Mendocino County Today: Monday, May 28, 2018

• Carolyn Hiatt
• Nick Rossi
• Memorial Day
• Gettysburg Address
• Union Dead
• FB Mural
• Skyhawk Endorsement
• Needs Refined
• Little Dog
• Ed Notes
• Eel Documentary
• Raising Coyote
• Yesterday's Catch
• Eire Return
• Shootings Scorecard
• Dems Bad
• Wine Labeling
• Get Up
• Greedy People
• Measure V

CAROLYN HIATT has died. Graveside services will be at Evergreen Cemetery on Saturday, June 2nd at 1 pm. (Obituary to come.)

A MOMENT OF SILENCE

by Herb Caen (1982)

Memorial Day. Death takes a holiday, a holiday that may itself be dying, having outlived its uselessness. “They did not die in vain,” even though we know they did, and then comes the old wheeze about people who don’t learn from history being condemned to repeat it. So we mourn the dead, while living it up on a three-day binge as our leaders vote billions for bombs and pennies for food stamps. It must make sense. As my dear old Dad used to say about the great men and women in Washington, “If they didn’t know what they were doing, they wouldn’t be there.” He really believed that. The world was small and naive. Today, only the weapons have grown sophisticated. “We have not changed our way of thinking,” lamented Einstein, who might be surprised, wherever he is, that the world is still in one piece. More or less.

The only reason we still have Memorial Day is that it’s time for a three-day holiday. It’s good for business and keeps us hard-working folks from going bananas. If there weren’t a Memorial Day we’d have nothing but two-day holidays between February’s “Presidents Day” and July Fourth. Aside from that, the timing makes no sense. Mourning the dead should take place on gray, rainy days — November 11 seems about right — not on the last day of May, when springtime is at its gaudy height, the world is young again and even the Giants are not out of contention, mathematically.

I realize it borders on bad taste to say this, as you head for the tennis courts or break out the spinnaker or simply sleep late, but let us remember the American dead this weekend, including the dead this weekend will produce. “The last full measure of devotion.” They gave it from Ticonderoga to Antietam, from St. Lo to Inchon, from Little Bighorn to Hue. Raise your Bloody Mary in a salute to the bloody Battle of the Bulge, and then continue to work on your suntan. The guys who fell at Kasserine didn’t realize it at the time, but that’s what they were fighting for, so give them a few seconds of your time-and-a-half holiday attention. Hell, maybe they didn’t die in vain after all. Here we all are, living the good life under the grand old flag, and not a mushroom cloud in the sky.

I never tire of quoting old H.V. Kaltenborn, the late radio commentator, who kept saying during his broadcasts at the beginning of World War II that “the awful geography lesson continues.” We learned a lot in a short time. Kids we grew up with died in faraway islands with strange-sounding beachheads, their bodies bobbing in the surf. Paratrooper Bob Ritchie, who edited my copy at the prewar Chronicle, died at Bastogne, a week after we’d played pool in Luxembourg. In the whole war, I fired three shots in anger, at a church steeple in Carentan, just after D-Day. A German sniper fell out and everybody yelled “I got him!” After the war, I went duck hunting with Trader Vic Bergeron and we fired simultaneously. As a duck fell, the Trader yelled “I got him!” and I saw that German body again.

Sure, if you didn’t get killed or shot up too badly, it was fun. You sweltered, you froze, you performed ridiculous duties, but you felt oddly free, though life couldn’t have been more restricted. Only years later could the veterans of World War II bring themselves to say out loud that those were the best years of their lives. Young, innocent and winning — for the last time. Korea was uglier and Vietnam was nightmare and tragedy. After World War III, there will be no Memorial Days.

On this Memorial Day weekend, let us salute the survivors, too — the walking wounded, the battlers in the front line of the urban wars. In San Francisco, we see them every day: the legless guy on the wooden platform alongside I. Magnin’s, the sweet-faced blind woman near the Emporium, the guy on Geary coaxing mournful tunes out of his harmonica, the young man at Hallidie who uses the stumps of what is left of his arms to play an electronic keyboard. On Turk, the “indigents” — the jobless, the losers, the naked and the near dead — stretch out with their backs against the wall, getting a suntan worthy of Palm Beach. A tiny Vietnamese girl walks past, wiggling in a hula-hoop. They whistle at her. Her smile is dazzling.

Life can be hard in the beautiful city. Let’s hear it for the troops who keep going, somehow — the bootblacks and the bellmen, the cabbies and the newsies, the Muni bus drivers and their well-jolted passengers, the waiters with sore feet, the waitresses with sore backs and the mad messengers on their bikes. The world has been made safe for democracy — our little Memorial Day lie — but, as JFK said, life is not fair, even on this fairest day in May. Today, a moment’s silence, please, for those who died bravely and those who live gallantly. They make better people out of us all.

(SF Chronicle)

ORIGINALLY CALLED DECORATION DAY, it was first observed by the states that fought on the Union side in the Civil War. On that day of remembrance, the graves of those who perished were 'decorated' with fresh flowers.

Some historians think that Lincoln's Gettysburg Address embodies the true meaning and spirit of Memorial Day.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

FOR THE UNION DEAD

by Robert Lowell

The old South Boston Aquarium stands
in a Sahara of snow now. Its broken windows are boarded.
The bronze weathervane cod has lost half its scales.
The airy tanks are dry.

Once my nose crawled like a snail on the glass;
my hand tingled
to burst the bubbles
drifting from the noses of the cowed, compliant fish.

My hand draws back. I often sigh still
for the dark downward and vegetating kingdom
of the fish and reptile. One morning last March,
I pressed against the new barbed and galvanized

fence on the Boston Common. Behind their cage,
yellow dinosaur steamshovels were grunting
as they cropped up tons of mush and grass
to gouge their underworld garage.

Parking spaces luxuriate like civic
sandpiles in the heart of Boston.
A girdle of orange, Puritan-pumpkin colored girders
braces the tingling Statehouse,

shaking over the excavations, as it faces Colonel Shaw
and his bell-cheeked Negro infantry
on St. Gaudens' shaking Civil War relief,
propped by a plank splint against the garage's earthquake.

Two months after marching through Boston,
half the regiment was dead;
at the dedication,
William James could almost hear the bronze Negroes breathe.

Their monument sticks like a fishbone
in the city's throat.
Its Colonel is as lean
as a compass-needle.

He has an angry wrenlike vigilance,
a greyhound's gentle tautness;
he seems to wince at pleasure,
and suffocate for privacy.

He is out of bounds now. He rejoices in man's lovely,
peculiar power to choose life and die—
when he leads his black soldiers to death,
he cannot bend his back.

On a thousand small town New England greens,
the old white churches hold their air
of sparse, sincere rebellion; frayed flags
quilt the graveyards of the Grand Army of the Republic.

