Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

On Sept. 25, 2022, at about 9:57 p.m., a Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputy on patrol in the area of U.S. Highway 101 near Garberville observed two motorcycles, one without a rear license plate, traveling in excess of 90 miles per hour.  

The deputy attempted a traffic stop on the motorcycle without a plate, and the driver failed to yield. Deputies pursued the motorcycle for approximately 28 miles, after which officers with the California Highway Patrol (CHP) – Garberville Division assumed control of the pursuit. At approximately 10:30 p.m., deputies were notified that the motorcycle had been involved in a collision near the 5400 block of Briceland-Thorne Road, and the driver, later identified as 26-year-old Dylan Edwardknee Sally, had fled into nearby vegetation. California Department of Fish and Wildlife K9 Link was deployed, successfully locating and apprehending Sally. During a search of Sally and his belongings incident to arrest, deputies located drug paraphernalia.

Dylan Sally was booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility on charges of evading a peace officer (VC 2800.2), fleeing a peace officer (VC 2800.4), resisting a peace officer (PC 148(a)), possession of a controlled substance paraphernalia (HS 11364(a)), driving without a license (VC 12500(a)), failure to provide evidence of insurance (VC 16028(a)), failure to display a license plate (VC 5200(a)) and unsafe lane change (VC 22107).

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office would like to thank the California Highway Patrol- Garberville Division and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife for their assistance with this investigation.

Anyone with information about this case or related criminal activity is encouraged to call the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at (707) 445-7251 or the Sheriff’s Office Crime Tip line at (707) 268-2539.

Earlier this month, Supervisor Mike Wilson woke to find his car had been stolen from outside his Arcata home. He called the Arcata Police Department. He posted something on Facebook. And he texted Sheriff William Honsal.

This happened over the weekend of Sept. 10-11. The following Monday, just after noon, Honsal sent this email to county deputies, with cc:’s to department leadership and the dispatch center. It read:

Good Morning Patrol,

I will give a $40 Dutch Bros card to anyone that locates and recovers Supervisors Mike Wilsons Stolen Vehicle.

Description: [redacted]

There have been sittings [sic] in Orick and Rio Dell. If you recover it, please send me a copy of the 180 for payment.

A couple of hours later, a deputy wrote the Sheriff back to ask for details about the sighting of the vehicle in Rio Dell, and promised to look for it later. That was the sum total of email correspondence about the matter sent or received by the Sheriff, according to the results of a Public Records Act request filed by the Outpost.

As it happened, Supervisor Wilson’s car was found shortly after this near Red Bluff, so apparently no member of the Sheriff’s Office was able to claim their $40 bonus in the form of coffee-based beverages. But the incident may leave a bitter taste in the mouth of some Humboldt County citizens, along with some questions. Is it right for the Sheriff to offer extra incentive to officers for solving crimes affecting people with some status in the community – in this case, a person who is one-fifth responsible for setting the Sheriff’s Office’s budget, and indeed the Sheriff’s own salary?

Ed Obayashi is a deputy sheriff and legal advisor to numerous police agencies in California, and a law enforcement trainer who has provided services to departments around the state, including in Humboldt County. Told about the details of the case recently, Obayashi said his concern would be that “the optics are obviously not conducive to an impression of equal service.”

“There’s nothing illegal about it, and probably they don’t even have a policy that prohibits it, or addresses it,” Obayashi said. “Just from an optics standpoint, there would probably be some in the community who would question that the leader of a law enforcement agency may be going out of his way to provide a financial incentive, when the department would not do that for the typical crime victim.”

Honsal had little to say about the particulars of the incident when the Outpost wrote to ask for comment. We asked whether he had second thoughts about the appropriateness of offering incentives to his officers to solve certain crimes. We asked what he might say to a different person whose car had been stolen recently, who presumably didn’t get the same treatment.

“Thanks for your inquiry,” Honsal responded, via the office’s public information officer. “I regularly incentivize persistence, dedication, and all-around good work for public servants within my department.”

