Mendocino County Today, Monday, Sep 7, 2015

FORMER COMPTCHE RESIDENT PHILO HAYWARD PASSES

This was posted to MendocinoSportsPlus today at 4:39pm: "For those who don't know, Philo Hayward passed away last night. He lived in Comptche for many years where he had a recording studio and produced many albums and more recently in La Cruz, Mexico. He was one of a kind, a most sincere man with a big heart. Let's raise a glass to Philo Hayward. If you can't be in La Cruz, raise a glass to toast this wonderful man's life at 6pm, wherever you are in the world." On the MCNlistserv, there was this post: “Philo passed at his home in La Cruz, Mexico after heart surgery and there is a toast for him at 6pm today. Folks from around the world will participate. He will be greatly missed.”

https://www.youtube.com/user/Philohayward

(Courtesy, MendocinoSportsPlus)

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OPENING LINES from: “Homeless in Mendocino County: A few legal questions,” by Sarah Reith, for The Ukiah Daily Journal. September 5, 2015:

"Marlene Kurowski and Oly Mixolydian are optimistic. Kurowski is the executive director at Plowshares, where meals are served twice a day, no questions asked, to anyone who shows up at 11:30 a.m. for lunch or 6 p.m. for dinner, Monday through Friday (doors open at 5:30 p.m. for seniors and families with children). Mixolydian is a case manager at the Access Center for those with serious and persistent mental illness. Both work closely with people who are homeless or have been, and Mixolydian himself has lived on the streets in San Francisco, Ukiah and Eugene.” …

“MIXOLYDIAN n. An authentic church mode represented on the white keys of a keyboard instrument by an ascending scale from G to G.”

“OLY MIXOLYDIAN”? Mr. Mixolydian’s qualifications? “Mixolydian himself has lived on the streets in San Francisco, Ukiah and Eugene.”

NOBODY in the English-speaking world is named “Mixolydian.”

MARLENE KUROWSKI, we can assume, is the real name of a real person with verifiable bona fides for her position at Plowshares.

THERE IS AMPLE PRECEDENT for hiring former clients in Mental Health operations. In entry level jobs, mostly. It’s been done for years. But as “case managers” who deal with “serious and persistent mental illness”? People with fake names?

THE ACCESS CENTER that Mr. “Mixolydian” works for is an Ortner Management Group operation, recently praised in the County’s Mental Health Board 2014-2015 annual report probably written by Tom Pinizzotto which lavishes praise on the former Ortner exec, now County Mental Health Director, and Ortner’s guy in Mendo, Dr. Mark Montgomery. Montgomery goes so far as to give classes on how to be a good Mental Health board member, i.e., take Ortner’s word for everything. This self-drafted, self-serving document has recently disappeared from the county’s website.

WHAT WE HAVE HERE is more evidence — if any more was needed — that Ortner shouldn’t be running a private multi-million dollar mental health operation for public Mendocino County where Mental Health Services have for years been problematic at best. If Ortner is hiring fake name anybodys as "case managers" with no qualifications beyond having lived on the streets themselves (if that’s even true), what does that say about Ortner's hiring practices? About the qualifications of their other staff? About their background checks? About their "services"? About “case management”? (Which, as we have previously pointed out, Ortner charges about twice what is allowed for by MediCal.)

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EXCELLENT COLUMN by Tommy Wayne Kramer in Sunday's Ukiah Daily Journal, and an emphatic outta-the-parker by KC Meadows on recent events at the Board of Supervisors.

Kramer first. He rightly denounces Assemblyman Jim Wood, formerly a Healdsburg dentist. Wood got into career officeholding, probably, because it pays well and it's a lot easier than peering down through lethal breath at mossy dentures all day. Of course the more frightening qualification for public office these days — frightening for the rest of us, that is — is absolute insincerity. Wood mos def is as vapid as they come. Dentists, by the way, suffer a high incidence of mental illness, but Wood doesn't even seem to have enough imagination to go interestingly nuts. Anyway, our Assemblyman, and you're excused if you've never heard of him or the State Assembly, is rightly denounced by Kramer for demanding yet another tax on Joe Camel and the Marlboro Man, as if his fellow hacks haven't already and repeatedly gang tackled tobacco, which is your basic in lieu of political action. What's next, a state resolution against child molestation?

WOOD'S Healdsburg soul bro, State Senator Mike McGuire, occupation prior to state office unknown other than a vague ref to “radio and television,” is obviously an unemployable. You look at these two characters and instantly understand why Donald Trump is so popular, at least with the older, dumber, white demographic. Trump seems real, Wood and McGuire aren't. Both of them give vapidity a bad name. And, natch, they solely represent the Wine Industry, the owners of the industry, that is.

WOOD AND McGUIRE nuzzle-bummed their way into state office out of that fetid morass of toadies, non-profit time servers, and miscellaneous slime balls known as the Northcoast's Democratic Party, the active part of the party, that is. Lots of otherwise respectable people are registered Democrat out of pure inertia. (God's teeth! I think I might be registered Democrat. Please don't tell anyone.) None of these people represent the way forward. They're No Hope squared.

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KC MEADOWS' SUNDAY editorial in the Ukiah Daily Journal, reprinted here, chastised Supervisor Woodhouse for his neo-flower child-like, faux sincerity, claiming he's new at the job and wants to learn. He's almost a year in the job and there's not that much to learn. It was highly disingenuous of Woodhouse, for instance, to raise the correct questions about the Ortner contract for mental health services then not join Supervisors McCowen and Gjerde in voting against renewal of the County's contract with Ortner. As Meadows points out, smarm may work in real estate sales but it's insulting at the local level of government. I'll take it a little farther: the passive-aggressive local style, predominant among public libs, is extremely off-putting, and so transparently fraudulent that it fools no one and angrifies everyone. We're all sick of it, hence the rise of the Beast to the East — Trump.

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GOING NOWHERE FAST: It came to light this week that on August 11 First District Supervisor Carre Brown shot off a memo admonishing Third District supervisor Tom Woodhouse for talking to county employees. The memo itself is typical officious gobbledygook and at first glance it's it is easy to dismiss as both overstepping and overbearing. It is this kind of nonsense that gives government a bad name and reminds us all that there is a reason nothing ever seems to get done and that supervisors are really powerless to do anything. We understand that it's probably annoying to the CEO and the department heads that some goofy supervisor is running around talking to employees — gasp!

