Letters (April 18, 2018)

• No Confidence In Superintendent
• More Chicanery Out Of KZYX
• The Hospital Parcel Tax
• Looking For Jim Jones Survivors
• Shoulda Said
• Silva In The Crosshairs Again
• The Wrong Road
• Libs Have Wrecked Frisco
• Hoping The Feds Look Hard

NO CONFIDENCE IN SUPERINTENDENT

Letter to the Editor:

Since Michelle Hutchins, our current superintendent at Anderson Valley Unified School District, is running for Mendocino County Superintendent of Schools, we feel it is necessary to provide the community with some information. The teachers and support staff of Anderson Valley Unified have issued a Vote of No Confidence with the AVUSD Board of Directors.

* * *

AVUSD Board of Directors

March 14th, 2018 — We, the members of the CSEA and AVTA of Anderson Valley Unified School District, have composed this letter to communicate our vote of no confidence regarding the current Superintendent, Ms. Michelle Hutchins. We understand the severity of a vote of no confidence and did not arrive at it hastily. We surveyed our members at both sites and 90% of the staff votes were in support of this decision.

Anderson Valley Unified School District used to be a district that valued stability, where decisions were made on a collaborative basis, with the best interests of our students and staff in mind. This resulted in a school board, administration, staff, and student population with minimal turnover.

In the past three years under the leadership of Ms. Hutchins we have experienced a dramatic change in the climate of the Anderson Valley Unified School District. Specifically, there are issues regarding trust, communication, collaboration, decision making, vision, and lack of respect for staff. Rather than maintaining a supportive and collaborative working environment district wide, some would say a toxic environment now exists. Despite good intentions, her frequent poor judgement has resulted in unsafe situations for students and turmoil in the Special Education Department. In addition, the Superintendent has permanently damaged relationships with various staff members, due to poor people skills. Even when input is sought, that input is often disregarded, and follow through is often lacking.

There is an overall feeling that we, as a staff, are losing ground. We have lost certificated and classified positions while administrative costs have doubled over the last three years. Money has been squandered on outside services that should have been provided by the full-time Superintendent. We need effective leadership. Morale is low. For these reasons, we the undersigned are voting “No Confidence” in Ms. Hutchins.  We respectfully ask you to consider a change in leadership beginning July of 2018.

Sincerely,

Submitted by

Nicole Mclain, Stephanie Ewing, CSEA & AVTA

MORE CHICANERY OUT OF KZYX

Dear Editor:

I was just informed by Patricia Kovner of yet another gross violation by the person or persons who have secretly (and sometimes not so secretly) seized control of KZYX management.

Patricia was a candidate this year for the 3^rd District seat on the KZYX Board of Directors. There are 9 members of the Board, one from each of the 5 districts (using the same map as the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors) plus 4 members at large. Since day 1, almost 30 years ago, only the KZYX members who lived within a given district could vote for that district’s local board seat, while all KZYX members voted for the at large seats. To change that policy, the station is required to have public discussion and a public vote either on this single issue or, if it prefers, a public discussion of formally amending the bylaws of the station, which would then also have to be approved by a membership vote.

Now that KZYX is being audited by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, who will perform an on-site investigation of the station and its practices next month, you might think they would at least make a small gesture toward remediating a corrupt situation. You would be wrong. Instead, the autocrats who have illegally seized the station for their own private purposes — Jeff Parker, Stuart Campbell and possibly others — have decided to double down on corruption instead. For the first time, they arbitrarily, without authority to do so, allowed the entire membership to vote for candidates in districts other than their own. Patricia voted for candidates running in the 2^nd district and the 5^th district, even though she lives in the 3^rd district. If her 3^rd district seat had not been usurped and superseded by an illegal change in how elections are supposed to be conducted, the results may have been very different.

For some time, these usurpers have advocated for a smaller board to reduce the possibility of someone being elected who might actually focus on performing his or her mandated duties and responsibilities. Now, by illegally forcing the local candidates to face a very non-local electorate, this cabal can impose a tighter control on maintaining an emasculated board of directors that would continue to enable this cabal to commit malfeasance and misfeasance – and worse - with impunity.

I have encouraged Patricia to contact Ms. Helen Mollick, Esq., the Assistant Inspector General of the CPB and one of the 3 people who will be conducting the audit of KZYX, at hmollick@cpb.org or (202) 879-9600.

