Mendocino County Today: Thursday, Jan. 12, 2017

• Rainy Days
• 175 Open
• Blackbird Visit
• Panchito Fundraiser
• Trivia Quiz
• PA Pervs
• Siska Snow
• Manbeater Chantal
• Little Dog
• Extremely Wrong
• Palace Receiver
• Yesterday's Catch
• F&G Meeting
• Earth's Crust
• The Deluge
• PA Agenda
• Trump Conference
• Benefit Concert
• Decoded

12.6 INCHES OF RAIN in four days (January 7-10):

• 2.12" Saturday
• 4.28" Sunday
• 1.48" Monday
• 4.72" Tuesday

as reported in Yorkville, pushing their season total up to 42.4 inches.

* * *

NAVARRO LEVEL RETURNS TO EARTH

COMPOSITE VIEW OF NAVARRO’S DRAMATIC UPS & DOWNS for past week or so starting on January 2, 2017

CHP UPDATE, January 11, 2017, 11:25 pm

Road Now Open: SR 175 Hopland, Mile Marker 00 to .75

BLACKBIRD: A RURAL GHOST SHIP

To the Mendocino County Buildling Department

A while back I discovered in a document in the Building Department file for Blackbird Farm that two separate yurts used to house children were cited with code violations. So I called Building and talked with Randy [last name?] and then later, in person, I talked with Vanny [last name?], both of whom said canvas yurts are not suitable for housing — no plumbing, no electric, no heating — the "only permitted use for yurts is storage."

I subsequently contacted Code Enforcement getting a response from Lisa Washburn assuring me that she was working with the Blackbird owners toward "compliance." I felt that certainly the children housed in the yurts would be moved out. She also said hard shell yurts were permitable for "residence."

The yurts that I witnessed at Blackbird Farm were canvas and I have been told by Blackbird-employed "interns" that the yurts always used for the children since 2013 are made of canvas with a lath support frame. These are not hard-shell structures. This includes the yurt two winters ago that was completely destroyed by a huge fallen tree and then quickly rebuilt. If it had not been on the one night out of 11 that no children were sleeping in it "deaths would have occurred."

I have been told that the four vanloads of children brought in today, Monday, 1/9/17, are being housed in the same yurts and are snug with gas heat.

I feel this is not only a violation of building code which has been known by Building and Planning from the first use permit application in 2013 but also extremely dangerous. Our local schools are closed because of the storm and Blackbird Farm is putting children in yurts in the middle of the woods where even loggers won't go in a storm????

I am complaining about this apparent violation of code and lack of oversight by the County that lets it happen in the first place and to continue through a dangerous storm.

I feel that Child Protective Services should be involved as well as Building and Planning.

I feel that, like the Ghost Ship in Oakland, if anything bad happens the County will and should be held accountable.

Signed,

David Severn

Resident, Rays Road, Philo

* * *

AS IT HAPPENS, the intrepid Mr. Severn and yours truly did a drive-through at Blackbird in Tuesday’s tropical-quality downpour. Setting out from Severn's house on Rays Road, we drove across the bridge over the raging Navarro River, trespassed up the hill through the Orgasm Center (formerly Shenoa), trespassed through my friend Marshall Newman's place (forgive me my misdemeanor, Marshall), and on up to Blackbird for the boldest trespass of all. (Severn has been declared persona non grata, while I await my sanction.)

THE ROAD up was just about impassable — an uphill four-wheel drive trek of about two miles with almost no turnouts, and the turnouts there were were hog wallows that would hopelessly ensnare any driver foolish enough to try them.

BLITHELY pressing the driveway gate button — neither Severn nor the editor having the slightest regard for private property — we slowly surveilled the Blackbird property, a former upscale dude ranch and, in its humble beginnings, a working farm and the birthplace of the late Charmian Blattner, the longest-running columnist in the Redwood Empire in her capacity as writer for the Anderson Valley Advertiser over several decades.

