Mendocino County Today: Thursday, Aug. 23, 2018

• Complex Updates
• Evacuations Lifted
• Community Meeting
• Wildlife Survival
• Negie Accomplice
• Stiffing Willits
• Herbicide Ban
• Little Dog
• Photographer Available
• NCRA Bill
• Oversight Defined
• Ed Notes
• FB Battle
• Tamale Benefit
• Sheep Dogs
• Yesterday's Catch
• Walking Bathtubs
• Firefighters Throttled
• Uri Avnery
• Amusement Towns
• Corn Silk
• Christoff Photography
• Sunset
• Emerald Cup
• Kindermates
• Job Opportunity

THE RANCH FIRE grew to about 362,000 acres as of Wednesday evening, with containment remaining static at about two-thirds. Almost 3500 firefighters are still assigned to it.

Calfire: "Minimal fire activity occurred Wednesday on the Ranch Fire. A constructed fireline is holding on the Northwestern edge as crews continue working to improve it. Firing operations will be utilized to build and improve existing containment lines. More favorable weather conditions are expected in the area overnight with lower temperatures and higher humidity. The southern portion of the fire remains in patrol status as crews continue with suppression repair and mop up."

* * *

FOREST SERVICE MENDOCINO COMPLEX UPDATE, AUGUST 22, 2018

The Mendocino Complex is being managed by the United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service and CAL FIRE under unified command. California Interagency Incident Management Team 3 assumed command of the western zone of the Ranch Fire Wednesday at 7 a.m. CAL FIRE Team 2 will continue to manage the eastern zone of the Ranch Fire. The northern perimeter of the fire is divided between east and west zones at Happy Camp Ridge. The Incident Command Post (ICP) for the western zone is in Ukiah. A new ICP for the eastern zone is being set up at the fairgrounds in Orland. The base camp at Stonyford will continue to operate reducing travel times for crews working on the northern portion of the Ranch Fire.

Ranch Fire: There were favorable conditions to continue strategic firing operations along the northern containment lines Tuesday. The objective of firing is to reduce the chance of spot fires crossing the established line by removing vegetation between the main fire and the line. The fire grew approximately 7,950 acres in the last twenty-four hours. The fire is now estimated at 361,562 acres and 67 percent contained.

Crews held the fire south of containment lines across the north end of the fire where hand firing was conducted along Brushy Camp Ridge from Sheetiron Mountain toward Little Round Mountain. Hand firing continued as conditions permitted throughout the day along the line from Cabbage Patch to Swan Valley just north of Pillsbury Lake. Engines patrolled and looked for hot spots in the Rice Fork Summer Homes and Pillsbury Lake areas.

Wednesday, crews will hold the northern lines already established and look for opportunities to extend the strategic firing operation if conditions remain favorable. Engines will patrol and are prepared to conduct structure protection in the Rice Fork Summer Homes and Pillsbury Lake areas. This area remains under a mandatory evacuation order.

Air tankers and helicopters will be used to support the firefighters on the ground and slow the fire’s progress as smoke conditions allow.

Due to road damage, hazard trees, and active fire behavior, many areas of the forest, including recreation sites, are not accessible. The status of these areas will be reported as soon as information becomes available.

Firefighters watch for burning embers across control lines during burning operations along the NW flank in the area of Bloody Rock.The northern half of the Mendocino National Forest remains open. The forest areas around Plaskett Meadows and Hammerhorn Lake are open for all normal recreation activities. The Yolla Bolly-Middle Eel Wilderness is also available for recreation. Forest Highway 7 remains open. Hunters are reminded that the fire area is closed to hunting. For a specific closure map, please see the forest’s web page at: fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd591718.pdf

River Fire: The River Fire remains at 48,920 acres and is 100 percent contained. Management of the River Fire has been returned to the Mendocino Unit of Cal Fire.

Fire Area Weather: The forecast shows temperatures in the high-80s with light winds. A coastal marine layer will bring cooler temperatures and higher humidity.

Smoke: The main concentration of smoke pushes off to the east and southeast, with a smaller amount pushing into Ukiah Valley. Much of the smoke remains above the nighttime inversion and will begin to mix to the ground by mid-morning. Moderate air quality is anticipated area wide today with slightly higher concentrations in Willits and Covelo until the afternoon. Skies will remain hazy due to regional fires. Winds are forecast to develop from the west, southwest late this afternoon, transporting most of the smoke to the Sacramento Valley.

(Photos: Mike McMillan USFS)

* * *

CALFIRE'S MENDOCINO COMPLEX UPDATE (Thursday 7am): 415,006 acres; 74% contained; 318 structures damaged or destroyed.

"Overnight firing operations occurred on the Ranch Fire. Firefighters continue to build and reinforce containment lines around the fire’s edge. The fire remains most active on the northeastern portions of the fire. Fire activity is expected to increase in the afternoon hours after smoke clears the area. The southern portion of the fire remains in patrol status as crews continue with suppression repair and mop up."

ALL MANDATORY AND ADVISORY EVACUATIONS IN MENDOCINO COUNTY HAVE BEEN LIFTED.

Cancellation of Mandatory Evacuation for the Eel River Road area in Mendocino County: Includes all areas: west of the Mendocino-Lake County line; south and east of Eel River Road; and north of the 16000 block of Mid Mountain Road.

Cancellation of Advisory Evacuation for the Potter Valley area in Mendocino County: Includes all areas: north of Pine Ave, south of the 16000 block of Mid Mountain Road; west of the Mendocino National Forest Boundary; and east of Eastside Potter Valley.

County Road 301 from the Mendocino National Forest boundary remains closed.

(Mendocino Sheriff, Wednesday afternoon)

MENDOCINO COMPLEX COMMUNITY MEETING

WHAT: The Unified Commanders, CAL FIRE and U.S. Forest Service, are hosting a community meeting to discuss the current situation of the Mendocino Complex. Officials will give an operational overview, highlighting the current actions firefighters are taking on the fires. Current maps of the fire will be available, as well as other handouts. Additionally, officials will be available to answer questions.

WHEN: AUGUST 23, 2018 at 6:30 P.M.

WHERE: Elk Creek High School, 3430 County Road 309, Elk Creek, CA 95939

NOTES: Please arrive early, as the meeting will start promptly at 6:30 p.m. If you have questions about the meeting, please call the Mendocino Complex Fire Information Line (707) 574-8261. Due to possible slow internet speeds, this meeting will not be live-streamed but will be uploaded to social media platforms after the meeting.