The law enforcement officer who originally alerted us to this affair had a different take, though. In his letter, he took offense to the notion that sworn officers needed perks such as this to prod them to do police work, and he wondered whether political favoritism was at play in this case.

“I find it appauling [sic] that a Sheriff would have to pay his guys extra to do their jobs,” he wrote in a letter to the Outpost. “If accepting this type of gratuity is common at HCSO, I think we as a community should be alarmed.”

For his part, Wilson said that he had no idea that Honsal had placed a bounty on his case until the Outpost informed him of it, and that he had no intention of seeking special consideration. He said he regrets having sent the text.

“In the emotion of having a car stolen, I reached out to, really, the only police officer I know,” Wilson said. “I was just not mindful in that moment. If I’d given it more thought, I wouldn’t have done it, for all the obvious reasons.”

DOCUMENT:

• Honsal email to the Sheriff’s Office staff, Sept. 12.

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More than 1.7 million Medi-Cal patients may get a new insurance provider in the coming months as a result of the state’s first-ever competitive bidding process, but critics and some providers fear the change will cause major disruptions to care.

California’s Department of Health Care Services last month announced its intent to award $14 billion-worth of Medi-Cal contracts to three companies — Health Net, Molina and Anthem Blue Cross — down from nine. The deal is part of the department’s multifaceted effort to overhaul the behemoth program that provides health insurance for a third of all state residents. Medi-Cal is the state’s version of federal Medicaid, which serves low-income residents.

“We are raising the bar for all of our managed care partners,” state Medicaid Director Jacey Cooper said. “We will be very focused on quality and access to care.”

The new contract includes strict new quality standards for patient outcomes and financial penalties for providers that do not meet the goals. The new benchmarks are “significantly better” than previous standards and competitive bidding is long-overdue, said Kiran Savage-Sangwan, executive director of the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network.

“This is a really big deal. It’s something that we have consistently advocated for the state to do more often and on a specific schedule in order to maintain accountability,” Savage-Sangwan said.

Many patients will keep the same insurance provider, but in four counties — Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento and Kern — the largest incumbent plans were ousted, precipitating a significant transition for nearly half of commercial Medi-Cal patients.

“We are raising the bar for all of our managed care partners. We will be very focused on quality and access to care.”
— State Medicaid Director Jacey Cooper

An ‘immeasurable’ disruption

In Los Angeles, Health Net, the largest Medi-Cal managed care plan in the state, lost its coveted contract to Molina. More than 1 million patients, roughly one-third of all Medi-Cal enrollees in the county, have Health Net. The other two-thirds have coverage through the county-operated L.A. Care Health Plan.

Medical providers in L.A. that serve primarily Medi-Cal patients say the decision to offer Molina the county contract could cause “immeasurable” disruption.

“It would be profound,” said Jim Mangia, president and CEO of St. John’s Community Health in south L.A. “You’re talking about completely changing providers and provider networks. It would completely interrupt their systems of care.”

Nearly 25,000 patients at St. John’s — a quarter of the facility’s patient population — have Health Net and would need to switch to Molina, which has far fewer patients and providers. Expecting the company to contract with an equivalent number of doctors and specialists as Health Net in the next year is unreasonable, Mangia said.

The state expects new contracts to be fully implemented by January 2024 with the transition period starting as soon as Oct. 10.

“They’re a minor player in the Medi-Cal market. “Can they get 10 times bigger in that many months? I doubt it,” Mangia said. “You’re going to see a tremendous lack of access to specialty care, to hospital care and to primary care.”

“Can they get 10 times bigger in that many months? I doubt it.”
— Jim Mangia, president and CEO of St. John’s Community Health

Molina did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Health Net Vice President of Communications and Marketing Darrel Ng said in a statement that the company would defer to providers’ assessment of the ramifications of the contract change.

Health Net appealed the state’s decision in Los Angeles and eight other counties where it lost bids. In the L.A. appeal documents, Health Net alleges that the state’s decision to move to Molina will “jeopardize the stability of Medi-Cal and its provision of services to California’s most vulnerable.”

Some providers, however, were less concerned about the change, predicting that there would not be much of an impact on patients.

