Usually, when we see court cases listed under “Closed Session” agenda items for the Board of Supes we don’t have any idea what’s at issue, even though the court filings themselves are available to the public and may even reveal what's up. But to get a look at the filings one has to go through the tedious courthouse drill of driving over to Ukiah, taking off one’s belt, emptying one’s pockets, saying “thanks” to the security guards for giving you your wallet back, waiting in line at the court clerk’s window only to find out that the file is either downstairs and won’t be available for a few days, then when you go back on another day and go through the same drill you discover that parts of it are “sealed” or the details are missing, etc. (County government is teeming with spiritual Stalinists who arbitrarily withhold public info simply because they can.)
In other words, the public doesn’t have much real chance of knowing who has sued the county for what, or vice-versa. It’s legal under the Brown Act for discussions of negotiations, settlement offers, discovery demands, etc. to be held in closed session, although it also provides a convenient cover for the Supes and their attorney(s) (often very expensive outside counsel) to hand over our money and cover up official malfeasance.
But sometimes we get a peek, of sorts.
Like on this week’s Supe’s agenda. It says, “Pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.9(a) – Conference with Legal Counsel – Existing Litigation - 1 case: Mendocino Redwood Company, LLC v. Mendocino County, Case No. SCUK-CVG-16-67455.”
Given the “16” in the case number and what we know about MRC’s actions in the months leading up to 2016, we can safely assume that this is MRC suing Mendocino County to recover some $9300 of a parcel tax imposed on them by the Albion-Little River Fire Protection District under a ballot Measure M in 2014, which was supposed to bolster the volunteer Fire Department’s always-tight budget a bit. The tax is a community fire protection measure, of course, and the Albion volunteers put out fires on MRC’s vast Coast holdings.
MRC says the Albion-Little River Fire Protection District overcharged them $9,834 for their parcels that MRC insists are not taxable by the Albion-Little River Fire Protection District.
MRC may be technically correct.
But MRC still expects firefighting services from the Albion-Little River Fire Protection District on mutual aid and the billionaire Fisher family who own MRC could well afford $9,834 for fire protection and the friendly relations with their local fire department. At several hundred dollars per hour, the fees charged by Charlie Mannon, the multi-millionaire greed bucket lawyer who owns the Savings Bank of Mendocino and represents MRC, are likely to be much more than whatever MRC may get back from the Albion-Little River Fire Protection District, although Mannon may be working pro bono for his soul bros, so to speak.
The warm image MRC is trying to promote is neatly undermined by what is clearly petty retaliation against the fire district that promoted the initiative that would declare MRC’s hack-n-squirted poisoned trees to be a fire danger and public nuisance.
MRC hired Charlie Mannon’s uber-connected Ukiah law firm — no local judge would dare cross him — to first file an expensive appeal of the Fire Department’s refusal to give back the money with the Board of Supervisors in 2016. Then, after the County denied the appeal in May of 2016, MRC turned around and paid Charlie Mannon et al to sue Mendocino County for the money. Exactly how Mendo is on the hook for the money isn’t clear, but we’re sure Mannon and his staff have their legal quack-quacks in a row.
MRC is clearly peeved at the Albion-Little River Fire Department because they had the unmitigated gall to spearhead Measure V back in 2014, which declared the mass poisoning of tan oaks to be a fire hazard and a public nuisance. (The measure passed overwhelmingly, but MRC said they’re exempt from “nuisance” declarations because logging is an agricultural enterprise, thus exempt under California’s “right to farm” ordinance! That claim has held up so far and no one’s particularly interested in challenging it.)
MRC was so peeved that they even went so far as to post an extremely detailed — and magnificently petty — rebuttal to a ho-hum account of their claim in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat back in November of 2015.
In their rebuttal, MRC makes a valid point about the state’s refusal to properly fund local fire departments, but it has nothing to do with the issue at hand.
AVA contributor Malcolm Macdonald also wrote about the case, explaining that MRC apparently expects to be exempt from future parcel taxes too if they prevail in court.
Yet here we are in 2018 and the case is still being discussed by Mendo officialdom in closed session, meaning that MRC has run up some considerable legal fees trying to avoid taxes that a billion-dollar company could easily afford and, in today’s extreme fire hazard conditions, should offer to pay because local fire departments are almost always the first responder and have the best chance to put out small fires before they grow — and those local departments also have a better chance of preventing fires in their areas of responsibility — fires that could easily consume large chunks of MRC’s merchantable timber assets.
