Margaret Kaye Aiton (McCann) passed peacefully on October 15, 2022 at the St. Helena Hospital in St. Helena, California. Margaret was born in Everett, Washington on January 27, 1942 to Chester (Chet) and Esther (Carlson) McCann. Margaret grew up in Arcata with her three siblings, Freddy (Fred) McCann, Charles McCann and Marianne (McCann) Schmidt. She married Reid Aiton on January 13, 1961 in Arcata. She resided in Snow Camp (Korbel) for the last 35 years.

Margaret loved her family and the many extra children that floated in and out of their home. She also loved sewing, quilting, and gardening. She loved building her rock gardens as much as the dogs loved her digging around in her gardens, and they were so helpful to her. She had many quilts started, most of which were hand-sewn rather than machine-sewn. Margaret also adored her chickens and her onery cats. Margaret’s other favorite pastime was painting — not paintings, but the décor of the house. One never knew what color the inside or outside of the house or your bedroom was going to be when they came home if she had stopped by a paint store. She loved color and the brighter the better.

Margaret is preceded in death by her mother Esther, father Chet, brother Fred and nephew Peter Schmidt.

Margaret is survived by her husband Reid, siblings Charles and wife Janice, Marianne Schmidt and husband Mike, her children Reid Jr., Dianne Holba and husband Kevin, Rodney, Russell and wife Michelle, 11 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren, several nieces and nephews, and cousins.

Graveside service will be held on October 26, 2022, at 11 a.m. Ocean View Cemetery, 3975 Broadway Street, Eureka. A Celebration of Life will be held at Arcata Veteran’s Hall, 1425 J St., Arcata, immediately following the service.

All are welcome.

Flowers should be sent to Sanders Funeral Home, 1835 E Street, Eureka, CA 95501.

###

The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Margaret Aiton’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here. Email news@lostcoastoutpost.com.

PREVIOUSLY: Going Down, Oct. 24, 2022

# # #

Eureka Police Department release: 

On October 24, 2022, at approximately 5:51 p.m., Officers with the Eureka Police Department were dispatched to the 3300 block of Broadway on the report of two persons trespassing on the property. Responding officers were advised that one of the subjects had a felony warrant for his arrest.

Upon officer arrival, the felony warrant suspect was taken into custody after a short foot pursuit. The second suspect, who officers learned also had a warrant for his arrest, had fled the scene but was located near the 1300 block of Bayshore Way. The suspect fled again on foot into the greenbelt and an officer pursued. As the officer entered the greenbelt he was attacked by a dog that was off leash. The officer fired three shots from his duty pistol in self-defense, striking and killing the dog. The officer was not injured in the incident.

There were no civilians injured during this incident and there is no ongoing threat to the community. The second suspect was not apprehended. The Eureka Police Department is conducting an internal review into the on-duty discharge of a firearm.

Embattled Arcata City Councilmember Brett Watson was arrested shortly after 1 p.m. Monday for violating the terms of a restraining order against him.

Arcata Police Chief Brian Ahearn tells the Outpost that he was arrested around 1:30 for having communication with one of the people protected by the order. He declined to give any further details.

Reached by phone, Watson said he was arrested at his home and booked into the Humboldt County Correctional facility and released after a couple of hours on $25,000 bail.

Watson said the prohibited communication consisted of cc’ing Mayor Stacy Atkins-Salazar when he was replying to a constituent.

“On Saturday a constituent emailed me and asked for an update on the hotels in Valley West that are being converted into housing for low-income and homeless people,” he said. In his emailed reply, Watson recommended that the constituent contact the city manager, “and I [wrote], ‘I’m also cc’ing Mayor Stacy Atkins-Salazar on this email so she’s in the loop,’” he added.

“It didn’t cross my mind” that this was a violation of the restraining order, Watson said. “I’m, like, just doing my job as a city council member. I was more focused on [staying] 100 yards away and not going to city hall.”

A Humboldt County Superior Court judge granted the restraining order last week. It restricts Watson’s access to City Hall and prohibits him from contacting or being within 100 yards of four city officials, their workplaces and vehicles, with the exception of Arcata City Council meetings.

“It is such an overreaction,” Watson said. “So not necessary. They could have just let me know.” 

Watson’s arrest was first reported by KMUD News. His court hearing has been set for December 5, Watson said.

