Mendocino County Today: Friday, Apr 1, 2016

• FB Breakdown
• Children Services
• Minimum Wage
• Ambulance Services
• Garden Vote
• Indebted County
• Mobile Unit
• Yesterday's Catch
• Superdelegate Huff
• Trump Rally
• Hemingway's Politics
• Banksters
• WTC Conspiracy
• Ponzi Unwinding
• Oligarch Facism
• Parks Cleanup
• Wisteria
• Solar Cost
• Tunnels Petition
• Voter Registration
• Spring Pops
• Cannabis Registration
• Art Explosion
• Supes Discuss

TELLING EVENT yesterday in Fort Bragg. A man was seen standing in front of the Police Department with a knife. His wife called the police to identify the man as her husband and to report he'd said he was going to shoot the next person who walked past. (Presumably, this particular love nest is not armed.) The crazy guy then called police dispatch himself to say he'd placed the knife on the ground far enough away from himself that it couldn't be considered a weapon. The cops walked outside and arrested him, transporting the guy to Coast Hospital where Mental Health was summoned to evaluate him.

AND HERE'S where you get a clear idea of what your annual $20 million for mental health services is getting you. Mental Health said they thought they could get to Fort Bragg in two hours (!) to have a look.

THE COPS, I'm sure, knew within a couple of minutes how dangerously nuts the man was, and probably could have resolved the situation without hanging around the hospital for two hours waiting for a mental health person to validate what they knew, which would have been something like, "He does this when he's off his meds but isn't dangerous. Just likes a little attention now and then."

WHO KNOWS for sure, but what is known is, if the County had a place where the mentally ill could be taken directly for a psych-eval most of the mentally ill people the police deal with on a regular basis could be sorted out a lot faster and much more effectively than is now not being done at a cost of $20 million a year.

SHERIFF ALLMAN'S outline of a mental health strategy is the first specific plan to arrive in Mendocino County since the old County Farm of far yesteryear, a safe place for the frequent fliers, including drunks and incompetents, to re-orient themselves. Such a County-wide facility could be established and effectively staffed at the old Howard Hospital in Willits for much less than the $20 million we now spend on the euphemized homeless. As it is, the County's police forces not only do ALL the mental health heavy lifting, Allman houses them in the County Jail, not generally considered a restorative setting for the mentally ill.

A COUPLA interesting on-line comments regarding an investigation underway of HumCo's children's services:

(1) "They've needed a good investigation for years… We were foster parents years ago. The system was completely financial based, not child based. Children had multiple placements because 'reunification' was the priority. Some people are not meant to be parents. The children were victimized over and over again. By their family and the system. There was a very strong foster parent group for awhile, but after years of injustice, they just disbanded. Abused children are in a revolving door. It was/is sick. We stopped fostering as well. When you have no power to change the system, you become part of the system. We couldn't be part of the abuse…"

(2) "There is not a Children's Service in this country that the same can't be said of. We do not consider this worthy of either financial or administrative help/oversight. We never have. Unwanted children have never been a priority in this nation, just like the poor have never been. We care about the military (but not the returning vets). We care about subsidizing businesses and resource extraction but not the consequences of the reckless practices. You get my drift…"

I DO get your drift. As a former foster parent I agree completely with the above observations. But try moving the system in a more humane direction. Not possible in Mendocino County or any other place on the NorthCoast. There is a huge apparatus of entrenched social workers and non-profits with a direct financial interest in the system as is. As is, of course, presided over by the courts who routinely sign off on custody atrocities.

AS OUR COUNTRY comes apart at a truly frightening velocity, there are more and more children essentially abandoned by incapable parents and a social-service-non-profit axis that feeds off them.

A RATIONAL SYSTEM would remove imperiled children permanently when those children and their parents first come to the attention of the police and/or hospital emergency rooms, and then placed in stable homes obligated in the parental sense to the child forever. The huge amounts of tax money now spent on a system that socially cripples dependent children all their doomed lives would be routed to the families who have adopted them. Screwed up kids become screwed up adults. Just ask the next street person who stumbles past what his childhood was like.

NOT A NICKEL MORE SAYS THE WARM, WONDERFUL WORLD OF WINE

Below is an e-mail from the California Association of Winegrape Growers. (Governor Brown’s Secretary of Agriculture Karen Ross was their former long-time leader.) Obviously, the winegrowers' don’t like the prospect of paying the people who produce their huge profits any more money, even if it’s phased in over 6 years.

* * *

CAWG Member,

We URGE you to contact your elected officials to oppose SB 3!

Governor Brown, labor unions and their legislative allies are seeking to fast track the passage of SB 3, a bill that would raise the minimum wage in California to $15 per hour. SB 3 (Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco) will impose a 50% increase in the minimum wage over the six years for employers with more than 25 employees, raising the wage to $15.00 per hour by 2022. For a full time hourly wage earner, that equates to annual pay of $31,200. For employers with fewer than 25 employees, implementation is delayed one year.

The minimum wage would increase in the following manner:

January 1, 2017 - $10.50

January 1, 2018 - $11.00

January 1, 2019 - $12.00

January 1, 2020 - $13.00

January 1, 2021 - $14.00

January 1, 2022 - $15.00

Under SB 3, according to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, California's minimum wage in 2018 would exceed the minimum wage currently in effect for Australia and France, which have the world's highest minimum wage rates. In addition, SB 3 provides for inflation-indexed increases in the minimum wage of up to 3.5 percent annually beginning Jan. 1, 2024.

Tell your Assemblymember and Senator about the impacts this minimum wage increase will have on your operation.

A template letter has been drafted for your use, but please feel free to add your own language and personal examples.

THE LONG ANTICIPATED draft of the Exclusive Operating Area ordinance for Mendocino County ambulance services has finally been agendized for the April 5 meeting of the Board of Supervisors. At first glance, it looks like the County is handing the whole process over to a private Sonoma County-based organization (because what the County is calling the LEMSA (Local Emergency Medical Services Agency) is Coastal Valley EMS, the Santa Rosa-based outfit that the County has hired to set up the EOA(s). And they will decide what the exclusive operating areas are and which ambulance(s) will service which area with or without competitive bid as the LEMSA sees fit.

http://www.co.mendocino.ca.us/bos/meetings/28658/28666/28672/29078/29082/%20OrdClean29082.pdf

VOTE FOR AV GARDEN

Vote for our garden to help us receive a Seeds of Change® grant! Our organization’s garden/farm is in the running for one of four $20,000 grants, or one of twenty $10,000 grants from Seeds of Change®!