But we also know a little about Tom Woodhouse. We have seen him in action and we can see him drifting around the administration building popping into employees' offices and sitting down at their desks and saying something like, "Hi, I'm Tom. I want to be your friend. Tell me something I don't know." Woodhouse has a tendency to treat you like he is gracing you with his presence, and that he just wants to sit quietly with you and convince you to like him. Woodhouse — a still practicing real estate agent — undoubtedly has honed this folksy approach over the years selling property. But all this bonhomie with employees isn't translating into action. Woodhouse still gets through most board meetings without saying a word, he still wonders around acting like he's just a new guy on the block, groping to learn, learn, learn. After nine months in office that routine is getting old. The upshot is that whether you think Woodhouse should be able to wander the halls of government at will or whether you think Carre Brown is right in trying to rein him in, there is dysfunction among board members and that's not usually a good thing for the citizens of the county.

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COMMUNITY CONVERSATIONS WITH SHERIFF TOM ALLMAN

Mendocino County residents will have the opportunity to have a conversation with the County Sheriff at the Anderson Valley Mendocino County Fair September 19 in the Redwood Grove at 3:30 p.m. Please join us to let Sheriff Allman know what law enforcement support we appreciate and what our community needs!

Saturday, September 19 - 3:30PM

Anderson Valley Mendocino County Fair in the Redwood Grove (Organized by AV Community Action Committee.)

— Donna Pierson-Pugh

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AVA Readers:

Do you have any concerns about public safety in Anderson Valley or Mendocino County at large? Here is your chance to have a conversation with our Sheriff, Tom Allman, Saturday, September 19th, 3:30, in the redwood grove at the County Fairgrounds in Boonville. Let him know what our community needs and what law enforcement we appreciate. Let's put this date on our calendars.

Barbara Scott

Philo

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ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Leaving adult mental health to Redwood Children’s Services would be a mistake. RCS was fired by OMG when they ran mental health crisis rather soon after it all went privatized. Nobody is going to bill Medi-Cal more efficiently than the county. Medi-Cal is a quagmire of bureaucracy designed by politicians to disenfranchise the poor and keep them disenfranchised. Only the county knows how to work the billing most efficiently, its just that Medi-Cal is designed to not be billed successfully. Private insurance doesn’t have these issues.

— Eric Wilcox (former Mendocino County Mental Health Department staffer)

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QUICK! WHO SAID THIS? (A) DAN HAMBURG (B) POPE FRANCIS (C) RUDY GUILIANI (D) WILLIE BROWN.

“A city with homeless on its streets is a city that has no love of its people. The so-called ‘progressive’ view, that people have a right to live on the sidewalk, is not only legally devoid of any merit but is inhumane, indecent and dangerous. It's a contradiction to describe this stance as progressive. It should properly be regarded as retrogressive. People living on the street, urinating and defecating there, marked the Dark Ages of Western civilization. In a humane, decent and civilized society, the problems of the homeless are dealt with through intervention rather than denial. Difficult, seemingly implacable human problems need even more determined interventions rather than repetitions of retrogressive, old-fashioned applications of left-wing guilt.”

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FOR JUDY BROWN

The look I'll have at the end

will be the smile I give to people I don't really know.

Albert's not come home,

he's the sad ant on the end of my finger.

Howcome you didn't turn your back to the far voices?

Howcome you didn't wrap yourself in the dancer's spins and dips, wear black, flared pants?

Howcome you didn't remember the old grannie lady,

naked by the river,

beating on herself with a stick, getting ready, hands,

talons of anger,

ready to beat the brown rushing flood?

She got nailed by a log right after the bell.

Howcome you didn't listen to your grandfather's voice

singing the songs of his grandfather?

All dogs are comedians, they just want to be laughed at.

Howcome you go out onto the St. Clair River

in a ’48 Chevvy towards Detroit?

I watched the bubbles pop through the surface.

I thought of you under there.

I thought, howcome you know to dance,

to sing the songs of our roots

and you start driving to America across the river,

through the setting yellow haze?

I shot and buried in the Alder swamp

a wounded roadkill I found today

pissed off you aren't here to help me with the dying.

— Wanda Tinasky, Fort Bragg, 1985

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THE NEW NORMAL

To the Editor:

I have been employed by Mendocino County for 23 plus years. I went on vacation in July and returned to note my auto-deposit paycheck was $20 net less with the new SEIU contract. This totals to an annual loss of $520 to me; this is in addition to the 10 percent permanent wage loss we’ve been living with since 2011 (and that permanent loss was after several years of furlough/mandatory time off of 10 percent). All in all, since 1992, I’ve been paid 10 percent less than what I’ve been promised for over half the years I’ve been working here. This new reduction is a shift in retirement costs from the county to employees. We’re not getting anything new, just taking the hit for portions the county is making employees pay.

Managers and deputies have been living with the 10 percent reduction for even longer than SEIU employees.

So it’s interesting that the County takes credit for “restoring” 3 percent of our wages and yet is now charging us for these costs. They are giving with one hand and taking away with another. The general public reading the story probably doesn’t realize the whole story; it’s actually not much of a win for employees, just more of the same old song. Luckily, I’ve been through this so many times that I was able to just laugh when I saw the auto-deposit.

They’re not fooling anyone. The County is no longer a reliable, trustworthy employer and it’s financially dangerous to depend on them for anything related to fairness with wages, so many of us have explored second jobs that are now subsidizing our county salaries. It seems everyone is enjoying the economic recovery except County employees.

Expect more of the same: long-term vacancies, fruitless recruitments for staff with special skills, workers covering more than one position, more stories like the CPS Grand Jury story. We’re all learning to live with the “new normal.” From the view of the staff who are actually doing the work, it’s not a pretty picture.

Valerie Lawe Cannon

Ukiah

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ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

This is tricky territory but I will wade in nonetheless.

The most brilliant and effective rebranding program in the last twenty years is the one successfully implemented by hobos, bums and vagrants. By rebranding themselves as "homeless" this smart, resourceful cadre have effectively hijacked the sympathies of countless well-meaning people looking to help the genuinely needy, destitute and mentally challenged individuals who absolutely need our assistance.