HOW WILDLIFE FARES IN WILDFIRES

In the Sonoma fire zone, Peter Tira returned to his inlaws’ home site in Glen Ellen, where last October every house on the block burned to their foundations.

“I was expecting wholesale devastation, like a nuclear bomb,” said Tira, who works for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. “The human tragedy is overpowering, the loss of homes, the loss of lives. I went to where the house had been and I couldn’t believe it. Right behind it, what had been the backyard, the garden was intact. I couldn’t believe how good it looked.

“Nearby, I was also surprised how much wildlife habitat was unburned or very lightly burned.”

Amid the personal devastation, Tira said, people have been asking the DFW if wildlife, birds and fish could survive the recent series of cataclysmic wildfires.

The answer, say DFW biologists from past and present, is that wildlife is genetically wired to survive such disasters.

“These native species have evolved from Day 1 with fire as an ever-present part of the landscape,” Patrick Foy, a DFW captain, said. “They have adapted, evolved and are well equipped and genetically programmed to survive wildfires.”

Roughly 8,000 fires have burned nearly 1 million acres this summer, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and the National Interagency Fire Center. Last October, the Tubbs Fire destroyed 5,636 homes and killed 24 people.

Case-by-case

Tira, Foy and other DFW wildlife experts explained how many major species survive wildfires.

Deer: “When there’s a fire and they smell the smoke, they are much like people, and they look to get out of there,” Foy said. “They do a very good job of getting out of danger. There can be a loss when things go terribly wrong, but often they can outrun the fire.” One GPS migration study by DFW wildlife biologist Rich Callas found that herds can migrate as much as 40 miles, in a sustained march, often in two or three days. That ability can get them to safe zones. Tira noted that fires are uneven, burning at different heats and patterns, and that leaves escape routes for deer. A word of caution: In Sonoma and other regions with vineyards, Hunter warned about deer-proof fencing, which can block escape routes for wildlife, and Tira added that there have been anecdotal reports where mountain lions have trapped and killed deer against vineyard fences.

Bears: The story of a bear cub with burned paws being rescued from the Carr Fire near Whiskeytown Lake made national news. The message from this encounter is that the juveniles are at risk, Foy said. “They do their best, attempting to run away,” Foy said. “Bears can’t sustain for long distances in short time frames, like deer. Three bear cubs we’ve found, where they survived up in lightly burned pockets of forest, they had burned paws.” Wildfire, however, is not a limiting factor to bear populations, Foy said. In the past 40 years, an era during in which wildfires have become bigger, more intense and more common, the bear population in California has expanded from roughly 10,000 to 15,000 in the 1980s, according to DFW estimates, to 25,000 to 30,000 now.

Small animals: Ground squirrels, rabbits, badgers, voles, weasels and many other small wildlife species will dig deep into the ground to survive wildfires. “They already have escape routes from predators,” Tira said. “They use those same routes to get away from fire. The fire will pass right overhead. They can wait it out.” Others, such as mink, beavers and fishers, can survive in watersheds, which often go unburned even in near-incineration events. In the Rim Fire, I found entire slopes of manzanita and chemise that were burned to bare ground, yet nearby, along the Tuolumne River, riparian zones at water’s edge were often untouched. That provided refuges for many small wildlife species.

Birds: “As with people, some individuals get disorientated and can get caught,” Tira said, “but most birds just fly away.” This includes large birds, such as eagles, ospreys and owls, and very small birds, such as the tiny migratory songbirds. In parallel studies, in which both Foy and I took part, we joined wildlife experts who caught tiny migratory songbirds, from warblers to sparrows, in mist nets set in microflyways. Some of the birds had bands, which traced their origins to as far away as the Southwest and Mexico. “A bird that migrates from Mexico has the capacity, stamina and motivation to get out of the way of fire,” Foy said. In addition, Tira noted that the migration of birds on the Pacific Flyway, which starts in September with shorebirds, sandhill cranes, and follows with ducks, coots and geese, is not yet under way en masse. Those birds have not been in harm’s way. As they arrive, they can fly to safe havens.

(Tom Stienstra, SF Chronicle)

COVELO WOMAN ARRESTED on suspicion of aiding a man connected to the disappearance of Khadijah Britton

Covelo resident Antonia Bautista-Dalson, 20, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of aiding a Negie Fallis who was arrested but then released in the disappearance of his girlfriend earlier this year.

pressdemocrat.com/news/8661843-181/mendocino-county-deputies-arrest-covelo

WILLITS STIFFED AGAIN

by Mark Scaramella

Deputy County CEO Janelle Rau, sitting in for her boss, CEO Carmel Angelo at last Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting, mentioned an item in the lastest CEO report about a high-priority legal opinion requested at the last Board of Supervisors meeting from County Counsel Katharine Elliott. The Supes had requested that County Counsel Elliott write a response to a resolution by the Willits City Council calling for better coordination and involvement and compliance with city rules and regulations if and when the old Howard Hospital in downtown Willits is converted into a psychiatric health facility.

Rau: “County Counsel has provided an update on a legal opinion regarding the city of Willits resolution relating to a psychiatric facility location.”

From the CEO report:

“County Counsel Legal Opinion Regarding City of Willits’ Resolution Relating to Psychiatric Facility Location

On August 7, 2018, the Board gave County Counsel direction to prepare a legal opinion regarding the City of Willits’ resolution relating to the potential location of a County psychiatric facility within the City. Willits’ resolution acknowledged that the County was immune to City zoning laws but contended that the State would not issue a license for certain types of treatment facilities unless the County complied with local zoning. The City’s resolution asked the County to acknowledge that issuance of a State license would require compliance with the City’s zoning laws. After consultation with the Board Chair and the Chief Executive Officer, it is the opinion of County Counsel that a legal opinion on this issue is premature at this time. Because there is not a proposal for any particular type of facility, it is uncertain which licensing regulations would apply to this project. Any analysis would, therefore, be based on speculation. Moreover, any initial conversation with the City may moot or significantly alter the issues requiring legal analysis.”

In fact, the Willits resolution raises much more serious issues than just “compliance with zoning laws.”