Hi Folks,

Please vote for AVH school garden (every day!!) at

https://www.seedsofchangegrant.com/GalleryDetail.aspx?id=1994

Thanks!

Donna Pierson-Pugh
Grant Administrator
Anderson Valley Unified School District
707 895-3496 ext 519

TOT

Editor,

Maybe the two Supes will evaluate Dickerson's reading of the County's TRUE financial position. Seems about right to me.

* * *

My understanding is all four incorporated cities in the County have a TOT - also known as a "Bed Tax". The County also has a bed tax. If you wanted to fund housing in Albion I assume that would be a County funding issue.

Mendocino County's reported total LOCAL income last year was about $85 million. It got about $120 million from the Feds and State. A lot of the County's local income must go into Fed and State funded programs as "matching funds". As a rough estimate only about half of the County's local income doesn't have to go into these Fed/State defined programs. So - maybe $40 million - $50 million is really "discretionary" income. (But - many local programs including a bunch of the Sheriff's expenses if I understand correctly must come out of this money - so how much of the County's local income is really available to do "something else with" - like help build housing? A lot less - very very rough maybe $20 million or so.

The County's $85 million local income was about $65 million of local taxes and $20 million of fines-forfeitures-penalties-licenses-permits-charges for services-interest income.

Of the $65 million in local taxes $4.5 million was TOT - Bed Tax.

The County was just forced to list unfunded pensions as a debt for the first time and write off a worthless (phony) "Pension Asset". In total that was a $140 million hit on the County. Our is the most indebted of the 21 California counties with independent County Pension Funds on a comparative basis. For every $100 of assets our County has it has $132 of debt.

But the big problem in terms of being able to direct some of that (very roughly) $20 million of "real discretionary local County income" is that we have to pay that unfunded pension debt. Last year the County paid a total of a little more than $15 million in pension-related payments - both towards unfunded pension debt and on behalf of its current employees.

So - for all practical purposes the County doesn't have any money for new stuff. And since we already know that unfunded pension debt payments are going to increase according to the County's plans - it's almost certain we won't have any "extra cash" hanging out at the County for quite a long time.

John G Dickerson, Ukiah

MAXFIELD, MAXFIELD & SHED (not LLC)

On 03-26-2016 at approximately 9:15 AM, Deputies from the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office were dispatched to a reported theft of mail in the area of the 16100 block of Ridgeview Road in Willits, California. The caller reported that the occupants of a burgundy mini-van had stolen mail from their mailbox. The caller provided the Deputies with a direction of travel for the suspect vehicle. As the Deputies responded to the area they observed two large piles of mail alongside the roadway which had already been discarded by the suspects. The suspect vehicle was stopped by another responding Mendocino County Sheriff’s Deputy in the 2000 block of Muir Mill Road. It was occupied by Kiera Shed (driver), Justin Maxfield and Bradley Maxfield.

Inside the van were items of mail, credit cards, stolen checks with forged signatures, two methamphetamine smoking pipes and a prescription bottle containing a schedule IV controlled substance known as TRAMADOL. Shed, Justin Maxfield and Bradley Maxfield were arrested for possession of stolen property, forgery, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of a controlled substance, grand theft and petty theft. They were transported to the Mendocino County Jail where each was to be held in lieu of $15,000.00 bail. The investigation is ongoing as discarded as items of mail continue to be processed and additional victims are identified and contacted.

CATCH OF THE DAY, March 31, 2016

PRISCILLA AGUILAR, Hopland. Drunk in public, probation revocation.

OSCAR ALVAREZ-CARRILLO, Ukiah. Domestic assault, criminal threats, probation revocation.

DAVID AMUNDSON, Redwood Valley. Under infuence.

DOUGLAS ANNIS, Talmage. Failure to appear.

JOSHUA BOLTON, Willits. Battery.

ANNETTE CAMPBELL, Laytonville. Probation revocation.

RICKIE CURTIS, Willits. Drunk in public.

MICHELLE FABELA, Willits. Burglary, vehicle theft, under influence, probation revocation.

DAVID HAWKINS JR., Willits. Failure to register.

KYLE HUNTER, Willits. Community Supervision violation.

RANDAL JENNINGS, Westport. Mandatory supervision sentencing.

JESSE KYLE, Port Townsend, Washington/Fort Bragg. Failure to appear.

JAMES LOWE, Clearlake. Controlled substance, paraphernalia, probation revocation.

BRYAN MARTIN, Ukiah. Under influence, controlled substance, failse ID.

MICHAEL MONAHAN, Vallejo/Covelo. Assault on police officer, interference with police communications, controlled substance.

STETSON QUALLS-JONES, San Francisco/Ukiah. DUI, suspended license.

JARRETT STERGIOU, Rio Dell/Ukiah. Possession of more than an ounce of pot, failure to appear.

SCOTT WEDGLEY, Fort Bragg. Petty theft, drunk in public.

DEZARAY WILSON, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

AS ALWAYS, FINGER TO THE WINDS…

Congressman and Superdelegate Jared Huffman: I Will Feel the Bern if and When America Does

Regarding my "superdelegate" vote in the Democratic Presidential nominating process, I want to clarify a few things since there have been a lot of posts and comments on this lately. First, superdelegates have never decided a nomination and it won't happen this time. Let me be very clear: even though I have endorsed Secretary Clinton and expect her to be the nominee, if Senator Sanders were to win a majority of pledged delegates at the polls then he would become the Democratic nominee at the convention — and he would have the support of superdelegates like me. Just as most of the Clinton superdelegates switched to Barack Obama in 2008 when it became clear that he would win the majority of pledged delegates at the polls, the same thing would happen, hypothetically, if Sanders went into the convention having won the most pledged delegates at the polls. To do otherwise would create the perception that party "insiders" were acting against the will of the voters and it would fracture the party going into a general election that we must win. But, I also believe all of this is hypothetical. I believe Secretary Clinton will win a significant majority of pledged delegates at the polls when all is said and done, and there won't be any superdelegate controversy. I also consider her our strongest candidate for the general election, although I think Democrats can win with either candidate. I've said repeatedly that I respect Bernie and believe he has brought a strong progressive message that is making a positive difference in our political process, and I'll support him if he is our nominee. But let's stop overstating the significance of superdelegates and let the voters in the remaining primaries and caucuses have their say. This nomination will be decided at the polls, not in a rigged process at the convention. And hopefully we will all unite at that point and get to work on winning this crucial election.