DESPITE a reported four van loads of "at risk" teenagers arriving the previous day, there was no sign of any kind of life, at risk or at rest. We noted the dormitory yurts in groves of swaying redwoods as trees fell all over Mendocino County and Northern California. We drove on through Blackbird and a heavy rain to the much longer exit and entry road that begins on the Philo-Greenwood Road. The road off the Philo-Greenwood Road in and out of Blackbird is marginally better than the road in and out of Blackbird from Rays Road, Philo. It's ludicrous to think either road could accommodate any more traffic than they do now, let alone the present 37 residents increased to 292 "transient" visitors.

ON SATURDAY, January 28 we will have a fundraiser for Carlos Ojeda (Panchito) at the Grange! Food will start from 3 to 6 and dance from 7 to 12!!! Come and have fun and enjoy good food!!! Start your new year the right way!!! Please share this post to all you can!!! Any questions, let me know and I should help!!!

— Leslie Hummel

HOW DID WE SURVIVE?!?!

"Ambition should be made of sterner stuff” — W. Shakespeare (Julius Caesar, Act III, scene 2, Lines 92)

It has been raining. Oooohhh… However, Quiz players are made of 'sterner stuff' so normal life will go on and, with tomorrow, January 12th, being the second Thursday of the month, that means The General Knowledge and Trivia Quiz returns to action at Lauren’s Restaurant with the first question fired off at 7pm prompt, with a good turnout expected. I hope to see you there, Cheers,

Steve / The Quiz Master

JUST IN FROM POINT ARENA, Mendocino County's Sex Scandal Capitol: Over the past year, two PA girls were rescued from pimps. Farther back, several kids somehow got involved in commercial pornography. And of course there was the Steve Jurist affair, an account of which we've retrieved from our archive and is printed beneath this astonishing message from a Point Arena parent's Facebook page:

"It has come to be my knowledge that 18 students filed reports with the high school principal and superintendent of sexual harassment and inappropriate touching by their teacher. The complaints started coming in as early as October of this year and continue on till today. The teacher was not removed from the classroom nor disciplined nor fired, instead the administration chose not to alarm the parents but rather advise the students to be more clear when they say no. If this were your daughter how would you feel? What would you do? And what action would you expect the school district to take?

Mind you this is a criminal action which in my opinion overrides any contract law or school protocol.

The administration admits to these allegations and insists that the teacher will not be returning next year but in order to avoid lawsuit or breach of contract etc, they are trying to attempt to allow him to stay on campus for the remainder of this year. Is student safety more important than the bottom line?

This teacher needs help. I believe that there is more to his mental illness then simply being a predator. I hope that he is able to get the help he needs, and that he is able to do so without exposing our children to this experiment for even one more day."

* * *

THIS TEACHER needs to be helped out of his job and into jail. If the two administrators told the girls to just be more clear about limiting the perv's advances, they promise not to re-hire him, the superintendent and the principal should also be fired.

* * *

ED DESK: STEVE JURIST (January 2002)

Steve Jurist is the Point Arena teacher/counselor/nurse who has been forcing his attentions onto two generations of Point Arena High School girls. He's been groping fog belt nymphs for twenty years now, as Point Arena school boards have come and gone with even more frequency than the four-year crops of Jurist's student victims. During Jurist's twenty years of fondling emotionally vulnerable girls -- typically those without vigilant parents -- Point Arena's school administration has also turned over as regularly as PA's school board. Authority goes, Jurist stays and preys. Previous Point Arena school boards commissioned two separate investigations of Jurist; the first one confirmed his predations but was written in such an impenetrably fatuous prose it was unclear who was doing what to whom. A second report, still sequestered and perhaps disappeared, confirmed Jurist's specific offenses. The upshot of the second report was the district's Jurist Rule: he wasn't to accompany female students on over night trips; he wasn't to be in his office with a female student with the door closed. He should have been fired, obviously, but.....

But Point Arena's school administration's feeble attempt to "send a message" to Jurist rather than fire him, sent him a message that essentially said, "Steve, if a young woman comes to you with, say, a spider bite on her thumb, be sure to closely examine her bare breasts to make sure the spiders aren't nesting there. But leave the door open while you're checking the kid out."

