Mendocino County Today: Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2018

• Complex Updates
• Wildfire Risk
• Arsonists
• Highway Fatality
• County Notes
• Fair Deadline
• Downtown Philo
• Little Dog
• Alcala Announcement
• Yesterday's Catch
• Dark Age
• Justice Warrior
• Precariat
• Hospital Board
• Abalone Cookoff
• Chocolate Neighborhood
• Evacuee Help
• Dobbins Out
• Crooner Concert
• Pure Mendocino
• Blurt
• Jared Bites
• Go Fish

AS WE GO to press this week, the Big Fires to the east are still raging but slowly being brought under control. Gratitude can’t be expressed often enough to all the firefighters who’ve done their bit fighting The Beast, and fighting it so effectively on the Mendo-Lake Front that the fires were kept from engulfing the small towns lining Clearlake.

BLOWN BY EASTERLY ON-SHORE WINDS on Monday, the Mendocino Complex was up to a total of over 270,000 acres, now considered to be the second largest in state history. Conditions in the potential burn area are returning to hot, dry, windy during mid-week so it’ll probably become the biggest in state history before it’s over.

CALFIRE ASSESSMENT, Monday Evening:

On Monday a higher pressure system brought warmer weather, drying, and strong winds to the region. The Ranch Fire saw continued spread to the east-southeast sections. Fire crews worked aggressively to hold previously established containment lines. The River Fire had a successful firing operation in the Cow Mountain area, continuing to tie into Scotts Valley Road. More engines, water tenders, and dozers came in to help fire suppression efforts. Monday night fire crews will try to take advantage of the lower temperatures to increase suppression and hold current containment lines. Firefighters continue to battle the River and Ranch fires. Crews worked throughout the night Sunday into Monday to reinforce containment lines while the fire behavior remained extreme. Weather conditions will continue to challenge firefighters as hot, dry and windy conditions persist.

FROM UKIAH LOOKING EAST (MONDAY)

---

CALFIRE'S MENDOCINO COMPLEX UPDATE (Tuesday 7am): 290,692 acres (now largest in state history); 34% containment; 169 structures damaged or destroyed; 1 firefighter injured.

"The Ranch Fire remained active overnight expanding further north and east, continuing to challenge fire crews due to limited access, heavy fuel loads, low fuel moisture, and high temperatures. Today resources continue to be deployed to all areas of the Ranch Fire perimeter. On the River Fire we continued to increase containment and work towards tieing [sic] in the remaining containment lines to Scotts Valley Road."

cdfdata.fire.ca.gov/admin8327985/cdf/images/incidentfile2175_3899.pdf

WILDFIRES. IT WILL GET WORSE

“People talk about ‘resilience,’ they talk about ‘hardening,’” Westerling says. “But we’ve been talking about climate change and risks like wildfire for decades now and haven’t made a whole lot of headway outside of the scientific and management communities.”  It’s true. At least two decades ago—perhaps as long as a century—fire researchers were warning that increasing atmospheric CO2 would mean bigger wildfires. "

wired.com/story/the-only-thing-fire-scientists-are-sure-of-this-will-get-worse/

* * *

CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES: IT’S A PEOPLE PROBLEM

Even as fires rage across California, thousands of new homes are being built deeper into our flammable foothills and forests, as lethal as they are lovely.

mercurynews.com/2018/08/05/california-wildfires-its-a-people-problem/

ARSON IN COVELO?

“COLIBRI LIBRE” of Covelo posted on her facebook page:

Here's yesterday's MCSO media log. Arson is listed at 4 locations as well as assist for 451PC (arson), though no arrests listed. Does CalFire make its own arrests? I understand they're in charge of the investigation. Or would any arrests be listed in the MCSO log?

http://www.mendocinosheriff.com/media/pdf/media20180805.pdf

ED NOTE: “Arson” in a sheriff’s media log entry does not mean they know who did it, only that it was either reported as arson or it looks like arson. Calfire’s arson investigators investigate the fire itself, and the causes, not the arsonist(s). Law enforcement is responsible for arson criminal investigations and arsons, as a category of crime, are the least likely to result in an arrest of any major crime category, statistically. “By property crime offense, the arrest rate for burglary was 64.3 per 100,000 inhabitants; larceny-theft, 326.5; and motor vehicle theft, 26.7. The arrest rate for arson was 3.0 per 100,000 inhabitants.”

(https://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/fbi-releases-2016-crime-statistics)

101 FATALITY UPDATE

On August 3, 2018, at approximately 1630 hours, a 1997 Honda Accord station wagon, being driven by Gannon Rogers of Blue Lake, was traveling southbound US-101, just south of mile post marker 80.99, within Mendocino County [at Bell Springs Road]. For reasons still under investigation, the Honda traveled off the west roadway edge and continued in a southwesterly direction down a steep embankment, where the front of the Honda collided with a large tree. After the collision with the tree, the Honda came to rest on its wheels, facing a southeasterly direction, within the Rattlesnake Creek bed. As a result of the collision, Roger sustained fatal injuries and was pronounced deceased at the scene. The 8 year old male passenger became trapped within the vehicle and was extracted by emergency personnel. The juvenile was transported to the US-101 Empire Rest Area and flown to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital. The juvenile was later transported to Oakland Children Hospital.

This collision remains under investigation by the Garberville Area CHP office.  The driver’s sobriety at the time of the collision is still under investigation.

If anyone witnessed the actual collision or has information regarding this collision, please contact the Garberville CHP Area office at (707)923-2155.

