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Early in today’s meeting of the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors, Mike Wilson, the board chair and Third District representative, remarked on the “huge agenda.” Sure enough, the board covered a lot of territory before adjourning to closed session shortly before 2 p.m. 

Let’s get right into our rundown of what happened. 

Felled old growth in Lower Redway

Early on, during the designated time for public comment on matters that weren’t on the agenda, a dozen SoHum residents complained to the board about some old growth redwood trees that a Lower Redway property owner was recently allowed to cut down after obtaining a hazard exemption from CalFire. (My colleague Isabella Vanderheiden reported on the situation back in January.)

Collectively, these speakers argued that the towering Sequoia sempervirens in question were healthy and sound, and that they should have been protected by a Q Zone overlay the county created in 1996 specifically to protect old growth redwoods near the John B. DeWitt State Natural Reserve.

“I believe the landowner and CalFire abused the exemption process,” Redway resident Sue Maloney said. “In addition to that, Humboldt County clearly failed to enforce its own ordinance. This never should have happened.”

Property owner Robert Scarlett is a CalFire employee, and several speakers accused him of gaming the system to obtain the hazard tree exemption, which allowed him to remove at least five old-growth redwoods, estimated to be between 200 and 300 years old, from a residential parcel on the corner of Oakridge Drive and Briceland Road in Lower Redway.

“I think that CalFire basically allowed old growth logging under the guise of home safety, and that the Humboldt [County] Planning Department allowed this to go through is just egregious,” Ettersburg resident Amy Gustin said.

“It looks like the site of a massacre,” Redway resident Kathy Glass offered. “It’s a slashy, muddy mess. It’s going to be a scar for many years, and I think we can all acknowledge that these trees are irreplaceable.”

Patrick Mulligan, a retired registered professional forester, suggested that the hazard exemption was only approved because both the applicant and the forester were CalFire employees who “figured they could abuse their positions and slide in illegal action under the wire.” He accused Planning and Building Department Director John Ford of enabling corruption.

That allegation earned a mild rebuke from Wilson on procedural grounds and a more pointed refutation from First District Supervisor Rex Bohn, who said who said the incident was strictly a CalFire matter than never reached the planning director’s desk.

“You pretty much lose all respect for me when you come up and attack our staff,” Bohn said. “Director Ford had nothing to do with this.” 

Several speakers asked the county to bring these issues up for a formal review — a “post-mortem” to find out where the process failed. But since the matter wasn’t on today’s agenda, Wilson reminded those present that the board couldn’t deliberate or solve the matter on the spot.

Second District Supervisor Michelle Bushnell noted that the exemption process is on hold and under review at the Planning Department.

Fifth District Supervisor Steve Madrone, meanwhile, quoted from Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax (“We need to speak for the trees…”) and recommended agendizing the Q Zone item for a full discussion.

Tobacco retail licensing ordinance revisited amid legal dispute

The board has been tinkering with a countywide tobacco retail licensing ordinance for more than two years now. The ordinance was designed to limit youth access to tobacco and vaping products in the unincorporated parts of the county by capping the number of retail licenses and tightening enforcement.

Public Health Director Sophia Pereira and other staff today reported that it’s proving effective; the number of retailers in unincorporated areas has dropped from 60 to 53, and flavored‑product violations have fallen from 60% of stores to just 4%. All current retailers are now in compliance with state, federal and local tobacco laws, according to staff.

But more tinkering in required! Staff asked the board to adopt a set of “clarifying” amendments, including one explicitly limiting the ordinance to unincorporated Humboldt County and another spelling out an internal administrative review step before appeals. Mario Kalson, the county’s director of environmental health, noted that the ordinance’s existing appeals process goes through an administrative law judge, which he said is time-consuming and expensive for both the county and the appellant.

Those issues have come to the fore thanks to an active legal dispute. Redwood Oil Company, a family-owned gas station and convenience store operator, last year sold 24 of its outfits (most of which include Chevron stations and Aztec Grill restaurants) to Idaho-based chain Jacksons Food Stores. The value of the deal was based on the assumption that Jacksons could retain the tobacco retail sales licenses at each location. 

