Letters (Feb. 7, 2018)

• Supes Delay Class K Decision
• Clarifying My CV
• The Quality Of Mercy
• Deductibility Of Mortgage Interest
• How About Sirens?
• The State Of The Limos
• It's Outta Here!

SUPES DELAY CLASS K DECISION

Editor

Update on Class K Status

The Board of Supervisors changed the date of when they’ll be discussing Class K. Instead of February 6^th, they’ll be addressing it on Tuesday, February 27. Their meetings start at 9am, though where Class K will be on the agenda is anyone’s guess.

With all the talk that’s been going on about Class K, one detail that hasn’t gotten much attention is why changes to Class K have come up at all. According to the California Building Standards Commission in Sacramento, the revision push came from Mendocino’s Planning and Building Department, not from the State. There’s been talk (unverified) that when Sonoma County inspectors find themselves inspecting Mendocino Class K structures, they find the dual system irritating and have been leading the charge to make Class K code as similar as possible to conventional building codes. All of this is hearsay, but it’s interesting that NO ONE seems willing to step forward and take responsibility for proposing these changes.

The other prime point is that none of the changes are in any way required. There is no California State law or mandate that necessitates any changes to the Class K Ordinance. The Board of Supes could, if they chose, leave Class K entirely untouched.

You may wonder what you can do about this, if retaining affordable, alternative housing options is important to you. Top of the list would be to attend the BOS meeting on Feb. 27. You can also call and/or write to your supervisor. The more people who get involved, the more attentive the supervisors will be!

Captain Rainbow

Boonville

CLARIFYING MY CV

AVA,

On the 19th of January one of your reporters wrote an article on the 5th District candidates for supervisor. I am Arthur E. Juhl, a candidate, and in the article she was unsure of my fishing career. My boat was the Gusty, and my Fish and Game No. was 9930. I fished out of San Francisco, Pt Reyes, Bodega Bay and Pt Arena.

The other question was my career as CEO of the Oklahoma Energy Corp. If you type in Arthur Juhl CEO Oklahoma Energy on Google you will find me. I believe that working with the budget, of which I have been studying the proposals that the BOS initiated can be accomplished.

I am the assistant governor of Rotary 5130 and will attend an international meeting in Vancouver Canada on the 9th of February on Peace and the Environment, and plan to talk on saving our coast from oil drilling.

Thank you for the article,

Arthur E. Juhl

Gualala

(PS, Also: Not a lawyer, just went to law school)

THE QUALITY OF MERCY

Dear Editor:

Ms. Patricia Boesel's letter last week is not a new idea — in fact George Orwell described this in "Down and Out in London and Paris" in 1933 as a way to keep the beggars moving with a full belly in a circular pattern between half-way houses every few days around the outskirts of London by bus.

Ms. Boesel suggests those signing in every day for a meal no longer remain more than two days in Our Town: Not long enough to find a job or a place to stay here but not long enough to be a burden on our precious community. She and Traci Boyl, Excutive Director of Plowshares, also want to reinforce this by cutting out the small evening meal now provided, usually soup or pasta and a piece of bread. This currently serves 50 to 60 a night, probably those who have a day job earlier.

The justification seems to be that we must eliminate duplication of charity and cut back on the donations. We who have worked at Plowshares for ten or more years find numbers increasing in most cases. We are told that donations have increased but we have no confirmation of this.

"The Quality of Mercy is Not Strained, It Dropeth like the Gentle Rain from Heaven." — Wm. Shakespeare. Let us encourage charity and mercy.

James F. Houle

Redwood Valley

DEDUCTIBILITY OF MORTGAGE INTEREST

AVA,

Anne Fashauer’s article in your Jan. 24th paper stated/suggested that interest paid on residential real estate mortgages is no longer deductible for federal tax purposes. I do not believe this is true. My understanding is that existing mortgages are unaffected by latest tax law changes. New mortgages up to $750,000 face value will still be eligible for interest deductibility. Check out what The Motley Fool says about this as shown below. Maybe there is some fine print that limits this deductibility. Maybe Anne could clarify any discrepancies  between her source of info and general media sources.

Hope this second opinion helps anyone thinking about buying real estate.

