconforming, and different identity. I hope that “different identity” would be more precisely defined, but I was already lost at genderqueer/gender nonconforming.
MANY YEARS AGO, I saw a hermaphrodite at a carnival in Southern Illinois. Outside the tent, this dual person was advertised as "half man, half woman" with an illustration depicting half the person with a beard and male garb, the other half a lipsticked female in a dress. As a kid, that's what I expected to see when I went in. Many years later I learned the technical term for the condition: hermaphrodite. I think they charged a quarter to get in. Inside, a beat down-looking creature was introduced to us as something like “SueBob.” SueBob perched itself on a table and pulled up her dress to display a penis on top of a vagina. At which point I fled. It was way too weird for a twelve-year-old. But back then, at least at this carnival, it seemed anything went and, as I dimly recall, it was soon shut down for alleged prostitution, which, I've always hoped, did not involve SueBob.
THE ONE SHOW I really wanted to see was The Toughest Man in the World. He was an old pro fighter who made his living knocking out the local tough guys. The locals paid to fight him and were quickly rendered non-combative. My mother drew the line at that one, why, I don't know, but I never did tell her I'd seen the hermaphrodite. She would have flipped. I'm assuming I'm the only guy in Mendocino County who's seen one. Hold your applause.
SINCE THE DAYS of live freak shows, seething America is more freakish than ever, but if the Mendocino County Fair offered the Toughest Man in the World and a hermaphrodite, they'd double attendance.
SEVERAL READERS NOTICED suspicious similarities between an August 12 piece in the Press Democrat by Guy Kovner and a July 29 article in the AVA by Will Parrish.
Mr. Kovner’s PD piece was called: “Activists see Sonoma County winegrowers’ proposed bill as a ‘water grab’.” Kovner’s opening paragraph: “Activists involved in the escalating debate over winery expansion and vineyards’ unlimited use of water were alarmed by a published report last month that said state Sen. Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg, was ‘quietly sponsoring’ the bill, and they intend to protest at McGuire’s annual town hall meeting Thursday night at the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors chambers.” “Water grab”? “…a published report last month,” “quietly sponsoring…” Hmmm?
KOVNER is obviously referring to Will Parrish’s piece in the AVA, but can’t bring himself to use Will Parrish’s name or mention where it Parrish's story appeared. We don’t care — the PD has good reason to pretend the AVA doesn’t exist — but not mentioning Will Parrish? Come on. That’s a new low, even for the contemptible Rose City Daily.
A ZILLOW REPORT says that renters in the United States are now spending an average of 30% of their income on housing, which is the highest share on record. Between 1995 and 2000, renters spent an average of 24% of their incomes. Among major cities, Los Angeles and San Francisco spent most on shelter, with averages of 49% and 47%, respectively. Mortgages, right now, are more affordable, accounting for only 15% of salaries, according to Zillow’s figures.
MENDO RENTS? I don't think anybody's keeping track, but in the Anderson Valley, assuming you can find a place, you're going to be paying at least a grand a month for a done over garage. The cheapest rent in Ukiah is about the same, and just as scarce.
IT'S OFFICIAL! College of the Redwoods and the Mendocino Lake Community College District have finalized an agreement to have the Mendocino Lake Community College District provide educational and student support services at the Mendocino Coast campus through June 30, 2017. College of the Redwoods and the Mendocino Lake Community College District have been working on this project for two years. The coast campus has been under the oversight of Mendocino College for the last two semesters.
REPUBLICANS TO MEET IN WILLITS. The Trump problem may be on the agenda, but we don’t know because the Repugs never tell us what they’re going to talk about. They ought to consider a discussion called “Is this really the best we can do?” So far, all they’ve said is, The Mendocino County Republican Central Committee will meet Saturday, August 22, 2015, 10:00 AM – 12:00 Noon at Lumberjacks Restaurant, 1700 S Main St, Willits, CA 95490. For further information contact: Evelyn Hayman, (707) 948-6467 or go to www.mendocountygop.net.