CHP Press Release

COUNTY NOTES

by Mark Scaramella

WHAT SEEMED to be a routine albeit ‘emergency’ Big Fires meeting of the Supervisors at their meeting of Tuesday July 31st turned rhetorically fiery when Sheriff Allman took the podium. After praising the stellar performances of his deputies "in a situation they have unfortunately become familiar with," the Sheriff said he wanted to give a "shout out to County employees who know that they are emergency services workers and came in to answer the phones and help out." The Sheriff then denounced "the approximately 90 percent of County employees who either don't answer their phones or return phone calls. They may not understand they are emergency services workers. That we have people who are avoiding their responsibilities as public servants irritates me." The Sheriff added that "the supervisors should be fully aware, and the CEO provide a list of employees who stepped up."

SUPERVISOR BROWN said she was disappointed and thought "it was important to have a list of the County employees who did come in. We all do trainings for emergencies and should be available."

CEO ANGELO began by praising the work of Heidi Dunham of Human Resources for her efficient organizing of the County's Office of Emergency Services, then seconded Sheriff Allman's frustration with the County workers who had not shown up to do their secondary duty as emergency services workers. The CEO, as always speaking in the calmly dulcet tones of the experienced hatchet person that she is, proceeded to cloud up and storm all over the no-shows. "My plan is to send letters to all the employees we contacted who did answer the phone — it is July and August and some employees are on vacation — but those employees who refused to come in will be getting a letter in their personnel file because this is a very serious issue… We have 1205 employees; every single one of them should be aware when there is a fire in our county or near our county and should be ready to come in."

MORE STARTLINGLY, CEO ANGELO declared, "We had two department heads who refused to allow their staffs to come in and respond. Any department head who says no, I really take exception with." The names of the two refuse-nik department heads were unnamed as we went to press, but if they are unelected, at will employees, their heads should say goodbye to their lower anatomies as Angelo ominously concluded, "They will be dealt with." (Supervisors Croskey and Hamburg did not attend Tuesday's meeting "by pre-arrangement.”

SLACKERS. The Sheriff's statement that some 90 percent of County workers failed to show up to man the County's Emergency Services Office needs clarification, which the Sheriff later provided. Of the employees called, about ten percent appeared to do their mandated duty. There are 1205 County employees, and that figure includes deputies and other persons whose work assumes disasters. It remains true, however, that the large majority of County workers were no-shows, many turning off their phones, some promising to appear but not, some legitimately on vacation like Supervisor Hamburg who said he was in "the midwest visiting relatives," and Supervisor Croskey, also out of state when the fires broke out, who said she would return immediately. We haven't heard from supervisors McCowen, Gjerde and Brown, but it is a safe bet they reported for emergency service.

CEO CARMEL ANGELO, on the advice of her attorney, presumably County Counsel Kit Elliot, said she could not identify the two non-cooperating County offices, but we are reliably informed that they were the County Clerk's Office and the Retirement Office.

SHERIFF ALLMAN said late Tuesday afternoon that he's throwing a post-fire barbecue for the County people who showed up to work the emergency. He cited the County's Department of Transportation for special mention. "They've just been great," the Sheriff said. "They've done everything they've been asked to do and then some." Asked how the Lake County Jail evacuation went, the Sheriff commented that it was uneventful and uniquely touching. "When the inmates came out of the Jail to board the buses, they seemed awed at the huge plumes of smoke rising over the Mendocino County hills. Like everyone else, they knew it was bad." The trip south to the Santa Rita Jail in Alameda County went off without a hitch.

* * *

BURIED DEEP in Tuesday’s (August 7th) Consent Calendar, and slathered in numerical disguises, are big raises for two of Mendo’s top officials: The Director of Planning and Building, and the Director of Health and Human Services.

ACCORDING to the attached resolution, itself slathered in more bureaucratic gibberish, both positions are being jacked up in grade from a “bi-weekly” mid-range rate (which obscures the actual amount because you have to do some math to get the annual pay) of the equivalent of $116k per year to $137k per year for Planning Director Nash Gonzalez, and from $124k per year to $153k per year for either (or both) Tammy Moss-Chandler and/or Anne The Inevitable Molgaard. Of course, no reasons are given for these gifts of public funds other than “it is the wish and desire of the Board of Supervisors to amend this resolution to meet the needs of County service.” And, “the various affected departments or agencies have agreed to incorporate the positions within their existing fiscal year budgets.”

TRANSLATION: Gonzalez and Molgaard (and Moss-Chandler?) are allowed to give themselves their own raises simply by putting the raises in their own budgets. Presto! $21k per year more for Gonzalez and almost $30k per year more for Molgaard/Moss-Chandler.

SUPERVISOR John McCowen justified the salary gifts in narcoleptic prose we read three times to decode:

"The increased salaries for HHSA and P&BS Directors are large but justified under the circumstances. Tammy Moss Chandler is resuming her duties as HHSA Director and Interim P&BS Director Nash Gonzalez is taking over from her as Recovery Director. Meanwhile the County is in the process of hiring a permanent P&BS Director.

The increased salary for HHSA Director is necessary to retain Moss Chandler who had a competitive offer from another jurisdiction for a position that would be far less demanding. During her time at HHSA she has worked tirelessly to make it a more effective and responsive organization and has a comprehensive understanding of the complex funding streams that HHSA relies on. As Recovery Director she consistently went above and beyond to resolve issues with our State and Federal partners, particularly the over excavation issue, frequently working into the night. The increase in salary is minor compared to the value she brings to the County.