Neil Darling

Boonville

PS. From The Motley Fool:

The mortgage interest deduction:

You may have heard that the mortgage interest deduction was affected by the new laws, and that's true. It used to be that you could write off the interest on a home loan of up to $1 million, but under the new rules, this limit drops to $750,000. But make no mistake about it: The majority of U.S. homeowners who choose to itemize on their tax returns will still get to claim a mortgage interest deduction. Furthermore, the updated rules apply to new mortgages only; existing home loans are grandfathered into the old system.

ANNE FASHAUER REPLIES: He is correct. I was writing about future sales and how the tax changes could affect those.

HOW ABOUT SIRENS?

Editor:

More than three months have passed, and Sonoma County’s citizens still have no wildfire early warning system. According to Tuesday’s article, our county supervisors are still uncertain about what approach should be adopted as an effective alarm system (“County seeks better alarms”).

One problem, at least as I see it, is that not everyone has a smartphone or a landline. If authorities are determined to apply a relatively high-tech approach such as SoCo Alert and Nixle, many people could still become statistics.

What’s wrong with setting up sirens? Sirens have been around since the beginning of the Cold War in the late 1940s and early 1950s.They can be cheaply built and regularly tested so that everyone, regardless of how long they have lived here and their level of education, can be rapidly alerted to a dangerous, rapidly moving wildfire, tsunami or high-magnitude earthquake. Persons with hearing disabilities would be alerted by neighbors with better hearing.

Other countries, including Mexico, for example, already have sirens in place that can be effective warning systems.

What is holding up our decision-makers?

Frank Baumgardner

Santa Rosa

THE STATE OF THE LIMOS

Editor:

I’ve watched many State of the Union speeches. They all have things in common. It’s a chance to tell everyone what a great job the sitting president is doing, true or not. The speeches are also full of bon-bons that the chief executive says he will serve up off the large government silver tray. Of course, none or very few make it beyond that podium.

The whole show of constant rising and sitting down and the incessant clapping reminds me of Stalin’s speeches, but in his world, the first comrade to stop clapping was shot.

What I enjoy most is watching the opposition party members as each statement or bon-bon is offered up for applause. A larger group of grouchy old people has never been assembled. The Black Caucus just sat there staring forward. Nancy Pelosi was constantly looking over her shoulder to see if anyone was smiling or standing at the wrong time. It was a sad exhibition by a bunch of rich old people. Speaker Paul Ryan was actually mocking them toward the end of the show.

Dave Haynes

Santa Rosa

IT'S OUTTA HERE!

Editor,

I think President Trump hit a home run on every issue he mentioned in his State of the Union address. He covered everything really well. I loved every bit of it. The Democrats sat on their hands and never got up once for anything, even when he applauded heroes, black and white. A sick bunch of people, those Democrats. I can't find words to describe how sick the Democrats are. They want open borders. They want all these illegal aliens, criminals, felons, dope dealers coming into California and the United States because California is a sanctuary state. They can move right in next door to you right there in Boonville, move right into your community and settle down and nobody can do a single thing about it. That's what the Democrats want. It makes me sick to think how these people got here. I think they came from another planet. They weren't born here. They were deposited on a rock by a crow and hatched by the sun. I was for Donald Trump six months or more before he was elected. I knew he was the guy who can do the job. He is doing the job. In another year or two he will have this place straightened out and running on all four wheels. As far as you Democrats are concerned you better run for a hole because the entire United States is going to come down on you pretty soon if you keep acting the way you do. I advise every red-blooded American who does not have a felony to get a concealed weapons permit immediately or as soon as you can because we are going to have to defend ourselves against the criminals who are pouring across the border. Eventually, California citizens will become the first line of defense. The Democrats are making sure that all these illegal aliens can vote. That's one of the reasons they want them to flood in here illegally so they can vote Democratic. And Kim Jong Un Jerry Brown, that liberal communist, wants all felons in jail to be able to vote. He is the one who is responsible for the sanctuary state. Now Sonoma County people are going to sue PG&E for all the trouble they've had with the fires. But PG&E should sue Jerry Brown! He is responsible for it all. He is the one who shut down PG&E from clearing around the transformers and the lines. He vetoed it. He's a bad man. I don't have words to say how bad he is.

God bless Donald Trump.

Jerry Philbrick

Comptche