Willits City Council Reso re Howard Mem. Hospital 5-23-18

Supervisor John McCowen began his comment with a dig at County Counsel Elliott (McCowen was the only Supervisor not in favor of giving her a second big raise recently):

“I do find it always amusing how easily the unanimous direction of the board is countermanded. But it does make some sense to the degree that there actually is no proposal and the city of Willits actually jumped to a conclusion that there was a project underway when they're actually wasn't. I think that created a sense of urgency in their minds that really doesn't exist because I don't think this is that fast moving a process. I think there will be time to address these questions. However, the resolution of the city of Willits was directed to the Board of Supervisors. So assuming that the Board accepts the direction of not having an opinion at this time and therefore not having a solid understanding of the issues in order to be able to make a reply, we might authorize the Chair to send a letter to the city of Willits expressing why we are not directly answering the questions that they posed in their resolution. That would be based on that it's premature and there is no project yet and we are not certain which issues need to be addressed. Something like that. But we should not just leave it out there hanging with no response to the city of Willits.”

Supervisor Georgeanne Croskey (who represents the Willits area on the Board):

"I would like to second that. I have gone to the city of Willits meetings and expressed those same sentiments, that it's premature, there is no plan at this point. We're waiting for Measure B. There will be no decision until there are recommendations to us. But I think that a letter from the board to respond to that — because the resolution was after I went and had the same conversation with the city council. So yes, I think we should respond.”

County Counsel Elliott:

"I really appreciate Supervisor McCowen's comments based on the directive of this board. I got a rather enflamed email from the city of Willits attorney. I did tell him that I thought this item would be in the Executive Officer’s report and that we were not quite as firm on this as we were anticipating. We did do a substantial amount of research on that and based on our research and going forward with this opinion we formed the conclusion that we really needed more information before we could bring that back to the board. So I appreciate everyone's comments on this.”

Supervisor Dan Hamburg:

"I think in our brief discussion of this we met with your deputies who had done the research and I believe that was Christian and Charlotte who had both been — one of the main issues was that we don't even know what facility we are talking about so we don't know what zoning restrictions or other city ordinances we would have to comply with so it's just too early in the process. We can certainly pass that on to the city of Willits.”

Board Clerk: "Can we clarify? Was that a directive to create that letter?"

Hamburg: "Yes."

* * *

LET’S REVIEW. In May of this year CEO Carmel Angelo told the board that the county had been in conversation with Marge Handley’s Howard Memorial Foundation as early as 2014 when Handley and her Foundation first raised the possibility of turning it into a psychiatric health unit (PHF). Later that month, the Willits City Council issued a strongly worded resolution saying they wanted to be directly involved in the planning and that the County should follow all applicable city rules and regulations.

In the following weeks, Sheriff Allman’s Measure B Mental Health Facilities Committee and the Board of Supervisors discussed the resolution and the complaints from Willits as if it was nothing but a request to be included in the Measure B Committee’s email distribution list. The Board and the Committee casually agreed that they would try harder to inform the city of Willits on the status of the Howard Hospital conversion plans, if any. (And everyone pretty much knows that Howard Hospital is Numero Uno in the PHF planning while at the same time pretending it may not be.)

In July, after the Measure B committee finally discussed the Willits resolution, we pointed out that the city deserved a formal response of some kind and that it wouldn't be hard for the county to at least acknowledge that all applicable rules and regulations would be followed.

AVA, July 9 (writing about the June Measure B Committee meeting):

The Committee also spent a few minutes leafing through the strongly worded four-page ‘resolution’ from the City of Willits asking that the City’s rules be followed and that the City be ‘at the table’ for any proposed facilities in the City limits. Everyone agreed that Willits should be involved. One committee member noted that the ‘resolution’ assumed that they were proceeding with a 32 bed PHF unit at the Old Howard Hospital when in fact they hadn’t come anywhere near even considering it (besides listening to the Hospital Foundation’s premature proposal). Nevertheless, nobody on the Committee suggested writing a formal response to the City Council making whatever reassurances might pacify the irked City of Willits. For his part, Willits City Councilman Jerry Gonzales, who was present, didn’t ask for a written response either. In a normal world, a formal detailed written resolution from a City Council to the Board of Supervisors would call for a formal response. It’s called "answering your mail." But not in Mendo. The resolution will just hang out there "unresolved" with no response, much less assurance.

* * *

Yet here we are in the middle of August and we are only now getting around to even dealing with a possible response to the city's resolution only to find out that the county doesn't really want to respond beyond pointing out the obvious and already known, nor even to say that they will conform to whatever rules and regs may apply.

Sheriff Allman, Chair of the Measure B Committee, says he wants to expedite the process, but at this rate, by essentially ignoring the Willits complaint and requests, they are only complicating matters with the city of Willits, not expediting matters. As long as the Supervisors can’t even agree to comply with whatever rules and regs may apply, Willits can and will continue to think that some kind of end-run is being engineered between Handley, Allman, and the Board of Supervisors — possibly by jiggering the way they describe the project so that it is exempt from Willits local rules.

If the Willits city attorney really did respond to the board's proposed non-answer with an "enflamed e-mail" (which has not been publicized so far; so it may not be “enflamed” at all, just strongly worded like the resolution was), the Supervisors and Sheriff Allman are not making it any easier for Willits to be on-board. In fact, the involvement of attorneys and legal opinions makes it sound as if things could go badly awry very easily. And if it ever comes to a contest between Mendo’s legal eagles and Willits City attorney Jim Lance, our money’s on Lance.

SANTA ROSA BANS USE OF ROUNDUP AT CITY PARKS

The Santa Rosa City Council on Tuesday banned the use of synthetic weed-killers like Roundup at dozens of parks, buildings and medians around town.

pressdemocrat.com/news/8657806-181/santa-rosa-bans-use-of

LITTLE DOG SAYS, “I'm mostly law-abiding, but I killed a rooster once in self-defense, and I'm about to re-offend. The Boss is on my case because the neighbor's chickens are always over here tearing up his so-called garden. But since I knocked off that rooster I've gone through non-violence training with the violent non-violent ladies from the Willits Bypass protest, and I think I can get the chickens outtahere with all their feathers intact.”

ACE PHOTOGRAPHER HANNAH BROCK WRITES:

Hello Friends!

I will be in the valley this coming weekend and the weekend of September 8-9 for some events I am photographing and I am looking to see if any businesses need their photos refreshed during these dates!

I can provide food photography for your dishes, restaurant, wines, etc. if you are a new business starting out or a current one and need something far more better quantity than your iPhone, let me know and I would love to help out.

Here is some of my own photography. If you can make your food look good, I will make it look better by bringing out natural color, texture and atmosphere. Shoot me an email at hannahjbrock@yahoo.com!

