A man in Fort Bragg running to be on the City Council has bowed out after a particularly uncomfortable interaction with a drunk guy and a Ukiah police officer. Alberto Aldaco says Officer Jarod Frank performed a probation search of a man who had been drinking, but was not allowed because it’s against his probation. Aldaco reportedly told the cop off, then the officer’s body camera caught Aldaco peeing on the ground on a public street. Mendo Fever and Kym Kemp are reporting Aldaco said he would no longer be running for city council because he’s not the best person he can be currently. The city clerk in Fort Bragg has confirmed the 25-year-old dropped out of the race.
There’s a massive hole in Mendocino county’s multi-million dollar health plan. The self-funded plan’s a deficit after about two and a half years adds up to about six million dollars. That’s even after the Board of Supervisors moved over $4.5 million from one of the COVID stimulus packages over to the plan budget. So the real deficit was around the $10 million mark. The Board also says the former auditor borrowed money to cover the deficit, but they didn’t know. At their meeting the Board members sounded off on the shortage. They also heard there had been a surplus a few years back but the then Auditor-Controller said it was too high and they should spend it down. The new CEO told the board they had reported a wrong number, but nobody who knew the actual number came forward to correct it.
The Yurok Tribe and California State Parks have cemented their deal, signing an agreement for co-management of Yurok ancestral territory on Calif. land. The milestone is called the Global Memorandum of Understanding and Traditional Tribal Gathering Agreement. It means Yurok Tribe members have access to state parks in the North Coast Redwoods District and within Yurok Ancestral Territory so they can work the land without a permit. That includes gathering plants and minerals, participating in tribal activities like religious, spiritual, ceremonial, recreational, and research. The Tribal Chair spoke at the signing, saying he was grateful for the correction of the longstanding injustice on the tribal land.
The Mendocino County Prevention, Recovery, Resiliency, and Mitigation Division (PRRM) is reminding there’s not much time left to fill out the disaster recovery and resiliency survey. The survey is open to all residents, past or present, not just those who sustained direct impacts caused by the 2017, 2018, 2020, and 2021 wildfire disasters. The deadline is tomorrow at midnight.
To complete the survey, please visit: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MendoDisasterRecovery State
Sen. Bill Dodd has announced the Governor has signed his bill to beef up wildfire prevention by creating a $20 million prescribed fire claims fund. Dodd says the increasing destruction and loss of life from climate-driven wildfires means the state has to “ramp up prevention – and prescribed fire is a proven way to do that”. His bill not only sets money aside for the state to use prescribed fires or controlled burning, but also protects landowners and prescribed fire managers so they don’t have to pay for fire suppression, unless they acted with gross negligence. The Nature Conservancy supported the bill, saying to restore forests, there needs to be less barriers for prescribed burning.
Mendocino County has several events taking place in support of National Substance Abuse Prevention Month. The events to remember those lost to overdose, to acknowledge grief of family and friends who have been left behind and renew the commitment to end overdose and related harms. The Overdose Awareness, Education, and Resources Options Events are happening every weekend in October. There are five of them on Saturdays, each from 10:30am-1:30pm in different locations in the County. The events are sponsored by Consolidated Tribal Health Project, National Alliance on Mental Illness, the Sovereign Nation of Pinoleville, the City of Ukiah, and Mendocino County Behavioral Health and Recovery Services.
October 1st at the Mendocino County Fairgrounds in Boonville, October 8th at the Gualala Community Center, October 15th at the Fort Bragg Town Hall, October 22nd at the Ukiah Alex Thomas Plaza, and October 29th at the Willits Recreation Grove Park.
For questions or additional information, contact (707) 472-2300, or if you, a friend, or a family member need help, call the Beacon Call Center at 1-855-765-9703
A pay hike is coming for California Highway Patrol officers. The 6.2% raise this year negotiated by the union with the state of Calif. The state Human Resources Department put the salary up on the annual survey on the state website which was used to calculate the new salary. That means some will make almost $111,000 per year. Plus it will be paid retroactively to July 1st. CHP raises are somewhat different than their other law enforcement counterparts. They’re in alignment with the pay of five local police departments: San Francisco, Oakland, San Diego and Los Angeles, where there are two departments.
The Ukiah Garden Club’s fall fundraiser features planting kits for kids again, but this time they’re in tiny teacups. Last year kids got a small packet of fertilizer, along with a spoon, so children could mix them up. There were 70 kits made last year for the sale. 40 were sold and the rest went to Lake County for their sale. This year kids are getting the teacups, wooden chop sticks and tiny spoons and fertilizer packets. The sale is happening next weekend, Oct. 8th and 9th from 9am – 4pm Sat. and until 2pm Sunday.
The Governor has signed a bill into law so agricultural laborers can join unions. The Governor had said he was against the bill which was hardily supported by the United Farm Workers. Union workers and supporters walked 335-miles from Delano to Sacramento, then camped out on the steps of the State Capitol for several weeks. President Biden even got involved, putting out a Labor Day statement urging Governor Newsom to sign Assembly Bill 2183 into law.
The levees in Upper Lake were the subject of a workshop due to community concern. The Western Region Town Hall was at the Habematolel community center where about 40 people showed up, most of them Upper Lake residents. There was a Q&A with officials from the county and the Lake County Water Resources’ consulting company. Assemblywoman Cecilia Aguiar-Curry also had representatives at the meeting via Zoom. The levees were built by the Army Corp of Engineers back in the 1950s but turned over management to the state of California in the 90s. There are about a dozen solutions being offered that have been whittled to three, but the state law keeps evolving which has put a wrinkle in moving forward.
The Governor has signed Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry’s bill to update the authority of Resource Conservation Districts in ways to better fight climate change. The districts or RCDs were created in the 1930s as a liaison with state and federal conservation programs due to the central valley’s dust bowl. There are now 95 RCDs to help with natural resource needs of rural, urban, and suburban communities. Aguiar-Curry says they’re doing important work to address climate change in her district, but many in smaller regions have tiny budgets. Her bill would make it easier for them to get grants and continue to be updated. The last update was in the 70s.
The Fort Bragg City Council has passed a new anti-bullying policy. At their meeting Monday night they heard from the city manager who said she noticed a lot of bullying and hostility at city hall. The policy is not legally enforceable, but City Manager Peggy Ducey said she was concerned that the nastiness toward City employees could become physically violent. She provided info to those in attendance about shootings in city halls around the country, showed some of the abusive letters some staffers had received and said they’ve had no recourse until now. But some of the public at the meeting said the policy would get in the way of free speech and would mean less public participation, one saying, “criticism isn’t bullying.”
