Letters (May 9, 2018)

• Bring Back Polling Places
• No On Hospital Tax
• Help Out, Caltrans
• A Graduated Gas Tax
• Fantasy V. Fantasy
• Skyhawk’s Overreaching Claims
• Lovers Lane Developer Myths Debunked
• Big Trouble

BRING BACK POLLING PLACES

To the Editor:

One clear attack on American democracy has been the removal of our polling places coupled with mandatory mail-in balloting for those wishing to vote. What has this achieved? Not greater voter turnout, not a reduced department budget, and not greater vote counting efficiency. Just the opposite. Voter turnout is down. Election costs are up. And election night Americana in Mendo has been stolen.

In 1998, the County provided a polling place for every voter and paper ballots were read by machine at each of those spots. Local politicos and friends awaiting results together knew them by 1 a.m. The next day UDJ & local radio reported those results.

So hello Clerk/Registrar candidates: give us back our polling places & return us to mail-in balloting by request only. This is the only way to give us back our election nights. Gee whiz, am I the only fellow who enjoyed walking to vote and proudly greeting folks at the polling station who’d done the same? Then too, maybe others would like to know the election outcome sooner than 20 days later.

Phil Baldwin

Ukiah

NO ON HOSPITAL TAX

To the Editor,

I am firmly opposed to the Parcel Tax the Mendocino Coast Hospital District is requesting. For more than 30 years, the District Administration and Board of Directors has put forth an unnecessary and unsustainable growth plan for the Hospital which was to give it the appearance of a major medical center. Rather than improving and broadening healthcare in our small, isolated community, the grand plan has burdened us with a debt we can never get out from under. Most of the money was spent on an expansive and mostly vacant admissions area and an underused imaging center, where the cost of tests can be up to 4 times as much as they are in Santa Rosa. The remainder of the Hospital, its guts, you might say, the ER, Surgery, Intensive Care and ward remain unchanged in the almost 50 years of existence. To give the nod to the Board to stay afloat for a while with the pervading attitude of business as usual is a major disservice to the people of the District, pretending that everyone in charge is really looking out for our basic needs rather than their own self-interest.

Without this gift to the Directors and the revolving door of CEOs and CFOs, the Hospital might face bankruptcy. This probably would be a good thing. It does NOT mean the Hospital would have to close its doors and the District would lose its major provider of health care. It means, instead, that the way it does business would have to change. It may have to end some medical services and get rid of some high level managers, but we would then have the opportunity to re-think what the real medical needs of this community are and what it can afford, in order to offer a high level of basic medical care.

I do not have a concrete plan in mind, but a reasonable concept moving forward might be for the District to oversee expanded outpatient care that would provide rapid access to providers at all levels; routine, urgent and emergent. (The Emergency Department is exactly the same size it was 48 years ago when the Hospital opened). A triage system would be put in place to establish the level of care needed and direct people accordingly. In addition we would need an expanded transportation system including shuttles, ground and air emergency by contracting with various existing agencies to get patients to the right place for the best care in the most expeditious fashion. Finally, there should be an overnight holding unit for stabilization or prior to transfer and for people undergoing scheduled outpatient procedures.

This might require us partnering with other hospital care entities, which has always been an anathema to us here on the Coast. The inland hospitals in Willits and Ukiah have done this quite successfully and it might be time to feel them out for help in keeping quality care available here. Stepped level of care is an established way of providing medical services in rural areas and works extremely well.

I want to see quality basic medical care continue to be available to us on the Coast. We need to create a new template that would support the services that are really necessary to give our community members access to the best medical care anywhere in the North Bay and so we could feel comfortable that our health needs are being looked out for by the District’s governing body.

Peter Barg, MD

Caspar

HELP OUT, CALTRANS

To Whom it may concern:

Most years during the rainy winter months Highway 128 between Boonville and the Coast is closed one or more times due to flooding. During these periods, much of the traffic is forced to take the alternate route to the Coast via Flynn Creek Road to Comptche-Ukiah Road. This major increase in traffic volume during the wettest time of the year contributes greatly to the degradation of the road surface. While the Mendocino County Roads Department has posted Flynn Creek Road to limit commercial truck traffic, with no good alternative many heavy vehicles use this route anyway. Since the Highway 128 flooding has been an ongoing problem for generations with no long-term alternative, we realize the reality that this problem will continue in years to come.

We can agree that a safe, reliable alternative to the Coast is important for both visitors and local residents. With decreasing County budgets, road maintenance dollars are increasingly spread thin and Flynn Creek Road certainly reflects that reality. The Comptche community appreciates the occasional pot hole patching but this is not even close to repairing the on-going damage caused by the winter traffic.

Since traffic from State Highway 128 is a major contributor to the damage on these roads, we feel it would be appropriate for Caltrans to chip in to help upgrade the Flynn Creek road surface and keep it as a safe year-round alternative. We have enclosed a list for your review of Comptche area residents who have agreed with this perspective on road maintenance.

