THE SUPERVISORS have approved a 16 percent pay raise for District Attorney David Eyster and a 10 percent raise for Sheriff Tom Allman. Supervisors McCowen and Woodhouse wanted to give Eyster more to ensure he didn't leave us. Supervisor Woodhouse said Eyster brings in "millions" to Mendocino County, an apparent reference to Eyster's breakthrough policy of bargaining dope cases for cash and misdemeanors rather than drag them all into court. With legalization, the dope interdiction bonanza is bye-bye.
EYSTER MADE the usual child-like argument so effective with County leadership that other people other places in the big jobs make more. "Bobby's bicycle has mud flaps on it so I should have mud flaps, too." The second myth is that our elected people are so much in demand in The Great Outside they just might pick up and go to... Lake County.
THE DA said his services cost Mendo people $1.95 per person. The kicker? The Supervisors, acting out of their usual sloth, accepted all Eyster's numbers without researching their own comparisons. Turns out Eyster's total compensation, salary and fringes, is already better than that of most cow county DA's.
MUCH AS WE ADMIRE the Sheriff and the DA's job performances, we think it's preposterous that they're getting huge raises. Sheriff Allman and DA Eyster will get about $50,000 more between the two of them. Allman already rakes in a cool $254,817 annually (including benefits) while Eyster gets $194,751 (including benefits) for shooting the usual suspects in the Courthouse barrel. These huge salaries, huger all the time, also mean fat increases to their pension checks when they shuffle off into their Golden Years, this largesse occurring in a broke county with an even broker pension fund and starvation wages for line staff.
YEAH, YEAH, both Allman and Eyster stay within their budgets, but they do that thanks to the annual dope interdictions with their accompanying property seizures.
THE WAY WE SEE IT, government, at all levels, pretty much now exists as its own purpose, and the kind of money our public administrators are pulling down in a lightly populated, meager tax-based county like ours, can't reasonably be borne without bankrupting the County. In fact, the County is already bankrupt, given that it owes more in existing pension payouts than it can ever possibly pay.
THE SUPERVISORS gave the badged boss mans the money because the Supes have never denied the upper echelons of County management, including themselves of course, anything they've wanted. (I wonder if Supervisor Hamburg's "service dog" gets some kind of County stipend for soothing Hamburg's savage breast at public meetings?)
WHILE we're throwing around depressing numbers, Kitty Elliot, interim County Counsel, like the County Counsels before her, in addition to her big pay, gets $3000 a year car allowance. Like she can't pay for her own fuel? And since she lives in the Ukiah area a nice hunk of the three thou will go straight into her pocket.
AND YOU MAY BE AWARE, the profligates at the state and federal levels, kick down $3.3 million a year to Mendo for substance abuse prevention, a peculiar investment considering there are more drunks and dopeheads around than ever. A rational person would ask, "Well golly gee, how come we're giving you people all this money and more of you than ever are succumbing to the lure of drug and drink?"
UP UNTIL ABOUT 1967, elected reps generally spent public money like it was their own. That's wayyyyyy out the window now.
AS IT HAPPENS, I have before me an AVA dated Tuesday, June 4th, 1963. The lead story is titled, "Tempers Flare & Accusations Fly When Board Grants Use of Two County Cars." The story describes a huge fight among the Supervisors over use of one County car for a total of five County employees to drive to Sacramento and back in one day. The County administrator wanted to take a second County car for himself and another department head. Two of the Supes wanted to send all five in the one car, with $16 bucks food money. They finally compromised on two cars but no food and no gas money.
LAST WEEK'S FREE MONEY DAY at the Board of Supervisors prompts me to suggest Tip Jars on the reception desks of our top administrators. Come on, Mendo, these people are barely scraping by.
WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS $250,000 PROPOSAL?
(HINT: Mendocino County already has six full-time lawyers in the County Counsel’s office: Katharine L. Elliott, Rebecca L. Chenoweth, Matthew T. Kiedrowski, Brina A. Latkin, Doug V. Parker, George R. Valenzuela.)
OK, so Mendo County already pays six full-time County lawyers a total of $1.4 mil annually, and all of them with middle initials, too! So why do the Supervisors approve the expensive hire of an outside "law group" to "evaluate" a case called Animal Legal Defense Fund et al v. Mendocino County?