Ms. Mollick routinely explains to concerned members and listeners that her scope of inquiry is narrowly focused. This is true, but it’s not the whole story. The CPB is funded by federal tax dollars as well as private donations. That means that KZYX is also funded by federal tax dollars, which requires the station to acquit itself in the same manner as a squeaky-clean government subdivision, where there must be transparency over secrecy, strict financial oversight where there is current none whatsoever, and strict adherence t0 EEO laws rather than nepotism and creating “jobs” that perform little or no duties whatsoever.

There is a wealth of reference material that states that the CPB can terminate their contract in the face of the mere appearance of wrongdoing, let alone an out of control situation with smoking guns going off virtually every day.

I am personally advocating for a decision in line with an “opportunity letter.” I would like to see the autocrats at KZYX terminated and the board of directors given the opportunity to straighten up and fly right. It’s true that most board members lack the skill required for the position that they hold. They see it as simply a feather in their caps and haven’t a clue about what is required of them. Some may resign, to which I say good riddance to bad rubbish, and can be replaced by someone who has the skills and dedication required to hold this unpaid, difficult position. In the interim, I and others are more than happy to help them restore a clean and honest, democratically run non-profit.

I encourage everyone with concerns about KZYX to contact Ms. Mollick, and I hope that she and her 2 colleagues (the Inspector General and a professional auditor) have a safe field trip across our continent and get to the bottom of this current mess.

Larry Minson

Willlits

THE HOSPITAL PARCEL TAX

Editor,

Many people have said to me, "I'm conflicted about how to vote on the parcel tax." I can understand why.

We all want our hospital to thrive and be here for us into the future. We want and need an emergency room, ambulence services, obstetrics, and ICU and all the other departments that make up a rural hospital providing basic health care services closer home. But will a parcel tax save all that?

I see this issue as one involving two groups of voters. First are the wishful thinkers who believe the claim that a $1.7 million annual infusion of tax money will save the hospital, or, at the least, help get it back into the financial black. This is pure sentiment governed by emotional idealism based on feelings rather than fact. The $1.7 million represents one-month’s payroll. It will do nothing to help reduce the hospital’s debt which I am told is somewhere around $12 million.

The second group of voters are the pragmatists, people who use a practical approach to problems, whose thoughts are guided by matters of fact. Here are some facts as I see them:

The hospital's CEO is inept and is certainly not the one to right this ship. In fact his decisions and hiring and firing practices have caused most of the financial damage over the past three years. He has been aided and abetted by a supine Board of Directors who bow and submit to his every whim. The only board member who has asked thoughtful and probing questions on matters of importance and procedure has been Dr. Peter Glusker and unfortunately he is not running for reelection.

The pragmatist in me sees that this hospital's salvation lies in the replacement of the CEO and the election of an independent thinking board of directors, not a parcel tax. Why throw good money after bad? — as the saying goes.

The most recent damning evidence against CEO Edwards inability to man the helm is his firing of CFO Parigi. In three short months Mr. Parigi discovered millions of lost uncaptured charges from emergency room billing mistakes, from inefficient management of the billing department, from three computer systems that don't communicate with each other, from the $100,000 per month lost due to lost charges in the materials management department, from the overnight observation patients slipping through the system somehow not being billed for their stay, from improper billing of joint replacement parts resulting in tens of thousand of dollars in lost revenue.

There is more, but I think you get the point.

Why didn't CEO Bob Edwards’s former hand-picked high-priced CFO Sturgeon find these millions? The billing and coding department was a mess under Sturgeon’s management. Despite the ongoing complaints from the billing staff and their remedies for better efficiency, nothing changed. Just more financial hemorrhaging.

Does all of the above sound like an administrative recipe for a successfully run hospital? The answer to Coast Hospital’s survival lies in the resignation or termination of CEO Bob Edwards and a new board that will guide the hospital, not by being yes-men but by giving careful thought and critical thinking to serious issues.

Mr. Parigi's discovery of $3 million in lost revenue resulted in his firing by CEO Edwards. The CFO should have been showered with praise, but he showed Bob Edwards for what he is: an incompetent administrator. And Bob Edwards had to save face so Parigi got offed.

By the year 2030 we are directed by government to have a new hospital to meet safety and seismic requirements. To me, that is the biggest challenge in our future. We need to be focusing on that enormous project, what it will look like, how it will be funded.

But first things first. Let's get a new administration and board. If they prove themselves ethical and worthy of the challenges they face, then we can trust them with our tax dollars.

Until then, I remain a hopeful pragmatist.