Best Regards

Joel & Pamela Holmes

Comptche

A GRADUATED GAS TAX

Editor,

It was reported on the radio that state of California is low on money and that CalPERS (the California Public Employees Retirement System) would have some percentage of their retirement taken away. The state needs to raise funds, in other words, taxes. The question is how and from where?

The Republicans don't want to raise taxes but there are not many of them. The Democrats also don't want to raise taxes so the real question seems to be what will the liberals go for?

How about this? Raise the state tax on gasoline on a graduated scale like state and federal income tax. Let the upper middle class, the rich and tourists from out-of-state pay the new full price, while the not-so-rich face no increase in the current tax. What Democrat wouldn’t go for that?

Silicon Valley should be able to figure out a workable solution on their coffee break. Chips, prints, photos, whatever and make it a felony to cheat.

I apologize if this has already been discussed. I live off the grid including no computer and I get my news from NPR and the AVA.

Michael Smith

Philo

FANTASY V. FANTASY

Editor,

At a campaign rally last week Trump slammed the Fake News Media for not having "real" sources for news stories—a clip of him saying that the greatest threat to our democracy is the Media.

Insane... Because what were Trump’s sources for all those years he lied and said President Obama wasn't a US citizen? He never said! Six years of Trump’s disrespectful "birther" crap, with no legitimate sources, and the mainstream news kept it all going, thus benefiting Trump. Biggest Hypocrite Ever. Pure BS. Total Lies.

Many of Trump’s base are clearly insane. Take Philbrick for example. In his recent letters he's said that liberals and their kids, should be taught a lesson, by being raped, murdered and tortured. This he "reasons," will show the libs why they should love guns. Clearly a psychopath.

I can play the Insane Fantasy Game also. So imagine if all those kids who survived the crazy terror of those school shootings were given AR-15's with bumpstocks and bussed to the NRA convention and allowed to let loose all their trauma. Wow, wouldn't that be a lesson in Karmic retribution! I'll bet those NRA peeps would be surprised, outnumbered and dead! Hoo Boy.

So I know that's crazy, but it's a fantasy. The problem with Philbrick and his ilk is that they don't seem to know that what they're saying is clearly insane. It makes no sense and he seems unaware that many of these school shooting survivors are galvanized against guns after such extreme violence. The only lesson they learn is to hate gun violence and the NRA.

Liberals wanting to take away guns is a huge fake news story, and I've never met one in 53 years. What most libs want is more comprehensive background checks and a bit more "well regulated," like the constitution says.

Best Regards,

Rob Mahon

Covelo

SKYHAWK’S OVERREACHING CLAIMS

Editor,

Why does every Albion-Little River Fire Protection District Board Director and Firefighter during Chris Skyhawk’s term of service as President, find it difficult to endorse him and his overreaching claims?

I have served with him, have personal knowledge of these matters, and want to correct the record with matters of fact after distortions presented in a January 4th, 2018 Mendocino Beacon article, in numerous public meetings, his website, and now an automated phone call received a couple of days ago by a non-native English speaker.

· In a Facebook post, Chris states he served for 4 years. His term ran closer to two and a half years and he had numerous absences, even during his 7 month term as Chairman.

· Skyhawk credits himself with the acquisition of new apparatus for the community, the lion’s share of which work was undertaken and completed by our current chairman, Michael Issel. Chris was largely uninvolved.

· Instead of “co-sponsoring” Measure V, Skyhawk consistently acted to obstruct this safety initiative, blocking a “hack and squirt” Ordinance at the Board level. Ironically, impeding this Ordinance resulted in bringing it to a county-wide measure via a ballot initiative, where it passed overwhelmingly in a manageable form, declaring intentionally killed and left standing trees a public nuisance.

· Skyhawk was minimally involved in the long overdue Measure M to raise funds for continuation of day-to-day fire operations. When Skyhawk filed improperly, the County refused the Ordinance. Another 6 months passed before it could be voted upon.

· Chris claims he established Critical Incident Stress Debriefing for Firefighters, bringing the protocol to ALRFPD. In fact it was Jeffrey T. Mitchell, Ph.D. who developed it in 1974, and it is used as a matter of course by Fire Districts everywhere. (Years before Skyhawk, I personally used the CISD support model when I served as a Firefighter.)

· Skyhawk claims he was central in re-establishing inter-agency and community relationships. The rebuilding of relationships were well underway after the 2011 reorganization, long before he joined the Board. On the other hand, financial compliance integration was achieved after Skyhawk’s abrupt resignation, for which “financial stability” he now takes credit.

Skyhawk is friendly and presents himself well, but he shouldn’t be taking credit for other people’s work. A Board is composed of a body of people, each one contributing what they can, where they can. During his term on the Fire Department, it is my opinion that much of the forward momentum of the Board came to a standstill – progress resuming only after his departure. Citing difficulties working with Chris, one Board member stepped down and another threatened to do so in a three page letter; indeed, when Skyhawk was asked to step up to his position as Chair, that’s when he stepped down.

I’ve been biting my tongue with these inaccurate claims and yet find I feel, reluctantly, that it is simply necessary to correct the record.