UP AGAINST LEGISLATIVE DEADLINE, MCGUIRE SCALES BACK ‘GREAT REDWOOD TRAIL’ PLANS IN HOPES OF GETTING BILL PAST ASSEMBLY, GOVERNOR

by Hank Sims

With the Aug. 31 legislative deadline looming, Sen. Mike McGuire has dramatically revamped his proposal to dismantle the North Coast Railroad Authority and railbank the long-defunct tracks through Humboldt and northern Mendocino counties.

McGuire’s bill — formerly dubbed the “Great Redwood Trail Act,” now bearing the more prosaic title of “North Coast Railroad Authority” — was amended yesterday in the Assembly, and it now takes a far slower and more cautious approach to retiring the railroad and building a trail. (See strikethru version of the amended bill here.)

Previously, the bill had called for the immediate abolition of the railroad authority — a state agency — with its assets divvied up between Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit, a commuter train agency, on the south, and the California Department of Transportation in the north. The idea was that Caltrans would hold the northern assets for a couple of years while the state formed the “Great Redwood Trail Agency,” which would be charged with building a pedestrian trail down the former railroad’s right of way. The railroad authority’s debts would have been paid off by the state.

Under the new version of the bill, the North Coast Railroad Authority is kept intact, but its mission redefined — rather than running or attempting to expand freight train service, as it does currently, the authority will be charged with assisting the Department of Transportation in developing a shutdown and railbanking plan. Critically, the NCRA would continue to hold title to its railroad assets.

McGuire’s amendment appears to be a response to fears that Gov. Jerry Brown would veto the legislation as it had been written, on the grounds that it would require several millions of dollars of additional state spending to retire the NCRA’s debt. (It’s still not known exactly how much the authority owes.) In recent weeks, supporters of the bill have been publicly campaigning to put pressure on legislators and Brown to find the funds — see here and here, for example — and the new strategy, which keeps the debt where it is for now, seems to be an acknowledgement that this campaign is likely to fail.

The bill — Senate Bill 1029 — sailed through several legislative committees and was passed by the Senate on a vote of 36-0 back in May. The assembly must vote on it by the end of the month if it is to pass in this legislative session.

McGuire could not immediately be reached for comment.

(Courtesy, LostCoastOutpost.com)

MARGARET PAUL on the Coast Hospital's planning committee meeting:

Same old same old

The MCDH Planning Committee meeting Tuesday was mainly about the committee attempting to explain the meaning of “oversight” to Board member Steve Lund. Apparently, Steve’s version is that he and the board make all of the spending decisions for the Measure C funds and the Oversight Committee is expected to rubber stamp it. The planning committee members vehemently objected, explaining that the word “oversight” actually means a process or action of supervision to ensure efficiency and correctness occur. “Oversight” does not mean giving approval after the fact. Steve Lund agreed to redo the Measure C Oversight Committee By-Laws to reflect this. This remains to be seen.

I'm REALLY looking forward to a new board come November!

Margaret Paul

ED NOTES

MEDICAL CALL IN PHILO: 17-YEAR-OLD MALE UNCONSCIOUS

The scanner said (10:20 am Wednesday morning) the Fort Bragg Fire Department & ambulance, as well as CalStar 4, were dispatched to 18601 Van Zandt Resort Road for the report of a "17-year-old male unconscious." Dispatch asked about weather conditions at the site and were told, "it doesn't look good for an air ambulance, low clouds." At 10:30 am, Dispatch said all the air ambulances declined to respond due to the weather. (MendocinoSportsPlus)

BUT IT WAS the Anderson Valley Ambulance that transported the boy to Ukiah. No further word on his condition.

* * *

ABOUT NOON WEDNESDAY, the first-day-on-the-job male clerk at the Anderson Valley Market suffered a seizure also requiring medical attention. He is expected to resume his market duties soon. Both emergencies occurred Wednesday morning.

* * *

O SHUT UP. This from Jimmy Bennett, the actor who claims to have been sexually traumatized at age 17 by the Italian actress and girlfriend of the late Anthony Bourdain, Asia Weinstein-Victim, got paid $380,000 not to say, "'Many brave women and men have spoken out about their own experiences during the #metoo movement, and I appreciate the bravery that it took for each and every one of them to take such a stand,' said Bennett. 'I did not initially speak out about my story because I chose to handle it in private with the person who wronged me. My trauma resurfaced as she came out as a victim herself. I have not made a public statement in the past days and hours because I was ashamed and afraid to be part of the public narrative'." Here's a post-coital photo of the molester and molestee from the Daily Mail:

FOR A TRAUMATIZED sex vic, this goofball looks awfully pleased with himself. And then we have NPR and other news outlets referring to Trump's serial boffs with the Playboy centerfold and Stormy Daniels as "affairs." Money for sex, I believe, is called prostitution, not red roses, Singing in the Rain with Gene Kelly and weekends in Mendocino. (Given the choice, here's to prostitution.)

OF COURSE in our sex-drenched society, the first, as the sage remarked, to go directly from barbarism to decadence with no intervening civilization, this show biz molesto stuff is all so much hypocrisy. A 17-year-old is not a 4-year-old for crissakes. Back in the days when I drove a cab at night and worked to overthrow the government during the day, I regularly drove attractive young women up to the fancy hotels whenever big conventions were in town, and that was before there was the kind of money around there is now. Jeez, is it too much to ask for some sophistication here, a little less neener-neener-ism?

LET'S RUN this ad as a kind of survey. "Wanted, 17-year-old Mendocino County boys to have one-time sex with beautiful, 30-year-old Italian actress who will pay you $380,000 if you agree to say that she molested you. Fatties ok."

THE LINE of eager victims would stretch from one end of the county to the other.

HONEY BEAR DON'T CARE PART 2

by Rex Gressett

It was after 11:00 when the August 13 City Council meeting finally ran out of steam. It had been a grueling marathon session. Midstream, Mayor Lindy Peters had shocked and rocked Townhall by moving the little city of Fort Bragg into the front lines in the battle of California’s small cities opposing the CVRA (The California Voting Rights Act).

Fort Bragg, as I must suppose everyone now knows, is under a legal assault to convert our general elections into a parody of elections where instead of voting for all the city councilmen, a Fort Bragg voter would be permitted to vote for only one councilman as a representative of his or her “district” and could only vote in Council elections every other election. In vibrantly democratic and exuberantly contentious Fort Bragg the CVRA is a crude out of town monkeywrench tossed with casual malignance into the delicate machinery of self-government.