"TINA THOMAS," no middle initial, writes of herself that she is "founder of Thomas Law Group, practices law the same way she lives life outside her firm: with relentless drive, unshakable commitment, and intrepidity.”
IT MUST have been Tina's 'intrepidity' that sold her to the Supervisors despite the $1.4 million Mendo already spends on its own County Counsel’s office. Tina will pick up a cool quarter mil for intrepidiciously reading the briefs.
THIS IS THE LAWSUIT, in case you forgot, which suggested that the County use less lethal means of dealing with “predator” animals by discontinuing the controversial federal trapping service and replacing it with a locally controlled and managed approach. Obviously, the ALDF didn’t think Mendo’s refusal to deal with the issue at the behest of a few remnant ranchers in the County was the end of the story. (PS. Several other NorCal counties have dropped the federal trapping service and adopted improved protocols and have not been sued. Not Mendo: We’re different. Now, money that could have gone to developing and implementing improved varmint control methods will go to outside lawyers.
THIS CONSULTANT DEAL is probably like a lot of Mendo deals. Someone's pal, someone's love interest, someone's relative gets the job.
ROSS LIBERTY is that rarest species of local bird, a guy who has established a successful and fairly large business in Ukiah. He's now apparently organized a group of local moneybags to acquire 65 acres of the old Masonite plant north of town. Liberty's investors are informally organized as “Ukiah Industrial Park Team.” Team Liberty says their development could mean some 600 well-paid jobs for the Ukiah area. The Supervisors were discussing the proposal at Tuesday's meeting. Stay tuned. (See Dave Smith's letter for Liberty's apparent self-interested hypocrisy.)
ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE WEEK: “We’ve made billions of dollars off of people from all over the world who smoked our herb and drank our wine, and now we’re complaining that a couple hundred pot heads and drunks chose to migrate directly to the source.” — James Marmon
ODD REMARK ON MCN's ListServe, a gold mine of odd remarks: "Petra talks produce and then she conjures God Good Juxtaposition. I was thinking about this earlier, not that I needed to but it just happenstanced. The subject has come up lately, especially from Woo Woo Tom. Here's my take: God is a fungus gnat, God is a Cecile Breunner rose, God is Billy-goat, God is us. So, Mother Nature is God. Oh, and Tom, God is science. (not vice-versa)."
THE CONSTANT ALLURE of the internet often pulls me (and many of you, I'm sure) into on-line exchanges. I enjoyed one this morning inspired by the December 7th memories of the attack on Pearl Harbor where, according to family lore, I almost got killed when a Honolulu store we'd just left got hit by a stray bomb.
A READER WROTE: I think many Oregonians worried about possible invasion…. My relatives were all prepared…
I REPLIED: My mother took me and my brother on a troop ship to San Francisco where we stayed at the Fairmont Hotel, which was the evac center for people fleeing Hawaii. We left Hula Land because everyone assumed a land invasion would follow up the air attack. My father stayed on for about a year before heading for Frisco where he worked at Hunter's Point loading submarines. He said he could have bought up half of Honolulu for peanuts if he'd had the cash. The people who did stay got very, very rich off the war and bargain real estate deals.
THE READER came back with: Was and is there still a conspiracy theory, that FDR knew in advance and allowed the airstrike to advance the war?? I think my dad and uncles believed that…
TO WHICH I SAID: I've never believed that. FDR knew the Japanese were preparing for war and assumed it would begin in Southeast Asia, which it did. Pearl Harbor was a total surprise. The US didn't think the Japanese had that kind of long-range military capacity, Asians not being smart enough to pull it off, you see. The Brits were similarly caught off guard when the Japanese roared down the Malay Peninsula on bicycles all the way to Singapore, taking the whole area in a few days.
READER: My dad, a constant source of tall tales, told me he and my older siblings were targeted by a Japanese sub when they were at the beach that fired a shell at them…because of my brothers bright red hair! Also that I had Chippawa blood, a lie I believed proudly for years… Also that he wrote Waltzing Matilda… Etc etc. Taught me never to trust anything a Man said…
ME RIGHT BACK: My father spared me tall tales, seldom communicating much at all. But when I came back on leave from the Marines he noted that I was drinking my coffee black. "Good," he said approvingly. "Because if you don't you'll be constantly frustrated. Some people will have cream but no sugar, or sugar but no cream." He followed that advice up with, "You know flies take off backwards. If you aim slightly behind them you'll get them every time." Thus armed I strode out the door to meet the world….
