Mendocino County Today: Sunday, Sep 20, 2015

• Valley Fire
• Mental Health Contracts
• Chains & Cockroaches
• Pesticide Regulation
• Supervising Supervisors
• FB Football
• Yesterday's Catch
• SF Street Sculpture
• Congressional Labels
• Fish Bill
• American Islamaphobia
• Marco Radio

FINALLY, 50% containment on Valley fire (now a week in). The Valley Fire in the Middletown area of Lake County is now up to almost 75,000 acres burned, 585 homes known destroyed as well as “hundreds” of other structures. A huge contingent of firefighters remains on scene as of Saturday evening: 4234 firefighters, 442 engines, 2 airtankers, 23 helicopters, 62 dozers, 73 water tenders. Some mandatory evacuation orders have been lifted. Looters continue to be caught and arrested.

CalFire: “Crews continue to make good progress on the Valley Fire. On Sunday, residents in the Communities of Hidden Valley Lake, Jerusalem Grade, Grange Road, and Butts Canyon Road will be allowed to return to their homes at noon. Access to these areas will be available for residents only. Hidden Valley Lake will only be accessible through the Hartmann Road entrance. The cancellation of additional evacuation orders is being evaluated based on a variety of factors including potential fire behavior and re-establishment of critical infrastructure. Damage Inspection Teams continued Saturday gathering damage data in the affected areas. As additional information becomes available, the numbers of damaged or destroyed structures may change.”

EVERYTHING WAS ON FIRE

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/4489089-181/revisiting-the-valley-fires-initial

THE MIDDLETOWN HERO-VET

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/4499901-181/chris-smith-middletown-vet-jeff

EVACUEE’S DOG FOUND & RETURNED

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/4504030-181/ap-reporter-finds-returns-distraught

MIDDLETOWN RESIDENTS SET TO RETURN TO…

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/4498299-181/middletown-residents-displaced-by-valley

PD FIRE COVERAGE

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/wildfire

AT THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS MEETING on September 8th, Mental Health Board member Nancy Sutherland asked for clarification of the County's plans to put the current mental health contracts out for bid again although the current contracts have options for consecutive years through 2019.

Sutherland: I have submitted some questions. I understand I'm going to get some responses. I have one question that came up from Ms. Cryer's [Stacey Cryer, Director of Health and Human Services] report. I think on the OMG ASO [Ortner Management Group Administrative Service Organization, current adult mental health services contractor] contract that you are going to revise the scope of work and put it out for bid. I would just like a little bit of explanation about the changes to the scope of work and why. What's missing? What needs to be changed? Also I would like a copy of the Mental Health Board meeting and Stacey's notes if that's possible.

Cryer: I don't have a written report.

Sutherland: Oh, okay. I guess that's not my request then. (Laughs.)

Board Chair Carre Brown: Yes it is, because if you go get the recording —

Sutherland: When is the recording available?

Brown: Ummm — (long pause).

CEO Carmel Angelo: I'm sorry. I didn't realize I had to push the button. (Laughs.)

Brown: Is it red or not?

Angelo: We could have a recording of this section that's part of the meeting within a couple of days. We are still meeting today and tomorrow so probably by Friday we could have this portion for you.

Sutherland: That would be great. I was really glad to hear the good news about the audit exceptions. Thank you.

Angelo: That will be on there. That will not be a video, it will be the audio transcript.

Brown: But that will work for you, won't it?

Sutherland: Could I get an explanation about the scope of work?

Brown: I don't know if they are that far along. But if Ms. Cryer wants to respond, please do so.

Cryer: Thank you. What I said was that the — we have two ASO contracts. They have very similar contracts with very minute differences between them. What I said was we would be asking the Board to participate, two Board of Supervisors to participate, and we will be working on revising those scopes and those plans to put both of those back out to bid. So the mental health service delivery portion will go back out to bid and I don't have the scope revised. I don't have anything to say there, and I don't have a timeline yet. But we would like to move forward. As it is stated right now, the current contract ends after all the extensions June 30 of 2019. So we will have to work out all of the timeframes and we want to get started on that project and really work with the board.

Sutherland: So that's when they will go out to bid, in 2019?

Cryer: (Shakes head.) No.

Supervisor Dan Hamburg: No, they are renewable each year. Right?

Cryer: Yes. Correct.

Hamburg: So we could actually be working with new ASOs if we decide not to stick with the ones now as soon as next fiscal year.

Cryer: That's correct.

Sutherland: I'm still not clear. Are these bids for new ASOs?

Hamburg: They could be.

Sutherland: They could be.

Hamburg: Or maybe not. But we are going to go out to bid.

Sutherland: Okay.

Brown: It's all a question.

Okay, thank you.

* * *

NOBODY answered Ms. Sutherland's question about "why" the County has decided to re-bid the Mental Health contracts. Speculation has it that at least two and maybe more Supervisors have been pushing for putting the Ortner and Redwood Quality Management contracts out for bid.