Virtually no one on any side of our local political spectrum supports it. The Hispanic community, the purported beneficiaries of the districting plan, like it least of all. And Fort Bragg is not alone.

Across the state, the CVRA electoral reform has been resented and resisted as a ham-handed fundamental interference in self-government. Dozens of cities and school boards have spent millions battling the act in court. No one has won.

The CVRA is spreading like wildfire.

When the mysterious Committee for Responsive Representation engaged unemployed attorney Jacob Patterson they sent Fort Bragg a formal letter and set the clock ticking. The safe harbor provision of the CVRA gave the city 90 days to adopt the CVRA and district the city before litigation became inevitable.

The Fort Bragg City Council in its wrath appointed an ad hoc committee to deal with the miscreant. Attorney Patterson tells me that he regrets that those meetings were unproductive. The Council was pissed and by all accounts, they acted like it.

Patterson by his own account essentially stonewalled the indignant ad hoc committee and claims that there were no suggestions for any kind of compromise and no intelligible acknowledgment of his own suggestions that something be worked out besides a ruinous lawsuit.

An attentive observer could note that Mr. Patterson did float a few conciliatory balloons. At one point during a regular meeting, Patterson put it rather mildly from the podium that he was willing to “talk.”

Every eyebrow on the Council went momentarily up. Mayor Peters leaned in and barked back, Did that mean attorney Patterson would withdraw the letter (the famous formal letter that put it all in motion) if the city agreed to a discussion? Mr. Patterson sort of snorted and scurried back to his seat. That moment was held up in the subsequent Mayor’s morning meeting as irrefutable evidence that discussion with the enemy was mere frivolity. When I discussed it later with Patterson he pointed out that withdrawal of the letter was de facto surrender. Negotiation might lead to compromise but unilateral surrender was not negotiation.

As the 90-day interval for ducking litigation under the Safe Harbor Provision rolled past, the Mayor and the council kept everybody else out of it, insisting that the rule in any city litigation was ironclad. No talkie.

Nevertheless, information leaked like a dripping faucet. The new city attorney was alleged to have “experience in the CVRA.”

“Jacob Patterson will tire of the social approbation and go away.”

“I would be cheering,” I was told, “if only I knew what was going on in the closed session.”

The council gave the impression that their overall strategy was to shame Mr. Patterson into an improvement in either his manners or his morals. Jacob Patterson walked thought the social opprobrium and City Council antagonism like he would walk through the rain in comfy red rubber boots.

At the August 13 meeting, Patterson was in attendance to hear the declaration of hostilities, decked out in uncharacteristic polyester elegance with a matching tie. For him, it was a big night.

He was not too attentive enduring the evenings' recriminations, witticisms, and rebukes, quietly fanning himself with his copy of the agenda. He was not gloating visibly and made no comment. But there was a ringing silent subtext that attorney Patterson had maneuvered the city into a no-win position in which he personally could well take home a million dollars or more of Fort Bragg city money. It was a giant score for a brief operation in a tiny city.

Jacob Patterson born and raised in Fort Bragg but long absent at an elite ivy league university (Georgetown) and a prestigious law school (UCLA) has returned like the prodigal son animated by a fierce and polished spirt of enterprise.

The City Council grumbled and rumbled for months as the doomsday clock ticked ominously. They did a ponderous lot of public hand wringing, but in the end bit like a fish taking a lure, bitterly putting our municipal solvency on the line and committing us to a legal fight that by all the evidence and every legal precedent they almost certainly cannot win.

The new City Attorney hired in the immediate aftermath of the forcible dissolution of the Linda Ruffing political machine, made no public statement, and did not caution or warn the Council or the people in any public meeting. What he said to the City Council in closed session can of course only be surmised but by the outcome — the decision to fight — we have to assume that Mr. Hildebrand of the famous law firm Jones Myer counseled their new (rube) client to take an unprecedented risk. The Fort Bragg city budget, balanced for one ephemeral moment in the first months of the new City Manager’s administration after ten years of Linda Ruffing’s hidden red ink was doomed. That at least was certain.

As I drove home and Highway 1 unwound in the fog, I thought that the council’s unanimous bellicose defiance had the same resonance as a traditional declaration of war. We could win. No one else has won, but of course, we would. We had to. It was a little glorious and like all wars, it was both an appeal to principle and a failure of diplomacy.

It had been a long long meeting. The council was immensely pleased with themselves and more than usually attentive to the minutia of governance. Everybody got a chance to take a poke at Patterson and revel in their new roles as leaders of a popular resistance. As I blew past Elk and headed up the road to home I reflected that our new City Attorney must also have been driving home. He must be excited. As much as the enterprising Jacob Patterson our own Russell Hildebrand of Jones Myer would soon be enjoying a substantial improvement in cash flow too.

PRE-SALE TAMALES

To benefit Anderson Valley Youth football- Pop Warner

$20.00 a dozen

We will be selling

1. Cheese with jalapeno, onion & tomato
2. Chicken with green sauce
3. Pork with red sauce

All orders need to be in by September 1 and picked up on September 8th at 7pm at the Boonville Fairgrounds.

Contact: Patty 707-272-8300; Yadira 707-621-1418

THE FINALISTS

Steve Moody (right) presents an award to Nancy Todd, of Potter Valley, on Saturday.

Oroville—Twenty-two open teams entered the Mendocino County Elimination Trial on Aug. 18, held annually to select the most qualified sheep dogs to compete in the finals trial held during the Mendocino County Fair and Apple Show in September.

Trial judge Steve Moody, of Valley Ford, Calif., awarded first place in the Elimination Trial to Nancy Todd and her border collie, Ace. Nancy and Ace previously won the title of Mendocino County Champion Sheep Dog in 2014 and 2016, as well as the RESDA annual championship in 2016.

The finals trial will take place from 10 a.m. to noon on Sunday, Sept. 16, in the rodeo arena at the Mendocino County fairgrounds in Boonville. The following eight teams, listed by order of qualification (highest to lowest qualifying score,) are scheduled to compete in the finals trial:

• Nancy Todd and Ace; Potter Valley
• Colleen Duncan and Lucy; Honcut, Calif.
• Donna Beebe and Meg; Palermo, Calif.
• Alison Ruhe and Jazz; Davis, Calif.
• Tom Trent and Erin; Duncans Mills, Calif.
• Catlyn Gilman and Bailee; Philo
• Sharon J. Heringer and True; Novato, Calif.
• Karen Kollgaard and Timbre; Santa Rosa

Alternates are: Jack Mathieson and Lark, Sebastopol, and Rhonda Lauritsen and Tarn, Napa.