Jurist's prompt threats to sue if the PA school administration moves against him, combined with the following factors, have conspired to spare Jurist his long overdue sacking: (1) legal advice from the district's lawyers that has warned the district that the case against Jurist would have "only a 50-50 chance of winning"; (2) as a tenured teacher Jurist gets a free legal defense while the school board would have to pay its Santa Rosa-based attorneys large fees above the annual fat retainer the PA schools already pay their Santa Rosa-based attorneys, meaning that the Point Arena School District would have to dip into its operating budget to fight Jurist in court, and that budget is already so tight there's no money in it to fight prolonged legal battles, and there's no such thing as a short legal battle in our lawyer-plagued society (3) Jurist's chokehold on PA's teachers as their union rep (4) the natural timidity of PA school teachers, among them people Jurist has intimidated into silent with compromising information about them (5) Jurist's own glib denials, which seem to stymie adults who ought to know better (6) and another recent administrative turnover and another newly revised school board.

But now that the Jurist matter is being openly discussed in the Gualala-based weekly newspaper the Independent Coast Observer, his on-campus days as an unchecked sexual predator may soon be over, not that it's surprising that PA's interim superintendent, Mark Iacuaniello, has come out swinging for Jurist, as have a couple of his craven colleagues. Iacunaiello was paid to leave the superintendent's job at Mendocino last year, but not until he'd cynically mislead the community into thinking he'd been arbitrarily relieved of his duties by the Mendocino School Board. Before being offed at Mendocino High School where, incidentally, he was aggressively supported by the teaching staff, Iacuaniello had been denied the superintendency of the Laytonville schools, a job he'd lobbied hard to get. Disappointed by the Laytonville School Board, Iacuaniello got his most fervent faculty supporters to briefly and unsuccessfully agitate in the community for a recall of the school board. But he caught on at Mendocino where, when Mendocino caught up with him, he was fired last year.

Like every other school administrator in Mendocino County, Iacuaniello is joined at the job with his faculty. It's a mutual support arrangement. The teacher gets an annual "excellent" on his or her job performance from the superintendent, the superintendent gets "excellents" from the faculty, and their excellencies on the school board can almost always be depended on to hand out "excellences" once a month at their meetings.

Teacher evaluations, by the way, are now a check list process, and much less thorough and a lot less time-consuming than a lube job at K-Mart. Point Arena's small community of ironists will be amused to learn that Iacuaniello was fired from his Mendocino job by the same lawyers whose cover-up strategies in the Jurist matter he advanced last week in the ICO's guest editorial columns.

The Jurist context? Not so much as a peep from a single colleague or county teacher in all the years the County Office of Education was run by stone crooks, one of whom, the superintendent himself, Jack Ward, was finally packed off to jail for stealing. And one of his top administrators, Hal Titen, just got out of jail on an extortion conviction arising from his use of edu-gear to make pornographic films with underage Ukiah girls, then blackmailing them with their joint work product. And our lazy DA at the time, Susan Massini, nailed these characters for only the most obvious stuff. To this day, the County Office of Education swindles many annual tens of thousands of public dollars by illegal manipulations of the special education rules, an annual theft aided and abetted by the superintendents of schools in Mendocino County's far-flung individual school districts. Paul Tichinin, the present County Superintendent of Schools, came up through the local edu-ranks kissing up to these characters. Point Arena, Boonville, Laytonville, Mendocino, Willits -- it's the same old faces.

Worse, the school districts of Mendocino County are now all represented by the same Santa Rosa law firm, and our schools are run by a self-interested alliance of opportunistic and overpaid school administrators, now fortified by the above-mentioned mercenary group of Santa Rosa lawyers who, not so incidentally, have lately managed to achieve quasi-public status as a JPA-sanctioned but essentially private business. Factor in the California Teacher's Association, a job protection guild that pretends to be a labor union, spine-free school boards, a corrupt County Office of Education, an incompetent CPS office, and it's surprising there aren't a lot more Steve Jurists boffing Mendoland's teeny-boppers.