There are now thousands of individuals who've chosen the contemporary version of the vagabond lifestyle. Only today it is effectively and inadvertently underwritten by the generous programs we have created to serve the truly needy. These aren't the romantic hobos of yore, stealing pies off windowsills. Their chosen lifestyle which diverts scarce resources is a kind of theft. It takes money, housing, other donations as well as volunteer time and energy away from those who most need it.

There's another distressing impact that results from this "rebranding." Many people look upon these free riders and know that theirs is an elective lifestyle. That reaction in many cases hardens their hearts of potential donors, the terribly unfortunate result of which is an overall diminution of much-needed giving.

Are there any good ideas out there that would work to separate the fraudulent "homeless" from the truly sick, helpless and hapless?

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RESETTLING SYRIAN REFUGEES

Dear Editor:

This letter complements my previous letter in reference to the United States exercising their moral responsibility to help resettle Syrian refugees. We need to remember our invasion of Iraq set the stage for the emergence of ISIS. Isis follows a very strict interpretation of the Wahhabi Code which is centered in Saudi Arabia. The ISIS fighters rarely have families. They usually are single men who buy sex slaves at the slave market for their female companionship. Many of the migrants are family groups and are Alawites (Shi'a), Christians, Kurds and Sunnis who do not share the beliefs of ISIS. It is worth noting the family that had the wife and 2 children drown were Kurds who are our allies in the fight against ISIS. In general these families do not pose a terrorist threat. The administration is mulling over and appears not willing to accept the 65,000 migrants which is the suggested share for the U. S. The U. S. is providing money for assistance to the migrants but on a per capita basis it is chump change. In conclusion I would say we caused the problem but are unwilling to take any significant action to clean up the mess. Again I would say shame on Obama and Congress for failure to exercise their moral responsibility for the Syrian refugees.

In peace and love,

Jim Updegraff

Sacramento

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CATCH OF THE DAY, Sep 6, 2015

ARTICIA ALLEN, Nice/Ukiah. Drunk in public.

JOEL ALVAREZ-LOPEZ, Ukiah. Under influence of controlled substance.

ANTHONY BILLY, Hopland. DUI.

DANIEL BUTLER, Ukiah. Community Supervision violation.

SONO CARRIGG, Willits. Probation revocation.

MICHAEL FAIN, Novato/Ukiah. Pot cultivation, concealed or disguised weapon.

JOSE GARCIA, Ukiah. Drunk in public.

ANDREW GREBIL, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

OLIVIA HAYWARD, Fort Bragg. Domestic battery.

SCOTT KENNEY, Ukiah. Pot cultivation, processing, possession for sale.

BOWDIN KOTZDEESE, Ukiah. Drunk in public.

JOSE LORETO-QUIJAS, Ukiah. DUI, no license.

SYLVESTER MAREK, Domestic assault, false imprisonment.

VANESSA MEZA, Ukiah. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

JULIAN SALAZAR, Rio Linda/Ukiah. Possession of meth for sale, paraphernalia, failure to appear, probation revocation.

MATTHEW WILT, Fort Myers, Florida/Hopland. DUI, possession of hashish.

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BURNING MAN 2015

A Labor of Love

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JOHN FREMONT REMINDS US

2nd Tuesday Reminder

The subject for this Tuesday's discussion is local history. Come hear award-winning historian, author and teacher, Sylvia Erickson Bartley discuss the settling of Fort Bragg (and the unsettling of the indigenous people). Then voice your opinion on whether the town's name should be changed. Town Hall (Main and Laurel) at 6 p.m. Also, put 9/21 on your calendar, It's International Peace Day, and we'll celebrate the life of Howard Ennes at a Peace garden outside the Bea Erickson Senior Center in Fort Bragg at 2 p.m. (Sylvia Erickson Bartley is Bea's daughter.)

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GLASS BEACH, Fort Bragg, Summer 2015

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MICHAEL MCCOURT, S.F. BARTENDER OF RENOWN, DIES

by Sam Whiting & Victoria Colliver

Michael McCourt, the dean of San Francisco bartenders, raconteur and brother of the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “Angela’s Ashes,” died Saturday in San Francisco. He was 79.

Many considered Mr. McCourt among the last of the city’s old-time, non-mixologist, non-tattooed, daytime bartenders from the era when drinks didn’t involve artisanal tinctures and lunch was an all-day affair.

Mr. McCourt’s ability to hold court was legendary at San Francisco’s most celebrated taverns, including Perry’s on Union Street and the Washington Square Bar & Grill. His failing health over the past year shortened his duties at North Beach’s Original Joe’s to just two lunchtime shifts a week.

After falling at his home a few months ago, he was still paid to come in for his regular shift at the restaurant’s bar to sip a pint of Guinness and talk to customers.

“He could keep a bar going because people liked to listen to him talk. He could charm anybody,” said Mike Fraser, who worked alongside his friend, initially at Perry’s and most recently at Original Joe’s, for more than 40 years.

Mr. McCourt, one of seven children but among only four who lived beyond the age of 3, was born in Limerick, Ireland, after his parents moved from the United States back to their homeland during the Great Depression.

His older siblings, including brother Frank, had been born in Brooklyn. Frank McCourt, who died in 2009, would become famous for chronicling the family’s impoverished Irish childhood in his 1996 memoir “Angela’s Ashes,” followed by “’Tis” and “Teacher Man.”

Immigrating to the US

After his brother brought him back to this country in 1954, Mr. McCourt enlisted in the Air Force and later joined another older brother, Malachy, an actor and also an author, working at a saloon in New York.

Mr. McCourt later moved to Southern California, where, while tending bar in Santa Monica in 1969, he met Perry Butler, who was soon to open Perry’s. Butler hired him to open the bar, and he worked there for about two decades.

“I was 26 and didn’t have a clue. He had a clue,” Butler said. “There was nobody quite like Michael. He was the real thing, authentically Irish.”

Butler confirmed his beloved friend and employee was “not fast” as a bartender, but he had other talents.

“He remembered people’s names. He remembered people’s drinks. He’d have them ready before they order it,” he said. “He is the last of that breed; a once-in-a-generation guy.”