The stone statues of the abstract Union Soldier
grow slimmer and younger each year—
wasp-waisted, they doze over muskets
and muse through their sideburns . . .

Shaw's father wanted no monument
except the ditch,
where his son's body was thrown
and lost with his "niggers."

The ditch is nearer.
There are no statues for the last war here;
on Boylston Street, a commercial photograph
shows Hiroshima boiling

over a Mosler Safe, the "Rock of Ages"
that survived the blast. Space is nearer.
When I crouch to my television set,
the drained faces of Negro school-children rise like balloons.

Colonel Shaw
is riding on his bubble,
he waits
for the blessèd break.

The Aquarium is gone. Everywhere,
giant finned cars nose forward like fish;
a savage servility
slides by on grease.

FORT BRAGG MURAL

(Photo by Susie de Castro)

SKYHAWK, NOT RODERICK/HAMBURG

Editor,

That "Earth is in human hands" includes even us in the 5th District of Mendocino.

In 2002 I ran for 5th District Supervisor and looking back much of what I said was to a degree prescient. Climate Change had not been popularly recognized or the term coined, yet the opening sentence on my sample ballot statement read “Most who read this are aware of the great battering the dominant corporate system visits upon the environment and upon humankind itself.” I went on to proclaim, “Balance and the laws of Nature demand recognition.” And “Earth, Air, Fire and Water are so fundamental to all life that they must be considered sacred. Their purity is essential.” My platform was about how to acknowledge and address the huge issues through “Local Control”.

Any error on my part was not with regards to the belligerent threat itself, rather with my assessment of even liberal Mendocino’s disregard or resignation and/or the power of status quo. I lost with only 1/3 of the vote to 2/3s for the incumbent David Colfax.

In all ways these same conditions exist today - now demonstrably more evident.

Climate Change as a symptom of environmental degradation is huge but its human produced carbonic stressors are not alone in the planetary battering. Throw in plastic, industrial and medical chemical debris as well as disgraceful and disregardful spread of human greed in the strive for wealth and power.

The symptoms of the battering of the human psyche is evident in the epidemics of drug use and abuse - both licit and illicit, homelessness, mental heath crisis and so painfully the school and other mass shootings. On many fronts environmental and social, much is out of balance and stressed from similarly caused human endeavor and weigh heavy with catastrophic forebodings.

Relative to the current run for 5th District Supervisor there is a lack of focus from all candidates on the not so distant future in which many scientists see a mass extinction of life forms evolving that might also include humankind itself. So dire that before death Stephen Hawking pronounced we had but a hundred years to find another planet.

That being said Chris Skyhawk is my choice and my recommendation for 5th District Supervisor for the plain and simple reason that he is the one candidate that has devoted his life to the environment and to those people among us that are most at risk, both families and children, from the ongoing destabilization of the current social disorder. I believe he understands the relationship between environment and personal health and will consider both as he makes decisions affecting current and future impacts.

Art Juhl might know money and how to make you laugh but I don’t get much more out of him with regards to people and planet. “If the other Board members don’t vote my way I’ll blackmail them,” he declared at one forum.

Alan Rodier (and his wife) is very amiable and when in town feels like one of us but not progressive enough for real change.

Ted Williams looks pretty good - youngish, dynamic - but scary to me in his involvement and commitment to high tech and Silicon Valley run by ethicless titans with monopolistic power over our lives and “… are robbing us of our humanity, our values and our ability to grapple with complexity.” (Quote from the back cover of ‘World Without Mind - The Existential Threat of Big Tech’ by Franklin Foer. It’s in the library and should be read.)

David Roderick is a disaster. Hand picked by my friend Dan Hamburg he seems to have many of the proclivities that made Hamburg such a lousy Supervisor and appears to be a status quo conservative - in his words a “…don’t really care” Republican. Primary and revealing for me was when he mimicked a statement and attitude made to me by Hamburg and said to my face that he didn’t even want to hear from those liberal “Albion and Mendocino people”. Supervisor 101 demands that you listen to all your constituents. Besides, is it appropriate for foreign entities to influence local elections as we see in Mr. Roderick’s signs on the House of Roederer Estate vineyard fences?

So I repeat - Chris Skyhawk for 5th District Supervisor.

David Severn

Philo

MEASURE B COMMITTEE’S NEEDS ASSESSMENT REFINED

by Ariel Carmona, Jr.

Following a report to the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors this week where County CEO Carmel Angelo stated she met with consultant Lee Kemper recently to further discuss a needs assessment for mental health, the Measure B Citizens Oversight Committee members on Wednesday completed a recommendation for the Kemper Consulting Group which includes a gap analysis of current county infrastructure, services and needed locations, among other items they wanted Kemper to address in his official report.

At Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, Auditor-Controller Lloyd Weer said tax collection went into effect on April 1. Angelo said the county will begin receiving deposits of the Measure B revenues late next month or at the beginning of July.

Committee Chairman Sheriff Tom Allman said once the needs assessment is done, the board will make a final determination of the county’s overall needs.

“We want this footprint to last for 50 years or more,” he said. “We don’t want to make a misstep, so (that’s) the appreciation that I have to go forward with the needs assessment.”

The Board of Supervisors at the May 8 meeting authorized a separate contract with the Kemper Consulting Group to continue the work of an assessment of county services and needs. The contract calls for Kemper’s Group not to exceed $10,000 for services with the understanding that the committee would work on developing a more detailed statement of services.

At this week’s meeting, committee members addressed the supervisors’ request to provide more specifics regarding what the needs assessment should review.

Angelo called Kemper’s assessment, a “high level gap analysis.”

“Mr Kemper made it clear that when he talked to us and agreed that he would go ahead and do this needs assessment, that the needs assessment is basically a gap analysis,” said Angelo. “He is looking at the system and looking at what’s needed. He is not going to look at staffing of facilities, if they should be county run or contracted; he is not going to do that.”

“That’s a bit disappointing perhaps,” said Supervisor John McCowen. “He already knows what we have; he did a pretty thorough study of that, he’s familiar with our system.” McCowen added that identifying the county’s needs shouldn’t be a complicated process given Kemper’s previous work on behalf of the county.

McCowen said he had hoped information such as cost estimates of things like a residential treatment program and the feasibility of what it would cost the county and what those facilities would look like could be reviewed by Kemper and his associates.

“I think he can do the gap analysis in 10 minutes if it’s just listing ‘these are the things you don’t have’,” said McCowen. “We’ll see what we get I suppose; I would hope there would be enough detail in there to provide some guidance to the committee and ultimately to the board.”

According to McCowen, discussion about various facilities and their potential co-location with an existing hospital or clinic could be explored by Kemper.