The run order at the finals trial will be by reverse order of qualification, meaning Karen and Timbre are scheduled to run first, Sharon and True to run second, and so forth, until Nancy and Ace have the eighth and decisive run. Steve Moody will also judge the finals trial.

Admission to the finals trial is included in admission to the Mendocino County Fair and Apple Show on Sept. 16. In addition to the grandstand show, the trial will be broadcast live on Mendocino County Public Radio, KZYX (kzyx.org,) with commentary by Alice Woelfle of KZYX with previous Mendocino County Sheep Dog Champion, Kevin Owens, of Yorkville.

CATCH OF THE DAY, August 22, 2018

ANTONIA BAUTISTA-DALTON, Covelo. Harboring wanted felon.

MICHAEL DONAHE SR., Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol. (Frequent flyer.)

JOSE GALLEGO, Calexico/Willits. Disorderly conduct: intoxication by drugs with alcohol.

DAVID GIUSTI, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol. (Frequent flyer.)

ANDREW HOLM, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

TIMOTHY KING, Fort Bragg. Nunchaku.

BLAKE LEBECK, Morgan Hill/Ukiah. DUI.

LAMAR MANUEL, Ukiah. Parole violation.

WENDY MASSEY, Ukiah. Retaking land after legal removal, vandalism, probation revocation.

ROBERT NORTON, Ukiah. DUI.

JACOB PARMELY, Ukiah. Parole violation.

JUAN SANCHEZ-MONTIEL, Ukiah. Under influence, disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation.

THOMAS SANDERS, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation. (Frequent Flyer)

ART IS ART

I agree it’s not a good idea to give hundreds of thousands of dollars of public money to some fake artist to plunk shapeless masses of metal or stone down by a pathway and call it Woman, when they should go on and finish it and actually make it look like a woman, as in the New Yorker cartoon. But I can’t help but admire the precarious spindly walking bathtubs lit from beneath in a mist, in a frozen moment on their way from here to there for some purpose of their own. That’s exactly the magical sort of thing that I remember staring at when I was little, fascinated by it, imagining all sorts of situations because of seeing it. The Space Needle in Seattle was like that. A rock path over a stream in Fern Dell. A line of power transmission towers. A house on a cliff, cantilevered out over the freeway. Chesley Bonestell paintings of rocketships and alien landscapes. Sweaty, bloody horses fighting like demons seen in a flash as we passed by on 99 on the way to Fresno. A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L’Engle. Every Tesla coil I ever made, playing with it with Juanita in the kitchen, with the lights out so that, as well as the lightning blasting from the coil, you could see a spray or nimbus of blue around every metal thing in that little pink house in Caspar.

There was a big naturally formed metal meteorite on a plinth in the Griffith Observatory, and the greatest thing in the world when I was five years old was to stand there and look at it, that had come from literally outer space, and push my hands and arms into the holes in it. And for some reason I loved images of Saturn, and every time they took me to the Griffith Observatory I insisted on going to the souvenir counter to see the photographic slide of Saturn that they had used the telescope on the roof to take. They probably made thousands of copies of them, but I didn’t know that; I just knew that it was expensive and we probably couldn’t afford it. But one day after many visits my mother or my grandfather secretly bought that little slide and gave it to me when we got home and I was fucking ecstatic and fell asleep with it pressed against my eye.

Art is art.

(Marco McClean)

GREED RULES IN THIS LAND

"County Fire has experienced throttling by its ISP, Verizon," Santa Clara County Fire Chief Anthony Bowden wrote in a declaration. "This throttling has had a significant impact on our ability to provide emergency services. Verizon imposed these limitations despite being informed that throttling was actively impeding County Fire's ability to provide crisis-response and essential emergency services."

arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/08/verizon-throttled-fire-departments-unlimited-data-during-calif-wildfire/

* * *

NET THROTTLING DURING FIRES

Throttling First Responders

sacbee.com/news/state/california/fires/article217133835.html

URI AVNERY: One of my few heroes in the Middle East

by Robert Fisk

It was somehow fitting that first news of Uri Avnery’s plight should reach me from one of Israel’s staunchest enemies, the Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt. One legend sending sad news of another, you see, a socialist preparing to mourn a fellow socialist, sending his sympathy for the 94-year-old Israeli political philosopher. That same philosopher was once a German Jewish schoolboy, originally called Helmut Ostermann, who refused to give the Hitler salute at school, but who was, when I received Jumblatt’s message – still, just – “an indispensable mind to understand the history of fascism, a major destructive element of the 20th century”. Jumblatt’s words. Avnery, he added, also understood “the history of Zionism, another despicable apartheid theory that is an offshoot of fascism”.

Uri Avnery suffered a massive heart attack at the weekend and died on Monday morning, but he was himself a Zionist, or at least a believer in a left-wing, courageous but humble “light among the nations” Israel; the kind many of us, in our heart of hearts, would like to believe in. He was the sort of Israeli that we bleeding heart liberals go and see when we arrive in Israel because they say what we want to hear.

“Tell Jumblatt that he must break up his sentences into paragraphs,” Avnery told me when I left his Tel Aviv apartment six years ago. “He says everything in one long text and I can hardly breathe.” Lesson duly passed on to Jumblatt from a man who often wrote single sentence paragraphs, an annoying habit of tabloid journalism which does occasionally get a message across rather well.

I must admit that Uri Avnery was one of my Middle East heroes – there aren’t many – and his story is worthy of a movie, though there will be no Spielbergs to direct it: writer, journalist, leftist, veteran of the Israeli army in the country’s War of Independence – and, as he never forgot, the same war which drove 750,000 Palestinians from their home and lands. He played chess with Arafat during the 1982 siege of Beirut – be sure, this will be in the first two paragraphs of the obituaries today – and his angry but gently cynical newsletters would arrive on Friday afternoons, condemning Netanyahu for his hypocrisy and racism, Sharon for his hatred of Palestinians, missives from a book-crammed home in Tel Aviv, close to the sea but in a modest, quiet street where Avnery could ruminate and roar.