THE READER: Wow! Practical info… In first grade, I got into a heated dispute with the vast, pigeon-shaped bitch/teacher over who exactly wrote Waltzing Matilda…it’s all been downhill from there… Didn't the Japanese bomb the mainland a couple of times?
ME: I don't think so. They lofted some fire balloons from a submarine off Brookings, Oregon, as I recall, and there was a shell or two lobbed from a submarine at an oil refinery near Ventura, but that was about the extent of it without researching the precise facts.
INCIDENTALLY, Gary Milliman is city manager at Brookings where, last time I checked, he's a constant source of controversy. Milliman was Dominic Affinito's gofer when he had Ruffing's job in Fort Bragg, and during that period he gave Aff the Glass Beach subdivision, all infrastructure courtesy of Fort Bragg's taxpayers, and Patti Campbell, then 4th District supervisor, gave Aff that sweetheart lease deal with the County for the County's Ten Mile Court complex.
THE PRESS RELEASE begins ominously: "A list of possible unmet transit needs in the county was forwarded by the Mendocino Council of Governments Monday to the Mendocino Transit Authority for further consideration."
TRANSLATION: One group of County-paid jelly donuts is talking to another group of County-paid maple bars about.... "MTA is expected to prepare an analysis for project operational costs, ability to provide service and prioritization of needs of a list of approximately 95 recommended unmet transit needs etc. and blather blah blah for more life-abbreviating, jargon-ridden prose that could be condensed to a sentence: "Our ghost buses might pick up more non-existent riders if 20 County-paid time-servers get together for deep fried dough and coffee."
PLOUGHING THROUGH the introductory thousand words of pure bullshit, we get to "productivity" notions, a few of which might be of real value to Mr. and Mrs. Mendo Citizen, like getting the old folks to their medical appointments if they're ever enacted. The simplest County task, however, requires endless meetings and consultants and more meetings.
A READER WRITES: "Saw a really great meme today: Trump is what would happen if the comments section became a human and ran for president."
WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE? Lots. First off it's incorrect. Most of the One Percenters we read about — Gates, Buffet, et al — are liberals. They aren't racists. The One Percent ought to be opposed because they profit from a wildly exploitive economic system, as do their enforcers in elected office and the legal system. Second, racism in this country is institutionalized in the form of redlining, bad schools, poor housing and so on from which, obviously, the One Percenters and wealthy people generally, profit from. If a lot of everyday white boys walk around with stupid opinions about race, a fatuous banner is unlikely to cause them to revise their attitudes. Third, K-MEC, the MEC, and Mendolib generally, and I'm sorry to be the guy who breaks the news to you Righteous Ones, have zero moral authority to preach to anybody about anything. If you raised an equivalently prominent banner that said, "DESTROY CAPITALISM" you might at least start a conversation about the nut of the prob.
A UKIAH WOMAN was caught driving with $1.3 million in marijuana hidden inside her vehicle in Navajo County last week. A sheriff's deputy made the discovery during a traffic stop on Interstate 40 in Arizona. The Sheriff's Office said the deputy pulled Julienne Waters, 59, of Ukiah, over near Holbrook, Arizona, and called for a drug-detection dog when the woman's story didn't add up. The dog, having sniffed the outside of the vehicle, indicated the presence of drugs. That's when Waters conceded she had marijuana in her car — 381 pounds in all, about three times the size of a typical pot seizure (most of Californians) made by Navajo County deputies. Waters was booked into the Navajo County Jail on suspicion of transportation of marijuana. “Maybe once a week, we’re arresting a Californian for some kind of marijuana-related issue,” Chief Deputy Sheriff Jim Molesa said. “This was bigger than what we usually see.” Molesa said the value of the marijuana was calculated to be about $1.3 million based on pot’s estimated street value in Phoenix. (About $3400 per pound!) Ms. Waters’ bond was set at $2 million.