“I think the expectation of the board was there would be a definition of services that would at least provide a broad outline of what it is that he is going to be doing,” he said adding that the board was looking for a little more detail on the scope of work.

Board of Supervisors Chairman Dan Hamburg said a feasibility study may be a good option. “You can identify all sorts of needs,” he said. “Some might be feasibly accomplished and others might be impossible to accomplish.”

Angelo told the Measure B Committee Wednesday that she talked to Kemper about a need for a more detailed statement of work and about some of the other points that the Board of Supervisors brought up.

Third District Committee representative Jed Diamond asked if Kemper would address questions sent to him at the conclusion of the committee’s previous meeting.

Angelo said he would, adding that Kemper has been working on conducting research, meeting with stakeholders and having phone conferences with various people involved in mental health.

Committee Recommendations

Jenine Miller, mental health director for Mendocino County’s Health and Human Services, said county officials need to specify whether the gap analysis should be concerned with services already provided within the county or on what services are offered with contracted providers. Miller said the county needs to look at levels of care and what are the transitions out of those levels of care.

Measure B Committee Vice Chairman Ace Barash said he wanted Kemper to look into the cause of the closure of the county’s previous psychiatric health facility in order to address what county officials may have done wrong. He also said the county is faced with a paucity of a spectrum of services.

“We end up having people in crisis staying in emergency apartments or people at the hospitals that really should be in a psychiatric hospital that we don’t have,” he said, adding that the staffing question is also problematic.

Committee member Ross Liberty said he thought it would be good to get a sense of where the gaps are, what the shortages are and how much they relate to staffing availability versus brick and mortar.

“Right now the measure is specific about up to 75 percent of the money can go to brick and mortar in the first five years,” said Liberty.

Mark Myrtle said the committee members should not even talk about staffing now, given they had no idea what type of facility they were going to staff prior to the completion of Kemper’s assessment.

“We need a gap analysis of the entire system,” he said. “The stakeholders, the police department, the hospitals, they need to be interviewed to see what they feel is needed.”

Diamond said some of the questions which required answers included: where are services currently being used, other than inappropriate places like the jails and emergency rooms in the hospitals.

“Some of the services for our local people are being sent out of county for treatment services that could potentially be utilized better or cost effectively or treatment effective if they were done here in the county,” he said.

Shannon Riley said she was extremely concerned for sustainability of a facility and said she would like to see an analysis of what existing resources could be leveraged to support a facility in addition to an analysis of the location and number of facilities specifically needed in the county.

Willits Facility

Angelo said during the April 25 oversight committee meeting, the committee received public comment on the benefits and disadvantages of rehabilitating the old Howard hospital in Willits for the mental health treatment facility.

Allman said the committee is trying to go through the process systematically in getting the needs assessment.

“There are people in this county who have put this cart before the horse,” he said Tuesday in reference to concerns from residents in the Willits area. “No decision has been made; there’s no back room deals. We are talking in open session about this; we encourage this conversation to happen.”

Third District Supervisor Georgeanne Croskey said she has heard a lot of comments and feedback from individuals in Willits to include the Willits City Manager and that there was a lot of fear that somehow decisions are already being made.

“I am constantly educating (residents) that this is a process that is going to be a recommendation to the board and that they are welcome to go to the Measure B meetings,” she said. “It’s been a little frustrating up in Willits; I have been trying to educate people we are making the decisions.”

(Courtesy, the Willits News)

LITTLE DOG SAYS, “Gotta nice big wall calendar from an intellectual-type babe. She wants to read books with me. Hah! I'll bet. ‘Dear LD: I'm packed and ready to go. I've got my week's reading. Have you checked out this stuff your peeps published? Not too shabby, Little Dog.’ I took one look at these titles and had to tell her I don't do lowbrow lit. Haven't heard from her since.”

ED NOTES

A NEW ONE on all of us crime watchers appeared in Friday's catch of day. A certain Mr. Fallis of Covelo was charged with misdemeanor hit and run with property damage, driving on a suspended license, shuriken, and probation revocation. I thought shuriken was a typo, that the Jail's booking desk had channeled a foreign language which, as it turned out, they had in a way. The term is Japanese for throwing stars which, in the right hands which are never the right hands in Mendocino County, are regarded as weapons.

A lotta guys, having watched too many kung fu movies, carry these things around like they know how to use them, like they are highly trained, highly disciplined martial arts soldiers. Nunchuks are another little apparatus the kung fu fantasists imagine they can competently wield as they hit themselves in the head with them. The idea that this Fallis kid could even throw his shuriken accurately is highly doubtful. But if it's the thought that counts, this is the wrong guy having those thoughts. Book 'em, Dano.

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THE UKIAH PAPER says Jerry Karp, a Boonville guy, and a good guy wherever he happens to be, is selling his Ukiah used book store where some 80,000 tomes are for sale. In its prior incarnations, and it’s had several before Jerry, Village Books was, uh, disorderly you could say, although if you asked the lady at the counter she could point you to your general area of interest. Jerry brought order to what had been an intimidating clutter to establish a nice business of a type fast disappearing, disappearing except for Boonville people; Dawn Ballantine of Boonville has just opened a used book store in the rail yards next to Boont Berry Farm called Hedgehog Books, and thank the goddess for retro people, people who like old stuff, the people of Boonville, Mendocino County's most happening community.

* * *

INGRESS? Some kinda international computer game. A whole bunch of Ingressers, some from as far away as Russia and Indonesia, were ingressing at Camp Navarro over the Memorial Day Weekend, which accounts for the puzzeled caller who asked, "What's the deal with all the nerdy-looking people wandering around the Navarro Store last coupla days?"

* * *

STARBUCKS "THIRD PLACE" policy seems to have arisen out of the coffee chain's Philadelphia fiasco when the store manager called the police on two black guys who were waiting for another guy without buying anything. Starbucks has now gone full-on accommodating, permitting — nay, inviting — the homeless to hang out. We'll see how the Starbucks in Ukiah and Fort Bragg adjust to the national strategy. Third place, by the way, means the place you go to when you aren't at home or work. If you have no home and no work you can pass your idle hours at Starbucks.

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ON THE SUBJECT of the homeless, if you can find a copy of Marc Ellis's "A Year at the Catholic Worker," it contains the most vivid accounts of living with the homeless I've seen. Of course Catholic Workers are not your 9-5 helping pros of the type we find doing good in Ukiah, no sir; they are round-the-clock roomies of the most difficult homeless people, so difficult they've been thrown out of the rest of New York City's homeless shelters. The Catholic Workers reject no one, and as a CW volunteer you might be punched in the face by one of your roommates for no reason at all other than he/she feels like doing it. The CWs endure what most of us would find intolerable without ever calling the police, and it's this intolerableness that makes actually doing something to get the homeless off the streets so difficult. There is as much variousness among the homeless as there is among any other group of marginal people, but the people described by Ellis are all way beyond the humanly acceptable, which is why only the state and federal governments have the resources to get them housed, which is why at present, homeless policy at all levels of government, is more of the same, as most of us wonder where the tipping point is.