“In theory nothing should change. Technically, Health Net and Molina switching places should have no impact on the consumer,” said David Ryu, chief strategy and advancement officer at Kedren Community Health Center, a primary care and acute psychiatric hospital system in South L.A.

That assessment, however, assumes Health Net will subcontract with Molina, giving them access to their network of providers. Neither Health Net nor Molina have stated whether they will pursue that option.

If Molina retains the contract offer after the appeal process, Medicaid Director Cooper said there will be a 15-month transition period to ensure enrollees are aware of the change and do not experience any interruptions in coverage.

“We’ve been planning for this transition for months, probably even close to a year at this point,” Cooper said.

That planning includes hiring staff dedicated to the transition and contracting process and ensuring provider networks overlap significantly enough to prevent patients from losing access to doctors.

“We will make sure through our readiness process of all managed care plans…that they are ready and able to handle those continuity-of-care requests,” Cooper said.

Mangia predicted, however, that community health centers will be left to handle the most vulnerable and difficult-to-manage patients. A third of St. John’s patients do not have valid phone numbers or addresses, largely due to housing instability. Those patients frequently have complex health needs and providers are only able to find them when they show up at emergency rooms.

“Where are they going to send the letter? The state is going to send them a letter that says ‘You no longer have Health Net. You need to choose a new plan.’ Then people come in, they don’t understand it, they need help filling out the application. That’s a huge responsibility to dump on community health centers,” Mangia said.

“Every time there’s a change in health care in California, the cost and work of doing it gets pushed on the (health centers).”

Holding plans to higher standards

The state intends to award 28 new contracts across 21 counties to Health Net, Molina and Anthem Blue Cross, but the selections have raised questions about whether the plans can actually meet the new quality standards. Over the past decade, health outcomes and quality metrics have stagnated or gotten worse for Medi-Cal enrollees, and the three winners, which have current contracts across two-thirds of the state, maintain spotty track records.

Some of the new requirements include:

• Meeting updated quality benchmarks;
• Publishing reports on patient outcomes, appointment access and wait times, and patient satisfaction;
• Investing up to 7.5% of annual profits into community-based organizations with additional investments required if quality benchmarks are missed;
• Hiring a chief equity officer and developing a plan to reduce health disparities;
• Monitoring primary care utilization and identifying patients that may be missing preventive care opportunities.

In 2019, the department updated its quality benchmarks, requiring California Medi-Cal plans to perform better than 50% of all Medicaid plans nationwide. The previous requirement was to do better than 25% of plans nationwide. Enforcement of the benchmarks was suspended due to COVID-19.

“Before we were letting all of our plans fail. Now we’re holding them to the average,” Savage-Sangwan said.

Anthem Blue Cross, which was offered the greatest number of contracts, historically has achieved poor to mediocre outcomes. For example, between June 2020 and July 2021, Anthem failed to meet 59% of its quality benchmarks across the 12 regions where it serves Medi-Cal members. Those metrics include breast cancer screenings, diabetes management and completion of childhood immunizations.

Health Net had a similar failure rate across seven counties. while Molina failed to meet quality benchmarks 38% of the time across four counties. Ng, of Health Net, said COVID-19 made 2020 “a difficult year for all of us” when it came to meeting quality standards, but the company recognizes the need for improvement and has made a “multi-million-dollar investment in quality over the past several years.”

Anthem and Molina did not respond to requests for comment. The state Department of Health Care Services said three years of quality metrics were analyzed during the bidding process.

Losing bidders have submitted appeals in more than half the counties where bidding took place, claiming competitors overpromised their Medi-Cal services and that the Department of Health Care Services implemented an unfair scoring system.

One such appeal came from Community Health Group, the largest Medi-Cal provider in San Diego County and one of the highest-performing insurance plans in the state. It lost the initial bid to Health Net and Molina.

“(The decision) was quite shocking,” said chief operating officer Joseph Garcia. “In every measurable metric, we are way ahead.”

In 2019, Community Health Group was the fourth-highest-ranked Medi-Cal insurer in the state, according to state data, beaten only by San Francisco Health Plan and two Kaiser plans, which tend to serve healthier patients. In contrast, Molina’s San Diego plan ranked 16th and Health Net’s ranked 29th.