THE LOCAL WINE INDUSTRY is in a tiz over big tariffs about to be imposed on their exports by Canada and Mexico under terms of the infamous World Trade Organization.
THE WTO declared the labeling requirement to be a “disproportionate burden” on meat suppliers, which opened the door to the retaliatory tariff on wine. Canada and Mexico obviously know how to hit the US where it hurts by picking wine to retaliate with.
CONGRESSMAN MIKE “CORK TOP” THOMPSON immediately jumped into action, spearheading a rush-job bill to immediately repeal the labeling requirement in the House of Representatives. But the Senate hasn’t yet taken similar action so the repeal is on hold for the time being. Never fear, Senators Feinstein and Boxer have taken the lead in getting the Senate to act as soon as possible, declaring last week, “Our nation’s rural communities, farmers and businesses simply cannot afford to suffer retaliatory tariffs.” (Never mind that expensive wine appellations and terroirs are not exactly “rural communities” and grape growers are not “farmers” in any ordinary sense of the word.)
CANADA has become the largest single market for American wine, most of which comes in California companies. And about $24 million worth of American wine was shipped to Mexico last year. Some local wineries have said that if the estimated $1 billion in tariffs is not repealed the retail price of direct-delivery/sale shipments to Canadian wine drinkers will double, and even sales from small non-distributor wines will take a hit.
PHRASE OF THE WEEK a South Coast reader says a young girl was overheard telling a friend how she turned down a date with a swarthy guy because he "wore a bomb beard."
MENDO JOB GROWTH for 2015. Out of the 550 jobs added to the county’s jobs in 2015 470 (more than 85%) of them were in government (including schools), according to the County’s latest Second Quarter budget summary.
THE BUDGET SUMMARY makes no comment on this depressing number, nor on the extremely distorted picture it paints. If you had any lingering doubt about what Official Mendo’s priorities are, you can be assured that in spite of the occasional blather about the importance of bringing business to the County, the numbers show that Official Mendo’s top priority is itself — and its generous perks and pensions for the upper echelons thereof.
A READER says that The Lyme Group did indeed purchase the Hawthorne timberlands (formerly Hawthorne Campbell, lately Campbell Global, LLC, on behalf of Hawthorne Timber Company LLC) and immediately laid off eight employees this week.
THE GRID in Northern California is owned and operated by PG&E. A monopoly and theoretical public utility, PG&E acts like a private corporation, and a corrupt one at that with all kinds of gifts and lavish junkets for the Public Utilities Commission that allegedly oversees the power company. While PG&E spends a literal fortune on inane television ads and donates heavily to political office holders, every winter the power fails up and down the state because the lines aren't buried like they are in the civilized countries of the world.
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT ran a weekend story on poverty in Sonoma County. The subject is always discussed by media with an assumption of, "Well, hell, the pathetic bastards are always with us so what can we do?" For starters, we could tax the wealthy at a reasonable rate like we did up through Eisenhower, a Republican. Another Republican, Reagan, rolled back taxes on the rich as he got "government off our backs," and the libs, in the form of the Clintons, unraveled helping programs even more. And here we are, with millions of Americans a paycheck away from the streets if they have a job in the first place.
CANDIDATE SANDERS addresses American poverty every time he opens his mouth. Most Americans will support him on the off chance he gets past a convention wired by and for Hillary, with the corporate media and, natch, NPR, non-personing him. Sure, he can beat whatever loon the Republicans put up, but whatever loon they put up can also beat Hillary.
BASED on my life experience I'd say that Americans who most need to take on the system don't vote, which accounts for control of the system by their class enemies and their doom unto their tenth generation. In most areas of the world, people pretty much vote for people who defend their interests, meaning the wealthy vote for people who can be depended on to give them more (Hillary, any of the Republicans) while working people, and working people vote in most of the world, vote for people who will protect and advance their interests. The rich usually win because, as they do here, they own the media and they have lots of money to put into elections. When the poor or their reps are elected anywhere, such as in certain Latin Americans countries, they either get killed by the CIA or otherwise removed from office. Venezuela is right now an example of Venezuela's rich and our CIA undermining Venezuela's elected government.)