SUPERVISORS John McCowen and Dan Gjerde have both made remarks about the cost and scope of work with Ortner's present contract. (Ortner's administration costs and case management costs are suspiciously high.) Supervisor Tom Woodhouse also seems to be mildly skeptical about the existing contracts, and Supervisors Hamburg and Brown, based on the above exchange, are clearly in agreement that the contracts should go out to bid again.

WE ASSUME that the County thinks they can get a lower bid for the contracts by reviewing the scope of the work Ortner is allegedly doing.

According to the Grand Jury, the only bidder in 2012 besides Ortner and Redwood Quality Management was a national health service organization called Optum. County staff reviewed the bids and rated Optum's bid much lower than Ortner or Redwood Quality Management, but no information about the cost or rates of the bids has been released.

Guess why the more expensive Ortner bid was the one the County adopted?

The Grand Jury pointed out that it appeared that then-County Mental Health Director and former Ortner executive Tom Pinizzotto exerted undue influence on the contract selection process.

The County later denied saying that although there was an "appearance" of a conflict of interest, there was nothing illegal and no "actual" conflict of interest — even though an "appearance" of a conflict is a conflict. The Grand Jury also found that "County guidelines are insufficient to address perceptions of undue influence." The totally tone-deaf County response said, in effect, that because Mr. Pinizzotto was not currently working for Ortner there was no conflict!

PINIZZOTTO, however, had just arrived in Mendocino County from Ortner. Worked for Ortner at Ortner's Fairfield operation. That facility was closed and Mr. P became a consultant for, guess who? Mendocino County. So impressed with Mr. P's consulting, Mr. P was then hired by HHSA from where he steered the privatized deal, worth between $7 and $8 million a year, to his former employer, Ortner Management Group. The guy was "consulting" for Ortner while Mendo was preparing the request for proposals for privatization — translation: Telling Ortner how to shape his bid.

PINIZZOTTO is now Assistant Director of Health and Human Services for Mendocino County. Will he have any role in deciding whether Ortner continues with the Mental Health Contract? So far, nobody has said anything about excluding him.

TOWARD THE END of the Tuesday, September 8th, Supervisor's meeting, both Supervisor McCowen and Supervisor Hamburg went out of their way to complain about the "adversarial" tone of the Grand Jury report concerning failures and understaffing in Family and Children's Services, adding that they "think" FCS is doing an "excellent job under the circumstances" (i.e., not enough money — none of these people ever have enough money in their opinion). McCowen said the Grand Jury puts in too much stuff that has to be "filtered out" to get to the point. Hamburg added that the Grand Jury reports are "really one-sided and unfair," which create a negative impression of a well-run office.

SO WHICH IS IT? Is the Grand Jury out of line? Or are the Supervisors the final arbiters of the "excellence" of their half-privatized department?

ANSWER: The Grand Jury goes to a lot of trouble investigating the particulars of whatever subject they've taken on. The Supervisors get no regular reports from departments and so must take the word of the department head who probably isn't inclined to reporting problems of their own making. (Although they're certainly willing to talk about funding shortages.) The Board has never had any trouble "filtering out" the Grand Jury's remarks — to the point that they usually just have County Counsel write "The Board of Supervisors disagrees with this finding."

WHAT McCOWEN AND HAMBURG are really saying is, We don't want any dirty laundry aired in public because we don't want to look bad. But they are supposed to be supervising Mendo's public agencies and, in this case, they got hustled big time by Pinizzotto and Ortner.

THE GRAND JURY is the public's representative. There is no other outside watchdog vehicle available to taxpayers short of the DA and, of course, the media. The Grand Jury generally goes out of its way to applaud well-functioning public agencies and strains to avoid naming names. The Supervisors should be much less defensive and take the Grand Jury reports in stride, not whine about the "tone" of Grand Jury reports.

(We think the DA ought to be looking at the Ortner privatization deal.)

THE GRAND JURY REPORT under discussion was their recent report critical of Family and Children's Services. One example of the "tone" the Board was probably talking about was this from the Report summary: "In spite of a dedicated, caring, hard-working staff, the agency appears to be falling further behind. Every performance indicator points to understaffing as the main culprit. The understaffing has many causes: non-competitive compensation, work overload, poor management, and low morale. Senior management is aware of the issues and their consequences but has failed to address them. A number of the interviewees expressed grave concern that because of the current state of affairs in Family and Children Services Agency, 'a disaster is waiting to happen'."

MS. CRYER told the Board that they were doing everything they could to recruit and retain people. The Board is trying to set up a retention bonus system for social workers and public health nurses which, like experienced cops, have been hard hang on to. But the Board seems unable to comprehend that there might be shortcomings in the management of the department. Since there's no regular departmental reporting, they must take the word of the aggrieved department head that all's well and the Grand Jury is overly critical. The "adversarial tone" has more to do with the Board not getting regular reports from its department heads than it does with the criticisms in the Grand Jury reports. Supervisors always seem shocked when even minor fault is found in the operations of their departments. But without decent departmental reports, the Board has no ability to determine the validity of the Grand Jury reports so nothing much improves.