Chris Tocchini, who worked with Mr. McCourt during his lunch shifts on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at Original Joe’s, said the veteran barkeep was working on his third-generation clientele.

“Grandkids were coming in to meet the great Mike McCourt,” said Tocchini, whose father introduced him to Mr. McCourt. “It was fun to watch.”

Malachy McCourt, of New York, wrote on his Facebook page Saturday that his brother passed away peacefully in the presence of his wife, Joan, and his grown children.

“I have no reason to doubt that he is dead, but I can’t absorb it,” he said. “Mike was one of the funniest, wittiest of men, a hugely popular figure in San Francisco in the bar business. He could tell you go to hell in such a charming way that you would enjoy the journey.”

Party planned

Malachy McCourt said his brother will be cremated and a party will be held in his honor at Original Joe’s in a few weeks.

“Thanks for the laughs Mike, that was your credo,” his brother wrote. “Let us know how it is wherever you are. Love you brother.”

Mr. McCourt is survived by his wife, Joan McCourt of San Francisco; daughters, Katie McCourt of San Francisco, Angie McCourt of Richmond and Mary McCourt of Chico; son, Mikey John McCourt of San Francisco; and brothers, Alphie and Malachy McCourt of New York City.

(Courtesy, the San Francisco Chronicle)

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JAMES MARMON was fired from his job with Mendocino County for refusing to sign off on dubious child custody cases. The County then paid him a settlement out of a tacit assumption that Marmon had indeed been wrongfully terminated. Now, the County wants to shut him up altogether.

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Subject: Silence of the lambs

Last week I received a letter from Mendocino County Counsel Doug Losak threatening me that if I continued to send emails to the Board of Supervisors that legal action would be taken against me. He claimed that my emails to the Board were in violation of a restraining order placed against me pertaining to Carmel Angelo, Stacy Cryer, and Bryan Lowery.

I’ve been doing some research and it appears that his threat is violating my first amendment rights. Emails to “elected officials” from private citizens are protected speech. Unless I am making physical threats directly aimed at them, there is no law preventing me from sending any emails to them.

What has me scratching my head is that when I was terminated from my employment at HHSA, I filed an appeal with the state. The State Personnel Board has ruled in favor of the County and found that “Appellant's (my) repeated contacts with County Counsel and multiple communications with upper management and other County officials violated well established, lawful Agency communication and chain-of-command protocols. Moreover, the record established that both Lowery and Barrett repeatedly counseled and directed Appellant (me) to refrain from this conduct. These facts are sufficient to sustain charges of insubordination and willful disobedience.”

Now, I never sent any email to County Counsel, Upper Management, or other County Officials (Board of Supervisors) where I was not reporting violations of law or Federal and State Regulations. All my emails were of public concern and every one of my complaints have been confirmed by the Grand Jury and First 5 Commission Reports. Every one of my complaints were confirmed, right down to the retaliatory and “command and control” management style that is affecting employee morale and what caused a mass exodus of qualified and experienced social workers from the Agency placing thousands of children at risk.

I’m thinking now that I should have claimed whistleblower protection as a defense at my hearing. It looks like my SEIU attorney and I both messed up on that. During the hearing the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) focused more on the chain of command protocol and was not interested in whether my communication with the above parties were considered protected activity or not. We did not present a strong case.

I bring this up, because I am concerned for other County employees who have been talking with the Board of Supervisors and/or making complaints past their immediate line staff supervisor. The County, especially Family and Children’s Services are extremely dedicated to their chain of command policy and what information ever gets to the Board. The CEO will tell them what they need to know. Nothing, I mean nothing, is ever to get past the CEO from any employee regarding their employment issues.

“A government employee’s speech may be protected if the employee made the speech in their capacity as a citizen. On the other hand, a public employee does not enjoy First Amendment protection when their speech is not made as a citizen under the First Amendment, but instead was made solely pursuant to the employee’s official duties. For example, government employees who write to a local newspaper regarding the policies of their government employer, who discuss politics with co-workers or who make public statements outside the course of performing their official duties, retain First Amendment protection because their activities also could have been engaged in by people who do not work for the government.

A public employee’s right to free speech under the First Amendment is not unlimited and employers have the right to discipline employees for expressive activity under certain circumstances (Picking v Board of Education, 391 U.S. 563, 1968). The employer has an interest in ensuring that its employees do not undermine its operations or interfere with accomplishment of its objectives. At the same time, employees do not give up their constitutional rights when they accept government employment. Indeed, government employees may play a particularly important role in enlightening the public about governmental operations by contributing to public debate and alerting the public about potential wrongdoing. Thus, the courts have developed a test for determining when public employers can discipline their employees for expressive activity.

Although you enjoy the constitutional right of freedom of speech in the workplace, your government employer still has some leeway in protecting its own operations and policies. The threshold requirement for protected speech is that it must relate to a matter of public concern. If speech relates to an employee’s private grievance, discipline based on the speech does not implicate the First Amendment. In addition, even if the speech addresses matters of public concern, when the employee’s speech rights are outweighed by the disruption that the speech causes to the operations of government, the employer can discipline the employee for speech. The more central the speech is to matters of concern to the public, the more disruptive to governments operations it must be in order to justify discipline. The impact of the speech on discipline, working relationships, work performance, and government operations is a significant consideration in weighing the government’s interests (Rankin v. McPherson, 483 U.S. 378, 1987). In the 2005 term (Garcettie v. Ceballos, 361 F.3d. 1168, 9th Cir. 2004, cert. granted, 125 S. Ct. 1395, 2005), the Supreme Court had to decide whether an employee who brings to light suspected wrongdoing in speech required by job duties is protected from discipline, thus further refining the balancing test. To resolve this tension between your employer’s interests and your free speech rights as a public employee, the United States Supreme Court created a two-part test:”

First, is the free speech protected as a matter of public concern?

For your speech to be protected, it must address a “matter of public concern.” A matter of public concern is one that is related to “any matter of political, social, or other concern to the community.” For instance, if a firefighter were to criticize the city’s preparedness for a fire, this would be a “matter of public concern.” On the other hand, speech that relates to a purely private interest or an isolated workplace complaint is usually not considered a matter of public record.