The petty vindictiveness displayed by MRC in dragging this case out with expensive attorneys to make a minor point and avoid paying a small amount to the volunteer Fire Department they expect to jump when their timberlands catch fire is downright breathtaking.
Might be worth looking into the actual stats on how many fires that were responded to by Albion-Little River and other departments on MRC land or other State Responsibility Areas. My guess is that it’s a very small percentage of calls. Also consider that most local departments don’t have any heavy equipment such as bulldozers to fight wildland fires.
I personally fought fires in 2008 alongside Ted Williams and other Albion-Little River firefighters. We worked together and did our best to protect our communities. I then offered to work with Ted and the department on helping to locate emergency water tanks on MRC land and Ted never seemed to take that offer seriously. The offer is still there!
At the AV CSD meeting on August 15, Chief Avila made the obvious point that structure fires and residential grass fires can easily become SRA fires if not contained by closer locals in the early stages. Just FYI.
I believe that all fires in the AV CSD are SRA fires. The only areas in the County that are not SRA are in incorporated areas. Ask Chief Avila when reimbursement from Cal Fire kicks in for SRA fires, and how much the reimbursement is.
But with the logic here, isn’t this a little like selling protection? “You had better pay us to put our fires out, or these fires will burn up your land”. Yes, the reality is, commercial forest landowners are in more danger from fires coming from neighbors, than the other way around. The commercial forest landowners I know, are aware of this, and actively support local fire departments. That includes MRC. Fire departments also respond to medical emergencies on commercial forest lands. That is a more important service than fire fighting.
“Selling protection”? Come on.
It is what it is.
Mark, think about it. What if the Potter Valley VFD demanded money from the USFS to pay to put out fires that start from people in the PV Fire District, and burn the USFS? This demand would be done under the guise of protecting the USFS. The USFS has endless amounts of money, right? What if the USFS had no choice whether to pay, or how much to pay? Albion FD is making the same demand on MRC, on the same basis, and MRC has no choice.
Of course, regardless of how much money is rendered, in both cases, the Volunteer Fire Department is not the responsible party. Though, it is recognized that getting fires out early is important, and volunteers play a pivotal role in doing that.
Poor, poor MRC and Fishers. My heart bleeds. PS. The comparison is bogus. And “Hate & Ignorance.” Come on, again. Speak for yourself. Anything from any government that you don’t like is based on “hate & ignorance.” Right. Typical.
So it’s all about MRC, and Fishers, and nothing about effective fire protection. That is not an expression of hate? Looking at the value of MRC property that AFD responds to, very rarely, compared to the value of just one coast restaurant and inn, the inn is worth much more, and has more to lose if there were a fire. Why not require more money from the Inn? There are potential insurance benefits for the Inn from the FD, as well. Oh, of course that’s different.
It looks to me from what I read here, and what I hear from the local anti-timber people, Measure V, and M are everything about a perverse political narrative being presented as a virtue to support volunteer firefighters.
The ordinance referring to public nuisance claims is is actually for TPZ lands, timber production zones. A qualifying timberland (privately owned, dedicated to growing and harvesting timber, and grows 15 cubic feet per acre per year of commercial species) may be zoned TPZ and may be exempt from public nuisance cases if they are found to be related to timber growing and harvesting practices. Herbicide treatments are for the reduction of Group B species (ie madrone, tan oak etc) that may be contributing more to the species composition of a stand post harvest than Group A species (ie Redwood, Douglas fir, Grand fir, Western Hemlock, and bishop pine) in an effort to restore the presence and dominance of Group A species, which is related to the growing and restoration of timberlands.
Just FYI.
Measure V was driven by “hate” and ignorance. MRC is only one of many commercial landowners who kill tan oaks and create snags. There is a history of this in Mendocino County that goes back 50 years. In that time period, many of these treated areas have burned, and there have been no reports of increased fire intensity, or added safety risk for fire fighters. In fact the opposite has been reported. But hey, this is Mendocino County, where ignorance, witch hunts, and mob rule are in vogue.
Totally irrelevant observation.
The hate and ignorance is at the heart of it.