* * *

TO LET HUFFMAN KNOW WHAT YOU THINK of his position, Here’s a place.

HOW WOULD HEMINGWAY’S ‘ROBERT JORDAN’ VOTE?

by Clancy Sigal

Written 76 years ago, For Whom The Bell Tolls is Senator John McCain’s favorite novel, also an “inspiration” to Obama.

Toward the end of the Spanish civil war, up in the mountains looking over a steel bridge the American hero Robert Jordan must blow up to stop the Fascist advance on Madrid, he faces certain death on a mission he fatalistically knows is messed up.

Even so, while sighting his machine gun, he engages in a serious political argument with one of his comrade guerrillas, El Primitivo.

Jordan, a former Montana college instructor, lectures Primitivo that the United States isn’t like Spain; democratic change is possible. He cites President Roosevelt’s mild tax reform. Primitivo warns Jordan that any attempt to take money from the American rich will surely make them angry enough to violently revolt, “exactly as the fascists have done here”.

“It is possible,” Jordan says. “Then you will have to fight in your country as we fight here.”

“Yes, we will have to fight.”

“But are there not many fascists in your country?”

“There are many who do not know they are fascists but will find out when the time comes.”

In Hemingway’s time American fascists either wore Nazi-like uniforms in street brawls or $1000 suits and stiff collars scheming up at the opulent offices at 23 Wall Street where a small group of J.P. Morgan rich men calling themselves “Sentinels of Liberty” were so envious of Hitler and Mussolini that they plotted to sacrifice part of their fortunes to overthrow the new “socialist” president Franklin D. Roosevelt. They dreamed of molding unemployed war veterans into a “Khaki Shirt” fascist army to take over the White House whose New Deal tax scheme drove them nuts.

With riots in the factories, farmers lynching bailiffs and even Boy Scouts marching in protest against hard times, the rich truly believed they were witnessing their own Last Days, the apocalyptic end of capitalism. They were angry and frightened with a poor sense of reality, although they were astute enough to own or run businesses that, combined, had more assets than the U.S. government they wanted to overthrow.

As far as I know the Koch Brothers have not (yet) given money to Donald Trump in the way that, for example, German “captains of industry” loaded up Hitler with slush funds to finance his path to power.

They too felt existentially threatened by social disorder, economic instability and the absence of Strong Leader who “tells it like it is” to the despairing German masses hungry for jobs and a hatred for the old elite.

For Whom The Bell Tolls was written out of Hemingway’s own despair at Gen. Franco’s fascist victory in his beloved Spain. Critics like to pass lightly over Ernest’s politics. He could be, and was, anti-Semitic (until he married a half Jew), racist (until he fought side by side with African American volunteers in the Lincoln Brigade), sexist (always), and let’s not even think what this most macho of men felt about his youngest transgender son Gregory or Gloria.

But most consistently, in his gut, Ernest was antifascist and on the side of the losers. He knew that U.S. soldiers under General Douglas MacArthur bayoneted starving war-vet Bonus Marchers within sight of the Capitol. And from his Florida house he’d seen hundreds of jobless, messed up war vets drowned in a Matecumbe Key hurricane into which they’d been exiled by FDR to rid himself of potential troublemakers.

Hemingway wrote Bell in the white heat of anguish, rage and the bloody unfairness of it all.

Let’s rewrite Hemingway. After all, this is Hollywood. A Sierra Club mountain climber just died at the age of 103. “What if” by some miracle Robert Jordan had survived the Spanish debacle and was alive today, how would he vote?

(Clancy Sigal is a screenwriter and novelist. His latest book is Hemingway Lives.)

MCN: WHERE BUILDING 7 LIVES ON AND ON

Doug McKenty wrote:

…but will only say that each of you should watch the video of the WTC falling at free fall speed straight down into their own footprint and remember that when something gets hit from the side, it falls over, not down.

* * *

Doug, wow, I don't know about "nano-thermite found by two independent researchers in the debris." They might have found some nano-condoms in the debris, too. And nanite replicators from Stargate: Atlantis. I'll look into that. But at least the rhetorical clincher part of your argument is easily shown to be entirely wrong. The towers collapsed because of the damage from the impacts and the heat and now-well-understood details of their construction. They weren't batted aside like baseballs; they stood there for several minutes leading up to catastrophic collapse, and then they fell straight down because no side of the structures holding them up was any stronger than any other side. They weren't ladder-scale ladders tipping over. Each floor was struck straight down from above by the sledgehammer blow of the steel and concrete floors above it. Scale has a lot to do with the behavior of materials.

"And what about Building 7, huh? huh?" Well, what about it? It was next door to an earthquake and it was built by the lowest bidder with supplies from another lowest bidder.

Just because a thing seems weird to you to look at doesn't lend validity to whatever political thing you picked from a board-game spinner to believe is true.

And, Daney, nobody is saying conspiracies don't exist in the world. They do. They're everywhere. For example: giant nutritional supplement manufacturers know very well their products are mostly placebos, and that they often contain zero percent of even what's listed on the jars and bottles, in favor of whatever's cheapest to put in the pills, and that was recently exposed by testing. But just because you can point to a conspiracy that was found out and say, "Look! See! A conspiracy!" doesn't mean that whatever other thing you want people to believe is real. You have to come up with good evidence and reasoning for every one of them. And it should be better evidence than that somebody has become rich betting on it. And it should better reasoning than that some other people who believe in other things you believe also believe in [fill in blank].

Here's how brute animals and children and religious kooks do it: they go by how hard they naturally believe in something to decide what's true. For them, if they believe it, it's true, and if anybody points out how full of shit it is, they hate them, and then they say (hatefully) how much they love them. I expect yez all to be better than all of that. I know you can do it.