“Nash Gonzalez has done a great job as P&BS Director but it was on an interim basis as we recruited for a permanent director. His willingness to serve as Recovery Director to continue the work from last year's fire disaster and now this year's, speaks to his commitment to his home community. His planning expertise is an invaluable asset to the recovery effort and we are fortunate to still have him on our team.

“But the increased salary for P&BS Director is necessary to secure the services of the best qualified applicant for the permanent position. An announcement should be made shortly, but the incoming P&BS Director has the experience and skill set that is needed to avoid a break in continuity as we continue to rebuild P&BS.

“The Board of Supervisors is very aware that the same could be said for many of our employees. In fact, employees working in about 20 classifications, ranging from custodians to social workers and public health nurses, have recently received unilateral pay increases at the direction of the Board.

“We are well aware that many more employees are deserving of increases but in most cases this will be the subject of the next round of negotiations through the collective bargaining process.

“It's easy to justify the need but it's a constant challenge to pay for the many services the County is required or expected to provide with the limited financial resources available.

That said, I honestly believe the increased salaries for these two positions will result in a much greater benefit that will make it easier to provide critical services and meet our many obligations."

WE APPRECIATE Supervisor McCowen for at least addressing this question, the other four Supervisors haven’t bothered to reply to our requests for their justifications of the raises.

Without getting into the merits or demerits of individual employees, this is the kind of budget-busting thinking that puts the entire County budget at risk. The budget is already teetering under the weight of huge deficits in the pot permit program, the Sheriff’s overtime, the loss of assessed value of property from last fall’s fires (and a good chance of more), Juvenile Hall overruns, a declining economy (largely from the drop in pot revenue and the lack of housing which the Board hasn’t done a thing to address), declining reserves, and no regular review of budget status. So far the County’s only objective response to these budget pressures has been an as-yet unspecified 5-10% vacancy rate in General Fund line worker positions. Yet here come all these big management raises on the consent calendar, as if they're as routine as 15-year service pins.

AS SUPERVISOR McCOWEN likes to remind people, the Board’s first responsibility is to the solvency of the County as a whole, not the welfare of its employees (who should be paid a fair, but not artificially high wage.) Letting certain management employees whipsaw counties by engaging in bidding wars creates salary levels out of all proportion to workload or responsibility.

PAYING PEOPLE based on their knowledge of “funding streams” borders on extortion, and implies that that is more important than delivering efficient services.

If these huge raises are so easy to justify with this kind of glowing praise why hide them deep in the consent calendar?

TAKEN AS A GROUP, how much has it cost the County for all these management level raises in the last year? The Supervisors alone hit us up for about $120k plus bennies. And if, say, 15-20 department heads are getting large raises on the scale of these proposed raises for Gonzalez and Moss-Chandler, we’re talking about several million dollars in salaries, benefits and pension obligations for management which they apparently can just roll into their own departmental budgets without any kind of review. And as the Grand Jury recently pointed out these big management raises put an especially big burden on general fund services and line workers by loading up net departmental costs with excessive overhead and putting more work on employees in departments which are understaffed.

WHY DOES THE COUNTY need two people in charge of HHSA now with Moss-Chandler going back to HHSA? If Ms. Moss-Chandler is so deft at her daily tasks, why can’t the County dispense with her redundant and equally overpaid assistant, Anne Molgaard?

WHAT HAVE any of these high-paid managers done to save the County money?

There is still no regular monthly departmental reporting on basic things like budgets, staffing or project status, so Supervisor McCowen’s justification of these raises requires the public/taxpayers to take his word for the wonderfulness of all these officials, making the whole affair seem more like a self-congratulatory revival meeting of The Church of Mendo Insiders, than an objective evaluation of employees.

* * *

THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS has posted a draft response to the Grand Jury report on Juvenile Hall. Back in May, the GJ denounced the County’s plan to outsource the Hall to Sonoma County. When the Supes later overruled CEO Carmel Angelo and decided to artificially cover the Hall’s budget gap with imaginary salary savings from an arbitrary 10% position vacancy rate and unrealistic minimization of Sheriff’s overtime, that gave the Supes the easy answer to the GJ by saying they were keeping the Hall open. Many of the GJ’s other findings were dismissed by the Board’s GJ-response committee (probably headed up by Supervisor John McCowen, but they never give us the names of the persons actually responding), with “appears to be more a statement of opinion than a finding of fact.” A statement which, as we've seen, is demonstrably untrue and another cheap shot at the GJ’s conscientious work.

SO YET ANOTHER GRAND JURY report will be shelved without any real action taken.

However, the Board of Supervisors scrupulously avoided responding to the most significant part of the GJ’s Juvenile Hall report because the GJ forgot to call it “a finding.”

BUT CLEARLY the Juvenile Hall would never have been up for outsourcing had it been managed properly, had it not been burdened with huge overhead costs, such as paying for her administrative leave while the Chief Probation officer's work-time sexual adventures were endlessly looked into (if not looked at) by expensive outside attorneys, and had the Board and the CEO listened to the County's school superintendents on how to better handle juvenile offenders.

THE GRAND JURY assessed it this way: “In late 2017, unbudgeted raises were granted to elected officials and some department heads. Increases in salaries also increases the cost of benefits and retirement payment obligations. Elected officials and department heads are entitled to the county paying matching funds up to 4% of their salary into a deferred retirement account. The maximum amount must be budgeted. This benefit is in addition to regular county retirement contributions.