###

A month after unanimously censuring former Humboldt County Planning Commission Chair Alan Bongio for making racist and derogatory remarks at an August 18 hearing, the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will consider changing some things about the commission, including reducing its size and possibly altering the way commissioners are appointed and removed.

The board is also set to adopt a new set of rules governing the commission, one that includes a “Code of Conduct and Ethics.” Among other things, this code says planning commissioners’ behavior must be “above reproach” and avoid “even the appearance of impropriety.”

The commission is currently composed of seven members, including one appointee from each of the five county supervisors plus two at-large members, whose appointments must be approved by a board majority.

That’s unusual, turns out! Staff in the County Administrative Office recently surveyed 21 other counties and found that only two of them have seven-member planning commissions. One has a whopping nine-member commission, but the rest all have just five.

Why does ours have seven? Who knows?

“It is not clear why 7 commissioners were chosen as the appropriate number to serve on the Planning Commission,” a staff report admits. “It may have been to ensure there were sufficient members available to provide a quorum. Based on the information from other counties, this does not seem to be an issue for counties with 5 commissioners.”

Staff recommends that the board reduce the number of commissioners to five, which would eliminate the positions currently held by Melanie McCavour and Brian Mitchell.

While Bongio’s behavior has drawn the most attention, the Wiyot Tribe filed a complaint last month alleging, among other things, that McCavour has a conflict of interest because in addition to serving on the commission she works as the tribal historic preservation officer for the Bear River Band of the Rohnerville Rancheria.

While McCavour has recused herself on matters that require her professional opinion, the Wiyot Tribe argues that her dual roles nonetheless give her “special privileges” in conversing with the rest of the Planning Commission. 

Eliminating her position from the commission entirely would obviously settle that particular dispute, but it would still leave the matter of Bongio, who was appointed to the commission nearly a decade ago by First District Supervisor Rex Bohn. At the meeting where Bongio was censured, Bohn made it clear that he had no intention of replacing him.

“I just can’t bring myself to it,” Bohn said, later adding, “I can’t fire my friend.” The board did ask Bongio to step down from his chair position, and he complied.

But tomorrow the board may also opt to change the procedure for removing a commissioner. The staff report says planning commissioners shouldn’t have to worry about being removed arbitrarily, “but if a Planning Commissioner acts in a way that is offensive and unbecoming to the county, then there should be a way to address that by the Board of Supervisors.” Presumably they mean something beyond a censure, which serves as a formal rebuke but carries no further repercussions.

Half of the 22 counties surveyed by staff (that’s including Humboldt County) allow for removal of a planning commissioner through a majority vote of the board of supervisors. Two counties leave it to district supervisors to initiate removal. Humboldt is one of them.

Curiously, in seven of the 22 surveyed counties “there are not clear provisions” for removing a commissioner. If you’re keeping track, that leaves two counties unaccounted for. In them, the staff report says, it takes a four-fifths vote from the board to boot a commissioner.

County staff thinks that may well be the best approach. 

“A simple majority vote to remove a Planning Commissioner could be too low of a threshold,” the staff report says, “but the requirement for a 4/5ths vote would provide the opportunity to consider the matter and ensure that the Board is aligned in taking action to remove a commissioner.”

As for the code of conduct, it runs just over 15 pages and includes a number of provisions that have relevance to Bongio’s recent controversy, including one governing conflicts of interest. 

Bongio’s impartiality has been called into question for his behavior during a series of hearings related to permit violations on a home-building project from local business owner and developer Travis Schneider. Bongio has consistently and fervently advocated on Schneider’s behalf during these hearings, claiming, for example, that the applicant has done everything that’s been asked of him despite ample evidence to the contrary. Bongio’s wife is also related to Schneider through marriage. And the North Coast Journal‘s Thadeus Greenson reported that Bongio performed concrete work at the construction site and failed to disclose it.

The code of conduct slated for adoption states:

No Commissioner shall engage in any business, transaction or activity, or have a financial interest, which is in conflict with the proper discharge of official duties, which would tend to impair independence of judgment or action in the performance of official duties, which creates the appearance of such conflict, or which otherwise violates applicable County policies or state or federal law.

The main source of controversy for Bongio has surrounded his comments about local tribes. To recount, he accused two Wiyot-area tribes of being dishonest and manipulative, made a veiled reference to a derogatory term that’s rooted in a negative stereotype and repeatedly referred to those tribes collectively and disapprovingly as “the Indians.” 