—-

Marco McClean
memo@mcn.org

* * *

MARCO AND PAUL, TWO VOICES FOR REASON

Steve Drake, Just try thinking deeply, critically and honestly. And do you really think that Cheney and Dubya could possibly pull 9/11 off? And almost 15 years later, nobody is talkin'.. Really?

I have often heard things about Air Defenses being stood down (someone needed to give that order) and that certain people in the media - even foreign media, had fore-knowledge, how many people would be required to allow them on to the planes, if the plane in Shanksville was shot down, apart from the pilot, how many people from the plane engineers, security, air traffic controllers and radar operators would be required to make that happen, and cover it up?

How many demolition crews would be required?

How many people would be needed to cover/hide/destroy evidence?

How many traders would be required for all the mysterious put options?

How many people in the White House, Pentagon and the WTC are required to be in on it?

How many assassins would be needed to kill all the inconvenient witnesses like Barry Jenning and Danny Jowenko?

How many people are required in the FAA, CIA, FBI, NORAD, NIST, NYPD, FDNY?

I am not interested in how they all kept it a secret, or how they would have done it as those discussions rarely move beyond entrenched positions, I think the head-count would be enormous.

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Actually, my life has hardly been smooth in any respect. I grew up on a farm and am still working — definitely not in the financial sector — despite being a bit beyond what most people think of as retirement age.
 Also, I have no illusions about the current monetary Ponzi scheme being sustainable. My comments are really about our possible economic futures as the scheme unwinds. Clearly, something will come after. What will it be?

I have two models that I work from:
 1. 2008: I was surprised that the reset didn’t happen right then. But the course of events made me wonder whether it was a harbinger of things to come. Basically, the US Government, the Fed, and the Banking system teamed up to make the financial sector — essentially the 1% — whole at the expense of the general public. Americans saw their net worth crater while Wall Street bankers took home eight-digit bonuses. Millions lost their homes, and an institutional rentier industry sprung up to take advantage of the opportunity. Net result: the public lost ground while the 1% walked off with the loot.

Will we see more of this as the unwinding of the Ponzi leads from one crisis to the next? If so, the end result will be the 1% owning virtually everything and the masses reduced to penury.
 2. Feudalism: Both from history and my own life experiences, I can tell you that feudalism is a highly stable system. Once in place, it pretty much requires a major paradigm shift to break it. In the case of the middle ages, the paradigm shift was brought about by widespread literacy thanks to Gutenberg, the discovery of the Americas, and the Industrial Revolution coming on in rapid order. Feudalism isn’t based on any particular monetary system. It’s based on control of vital resources — arable land in the case of the European experience. Life is much more complex now, so control of other resources such as coal, oil, ores, and intellectual property will also be involved should feudalism lie in our future. I’m pretty sure that the potential of our debt-based monetary system to aid in capturing control of these other factors has not been lost on TPTB.

So is this our future? Who knows? I think feudalism works better over smaller geographic areas than larger ones. But there’s no guarantee that the US will remain united indefinitely. The increasingly violent confrontations at Trump rallies, and particularly the fact that conservatives in particular seem to be arming themselves makes me wonder.

By the way, the fact that Americans have firearms is probably the best check against total feudalism. Feudalism is an economic system based on a power structure. When the masses are armed, there’s only so far that you can go.

* * *

One final thought occurred to me regarding our monetary system. While it certainly has the look and feel of a Ponzi scheme, it’s not quite a pure one. It has a rebalancing mechanism, namely, forfeiture of collateral.

When this happens in the case of bank loans, the debt is extinguished and tangible wealth is transferred from the debtor to the bank. In a way, this gives this part of the monetary system a stabilizing mechanism which pure Ponzi schemes lack.

Federal Reserve money is an interesting case study, as the “underlying capital” in this case is based on the authority of the US government to tax the public. Herein lies the real potential of our monetary system to impoverish not just debtors, but all people who are powerless to prevent wealth extraction in this manner.

In all cases, debt-based money transfers wealth from debtor to creditor. If the “loan” is performing, the transfer takes the form of interest payments. If the loan fails, it takes the form of transfer of ownership of the underlying collateral or future tax levies.

TAKE A LISTEN to Democracy Now today.

Amy interviews Hochschild on his book, Spain in Our Hearts.

Three interviews with Abraham Lincoln brigade fighters.

Seems like we USians don't get the fascism being imposed by the oligarchs.

Irv Sutley, Glen Ellen

http://www.democracynow.org/

http://www.democracynow.org/2016/3/31/spain_in_our_hearts_adam_hochschilds

CALIFORNIA STATE PARKS - THE POWER OF PEOPLE

In advance of our up-coming Earth Day Restoration Cleanup event on Saturday, April 16, California State Parks is reaching out to the media throughout California where all of our 26 Earth Day events are taking place. We are seeking additional volunteers for our April 16 efforts in Mendocino County and would like to work with you to help get the word out about this year’s Earth Day effort at Sinkyone Wilderness State Park.

We are looking for 100 volunteers to repair storm damaged trails, clear invasive species vegetation and help improve campsite facilities, but, likely due to the remote location, very few individuals have signed up so far.

This year’s Restoration projects are one small step in the improvement of the quality of life for all California residents.

Will you help us put out the call for volunteers? This one day event is the perfect chance to re-engage with neighbors and rediscover parks. Plus, volunteers are invited to camp overnight at Usal Beach where much of the improvement work is to take place.

Cheers,

Christina Mueller
On Behalf of the California State Parks Foundation
C: 415.215.3033
Earth Day 2016 Restoration and Cleanup Project Sites ~ Saturday, April 16^th
Link to sign up and more information: www.calparks.org/earthday

* * *

MENDOCINO COUNTY

Sinkyone Wilderness State Park Usal Beach and Campground

Park Contact: Carla Thomas, carlasthomas@earthlink.net

or Humboldt Redwoods Interpretive Association (707) 272-1994

Projects:

1. Campsite facility improvements
2. Clear invasive species vegetation
3. Restroom repairs and improvements
4. Repair storm-damaged trails

Check-in: 9:00am

Project Time: 10:00am – 4:00pm

Location:

Turn north off Hwy 1 near Mile marker 90.88 Mendocino County Hwy 1 onto Usal Road. Proceed 6 miles on Usal Road to Usal Beach. Usal Road turnoff is approximately one hour north of Fort Bragg on Hwy 1. It requires 4WD or AWD vehicle with sufficient clearance due to unpaved, steep, narrow road. Camping is available at Usal Beach Camp Ground the night prior and night of event, if you provide your own camping equipment, camp food and cooking equipment.