MY LATE UNCLE, former Fifth District Supervisor Joe Scaramella, drafted the first set of Board rules and created Mendo's Civil Service Commission and its rules, just to name a couple of relevant examples, after having complained about the County’s insider hiring processes for years before finally getting elected. He liked to quip, "Criticism is essential. If nobody says anything negative, how can you expect things to improve?" (Mark Scaramella)

AS UKIAH HIGH SCHOOL fights off cockroaches, in other news from the County seat our supervisors are mulling over adoption of an ordinance that would stop chain businesses and restaurants from continuing their inexorable march across Mendocino County. A public hearing on the measure is scheduled Tuesday before the board.

UKIAH UNIFIED has paid a bug killer ten grand to get rid of the indestructible insects.

GETTING BACK to the ordinance, if adopted, probably wouldn't spare the wonderful little Redwood Valley Market from having to compete with a Dollar Store proposed for right down the street because any chain store with an application currently pending would be exempt.

THE COUNTY'S PLANNING AND BUILDING DEPARTMENT would "study and prepare for the consideration of the supervisors, changes to the county general plan or zoning code with respect to the regulation of formula restaurants and formula businesses."

THE CHAIN CORP horse is long out of its Mendo barn. Every community except Point Arena and probably Covelo, has at least a chain service station and so-called mini-mart. The otherwise ultra-groovy community of Fort Bragg has a McDonald's at its south portal with a Taco Bell and a Starbucks up the street.

VINEYARD AS GUINEA PIG

Editor,

Pesticide regulation is extremely complex in California. Even with a lifetime of experience in the agricultural industry, I have experienced a firsthand example of misuse of pesticides.

Researchers who want to test a product to revise a label are allowed to file an application for applying that product. The researcher files form 027a with the Department of Pesticide Regulation. Once approved by a senior environmental scientist, a licensed pest control operator files a 24 hour Notice of Intent with the County Agricultural Commissioner. At present, no further action at the county level occurrs. I am asking that production growers adjacent to the test property be notified 24 hours before application.

Unfortunately, in March of 2015 an application of herbicides was applied containing three labeled herbicides and one additional herbicide that was applied on an approved DPR pesticide research authorization. This mixture of four herbicides was applied on railroad property directly adjacent to my Healdsburg Pinot Noir vineyard on March 24, 2015.

On June 11, 2015, while working in my vineyard, I observed herbicide damage on the grapevines closest to the railroad. The damage was lessened going away from the railroad.

Many months of meetings and inspections have followed along with extensive laboratory tests to identify the herbicide. The Sonoma County Agricultural Commissioner's office additional testing prior to harvest of the fruit to determine that none of the herbicide was detectable in the fruit. All of the costs for the laboratory analysis have been paid by me. These costs as of today exceed $4000.

I am asking that an amendment be made in the regulations governing notices of intent to apply pesticides. This amendment would require the County Agricultural Commissioner to notify any adjacent production grower within 24 hours of the proposed pesticide application. This would allow time for the adjacent owner to gather information on the chemicals and act accordingly.

Bob Dempel, Hopland

DETAILS EMERGE ON BROWN MEMO TO WOODHOUSE

by Linda Williams

First District Supervisor Carre Brown sent a “confidential” memo to Third District Supervisor Tom Woodhouse last month advising him to follow an established protocol when speaking with county employees. This memo documented a July meeting between Brown, Woodhouse and Fourth District Supervisor Dan Gjerde to discuss the issue.

Brown says she initiated the meeting in her role as Chair of the Board of Supervisors after being approached by someone from the Mendocino County human resources department. Brown was told some county employees had expressed concerns about possible inappropriate conduct or harassment by Woodhouse.

Brown said she considered the meeting and subsequent “confidential” memo to be a mentoring session with a new supervisor. Brown says as the chair she consulted an outside attorney about the process and was advised that a meeting between three supervisors for the purpose of “mentoring” did not violate the Brown Act.

Government Code 54952.2, which defines instances when three-out-of five members of the board may meet without public notice does not, on its face, reflect this interpretation. The code allows more than two board members to meet as long as no ”business of a specified nature that is within the subject matter jurisdiction of the local agency” is discussed. As this meeting involved an interpretation of a Mendocino County code—according to the details within the memo, this appears to be in conflict with state law.

Mendocino County Counsel was not consulted, according to Brown, to avoid putting him in an awkward position.

Brown felt that it was appropriate for her as chair to meet with Woodhouse but wanted Gjerde, as vice chair, to take part as well.

Woodhouse says even after the two-hour meeting with Brown and Gjerde in July and the “confidential” memo in August, he did not understand that there were employees who had expressed “concerns” about his actions. This did not become clear to him until after the information was made public. “I take this as constructive criticism,” says Woodhouse. “I’m sick that making this public has caused trouble with Carre (Brown), but I couldn’t allow a letter that suggested I had done something wrong to remain a secret. I thought it needed to be aired in public, especially since I don’t know who to apologize to.”