HERE IN MENDOCINO COUNTY, working people — nevermind the poor — are not well represented. If their interests are represented at all. If you say, "Wait a minute. Dan Hamburg is for the poor." Sorry, I'll need some evidence of that support. Hamburg is good at looking very, very concerned but that's as far as he takes his concern. Supervisor Woodhouse remains in a constant state of confusion, and Carrie Brown, a rancher, may be registered as a Democrat but I'd guess, from her general affect and certainly her cowboy social circle, she's a bootstrapper. (Potter Valley ranchers think they're entitled to free water forever from the Potter Valley diversion which, historically, was diverted to electrify Ukiah, not support welfare cows and grapes. Dear Carrie springs from that retro venue. Her politics mirror the Farm Bureau's.) Gjerde and McCowen are the only fully functioning supervisors we have, but they defer too often to Mommy, County CEO Carmel Angelo. With all the supes in support, Mom continues to shovel huge amounts of money to the upper end of our bureaucracies. After Mendo's big shots and our mostly privatized mental health "system" get their cuts, there's not much left over for locals who could use some practical help.
THE 99 PERCENT movement was a mass impulse in the right direction. I think it will be back and this time with a lot more energy because the country is coming apart so fast in so many ways, and with another tribune of the rich poised to become president, the 99 Percent is in for a violent ride.
WHERE WERE WE? SoCo poverty. At 12.3% for 2014, the share of (SoCo) residents who now live below official poverty is 2 percentage points greater than it was in 2010. In 2014, the federal poverty level was $14,580 for an individual and $29,820 for a family of four.
IN MENDOCINO COUNTY 20% of Mendo residents were below poverty level from 2009-2013.
SOCO'S median household income has remained flat at just below $64,000 a year.
MEDIAN household income in Mendo for 2009-2013 was $43,469. Per capita 2009-2013: $23,306. The CA average per capita is $30k.
FOREIGN BORN RESIDENTS of Mendocino County are 12.5% of the County's population, according to the 2010 census. The overall percentage of foreign born California residents is 27%.
THE CENSUS also reports that the percentage of people age 5 or more who live where a language other than English is spoken at home, 2009-2013, is 21.2%. The overall CA percentage is much bigger at 43.7%
SO THERE'S CLEARLY a significant undercount of Mexicans in Mendo, which probably means there are more people in poverty in Mendo than the census indicates.
BUT SO MANY PEOPLE work off the books in Mendocino County, including in the always booming and multi-ethnic marijuana industry, accurate stats about poverty are imprecise, to put it mildly.
MENDOCINO COUNTY’S 382 page (!) Departmental Budget Book for 2014-15 & 2015-16 includes a section listing each department’s “major accomplishments” for last fiscal year (July 2014-June 2015). Because most of Mendo’s bloated departments are paid way too much for what they do, the individual department honchos take full advantage of the budget opportunity to easily persuade the Supes that they really really need the millions of dollars they get.
ACCORDINGLY, the document is essentially one big advertisement for government wrapped around the same old indecipherable budget charts. This expanded promotional format even got CEO Carmel Angelo an award from some distant financial outfit for being “transparent.” (!)
THE DEPARTMENT HEADS carefully tailor their presentations so that nothing critical, much less informative, is included. The document is so thick with hype that nobody bothers to actually read it and the departmental operations remain unreviewed and certainly not criticized. (It’s bad form in Mendo to even report on actual cost-drivers or monthly budget or personnel status, much less openly complain about anything the departments do.)
BECAUSE of that lack of review, over the years the cut-line on what’s considered a “major” accomplishment has dropped to things like “We held a meeting.” It’s so low that even ordinary functioning is now deemed to be a major accomplishment. Obviously, Official Mendo never heard Chris Rock’s famous remark that “You don’t get credit for doin’ what you’re supposed to do!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0B_ekSrsEk
HERE ARE A FEW of the “major accomplishments” selected from several Mendo department reports:
AIR QUALITY DISTRICT: Issued nearly 400 burn permits on-line, resulting in greater convenience for our customers and preventing unnecessary vehicle trips. … Developed in-house dust suppression grant for private roads and driveways, helping to reduce Particulate Matter generated by vehicle traffic in those areas. … 100% District participation in the County Leadership Initiative program.