He was a wee bit deaf when I met him again – and for the last time – six years ago, but he spoke so quickly, and in perfect sentences, that my pen skidded over the pages of my notebook until it ran out of ink and I had to steal his own biro. I still have the book, and the ink changes from my black to his pale blue at a point when he is talking at high speed about Hamas, with whom he often met, furious that Gaza had turned into a storyline about rocket attacks and retaliation.

“Whenever either of the two sides want to start shooting again, they will,” he said. The ink had just changed its colour on the page. “In Gush Shalom [which Avnery founded], we put out a sticker five years ago, which said: ‘Talk to Hamas’.”

This is not an obituary of Uri Avnery, even though the institution has the great journalistic merit of a story with a beginning, a middle and an end. Because Avnery’s warnings and prescience were so contemporary – so absolutely on-the-ball for today’s news from the Middle East – that they can be repeated now, today, as if the great old leftist warrior is still alive. And there he is in my six-year old notebook, very much alive, still demanding peace with the Palestinians, peace with Hamas, and generosity and a Palestinian state on the old 1967 borders – give or take a few square miles – and he believes Israel could have peace tomorrow, next week. If Netanyahu wanted it. “The misfortune of being an incorrigible optimist,” is how he described his predicament to me. Or perhaps an illusionist?

His family fled Nazi Germany for Palestine and I went to see him again – he who had played chess with Arafat – after the 1982 massacre of up to 1,700 Palestinians in the Sabra and Chatila refugee camps in Beirut, a war crime committed by Israel’s Christian Phalangist allies while Israeli soldiers watched but did not intervene. I had walked across the bodies in the camp. How could the survivors of the Jewish Holocaust and their children let this happen to the Palestinians, I asked Avnery? Avnery was only 63 years old at the time. His reply is worth printing, in full:

“I will tell you something about the Holocaust. It would be nice to believe that people who have undergone suffering have been purified by suffering. But it’s the opposite, it makes them worse. It corrupts. There is something in suffering that creates a kind of egoism. Herzog [the Israeli president at the time] was speaking at the site of the concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen but he spoke only about the Jews. How could he not mention that others – many others – had suffered there? Sick people, when they are in pain, cannot speak about anyone but themselves. And when such monstrous things have happened to your people, you feel nothing can be compared to it. You get a moral ‘power of attorney’, a permit to do anything you want – because nothing can compare to what has happened to us. This is a moral immunity which is very clearly felt in Israel. Everyone is convinced that the IDF is more humane than any other army. ‘Purity of arms’ was the slogan of the Haganah army in ’48. But it never was true at all.”

And Avnery was a member of that army, badly wounded in the 1948 war; he even became a member of the Knesset, but was threatened by the Israeli cabinet after he met Yasser Arafat in Beirut. He should be tried for treason, Israeli ministers said. I think Avnery was rather proud of that. His curmudgeonly, irritating, courageous personality could embrace the occasional political martyrdom, something which modern socialists are almost all too frightened to contemplate.

Netanyahu – six years ago when I last saw Avnery and until the days before his death – enraged the old Israeli soldier of 1948. What was the Gaza war meant to achieve, I asked him in 2012 – for there always has “just been” a Gaza war in recent Israeli history, and the latest, in November of that year, had killed 107 civilians in Gaza and four civilians on the Israeli side of the line. And what was Netanyahu and his government – then and, I suppose, today – doing, I asked him?

Avnery’s eyes sparkled and he spat out his reply. “You are presuming you know what they [Netanyahu’s government] want and you presume they want peace – and therefore that their policy is stupid or insane. But if you assume they don’t give a damn for peace but want a Jewish state from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River, then what they are doing makes sense up to a point. The trouble is that what they do want is leading into a cul de sac… If they annex the West Bank as they have annexed east Jerusalem, it doesn’t make much of a difference. The trouble is that in this territory which is now dominated by Israel, there are about 49 per cent Jews and 51 per cent Arabs – and this balance will become larger every year because the natural increase on the Arab side is far greater than the natural increase on our side. So the real question is: if this policy goes on, what kind of state will it be? As it is today, it is an apartheid state, a full apartheid in the occupied territories and a growing apartheid in Israel – and if this goes on, it will be full apartheid throughout the country, incontestably.”

The Avnery argument went bleakly on. If the Arab inhabitants are granted civil rights, there will be an Arab majority in the Knesset and the first thing they will do is change the name “Israel” and name the state “Palestine”, “and the whole [Zionist] exercise of the past 130 years has come to naught”. Mass ethnic cleansing would be impossible in the 21st century, Avnery assured me. I wonder.

He often pondered the demise of the Israeli “Left” – they were “hibernating”, he said after Ehud Barack, the (Israeli) Labour leader, had come back from the Camp David talks in 2000 as self-proclaimed leader of the “peace camp”, “and told us we have no partner for peace”. This was a death blow. It was not Netanyahu who said this, but the leader of the Labour Party. This was the end of “Peace Now”.

Perhaps his next words should be written on Avnery’s grave. “When I met Arafat in 1982” – he was to meet him again many times – “the terms were all there. The Palestinian minimum and maximum terms are the same: a Palestinian state next to Israel, comprising the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem as a capital, small exchanges of land and a symbolic solution to the refugee problem. But this lies on the table like a wilted flower…”

Avnery remained convinced that Hamas would accept the same. He lectured to them in Gaza in 1993, “standing there, facing 500 black-bearded sheikhs, speaking to them in Hebrew – I was applauded and invited to lunch”. For them, Avnery, explained, Palestine is a “waqf” and cannot be handed over, but a truce can be sanctified by God. “If they offered a truce for 50 years, that is personally enough for me.” Sure, he said, the Hamas manifesto wants to destroy Israel. “But abolishing a manifesto is a very difficult thing to do – did the Russians ever abandon the communist manifesto? The PLO did theirs.”

Back then, in 2012, I ended my report on the 89-year old Avnery with the observation that “there are more than a few liberals in Israel who hope that Uri Avnery lives for another 89 years”. Now there are even fewer liberals left, and Avnery lived for less than another six years. There was to have been a 95th birthday party for him in Tel Aviv next month. If they still hold it, however, Avnery’s friends – and enemies – should proclaim that Avnery is dead. But then add: And long live Avnery.