Volunteers: 100

SHORT QUESTION #1: WHAT DOES GOING SOLAR COST?!

Long Answer #1: The cost of purchasing and installing an on-grid solar energy system for your home varies greatly according to how much electricity you use, whether you want to cover all of your use, or just offset some of your bill, whether you’re on or off grid, and other factors such as how good your sun exposure is, which will impact how much solar you can produce, especially during peak use times.

With all of that in mind, however, you can estimate a solar energy system to range from about $15k to $30k. This is total cost, installed, with a warranty; whatever you spend qualifies for a 30% Federal Solar Tax Credit. With Mendocino Solar Service, your written solar energy proposal will be based on your usage and will show you just how much you will save by going solar—often many thousands of dollars over the life of the system.

With a SunPower Solar Lease you can pay zero down and replace your electricity bills with your lease payment, which in many cases will save you thousands of dollars over the lease period. Another option is Ygrene's tax-deductible Property Assessed Clean Energy Financing.

Questions? Ready for your complementary solar evaluation? Call 707.937.1701, email admin@mendocinosolar.com. And—if you're already signed up with a Facebook profile—please do visit and "Like" us on Facebook.

Kind regards,

Bruce Erickson & Maggie Watson, CoOwners, Mendocino Solar Service

GROUPS ASK WATER BOARD TO DISMISS DELTA TUNNELS PETITION

by Dan Bacher

The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and U.S. Department of Interior yesterday called for a delay in a scheduled hearing on their petition to divert water under the California Water Fix - the second time they have asked that the proceedings be delayed because they aren't ready to present their case.

Today, representatives of 9 environmental, farming and fishing groups sent a letter to Tam Doduc and Felicia Marcus of the State Water Resources Control Board requesting them to dismiss the petition.

Those signing the letter include Jonas Minton, Planning and Conservation League; Bill Jennings, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance; Colin Bailey, Environmental Justice Coalition for Water; Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Restore the Delta; Conner Everts, Environmental Water Caucus; Osha Meserve, Local Agencies of the North Delta; Tim Stroshane, Restore the Delta; E. Robert Wright, Friends of the River; Carolee Krieger, California Water Impact Network; and Kyle Jones, Sierra Club California.

"Each time the Hearing Officers accommodate the Petitioners delay requests with more time, more Board staff and protestant time and financial resources are taken, and hundreds of people’s schedules are impacted," the letter states. "We believe there are much better uses of everyone’s time, such as spending the necessary time to update the Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan to adequately protect current beneficial uses."

"Among other deficiencies, the Change Petition: (1) does not adequately describe the changes sought; (2) fails to attempt to demonstrate a reasonable likelihood that the change will not injure any other legal user of water; and (3) fails to describe the extent of impacts to fish and wildlife. As a result of these and other deficiencies, the full nature and extent of injuries to legal users of water and significant adverse impacts to fish and wildlife uses have not been identified and analyzed," according to the letter.

The group representatives concluded the letter by requesting that the Hearing Officers dismiss the Petition until a "complete petition" is submitted pursuant to Water Code section 1701.2 and Title 23 of the California Code of Regulations section 794, among other requirements.

Governor Jerry Brown’s California Water Fix to Build the Delta Tunnels, a controversial plan to divert Sacramento River water to corporate agribusiness interests, Southern California water agencies, and oil companies conducting fracking and extreme oil extraction methods, is “broken” and in “chaos.”

That’s the assessment of a coalition of fishing, environmental and farming groups, including Restore the Delta, the Planning and Conservation League, the Local Agencies of the North Delta and the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA), as pointed out in a joint news release on March 28. (http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/3/29/1507594/-Jerry-Brown-s-Delta-Tunnels-Plan-Is-Collapsing)

Besides the difficulty the petitioners face in obtaining their permit to divert water from the Sacramento River before reaching the Delta under the California Water Fix, the rapidly collapsing Delta Tunnels scheme faces another major hurdle when the terminally flawed “science” of the California Water Fix will face independent review by a scientific panel convened at the request of NOAA Fisheries on April 5-6.

It is very likely that the independent review panel will give a failing grade to the “science” concocted to justify the Delta Tunnels Plan, just like US EPA scientists did last year — and just as every panel of state, federal and independent scientists has done previously. For more information, go to: http://deltastewardshipcouncil.cmail20.com/t/r-l-eilhktl-ffpjrf-d/

The California Water Fix is based on the untenable concept that diverting more water from the Sacramento River before it reaches the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta will “restore” the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary.

“The California WaterFix cannot be fixed,” summed up Bill Jennings, executive director of California Sportfishing Protection Alliance. “The idea that you can divert millions of acre feet of water under an estuary that is already suffering from lack of flow without grievously harming existing water users, communities and already degraded fisheries and water quality is fundamentally absurd.”

READ THIS IF YOU ARE STILL CONFUSED about when and where and how you can make your intentions know that you want to vote in the DEMOCRATIC Primary.