The letter attempted to recount elements of County Code Chapter 2.28 (which was created in 2005 by county ordinance 4140 and modified in 2007 by county ordinance 4182) which created the position of county CEO, currently held by Carmel Angelo. The code requires the CEO to be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the county.

The letter also summarized state code which provides that the power to govern is derived from the collective actions by the Board of Supervisors and that as individuals, supervisors do not have the legal authority to direct county staff or change county policy.

What the ordinance does not do is establish that supervisors are restricted from speaking directly with county employees without first getting permission or coordinating with the CEO’s office, as suggested by the Brown memo.

Brown says she did not mean that supervisors could not talk with county employees. “We all talk with county employees,” she said. Employees approach her to discuss issues in the county all of the time, she said. Brown believes listening to workers and if necessary looking into their issues is part of a supervisor’s job.

Brown said the problem she was trying to communicate with Woodhouse was that when talking to employees in the workplace it was better to go through a more formal process, so that “staff doesn’t feel uncomfortable.”

Woodhouse ran on a platform which promised that he would talk with employees to try and find solutions to county problems.

(Courtesy, the Willits News)

* * *

County of Mendocino

Board of Supervisors

Confidential Communication

From: Carre Brown, Chair of the Board of Supervisors

To: Supervisor Tom Woodhouse

CC: Dan Gjerde, Vice Chair of the Board of Supervisors

Date: August 11, 2015

Re: Discussion on July 23, 2015

This memorandum serves to recap our discussion about how members of the Board of Supervisors are expected to relate with County staff, and the scope of powers for individual members of the Board.

I provided an overview of the division of responsibilities in the County governance. I reminded you that in accordance with County Ordinance 4140, the County Executive Officer is responsible for running the day-to-day business of the county, including oversight of County staff. Our role as members of the Board of Supervisors is to develop policy and legislation to guide the work; the CEO and delegated staff then execute the plans. As we discussed, an individual board member does not hold legislative or executive powers on his or her own. The power derives from the collective Board of Supervisors. So an individual supervisor does not have the power to make unilateral decisions or actions on behalf of the board. The Brown Act governs meetings of the Board because the legislative body as a whole is the entity that has the power to guide and create county policies.

Given this model, it is very important that all of our Board members provide the CEO with the level of deference appropriate under Ordinance 4140. If as a board we want to request information or ensure that staff is meeting its obligations we must work through the CEO's office directly and not try to work around the CEO or the department heads. With departments run by elected department heads, we as supervisors can always speak directly to the elected department heads, but are usually best served by also coordinating our contact with elected department heads through the CEOs office.

Additionally, I explained that it is inappropriate for a member of the board to contact nonsupervisory staff directly to inquire about the nature of his or her work projects. Doing so is problematic because first and foremost the meeting distracts the staff member from his or her job duties. The staff member will likely feel compelled to meet with a member of the board of supervisors who seeks the meeting even if the staff member is uncomfortable with the subject matter or timing of the meeting. Additionally, as an official of the county, if a staff member were to report feeling singled out or harassed on the basis of a protected status like sex or age the county would be at risk for liability based on the individual supervisor's conduct.

Vice Chair Gjerde focused on strategies moving forward to ensure that all of our Board members comply with the directives of Ordinance 4140 and to avoid creating liability for the county by individually contacting staff members. As we discussed Vice Chair Gjerde and I are available to answer your questions about how to proceed in the future should you have any confusion about the appropriate course of action to take.

We appreciate you acknowledging the need to comply with Ordinance 4140 and your commitment to avoid placing the County at risk for liability going forward.

Please contact me or Vice Chair Gjerde if my recap of our discussion differs from your recollection.

* * *

A GENERALLY WELL INFORMED READER WRITES re the Woodhouse Memo Affair: "What I am hearing is that the Woodhouse tempest in a teapot is not anything like former supervisor Delbar, who clearly crossed the line into sexual impropriety and engaged in outright harassment when his overtures were rebuffed. The confidential memo about Woodhouse refers to ‘inappropriate behavior,’ which boils down to some of the employees feeling ‘uncomfortable’ in the vague kind of way that sheltered people sometimes do. And instead of saying ‘I'm sorry, but you (this conversation, whatever) are making me feel uncomfortable’ they suffer through it, whatever it is, and then report the guy. Some obvious no-nos are that you don't show up unannounced and walk into a private office and shut the door behind you. And you don't say to a younger female employee, ‘I'm your friend’ as you gently stroke their arm. Absent any sexual overtones (and there is no indication that this was the problem) this is the kind of stuff that can trigger the creep factor, especially coming from an older male in a position of power. Woodhouse comes from the private sector and probably has no clue that he is potentially crossing a line. The whole thing is way overblown, but Woodhouse gets credit for that. No one would have known about the memo without him mentioning it. Brown was trying to wise him up without making a big deal of it.”