Even if school boards met once a week rather than once a month, teachers and school administrators meet every day, and they, backed up by these Santa Rosa lawyers -- a whole office full of ethical idiots, in my experience -- typically have themselves as their very first priority, which is how the system has evolved, or devolved, over the years. Young people are basically viewed as funding units, or, in the case of Steve Jurist, sex objects.

Yeah, of course there are good teachers out there. There might even be an idealistic, capable school administrator somewhere in Northern California. It's even possible there's someone on the Point Arena School Board to whom it might suddenly occur that school board members aren't called "trustees" because the public wants them to be untrustworthy in office, but if I were a Point Arena parent I wouldn't count on Iacuaniello, or the school board, or the high school faculty, or the County Office of Education, or the county's derelict CPS office, or the Santa Rosa lawyers, to put the safety and welfare of my kid ahead of their own mostly mercenary interests. Point Arena's stand-up music teacher, Mr. Steinhardt, put the kids first and look what happened to him.

Jurist's defenders should consider the following letter from the valiant Erin Buechner of Gualala, which appeared in last week's Independent Coast Observer:

"In October of this year (2001), I presented a formal complaint to our school district and board about an incident between me and a teacher at the high school. Since arriving home for the holidays, I've become aware of the magnitude of this issue. This is not an issue between the teachers at the high school. This is not an issue in which sides shall be determined.

“This issue forces us to check each of our deepest morals in raising our children. True, I am not a mother but I've watched the many generations behind me grow from toddlers to adults just as everyone else in this community has.

"It disgusts me to hear of recent (and ancient) stories of harassment and abuse in our school system. My own story is not a rumor. It is only one of such cases that I've witnessed myself. But due to the years since then, the Statute of Limitations protects him. I guarantee there are other impressionable teenagers today who trust this man's support, authority and knowledge. It took me four years after graduating before I knew I was a "victim." The rumors I'd heard from others before me were real. Those back rubs and medical exams I'd seen and experienced by this man have a bad name in legal jargon. Today's stories exist similarly but our kids don't know yet that these actions are illegal. A "life skills" class may be helpful in teaching our children how to recognize signs of sexual harassment, but will they teach them to recognize abuse of authority?

"As parents, family, friends, students, and concerned community members, we can demand the immediate problem be eliminated from our educational settings. This man's history of secret agendas has not been secret to all. It surprises me to know that some of our other teachers and community members have sensed this and allowed it to take place for 15+ years. They have "turned their heads" in implied ignorance because they, too, are victims of this man's oppressive nature and "superior" position.

"I write to all of you not as a daughter of two individual parents but as a daughter of this strong and loving community. You may know me as an alum of our PA schools, but today I'm just a concerned citizen who is worried about our girls (and guys) at Point Arena High School of today and tomorrow.

"Lastly, I urge you all to honor the students and teachers of the past and present who have and will bravely step forward with experiences of their own for the Superintendent and school board to hear. These are the individuals who risk their reputations, dignity and their jobs to honor the morals that we should all value as a community."

* * *

JURIST, last we heard, enjoyed some nebulous sinecure with the Sonoma County Office of Education. Iacuaniello was nearly foisted off on Fort Bragg as a city councilman. FB dodged a civic bullet on that one.

SISKA IN THE SNOW!

MANBEATER OF THE WEEK: Chantal Knight. Hard to believe that any man would call the police on Ms. Knight.

LITTLE DOG SAYS, “Hey! I know you meant well, but whoever sent me that record of Patti Page singing, 'How Much Is That Doggie in the Window, please know that I absolutely hate that song. Gawd! What kind of mawk-head sap do you take me for?”

WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!

Subject: Bad boy Bruce!

Well, well somebody called you out! Your last online statement had so many factual errors, I was amazed! Four hundred dogs and cats at the shelter? Wrong! Twenty five dogs to be killed? Wrong! Volunteers blaming, whining, "anthropomorphing". Wrong, wrong, wrong! Volunteers are working very hard trying to find fosters, rescues and adopters, and making financial contributions for the animals that need to get out of the shelter.