FORT BRAGG'S SCHOOL BOARD has given its administrators raises amounting to 12-25% while teachers and classified employees got 2.5%. Last Friday morning, the teachers and classified workers demonstrated against this obvious inequity by holding a virtually secret demo in which they marched indignantly up North Harold from Colombi's Market to the Middle school. To make the point, they should have marched downtown, but they do things differently in Fort Bragg.
THE NORTH COAST Regional Water Quality Control Board has voted 5-1 for a measure that requires pot growers, as the Press Democrat's Mary Callahan put it, "to register their operations and certify compliance with environmentally responsible farming methods."
A KEY PHRASE in Ms. Callahan's report was, “It’s still unclear whether growers will embrace the regulations.”
THEY WON'T, and it's naive to think that they will since much of their water is illegally and damagingly diverted in the first place. Good for Greg Guisti for voting No on the sensible grounds that it is unwise to think that water use by pot farmers can be legitimatized and regulated.
AND THIS LINE from Ms. Callahan was downright hilarious. “The program, by design, must be self-funded.” Oh yeah, that’s another incentive to enroll.
THE WATER QUALITY board is not composed of serious people. The obvious upshot of this pot farm water “program” will be to penalize those few well-meaning pot growers who are foolish enough to participate.
VIETNAM WAR VETERANS, LISTEN UP. Friday, August 21st bronze sculptor and Viet-vet Rolf Nord Kriken of the Nordhammer foundry in Kelseyville will give an informal talk on his work which is currently on display at the Corner Gallery in Ukiah. His work is stunning, in case you haven't seen it, something like unzipping a body bag at Graves Registration in Honolulu circa 1969 — where they sent the ones that were fucked up beyond all recognition. Friday August 21st, 7pm, 201 S. State St., Ukiah 462-1400. His bronze sculptures are integral parts of memorials honoring America's veterans, focusing on the men and women of the United States armed forces. (Bruce McEwen)
DAVE YEARSLEY WRITES from Berlin where he’s participating in the Berlin Atonal: "Was just in downtown Berlin in the former East Germany traipsing about through all the reconstructions and reconfigurings. Decided to pay a visit to my old buds lingering still in the Forum named after them. The capitalist winners didn’t root the pair out. Even seem to have given the guys a bit of a polish. Nice of ‘em (the capitalists, that is). The tourists kept gathering in front and then one-by one (mostly) sallying forth to get a shot with the austere socialist bronzes of the late and lamented titans. One German guy of about sixty sidled up to me and asked who the two statues depicted. An Aussie in Ray-Bans and white shorts turned on the hapless a-historian: “What?!! You don’t know who they are??? Marx and Engels!” he practically shouted — and with real indignation. Within minutes the same German was getting his photo taken with the dynamic duo. As for me, I eventually sidled up and did a selfie, as the crowd grew in front of me. I didn’t even see them, though I’m sure Karl and Friedrich did."
JOAN TURNER IS SUING MENDOCINO COUNTY and Interim County Counsel Doug Losak in federal court alleging numerous violations of her constitutional rights. Ms. Turner was an attorney in the County Counsel's office assigned to child welfare cases. When Doug "Midnight Rambler" Losak was appointed acting County Counsel he became Joan Turner's supervisor. They had a mutual dislike for each other, based at least in part on the Midnight Rambler's late night escapades that resulted in his arrest for speeding down the highway with a bag of dope and an unregistered concealed weapon stuffed under the front seat of his car. Losak was aware that Ms. Turner did not approve of his extracurricular activities, and while she was out on leave for one or more medical conditions Losak seems to have singled her out for retaliation and discrimination based on age, gender and medical condition. Losak's conduct is alleged to have been so blatantly retaliatory that he is being sued as an individual in addition to his official capacity as Mendocino County's attorney. The case is on the Board of Supes closed session agenda for next Tuesday.
CHALK UP ANOTHER INEXPLICABLE MOVE by Judge Clay Brennan of Ten Mile Court who reduced bail from $100K to $25K for hit and run killer, Gutierrez-Villarreal, over the District Attorney's strenuous objection. Most judges, at the very least, would have ordered that the defendant temporarily surrender his driver's license and not drive any motor vehicle as a public safety measure. However, Brennan did not order even this. Remember, for purposes of determining bail, the judge is required to assume the charges are true.