Redwood Oil Company CEO Julie Van Alyea called in on Zoom before the board today and noted that three applications for such sales were denied based on a population-based license cap in the ordinance. The matter was appealed to an administrative law judge who negated the county’s reason for denial, she said, and she asked the county to process those three applications immediately. (An attorney representing Redwood Oil appeared in-person to make the same request, with a threat of litigation should it decline.)

However, the board wasn’t considering the specifics of that matter today, despite the fact that Bohn kept bringing it up. (He argued that Redwood’s deal with Jacksons should be exempted from the ordinance.)

The matter at hand concerned the specifics of the ordinance, and the board split over two contentious issues:

1. whether or not to create an exemption from the cap for retailers located more than 10 miles from the nearest tobacco seller, and
2. whether appeals should continue to go to a state administrative law judge rather than the Board of Supervisors.

Bushnell advocated for a five-mile radius for exemptions, rather than 10, in defense of retailers along Avenue of the Giants. Bohn reiterated his standing skepticism of the ordinance more broadly, noting that he grew up in a corner store and defending the right of private businesses to sell legal products that generate sales tax revenues for the county.

The others supervisors, however, argued any new exemptions would undercut the ordinance’s public‑health purpose. Madrone and Fourth District Supervisor Natalie Arroyo, in particular, held firm. Arroyo noted that the purpose of the ordinance was always to reduce the number of licenses in the county while addressing the region’s second-leading cause of death.

Ultimately, Arroyo made a motion to amend the ordinance in several regards, adding an administrative review officer to the appeals process and retaining repealing the 10-mile minimum for exemptions to the ordinance. The motion was approved by a 3-2 vote with Bushnell and Bohn dissenting. The amendments must come back to the board at next week’s meeting to be officially adopted.

New McMAC member

There was a great deal of interest from the community in an open seat on the McKinleyville Municipal Advisory Committee, often referred to as the McMAC (pronounced “Mick Mac”). At-large board member Maya Conrad retired from the commission with about two and a half years left in her four-year term, and the county received a dozen applications to fill that vacancy. 

Several of them appeared in person or called in to make their case to the board today, and after each supervisor had a chance to name their top candidates (and to commend all those who stepped forward), the board coalesced on a choice: 33-year-old Michael Smith, a property owner and aviation enthusiast who talked about growing up in town and his plans to raise his own kids there. 

Code of Conduct complaint procedures

Before adjourning to closed session, the board returned to the matter of its own Code of Conduct and how to handle allegations of misconduct by county supervisors. Bushnell has pushed for changes to the complaints procedure after disagreeing with the results of an investigation into her own alleged misconduct last year. (She was censured by her board colleagues and removed from her position as chair in November.)

Today, staff explained that since November, when the board voted to refer the code to the Civil Grand Jury for possible improvements, the internal committee responsible for processing complaints — consisting of the CAO, HR director, and county counsel — has been effectively stuck, unsure whether to continue under existing rules or wait for outside recommendations.

And those recommendations aren’t necessarily forthcoming. The Grand Jury explained in a January press release that, as an independent judicial body, it doesn’t take assignments from the Board of Supervisors or anyone else, so it’s not bound to weigh in on this matter. Even if it does so, its report won’t be published until the end of the fiscal year in late June, so staff sought direction on how to proceed with both pending and new complaints.

Bushnell recommended that complaints about supervisor misconduct should go to an independent mediator, rather than putting staff in the awkward position of adjudicating complaints about their bosses. She also took exception to the way she was treated by her colleagues last year.

“I’m never going to censure anybody on this board,” Bushnell said. “It’s not my place, and so I just publicly am going to say that I am not your judge and jury. Your constituents are.”

Ultimately, the board agreed to process complaints under the current Code of Conduct for the time being, and to form an ad hoc committee of two supervisors and key staff to review and propose updates to that code — including possible mediation options.

The board also agreed to fold in any feedback the Civil Grand Jury may provide, so long as that feedback is received before the end of June. 

The California Coastal Commission is set to hear the City of Eureka’s request to formally toss an abandoned plan to rezone the Balloon Track — the plan that once aimed for the property to become the Home Depot-anchored Marina Center development.

In a report, Commission staff recommended the body that regulates land use along the coast finally deny the 2011-era application that would have amended the city’s local coastal plan.

The effort, which Eureka voters supported in a 2010 ballot measure, would have rezoned the 43-acre property to support commercial, office, residential and open space uses.