Louise Mariana, RN

37 year employee of Mendocino Coast District Hospital

Mendocino

LOOKING FOR JIM JONES SURVIVORS

Dear AVA,

This is my second time writing your paper. The first was to respond to Mr. Tim Stoen's article about being a victim of Jim Jones mass murder at the Jonestown massacre in 1978 in South America. I lost my foster brother Vincent Lopez Jr. as well as the people who introduced me to this ugly cult upon my arrival at the Touchette care home in 1972. I'm currently pursuing legal action and would like to hear from any former members who still live in the area — the Bogues, Tina and Juanita Bogue, or any other former members who would like to contact me. I would appreciate it.

I can be reached at

Arthur D. Scott AV-9005
PO Box 4000 11-118L
Vacaville, CA 95696-4000

SHOULDA SAID

Zuckerberg, the coward—

His testimony should've gone something like this:

"Why did you join up on Facebook, Senator, if you didn't know who we are or what we do? If you were too stupid or lazy to figure that out, it's all on you. Any concern you seem to be showing now over the shreds of your privacy you think need to be protected and respected, along with the sad disappointment of your expectations of some level of decency that you want to try to lay on me, refer only to the abstracted commodities that YOU waived when YOU agreed to Facebook's Terms of Service. Before you join, moron, read the damned terms! The only thing Facebook has done is to expose the boundless gullibility of the American people. It's the stupidity that needs to be regulated, not the mirrors that reflect it. Care to roll that rock up the mountain, Senator Sisyphus?"

This testimony would've saved nine or ten hours of meaningless jive and left us in exactly the same place.

Michael DeLang

Coal Creek Canyon, Colorado

SILVA IN THE CROSSHAIRS AGAIN

Dear AVA:

I find myself in the crosshairs of the District Attorney’s office again. In May of 2013 unbeknownst to me you covered my sentencing and "what defense?" with Mr. Haehl.

www.theava.com/archives/21885

So currently I faced a strange charge of assault with a deadly weapon and vandalism, a prior strike and prison enhancement. So I broke up a dogfight with a bat and no one was home to assault? My next court date is April 17 if you'd like to follow my adventures through the Mendocino County justice system again. By the way, thanks for the first article.

Ryan Silva

Ukiah

THE WRONG ROAD

Dear AVA,

Ellen Rosser in her “Fence Post” letter of March 2 to the Independent Coast Observer laments the fact that so many young people are "victims of US militarism." Like it or not, I suppose we'd better get used to it. The United States has divided the entire world into US military commands and included all of outer space as well. We need lots of lower-class young people to support the military machine. After they serve four years their view is usually different than the day they enlisted.

Here's a paraphrase of a paragraph from the World War I book "All Quiet on the Western Front":

“I am young, I am 20 years old; yet I know nothing of life but death, fear, and sorrow. I see how people are set against one another and obediently, innocently slay one another. Many of my generation are experiencing these things with me. What do you expect of us if a time ever comes when these wars are over? During these years our business has been killing. It was our first calling in life. Our knowledge of life is limited to death and destruction. What will happen afterwards? And what shall become of us?”

Your answer to the last question would probably include: PTSD, depression, drug use (prescription and otherwise) suicide, hopelessness, homelessness, and, oh yes, you can attend college for practically nothing just like everyone in my generation could do without joining the military. Every nation that has gone down this road to world domination has bankrupted itself.

Ellen is right. We should be concerned.

Sincerely,

Don Phillips

Manchester

LIBS HAVE WRECKED FRISCO

AVA,

The United States is back on its feet again. President Trump is doing a great job. President Trump is doing everything I predicted that he would do two years ago. He won the election. He is making America great again. He is pissing off the liberals. He is getting everything back the way it should be. I like what he did in Syria except he should have done more. He is standing up to people.

Take San Francisco. It has been declared the filthiest city in the world. It's unbelievable what that city has turned into. It has been called a beautiful city. But I don't see anything beautiful about it. It's built mostly on man-made land. Every time a turtle farts in an estuary the whole city shakes. It's nothing but a large collection of criminals, child molesters, dope dealers, heroin users — you name it. I could go on at length about what San Francisco has become. And guess what? It's being run by liberals! And it has been run by liberals for over 20 years. Dianne Feinstein right now. Nancy Pelosi. Maxine Waters. Ms. Jackson. The list of liberals running San Francisco is endless. And it's the filthiest city in the world.

