- The 20% Solution
- The Final Greatness
- Mendo: What’s The Hold Up?
- Holding & Growing Your Own
- Fix Our Roads
- MTA Drops Ball Again
- Slob-ism
- Don’t Mess With Us
- Building An Economy For The Common Good
THE 20% SOLUTION
Dear Editor,
Everyone responsible for managing money knows increases in salaries can only happen if there is a profit. Is Mendocino County running a surplus or a deficit? If the latter, no raises for anyone, especially the administrators most responsible for making decisions about how to spend our fortunes to maintain necessary services.
If there is a surplus and if there is money for raises, the priority should be given first to service providers, as they provide the business of the County, second should go to support staff, often the lowest paid in any department, and last to administrators who should receive the smallest raises as their salaries are already the largest and their work the least impacted.
If the County is running a deficit, then cuts are needed and this can be done with the least amount of difficulty for employees and loss in services to the public — if every administrator and supervisor is cut back 20% from 5 days a week to 4. What is lost in their work week is not a loss for the public in need of police, vaccinations, and other direct services. Furthermore, those at the top such as the supervisors and administrators, should receive minimal if any benefits as they are most able to pay for health insurance and fund their own retirement programs. The same cannot be said for those in the middle and on the bottom.
Look at some numbers. At $84,000 each x 5 supervisors, that’s $420,000. A 20% cut off the total is $84,000. Add on a similar cut to the CEO’s $300,000 salary and that’s another $60,000. By cutting only six paper-pushing meeting attenders to 4 days a week, $144,000 is saved in salaries and there’s still all the department heads. A million could be saved at minimal inconvenience to the public. It’s worth looking into.
If it’s true that income inequality is a drag on the economy, if it’s true that every dollar put in a low income earner’s pocket goes around the economy more times than raises or tax breaks given the the higher brackets, then increasing the wages of those in the middle and the bottom, the service providers and the support staff, will do more to stimulate the economy of Mendocino County than any raise to supervisors or department heads.
We cannot do anything about inequality in corporate wages, but the public sector can be changed by the voters. It is time for every county in California to implement a 20% cut for all department heads and supervisors whenever a county runs a deficit. But don’t touch the wages of the service providers and support staff. Someone get this on the ballot.
Nancy Mayer
Philo
THE FINAL GREATNESS
Editor,
That last AVA was another great one! Keep it up guys!
Ishvi Aum's (what a name! Spell check didn't like it one bit!) letter to the editor, I whole heartedly support, every word of it. And bravo to Sherri Glaser for making the time and effort to speak in front of the BOS.
The final greatness belongs to Mr. Scaramella's recounting of an actual verbal exchange between the people who are supposedly in charge. You should consider printing it again, for all the readers who skipped it.
While advocating for the animals at the Ukiah shelter I was witness to too many of these nonsensical exchanges.
BTW, I have not stopped advocating for our homeless pets, I'm just doing my work away from the headlines, trying to save one life at a time.
Monika Fuchs
Boonville
MENDO: WHAT’S THE HOLD UP?
To Mendocino County CEO/Supervisors.
RE: Mendocino County LEMSA’s inactivity causing further delay to the Inland Ambulance EOA RFP
The Anderson Valley EMS Committee (AVEMSC) recently received a broadcast email from the Abaris Group, which is Coastal Valley EMS Agency’s consultant for the Ambulance EOA RFP process, which stated that the EOA is delayed yet again. The AVEMSC has been monitoring this process over the past few years and can only express frustration at the lack of commitment to bring this EOA to fruition.
Although we have many questions, we are only requesting answers to two specifically that seem to be inhibiting the RFP process:
[1] We are told that the RFP needs to be reevaluated by the State EMSA for second approval since the Dispatch RFP was eliminated, which is being blamed for the most recent delay. Why is the EOA needing to be reevaluated by the State when the consensus of the BOS at the June Budget meeting specifically directed staff to separate the Dispatch and EOA RFPs?
[2] The Nov 20th broadcast email from the Abaris Group states that the EOA is on hold. “Due to the recent fires, the County’s priorities are going to be focused on community recovery for the immediate future...”
Is this true? What new obligations, within Mendocino County, has our LEMSA involved in such a capacity that our critical EMS needs and goals are being deferred?
Anderson Valley FD/Ambulance, as with volunteer ambulances nationwide, is struggling with volunteer staffing and constant new requirements in training and equipment. We are concerned that the County LEMSA is not recognizing these realities and are neglecting to continue the EOA RFP process.
Anderson Valley EMS Committee is requesting that the county regain its previous momentum with this EOA process. This is vital to ensure that the people of Anderson Valley will be able maintain a local and sustainable ambulance service for years to come, as new standards and requirements emerge.
Sincerely,
Members of the AV CSD/FD EMS Sub-committee:
Judy Long – President, Anderson Valley Volunteer Fire Fighter’s Association
Phillip Thomas – AV Ambulance Treasurer/Board member
Martha Hyde – Former Ambulance Manager
Andres Avila – AVFD Fire Chief
Aaron Martin – EMT/Boonville Resident
Theresa Gowan – Paramedic/Philo Resident
Clay Eubank – AVFD EMS Officer/Battalion Chief
HOLDING & GROWING YOUR OWN
Editor,
At this moment I am grateful for the AVA. All the years of a great read with a maximum diversity of viewpoint and opinion, even some of mine.
So I'm putting my money where my mouth is and taking out a two year subscription which I should have done long ago. With two old geezers like you at the helm certainty is high that the mighty AVA will still be heaving ho, holding the world accountable perhaps long after I'm gone, although I tend to last so long I may outlast you.