THE IRONY of all this seems to be that there was no intention to shut Woodhouse up or prevent him from talking to employees, but in the wake of all the controversy Woodhouse, unlikely to ever be mistaken for Richard the Lion-Hearted, seems to have become even more tentative, less sure of himself. We say, Step out, Tom, let the whiners snivel about "feeling" uncomfortable. You've got a job to do!

OUTSIDE WORLD TAKES NOTE OF FORT BRAGG'S FOOTBALL TEAM

by Phil Barber

Fort Bragg football players can spot the warning signs by now. The Timberwolves aren’t bigger or stronger than most of the teams they play, but they move faster. A lot faster. And when the Fort Bragg offense gets rolling, it’s only so long before the other guys start to flag. Their movements slow down, their breathing becomes more labored.

“If you see our games, honestly, when we’re hustling to the ball, you’ve got people on the defense walking, on their knees, can barely stand,” senior quarterback Kaylor Sullivan said.

“The pass rush will start to barely come,” added Sam Perkins, Sullivan’s left tackle. “Sometimes the ends won’t even make it to me before the ball gets off, because it’s coming out so fast.”

In all likelihood, Fort Bragg is the most exciting high school team you’ve never seen. Unless you travel to the far reaches of the Redwood Empire, or happened to be at the Timberwolves’ victory over El Molino at Windsor High last Saturday, they are like an exotic tribe you hear about only in legend.

And those legends are growing. The team drew wide attention last year when Sullivan threw eight touchdown passes against Encina Prep in one half, setting a California state record and tying a national mark. Fort Bragg shared the NCL I league championship with St. Helena.

The Timberwolves averaged 30.7 points and 402.9 yards per game in 2014 despite resting key starters in the second half of several blowout wins. This year Fort Bragg brought back every skill-position starter from a year ago. So far the offense has averaged 36.7 points and 435 yards per game while jumping to a 3-0 start.

Fort Bragg’s explosive offense goes back to a decision made by coach Roy Perkins (Sam’s uncle) in the 2014 offseason. Perkins coached on Jack Moyer’s successful staff from 1981 to 2003. For most of that time, the Georgia-Pacific Lumber Mill dominated the Fort Bragg economy, and Moyer and Perkins could always rely on a handful of beefy blue-collar kids to dominate the line of scrimmage.

Those days are gone. Perkins had noticed that his kids were getting smaller and faster relative to other schools. His solution was to go with a no-huddle offense, a strategy he had always hated to contend with as a defensive coach. He knew he had the receivers to execute the hurry-up.

Most important, he had the quarterback.

A bit of a freak

The first time Perkins laid eyes on Sullivan after returning to Fort Bragg following nine years coaching at Arbuckle, in Colusa County, it was on the baseball field. Watching Sullivan throw a baseball, the coach was immediately struck by his motion, his mechanics and his velocity.

“You stand behind him and see the throws he makes, and I could see as a freshman he was able to get the ball out in a unique way,” Perkins said. “He has a natural-born gift to throw the football. And he has tremendous accuracy. … He has built it at camps. I’ve had him work with quarterback gurus, really high-level coaches. But when he arrived to them, they said he’s a bit of a freak.”

Perkins was taking a big gamble abandoning his usual mix of power formations, I-back sets and split-back veer plays. The new system would require complete buy-in from the players, and would look foolish if it failed. It didn’t take Perkins long to see he had made the right move.

“The spring before we installed it, I remember telling my assistants we might throw the ball 20 times a game,” he said. “Then in spring ball I watched Kaylor throw, and I said we might throw 25 times a game. Then we had a camp in June in Fort Bragg, with a lot of good teams coming in, and after that I told them we might throw 50 times a game. I was watching the kid do things I had no idea he’d be capable of doing.”

Sullivan brings the two basic qualities that define most great quarterbacks: ample natural ability and a burning work ethic.

Sullivan is 6-foot-2 and weighs about 190 pounds. His brother was a 6-5, 305-pounder who played college football, and Perkins thinks Kaylor will fill out further. He has a lively arm, and he made it stronger this past offseason.

“His completion percentage is actually a little down from last year,” Perkins said. “The reason is a lot of dropped passes. I think the ball is coming out so much harder that kids are having a little trouble catching it.”

Sullivan’s top receiver, junior Lucas Triplett, said his quarterback has gotten much faster afoot since last season, too, thanks to extensive speed training. Sullivan said it was a priority for him. Perkins used to tease him that he ran like “a bubble going through honey.” The bubble’s a lot faster now.

Three seconds to deliver the ball

With all of his physical ability, though, the challenges of the Fort Bragg offense are primarily mental.

“The key is he is able go through multiple progressions in a short amount of time,” Perkins said. “It’s something he’s just very good at. This system won’t work with an average quarterback.”

Perkins’ offense is simple in that it doesn’t use a large number of plays. The complexity is in the processing it demands of the quarterback. Plays come in from the sidelines, and Perkins doesn’t even know where the ball will go. There is rarely a primary receiver. It’s up to Sullivan to scan as many as five routes and get the ball to the open man in a matter of seconds.

According to Triplett, it’s another area in which Sullivan has improved.