Second, if my speech is a matter of public concern, does my right to free speech outweigh my employer’s business reasons for restricting such speech?

If your speech is a matter of public concern, then your interest in expressing yourself is weighed against any injury this speech could cause to your employer. Speech interferes with the government employer’s interest if it impairs discipline or work relationships, or gets in the way of your duties or administration of public service. For example, the government is allowed to prohibit its employees from using offensive speech to the public or other co-workers and your employer is given wide-latitude in responding to that speech in the workplace. Also, an employee’s interest in criticizing his employer’s hiring decisions, though normally a matter of public concern, was found by a court not to outweigh the employer’s interest in avoiding disruption at work.”

http://mef101.org/DisciplineRights/freespeech.html

According to all the above, Mendocino County Employees should be careful. According to Mendocino County, even contacting the Board of Supervisors is breaking the chain of command and therefore prohibited by law. I really don’t think it is, but I just hope the Supervisors don’t reveal any employee names to the CEO. Perhaps we need more discussion on this issue, so more employees and private citizens like myself feel free to express their voice.

James Marmon, MSW.

Lake County

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INVISIBLE LAWYERS

by Scott M. Peterson

By all appearances, MCDH – uh, Mendocino Coast District Hospital – board member Tom Birdsell is a wunderkind. Retiring out of Silicon Valley as a finance honcho for hotshot firms like Silicon Graphics, Coherent and NETGEAR. At forty something. That’s what his bio at the Point Cabrillo Lighthouse claims. It also sez that he serves on the board at the Northern California Health Care Authority (NCHCA). Okey-dokey.

Big shots love name-dropping. Almost as much as generalizing. Saves ‘em time. Not to mention explanations. Because they’re – well, uh – big shots. Not me. I was raised in the tiny backwater of Mendocino. I’m not nearly as smart as folks like Mister Birdsell. So I need things explained to me. Such was the case a few months ago. When he made mention of ‘the JPA’ at a hospital board meeting. ‘Uh, excuse me.’ I asked. ‘What exactly is that?’ Birdsell’s face flushed a bit. Then he explained that it was the Northern California Health Care Authority. An outfit that MCDH belonged to. Along with a whole bunch of other hospitals. But I don’t remember him naming any. So I went looking for them. Along with ‘the JPA’ he mentioned.

JPA stands for Joint Powers Authority. In 2007, there were about 1,800 of ‘em here in the Golden State. All governed by State law. Getting one going is easy. Stopping it is another matter. According to official records, Mr. Birdsell’s JPA was to be authorized under State Assembly Bill 2407. Back in February of 2012. It’d include seven other hospitals. Allowing them to engage in something described as ‘joint purchasing, joint development, and joint ownership of health care delivery and financing programs.’ That seemed like a whole lot of joints to me. And apparently to its sponsor. Assemblyman Wes Chesbro. Who wound up cancelling a hearing on his own bill barely two months after introducing it. Giving AB 2407 a quiet death. NCHCA had gotten started in July of 2007. Under the California Joint Powers Act. Which – according to its self-appointed charter[i] – authorized the exercise of powers common to public agencies. But by statute, not to enlarge them. Clearly the ‘joint ownership of health care delivery and financing programs’ was a whole new ball game. Not to mention the fact that NCHCA wasn’t mentioned by name anywhere in its own charter. But only as ‘the JPA’. Hence the necessity of Chesbro’s dogshit bill. And Mr. Birdsell’s abbreviation.

The earliest public reference to that agency is in an MCDH newsletter from 2007. It’d reportedly gotten a $200,000 grant from ‘an anonymous donor to start the new venture.’ Preceded one month by a nonprofit subsidiary called North Coast Integrated Health (NCIH). Barely a year later, it was burning through eighteen grand a month. With only $4,000 left in the bank. In 2009, Mr. Birdsell reported himself as the ‘defacto treasurer’ at NCIH. Ditto for ‘the JPA’. NCIH’s charter got yanked by the Secretary of State right off the bat.[ii] And revoked by the Franchise Tax Board in July of 2010. By then, Birdsell was begging NCHCA board members for money. Asking at first for $2,000 a month. Then for half that amount. But getting nothing. Remember his bio at Point Cabrillo Lighthouse? He’s listed as treasurer there too. For MCDH. Back in 2013. When they were already bankrupt.

Until that time, it made sense to keep struggling hospitals open. To improve patient outcomes. But in 2011, a little old school called Harvard University conducted a study on that very subject. With Dr. Karen E. Joynt. One that trumped AB 2407. Media articles followed. Including one titled, ‘Hospital closures don’t hurt patient outcomes’. Where Dr. Joynt reported that hospital closures can actually benefit patients. So I guess you could say it was a Joynt that smoked Mister Birdsell’s JPA. Along with half a dozen hospitals. Including MCDH.

Palm Drive Hospital in Santa Rosa was one of ‘em. It closed core services in 2014. And then closed its doors in April of this year. But not before putting local taxpayers on the hook for a parcel tax. Even after the hospital went belly-up, taxpayers are shelling out $155 a parcel for it. Every year. Yes sir. It’s what you might call a dee-luxe pork barrel. And those poor Sonoma County saps will be coughing up until the hospital’s bonds are paid off. Which is a decade or two down the road. I seemed to recollect seeing one of them fancy looking bonds. Found it online a few months ago. Even copied the web address down. But when I went a lookin’ for it the other day, it was plumb gone! Fortunately, I’d downloaded a copy. And lucky for me, I found it.[iii]

According to that little gem, the NCHCA would lease Palm Drive Hospital back to the Palm Drive Health Care District for ten million greenbacks. The bond was dated April 20, 2010. The interest rate was negotiable. Which is completely strange since the NCHCA had no formal existence. But a law firm was listed on that there bond. An outfit called Quint & Thimmig. Way down in Marin County. I just figured that everything was on the up-and-up. Until the bond disappeared.