—beth bosk

PRESS RELEASE
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: SUSAN M. RANOCHAK
Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder
March 7, 2016
707 234-6819

NO PARTY PREFERENCE POSTCARDS SENT TO VOTE BY MAIL - NO PARTY PREFERENCE VOTERS

Bright yellow postcards were sent out last week to all Vote By Mail (absentee) “No Party Preference” (Decline to State or Non-Partisan) voters to inform them of the major parties that are allowing those voters to vote their ballot for the PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY Election to be held on JUNE 7, 2016, according to Susan M. Ranochak, Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder. Not all political parties chose to allow “No Party Preference” voters to vote a party ballot; the major parties that are allowing this are: Democratic, American Independent and Libertarian parties. The postcard asks you, the voter to choose a ballot that you would like to vote. This does not change your party affiliation, but does allow you to vote for President if you wish. If you decide to request one of the party ballots listed on the postcard, please mark the party and return the postcard to us by April 1, 2016. If you want to vote for a presidential candidate in a party that is not listed, you should re-register with that party for the Primary Election. Please contact our office for a new voter registration card or go to http://www.co.mendocino.ca.us/acr/voterinfo.htm and click on “Register To Vote” to register online. Voters that have a polling place who are registered as No Party Preference will be given the choice of ballots at their polling place on Election Day. The last day to register to vote in the June 7, 2016 Presidential Primary Election is May 23, 2016. If you have moved or would like to change your party affiliation, you must re-register; the deadline for re-registering is also May 23, 2016 For additional information please contact the County Election Department by calling 707 234-6819

SPRING POPS!

by Karen Rifkin

Spring Pops!, a major fundraiser for the Ukiah Symphony featuring jazz and Broadway tunes, is just around the corner at the First Presbyterian Church on April 24^th. Audience members will have the opportunity to hear the George Husaruk Jazz Trio, San Francisco pianist Paul Schrage with upright bass player Tom Shader and singers Roseanne Wetzel and Pedro Rodelas.

Flautist Husaruk plays a variety of musical genres and has performed with such musicians as Cal Tjader, Barry Melton and Elena Casanova. He divides his time between teaching music and mathematics at Baechtel Grove Middle School in Willits and performing throughout northern California.

Guitarist Christian Foley-Beining, playing with Husaruk, performs jazz standards, Latin jazz and original compositions with his own trio, the Christian Foley-Beining Trio, focusing on full arrangements of Pat Metheny’s complex and orchestrated music and his own jazzy interpretations of Beatles’ songs.

Tom Shader, the third member of the trio, has been playing professionally with numerous jazz groups in the San Francisco and North Bay for several decades and performs regularly at local jazz festivals in Sonoma and Mendocino County.

Their repertoire for the afternoon will include "Over the Rainbow" by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg, "Alice in Wonderland” by Sammy Fain and Bob Hilliard, written for the 1951 Walt Disney animated film, and the group’s arrangements of Beatles’ music.

Pianist Paul Schrage, music director of Symphonia Caritas in San Francisco, will begin the second half of the concert accompanied by Shader on upright bass. Shrage has previously played with the Ukiah Symphony and has performed in recital, with orchestras and in jazz settings, across the United States and in Europe, Brazil and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The duo will play “Tonight Tonight” by Smashing Pumpkins, Prelude in C Minor by Frederic Chopin, “'Til Kingdom Come” by Coldplay and “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana.

Rounding out the show, the audience will welcome back singers Roseanne Wetzel and Pedro Rodelas who lit up the night two summers ago at Nelson Family Vineyards performing as Nellie Forbush and Emile de Becque in Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein’s “South Pacific.”

Former Miss Mendocino, Wetzel has performed locally over the years in many lead roles of popular Broadway favorites at Ukiah Players Theater, Mendocino College and with the Ukiah Symphony. When not behind a desk at the library, she can be found on stage belting out strains of funk from the 70s, 80s and 90s with the Funky Dozen.

Wetzel will solo with “So In Love” by Cole Porter, “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” by Otto Harbach and Jerome Kern and “Someone to Watch Over Me” by George Gershwin.

Operatic tenor Rodelas, a versatile performer who is equally at home on the musical theater stage, has performed principal roles and appeared as a featured soloist in the United States, Canada, Mexico and South America. He is a part-time member of the San Francisco Opera Chorus and performs regularly with the internationally acclaimed The Three Waiters.

He will solo singing “The Impossible Dream” from “Man of La Mancha” by Joe Darion and Mitch Leigh and he and Wetzel will perform as a duet singing “If I Loved You” from “Carousel” by Rodgers and Hammerstein and “Anything You Can Do, I Can do Better” by Irving Berlin, warming up for their portrayals of Annie Oakley and Frank Butler in “Annie Get Your Gun” at the Nelson Family Vineyards on August 6^th.

Spring Pops! will be presented at the First Presbyterian Church of Ukiah on the corner of Dora and Perkins on Sunday, April 24^th at 2 p.m. Tickets are available at Mendocino Book Company, 102 S. School Street, Ukiah; at www.ukiahsymphony.org or at the door. Prices are $30 for adult and $5 for students with ASB cards and those under 18. There will be raffle prizes, silent auction and refreshments. For further information call 707 462-0236.

MEDICAL CANNABIS ACTIVITY REGISTRATION FORM NOW AVAILABLE

In the final hours of the 2015 legislative session, the California Legislature passed the Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety (MMRSA) Act of 2015 that was signed by the Governor on October 9, 2015. In response to the new legislation the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors created a Marijuana Ad Hoc Committee, consisting of Supervisors John McCowen and Tom Woodhouse, to review the County’s 9.31 Marijuana Cultivation Ordinance and report back to the Board with recommended revisions to address local conditions and concerns in light of MMRSA.

The County of Mendocino intends to begin issuing permits for cannabis cultivation and other cannabis activity as defined by MMRSA, Business and Professions Code section 19300, et seq. In preparation for the revised ordinance and new cultivation program, the County encourages the registration of medical cannabis activity to assist the county in assessing the level of interest of persons to apply for local permits and identifying operations that were in good standing prior to January 1, 2016.

Submission of this form will guarantee priority processing for local permit applications once they become available. Additional information and the Medical Cannabis Activity Registration Form are available online at http://co.mendocino.ca.us/bos/mendoreg.htm.

The Medical Cannabis Activity Registration Form must be submitted to the Mendocino County Department of Agriculture no later than 5:00 p.m. on June 3, 2016. For more information, contact mendoreg@co.mendocino.ca.us or (707) 234-6830.

Released by: Carmel J. Angelo, Chief Executive Officer

ART EXPLOSION

Spring Open Studios
Opening Reception Tomorrow
Friday April 1st
7pm - 11pm

Come on out and enjoy our fabulously fun opening reception. See over 100 artists.