“THE GRAND JURY has not found any budgetary analysis of this impact. County administration stated that the beneficiaries of these raises were asked if their budgets could sustain the increased costs, and they answered in the affirmative. It was known at the time of the raises that the county was facing significant costs due to the October fires and the cannabis revenue shortfalls. There was no public discussion on whether or not these salary increases were sustainable.”

(AND THAT WAS BEFORE this July and August’s fire disasters)

“AT THE MARCH 27, 2018, Board of Supervisors meeting, the administration presented the second quarter budget report and stated that the current cost of operating the county juvenile hall was ‘unsustainable.’ In the development of the 2018-19 fiscal year budget, the administration has proposed capping the allowable net county cost to $1.1 million for the operation of the Mendocino County juvenile justice program. This is inadequate to keep juvenile hall open. If there is no juvenile hall in the county, then the youthful offenders would most likely be housed in another county’s juvenile hall.”

THERE IS STILL NO “budgetary analysis” of the impact of all those big pay increases gifted to top County officials, including the Supervisors themselves. Those undeserved raises alone would have covered much of the Juvenile Hall budget gap. But the Supes’ proposed Grand Jury response sidesteps and ignores this giant elephant in the room.

SPEAKING OF SHERIFF’S OVERTIME (which we know is escalating as the 2018 Inferno burns on and multiplies in new locations as fire season continues), readers may recall that CEO Angelo and her deputy Janelle Rau promised the Board in early June that they would closely track overtime in the Sheriff’s Department because they knew it was ridiculous to budget just $300k for it.

ON JUNE 8, Ms. Rau told the Board:

“I have been working with the Sheriff's office on their budget. They did go through some budget balancing strategies [translation: they made some ridiculous assumptions]. And, working with their budget officer Kyra [the Sheriff’s budget analyst] and the Sheriff himself, they did do some reductions to meet net County cost. [Arbitrary cuts.] With that is an understanding that the executive office is going to be working with them hand in hand and in turn with the board, meaning that we will be coming to you -- and there are descriptions in the information to you -- monthly, not quarterly. We will be coming to you with adjustments as they are necessary. We have made that arrangement with the Sheriff to say, You let us know when there is an issue so we will have discovered that between all of us here if there is one. Overtime was one of them. We knew it was out there. It is a strategy that we will watch. And that we will look at their vacancy factors as well to see in their total 1000 series [general fund] where they will be. It's a different approach this year. But we have been working on it effectively. Kyra and I started working on it this last year in July to make sure we could come here and feel good about what we are giving you and actually give you the confidence that we will be informing you as we go along as well.”

IT’S NOW AUGUST and — as we predicted the obvious at the time — there’s been no overtime reporting. (Staff provides no regular reporting on anything, really.) And the Board agenda for the August 7 Board meeting makes no mention of overtime whatsoever, although, again obviously, there’s lots of it going on with the fire emergency/disaster.

WHEN WILL MENDO’S out of control spending (they’ve blown through well over $1 million on the failed pot permit program alone, not to mention the huge salary giveaways to themselves and their colleagues) catch up with them? And will CEO Angelo, who frequently uses her alleged budget balancing skills as a tool to keep the Supervisors off her back, be held responsible when it all blows up?

TO DATE, of the 964 pot permit applications submitted, only 226 have been “issued” (178) or “approved” (48). And there are still a nearly unbelievable 674 applications are still either “under review” (484) or “in queue” (190). No one has ever bothered to explain the difference between “issued” and “approved,” nor the difference between “in queue” and “under review.” Needless to say, whatever they mean, the County’s pot program is, for all intents and purposes, dead in the water, and an ongoing drain on the County’s budget. Will anyone in official Mendo ever ask about this? Or fess up? Or give up?

ALSO ON THE CONSENT CALENDAR is the controversial consolidation of the Parks, Museum and Library departments into a “cultural services agency,” over the objection of all the advisory boards involved.

Item 4v: “Adoption of Resolution Adopting the Classification and Establishing the Salary of Director of Cultural Services, Department Head Association (D47D) and Amending Position Allocation Table as Follows: Budget Unit 7110, Add One (1) FTE Director Cultural Services; Delete One (1) FTE Museum Director.”

Among the “duties and essential job functions” of the new Cultural Services Director position we noticed a number of things which seem pointless and unmeasurable, and typical of the kinds of vague “duties” which make all of Mendo’s top management jobs unaccountable to any objective measure of job performance: “Strive to integrate library, literacy, and arts and recreational programs into the Cultural Services Department’s operating structure” … “Provide creative leadership to staff in order to develop a problem-solving and proactive staff team that works toward a common vision, mission, and plan.” … “Work effectively with ethnically and economically diverse constituencies, and is sensitive to political and cultural issues and concerns.” … “Work with all staff in a cooperative manner, accepts basic workplace democracy, and encourage and utilize staff input in decision making.”

“WORKPLACE DEMOCRACY?”  Mendocino County is a private club, run by a small group of women close to CEO Angelo who answer only to Angelo, while those great tribunes of the people, our Supervisors, simply ratify whatever the CEO puts in front of their uncomprehending pusses.

COUNTY FAIR ENTRY FORMS DUE AUGUST 10.