* * *

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED VIEWING, a Netflix documentary called, "Evil Genius." Remember the pizza delivery guy rigged up with a bomb to rob a bank? This film is the story of that guy, the unluckiest pizza deliveryman ever. The evil geniuses, plural, are certainly evil but geniuses? Watch and decide for yourself. I sat there riveted, often gasping, "What the hell?" You'll never forget this one.

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IRV SUTLEY brings the sad news that, "Irvin Moore of Healdsburg died at age 74 on 24 May 2018 after a long illness. Many people in Sonoma County first met Irvin when he came up from his hometown of Berkeley to attend Sonoma State College. Moore was involved both in student government and with many social justice issues. Prior to moving to Sonoma County, Irvin had been active in the Auto Row sit-ins in San Francisco and the student movements at UC Berkeley. Moore was among those appointed to the first panel of the Sonoma County Human Rights Commission where he worked tirelessly to keep a focus on racial discrimination within the county.”

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A READER WRITES:

Remember a while ago there was a dust up over the word "niggardly"? Local school educators thought it was racist! Well, in the continuing saga of America's dumbing down, here's another example taken from the San Francisco Chronicle:

Grocery censorship: a South Carolina woman is not happy that a grocery store censored her honor graduate son’s cake which was supposed to include the Latin phrase "Summa Cum Laude." Cara Koscinski said she ordered a cake online from Publix that was supposed to say “Congrats Jacob! Summa cum Laude Class of 2018.” She says the online message box did not like the word ‘cum,’ the Latin word for “with.” The computer marked it as a naughty word and substituted three hyphens. Kozcinski said she explained the meaning of the Latin word before placing the $70 order.

We as a nation are so hypersensitive and mega-ignorant that we will soon become mere automatons in a truly techno-world. I'm glad I probably won't live to see that.”

DOCUMENTARY EXPLORES THE HISTORY OF THE ABUSED, RESILIENT EEL RIVER

by Justine Frederiksen

The Potter Valley Project has been diverting some of the Eel River for more than a century, but its future is uncertain as Pacific Gas and Electric announced this month it will auction off the controversial power plant if it can’t transfer ownership first.

So while the river’s future relationship with humans is yet to be mapped, the twists and turns of their mostly exploitive past can be explored now in a documentary made by Shane Anderson called “A River’s Last Chance,” which will be screened June 2 at the Mendocino Film Festival.

“The Eel River changed my life, and taught me about the resilience of nature, and that all good things are wild and free,” says Anderson, explaining that soon after learning the river’s story he felt compelled to tell its “cautionary tale rooted in repeated cycles of booms and busts, and of a river giving nearly all of its natural capital for society’s progress and vices.

“Its ancient redwoods were cut down to build California and beyond, its prized salmon were a delicacy sent around the world, its water helped create one of the largest wine-producing regions on earth, and its remote, wild country was ground-zero for the birth of the marijuana industry that now supplies most of the nation’s pot.”

In the film, Anderson describes the Eel River as a delicate balance of fish, water and redwood trees honed over millions of years. The water provides habitat for the salmon while they are alive; when the fish die they provide crucial nutrients for the redwoods to thrive, and the towering trees bring water to the river by drawing fog from the coast that then drips into the watershed to replenish it when there is no rain for months.

And while the first humans to live near the river respected it, Anderson said modern man nearly choked it to death by taking too many salmon, cutting down too many trees and sucking out too much water.

Soon after white settlers discovered the river in 1849, people hearing about the incredibly abundant and delicious salmon in the Eel River set up canneries along it and began pulling out as much salmon as they could with huge nets that collected “300 fish or more at a time.”

Historians in the film explain that then the watershed’s redwood trees were chopped down to “build Sacramento and San Francisco” while the Native American tribes living in the watershed were driven out or killed.

By 1900, “over 400 (logging) mills were operating in Humboldt County alone, and several canneries were already up for sale after exhausting the fishery,” said Anderson, explaining that hatcheries were set up to replace the salmon, but those fish did not stop the decline of salmon because their survivability was low.

In 1908, Cape Horn Dam was built in order to divert water through the Potter Valley Project to create electricity for Ukiah, and in doing so created a consistent water supply for Potter Valley, the Ukiah Valley, and all of the communities to the south along the Russian River in both Mendocino and Sonoma counties.

“Since that time, the importance of that project has shifted from (the power) to the water that was associated with it,” said Sean White, the director of water and sewer for the city of Ukiah.

When Cape Horn Dam quickly filled, Scott Dam was built 12 miles away in 1922, and “it did block 8 percent of the watershed, in terms of square miles, there’s no question about it,” said Potter Valley resident Janet Pauli. “And they did not put a fish ladder on the dam.”

“Scott Dam marked the end of the line for salmon, but a new beginning for agriculture,” said Anderson, explaining that the water diverted from the Eel River and into the Russian River “would become the backbone for agriculture in the Russian River Valley,” and also provide water for a large population of people living alongside, and fish living inside, that river as well.

“South of Potter Valley, its importance is nuts,” said White, explaining that at least a portion of the water supply for “600,000 people from Ukiah to Sausalito” is derived from the diversion of the Potter Valley Project. “The big question is, which river gets priority, whose fish are more important, whose people are more important? And I don’t know if there’s a good answer to any of that.”

Several decades after they built Scott Dam, humans seemed to be learning from their lessons, Anderson said, explaining that once the timber industry “went bust and salmon was on the verge of extinction in the late 1990s,” strict regulations to protect both were implemented.

In 2010, the diversion rates to the Potter Valley Project were cut “nearly in half” to more closely mimic the river’s natural flows, and three years after the flow increases, "the Eel saw one of the largest salmon runs in decades,” Anderson said.

However, soon after achieving that success, Anderson said humans again ravaged the river in the form of a huge increase in trespass marijuana grows in recent years that he calls The Green Rush.

“Marijuana has long since replaced timber and salmon as the economic driver of the region,” Anderson said. “Semi-trucks loaded with top soil have replaced log trucks, and old timber mills have been converted to water storage manufacturers.”

And though trespass grows sucking water from the river and its tributaries, combined with the state’s recent severe drought, caused “the state’s third-largest river to disappear” in the fall of 2014, Anderson said he still sees hope for the Eel River, thanks in part to the legalization of personal marijuana use and cultivation state-wide that he hopes will bring more enforcement and environmental restoration to the watershed.