Garcia said he has “a lot of questions and a lot of concerns” about how the Department of Health Care Services awarded points to bidders. Health Net and Molina were awarded points for proposing community engagement strategies that Community Health Group already implements, he said.

“We’re going to give you more points because you’re going to do something? We should get more points because we’re already doing it and members don’t have to wait,” Garcia said.

Like in L.A. County, San Diego providers say this decision will cause a major disruption to patient care. Community Health Group serves the largest proportion of Medi-Cal patients — approximately 326,000 — out of the seven Medi-Cal insurers in the county.

“Good grief. Medi-Cal populations have a complexity of needs. It’s not like we can just transfer them and give them a new card. ” said Zara Marselian, CEO of La Maestra Community Health Centers in San Diego. “We’re going to have to hire more staff.”

“Medi-Cal populations have a complexity of needs. It’s not like we can just transfer them and give them a new card. ”
— Zara Marselian, CEO of La Maestra Community Health Centers

Marselian said La Maestra has worked with Community Health Group for nearly three decades and its history as a health center that grew into a Medi-Cal insurance plan gives it insight into what the population needs.

“They started managed care before the state did managed care,” she said. “They really understand the Medi-Cal population, the challenges, the disparities and the incredible amount of work it takes to help them navigate through all of the systems so they can attain health and well-being.”

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

Betty L. Ehrheart, 91, passed away peacefully on September 23, 2022 at her Ferndale home surrounded by family. Born November 6, 1930 in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania to Theodore and Elizabeth McFarland, Betty married Daniel O. Ehrheart in 1950. They had two sons, Rick and Ted. The family moved to Southern California in 1959 and after Rick and Ted were grown, moved to Ferndale in 1991 and built their dream home in the new McKinley Avenue neighborhood.

Betty worked for many years at Rockwell International in Southern California as a supervisor on both the Apollo and Space Shuttle projects. During her long career, The National Aeronautics and Space Administration presented the Group Achievement Award to Betty for her work on the Stabilized Payload Deployment System Team for use on the Space Shuttle Orbiter.

Shortly after Dan and Betty’s retirement to Ferndale, Dan was diagnosed with cancer and passed in 1997 at the age of 70. At the same time, Betty was diagnosed with macular degeneration and was eventually diagnosed as legally blind. An avid bridge player, reader, and needlepoint enthusiast, Betty turned to playing poker with her dear Ferndale friends, gardening and listening to books on tape. As he neared his death, Dan asked Betty’s younger friends to step in and make sure that she did not live a life of isolation. Dan would have been pleased. In the 25 years since Dan’s passing, Betty’s infectious sense of adventure, good-natured personality, humor and intellect translated to her large group of friends taking her on multiple trips across the globe, countless dinners, rousing musical events and full production birthday parties to mark her many milestones. If one wanted a “Betty date,” they’d better call early in the week since her calendar was usually full.

Shortly after Dan’s passing, friends started a weekly Wednesday pizza night at Betty’s house. Dozens of friends, neighbors, children and dogs have enjoyed epic Wednesday nights, where copious amounts of cheap red wine were enjoyed along with pizza, laughter, tears and memories. Two generations have now attended the weekly get together with many Ferndale children remembering Wednesday night dinner always being “pizza at Betty’s.”

As Betty moved on in years she also became legally deaf. Despite her two disabilities, she still persevered with her good nature and humor and never turned down a dinner invitation or a chance to travel.

Betty is survived by her two sons and Rick’s wife, Bonnie; grandchildren, Matt, Adam (Kelly), Shannon (Brandon Champieux); great-grandchildren Luke, Jude, Emme, Noah and Sierra. She was preceded in death by her husband Dan.

The family would like to thank all the caregivers that took such great care of Betty as her time came to an end. Her niece Sharan Wehn and husband Mike, Britt and Kevin Frey and Jacque Ruszala. A special thanks to Dr. Han and Dr. Douglass for their loving care.