Monika Fuchs

Boonville

COURT APPOINTS RECEIVER FOR PALACE HOTEL IN UKIAH

Receiver Mark Adams was appointed Monday to take over the future of the Palace Hotel, which he said he hopes will have a “good ending to its story.”

by Justine Frederiksen

A judge in Mendocino County Superior Court Monday approved the City of Ukiah’s request to appoint a receiver to take control of the Palace Hotel from owner Eladia Laines.

“The violations are so extensive and of such a nature that the health and safety of neighboring residents and the general public is substantially endangered,” wrote Judge Leslie C. Nichols in his Jan. 9 order, which also appointed Mark Adams, a receiver based in Southern California who is president of the California Receivership Group.

The order does not make Adams the legal owner of the dilapidated building at 272 N. State St., but does allow him to “take full and complete possession and control of the property,” including paying its operating expenses, taxes and any debts. He can also borrow money and apply for any permits needed to rehabilitate the building and make sure it is seismically sound and otherwise compliant with building codes.

Adams said Laines has 60 days to appeal the decision, but even if she were to, that would not negate his appointment until “she puts up a $100,000 bond,” the same amount that Nichols ordered him to secure.

Laines did not return a phone call Tuesday seeking comment.

Along with securing the bond, Adams said his most immediate concern is preventing more water from entering the building, since he reported being shocked to see that hadn’t already been done when he arrived in Ukiah during the rain Sunday afternoon.

“The plastic on the windows was just flapping in the wind, when you’ve got this amazing storm forecast,” Adams said Tuesday after returning to Southern California, explaining that he planned to return to the Santa Rosa-area possibly next week to meet with many of the experts who evaluated the building in the past and determine if he will retain them. “First, I want to make sure those windows are secured to prevent any further water damage.”

As for the future of the building, Adams said he could not speak to whether it could be saved, but “I can promise to use all my creativity and professional skills in an attempt to bring it back to vitality, rather than being a drain on the rest of the vitality of downtown.”

Adams said it was an encouraging sign to him that the restaurants he remembers being open near the Palace for the first hearing more than a year ago, such as Patrona, Chop Chop and Saucy, are still open and thriving. He said he has a family member who remembers patronizing the Palace decades ago when its bar was “the place to meet downtown,” and he hopes that someday the Palace could be open and thriving again like its neighbors.

“I believe that one of the reasons I was nominated and ultimately chosen to be the receiver is because of my work on the Oroville Inn,” said Adams, referring to the 1930 building in Oroville that he became receiver for several years ago. The building has since been restored and now provides much-needed housing for dozens of students who attend the Northwest Lineman College, a partnership that Adams said he helped bring about after talking with residents of the small town near Chico.

Adams said he was surprised to learn the college had 90 students because he couldn’t imagine where there would be housing for them, and locals confirmed that there wasn’t, since many of the students “slept in attics or on people’s couches.”

“I can’t promise a happy ending just like the one for the Oroville Inn, because there isn’t such a private college in Ukiah, but I hope there will be a different happy ending for the Palace Hotel,” he said.

Adams said he next needs to prepare a report for the court by Feb. 10, and that another hearing was scheduled in March.

CATCH OF THE DAY, January 11, 2017

AARON BROWN, Fort Bragg. Battery.

ALEX CORTINAS, Ukiah. Fugitive from justice.

OSCAR DIAZ-RAYA, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

ROBERT JAMES SR., Ukiah. Probation revocation.

EDWARD JOHNSON, Ukiah. Drunk in public.

JOSEPH MORK, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

SHAWN ROGERS, Willits. Stolen property, controlled substance, paraphernalia, probation revocation.

DANIEL YEOMANS, Fort Bragg. Drunk in public, controlled substance, resisting.

THE NEXT REGULAR FISH AND GAME COMMISSION MEETING.