The problems in San Francisco began when the liberals brought in all those people 25 years ago. Free this, free that, welfare, free medical, come to California, soak the taxpayers. That's the way they do. That's why we are in terrible shape. So much regulation you can't move. High taxes you cannot afford to pay. Infrastructure turned into crap. It's ugly. We have to get the liberals out of office.

My son works for Uber in San Francisco. His own car. Drives people around in San Francisco. He said it’s such a slime pit you can’t believe it, makes him want to puke. Mendocino has become just a small San Francisco. Thanks to liberals and Democrat leaders like Governor Moonbeam Brown. These liberals live in their high-rise mansions and don’t give a damn about the regular public. They couldn’t care less. They come out of their towers with their security guards and get in their limos and don’t even look at the people who need help. Sickening.

Mendocino has become just a small San Francisco. I graduated from there, my kids graduated, my mom and dad graduated, and my grandmother and grandfather graduated. It used to be a great little town. Everyone knew each other. The stores would close down during football games so people could watch them. They had a great school presence in the town. Everybody loved America. Now I don't think they say the Pledge of Allegiance. I don't think they salute the flag unless they have to. No Star Spangled Banner. No no more football. The town is full of prostitutes and drug dealers. It's a shame. I will not even go into that town anymore.

I like the idea of dividing the state into two or three parts. I think that idea is moving forward. We have to get rid of these sanctuary dens of iniquity.

God bless Donald Trump

Jerry Philbrick

Comptche

PS. Nancy Pelosi said recently that she didn’t want to send the military to Syria or anywhere else because that would put them in harm’s way. What do we have a military for if they can’t confront danger? She’s completely cracked!

HOPING THE FEDS LOOK HARD

TO: Ms. Mollick (of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting),

Years ago, I and a group of 5-6 people, wrote to you about improprieties at KZYX. The General Manager at the time was Mr. John Coate who resigned when issues came to light. Long time Program Director, Mary Aigner also resigned, but oddly, was kept on as a volunteer programmer to this day. Ms. Aigner had been with KZYX since its inception.

My complaint was dismissed and the station carried on business as usual. I, along with the other members of the small group, were publicly ridiculed for our attempt to shine light on the ineffective board, staff controlling elections, finances; programmers turned away because Ms Aigner couldn't control them, and violations of the station's by-laws and station policy and practises.

Below is a link to a letter from a recent board member, Larry Minson which appeared in a local paper. Mr. Minson resigned under protest after learning first hand of financial improprieties by at least one person, Stuart Campbell, who was a failed candidate for the GM position after Mr Coate resigned. Mr. Campbell has been involved with the station since Coate's departure, and is the person who permitted his girlfriend/wife, Sarah Reith to be hired without public notification of an open position at the station resulting in nepotism.

www.theava.com/archives/81410#2

At a minimum, the most recent election process needs to be investigated. The station had approximately 2300 voters in this past election. Only paid members are permitted to vote.

The interesting fact: This is the number of donors the station has maintained for the past ten years with little fluctuation. One has to ask:

Why has there been no growth in membership after 10+ years? What was the purpose of changing the rules in this particular election? Was it to keep out candidates who recognize the already stated facts about the station and its management obscuring or hiding its operations from paid donors and the greater community?

Ed Keller was the Election Coordinator this time round along with the General Manager, Jeffrey Parker. Mr Keller is a very close friend of Stuart Campbell and they served on the board together. Mr Keller very much wanted Mr Campbell to become the GM when John Coate resigned. When Stuart Campbell wasn't hired as the GM, he remained involved with the station on any level he could, most specifically, in the area of budget and finances. At one point, he served as Treasurer. Mr. Minson has already alerted you, Ms Mollick, of what he saw first-hand about the way Mr Campbell managed the station's finances and nepotism.

I realize that the scope of your inspection may not be one that addresses the vast complaints that have been made about the board and staff, both past and present.

However, you cannot award money to a group of people who effectively are not serving the station and the community in their designated capacities. You cannot award funding to keep a station going when the staff and board mask the processes by which people are hired, elections unfold, finances are managed, job descriptions are absent, time management and accountability are non-existent, and queries by paid station members are seen as intrusive and eventually abandoned.

I would suggest a thorough examination of Mendocino County Public Radio one year prior to GM John Coate's departure. You will then see what patterns, practices, exclusions and adherence to by-laws were kept by the Board and Staff at KZYX/Z.

Thank you.

Mary Massey

Mendocino