But it sat lingering at the Commission, which must approve zoning changes in the coastal area before they can take effect, for nearly 13 years, with the official status sitting at “incomplete and inactive.”

The city hopes that if the application is officially denied next week, the path would clear for future planning of the site which hasn’t been in use since the 1980s.

The Eureka City Council, with support from property owner Security National, voted to withdraw the Coastal Commission application back in November. Commission staff instead are recommending that it be officially denied, for procedural purposes. The Commission says the proposed changes don’t meet requirements in the Coastal Act.

Coastal Commission staff pointed to language in the ordinances stating “if the California Coastal Commission does not certify these amendments, this ordinance shall be null and void.”

The amendments were never certified by the Coastal Commission.

“The Commission’s denial of this LCP Amendment as submitted, as recommended by staff and without suggested modifications, means no further action is required by either the Commission or City Council, and the LCP amendment is not effective,” the staff report said.

The city is hopeful the move will clear possible issues with the lingering Marina Center application and open up a future for the Balloon Track.

“I think this clears up procedural ambiguity that potentially would have slowed/obstructed future planning for the site,” wrote Cristin Kenyon, Eureka’s Development Services Director, in an email.

She said the city, property owner, and the Coastal Commission are all on the same page about the end result of this determination.

Eureka previously pointed to visioning for the large brownfield site in the 2040 General Plan, with residents hoping for a “mixed-use commercial district, emphasizing retail and service commercial uses supplemented by upper-floor office and residential space.”

In this month’s staff report, Coastal Commission staff pointed to the same issues that stopped the body from adopting the changes over a decade ago. A key resource concern is impacts to wetlands.

“The site may only have a limited and dispersed amount of developable land due to the location and configuration of wetlands, wetland buffer areas, and other constraints across the site. Delineated wetlands total about 8.7 acres of the 43-acre site, scattered throughout different areas of the property, and the proposed land use/zoning designation boundaries do not correspond to identified wetland boundaries,” the staff report said.

Kenyon said wetland fill policies could conflict with development of the Balloon Track — and planning for the site’s future will require “creative problem solving,” she said, alongside the possibility of restoring filled wetlands near Humboldt Bay.

Recent efforts to clean up the site have included scrapping rusty trains and some environmental remediation.

“No one wants the Balloon Track to stay in its current state, and there is a solution that benefits everyone,” she said in the email.

“I for one am determined to find a creative path forward,” she said.

The Coastal Commission will hear the issue Thursday, March 12, in Ventura.

In other Humboldt County items, the Commission will hear zoning changes that would add emergency shelters as a permitted use in the general commercial land use designations and public facility zones in Humboldt County. Staff is recommending a yes vote. 

Coastal Commission Agenda

The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors was pretty stoked today, as it found out that a dozen people had applied to fill out one member’s term on the McKMAC — the McKinleyville Municipal Advisory Committee.

That’s a lot of applicants!

Our Ryan Burns will have more on today’s Board of Supervisors meeting later, but now comes news from the Sheriff’s Office that some creep fashioned an online scam targeting those 12 people in particular. What a world!

Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

The Humboldt County Clerk of the Board’s Office and Planning & Building Department have recently received several reports of an email scam targeting the community.

In this scam fraudulent emails claim to be from the Humboldt County Planning Commission. The scammer tells the victim that they have reviewed and approved their application to serve on the McKinleyville Municipal Advisory Committee and an “application review and approval fee” is required before “official approval” can be finalized.

The email appears to mine information from publicly-accessible documents such as Board of Supervisors meeting agendas and related application documents. It also includes instructions on how to wire funds to pay the fee and settle the account.

The County of Humboldt does not charge or require an “application review and approval fee” for the McKinleyville Municipal Advisory Committee or any other Humboldt County board, committee or commission and would like the community to know that this is a scam.

While departments such as the Clerk of the Board and Planning & Building may contact you regarding your application to serve on a county board, committee or commission, the county will never ask you to pay a fee to serve or:

• Mail large sums of cash
• Wire funds to a private account
• Use a credit card over the phone, or
• Pay with gift cards or pre-paid money card

If you have any questions about the status of your application to serve on a county board, committee or commission, please call the Humboldt County Clerk of the Board’s Office at 707-476-2390.

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office encourages anyone who believes they may have been targeted or have been a victim of this type of fraudulent activity to report the incident immediately by calling 707-445-7251.