Terry Ryder reminds us: Now is the time to fill out your entry forms for the 2018 Mendocino County Fair. Every person who enters makes our fair just that little bit better. Our personal hand delivered entries are what make our little fair a very special place to visit. If you always enter you know how to do it. This year you can easily enter online if that is easiest way to go to at mendocountyfair.com. Those who prefer traditional paper entry forms can find them at the fair office in downtown Boonville call Gina or Jim at 707 895-3011 if you have questions. The Fair office is open 9-4 closed 12-1 for lunch. Deadline for submission is this Friday August 10. There are some additions to what you can enter so look through the website or the paper entry book at the Fair office carefully. The Fair Boosters meet all year to come up with refreshing new ideas that they share with the Fair Board and Staff. Do you love flowers? - enter a garden or arrangement. Are you a handy baker or food preserver? - enter pies, cookies, breads, jarred jams, fruits and veggies. Got prized livestock- make arrangements to show them off. Fine artist? Hobbyist? Home crafter? Photographer? There are categories for all of these things. You can be an inspiration to others who may just decide to take up a craft after seeing your handiwork. What the world needs now is more inspiration, more sharing, and enthusiasm. Temper all the bad news that surrounds us by plunging into doing and making something you passionately enjoy. You really can’t beat that for chasing the blues away and it’s contagious. Make this the year that you do it and really be a part of the fair. There really is nothing to compare to the suspense you’ll feel approaching your display after the judges do their work just waiting to see if you got a coveted ribbon. And when you see a blue ribbon it really may make your day! Don’t delay.

PLEASED TO SEE the "Open" neon lit in the window of the Poleeko Roadhouse, formerly the site of Libby's Restaurant, and the Anderson Valley’s latest addition to The Valley’s unparalleled, never a bad meal anywhere, restaurants.

AND RIGHT NEXT DOOR at Lemons Market, a banner announcing "Wild Salmon Fresh." We count our blessings in the Anderson Valley, and they are many. The multi-skilled Tommy Lemons Sr. and sons have remodeled the old Libby’s into the Poleeko Roadhouse, an achievement they managed in between ocean excursions out of Noyo on their fishing boat to bring back to Philo ocean-fresh fish, and how many markets anywhere can honestly claim their fish is that fresh.

LITTLE DOG SAYS, “O yea, I'm feeling the years, feeling the east wind blowing through my bones, but what does the Reaper look like for dogs? Is he grim and scary-looking, or some kind of nightmare cat, a giant Skrag?”

RUBEN ALCALA ANNOUNCES

My name is Ruben Alcala and I ask for your support in my bid to run for Fort Bragg City Council.

I am 43 years old. I’ve lived in Fort Bragg for 30 years. I graduated from Fort Bragg High. I have been employed locally for 23 years. I am married to my beautiful wife Lisa and we have two children.

I am a concerned resident who feels Fort Bragg’s potential is not being fulfilled.

We have a stagnant economy which stalls growth.

The lack of Housing has depleted our workforce.

We have nothing to offer our youth and they are forced to pursue a life elsewhere.

Our infrastructure is so deteriorated if not repaired soon, it will stall growth. Why keep building if we can’t maintain what we already have?

It is not fair that the police department spends over 70% of their time dealing with transients, but on the other hand if they don’t, then we deal with the loss of commerce in downtown Fort Bragg.

I am willing to listen and learn.

I look forward to talking and working with local community leaders to turn Fort Bragg into a more attractive location for commerce.

Life is beautiful on the coast let’s take care of it.

Thank you for your support

Ruben Alcala, Fort Bragg

CATCH OF THE DAY, August 6, 2018

JESSIE ANGUIANO-LOZANO, Willits. DUI.

DAVID BRYANT, Corte Madera/Ukiah. Trespassing/business obstruction, disorderly conduct-alcohol, resisting.

BRYAN DINGUS, Ukiah. DUI.

SOUPHARAK DOUANGPHAY, Santa Rosa/Ukiah. DUI.

MICHAEL FUGATE, No city, unspecified misdemeanor, no booking photo after four days.

MIMOSA HARRIS, Rohnert Park/Ukiah. First degree robbery.

JODI HODGES, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

DARREN KILIANY, Laytonville. DUI, willful cruelty to child with possible injury or death.

DAVID MORENO, Clearlake/Ukiah. Under influence, willful cruelty to child with possible injury or death.

LEWIS RILEY, Redwood Valley. Grand theft auto, probation revocation.

RALPH SNYDER, Nice. Entering closed disaster area, concealed dirk-dagger, narcotics possession for sale.

MICHAEL STAGG, Ukiah. Kidnapping by force, fear, stealing, taking, holding, detaining or arresting any person, false imprisonment.

ARNANDO VILLAFAN, Vallejo/Ukiah. Failure to appear.

MICHAEL WHITNEY, Willits. DUI, second offense within ten years.

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE WEEK

I predict that in a couple generations, when the “new dark age” and some truly biblical, catastrophic weather patterns become commonplace, the only “growth” industry will be constructing underground living and figuring out how best to grow crops in covered trenches where they won’t be handily destroyed by heavy weather. The only slightly dependable energy is going to come from that yellow ball that we spin toward each day.

Can we prepare our kiddies to be *mentally* flexible and curious about work-arounds that happen to be anathema to the current status quo? I don’t know, but it certainly would be worth a tiny bit of effort, even though the political structure will [self-protectively] do what it can to prevent this. (The first thing that’s got to go is this worship of celebrity and money; that’s just the epitome of counter-productive. Get their faces out of those screens and engage in some dangerous investigation of nature and alone-with-my-thoughts-and-wonderings time. Plunking your brats in front of “Dora the Explorer” ain’t gonna get it done, peeps.)