The code of conduct notes that the Board of Supervisors recently added diversity education to the county’s list of required trainings. This new line of training includes education on implicit bias and cultural humility plus two sections that explicitly recognize “the important historical role of local tribal communities.”

Under the “Principles and Standards” section the document says, “The professional and personal conduct of Commissioners must be above reproach and by the law must avoid even the appearance of impropriety, which is critically important for maintaining a positive and productive image of county governance.”

The Board of Supervisors meeting is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Tuesday inside board chambers at the Humboldt County Courthouse.  Theoretically you should be able to stream the meeting via Zoom by clicking a link that will appear on this page shortly before start time, but last week the county had technical difficulties that rendered the stream non-operational. But you can still participate by phone if you call the conference line 720-707-2699, enter Meeting ID 870 5493 8437 and press star (*) 9 to raise your hand. 

###

Press release from the Eureka Police Department:

On October 24, 2022 at about 7:15 a.m., officers with the Eureka Police Department, with the assistance from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office and HCSO K9 Yahtzee, served a search warrant at a residence on the 1000 block of Hiller Road in McKinleyville. The search warrant was part of an ongoing investigation into 47-year-old Jed Vandanplas of McKinleyville for illegal firearms and narcotics.

During the search warrant, Vandanplas was located inside the residence and detained. During a search of the residence, officers located eight rifles including one assault rifle with a suppressor attached, four shotguns including one with an illegal short barrel, two handguns, thirty-two high capacity magazines for the assault rifle, six firearm suppressors, approximately 1.3 grams of suspected cocaine, approximately 2.2 grams of suspected methamphetamine, 15 Suboxone strips and drug paraphernalia.

Vandanplas was booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility for possession of firearms while in possession of narcotics, addict in possession of firearms, possession of an assault weapon, possession of high capacity magazines and possession of a short- barreled shotgun.

Today Californians get their first statewide look at test scores measuring the toll the pandemic took on students — and the way state education officials have handled the rollout provides plenty of clues that the news won’t be good.

Earlier this fall the state Education Department refused a media request to immediately release the scores, saying it would do so by the end of 2022. That fueled speculation that the agency’s head, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, was delaying the release until after his November re-election bid. Eventually the department reversed course and agreed to release the data.

But it did so in a way guaranteed to complicate coverage. Reporters received the data Sunday morning, under a news embargo until 10 a.m. today. Typically, they use that embargo time to interview district officials and education experts — so releasing test score data when those sources are unavailable hinders reporters’ ability to analyze and contextualize an important measurement of the pandemic’s impact on California’s public school students.

“I can’t read minds, but it does give the appearance of trying to conceal the data,” said David Loy, legal director of the First Amendment Coalition. “It’s not uncommon that government at all levels will release data or other news when it’s inconvenient for media.”

It’s also likely not a coincidence that the state results will be released to the public the same day scores on a different test, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, were unveiled just past midnight on the East Coast. That test, taken by a much smaller sample of California students, allows comparisons between all states — and showed an achievement drop in every single one.

But Gov. Gavin Newsom immediately issued a press release highlighting the fact that California students overall didn’t fare as poorly as those in most other states. Anyone hoping to divine how divergent state pandemic policies impacted academic achievement will find these national results confounding: California fared about the same as Florida and Texas, two states that rushed to return to in-person learning.

Not so California, where state officials deferred to local control. Citing health concerns, schools here generally continued remote learning long after students in many other states had returned to their classrooms.

Unlike the national test, California’s Smarter Balanced tests are given to almost all students in grades three through eight and grade eleven every year. They measure whether students have mastered state standards for math and English language arts. The scores the state is releasing are for the 2021-22 school year, the first year that all students in the designated grades were required to take the tests since the start of the pandemic.

California’s Education Department, which supports over 1,000 school districts and charter schools, oversees the administration of standardized testing as well as the release of the Smarter Balanced scores.

“If the superintendent of public instruction is up for re-election in less than three weeks, it looks like they’re trying to bury the data.”
— David Loy, legal director of the First Amendment Coalition

In the past, it has given reporters a day of advance access to the test score data, usually on a weekday before it releases it to the public. Reporters use the time to analyze the data and identify outlier districts and schools. In this case, CalMatters attempted to contact education officials but most did not return calls because the advance release occurred on a Sunday.