Open Studios: April 2nd & 3rd : Sat &Sun 12-5pm

Locations:

2425 17th St, San Francisco, Ca

744 Alabama St, San Francisco, CA

San Francisco's largest Artist's collective is holding it's Annual Spring Open Studios April 1st-3rd. Come see over 100 artists as they exhibit their work from their studios and show in the gallery. Painters, sculptures, photographers, fashion designers and jewelers will be showing. Please come and support original local artists, expand your art collection and find great deals. Get quality art at studio prices. This is our biggest show of the year so don't miss it! Free Admission. Free Refreshments.

http://www.artexplosionstudios.com

THE DISCUSSION TO DISCUSS WHAT THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE COMMITTEE SHOULD DISCUSS GETS DISCUSSED: A PLAY IN TWO MEETINGS. (MOVE OVER, BECKETT)

The following is verbatim from the February 8, meeting of the Criminal Justice Standing Committee made up of Committee Chair Tom Woodhouse and Supervisor John McCowen. This is conveniently followed by the related follow up discussion at the Board of Supervisors meeting the next day, February 9. Woodhouse stars as Estragon, McCowen does a creditable Vladimir. Carmel Angelo and Carre Brown trade off as Pozzo.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waiting_for_Godot

Enjoy!

* * *

Woodhouse: Have you had a chance to review the schedule? It's the exact same as the one we just approved.

McCowen: Looks good. Depending on how you crowd it up we might have to have some extra meetings also.

Woodhouse: A lot more. Also the option is if there are not enough of these things we would be able cancel any of these meetings or make adjustments. Okay. I'm willing to approve this if you are.

McCowen: Certainly.

Woodhouse: Very good. Next we have —

McCowen: And you can do the part of the agenda that I skipped on mine.

Woodhouse: Well, I want to definitely hear from the public first. So if there is anybody here from the public that would like to speak to this. [No one is in the room besides three admin staffers.] Okay. Thank you. Announcements and other business. [Stares at McCowen. No one says a word.] This is really— [mildly depressed]

[The clerk raises her hand.]

Woodhouse: Oh, goody! Comments!

Committee Clerk: The next meeting of the Criminal Justice Committee will be on March 21.

Woodhouse [looks at a piece of paper]: That is correct. At 12 o'clock .

McCowen: Well, time to be determined.

Woodhouse: TBD. Sorry.

[CEO Carmel Angelo raises her hand.]

Woodhouse: Yes, CEO Angelo.

Angelo: Thank you Supervisor Woodhouse. I do know that in discussions with the Sheriff that he would like to discuss the jail funding. So I'm not certain if that's an item that you would like to put on this.

Woodhouse: Yes, definitely. He told me that and he would like to do that.

Angelo: Okay. Another issue that seems to be emerging is the use of body cameras. So it may be an information session possibly for the standing committee at some point so I just bring that up as something we could discuss with the Sheriff if you'd like.

Woodhouse: Very good. I would like to have a standing issue on every meeting if possible about resident deputies because it really is important in my district and I think in the south coast and other areas so I would like to keep that discussion alive. The other day Tom Allman could not be at a very highly attended birthday party for an elderly woman and I was shocked, I was worried that something was wrong with him, but he was down at the academy in the Bay Area because three people were graduating and he was very excited and put a lot of energy into that. And we are also close to getting something in Covelo, the credentials of the officer in Nevada being approved for California, so there are things very close to happening in the resident deputy problem. We need to keep on top of it and keep feeding him that information. Is there anybody else?

McCowen: So, by rule a standing committee can only take up items referred to it by the Board, so tomorrow I would anticipate that you will be requesting that the Board would refer the issue of jail funding, body cameras, and resident deputies to the Committee.

Woodhouse: Sure will. Thank you sir. Anything else? [Looks at piece of paper.] Matters from staff? [No matters from staff.] We may run out of time on this, but we have one more issue if there's nothing else to talk about and that would be the adjournment time. Any objections to adjourning at this point in time?

McCowen: Congratulations on the efficiency with which you run a meeting.

Woodhouse: I run a good meeting! (Woodhouse points at McCowen).

McCowen: I see that.

[Applause from the three other people in the room.]

Supervisor Woodhouse pours himself a glass of water and smiles proudly. He then raises his fingers and wiggles them in a twinkling motion.

McCowen: You could be Chairman of the Board!

* * *

ON FEBRUARY 9, the next day, Supervisor Woodhouse complained about all the work involved in attending standing committee meetings:

Woodhouse: I think standing committees are a great idea. But what it's doing is saturating our lives with a lot more meetings and then we are going to have more joint meetings and there's a limit to how much of this I am willing to do. I've been very patient for the most part, putting up with the length of meetings and the content of what we do. But a lot of it is not deep critical thought with serious choices and using our intelligence. It's having presentations and spending a lot of time being very busy and being very sincere but not really changing the direction of the county. We really need to have some time and I'm hoping the standing committees are going to give that opportunity for a deeper look at what's going on with the county. We are very good at moving things along and approving everything but overall the county is not operating efficiently or up to what I think my expectations are. I won't speak for any of you. Each thing I look into in every department there are so many screwed up things and so many problems that it is very very frustrating. So that's my own problem. But having endless meetings is not going to get us anywhere. When I spend time with the constituents and respond to the people with e-mails we have chances to go out in our district and here what people are thinking. It connects them to us and gives us as supervisors a stronger base of understanding of what's going on. At this point we don't have any huge problems that are attacking us but I assume we are going to have some big challenges and we are going to be saddled with all this baggage of all this stuff we do. So I am not adverse to canceling some of the standing committee meetings when there is nothing of substance that happens there. I just think there is a limit to what this kind of forum accomplishes. I do understand — the thing I wanted to say it is — the standing committees don't have any ability to make decisions and should not be making commitments. That was my mistake to be putting forward dates. We can't make decisions that affect the whole board. We should bring everything to the board and this is going to be a re-occurring theme. And I will try to be more attentive to that myself because we are going to be pulling in different directions and possibly confusing the public. This is more my frustration. I’m concerned that we just make sure we are headed in the most productive direction to change things at the county and make things better, not just keep it moving straight ahead on the edge.

A little later Woodhouse came back to discuss his own standing committee:

Woodhouse: We had really nothing on the Criminal Justice Committee agenda and I'm working on that with the sheriff to see what he's interested in and it will be jail issues and a couple of other things. I'm hoping for any input from the board if there's anything that should go to Criminal Justice I would like to hear it.