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Tourism turns towns into de facto amusement parks. It's the worst sort of industry because it creates a tacky atmosphere and attracts a plague of opportunists. For locals, what results is a devil's bargain, where, in return for cash, you give up your streets to a bunch of gawkers. And once your town is turned into an amusement park all the originality leaves with the original inhabitants. The progression isn’t pretty. Whole streets are turned into outdoor malls, with t-shirt racks and all the crap that goes along with it. The population of opportunists that arrive to staff the gift shops are mainly internationals - a motley lot, like modern-day gypsies or carnies. Rootless folk trailing the moneyed cattle like blowflies.

ALMOST SEPTEMBER NEWS FROM KARIN UPHOFF

Summer Silk

Fresh corn-on-the-cob is a favorite summer vegetable. Whether raw or cooked, organic whole corn kernels are packed with vitamin C, magnesium, phosphorous, iron, fiber and a healthy dose of two antioxidants that nourish our eyes and skin: zeaxanthin and lutein. Unlike other foods, cooking actually increases the number of usable antioxidants in sweet corn. Organic corn (especially purple corn) is found to be a rich source of a phenolic compound called ferulic acid, an anti-carcinogenic agent shown to be effective in fighting the tumor cells attributed to breast and liver cancer. It’s also packed with sugar so we eagerly shuck the tight husk to get to the sweet kernels - but wait, don’t throw the stringy corn silk away!

Each silky hair is a hollow tube that comes from the female part (ovary) on the ear. This silk grows outside of the husk until pollen lands on it and moves down the silk tube to fertilize the ovary to form the seed/kernel. Every ear of corn has one silk strand per kernel. The hollow tube of silk is a clue to corn silk’s affinity for treating the urinary tract.

Collecting your own corn silk is superior to anything you can buy. Set aside the silk to dry and store for later use, or make a fresh tea by using scissors to snip some into a cup and pour hot water over it. Sit covered for 20 minutes. This mild tea is a soothing diuretic and can help relieve kidney stones, cystitis, bladder infections and fluid retention. It has long been part of formulas for treating bed-wetting or prostate gland enlargement and can inhibit certain bacteria from sticking to the lining of urinary tract cells. When air-dried out of direct sunlight, corn silk will retain its soft blond color and last well for one year.

Check out my up-dated website: http://karinuphoff.com/ - go to 'Herbs and More' for more info on plants! Read Karin's monthly "Words on Wellness" at https://www.thelighthousepeddler.com/2018

Up-Coming Classes in Ft. Bragg, CA . . .

Monday September 24^th, 6-8p

Seasonal Secrets – tips for staying healthy into winter

Herbal tea recipes, medicinal foods and habits at home for addressing your own constitution in the prevention of seasonal illness. Tea will be served!

Monday October 22^nd, 6-8pm

Herbs and Foods for Good Moods

This class will address the liver-brain connection plus herbs, foods and supplements that keep both of them humming along more joyfully. Tea and treats served!

Monday November 26^th, 6-8p

Pamper Your Pancreas (and other tips for digesting the holidays!)

Learn about the gallbladder-pancreas partnership and how care for them while you navigate through this busy season. Tea will be served!

CHRISTOFF PHOTOGRAPHY FIRST FRIDAY AT EDGEWATER GALLERY

First Friday Art Opening

Who: Russ Christoff Photography

When: Friday, September 7, 5-8pm

Where: Edgewater Gallery, 356 N. Main St., Fort Bragg

Russ will do a brief presentation about his art at 6pm. Light refreshments served.

In Russ' own words:

"The art of photography is more than capturing a moment in time; it's a matter of interpretation. When I present a photograph, I'd like to have the viewer tell me what they feel, not merely what they see. There's a reason or story behind each of the photographs I exhibit. My interpretations of the North Coast are meant to evoke dreamlike images.”

Mendocino resident and award winning photographer and videographer Russ Christoff has captured images on nearly every continent and include his Public Television Series, Traveling California State Parks.

These images are also available as hybrid dye-infused metal prints which glow with a vibrancy and brilliance unparalleled by any other method and can be displayed outdoors as well as indoors.

SUNSET 101

(Photo by Susie de Castro)

IT’S OFFICIAL: Emerald Cup coming back to SoCo Fairgrounds

The lineup for the December celebration of all things cannabis isn't out yet but last year it included big names like The Roots and Portugal the Man.

emeraldreport.com/emerald-cup-2018-is-a-go-at-sonoma-county-fairgrounds/

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

HERE'S A GREAT JOB OPPORTUNITY FOR SOMEONE LOCALLY.

Sales and Operations Manager, Destiny Garden Centre

Location: Boonville, CA

Start Date: September 2018

Job Type: Full-time, permanent

Salary: Negotiable – Commensurate with experience

Job Description:

The Sales and Operations Manager is responsible for the effective and successful management of sales, staff, business systems, inventory, invoicing, customer satisfaction, safety and productivity as established and set for Destiny Garden Centre. This position will serve as a company representative on regulatory issues and ensure a safe and efficient operations is in place. The successful candidate will support the set-up of Destiny Grow Systems in the US and have existing relationships with stakeholders and licensed cannabis producers in the region. Specifically, the Sales and Operations Manager will support the Destiny USA sales strategy and enhance the operational procedures and business processes, ensure budgetary targets are met and supervise all Destiny Garden Centre staff. Responsibilities include: Recruit, train, coach and manage all new and existing employees Plan and assign work plans to employees and create high a performing team Communicate job expectations and conduct regular performance appraisals with all staff Develop operational and strategic plans, sales strategies and create specific sales targets Prepare annual and monthly budgets, schedule expenditures, manage all onsite assets/ equipment, resolve problems, complete audits and analyze trends Build relationships with stakeholders and licensed cannabis producers in the region Analyze and develop operations systems by determining product handling, shipping and storage requirements; implement and evaluate policies and procedures; develop processes for shipping and receiving, equipment utilization and inventory management. Create effective and efficient systems for plant care and watering Ensure a safe and healthy work environment by establishing, following and enforcing standards and complying with legal regulations Oversees all building and equipment assets, ensuring a maintenance schedule is in place and repairs on buildings/ equipment is completed in a timely matter This position requires a strong knowledge of business systems, along with 5-8 years of experience in managing staff and operations. The ideal candidate would be familiar with garden centre operations and have an understanding of horticulture, gardening and agriculture. This position reports to the owner and senior management team based in Canada and is expected to have a high degree of independence in overseeing all aspects of the Destiny Garden Centre operations. Existing relationships with cannabis producers in the region is considered an asset.

To apply, please send a cover letter and resume to: Destinygardencenter@gmail.com

Posting Closing: August 31st, 2018