BACKGROUND: Jacob "Jake" Howard, age 36, was pedaling his blue bicycle south along Highway One. He was well into the wide breakdown lane about 4:20pm on Sunday, July 12th when he was struck from behind by a vehicle described by a witness as a red pickup. There were no brake marks at the scene. The speed limit is 55 mph on that stretch of road. The red truck drove on for three miles before turning onto Fern Creek Road in Caspar. Eight days passed and, while law enforcement followed up a lot of leads, there was no break in the case until the CHP and the Mendocino County Major Crimes Task Force descended onto 120 Hocker Lane about 9:30 am Monday, July 20th and a red pickup truck stashed in the garage was seized. The arrest of Gutierrez-Villareal followed. (Courtesy, the essential mendocinosportsplus)
REPORT FROM LAKE COUNTY: Smoke awful here today, even in the northwest quadrant of Lake County. Up until yesterday it’s been relatively easy to see and breathe on this side of the lake, but the expansion of the Jerusalem “incident” and abnormal wind direction seems to be predominant for the nonce. Now we’re on to the bureaucratic blather about how to pay for removal of hazardous materials and unpermitted structural remains (lots of “informal” dwellings in the backwoods turned to cinder and bits), a la Board of Supervisors, Department of Environmental Health, etc., State Emergency Management Agency promising millions, code enforcement “officers” slathering in anticipation — just in time for the lake to turn to algal gelato (somebody ought to be testing to see how that works as fire suppressant!).
But here’s a valuable if small perspective on the rescue issue. The US Department of Health & Human Services put together a database of persons who are (1) enrolled in Medicare and (2) dependent on electricity for maintenance of critical life-sustaining equipment, by zip code. In theory, you’d want to get to those people quickly if they’re in the path of destruction. Also in theory, the Area Agency on Aging has a list of program enrollees (a subset of the larger list of enrollees in welfare programs for disabled persons, and other vulnerable people) that it will provide to the emergency responders like Sheriff’s Office, in the event that a mass evacuation has to occur or some other special circumstance requires evacuation assistance; it’s called for in the Area Agency on Aging’s PSA 26 (Mendocino & Lake Counties) Disaster Preparedness Plan, but I have no idea whether it’s ever been done or, if compiled, used in the exercise of preparedness planning by first responders. [Lake County’s officially approved Emergency Response Plan is dated 1996.]
During the peak of the Rocky Fire, when it was announced that the fire was encroaching on the east side of the city of Clearlake, volunteers from all over the county were assisting those community members to prepare and plan for the threatened evacuation requirement, because Lake County has only just begun to implement the State’s required “special needs” evacuation management mandate. Members of the Lake County Search & Rescue Team went out into the threatened eastern side of the Lower Lake community and helped people safely remove their animals and gather their important survival stuff. Extraordinary levels of cooperation among local and state agencies, as well as volunteer organizations (like the Moose Lodge, in Clearlake Oaks that operated a 24-hour sanctuary for days, and KPFZ programmers around the clock) kept bringing together local resources for members of the public providing assistance and supporting emergency responders.
Transportation and other types of assistance for “special needs” populations is “understood” as a Level of Service requirement for County Administration (Office of Emergency Services), but Mendocino is — as usual — worlds ahead of Lake. Any citizen can go online and pull up your EOP/ERP day or night. Over here, unless the disaster really does call for state or higher intervention, we use the YOYO system. (Well, not entirely — we rely heavily on our local Fire Protection Districts, whose integrity and professionalism make up for a multitude of County errors and omissions; FPDs supported by rural communitarians and civic organizations provide the backbone of day-to-day emergency management, where top-heavy “administration” at the highest level of local government emulates the sports mascot of UC Santa Cruz.)
Fortunately, with the increasing number of literate old people (a matter of odds, with more Bay Area retirees escaping the fray, like me) perseverance of the local radioheads (KPFZ), and irreplaceable if febrile communication links with the “other” outside world (thanks to the AVA, mostly), the “community” of active “older adults” is beginning to challenge the establishment of redneck recidivist Civil War rejects that run this joint.