WELCOME TO BAD FAITH

by James Kunstler

Surely last week this foundering nation finally reached Peak Social Justice Warrior Bullshit with The New York Times hiring of genocide-for-white-people advocate Sarah Jeong, 30, as an op-ed writer on tech matters. Apparently, one angle of the tech world Sarah Jeong overlooked was the mile-wide Twitter trail of messages she left over the past ten years declaring that white people should be “canceled out,” “made to live underground like groveling goblins,” or this pungent one from the Reinhard Heydrich playbook: “Oh man it’s kind of sick how much joy I get out of being cruel to old white men.”

When this big glob of shit hit the Internet fan, The Times’s HR department cranked out the pathetically lame explanation that Ms. Jeong was merely “mirroring” or “counter-trolling” malicious tweets she had received over the years, “imitating the rhetoric of her harassers.” That left the old newspaper and its readers gratified for a day or too… until a whole new bale of Sarah Jeong tweets was discovered dissing The New York Times and virtually all of its other op-ed writers in the most opprobrious terms.

She wrote: “After a bad day, some people come home and kick the furniture. I get on the Internet and make fun of The New York Times.” “I don’t feel safe in a country that is led by someone who takes Thomas Friedman seriously.” “Hannah Rosin shatters ceiling by proving women writers can be as hackish as Tom Friedman, too.” “[David] Brooks is an absolute nitwit tho.” “Notajoke: I’m being forced to read Nicholas Kristof. This is the worst.” “if I had a bajillion dollars, I’d buy the New York Times, just for the pleasure of firing Tom Friedman….”

So far, The Times hasn’t even deigned to respond to this sticky discovery. Good luck with your new colleagues, Sarah! And enjoy your new desk next to the furnace in the second sub-basement of 620 Eighth Avenue! Also notajoke: my own assessment of The New York Times op-ed writers is probably more unfavorable than Ms. Jeong’s, but I haven’t been applying for any jobs there.

This is what comes of sending a young person to Berkeley and Harvard these days, where they are given super-extra brownie points for dumping on white people, and men especially. The insane diktats of the faculty get funneled from the ivory tower straight into the “Newspaper of Record,” and so it is on the record now that nobody can trust The New York Times to analyze world and national affairs in good faith, in particular on matters of race and gender. The paper’s old motto, “All the News That’s Fit to Print,” has changed to “Anything Goes and Nothing Matters.”

President Trump was in error when he stated recently that “the media is [are] the enemy of the people.” Not quite so. They are the enemy of the truth, and their handling of the Sarah Jeong fiasco proves it. In the spirit of the day, the story will probably disappear from the American hive-mind after this week, because that’s how we roll now in a country where the Grand Inquisitors are not held responsible for their turpitudes.

But if the Jeong affair does represent Peak SJW BS, the hubris of The Times in this embarrassing decision may presage its extinction. It will be interesting to see what the company’s next move will be. For the moment, it looks like they have no next move, except to pretend that the Sarah Jeong episode doesn’t matter.

The news situation in the USA is pretty dire. The Internet has killed off the old print media, sure enough, but it has also killed off the principles of institutional authority in reporting the events of our time — which is to say, the grounds to believe what you read and see. It’s especially bad at the local level where every small-town newspaper has been driven into the ground and we learn almost nothing about what is going on in the places where we live, where daily doings actually affect our lives most.

(Support Kunstler’s writing by visiting his Patreon Page.)

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

The idea that any employer would increase wages to attract or keep employees is a joke. "Here is the job. Here is the pay. If you don't like it, here is the door" is the attitude of any employers i have known. The working class is now "the precariat': people so desperate that they dare not complain or ask for more, and capital loves it that way. This is their version of a "recovery".

HOSPITAL BOARD: A HOW-TO

(Or perhaps how not to rock the boat)

Fort Bragg, CA — July 25, 2018 - Mendocino Coast District Hospital (MCDH) has announced they will conduct an informational meeting for members of the public interested in running for one of the open Board of Director positions. The meeting will be held on August 8, 2018 at 6:00 p.m. in the Redwoods Room at MCDH, which is located at 700 River Drive in Fort Bragg, CA.

The focus of the meeting will be to educate potential board members and constituents about the roles and responsibilities of a Hospital District Board member, and to outline resources available to help prepare candidates and future board members for what lies ahead. Chairman of the Board, Steve Lund and Bob Edwards, MCDH CEO will present information about MCDH and the role of a board member. The guest speaker will be Heidi Dickerson, Leadership Mendocino’s Program Manager. Questions and discussion will be encouraged.

According to the California Special District Association (CSDA), as a board member or trustee for a special district, you have committed to serve the best interests of the community, provide services that are essential to the community and represent the people who placed you into office. Being a special district board member is an important job and one that should be taken seriously. Clearly, the position requires that elected or appointed officials wear numerous hats and be knowledgeable in a wide range of areas.

Reminder. The deadline for applying to become a candidate for the November election is August 10.

Thanks ~ Gayl

Gayl Moon, Executive Assistant, Mendocino Coast District Hospital

ABALONE COOK FESTIVAL THIS SATURDAY!

2018 Abalone Cook Festival and Cook Off

South Noyo Harbor, August 11, 11:00-4:00

Have Fun, Eat Abalone, Drink, & Help Save Nor Cal Abalone & Bull Kelp

Hope to see you there!

www.brownpapertickets.com

THE SWEET SMELL OF SAN FRANCISCO IN 1961

From The New Yorker:

...Around 1962, when offers started coming for the land surrounding the former factories of the Ghirardelli chocolate company, a potential buyer proposed a design for a sleek high-rise complex. The proposal horrified some people, and the family of a local shipping scion, William M. Roth, was persuaded to buy the plot instead. Rather than simply hiring an architect, Roth solicited ideas from real-estate brokers, landscape architects, and preservationists.