A last pizza party will be held to celebrate Betty’s life on Saturday, October 1 at 2 p.m. at the Ferndale Atrium, 207 Francis Street, Ferndale. Friends are invited to come share stories, laughter and music. A mass at Assumption Catholic Church will take place at 2 p.m. on Sunday, October 2. Betty will be buried in a private ceremony at Ocean View Sunset Memorial Park in Eureka.

JoAnn Alma Vollenweider
March 31, 1934 – September 1, 2022

Mom was born to Jon Arthur (Jake) Jacobson and Ethel Elizabeth (Nelson) Jacobson in Eureka on March 31, 1934. She was the third daughter of four children. Her siblings were Doris Jane Jacobson, Nancy (Hilfiker) Jacobson, and Fred Jacobson.

Though born in Eureka, Mom had described her young life as living in Samoa and moving to Blue Lake in 1941. She had fond memories playing in the Samoa sand dunes and going to Samoa Elementary School. Even after moving she enjoyed going back to Samoa with her mother during the Samoa Women’s club events and visiting with her old classmates. She had strong memories from those trips of watching the blimps from the Navy base drag their mooring cables down the beach. She could remember seeing some of the boys hanging onto the cables and being lifted high into the air and over the ocean. Later on in life Mom (who always enjoyed a good adventure) and while recounting that story, she would proudly state that she never grabbed one of those cables.

She remembered her family childhood and growing up on the farm in Blue Lake with equal pride and enthusiasm. Those family events and cherished friends helped fashion a women of strength, strong family values, a deep appreciation of her friends and a relish to live life to its fullest. Compassionate, kind, loving, decent, honest, and truly enthusiastic for life, only begin to describe Mom (a very special lady from a very special family). Through the ups and downs of life she managed in many ways to live life on her terms.

Mom graduated from Arcata High School in 1951, attended Humboldt State College, and in December 1952 married the love of her life, Kenneth Fred Vollenweider. They had three children, Linda Ann (1953) Kenneth Bruce (1956), and Michael Jon (1957). Their journey through life together was one of shared experiences, both positive and a few negative, but always together. Their love for each other made an impression: Dad had an old picture of mom that he carried in his wallet and almost to himself repeat how beautiful mom was. As children growing up with Mom and Dad, life consisted of family outings to the beach, to friends, to local relatives and one or two longer vacations that almost always included visiting with the more distant Vollenweider or Lindberg relatives in Alaska and Washington.

In addition to family, Mom and Dad had a group of Humboldt County friends that they would cherish for the remainder of their lives, wonderful people that would all look back and describe the “wonderful times“ they had together. Whether the trips were to baseball or football games in San Francisco, an RV outing, camping trips, Jazz Festivals, Fire and Police Olympics, running events, poker games, or larger social functions at the Elks, the group truly enjoyed the company of each other. Many fond memories.

Mom enjoyed many different careers throughout her life. Her first paying job was at an ice cream shop in Arcata; she made a very good banana split for the rest of her life. She worked at Hornbrooks shoes, was an office manager for a construction company, and after moving to the Redding area, worked solely in the banking business for the remainder of her career. She made some very important friends in her life while working in banking.

One thing that did remain constant for Mom was her appreciation of a good book. She was a voracious reader, often having two or three books going at the same time. She continued to read up to the last week of her life. With the passing of her husband, many things changed but Mom continued to enjoy the close friendships she had and the travel bug never left her, culminating in an around-the-world cruise that she took by herself while in her 80s.

Mom was preceded in death by her husband, Kenneth Fred Vollenweider, her parents Jake and Ethel Jacobson, her sisters Doris Jane (as an infant) and Nancy Hilfiker, and her daughter Linda Ann.

Mom is survived by her two sons Kenneth Bruce ( Ann), Michael Jon (Katherine), her brother Fred Jacobson, her brothers-in-law David Bruce Vollenweider and Bill Hilfiker, her grandchildren LaRay and Eric Chambers, Kenneth Jon Vollenweider, Kyle Grant Vollenweider, David Jon Vollenweider, Paul Thompson, and Adina Lawrence, her nephews Harold and Billy Hilfiker, Darrell, Fred, and Martin Jacobson, JJ and Brent Vollenweider and too many great-grandchildren, nieces and nephews to mention.