The Education Department hosted a half-hour-long press briefing late Friday to summarize the test score data before it was released to reporters. But the virtual briefing only consisted of Malia Vella, a deputy superintendent at the department, speaking with her camera off. There was no slide presentation during the Zoom conference, and only a brief question-and-answer session. Reporters had to submit their questions in writing in the Zoom chat. The agency provided a text file following the briefing containing summaries of the data.

Earlier this year the education news site EdSource requested the statewide data from the department through a public records request but was denied in September. In its denial, the department stated it planned to release the data by year’s end, along with other student data like absenteeism and suspension rates.

In response to the denial, EdSource’s lawyer argued that the records exist because local school districts had already received their own test score data. The lawyer also stated the department did not identify any public interest when it chose not to disclose the data.

Less than a week later, the department backtracked and agreed to release the scores by the end of October without the additional student data. Some districts, including Los Angeles Unified and San Diego Unified, released their data to the public independently.

Thurmond, who has faced blowback for what critics described as a lack of leadership during the pandemic, did not respond to questions about the timing of the release.

But education experts who specialize in standardized testing said there’s an array of potential issues that could delay the publication of standardized test data. Li Cai, an education professor at UCLA specializing in standardized testing, said late October is still a reasonable time for the education department to release the data.

“They’re historically always pretty good, but during the pandemic there are occasionally delays and that’s understandable,” Cai said. “I don’t want to dramatize this.”

But Loy from the First Amendment Coalition said the timing is suspect: “If the superintendent of public instruction is up for re-election in less than three weeks, it looks like they’re trying to bury the data,” he said.

Thurmond’s challenger, Lance Christensen, was more explicit in his criticism.

“I’m utterly surprised the superintendent can’t own the drop in test scores and say we’ve had a problematic last few years,” Christensen said. “Hiding it and not having the data accessible to the public until right before the election, it’s really cynical and sad.”

Megan Bacigalupi, the executive director of the parent advocacy group CA Parent Power, said the test scores are just one factor that might help voters choose a school board candidate this election. Parents received their own children’s test scores months ago. But she said the complete state-level data is crucial for parents who want to compare schools.

“Parents need to know where their own child is academically, and how they’re doing,” she said. “But it’s also important to see where your school is in relation to your district. That’s information parents should have.”

###

CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

After months of an extraordinarily quiet race, in which Gov. Gavin Newsom has barely even acknowledged his own campaign for re-election, the Democrat came out blazing Sunday in the only gubernatorial debate, relentlessly attacking his Republican challenger as a stooge of oil companies who has obstructed his every effort to solve the biggest problems facing California.

The barrage — at times remarkably personal, as when Newsom warned that his “extreme” anti-abortion opponent would force 10-year-old incest victims to carry a pregancy to term — seemed to stun Brian Dahle, a state senator and farmer from rural Northern California, who struggled to respond to some of the criticism.

But Dahle was clear in his message to voters, who will decide this fall whether to give Newsom a second term in the governor’s office: Despite billions of dollars in new funding for everything from schools to homeless services, California is worse off than it’s ever been because Newsom’s solutions are the wrong ones.

He accused the governor of focusing more on national issues than those plaguing the state, a claim that Dahle has repeated with increasing frequency in recent months as Newsom launched broadsides against the leaders of GOP states and speculation mounted that he is laying the groundwork to seek higher office.

“I want to start out by thanking the governor for taking time out of going forward on his dream of being president of the United States and actually coming to California and having a debate,” Dahle said. “Californians are suffering. They’re fleeing California and they’re going to other states where he’s campaigning nationally.”

The exchange prompted the debate moderators to ask Newsom whether he would commit to serving out the full four years should he win another term.

“Yes,” Newsom said. “And I’ve barely been out of state. I was out of state for a few hours to take on his party and [the] leader of his party, Donald Trump, who he is a passionate supporter of.”

The one-hour debate, hosted by KQED at its San Francisco headquarters, is unlikely to change the contours of a race that public polls show Newsom is expected to win by double digits. It aired live on the radio and online Sunday afternoon, as many viewers were tuned to NFL games instead.

Reporters, who were initially offered access to the studio where the candidates debated, watched a livestream from a separate room. A spokesperson for KQED declined to comment on why journalists were barred from attending in person.