“His choices are 10 times better — well, not 10 times. It’s not like he was bad last year,” Triplett said. “But he’s stronger at it. He knows where to put the ball every down.”

The true lethality of the Fort Bragg offense is in its pace. Perkins generally wants the ball out of Sullivan’s hand in less than three seconds. The Timberwolves will strike with deep routes if you allow it, but they thrive on quick slants and outs. They can run the ball with a lead, but as Perkins said, “The real short (passing) stuff is basically our running game.”

It’s all done without pause. Fort Bragg hasn’t huddled since 2013.

A typical high school offense, Perkins said, will run about 45 plays per game. When Sullivan was on the field last year, the Timberwolves averaged just under 70, which according to the coach was second only to St. Bernard’s in the North Coast Section.

It’s effective, and it’s fun.

“When you run 65 plays a game, the goal is to play the equivalent of five quarters of football every game,” Perkins said. “So the kids get to play more games, which they love.”

The town has the murmur

It requires a level of conditioning that most high school teams don’t approach, though. The Fort Bragg linemen start practice with a one-mile run. Their main job on Fridays isn’t particularly taxing, since pass blocking for quick routes is quick work. But watch those 8-yard Timberwolves passes over the middle, and you’ll inevitably see linemen hustle into the frame to block downfield.

Most of Fort Bragg’s conditioning is accomplished sneakily. Take the tempo drill, which the Timberwolves run twice a week.

“It’s incredible to watch the first time,” Perkins said. “We start at one end of the field, and we run offense versus defense at game conditions. We run as many plays as we can run in a 25-minute period. So we’re basically conditioning for 25 minutes, though we’re not focused on that. And during that 25-minute period, we’re running as many plays as we do in a game. So twice a week, we condition by playing a full game.”

Of course, none of this would be impressive if it didn’t translate to success on the field, but it has. Most opposing coaches peg the Timberwolves as the team to beat in the NCL I this year. The playoffs will be brutal with Cardinal Newman, and perhaps Marin Catholic, dropping down to Division 4. But Fort Bragg is standing tall among small school public schools.

The neighbors have noticed. Friday, the Timberwolves open the NCL I regular season by hosting Clear Lake, in a game that was moved from Lakeport because of devastation caused by the Valley fire. The stands will almost certainly be packed.

“The whole town really has kind of that murmur, like they kind of know this might be special,” Sam Perkins, the lineman, said. “Random older guys who played before come up to me, I don’t know who they are, and they’re kind of asking me questions about the team.”

Sam knows how deeply ingrained football is on the Mendocino coast. His uncle played with Sullivan’s dad. Their grandfathers played together before that.

“It makes you want to win that much more,” Perkins said. “My grandma, she’s 93 and she still comes to watch games. I want to make her proud.”

The mill may be gone, but football is thriving in Fort Bragg.

(Courtesy, The Santa Rosa Press Democrat)

CATCH OF THE DAY, September 19, 2015

CURTIS BETTENCOURT, Fort Bragg. Failure to appear. (Frequent flyer.)

WAYNE CAMPBELL, Redwood Valley. Drunk in public. (Frequent flyer.)

CARLOS CARRANZA-ALVAREZ, Salinas/Ukiah. Pot sale, transport, furnish.

SHANTAYLAH CASTNER, Kelseyville/Fort Bragg. Drunk in public.

LEON GIBSON, Fort Bragg. Trespassing, loitering, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

RICHAR HENRIQUEZ, Stony Point, New York/Ukiah. Pot possession for sale, sale, transport, furnish, conspiracy.

BARRY KIRKLAND, Willits. Resisting.

MERI LEAHY, Marysville/Ukiah. Robbery.

LUNA MAGDALENO, Ukiah. DUI.

ROBERT MANDATO, Ukiah. Pot possession for sale, sale, transport furnish, conspiracy.

MARIA MARFIL, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

TIMOTHY MCCANN, Ukiah. Under influence of controlled substance, probation revocation.

JOHN RUTHERFORD, Willits. County parole violation.

JAKE SCHULER, Willits. Domestic battery.

JANICE SMITH, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

SHAWN WARRAS, Willits. DUI, probation revocation.

EYESORE "ART" COMING TO VAN NESS AVENUE

TO: Zoe Taleporos, San Francisco Arts Commission

This is public comment on the San Francisco Arts Commission’s selection of three towers to be installed in the middle of Van Ness Avenue at the intersections of Market, Sutter, and Union as part of the Van Ness “Bus Rapid Transit” [BRT] project, which will remove two traffic lanes, nearly all of the parking, and all of the mature trees on Van Ness Avenue to install four lanes of red-painted pavement in the center of Van Ness Avenue for exclusive use of buses.

The three Jorge Pardo towers are hideous, and you, San Francisco Arts Commission, need to get a grip. To claim they are some form of “modern” conceptual art depicting “redwood trees” growing out of concrete is a painful attempt at justifying this garbage. Conceptual art itself is a joke that’s been repeated for 100 years now, since Marcel Duchamp’s famous urinal as “Fountain,” circa 1917. Duchamp’s “Fountain” would be much more appropriate for San Francisco streets, but the point is, we get it, and, far from being “modern,” the joke is old and stale now!