Mom lived her life as she wished. She had unique rising and bed times, often to the distress of her husband and friends who would prefer to arrive at an event or a meal somewhat earlier. But she was a woman of consistent opinions and only wished for each to treat others respectfully and well. One of her last wishes was to remain at home for as long as possible. With the help of her wonderful care giver, Kari Sjobakken and the care of Bonnie and Darlene from 21st Century Health Care, her last wish was achieved.

To a wonderful mother grandmother, aunt and friend, you will be missed.

Memorial Service: Elk’s Lodge #1073, 250 Elk Dr, Redding CA, Sunday October 9, 2022 from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm. Interment will be held at Sunset Memorial Park at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, a contribution to the Nancy Hilfiker Memorial Fund at the Humboldt Area Foundation would be appreciated by Mom and her family.

It is with sadness and the joy of being blessed with over 93 years, we announce the peaceful passing of J.G. Salazar, better known as Mary, on Sept. 21, 2022.

Mary held many names and titles in her life, but none she was prouder of than Nana, until meeting her great-grandchildren and becoming Nita.

Mary was born in 1929 in Santa Monica and raised in Guadalajara, Mexico. In 1953 she was married to the love of her life Jesus (Henry) P. Salazar, starting the journey as couple in Sonoma. They quickly added to their family with their two daughters in quick succession before moving their way towards Humboldt County, following Jesus’ career with NWP Railroad. They eventually settled in Fortuna, after surviving the 1964 flood while living in Alton and adding a son to the family.

She is survived by her daughters Irma (Thomas) Silva, Juanita Stewart, Daniel (Dawn) Salazar; grandchildren Christina Roberts, Miriam Rose, Brandon Roberts, Lydia Thrash, Marisa Roberts, Daniel Salazar Junior, and Glenlee Salazar; and great-grandchildren Mateo Quintanar, Kyleigh Rose, Karson Rose, Abigail Thrash, Luna Roberts, Charlotte Thrash, Isla Roberts, Mateo Salazar, Karter Rose, Beckham Sauve and Jayden Salazar; in addition to her sisters Guadalupe, Rita, Beatrice, Teresa and brothers Manuel and Tomas and many other relatives and friends.

Mary and Henry enjoyed traveling, exploring Europe, and adventuring on a cruise as well as traveling to family. In their later years they enjoyed the Humboldt excursions to Reno. They especially enjoyed seeing their grandchildren’s faces on their family trip to Disneyland.

Services will be held for Mary with a Rosary at Goble’s mortuary in Fortuna on Sept. 30, 2022 at 7 p.m. A funeral mass will be held on Oct. 1 at St. Joseph’s Church in Fortuna at 10. The officiants will be Father Eddie and her son-in-law Deacon Thomas Silva. Pallbearerswill be Danial Salazar, Brandon Roberts, Daniel Salazar Jr, Mateo Quintanar, Patrick Rose and Tanner Thrash a burial process to Sunrise Cemetery followed by reception at Parish Activity Center (PAC) in Fortuna.

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

On Wednesday, September 14, 2022, Carolyn Louise Podratz passed away at the age of 80. Born to Milton and Lillian Ragsdale, she graduated from Eureka High School and attended Humboldt State College.

Carolyn was very involved in Scouting in Santa Clara County and received the Silver Beaver award for her many contributions. She was a den mother, helped to set up new Cub Scout Packs throughout the council, a member of the Women’s Reserve, and participated in training events such as Brownsea at Camp High Sierra. As a member of the Redwood Empire Golf & Country Club in Fortuna, she was an active golfer for 30 years. Other passions were stamp collecting and playing card games with friends and family. Scrabble was a favorite game with her mother.

Carolyn is survived by children: Alan, Andy, and Laura; her grandchildren: Katie & Nick, Andrew, Alexander & William.

A memorial service will be held on Sunday, October 23rd from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Eureka Elks Lodge at 445 Herrick Avenue.