Here are some of the other highlights:

‘Extreme’ positions on abortion

Newsom immediately sought to draw a contrast with Dahle on abortion. While the governor has spent millions to air a television ad touting Proposition 1, a ballot measure that would put the right to abortion into the state constitution, a campaign account controlled by Dahle donated $20,000 this month to defeat it.

Dahle, who calls himself “pro-life,” denied that. A spokesperson later said it was an in-kind contribution, because Dahle’s campaign shared polling it had conducted with opponents of Proposition 1.

“You’re not pro-life. You’re pro-government-mandated birth,” Newsom said. “What my opponent believes is some 10-year-old that’s raped by her father should be forced to bear her brother or sister. His position is extreme.”

Dahle did not discuss the specifics of his beliefs about abortion. He instead lambasted Newsom for adding hundreds of millions of dollars in new money for abortion services in the latest state budget, including $20 million to help women from outside California travel here for the procedure.

“He wants to make this a sanctuary state where all of Americans can come here and get an abortion at the expense of Califonia taxpayers,” Dahle said. “I know that’s a great platform when you’re running for the president of the United States. But here in California, people are struggling, and yes, I would absolutely take that out of the budget.”

Yet Dahle said that, as governor, he would allow some funding for abortion services if necessary to reach a budget deal with a Democratic-controlled Legislature.

Bringing down gas prices

Dahle tried to focus on the high cost of living in California, as exemplified by gasoline prices that are nearly $2 per gallon more than the national average.

He said the state is affordable only for Newsom’s wealthy friends, blaming overly burdensome environmental regulations and climate policies that Dahle believes are the wrong priority at a time when the state is deep in drought and struggled to keep the lights on during a recent historic heat wave.

“We have no water. We have no electricity. We have no plan,” Dahle said.

Rather than the inflation relief rebates that the state began sending out to most Californians this month, or the special session that Newsom plans to call later this year to tax oil industry profits, Dahle once again urged Newsom to suspend the state’s gas tax, which he argued would provide more immediate assistance to drivers.

But when pressed by Newsom about how to ensure that oil companies, which pay the tax, would actually pass along all those savings to consumers at the pump, Dahle could only offer, “Well, we make sure that they do it.”

Newsom denounced Dahle’s answers as ripped from “Big Oil’s talking points.” The governor bragged that gas prices were down 65 cents per gallon since their peak after he ordered the state to transition early to its cheaper “winter blend” of fuel. Prices remain so much higher than the rest of the country, he said, because the oil industry is gouging Californians.

“There’s no justification — none, whatsoever — for these outrageous, usurious costs,” he said.

All talk, no progress?

By the end of their hour together, the candidates fell into a familiar pattern.

Newsom would trumpet some historic funding in the latest state budget — the highest per-pupil spending ever for K-12 schools, two dozen positions in the Department of Justice to combat fentanyl trafficking, a new court to compel more homeless people into treatment — and blast Dahle for voting against it.

Then Dahle would counter that it was all talk and Newsom had done nothing to actually solve the problem.

“The governor talks really slick and smooth about all of these processes he’s doing,” Dahle said. “What he’s done in the last four years is throw money at every single issue, more than there’s ever been. And what are the results for Californians?”

Take their exchange on the drought, which has only worsened this year even as Newsom implored Californians to reduce their water usage. The governor said his plan was “not just about a mindset of scarcity,” but “also about creating more water” by building additional storage.

Dahle shot back that the proposed Sites Reservoir in Northern California has yet to start construction nearly a decade after state voters approved bonds for the project. Newsom said he is seeking federal funding to help cover the $5.2 billion cost, while Dahle noted that a nearly $100 billion projected surplus in this year’s budget easily could have paid for it.

“In four years, not one shovelful of dirt,” Dahle said. “Talk is cheap, governor. You’ve got to perform.”

Dahle also hit Newsom for the homelessness crisis in California. Though the governor made it a priority of his first term, the number of people sleeping on the streets has only increased.

Newsom pointed to an innovative program he launched during the coronavirus pandemic, transforming vacant hotels and motels into homeless housing, and said he was ramping up pressure on local governments to take the problem more seriously.

“It’s an outrage. It’s unconscionable what’s happening on the streets and sidewalks. That’s why we’re requiring accountability plans,” Newsom said. “We’re not going to hand out any money any longer if local governments can’t produce real results.”

By contrast, he said, Dahle’s plan for solving homelessness — including banning encampments near sensitive areas such as schools — is “illusory.”

###

CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.