I appreciate your help in transcribing the recent NBC cannabis special Bay Area Revelations. You probably had to hold your nose while doing it. We needed this positive portrayal as the negativity surrounding legalization surrounds us as they are bum rushing us out of town and preventing us from growing on our own property. Total bans on cultivation if you live in one of the three districts affected is extreme. This includes me on the coast. It is a cultural cleansing. Something's got to give. It's 80% of the total county acreage. That's a lot.
So this cannabis special came out of nowhere and set it on track! An independent viewpoint at NBC prevailed. Also the producer and I hit it off and that didn't hurt.
The main thing is a shift in the culture at this fork in the road necessitating an honest assessment of the past if we ever even hope to have a livable future as small growers, aka, the little people.
As a hands-on on printed word type of person the transcript means almost as much as the video and could stand alone. In my eyes the AVA has risen a notch.
Keep at it!
Pebbles Trippet
Elk
FIX OUR ROADS
To the Editor:
Something needs to be done to fix the quickly deteriorating county roads, especially in Potter Valley and the Van Arsdale/Oat Gap area. In many places there are no ways to avoid the potholes that are becoming more frequent. Far too many of us are having to have our vehicles in near constant repair. Some of the potholes are three feet wide and more than a foot deep at this point.
There has to be a quicker way of getting them filled. Maybe a joint public/private partnership?
Wendie French-Grimm
Potter Valley
MTA DROPS BALL AGAIN
To the Editor:
I believe the MTA bus service must be the worst bus service in California. A few weeks ago my husband was taken from the nursing home to a doctor’s office on Hospital Drive. We were left off on the north side of the building close to the doctor’s office. After we were done our aide called the MTA to be picked up. We were told it would be 45 minutes. So we waited by the bus pick up place and no one came. I called the MTA and was told they had been there and no one was there and it would be another 45 minutes or I could call the senior bus. I called the senior bus and he was there in five minutes.
I told the man what had happened and he said that he checks the other entrance if that happens to him. Guess the MTA drivers don’t think to do that.
Now on Saturday I had called to have my husband picked up at noon to be brought to the house. We again waited almost an hour for the bus and were told when I called to see what was happening that they only had one bus running.
The plan was for the bus to pick him up at the house at four to return him to the nursing home. Guess what! That didn’t happen either. I called and was told they were running behind and at ten to five I called and got the answering machine. The bus stops running at five.
So my family had to get their dad into a car and put the wheelchair in the trunk to get him back to the nursing home. Not very convenient.
MTA has a number of huge buses that seem to have few riders. Why can’t they instead have four smaller buses and for heaven’s sake have more than one to run on weekends and holidays. The bus service in Ukiah is pretty lame. The senior bus does not run on Wednesday or weekends. MTA is not dependable and only and on weekends only runs on Saturday til five and not on Sunday. I guess the message is stay well and drive your own car.
Donna Van Wyke
Ukiah
SLOB-ISM
Editor:
The amount of trash along our roads and highways disgusts me. We have so many serious problems without easy solutions. However, the solution to trash is literally in our hands.
I don’t know why so many people think it’s fine to throw their trash down on paths and roads. We shouldn’t have to pay city/county/state employees to pick up that trash. I traveled the roads of Michigan this past year and was amazed at how trash-free the roads were.
Are their people cleaner than Californians, or do they spend money to clean up trash deposited by their citizens? Maybe we need another “do not litter” campaign starting in the grade schools so that kids are raised to respect their environment.
Ann Possinger
Santa Rosa
DON’T MESS WITH US
Editor,
I want to respond to the man from Elk wrote the letter last week. He said he wanted to figure out how to respect me and all that stuff. I don’t want to know his name. I don’t really care about him at all. But I do want to say what a fool he is. In the first place they didn’t drop a uranium bomb over there in Japan, they dropped an atomic bomb. They did it to stop the war. It could have drug out for a long time. Sometimes you gotta take a little to save a lot. Collateral damage.
We didn’t start World War I either. And Japan started World War II with their sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. We did not start the Korean War, North Korea did, trying to put their communist regime on South Korea with the help of the Chinese. We did not start the war with Vietnam. North Vietnam with Chinese influence trying to put their communist regime on South Vietnam.
Every war that somebody else started, we won. Look how we came back against Japan after the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. It shows the American people’s courage and the will to keep our freedom alive. Anybody that wants to start trouble with us had better think twice.
So this guy is full of shit. He might have polls that say certain things, but you know how they get polls? They go down to San Francisco and ask all the liberals.
It’s just not right to say these kinds of things without any proof.
God Bless America, God Bless Donald Trump and God Damn the people who hate America. They should get out.
Jerry Philbrick
Comptche
BUILDING AN ECONOMY FOR THE COMMON GOOD
Editor,
In these dark times, we are coming together to shine a light on the good projects people are doing in Mendocino County. This can range from the wonderful groups working to build the local food movement to the valiant and persistent community efforts that so many people are undertaking in the wake of the fires in Redwood Valley and Willits.
To do this, we will be holding collaborative workshops on building an economy for our common good in Mendocino County at the North County Center/Willits Campus of Mendocino College. Please join us for this seven-class series of workshops where we identify the entities in Mendocino County that are creating a sustainable, vibrant, empowering and just future for our communities. This effort is inspired and advised by the national effort of the US Solidarity Economy Network to map solidarity economy enterprises across the country. You can see their map at http://solidarityeconomy.us/ We are creating a separate map that we plan to merge with the national map once the project is completed. Workshops will be held Saturday mornings 10 AM to Noon, every two weeks starting January 27.
You can register by calling Patti Gulyas at Mendocino College, 707-468-3236 or go to www.mendocino.edu/workshop-registration
Jim Tarbell
Mendocino
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