“The unbridled use of its natural resources has left the river a shadow of its former self, but despite it all, the Eel is now one of the best hopes for salmon with one of the last genetic races free from hatchery influences,” said Anderson. “Its collapse, devastation and recovery are all important in figuring out how to move forward, and ... key to finding future balance with nature.”

More information on how to see the movie June 2 is here: http://mendocinofilmfestival.org/

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BACKGROUND:

Pinches Makes The Case: www.theava.com/archives/24066

Pinches’s Can’t Even Get a Second for a Simple Ad Hoc Proposal: www.theava.com/archives/24795

HUFF'S PUFFS (RAISING COYOTE DAM?)

Washington, D.C. — The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee unanimously approved the Water Resources and Development Act of 2018 today, including key North Coast and environmental priorities authored by Congressman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael), a member of the committee. The bill will next head to the full House of Representatives for consideration.

The bipartisan WRDA legislation authorizes Army Corps of Engineers activities across the country, including two important provisions authored by Huffman: one to start the process to raise the Coyote Valley Dam at Lake Mendocino, and another to improve reservoir operations there by using modern science and weather forecasting.

“Today’s vote shows that there is bipartisan support for modernizing the Army Corps’ work at our ports, harbors, reservoirs, and waterways,” said Huffman. “In addition to important national policy fixes, this WRDA bill delivers on two key North Coast priorities: jump-starting a long-overdue feasibility study for raising Coyote Valley Dam, and moving ahead with much-needed reservoir operation modernization at Lake Mendocino.”

The bipartisan WRDA bill includes a provision to expedite completion of the feasibility study for raising Coyote Valley Dam, which was authorized in the last WRDA in 2014. It also directs the Army Corps to proceed with pre-construction activities if the project is found to be justified. Raising the dam, as originally planned, could yield additional water storage capacity of nearly 200,000 acre feet. Doing so would not only expand water supply in the area, but the increased storage coupled with modernization of reservoir operations could contribute significantly to ecosystem restoration benefits in the Russian River.

The bill also includes a provision that would require a report to Congress on the ongoing pilot program for forecast-informed reservoir operations at Lake Mendocino and Lake Sonoma, setting a deadline for the Army Corps to move forward in the Russian River and provide insights into expanding forecast-informed operations modernization to other Army Corps reservoirs across the nation.

Huffman also supported national provisions in the bill, including:

• Use of Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund to Support Navigation — Provides that revenues in the existing Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund will become directly available to the secretary for authorized maintenance dredging activities at federal harbors, and would no longer be subject to the annual appropriations process.
• Integrated Water Resources Planning — Encourages enhanced coordination between the Corps and municipalities to encourage consideration of locally developed plans for stormwater management, water quality improvement, aquifer recharge, or water reuse.

CATCH OF THE DAY, May 27, 2018

SCOTT BANNAN, Leggett. Failure to appear.

SHALEEN CHORLEY, Fort Bragg. DUI.

CRYSTAL CRADDOCK, South Gate/Ukiah. Smoking/injecting device, failure to appear.

MIGUEL GUEVARA, Ukiah. Mandatory supervision sentencing.

TRAVIS HAWK, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

JAMES HOWARD JR., Willits. DUI.

JULIAN JACOBSEN, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

EDWARD JOHNSON, Ukiah. Controlled substance, controlled substance for sale, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

DEBORAH LAWRENCE, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

BRIAN PATTERSON, Fort Bragg. Assault, battery, use of offensive words in public place likely to cause violent reaction.

CYNTHIA PHILLIBER, Ukiah. Parole violation.

MIGUEL PICAZO-PADILLA, Ukiah. DUI.

SILVIANO RIVERA-MUNGUIA, Ukiah. DUI, resisting.

LUIS SANCHEZ JR., Potter Valley. Domestic abuse.

BRANDON WIARD, Ukiah. Paraphernalia, failure to appear, probation revocation.

WILLIAM ZUBIA, Covelo. Offenses while on bail, failure to appear.

ELDERS WANDERING IRELAND…

by Katy Tahja

If we’re lucky in our lives we get those few very precious days when Everything. Is. Perfect. You couldn’t ask for more. It could be a combination of location and travel companions and weather and your inner spirit, but everything clicks together for an unforgettable few hours.

For perhaps the second time in my life I had that day recently, in Ireland. We were three older women on our first trip to our ancestors' homeland and we were on an isolated island off County Kerry. Great Blasket Island Boat Trips had brought us from Dingle to the island to spend the night with a total of eight people on a three-mile long island.

Years ago I’d heard harpist and storyteller Patrick Ball tell the story of the elders on the island living in poverty but in their own world rich in Gaelic language and storytelling. The Irish Congested Districts Board removed everyone from the island, with its stone cottages and sheep, in 1953. Blasket islanders had no electricity, phones or medical services and all the young folks had left for a better life elsewhere. As Ball relates in “Fine Beauty of the Island” the islanders, now stuck on the mainland, knew their spirits turned into dolphins and swam back to Blasket when they passed away.

We were staying in Peig Sayers old house. She’d been gone 60 years but her stories were transcribed into “An Old Woman’s Reflections” which I’d read before traveling to the island. We arrived to a coal fire warming the cottage, sunshine, and a breathtakingly beautiful view of off-shore islands, seals on the beach, sheep grazing, red hares leaping around, and no wind. It. Was. Perfect. We hiked around crumbling stone cottages and wondered what it was like when 100 people once lived here.

Eighty percent of the island is state owned but 20% remains in private hands. The only restroom and water was in a tiny café in the building next to us, privately owned. With no electricity and only a propane stove the café’s offerings were limited to snacks but they served us oatmeal, fruit and tea for breakfast and it had charming hosts. Since the sun raises shortly after 5 a.m. and the sun set after 9 p.m. we had plenty of time to explore. An old one-room school was being converted into a visitor center by the government with careful restoration underway. The boat trip from Dingle and back featured dolphins leaping out of the water as they raced alongside the 12 passenger boat.

We wandered Ireland for a week after that and, of course, never saw all we wanted. As a bookseller retired after 28 years with Gallery Bookshop in Mendocino I’d had the opportunity to meet Irish authors Niall Williams and Christine Breen at work a dozen years ago. We’d maintained a correspondence and they had invited us to tea. The home in County Clare, near Kilrush, was exquisite and inviting with beautiful gardens but they would soon be dealing with a problem all to common in Ireland…wind generators.

All over Ireland hilltops are covered in wind spinners. While ecological wind generating equipment is not a good neighbor. While a sheep grazing can walk away from a noisy turbine engine in its field when energy producers move into more settled areas you can’t pick up your house and move it away. A wind generator tower was proposed to be installed 500’ from Niall and Christine’s bedroom window. All legal challenges had been exhausted and they were undecided about their future. They were lovely hosts to us for an hour as we drank tea and talked books.