Date: Tuesday, January 17, 2018

Time: 5:00 pm [Note Earlier Time]

Location: Willits City Council, 111 E Commercial St, Willits, CA 95490 [Note Change]

Highlights:

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is hosting of the Northwest California Integrated Resource Management Plan Open House regarding the 20 year planning process for public lands managed by the Arcata and Redding Field Offices January 17, 2017 5-7 pm across the hall from Fish & Game meeting. Note: BLM has changed the start time to 4:30pm to accommodate the Fish and Game Commission attendees.

Proposals Presentations by Applicants of the Fish and Game Commission 2016/2017 Grant Cycle (3-5 minutes for each applicant.) Comments and questions from Commission and public. The following applications were submitted:

Reef Check California: Sub-tidal Marine Protected Area Monitoring of Mendocino County's Rocky Reefs

Woodlands Wildlife Education and Wildlife Rescue Programs

Eel River Recover Project Town Creek Restoration Planning and Education Grant Proposal

Round Valley Indian Tribe Mill Creek Stream Bank Stabilization & Riparian Corridor Development Project

Mendocino County Resource Conservation District Watershed Education and Protection Through Distribution of a Cannabis Best Management Practices Guide

Mendocino TV Abalone Emergency Restrictions 2017 Video

Please feel free to post, share, forward the agenda and/or to publish information in your publication.

Contact me with any comments or questions. Thank you for your interest in Mendocino Fish and Game Commission.

Elizabeth Salomone Fish and Game Commission Secretary

860 North Bush St, Ukiah, CA 95482

www.co.mendocino.ca.us/dfg/

707-234-6094

WHAT YOU EAT IS A MATTER OF TASTE

Eric Sunswheat wrote:

…And as far as creamy peanut butter, I only see bulk bin peanuts or mixed, and the fresh grind machine at Ukiah Natural Foods Coop bulk bin aisle.

* * *

These things have been shown to be true -- not merely probably true, but true: Health-food-store peanut butter leads to no healthier outcome than does regular cheap grocery store peanut butter. Trail mix and granola cereal and health-food power bars are no healthier for you than a candy bar with nuts in it and a box of raisins. A big juicy sweet crunchy 49-cents/pound apple is just as healthy for you as a $4/pound organic apple, and their seeds and cores contain similar amounts of poison. Here: "All apple seeds contain amygdalin, that releases cyanide in contact with digestive enzymes. The cyanide is linked to sugars in the form of a cyanogenic glycoside and these cyanide-releasing compounds are remarkably common in nature; they occur in more than 2,000 plant species, some of them important foods like cassava. They also crop up in stone fruits like plums, peaches, apricots, and famously, bitter almonds. It's often said that cyanide smells of almonds, but actually, it's the other way around; almonds smell of cyanide."

And bananas and nuts and plenty of other foods radiate nuclear particles. Every human body, whatever it eats, emits atomic radiation. Here: "The amount of radioactive potassium in a 70-kg person is about 5,000 Bq, which represents 5,000 atoms undergoing decay each second. Second, potassium-40 emits gamma rays in a over 10 percent of its decays and most of these gamma rays escape the body to irradiate surrounding people and pets."

* * *

And as far as earth's core, the most common elements are iron, nickle, and now, silicone. It's no longer in dispute according to current research.

* * *

I know you mean silicon, Alan. But okay, so? The only immediate health consequence of the earth's core is the mass that keeps us heavy and the magnetic field that repels space radiation and helps Arctic terns navigate in the fog. The material in the crust of the earth is what permeates our food and our happy or unhappy lives.

* * *

You can argue and howl at the moon, until the cows come home. So long as you bait, there's a rat to trap, and your yarn to tie.

* * *

Also in the news, from Australia: bacon and old Kentucky Fried Chicken are superior bait to trap wildlife-destroying feral cats.