Scott Roat

Mendocino

LOVERS LANE DEVELOPER MYTHS DEBUNKED

Editor,

What do WMD & Housing Crisis have in common? They’re both propaganda chants encouraging harmful public action we regret after the fact. In 2001, our government and media told us nonstop we needed a war because Saddam Hussein had Weapons of Mass Destruction when he did not. In Ukiah today, we hear a relentless “housing crisis” mantra pushing us to abandon our agricultural greenbelt.

Let’s debunk the speculator manipulated housing crisis myths while wondering about the process for the Lovers Lane farm land paving project.

On the day of this writing, we counted 48 Ukiah valley homes for sale (at Dick Selzer’s own site) where they stay listed an average of sixty days. So where’s the housing crisis for new doctors, lawyers, dentists, hospital, school, & county administrators? Even these comfy professionals considering jobs here want first to rent so they can determine how likable Ukiah is. Already there’s a “for sale” sign on nearly every Ukiah street and given an average westside age of 65 plus, there’ll be more for sale soon. Above all to note - the only Ukiah housing crisis is the lack of rentals for all income levels.

Why are high paid public administrators shilling for a private out of town developer seeking to pave Lovers Lane vineyards with a 1950’s style subdivision of tract homes starting at $400,000? (The developer will claim he seeks to offer them at a lower price, but without price controls we know his homes will hit the market at whatever it will bear.) At every public meeting for this proposed sprawl onto farmland, top bracket reps from hospital, school district, city and county have stepped forward to endorse this environmentally absurd subdivision. Why are these bureaucrats, funded with our taxes, chanting the speculator provided talking points?

If this Lovers Lane sprawl is approved it will be a precedent setting death knell for the Ukiah Valley Area Plan which took ten years and a million tax dollars to enact as the law of the land. Our UVAP designates Lovers Lane vineyards “AG,” thereby providing Ukiah a greenbelt or urban limit line. If a “crisis” can be manufactured by the local economic elite today to eliminate this designation, it can be used again and again to pave ever more of our valley’s vital agricultural soil.

As noted, we do have a crisis in rental housing. But there’s plenty of land for new rentals and Windsor style condos in our infrastructure ready urban zones. We’ve got roughly seventy vacant acres in the Brush Street Triangle (between Kohl’s & Raley’s), then fifty acres properly zoned for housing south of the airport, and another forty acres spread throughout the City.

Still, let’s clarify that new private market rate construction will not provide housing affordable to our struggling working class families, seniors, and poor. That has never happened and will never happen in an environmentally attractive valley like ours. Maybe in Barstow or Bakersfield new construction can stabilize home prices for five or ten years, but not here. Only through housing subsidies, rent control, and other mandates can any attractive community provide affordable shelter.

Endless growth is unsustainable. Every valley has a population holding capacity. Seemingly unaware of this reality, some Ukiah officials simultaneously support urban infill densification and the proposed tract home sprawl at Lovers Lane. If that project is approved, not only will the UVAP be a goner, so too the quality of life that brought us here. Quality of life and beauty attract many Americans to visit Europe and New England where urban sprawl is nearly nonexistent. Do we care that endless population growth guarantees ugly, unhealthy sprawl onto farmland and adjacent woodlands?

Do Ukiahans grasp the impact of 1000 new traffic trips daily at the State Street/Lovers Lane truck stop with overflow onto Despina feeding Ukiah High School at Low Gap Road? Will the Environmental Impact Report on this farmland paving project recognize that the gridlock it guarantees cannot be mitigated?

Top County officials, contrary to legal requirements for a fair, transparent planning process, have taken sides and promoted this project with invitation only backroom efforts to overwhelm subdivision opponents.

Several County Supervisors have refused to meet with Ukiahans concerned about this project. What’s up with that for elected representatives?

One County Supervisor was elected in a hotly contested 2008 race. He won on a platform to preserve Lovers Lane vineyards in agriculture. This position, in agreement with a unanimous Ukiah City Council, might well have been the deciding factor in that contest. Court rulings clearly support an elected official’s right to vote as pledged during the campaign.

Phil Baldwin

Ukiah

BIG TROUBLE

Editor,

In the upcoming election for governor we have a guy named Gavin Newsom running. He is probably the worst SOB that anybody could ever ask for as governor. He is a top-flight politician. He only says what he wants to hear and what the liberals want to hear. He promises this, promises that. He wants gays to keep on getting married. He wants gun control. He wants open borders. No more national anthem. No more salute the flag. No more of anything to do with our historical. He has his eyes set only on the presidency. That's what he thinks his loud voice and his big high haircut is going to make such an impression on the United States people if they elect him as governor. Unbelievable. Of course we have the one down in LA that I won't even talk about.

We have a couple of Republican guys, one named Travis Allen and a guy named Cox. They probably don't have a chance because most conservative people sit on their asses and watch the liberals keep on taking over because they win because of the numbers, not because of who they are. Just the numbers! So conservatives and Republicans better take a deep breath because you are looking at pure hell if you don't do something about this next election. I promise you that. In the 82 years I've been here and seen what's going on I can tell you that we are now in big f-ing trouble.

God bless Donald Trump.

Jerry Philbrick

Comptche