Traveling in a foreign country I always like to look for simple things that are different. The universal sign for toilets has a woman figure in a fluffy skirt that looked like an umbrella. Our rental car had a transparent sign on the windshield on how to drive through a rotary, or roundabout as we call them. These traffic calming devices replace stoplights, which in Ireland are only seen in urban centers. Road travel was on narrow lanes with no center line. We followed the TomTom navigation unit’s instructions with care. Freeways were toll roads. The driver watched for “Unstable Road Edges” and “Abrupt Verges” and we were warned to “Watch For Descending Mists.” We were passed on the motorway by a semi hauling racing pigeon cages. Ahead was a “Confusion Junction.” Roadside fruit stands sold strawberries and new potatoes.

Someone will have to explain to me about the role of Turkish Barbers found in every town. Schoolboys have short hair but they have intricate designs shaved into their hair…the work of those Turkish hairdressers? Many shopkeepers were men and everyone was friendly to tourists. Washcloths were never seen in bathroom linens.

Being a tourist I loved the age of everything. Stone walls surrounding pastures looked like they’d been in place for hundreds of years. Houses could be built close to riverbanks because flooding patterns had been established years ago and watersheds tended to be very small. English ivy grew up anything, including telephone poles. Clothes washers and dryers are set up outdoors in grocery store parking lots so you can shop and wash clothes simultaneously. Gas stations have machines offering air, water, vacuuming and fragrance for a coin. Gas and diesel prices varied no more than three cents anywhere in Ireland.

Town folks were often out picking up litter so their community could maintain their “Tidy Town” award. Every item on a dining menu had a complete allergen statement attached to it. I still need to look up and see what the allergen Lupin is. The best fish and chips we had was at Danno’s in Dingle. Salad comes with no dressing nor is any offered. If it’s a dessert item it will, taste better with whipped sweetened clotted cream. Tea water is always hot enough. People still read big thick newspapers on a daily basis.

In Mendocino we hate gorse as an invasive species. In Ireland it is cultivated in hedgerows. Ten percent of Ireland is forested and commercial forestry takes place with “clearfelling” and the state manages 70% of the forest parks. Dingle harbor was being dredged to allow cruise ships entry and locals were happy about this. Artificial color in food was forbidden. Blood pudding served with breakfast is actually good.

My sister and I now have photos of us standing on the church steps of three houses of worship our ancestors attended in the 19^th century in Clongeen, Carrickmacross and Cootehill. We heard the birdsong in the church cemeteries and saw the lay of the land they left 130 years ago to move to Philadelphia. We don’t know why they left the old country but we’ve seen those places now and are happy.

The bad thing about travel to Ireland is you want to go back. There will be a next time I’m sure.

WE'LL FIX THINGS

Editor:

As a native Californian, I’m appalled at what our state has become under Democratic Party control. High taxes used unwisely, onerous regulations, homeless encampments and open, widespread drug use overtaking our cities, lack of sensible planning in our drought-prone state, a porous southern border letting in drugs, human traffickers and possible criminals/terrorists who find refuge in our “sanctuary” state, the dumbing down of California’s already high standards by the expensive adoption of Common Core and the widespread forced use of political correctness to shut down free speech. All tend to diminish the quality of life of California families.

Isn’t it past time to stop putting Democrats back in control this election? Fortunately, there are some strong contenders on the Republican ticket. Running for governor are John Cox and Travis Allen. There are many YouTube videos of these men explaining their positions. Worthy choices for other offices include Cole Harris, Konstantinos Roditis, Mark Meuser, Jack Guerrero, Arun Bhumitra, Steven Bailey and others who deserve a look and possibly your vote.

Continuing to vote a straight Democratic ticket will continue the erosion of our prosperity and safety here in California. One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting things to change for the better.

Anne Durham

Sebastopol

TRUTH IN ADVERTISING?

(Wine industry press release)

ukiahdailyjournal.com/general-news/20180527/should-mendocino-county-wine-bottles-have-to-declare-their-local-roots

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

You know there’s a special status to billionairehoodship. Once you have it and get invited to Davos, you don’t wanna let go. You get to hang with Kanye & Keith. You can even get a selfie with the Pope. You’re rushed to the head of the line at the finest clubs & restaurants. You no longer have to settle for fake Patek Philippes. Like Putin, you can collect the finest Swiss watches like bottle caps. Name your sleek Italian sports car with those 800 horses pulsing under the hood. It’s yours. You have a helicopter & a jet air plane at your beck & call just like the POTUS. You have a berth at St. Barts for your yacht right next to Larry Ellison’s so your latest amour can drop in for that million dollar diamond necklace. Everything is comped in Vegas, EVERYTHING. You have your own zip code. If you feel like Mexican, you buy the chain. Tony Montana is your personal dealer. If your wife looks a little tired, trade her in for the newest model. You can buy your own fantasy island and invite Bill Clinton. Get the picture? Greed begets more greed. But not to worry. They’re already straining for that next brass ring — trillionairehoodship.

MARK SCARAMELLA WRITES:

Below is an exchange between Fifth District Supes Candidate Ted Williams and Ukiah Libertarian Ross Liberty regarding the anti-hack&squirt Measure V passed by over 62% of Mendo voters in 2016. It was sent to us by Beth Bosk who clearly supports Williams and Measure V. I have personal experience with nuisance lawsuits in Mendocino County, having spent two years trying unsuccessfuly to convince the County and the Courts that having several assault helicopters land on your roof all night was a “nuisance.” (And those were not MRC helicopters, they were five humongous vineyard fans a few hundred feet away running all night, night after night, keeping my cancer victim brother from sleeping — at all — while he lay distraught in his sick bed as spokespeople for the wine industry claimed that their grapes were more important than anyone’s sleep and accused complainers of exaggerating the problem.) Mendo’s County Counsel Doug Lasak first demanded that I put up a $1 million bond — that’s the County Counsel’s office, not the allegedly affected wine growers — before I could sue on grounds that making the wine industry go through a permit process for their fans (as the wine industry itself says, incorrectly, that it does). Judge Henderson then said I had to “prove” that the fans were too loud — even though that’s very obvious and at no time was that reality disputed by the fan operators or the County. And even though Judge Henderson acknowledged my right to sue, he never ordered the parties into settlement conference where it should have gone because all three of the fan owners subsequently offered reasonable, if partial, mitigations on their own after the suit was filed. (But not the County, of course, which, lead by our do-nothing Supervisor Dan Hamburg, refused to even explore the wine industry’s false but praticable permit claims.)