He commissioned one architecture firm to draw up a plan for Ghirardelli Square, and then, like a movie producer polishing a screenplay, called in others to do subsequent drafts of buildings. Everybody’s style became a little cramped.

And yet the messy pluralism forced differently minded people to work through one another’s sensibilities. [Alison] Isenberg sees similar approaches in the Embarcadero Center (a multilevel commercial complex, monolithic at first but customized through collaboration with its tenants) and the Crown Zellerbach Building (the city’s first International Style tower, with a garden below)...Private Dreams and Public Ideals in San Francisco, Nathan Heller.

* * *

Rob Anderson comments:

When I was 19, my first apartment in San Francisco in 1961 was on the northern end of Polk Street, near the still functioning Ghirardelli Chocolate Company. I was so pleased that the whole neighborhood smelled like chocolate!

(District5Diary)

SOS FIRE FUNDS NEEDED

S.O.S.- Networking For Mendocino Coast Companion Animals has arranged with our local veterinarians to call us for help for pets of fire evacuees. If you, or anyone you know, has taken in evacuees and their pets, and their cats or dogs need vet care, please have them call us at (707)937-0342. Thank you! This offer stands to help any animals at local evacuation centers also.

Dear Community,

The Mendocino Complex fires are causing thousands of families to be evacuated from their inland homes in Mendocino and Lake counties. MCCF is facilitating relief on the coast. We need your help so evacuated families can receive food and gas cards and other urgent forms of help for their children and pets. The fires have consumed over 270,000 acres. For 26 years, we have been our community responders when neighbors need a hand. Please use the DONATE button on our page at www.mccf.info or mail a check to us today.

Thank you,

Mendocino Coast Children's Fund, P O Box 1616, Mendocino, CA 95460, Cell 707-684-6644, www.mccf.info, mccf@mcn.org

DOBBINS OUT

City Council Filing Period Extended to August 15

City of Point Arena News

The filing period for candidates for the Point Arena City Council has been extended to August 15, as Councilmember Anna Dobbins will not be seeking reelection.

Persons interested in running for the Point Arena City Council should come to City Hall to pick up a nomination packet. City Hall is located at 451 School Street in Point Arena. The process to take out nomination papers generally runs about 15 minutes. There is no fee.

Nomination papers are due by 3pm on August 15, 2018.

More information is available on the City’s website at www.cityofpointarena.net.

DATE OF ELECTION: Tuesday, November 6, 2018. Polls open from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

POSITIONS FOR ELECTION: City Council. Two positions. The incumbents are Barbara Burkey and Anna Dobbins.

TERM OF OFFICE: Four-year terms, beginning December 2018 and ending December 2022.

CANDIDATE QUALIFICATIONS: All candidates must be 18 years of age, a Citizen of the United States, and a registered voter residing within the city limits of Point Arena,

NOMINATION PERIOD: Opens: Monday, July 16, 2018. Closes: Friday, August 10, 2018 at 3:00 p.m., unless an incumbent does not file, then the period is extended to Wednesday, August 15, 2018.

NOMINATION PAPERS AND CANDIDATE GUIDES: Nomination papers and guides will be available at City Hall, 451 School Street, on the first day of the nomination period, Monday July 16, 2018. “Pulling” nomination papers will take approximately 15 minutes. Office hours at City Hall are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. City Hall is closed on Wednesdays. Nomination papers and the candidate guide are NOT available via email.

COST: There is no cost to be issued nominations papers or receive a Candidate’s Guide. There is no fee to file nomination papers. If a candidate chooses to submit a candidate statement in the County Ballot guide, a deposit of $150 (English only) or $300 (English & Spanish) is required.

For more information, contact City Hall at 707-882-2122 or pa-admin@mcn.org

SWOONING AND CROONING:

Jazz duet blends Big Band sound with classical orchestra

by Roberta Werdinger

The Ukiah Symphony Orchestra presents the first concert of its 2018-19 season, "Kick Off Your Shoes!" featuring vocalists Roseanne Wetzel and Pedro Rodelas singing from the Great American Songbook in this Big Band-themed concert. Performances are Saturday, Sept. 8 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Sept. 9 at 2 p.m. at the Mendocino College Center Theatre. Tickets are $30 for adults, $25 for seniors age 65 and up, and free for ASB card holders and everyone under 18. Tickets are available at the Mendocino Book Company at 102 S. School St. in Ukiah or online at www.ukiahsymphony.org. Season tickets, which provide four tickets for the cost of three, are also available online. For further information please call the Ukiah Symphony hotline at 707 462-0236.

* * *

The Ukiah Symphony Orchestra opens its 2018-19 season with playful panache on the weekend of September 8-9 with a Big Band-themed concert, "Kick Off Your Shoes!" The concert reunites popular local songstress Roseanne Wetzel with Bay Area crooner Pedro Rodelas for a celebration of an important part of the Great American Songbook.

"Crooner" describes a style of singing popularized by vocalists, typically male, in the Big Band era, popular in the 1940s and 50s. Electrification made possible a style of singing more intimate and thoughtful, since the singer did not have to project his voice to fill the entire room unaided. The suave, typically tuxedo-clad presence of crooners such as Gene Kelly, Nat King Cole, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and others depended on this intimate atmosphere and the undeniable appeal it generated in some female fans. (Not for nothing was Sinatra known as "The Sultan of Swoon.") Small differences in timbre and tone could register in the voice of the miked singer, conveying vulnerability and yearning and increasing the cachet of the singer along with the appeal of Big Band and jazz music in general.