Well, heck. There must be a good explanation. Especially if a lawyer is involved. Right? They should be easy enough to find. Quint & Thimmig has a website. Complete with an email address. I asked ‘em about that there bond. But nobody responded. Plan B was Mr. Birdsell. His email is listed on the MCDH web site. So I asked him for all of his JPA’s public records. Under a California Public Records Act request. But the normally loquacious Tom Birdsell went radio silent. So there were other NCHCA board members to be found. Along with their email addresses. One of them talked. A feller named Bill Boerum. Chairman of the board there. That was back in June. Mr. Boerum didn’t have a record of any bond. But was kind enough to provide me with audited financial statements dated June 30, 2014.[iv] By then, NCHCA had about fifty thousand dollars in the bank. With annual expenses of half that amount. According to the last page, the NCHCA ‘appoints’ legal counsel of one of its member districts. Stating that ‘The Mendocino Coast Healthcare District’s legal counsel (County Counsel of the County of Mendocino) may be used if a legal issue arises.’ That’s funny, I thought. MCDH said that John Ruprecht is legal counsel.

Now you just ponder that for a minute. How can any entity appoint a government lawyer? Let alone an entity that don’t exist? There was only one way to find out. By contacting Mendocino County Counsel. So I did. That’s Mr. Douglas Losak. He told me the last correspondence with Mr. Birdsell’s JPA was a letter to them in November of 2012 about proposed future representation.[v] But nothing since. The only trace of legal advice I could find from Mendocino County Counsel is a budget memo from 2010. Where Jeanine Nadel would be providing advice to them as a Joint Powers Authority. Something that fizzled out in committee two years later. But no actual advice. There are reports of such advice. In NCHCA minutes at sitescorcher.com. Back in 2009. But all of it apparently for organizational affairs. Like bylaws and such.

Ms. Nadel isn’t identified on the role of that meeting. The only board member present from Mendocino County was Mr. Birdsell. Which begs three important questions. One: Who was the liaison for legal advice at that meeting? Two: Who could it have been besides Mr. Birdsell? And three: Is Mr. Birdsell a liaison for legal advice? From an attorney who isn’t there?

‘Aha,’ any intelligent reader will think. What possible motive would Mr. Birdsell have to do something like that? He’s a genuine do-gooder. Helping his community out. All without pay. Right? Not so fast. See for yourself at www.publicpay.ca.gov. You can find Mr. Birdsell’s pay there. MCDH Board members get an average of fifteen thousand a year. All of that in benefits. So you can see why he might hanker to keep the hospital open. I brought the pay situation up at the last hospital board meeting. It must’ve hit a nerve. Because Mister Birdsell flat out denied it. Claiming that he got no pay at all for being a hospital board member. Which is an odd statement under the circumstances. Especially from someone with a finance background. More on that down the road.

The original agreement for NCHCA allowed each member agency to appoint only one representative. That’d be a golden opportunity for any rascal to play both ends against the middle. So in 2012, they amended their bylaws to make it two.[vi] But it looks like MCDH’s board never quite got the memo on that. Because when Mister Birdsell mentioned ‘the JPA’ at that board meeting a few months ago – it was about attending an upcoming JPA meeting by himself. It wouldn’t be the first time. He attended one solo back in 2009 where – surprise – advice from legal counsel came up. The subject matter was a budget. To quote – ‘comply with regulations’ – end quote. No lawyer was present. But Mister Birdsell sure was. I found the amount he was looking for on a business plan at sitescorcher.com. Just the other day. That particular website is a Wikileaks of sorts. Where an anonymous whistleblower is leaking NCHCA documents. One at a time. So here’s a shout-out to whoever that is. Good job! Keep ‘em coming!!!

The leaked business plan called for a mere six grand a month for ‘grant applications’, ten grand for ‘executive direction’, and two grand for ‘administrative support’. Half of that’d come from ‘members’ like MCDH. The other half from the ‘anonymous donor’. Which turned out to be Hillblom Foundation. Named for Larry L. Hillblom. One of three DHL cofounders. Mr. Hillblom died a bachelor in 1995, leaving his $300 million estate to a charitable medical foundation. The money that NCHCA got appeared to be from a grant. But according to their website, Hillblom only offers grants for medical research. Something a country mile from NCHCA’s charter. The only tax return I could find for Hillblom sure didn’t look very charitable. Most of its cash appears to be stashed in offshore tax havens like the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and the British Virgin Islands. Hillblom filed that tax return as a nonprofit. But they’re not listed at the Registry of Charitable Trusts. According to that business plan, nearly a hundred grand remained from that grant in March of 2009. But it’s hard to tell what happened to it. That business plan reveals one thing for sure. Unbridled ambition. Still wet behind the ears, NCHCA saw itself as a political force as well. Uh-huh. And with all that legal advice, the world was Mr. Birdsell’s oyster.

That plan also shows NCHCA’s unraveling. Barely one year out of the starting gates, Mister Birdsell found himself in deep water. And he needed help. ‘8-12 hours per CEO per month’, the plan called for. At a minimum. So what was his JPA delivering? Good question. Business plans normally have a list of accomplishments. Not this one. Out of 2,324 words, one is conspicuously absent – ‘accomplish’. The word ‘plan’ appears nineteen times. Same for the word ‘fund’. The word ‘achieve’ appears once. But only in reference to members. Mr. Birdsell’s JPA hadn’t done squat. It was the same story at his nonprofit, NCIH. Nine months after being formed, it was nearly broke. According to one source, its sole achievement was ‘sucking up money’. This plan had another unique feature. The best one of all. Anonymity. Its author wasn’t identified anywhere. But it’s obvious who insisted on it. Thanks to some NCHCA meeting minutes at sitescorcher.com. It was none other than Tom Birdsell.

That brings us to MCDH Board Chair. Mr. Sean Hogan. A retired CPA and attorney. Hogan and Birdsell have both been on the board for the past seven years. Hogan made the same denial about compensation. But only by mincing words. ‘I don’t get any salary here.’ Omitting any mention of all the benefits he’s been getting. An old attorney trick. Hogan and Birdsell were driving forces behind MCDH’s decision to declare bankruptcy. Thus dunning MCDH creditors to hang onto their own benefits. According to State authorities, their combined take from MCDH should be nigh onto two hundred grand by now. Funny that neither of them noticed it. MCDH lawyer John Ruprecht was mighty vocal on other matters at that meeting. But quiet as a mouse on the subject of Birdsell and Hogan’s pay.