IN 2014 SAN FRANCISCO WAS SPENDING $194.6 million a year on roughly 6700 homeless people, or $29,000 per homeless person a year, or about $80 a day, although more than half of those 6700 were, according to the SF Examiner, still sleeping on the streets. The annual cost for the 3200 not on the streets is almost $61,000 each, or $167 a day. If all 6700 of those homeless were renting a one-bedroom apartment (not in SF) for $2400 a month they could be housed somewhere.
OF COURSE, most of the homeless money is sucked up by the administrative overhead of the numerous nonprofits and public agencies allegedly helping the homeless.
IN MENDOCINO COUNTY, the ratios would be about the same as SF, even if the supporting statistics aren't available, as suggested by a story in Sunday's UDJ, which began, "The community gathered at the former Buddy Eller Center in Ukiah Friday to welcome the 'repurposing' of the Brush Street facility, which will provide a different way of delivering care at the site than in the past."
DOUBT IT, but we live in hope.
BUDDY ELLER, a large, jolly man of whom I have fond personal memories, used to be a straight-up shelter, but now it will veer off into rehab land with nicely paid jobs for "helping professionals." They'll glom onto the minority of persons actually trying to free themselves from drug and alcohol vagabondage, while the mostly male population who simply need to get out of the rain and the cold, and could get a hot and a cot for a night at Eller if they were sober enough, will, I'd bet, simply move west to Fort Bragg where they might get a bed and bologna sandwich at the Hospitality House.
CONTINUING to quote the UDJ story, "Ford Street Project’s residential treatment program is moving into the former homeless shelter, which has also been rebranded as the Ukiah Recovery Center and will have the capacity to serve 30 men and 10 women for residential treatment to help them overcome substance abuse or behavioral problems instead of admitting the homeless for nightly stays. There is also an existing inpatient treatment facility on the property for long-term recovery with a 22-person capacity. ‘This was a shelter and now repurposed into becoming a recovery center,’ said Jacque Williams, executive director of the Ford Street Project. ‘I think this is a good repurposing. This is our new beginning and second chance’.”
THE TROUBLED SOULS who qualify for the “repurposed” Buddy Eller will of course be that small minority of docile substance abusers and mental cases who are convertible to cash via grants and government reimbursement money. Kelisha Alvarez and Travis ‘The Hump’ Humphrey et al will remain unhoused.
THE OVERALL PROBLEM of homelessness, i.e., untreated alcoholism, drug addiction and insanity, will continue to grow, as will the large number of people who live off them.
THE RAINFOREST ALLIANCE is conducting a third party forest management and chain of custody certification re-assessment of Mendocino Redwood Company, LLC (MRC). The Rainforest Alliance is accredited by the Forest Stewardship Council™ (FSC®) and this re-assessment process must follow procedures which have been approved by the FSC. The re-assessment includes forests in California totaling approximately 228,000 acres. The re-assessment will be implemented August 25-28, 2015. The forest management certification re-assessment will evaluate the environmental, social, and economic aspects of forests managed by Mendocino Redwood Company, LLC using the FSC-US Forest Management Standard (v1.0).
Interested members of the public are invited to attend the stakeholder meeting on August 25th,
7:00-9:00 p.m., at the Caspar Community Center, 15051 Caspar Road, Caspar, 95420 to provide input regarding Mendocino Redwood Company’s forest management as it relates to conformance to FSC-US Forest Management Standard (v1.0). For additional details on FSC certification, the MRC re-assessment, and/or the stakeholder meeting, contact Steve Grado, Rainforest Alliance at sgrado@hotmail.com or 662-617-3691 (cell). For directions to the meeting location contact Sarah Billig at 707-463-5125.