Marco McClean

memo@mcn.org

http://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com

BEFORE THE DELUGE

Some of them were dreamers

And some of them were fools

Who were making plans and thinking of the future

With the energy of the innocent

They were gathering the tools

They would need to make their journey back to nature

While the sand slipped through the opening

And their hands reached for the golden ring

With their hearts they turned to each other's hearts for refuge

In the troubled years that came before the deluge

 

Some of them knew pleasure

And some of them knew pain

And for some of them it was only the moment that mattered

And on the brave and crazy wings of youth

They went flying around in the rain

And their feathers, once so fine, grew torn and tattered

And in the end they traded their tired wings

For the resignation that living brings

And exchanged love's bright and fragile glow

For the glitter and the rouge

And in a moment they were swept before the deluge

 

Let the music keep our spirits high

Let the buildings keep our children dry

Let creation reveal its secrets by and by, by and by

When the light that's lost within us reaches the sky

 

Some of them were angry

At the way the earth was abused

By the men who learned how to forge her beauty into power

And they struggled to protect her from them

Only to be confused

By the magnitude of her fury in the final hour

And when the sand was gone and the time arrived

In the naked dawn only a few survived

And in attempts to understand a thing so simple and so huge

Believed that they were meant to live after the deluge

— Jackson Browne

POINT ARENA DOES A GREAT AGENDA

Richard Shoemaker’s $50,000/year isn’t near enough for an agenda as great as this...

Point Arena City Council

Mayor Scott Ignacio ~ Vice Mayor Barbara Burkey

Richey Wasserman ~ Anna Dobbins ~ Jonathan Torrez

Agenda - January 14, 2017

SPECIAL SESSION – 10:00 A.M.

I CALL TO ORDER & ROLL CALL

II APPROVAL OF AGENDA

III COUNCILMEMBER REPORTS

IV PRIVILEGE OF THE FLOOR (PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD)

This is the time for members of the public who wish to be heard on matters that do not appear on the Agenda. City Council policy is to limit each speaker to three (3) minutes. Such time allotment or portion thereof shall not be transferred to other speakers. The public will be allowed to speak concurrently with the calling of an agenda item following the staff presentation of that item. Pursuant to the Brown Act Section 54954.3, the City Council may not take action on an item that does not appear on the Agenda.

V PRESENTATIONS - All items in this section are for discussion and possible direction to staff. No action recommendations or staff reports for these items are being presented. Resource materials will be given to Councilmembers by the CDS presenters.

1. A) Introduction and Purpose of Meeting by City Manager Shoemaker
2. B) Presentation by Jeff Lucas of Community Development Services (CDS)

1) Overview of CDS Services for Point Arena

2) Overview of the Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG)

3) Overview of the Revolving Loan Policies and Guidelines

4) Discussion of Possible Loan Committee

VI COUNCIL GOAL SETTING WORKSHOP

1. A) Workshop Introduction
2. B) Summary Review of City Functions

1) Current Proposed & Needed Projects

1. C) Review of Past Council Goals & Progress
2. D) City/Community Needs Discussion
3. E) Council Goal Setting

VII CITY MANAGER/CITY ATTORNEY REPORTS

1. Letter Regarding Support of State Transportation Funding Legislation - discussion and possible action

1) Recommendation: Approve Mayor and City Manager to customize letter and send to appropriate legislators.

VIII CLOSED SESSION – Conference with Real Property Negotiators (§54956.8); Property: APN 027-10-113; Negotiator: Richard Shoemaker, City Manager; Negotiating Parties: City of Point Arena and Verizon California, Inc.; Subject Matter: Instructions regarding terms of potential lease agreement.

IX Next Council Meeting – January 24, 2017

X ADJOURNMENT

Dated: January 14, 2017

NOTICES:

The City Council agenda will be posted at City Hall and on the City’s Website, www.cityofpointarena.net by 5:00 P.M. Friday prior to the Tuesday meeting.

Supporting Documents will be posted for public review prior to the meeting as they are available at the City Clerk’s Office, Monday – Thursday, 9 a.m. – noon and 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. and on the City’s Website.

Interested parties may subscribe for the City Council Agendas and agenda packet by contacting the City Clerk’s office at 882-2122.