Now think about this. Imagine you’ve got a preexisting medical condition way before Obamacare. Where do you get healthcare insurance? And what’s it gonna cost? Then think about a place you can get it for free. Just by getting elected to a hospital district board. But that sweetheart deal only lasts as long as the hospital does. So how do you vote? For the hospital? Or the district?

Another issue I brought up was Mr. Ruprecht’s practice area. Which ain’t healthcare law. But property law. You can see his bona fides at the California State Bar website. That subject had come up at a previous board meeting. But deflected by Ruprecht’s statement that, ‘I don’t even have a website.’ Well, I guess his hearing aid was turned down at the last meeting. Because I couldn’t get a rise out of him.

The only other protest came from laboratory manager Emmet O’Connell. Who didn’t much cotton to my statement that MCDH had no blood bank. He insisted they did. Then graciously invited me to his laboratory for a tour. I accepted. Two days later I showed up with someone I’ve known since 1957. Malcolm Macdonald. It was apparent to both of us that Mr. O’Connell doesn’t have many guests like us asking tough questions there. And that in his fifteen-year tenure at MCDH, we may have been the first.

As you step into Mr. O’Connell’s lab, the first appliance on your right is something that looks like a small vending machine. The first statement out of his mouth was, ‘MCDH has no blood bank.’ Huh? A few minutes later, he contradicted himself. Talking about the mighty fine blood bank MCDH had. I stopped him. ‘Didn’t you just say that MCDH didn’t have a blood bank?’ Mr. O’Connell explained it was all just a matter of semantics. The blood in the fridge was there on consignment. From a real blood bank. I asked, ‘How much is here?’ He pointed to a paper printout on the side. Signed June 1, 2015. With a standard supply of 68 units. And a minimum supply of 26. Upon request, he gave me a copy.[vii] So I quizzed him, ‘How much is here today?’ He couldn’t say. So Malcolm jumped in. ‘What happens if you run out?’ O’Connell replied, ‘We’ll just drive on down to Santa Rosa and pick some up.’ Oh. Malcolm pounced. ‘Do you have any contingency plans? For say – shark attacks? Or automobile accidents?’ Then it was my turn. ‘Do you have any of those plans in writing? Along with ones for gunshot wounds? Or stabbings?’ Mr. O’Connell assured us that he did. But couldn’t recall their whereabouts. Next I asked him for copies of any accreditations. Like the America Association of Blood Banks. Or the College of American Pathologists. O’Connell said he didn’t have those. But something better. A magic bullet that covered them all. Some watertight paperwork from the Joint Commission. He promised to send it to me by email. So I got his card and made the request from my email address. For the whole shooting match. That was on September 1. I haven’t gotten a response yet. Not from Mr. O’Connell. Or Mr. Ruprecht either. But the day is young. And maybe they can still get her done.

Afterwards I had coffee with Malcolm over at the old Company Store. Jawboning about the old days. When wire trolleys zipped information back-and-forth between the upstairs office and the main floor. The predecessor of modern texting, I reckon. My impression – and I’m not speaking for Malcolm here – was that hospital employees like Mr. O’Connell were under pressure by management. To make everything look – well – okay. So no disrespect to Mr. O’Connell.

My questions to him were well-meant. An acquaintance of mine had a recent emergency at MCDH over blood supply. After a uterine biopsy there, she started hemorrhaging. Fortunately, it happened while she was at the hospital pharmacy. Upon using up four units – that’s pints – of O negative, she was told that she’d used up most of the blood in Fort Bragg. So EMTs took her to Santa Rosa by ambulance. Her story squared with the printout that Mr. O’Connell gave me. But six units was their minimum supply of O negative. Not their standard supply. Giving 15,000 or so patients here only twenty-six pints of blood. For all blood types. And it doesn’t belong to MCDH. It belongs to someone else. That’s Blood Centers of the Pacific.

So I gave them a holler. Through their PR associate, Kent Corley. I asked him the same questions that Malcolm and I had asked Mr. O’Connell. Only one answer was different. The one about driving to Santa Rosa for blood. He told me that patients like that are called ‘bleeders.’ And that MCDH would probably be bypassed for direct evacuation to a Level II Trauma Center or above. Like Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital. And most likely by ambulance. Maybe even helicopter. Any decision like that probably wouldn’t be made at the hospital level. It’d be made at the triage level. Not by laboratory managers. But by EMTs. Which jives with my acquaintance’s account. And why she was taken to Santa Rosa. Which brings me to my final question. What’s keeping the Fort Bragg hospital open aside from invisible lawyers?

Now back to our boy wonder, Mr. Birdsell. There’s a website at www.linkedin.com. Where you can find the work histories of thousands of Silicon Valley highbrows. Including former finance honchos of Silicon Graphics, Coherent and NETGEAR. Go ahead and take a gander there. It’s easy. Just Google the words ‘Linkedin’, ‘Birdsell’ and ‘Silicon Graphics’. Then try ‘Coherent’. And finally ‘NETGEAR’. See any results? If you find anything there that lines up with his professional bio on the Point Cabrillo Light Station website, feel free to mention it in comment section of the AVA’s online publication. And be sure to include a link.

Maybe I missed something. But Mister Birdsell’s high & mighty past might just be invisible too.

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RECLAMATION WILL SLASH LOWER AMERICAN RIVER FLOWS TO ONLY 800 CFS

By Dan Bacher

Just in time for the first of the returning fall Chinook salmon on the lower American River, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced on August 28 that it is dropping water releases from Nimbus Dam from 1500 cubic feet per second (cfs) to 800 cfs between September 1 and 4.

Here’s is the flow change order from Reclamation:

Project: Nimbus Dam

Please make the following release changes to the American River:

Date Time From (cfs) To (cfs)

09/01/2015 0100 1500 1400

09/01/2015 0500 1400 1300

09/02/2015 0100 1300 1200

09/02/2015 0500 1200 1100

09/03/2015 0100 1100 1000

09/03/2015 0500 1000 900

09/04/2015 0100 900 800

The reason for the cutback in flows? “Storage conservation,” said Peggy Manza of Reclamation.

Over the past 3 years during a record drought, the Bureau of Reclamation has systematically drained Folsom Reservoir, along with Trinity Reservoir on the Trinity River, Shasta Lake on the Sacramento River and Lake Oroville on the Feather River, to export subsidized water to corporate agribusiness interests on the westside of the San Joaquin Valley, Southern California water agencies and oil companies conducting fracking and other extreme oil extraction methods.