Supervisor Carre Brown: I just — it's rule number 30 within our booklet, rules of procedure, that I highly respect the sheriff, I'm not saying this as a result of you saying you are working with the sheriff, but you do need to remember that any items going to any standing committees — and if I'm wrong please correct me — have to be brought before this board and an agenda summary before they are referred. Or I guess you can bring them up, but an agenda summary would go the standing committee but it has to have board approval, majority board approval before being on the agenda of criminal Justice.

Woodhouse: Good. Thank you very much. Because I had searched him out to see — thinking criminal justice was his — we didn't get into any specifics so I appreciate learning this system. Thank you supervisor.

Board Chair Dan Gjerde [perhaps believing that once in the asylum it's probably better to go along with the prevailing insanity]: But for clarification, if you know of an issue that you want to refer to the Criminal Justice committee you can bring it up in a board member's report and without an agenda summary bring it up and without, you know bringing it up, and without objection the board can directed it go to the committee and then you'd have an agenda summary at the Committee meeting.

Woodhouse: Very good. That's helpful.

Gjerde: Thank you for your patience.

McCowen: To this point and sitting on the Criminal Justice committee with Supervisor Woodhouse, I'm aware that you brought up three topics at the committee meeting that you would like to have referred to Criminal Justice and that was jail funding, body cameras and resident deputies. So if you want those items to go before the Criminal Justice committee then here's where the board can pre-approve that if that is— if those are the topics that you would like to see referred.

Woodhouse: Thank you very much. You working — having the privilege of being on the board you all gave me a headache this morning. So I'm not thinking clearly. But thank you very much. Those are exactly the three items that I would like to have before the board for any discussion on and if that would be appropriate to bring those forward — the jail funding is especially interesting and of course the resident deputies affects a lot of us here. I'd appreciate any input anybody has. If I can get some approval on those three then we can—

McCowen: We can't really discuss those items other than, Do we believe that it's appropriate to refer and then to the standing committee or not. Typically the way that works is if there is no objection, but —

Brown: For jail funding, that is a countywide issue, of course. I would rather hear it during the budget processes rather than going to a standing committee because then we all are hearing the same thing at the same time. Resident deputies, I think would be proper to refer to Criminal Justice and then the other was body cameras and I think that is also — can be referred to the Criminal Justice committee. Resident deputies, I think there needs to be some research about where they would be located, what would be the cost to the county, and I think that's a proper work for this particular standing committee. But jail funding I think any presentation on that or deep research, the whole board needs to hear that.

McCowen: Again, with any of these items the standing committee does not make a decision, it is really in a position of gathering information and making a recommendation to the full board. It doesn't seem inappropriate to refer it to the standing committee but if the board — I think some work ideally could be done before the budget process, so if there is enough interest in the full board as there well may be, let's refer to the full board and say that we will have a presentation to the full board prior to budget to consider jail funding issues and if we are not going to do that then I think we would refer it to the standing committee.

Brown: Again, I would just like to comment that I know twice Mendocino County has applied for grant funding to increase jail space mainly for those identified with mental health issues so they have their own separate facility which could include counseling and taking them away from the general population basically. I'm not sure what all the sheriff had in his grant. I can't remember to do that. But twice we have missed the round and there was a third-round up in December — or that funding that came up I believe it was in December or January and I think we missed the dates with that. I don't know if the Sheriff has applied. Or applied once again. Do you know?

Angelo: I believe that the proposal that was submitted is the same proposal that goes for that third round of funding and that the third round of funding is specific for those counties that did not receive jail funding but I think we have a very good chance of getting money this time.

Brown: So third time is the charm perhaps.

Angelo: I don't know, but that's my understanding in talking with the Sheriff not long ago about this, we thought we would have to rewrite and resubmit a new proposal but he said no, so that's the information that we have.

Woodhouse: I'd like to ask the board to maybe consider this: one of the problems in my district in the remote areas is the crime and the drugs and not just the resident deputies, but the challenges for the people out there, is that the kind of subject that would be too broad to refer to this standing committee? Or would it be something we'd answer in some of the things we get as far as when there are burglary flareups or drug flareups or problems in unincorporated areas, or is that something that would really be brought to the board and then more specific than that? Maybe that's a general question. But I get a lot of people who feel they don't have representation in the unincorporated areas and I need help trying to find out how I'm supposed to get their concerns before the board. [Long moment of silence] If there isn't an answer to all my silly questions, but….

Supervisor Dan Hamburg: I don't know the answer to that one.

McCowen: Well, I think if there's a specific proposal of how you address those concerns, potentially that could be referred to the committee, but in terms of general law enforcement concerns its kind of more operational that they would talk to you as the District supervisor and/or the Sheriff and it sounds like there's no objection to referring the issues of resident deputies and body cameras to the committee and certainly the things you are talking about is something that people I would think would talk about under the general topic of resident deputies. I don't think the issue there, and we actually have not discussed it, but I don't think the issue is to approve more resident deputy posts. It's more of a concern of filling and keeping filled the positions we already have which has been an ongoing challenge. I don't hear any opposition to referring the issues of body cameras and resident deputies, so that referral I think is being made. Back to jail funding, I have no concern which way that goes. I think it's a worthy topic. The full board could take it up and we could give that direction on a future agenda. If not, I think it's appropriate to refer it to criminal justice. So more board members need to weigh in.

Gjerde: It sounds as if there was a third grant application that was submitted. I personally would rather see it go to the committee if it's going to come up before we hear the results of that grant application. If we can wait — if we know the grants will be awarded fairly soon I think we should wait until we find out the status of that is before we hear a presentation on the jail funding because there's — that would be a pretty big impact on that. I am sure there are other issues dealing with the jail other than what would be addressed with the grant.

McCowen: So maybe make the referral for an update type of thing or not refer it at all. I'm trying to clarify your point.

Gjerde: I'm not sure we need to go into great detail about this subject because we are not discussing this as an agenda item because I don't know directly what you want to address on the jail other than what would be addressed by the grant. I think I understand the intent of the board and I will refer to the other two items for now to criminal justice. So that sounds like it's resolved. So we have referred the other two items to criminal justice.

* * *

(The March 21st Criminal Justice Committee meeting was cancelled, no explanation given.)