CLERK-RECORDER-ASSESSOR: Continue to make forms most commonly used by taxpayers available for downloading on Department’s website, saving staff time, printing costs and postage charges. … Continue to participate in the California Assessors’ Association’s standard data record filing and e-filing of business property statements. Since the implementation of these filing options the Assessor’s Division has been able to reduce printing and postage costs. … Adhered to strict deadlines established by law. … Completed many labor-intensive tasks in a timely and efficient period of time.
AUDITOR CONTROLLER: Work with Executive Office to evaluate and improve the County’s Purchase card and Travel card programs. … Continue to review the program chart and staff duties to effectively plan for the future. … Began implementation of the new property system. … Continue with technology replacement within the County’s data center.
CHILD SUPPORT: Accepted credit card payments for Child Support. … Worked with Health and Human Services Agency on case opening training as it relates to Child Support. … Support staff attended court to explain Child Support processes. … Gave contract investigator difficult process serving to increase compliance.
FOREST/FARM ADVISOR: Assisted with the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) seminar held in Lake County in November 2014. … Continued to address pest management, particularly fire blight and pear scab. … Mendocino County 4-H hosted the Statewide 4-H Archery Postal Match for the 3rd year. … Continued to assist with local woolen mill business plan and its development. … Revitalized the Mendocino County Master Gardener Facebook page.
AND, THE MOST PREPOSTEROUS OF ALL…
HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES: Provided training in the county on the prevention of underage drinking. … Initiated an outreach and education program to assist Mendocino County households affected by the drought. … Harvest of The Month lessons and samples were given out in Fort Bragg Unified and Ukiah Unified schools and Anderson Valley food bank on a monthly basis for 10 months. … promoted physical activity, especially walking and biking to school while conducting Rethink Your Drink (RYD) and Harvest of The Month nutrition Classes. … A public opinion poll and decision-maker interviews were conducted to assess community attitudes and knowledge about tobacco and the retail environment. … Mailed annual newsletters to businesses on the EH inventory. … Organized and facilitated monthly meetings of the Redwood Empire Hazardous Incident Team (REHIT). … Issued 24 Body Art Facility permits. … Forty-Seven (47) women were served by the Women in Need of Drug-Free Opportunities (WINDO) Program. … PAPU continued to collaborate with The Prevention Team, a group of diverse community partners, for program planning, evaluation and course correction measures. … Leveraged resources and promote collaboration among the diverse service groups. … Educated the public on prescription drugs and abuse. … Received local business acknowledgement. … Participated with Women, Infants and Children (WIC) in World Breastfeeding Week at three local farmer markets. … A Supervising PHN was hired in July 2014. … Released a Request for Proposal (RFP) to contract with an RFP writer for an RFP for an Inland Exclusive Operating Area (EOA). … Acknowledged the valuable contribution of emergency medical responders through a proclamation and participated in the Mendocino County Survivors Reunion during National EMS week.
MENTAL HEALTH ($20 a mil a year): Therapeutic services to identify students in Counseling Enriched Classrooms. … Peer mentoring/wellness and recovery center(s). … Transitioned medication support services to the Administrative Service Organizations. … Review and apply for grants to allow for new funding opportunities.
CHILDREN’S SERVICES: Continued to maintain medical eligibility and case management timelines. … Hired Senior Program Manager for Children’s Medical Services (CMS) and an Occupational Therapist for CCS. … Three CHDP provider facility reviews were completed.
HUMAN RESOURCES: Launched 3 different Wellness Campaigns to encourage healthy behaviors. … Successful transition to new Employee Assistance Provider – Magellan Health Services. … Automated the MCWOW registration process through the creation of an online registration form. (Wow! HR is really hitting the ball!)
PUBLIC DEFENDER: Assure that all attorneys are able to maintain CLE credits and attend important and critical educational seminars. … Represented three different clients charged with murder, two with special circumstances; one of those is still pending. … Ensure that there continues to be good communication between the Chief Executive Officer and the Public Defender. … Provided the best criminal defense services that are possible in Mendocino County. … Effectively and vigorously defended the juvenile clients. … Staff continues to work hard despite the tough financial times. … Three attorneys assigned to the traffic department due to a very heavy caseload. … One investigator maintained responsibility for assisting the 13 attorneys over a fairly lengthy period of time.
LADIES and Germs, that's yer Mendocino County Government, 2015.
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