Folsom Lake is currently holding only 201,600 acre feet of water, 21 percent of capacity and 32 percent of average. The water level is 367.35 feet in elevation, 98.65 vertical feet from maximum pool.

Due to the poor management of the American and Folsom Lake by the state and federal governments, this year saw the lowest record return of Central Valley steelhead to Nimbus Fish Hatchery, only 143 adult fish. In a good season, as many as 3,000 to 4,000 adult steelhead return to the hatchery.

I worked for over two decades with a coalition of fishermen and environmentalists, most notably the Save the American River Association, to restore Central Valley steelhead – listed as “threatened” under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) – to the American River, the Sacramento area’s “crown jewel.” However, all the work of so many is being squandered to serve the insatiable greed of corporate agribusiness and Big Money interests.

“The steelhead died for a noble cause – almonds,” quipped Bill Jennings, executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA), in February.

California’s almond orchards use almost 9 percent of the state’s agricultural water supply, or about 3.5 million acre feet, according to Carolee Krieger, Executive Director of the California Water Impact Network (C-WIN). “That’s enough water to supply the domestic needs of the Los Angeles Basin and metropolitan San Diego combined – about 75 percent of the state’s population,” she said.

During the current drought, agribusiness has expanded almond tree acreage in California by 150,000 acres, including 50,000 acres put into almond production in 2014 alone, according to USDA data.

For more information, go to: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/02/18/1365277/-American-River-steelhead-run-is-worst-on-record

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FROM CAPITALISM TO EGALITARIANISM, the Missing Link: Hierarchy, not Money, is the Root of All Evil.

Apologists for capitalism maintain that the brutal system of exploitation is consistent with human nature. Nothing could be further from the truth.

“I believe, that as of 40,000 years ago, with the advent of anatomically modern humans who continued to live in small groups and had not yet domesticated plants and animals, it is very likely that all human societies practiced egalitarian behavior and that most of the time they did so very successfully.” These are the words of the anthropologist, Christopher Boehm. After an extensive study of 49 non literate societies he concluded that humans consciously maintain egalitarianism by “constraining and controlling upstarts”. These societies resist domination by ensuring that decisions are made by all, in the interest of all.

We propose that evidence demonstrates not only does human nature detest oppressive, authoritative systems but that human nature demands an egalitarian social order. Information provided here refutes the commonly held misconception that there is an “inherited primate predisposition for hierarchical social and authoritarian political systems.” This fallacy is continually promoted by those who seek to maintain the present inequities of the system.

Christopher Boehm documented that in egalitarian societies members exert “intentional behavior that decisively suppressed hierarchical relations among adults as political actors.” Some strategies employed are: rebuking a chief for wanting all the power for himself, shouting down a leading hunter who becomes overassertive, ridiculing one who tries to assert authority, sanctioning for being greedy, dishonest, unreliable, or a liar. The ultimate forms of sanctions imposed are exile and execution.

In egalitarian societies a leader is simply “primus inter pares”, first among equals, and chiefs cannot command others. Boehm continues “differences between individuals are only permitted…, insofar as they work for the common good.” Such equality can only persist “as long as followers remain vigilantly egalitarian because they understand the nature of domination”; the “innate tendencies of individuals to dominate their peers”. The egalitarian ethos, the dislike of being dominated, is the cause of societies preventing the development of authoritative or coercive leadership. “If an egalitarian ethos is present, abusive leadership is by definition, deviant.” Boem concludes, “it is a war of the great majority who are willing to settle for equality against the occasional dominator who is not… Upstarts who think they can get away with it.”

When the upstarts do manage to get away with it, dominance hierarchy develops, and brings all forms of dominance: class, tribal, national, religious, sexist, racist…are commonly known. Hierarchy represents a failure of human nature’s preferred social structure, where decision making is in the hands of the vast majority of equals.

The anthropologist, Douglas P. Fry comments, “Social stratification and resulting positions of leadership open the door for a plethora of injustices and cruelties that come with warfare, slavery, and other types of exploitation by unchecked power wielders. In centralized polities, the power of some people to dominate and control others increases many times over what is possible at the level of bands and tribes.”

Once dominance hierarchy is established, the elite create systems “of dominance with influence and communication going down-rarely going up,” writes the social psychologist, Zimbardo. Those on top “are in command of the major hierarchies and organizations of modern society”. Those on top, the tiny minority, wield centralized power and are responsible for creating our living and working conditions. This hierarchy “involves authorization, permission from the higher authority, usually cloaked in the mantle of ideology, or a big lie”, which is reinforced by violence.

Cleary there are contradictory propensities in human nature: to dominate and to resist domination. These human propensities shape social psychology. The evolutionary biologist, Jay Gould, agrees. “Both sides of this dichotomy represent our common, evolved, humanity; which, ultimately, shall we choose?”

This duality, ambivalence, or contradiction is part of human nature. Cognizance of this fact is of great importance. For those in the progressive movement, preventing hierarchy must be seen as a crucial task. Every building block of our organizations should contain safeguards against hierarchical relationships. As we create, clubs, unions, political movements and political parties, it is important to maintain our stance as vigilant egalitarians. However correct we believe the politics are, the potential for corruption by dominance hierarchy will always exists. Zimbardo argues that “it is correct to rebel against unjust authority.” It is profoundly more human to rebel against authoritarian systems.

“We must learn that passively to accept an unjust system is to cooperate with that system and thereby to become a participant in its evil” Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Who would be free, themselves must strike the first blow”. Frederick Douglass

“The free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.” Karl Marx

Nayvin Gordon

(Physician with interest in Political Science) C.V. available upon request. gordonnayvin@yahoo.com

Oakland

[i] NCHCA Agreement [see Attachments I]

[ii] NCIH Suspension [see Attachments I]

[iii] Palm Drive Hospital Bond [see Attachments I]

[iv] NCHCA Audit [see Attachments II]

[v] Losak Email [see Attachments I]

[vi] NCHCA Bylaws [see Attachments I]

[vii] MCDH Blood Supply [see Attachments I]