Instead of more ugly visual clutter, leave the actual trees in the Van Ness median strip, or add real redwood trees there — not a conceptual joke on the public and taxpayers! The BRT itself is an ugly, unwelcome visual adulteration of a grand boulevard that is also a U.S. Highway traveled by millions, adding insult to the injury of permanent traffic congestion.

The only good that will come out of your joke on the public is to once and for all enable the public to mount enough outrage for a campaign to de-fund the San Francisco Arts Commission, along with preventing the MTA and the SFCTA from doling out millions for this garbage.

Sincerely,

Mary Miles, San Francisco

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Rob Anderson's comment:

From the Arts Commission's site we get this artspeak:

Jorge Pardo’s work draws on multiple disciplines as it challenges historical definitions and discourses. His visually seductive body of work explores the intersection of contemporary painting, design, sculpture, and architecture. Employing a broad palette of vibrant colors, eclectic patterns, and natural and industrial materials, Pardo’s works range from murals to home furnishings to collages to larger-than-life fabrications.

For the Van ness Bus Rapid Transit project, Pardo has designed three large scale lighting sculptures (20’x7.5’x5.5’). The sculptures will be fabricated from steel that will be illuminated from within. The artworks will be cited[sic] at the end of the platforms at the Market, Sutter, Bush and Union Street Stations.

Artist Statement: “the work is an urban coastal redwood……it is made of steel, light and weather[sic]…..it is young not old….it comes out of the concrete…not the soil….it does not grow…..its purpose is to orient and remind….maybe of the past….maybe the present…..it is an urban machine…"

Insult to injury: Junk "art" is also planned for Masonic Avenue after the city screws up traffic on that busy street.

(Courtesy, Rob Anderson, District 5 Diary)

S.1894, TO ELIMINATE STRIPED BASS, LARGEMOUTH AND SMALLMOUTH BASS and other non-native fisheries from the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary and Tributaries

Contact:

John Beuttler, Allied Fishing Groups, 510-526-4049, JBeuttler@aol.com

Dr. David Ostrach, Allied Fishing Groups, 530-219-1451, djostrach@gmail.com

Mike McKenzie, Allied Fishing Groups, (209) 772-9398, stripermike@earthlink.net

Senators Feinstein and Boxer recently introduced federal legislation to provide short-term water supplies to drought-stricken California and projects to help recover salmon. This legislation mandates the eradication of all non-native fish from the Bay Delta Estuary, and its tributaries. Specifically, the bill would authorize the Secretaries of Interior and Commerce, in concert with State and Federal fishery agencies, to conduct projects to reduce invasive aquatic vegetation, and non-native fish which allegedly contribute to the decline of native salmon and steelhead protected by State and Federal Endangered Species Acts.

While some worthy species such as Asiatic clams and Brazilian water weed are targeted for destruction, so are valuable sport fisheries including striped bass, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, crappie, bluegill, white and channel catfish. Unfortunately, also included for eradication are species that constitute a substantial and integral part of estuary’s food web, such as silversides, thread fin shad and gobies. The bill would also mandate a Pilot Program to “protect” salmon and steelhead by the removal of striped bass from the Stanislaus River.

Under the semblance of alleviating problems caused by the drought, the senators have unfortunately missed the massive environmental impacts that occur due to exporting vast amounts of the estuary’s water by the State and Federal Water Projects. These projects have been found to be the primary cause for the declines of salmon, delta smelt, steelhead, striped bass and sturgeon and for the extensive degradation of the productivity of estuary’s ecosystem.

The bill’s authors failed to use the best available science on the estuary’s fisheries and ignores the extensive peer-reviewed science on non-native fisheries that found fish predation to be the least important stressor on the estuary’s fisheries and one that does not have an impact on the estuary’s ecology or the population levels of the fish species listed under the State and Federal Endangered Species Act. The State’s foremost experts on Delta’s fisheries, including respected fisheries scientist Dr. David Ostrach, agree that the peer reviewed science demonstrates striped bass predation does not impact delta smelt and salmon populations listed under the ESA and, there is little evidence of impacts from other species that has passed the standard of being peer reviewed science by qualified fishery scientists. Prior to the building of the State and Federal water projects facilities, all the estuary’s fishery resources thrived together as did the productivity of the estuary’s food web.

John Beuttler, Conservation Director of the Allied Fishing Groups states, “Prior to the building of the State and Federal water projects facilities, all the estuary’s fishery resources thrived together as did the estuary’s food web. It is critical for our government to stay focused on the problems that significantly impact the estuary’s fisheries and aquatic ecosystem. State and Federal government must be compelled to find the funding and the wisdom necessary to address the impacts caused by the massive export of water from the Delta by the water projects. Unfortunately, this legislation fails to provide meaningful assistance in solving the significant problems that caused the collapse of the estuary’s food web and the serious population declines to our salmon, steelhead and striped bass fisheries. Instead, it proposes to eradicate publicly owned fisheries in the Delta that still generates a huge amount of sportfishing recreation and hundreds of millions of dollars to local, state and national economies annually.”