MENDOCINO REDWOOD COMPANY is currently certified under FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) standards. This means they can use the FSC "Green" label to command a premium price for their "sustainably harvested" lumber. They need the FSC label in order to sell lumber at places like Home Depot, which demands a green label for wood sold in their stores. People are currently picketing Home Depot asking customers not to buy lumber at Home Depot stores. MRC has to get that green label re-upped every five years. Rainforest Alliance certified MRC originally in 2000 and will be re-certifying this year. Over the years stakeholders have brought up with the certifiers their outrage over herbicide use both in the context of its toxicity and its use in creating increased fire danger hazards by leaving standing dead tanoaks in the forests. Rainforest Alliance, like all the other agencies and legislative bodies, has not been responsive to us. This year is different. We will not stop. Among other things, we'll have an initiative on the ballot asking voters to declare standing dead trees a public nuisance. Come to the meeting! If you can't be there, you can contact Stephen Grado by phone, email or snail mail to get your comments to Rainforest Alliance.
Stephen C. Grado, CF/FCA #1155
George L. Switzer Professor
Department of Forestry, Box 9681
357 Thompson Hall
College of Forest Resources
Mississippi State, MS 39762-9681
scg4@msstate.edu
Voice: 662-325-2792
Fax: 662-325-8726
THE NORTH GUALALA WATER COMPANY, Inc. is a private, family-owned public utility company located in Gualala. Gualala Water serves about 1100 mostly residential customers. The Bower family also owns other businesses operating in the office, which include a motel, commercial and residential rentals, airport hangers, ministorage, and a construction company.
IN A LOCALLY unprecedented move, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife issued a strongly worded letter to Mendocino County Planning and Building concluding, essentially, that if the Bower outfit increases their water draw out of the Gualala River they would violate the Endangered Species Act.
FISH AND WILDLIFE recommends that Mendocino County “not approve additional Coastal Development Permits, projects or other development with the potential to increase water demand in NGWC’s service area” — unless NGWC can find other water sources or come up with a way to maintain minimum flows. (Historically “minimum flows” are below anything like ideal flows for fish. But “minimum” — itself highly subjective and disputable — has become the new standard to allow “maximum” draws. In drought conditions, however, even “minimum” flows are hard to maintain.
DAVID BOWER, predictably, told the Independent Coast Observer that he disagrees that his water draws are “substantial.” He added that he times his water pumping to minimize impact on fish. Bower also told the ICO that if his water company had to build and operate a reservoir it would cost $4 or $5 million (not counting the land) and that “a tank of the size needed would cost around $45 million” — an astonishingly large number which we suspect may be a typo or based on a typo. (The largest tank/cost we could find on line was for a one million gallon tank which costs about $1.5 million for the tank alone.)
BY WAY OF COMPARISON, the Irish Beach Water District up the road in Manchester — where my father was water treatment operator in the 1990s — now has about 200 residential customers (perhaps double that if all the lots were built on), and about a 110,000 gallons per day estimated source capacity with a maximum monthly usage of under a million gallons. Irish Beach has a storage capacity of 300,000 gallons or so in five tanks of varying sizes — one of them is a covered swimming pool. Many of the homes in Irish Beach are not occupied full-time residents, as we assume is also the case in the Gualala area.
ALL OF THESE NUMBERS are order of magnitude only, of course, but they would tend to indicate that $45 million is way too big an estimate for whatever Bower may need for tank storage. The reservoir cost seems reasonable as an order of magnitude estimate. Bower is also looking at potential well development in the area (which is also part of the Irish Beach water source complement).
BOWER, it would seem, needs to seriously review his tank storage options and cost estimates. Obviously, 1100 customers would have trouble financing $45 million in tank storage, amortized over 20 year would be roughly $4,000 per year per customer.
BOWER says he's willing to work with Fish and Wildlife to come up with a plan to maintain minimum flows in the Gualala River, but however that plays out it would take months if not years to implement.
THE GUALALA WATER MAGNATE says he has 55 “will serve” letters that were “approved” before the development moratorium which Bowers insists are “exempt from the new connection rule.” This also sounds suspicious because “will serve” letters are not based on capacity or ability to deliver, but simply a generic promise to permit the applicant to buy (some) water and provide revenue to the water company, something most water companies — which are in business to sell water — are happy to do, never mind pesky questions about how much water capacity they actually have.
ACCORDING to the ICO report, County Planner Andy Gustavson is reluctant to approve any new development or projects without proof from Bower that he's complying with state and federal regs. (— Mark Scaramella)
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