The numerical order of items on this agenda is for convenience of reference. Items may be taken out of order upon the request and consensus of the Mayor and Council.

Any writing that is a public record not exempt from public disclosure and relating to an agenda item for open session of the City Council is available for public inspection at the Office of the City Clerk, 451 School Street, Point Arena, CA.

The meeting rooms are ADA accessible. Accommodations and access to City meetings for people with special needs must be requested of the City Clerk at (707) 882-2122; 72 hours in advance of the meeting.

All persons in attendance at public meetings are requested to observe the following rules of civil debate:

We may disagree, but we will be respectful of one another.

All comments will be directed to the issue at hand.

Personal attacks are unacceptable.

Applauding or other displays of approval/disapproval are discouraged.

To minimize distractions, please be sure all personal communication devices are turned off or on silent mode.

[A typical Mendo Nice Person Cautionary Note*]

Questions? Please e-mail pa-admin@mcn.org or contact the City Clerk’s office at (707) 882-2122.

* * *

WE HAVE A SUGGESTION, and we certainly agree with Point Arena's $50,000 a year part-time city manager, Richard Shoemaker, that Point Arena's famously impertinent 450 persons can't be trusted to behave themselves at city council meetings, but instead of Shoemaker's public conduct guide, how about a fine jar? Like, every time that Shoemaker either heard or sensed hostility from an unruly citizen, that citizen would have to put a dollar in the fine jar. The money raised would of course help pay Shoemaker's travel expenses or buy his new assistant, Paul Andersen, extra chapstick.

AT HIS FIRST NEWS CONFERENCE AS PRESIDENT-ELECT, TRUMP OWNS THE PRESS

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/01/at-news-conference-trump-owns-the-press.html

KZYX BENEFIT CONCERT, FRIDAY JAN. 20

Oak & Thorn presents: multiple award-winning "Celtic Roots music" band RUNA

Friday, January 20, 2017 at Eagles Hall, Fort Bragg

Doors (and bar) open 6:30 pm, concert starts 7:30

A benefit for Mendocino County Public Broadcasting (KZYX and Z)

One of Irish music’s new “super-groups,” RUNA pushes the boundaries of Irish folk music into the Americana and roots music formats. Interweaving the haunting melodies and exuberant tunes of Ireland and Scotland with the lush harmonies and intoxicating rhythms of jazz, bluegrass, flamenco and blues, they offer a thrilling and redefining take on traditional music. Their live performances are engaging, as they bring the audience into the songs and tunes; all you folks who love to sing along, this is your band! The group has been honored internationally, winning Top Group and Top Traditional Group in the Irish Music Awards and four Independent Music Awards including Best Live Album, Best World/Traditional Song and Best Bluegrass Song. They are energetic and upbeat, creative and expressive, and they will put a smile on your face!

http://www.runamusic.com/2016/ https://www.facebook.com/RUNACelticmusic

Tickets ($20 in advance) can be purchased online at: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2588562

And physical tickets are available from Harvest Market in Fort Bragg, and Out of This World in Mendocino. At-the-door price will be $25. I will have two kinds of homebrewed beer and one cider on tap, and we will have premium Parducci wines as well as coffee and tea. All proceeds go to KZYX. This will be a night to remember fondly - in spite of whatever else happens that day! Hope to see many of you there. Action is the antidote to despair!

Tim Bray

Oak & Thorn

DECODED

"Who am I?" you ask.

You are the worm in the grave.

You are the seed in the sunflower.

You are the dream in sleep.

You are the rabbit in the burrow.

You are the snail in the shell.

You are the root growing deeper

in the earth.

You are the nectar in flowers.

You are the butterfly in the pupa.

You are my daughter's hand

in my hand.

You are the bell in the tower.

You are the deer in the hills.

You are the frozen moonlight

on the pale lake.

You are the hawk in its feathers.

You are the trout in its camouflage.

You are the galaxies climbing

in the blackness.

Everywhere you are,

you are what was missing.

–John Sakowicz, Orr Hot Springs, CA