This legislation would decimate the striped bass, largemouth and smallmouth bass and other recreational fisheries throughout the Bay and Delta region, while failing to deal with the fundamental problems that have been so destructive to the estuary and our native fishes.

Dan Blanton, a nationally-recognized author and sportfishing expert sums up the legislation: “While well-meaning to help drought stricken California and its native species, this legislation is misguided by attempts of certain corporate growers to remove anglers from the water equation. Remove the fish, the anglers lose interest, the fishing-related businesses go bankrupt, and our vocal opposition to irresponsible Delta water exports ends. Fortunately, that is not how it will work. The growers and some of our legislators have grossly underestimated our dedication to preserving the unique Bay-Delta environment that includes intentionally introduced sport fisheries that provide important economic and recreational benefits.”

The Allied Fishing Groups is requesting all recreational anglers engage to inform your Senators in congress of your opposition to this legislation unless it is amended as recommended by the Allied Fishing Groups. Please call, email or write Senators Feinstein and Boxer at:

The Honorable Barbara Boxer

112 Hart Senate Office Building

The Honorable Diane Feinstein

331 Hart Senate Office Bldg.

Washington, DC 20510-0505 Washington, D.C. 20510

Fax: (202) 224-0454 Fax: (202) 228-3954

Phone: (202) 224-3553 Phone: (202) 224-3841

The Allied Fishing Groups are a voice for California's two million recreational anglers. We represent some 36 sport fishing organizations across the state working to save, protect and restore Northern California’s fisheries and their habitat. We are guided by science and our many years of direct experience in fishery management. Our Steering Committee is comprised of fishery professionals, scientists and dedicated anglers. We work with sport fishing business, government and sport fishing organizations to implement practical and lasting solutions to the serious problems facing our fisheries and their habitat.

“THERE ARE SPRAWLING INDUSTRIES and self-proclaimed career “terrorism experts” in the U.S. that profit greatly by deliberately exaggerating the threat of Terrorism and keeping Americans in a state of abject fear of “radical Islam.” There are all sorts of polemicists who build their public platforms by demonizing Muslims and scoffing at concerns over “Islamaphobia,” with the most toxic ones insisting that such a thing does not even exist, even as the mere presence of mosques is opposed across the country, or even as they are physically attacked.

The U.S. government just formally renewed the “State of Emergency” it declared in the aftermath of 9/11 for the 14th time since that attack occurred, ensuring that the country remains in a state of permanent, endless war, subjected to powers that are still classified as “extraordinary” even though they have become entirely normalized. As a result of all of this, a minority group of close to 3 million people is routinely targeted with bigotry and legal persecution in the Home of the Free, while fear and hysteria reign supreme in the Land of the Brave.

What happened in Irving, Texas, yesterday to a 14-year-old Muslim high school freshman is far from the worst instance, but it is highly illustrative of the rotted fruit of this sustained climate of cultivated fear and demonization. The Dallas Morning News reports that “Ahmed Mohamed — who makes his own radios and repairs his own go-kart — hoped to impress his teachers when he brought a homemade clock to MacArthur High,” but “instead, the school phoned police.”

Despite insisting that he made the clock to impress his engineering teacher, consistent with his long-time interest in “inventing stuff,” Ahmed was arrested by the police and led out of school with his hands cuffed behind him. When he was brought into the room to be questioned by the four police officers who had been dispatched to the school, one of them — who had never previously seen him — said: “Yup. That’s who I thought it was.” As a result, he “felt suddenly conscious of his brown skin and his name — one of the most common in the Muslim religion.”

–Glenn Greenwald

YO HO, YO HO, IT'S TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY!

At http://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com you'll find the recording of last night’s (2015-09-18) KNYO Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio show ready to download and keep or just play with one click.

Also I put a link there to just the 20 minutes of a Liberty (religious college) event this last Monday where Bernie Sanders spoke to, it looks like, 20,000 people in a hoarse, earnest voice about how if they're all for Jesus and everything they should abhor the unjust plutocracy America has become and work to change it. And they ate it up.

Further, at http://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com there are wholesale quantities of worthwhile but not necessarily radio-useful items that I found while putting my show together. Here are just a few:

Find the cat.* http://imgur.com/gallery/jFkV2

Ever better photos of Pluto. http://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2015/09/pluto-like-youve-never-seen-it-before/405904/

A smart computer auto-captions web photographs, getting it wrong, maybe, but in a poetic way. https://twitter.com/interesting_jpg

And the museum of telephony burned down in the Butte fire. Here are several galleries of photos of the thousands of its irreplaceable antique instruments in happier days. http://jklmuseum.com/jkl-museum-photo-galleries/

— - Marco McClean

memo@mcn.org

http://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com

*Answer: Look halfway down, 1/6 of the way over from the left.