Vocalist Pedro Rodelas welcomes the opportunity to extend his repertoire by performing songs in the style of Sinatra, along with duets including "The Girl from Ipanema" with Wetzel. He jokes that his role is "the ultimate karaoke" with the orchestra providing most of the heavy lifting. Although it is true the orchestra will be well-prepared for the occasion, with conductor Les Pfutzenreuter increasing the brass section (saxophones, trumpets, and trombones) and providing prominent roles for piano, bass, drums and guitar, Rodelas will more than hold his own. Trained as an opera singer with a master's degree in vocal performance from the University of Maryland, he studied acting, scene design, and several languages in order to become the "well rounded singer and actor" that the opera world requires.

While opera remains a great love of Rodelas's--he sings with the San Francisco Opera Chorus, among other vocal gigs--he enjoys the playfulness and lightness of mood that Big Band music conveys so well. "I get to sing in my natural voice--more like Pedro as opposed to an opera singer," he says of the crooner persona. "I can let the mike do the work for me" by carrying his voice at a softer level that conveys nuance and allows further "stylistic originality such as swooning from one phrase to another," a technique common among some crooners and known as portamento in opera.

Roseanne Wetzel also carries a wealth of talent and enthusiasm over from other parts of the musical spectrum. A graduate of Ukiah's SPACE program as well as the San Francisco School of the Arts, Wetzel has performed in musical theater from a young age and continues to do so in and around Ukiah, when she is not performing with her new "folkgrass" band called the Back Porch Project, or presiding behind the desk at the Ukiah Library. She and Rodelas have sung together accompanied by the Ukiah Symphony for such favorites as "Annie Get Your Gun," and "South Pacific." "I get to showcase a different part of my personality every time I go onstage," Wetzel comments, noting--like Rodelas--that she enjoys the chance to sing without being in the guise of a character. Since her childhood watching old musicals on TV, Wetzel has loved Big Band music, commenting, "I'm looking forward to getting into the swing of it with Pedro." Rodelas assents, adding that he's eager to break the "fourth wall" between singer (or crooner) and audience, engaging folks in banter and receiving instant feedback. All that and an orchestra too.

"Kick Off Your Shoes!" will be presented Saturday, Sept. 8 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Sept. 9 at 2 p.m. at the Mendocino College Center Theatre. The Theatre is wheelchair accessible. Tickets are $30 for adults, $25 for seniors age 65 and up, and free for ASB card holders and everyone under 18. Tickets are available at the Mendocino Book Company at 102 S. School St. in Ukiah or online at www.ukiahsymphony.org. Season tickets, which provide four tickets for the cost of three, are also available online. For further information please call the Ukiah Symphony hotline at 707 462-0236.

The concert is sponsored by Gudrun and Guilford Dye, Monte and Kay Hill, and Realty World/Selzer Realty.

UPDATE FROM CANCER RESOURCE CENTERS

Dear Friends of Cancer Resource Centers,

Pure Mendocino is three weeks away and there are 19 tickets still available. It is unusual for this event to not be sold out by this date.  The ongoing fires have surely played a role in turning our attention toward the immediate needs of those affected and evacuated by wildfire.

We are committed to raising the funds we need to continue to serve our many clients here in Mendocino County who are facing another, different challenge:  cancer.  Pure Mendocino is our biggest fundraiser of the year, and raises about one-fifth of our annual budget.

Therefore, I am asking those who cannot attend Pure Mendocino this year to consider donating the price of a ticket ($135) to the Cancer Resource Centers, and we will invite a dedicated Cancer Resource Centers volunteer to attend Pure Mendocino in your place. A donation of any amount is always appreciated!

Our volunteers do so much for the cancer patients we serve in addition to assisting with tasks in both our inland and coastal offices. Your donation helps make the vision possible that no one in Mendocino County will face cancer alone.

If you would like to donate to Pure Mendocino, even though you can't attend this year, please call our office at 937-3833; or mail a check to:  CRCMC, P.O. Box 50, Mendocino, CA, 95460; or visit our website puremendocino.org:

http://cts.vresp.com/c/?CancerResourceCenter/dedb5803e5/c8bebd9577/8ec8c5b837

Thank you!

Karen Oslund, Executive Director, Cancer Resource Centers of Mendocino County

“Every time I feel like saying something I shouldn’t, I ask myself, ‘What would the President do?’ And then I go ahead and say it.”

EASY, JARED, EASY BIG CHAMPION

Even our idiot President is smart enough to know this tweet is complete bunk - there's not a shred of truth in it. In the middle of a tragedy, he spouts a lie to get a rise from his base and to bait his critics so we're once again talking about him. Yes, I'm taking the bait this time because we can't let him exhaust our sense of outrage! We can't just shrug and say "there he goes again," and pretend there's not something deeply wrong here. What a disgusting insult this tweet is to our heroic firefighting efforts and the thousands of people whose lives have been wrecked by these terrible fires. Let's support the victims and the incredible firefighters who are working to extinguish these fires, and let's also keep working to extinguish this nightmare presidency that is poisoning our country.

TEACH A MAN TO FISH by Jon McNaughton

Artist Statement: "I imagined President Trump sitting next to a young college student. His pack is beside him and his Socialism and Justice Warrior books laid aside. He listens to Trump's proposal and looks at the different bait he can use to catch his fish. Trump offers him a fishing pole. Each of us has the freedom to choose our own destiny."