SO THIS EXCHANGE between Williams and Liberty regarding the obvious “nuisance” of leaving thousands of acres of standing dead trees waiting for a spark or lightning strike is interesting. But the exchange is too abstract to get anywhere in terms of actually improvement on the tinder-dry timberland. First it does not address MRC’s argument that California’s “Right To Farm” ordinance exempts MRC’s “agricultural” practices from being declared a nuisance. Nor does it mention the fact that MRC already acknowledges the problem — by voluntarily offering to mitigate the hack-n-squirt areas to areas they deem to be too close to residences. Another factor that usually goes unmentioned is the general incompetence of Mendo’s County Counsel’s office. If getting MRC to mitigate the problem depends on their half-hearted at best advocacy, it would truly be a waste of money to try to force MRC into making concessions. Until these issues are addressed — particularly a legal assessment of the probability of at least getting into a settlement conference — the issue will remain moot.

* * *

THE DISCUSSION between Williams and Liberty (et al) follows:

(BETH BOSK sends along this dialog between Ross Liberty and Ted Williams re. Measure V on FACEBOOK group site: Mendocino County 5th Disstrict Supervisor Race.)

Saturday, May 26, 2018 between Ross Liberty (a supporter of David Roderick) who lives along the 101 corridor, and Ted Williams re. Measure V (standing dead trees Initiative) on the FACEBOOK Group site: Mendocino County 5th District Supervisor Race. Asking and answering so many specific and fundamental questions.

The thread begins with the Comment from me (Beth Bosk) on the Facebook group site:

Dear all 5 candidates: would you support and enforce Measure V? And in your own words, for what reasons?"

Ted Williams answered: Yes, because:

1. A) rapid suppression of fires saves neighborhoods and unchecked, a forest littered with manufactured hazards creates life safety risks for people working below.
2. B) V was passed by the people. The Supervisors do not have veto power over legally passed voter initiatives.
3. C) The argument that we cannot afford to follow through is unfounded and an excuse to place industry profit over the people.

The dialog between Ross Liberty and Ted Williams began with Ross's query: Has the AG opined on this yet?

Ted Williams: It has been drafted, but not distributed.

Ross Liberty: if the AG concludes that the Board of Forestry governs forest practices and the County has no jurisdiction, not withstanding your outstanding ability to turn out the voters supporting Measure V, will you support a lawsuit against the Fischer [sic] companies?

Ted Williams: See (B) below.

California Code, Government Code - GOV § 51115.5

(a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, timber operations conducted within a timber production zone pursuant to the provisions of the Z'berg-Nejedly Forest Practice Act of 1973 (Chapter 8 (commencing with Section 4511 ) of Division 4 of the Public Resources Code) shall not constitute a nuisance, private or public.

(b) This section is not applicable with respect to any timber operation which (1) endangers public health or public safety or…

Ross Liberty: Thanks for providing that code section. There may be more to this but we will see what the AG comes back with. Which brings me back to my earlier …

Ted Williams: What would the grounds be for this hypothetical lawsuit?

Ross Liberty: At some point that is how the County would force compliance, correct?

Ted Williams: Not necessarily. The AG opinion carries weight, but is non-binding on the courts. The first time there are privately insured structures lost near intentionally killed and left standing trees (in violation of V), we’ll see a battle that doesn’t involve the county. The potential liability is enormous and this alone might steer violators into compliance.

Ross Liberty: That’s a good point and one I considered. I just don’t want the County to spend vast sums of money on lawyers forcing compliance with V especially if the AG indicates the County doesn’t have jurisdiction. Many would argue we should impeach Trump and a measure to do so would do well in Mendocino County but it would lack jurisdiction. I believe that is Dave’s point, jurisdiction is at issue and litigation could be very costly … Possibly for naught.

Ted Williams: We need to do what we can to uphold the will of the people and at the same time protect our finances. I don’t see these goals as mutually exclusive.

Ross Liberty: Question for you: As a local agency Chief, with state resources pooled out of county on other incidents, in the peak of summer dryness, would you send volunteers to suppress a small fire below industry manufactured snags? A nearby residential subdivision with only one egress route for escape depends on quick action, but the forest is littered with excess ladder fuel and widow makers. What would you do? Ross Liberty: This is a trick question isn’t it? Luckily welders don’t make those decisions but I think even a welder would choose life over property. How did I do?

Ted Williams: My catalyst for V was the above. We have a situation where neither answer is satisfactory. Both paths create a risk to life. If you don’t like V, find us a better alternative. People who decided to live in the forest willingly assumed certain risks of nature. A wall of dead standing trees produced in the name of cost cutting was not one of those risks. I see this as a property rights issue. An indefensible forest impacts the enjoyment and safety of neighbors — essentially, it is a taking. The Libertarian in you ought to recognize the role of government in protecting property rights and mitigating corporate welfare. The millions of dollars spent on air attacks and dozers is exactly that — a handout for the largest landowner paid for by mom and pop. If they don’t like the financial liability V creates, imagine how the rest of us feel.

Ross Liberty: I’m not disputing the efficacy of their process. But if it turns out that the Board of Forestry and not the county has jurisdiction it looks to me as at best a flawed process but a process that is more popular than practical. Certainly good for getting popular recognition.

Ted Williams: If the AG/courts decide the people cannot have a say in the safety of their environment, it’ll raise larger questions about what it means to have a government by the people, for the people.

A common firefighting best practice is to pause and take down snags. You can imagine the delays this creates. Eventually it will translate into a loss of insurance eligibility, an escalation from the eligibility fallout we have already seen result from the Lake County incident. This has the potential to drive down real estate values (try closing escrow with a mortgage and no insurance), which will cripple our county budget. The tangled web of long term ramifications demands a solution. Shrugging V off as an unnecessary legal cost isn’t a solution to the underlying problem.

Does Dave Roderick believe he can veto Measure B (mental health) and other voter initiatives the way he would veto Measure V? I take issue with supervisors turning their backs on the will of the people no matter the issue at hand. Nobody is suggesting we bankrupt the county in a crazed pursuit to enforce V, but Roderick has openly expressed his desire to zero out funding to burn V. Is it coincidence that Dennis Thibeault, Executive Vice President of MRC/HRC, a man caught on video denying climate change to me, was active at Roderick's campaign event?

Roderick has MRC. Skyhawk has SEIU. I have regular people.

Ross Liberty: I’m regular people

Ted Williams: How can we keep special interest and outside influence out of our local races?

Ross Liberty: In my Libertarian view, it is less tempting to influence a minimalist government. Is Factory Pipe an outside influence? Is SEIU? Mendocino Forest Products (the largest landholder and possibly employer in the county)?

Ross Liberty: I think Beth Bosk likes our discussion…

Ted Williams: Government is the largest employer.

Ross Liberty: Sorry, private employer? Or maybe that’s Adventist Health?