Please remember these tips to help protect yourself from fraud:

• Spot imposters. Scammers often pretend to be someone you trust, like a government official, a family member, a charity or a company with which you do business. Do not send money or give out personal information in response to an unexpected request, whether it comes as a text, a phone call or an email. Do not open attachments in emails from unknown sources.
• Do online research. Type a company or product name into your favorite search engine with words like “review,” “complaint” or “scam.” Or search for a phrase that describes your situation, like “application fee” or “IRS call.” You can even search for phone numbers and email addresses to see if other people have reported them as scams.
• Don’t believe the name in an email or your caller ID. Technology makes it easy for scammers to fake email account names and caller ID information, so the name and number you see are not always real. If someone calls asking for money or personal information, hang up. If someone emails you asking for you to take action, do not click links in the email or open attachments. If you think the person contacting you might be telling the truth, call back to a number you know is genuine.
• Talk to someone. Before you give up your money or personal information, talk to someone you trust. Con artists want you to make decisions in a hurry. They might even threaten you. Slow down, check out the story, do an online search, consult an expert or just tell a friend. If you have applied to serve on a county board, committee or commission with the Clerk of the Board’s office, please contact them and ask questions.
• Do not rely on personal information. Living in the digital age, access to information is easier than ever. Scammers are often able to get their hands on very personal information, providing it to their victims to make their scam look more legitimate. Do not trust a scammer who is able to provide your personal information. If you followed the above tips and still are not sure, call back at a publicly listed number for the organization from which the scammer claims to be or contact your loved one directly.

Stay Informed

Sign up for the Federal Trade Commission’s scam alerts and visit USA.gov/Where-Report-Scams to learn how to report scams

To learn more about some of the common scams reported to the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office, please visit HumboldtGov.org/ScamInfo.

Arcatians want little more than nice-looking roads and a high quality of life, indicate results from Arcata’s latest FlashVote poll.

This is the second time city hall has surveyed residents using the FlashVote tool. This survey had 240 respondents, 60 fewer than the last poll in October. 

The new poll focused on funding. It asked residents which priorities were the most important to them: out of six choices (plus options for “other” or “none of these”), the two far in the lead were about improving the local economy and quality of life and “enhancing the appearance, safety, and overall livability of Arcata.” More than 70% of the survey’s respondents selected those options. 

Roughly tied for a distant third were “provide leadership in environmental stewardship and climate change preparedness” and “support community creative and cultural life.” 

Respondents paid a lot of attention to transportation and public utilities. Almost 70% of them said they’d prioritize city funding for streets and roads. Another 57 people said they’d only support renewing the Measure G 0.75% sales tax if the revenue was spent exclusively on streets and transportation policies. Out of a hypothetical $100 earned from Measure H, Arcata’s latest sales tax hike, the average respondent said they’d spend $25 on the homeless, the most out of any category.

Much of the open-ended feedback was about either funding homeless services or endorsing more heavy-handed solutions to the issue, and $22 of that hypothetical $100 would have been spent on this. 

Survey answerers also complained about the upcoming water rate increase. 

Some people seemed pleased just to be asked for their opinion.

“Thanks for asking for my input :),” said one. “No other comments,” said another. “Thank you for asking.”

If you live or work in Arcata and you’re interested in responding to future polls, you can sign up here.

🔥Bonus Round🔥

As Humboldt County’s premier news-mongerers, it pains us when people don’t seem to have a solid grasp on what’s going on. It hurt, trawling through some of these comments, to notice that many of these poor people are asking for things that the city’s already delivered. So! A quick list of things you may have thought were pie-in-the-sky, but are actually already yesterday’s (or last year’s) news. (All grammatical and typographical errors are [sic].) 

“Put a bathroom at redwood park! It’s probably the most used park in Arcata and there’s one port o potty?! Which by the way kids are scared of. People poop in the woods which is not good for wildlife .” 

It re-opened in November. 

“To combat government corruption, Arcata should be as transparent as possible with the budget…”

It is. Check out this neat overview of all $110.7 million in Arcata’s budget, and this informative tool that breaks everything down by category. Can’t blame you for not being able to find it, though; these are a little buried on the city’s website.

“Please put in additional outdoor Pickleball (only)Courts. The Larson Park area is used more by Pickleball players than tennis players, yet we have no permanent outdoor pickleball courts with permanent nets in Arcata.”