Beth Bosk: You are so right! This dialog is so refreshing. Forthright, without ego. Asking and answering so many specific and fundamental questions. Both. Thank you so much. --beth bosk

Ted Williams: Getting back to V, Bob Simpson, former General Manager of Louisiana Pacific, endorsed V. This is the gentleman who had been involved in aerial spraying of herbicides decades earlier. He has a sawmill in Humboldt and argued the Tanoak MRC sees as an unwanted species actually has value. Of course, after a talk with MRC's CEO he backtracked. I was on an email thread where MRC offered Simpson "some logs". Nonetheless, the best outcome would be through finding a path to support community safety, the forest and the industry. I believe it is possible.

http://www.willitsnews.com/.../opinion-yes-on-measure-v/1

Cathy Wood: I like the discussion too! Interesting dialog. Thanks you two!

Ross Liberty: I agree. For decades Mendo has looked at industry as the enemy but we could afford to with $3,500/# cannabis but going forward we need to bring money into our community. Like it or not we will need the MRCs, Masonite, GP, Factory Pipe etc. that bring living wage jobs into our community, something the mom and pops have a tough time doing. But I do agree also that they have to also be respectful.

Ted Williams: This is exactly right, it's about mutual respect. Rather than work with concerned citizens, MRC decided to deny the safety concern. Mind you, this is in face of their own employees going on record discussing the fire risk and in one example, video attached, admitting crossing a line due to sloppy survey. There is a better way to work together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_CVgG-fZ4Q >

Ted Williams: This is not an isolated example. MRC is currently fighting the county in court for collecting the fire parcel assessment in Albion-Little River, the very assessment residents pay and counter to Execute VP Dennis Thibeault's previous statement (which perhaps they forgot about):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgyvLCzy1CU

Laurie York: Not only does MRC and other county industries have to be "respectful"- they have to be responsible and accountable for their actions by honoring the will of the voters who live here. We are the people whose lives and property are at stake. Good discussion Ted Williams and Ross Liberty. Thank you (Y)

Ross Liberty: Actually Ted Williams, I’m not expert on the topic (best forestry practices and fire fighting) enough to challenge you who I readily acknowledge know more than I. And I think we agree, especially if supported by AG opinion, that it would be very risky for the Fischer companies to ignore V. Ignoring V if supported by the AG could be ruinous for them if some firefighter was killed by a snag left by hack and squirt.

And from our discussions I believe there is little difference between your position and David Roderick’s position. I don’t think Dave opposes measure V but he shares your position that the County should not spend monies on attorneys to force the issue.

Do I have that right? I’m not trying to put words in your mouth but I think that’s what I’m getting.

Ross Liberty: I was on the JAG for a time and remember some discussions about hack and squirt to get rid of blue gum (eucalyptus) but my recollection is that the JAG’s recommendation to the Board of Forestry was to not do it. It wasn’t the fire risk or even the chemicals but rather the optics. They were just beginning to open the Jackson to logging and the sentiment was that it was too risky from a PR perspective. I thought the local CalFire ignored our position but it was a long time ago and I left before it was to be implemented. Frankly, the local Cal Fire Staff generally ignored the JAG and often persuaded the Board of Forestry to see things their way. It was a very frustrating experience.

Ross Liberty: Also, according to David Roderick recent FPPC filings, I don’t see any donation to his campaign from any of the Fischer companies or senior management employees (that I know of). Dennis Thibeault was at the meet and greet at my shop but the only donation made there that I was aware of was not from anyone associated with MRC. I invited a lot of people including Patrick Pekin who is a Skyhawk supporter. I guess I just like parties.

Ross Liberty: In all sincerity, Ted Williams I think you would make a fine Supervisor and we have had that discussion but I am supporting Dave David Roderick because he too would make a fine Supervisor but I believe he will be more fiscally restrained. I believe that is going to be more important that ever to our county as we try and reinvent our economy and adjust to life after legalization. Add to that the unfunded pension ticking time bomb, were in the 9th year of an economic recovery and they don’t usually last that long. We’re in for a very tough go and we’re going to need a BOS that watches pennies like a miser and works hard to attract new basic industry, living wage jobs to our County.

Beth Bosk: Ross Liberty Do you remember how long ago that was, Ross. Because when Richard Wilson was head of CDF, the foresters planned on using herbicides along the roadways throughout Jackson State Forest. There was push back from coastal environmentalists. Wilson learned he had prostate cancer, and during his research found there was a high correlation between prostate cancer and the the herbicide they were planning to use ( one of the Garlons or glysophate) and he nixed the use. --beth bosk

Ross Liberty: No, it was later. My term ended around 5 years ago.

Beth Bosk: Ted has a level of resolve and focus that Roderick lacks. David was right about waiting 4 years before running for Supervisor. He's really not as ready as Ted. And the Board needs another coastal Supervisor. The eight years with Hamburg proved that. Same talk, different walk. David should consider moving over a couple of neighborhoods back into the 1rst District and running in two years for that seat. I really like the idea he threw out about adding another Supervisorial District (or two, if it can't be an even number). If we became a Charter County we would have so much more local control over our destiny. As far as the Fisher family: when the opposition is large enough, they fold. . . . Thank you so much for participating in this discourse. —beth bosk

Ross Liberty: Well, either way, we all need to get behind whoever wins. I will if you will.

Ted Williams: Above you wrote:

"And from our discussions I believe there is little difference between your position and David Roderick’s position. I don’t think Dave opposes measure V."

I would disagree that Dave Roderick and I are aligned on Measure V. In an interview where V was framed as a public health nuisance initiative, David Roderick disagreed and explained, "it is due to forestry in terms of how they are managing their forests and they need to do it in an economic way."

I've explained my position as being one of enforcement with an eye towards mitigating county litigation expenses.

Dave on the other hand has explained that he is against the core of Measure V -- not the enforcement of V, but the ordinance itself.

Ross Liberty: we’re closer than you may think. Managing forests in an economic way would include liability avoidance which you and I agree could be substantial if the AG supports V.

I believe enforcement may come via costly litigation which I believe you and Dave oppose.

I’m not aware of Dave saying he is against the core of measure V. I would think he would make that decision after the AG opinion.

This is good vetting, thanks.

Ted Williams: Dave went on to further argue the timber company's perspective, "that’s private property — are we going to go onto private property and start cutting the trees down?"

Ross Liberty: Again, I would advise waiting for the AG opinion. Moreover, I’m sure MRC would be fine with you going in and cutting down the trees. It’s late Ted. Good night.

Ted Williams: You've asked whether Roderick and I share similar positions on Measure V. I've explained that our views are vastly different.

The beauty with this forum is David Roderick is free to speak up and answer directly. He's presumed to side with MRC, but he can quickly clear the presumption by answering:

1) Did you vote in favor Measure V?

2) If elected Supervisor, assuming we identify a means to enforce Measure V without subjecting the county to great financial burden, would you vote in favor of such abatement?