There have been pickleball-specific courts open at Carlson Park since September 2024.

“…Make Arcata more bike friendly: Purchase a compact/mini-sweeper specifically designed for protected bike lanes and narrow streets/trail. This would help keep bike lanes clear from debris and minimize flat tires, encouraging bike riding.”

Does this thing count? The city has been cleaning bike lanes with it since its purchase last year. 

“…A large enclosed dog park would be beneficial for the many, many dogs living here locally…”

Already been done. 

Have fun enjoying your bathrooms, street sweeper, dog park, and data visualization tools, everybody!

Press release from the City of Eureka:

The City of Eureka will host an informational workshop on Tuesday, March 24, 2026, at 5:30 PM for community members interested in civic service.

The workshop will be held in the Council Chambers, 531 K Street.

This workshop is designed for residents who are considering:

• Running for the office of Mayor or Council Wards 1, 3 & 5 in the November 2026 General Election
• and/or Serving on a City board or commission

The session will provide an overview of opportunities to get involved in local government and help prospective candidates and applicants better understand the commitment and responsibilities of public service.

Topics will include:

• Election timeline and key deadlines
• Overview of current City projects and priorities
• Roles and responsibilities of appointed and elected officials

Serving in local government is an opportunity to represent neighbors, shape policy decisions, and help guide the future of the community. The City encourages anyone curious about running for office or serving in an appointed capacity to attend and learn more.

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The Fortuna City Council unanimously voted Monday to approve the purchase of nearly 244 acres of undeveloped land along the Lower Eel River — most of which will be returned to the Wiyot Tribe.

At last night’s meeting, the council approved a purchase agreement for four parcels — 236 acres on the west side of the Eel River and 7.2 acres at Riverwalk Drive and Alamar Way, behind Eel River Brewery — to improve public access and preserve riparian habitat along the Eel River. The land, owned by Troy Elbert Land and Trudy Marilyn Ehmke, will be purchased using grant funds.

Fortuna City Manager Amy Nilsen said the city has been wanting to buy the 7.2-acre swath of land for “over a decade.”

“The city would retain this piece of property with the intent for this to become a park with river access,” she said, adding that the 236 acres will be returned to the Wiyot Tribe. “There is a public benefit for both acquisitions and these include but are not limited to protecting the sensitive riparian and open space environments, supporting long-term ecological conservation and expanding and enabling future public access to the Lower Eel River.”

Nilsen noted that the city has already secured $1.9 million in funding through the California River Parkways Grant Program and the California Coastal Conservancy to cover the purchase price, which will be determined through an independent appraisal. 

“I just wanted to also say — because these questions come up a lot [and] the city doesn’t have a lot of money — that this is being purchased with grant funds,” Mayor Pro-Tem Tami Trent reiterated for the audience. “It doesn’t come out of the General Fund at all.”

Fortuna resident Tina Christensen, the only member of the public to comment on the agenda item, congratulated the council on the land deal and underscored the need to “revitalize Fortuna.”

“I think it’s a great purchase,” Christensen said. “I think Fortuna needs to move forward. We’ve lost a lot of industry in this county, and something can happen down there that could be truly amazing.”

Altogether, the agenda took up less than 10 minutes, with little discussion among council members. The purchase agreements passed in a unanimous 5-0 vote.

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Check out the video below for more Fortuna City Council!

A founding owner of UniTea House in Arcata, a recently closed business, is facing accusations of sexual assault in Humboldt County and a community reckoning in wellness circles he frequented further south.

Arcata’s UniTea House, which opened about a year ago and lasted about 10 months, was started by Jonathan Pinkston and two business partners, according to documents filed with the secretary of state.

It was a wellness-minded event space and tea lounge in Arcata, initially envisioned as a new location for Sonoma County’s Soft Medicine Sanctuary. But business owners had gradually moved away from Pinkston before it shut its doors, one partner said.

Reporting from the Press Democrat Thursday chronicled alleged financial coercion, emotional abuse and sexual abuse — according to a lengthy restraining order request filed in Humboldt County from Pinkston’s former business and romantic partner, Humboldt County resident Clairese Mayo, who additionally sought child custody.

In court documents Pinkston denies the allegations as fabricated, and denies allegations in a letter to employees of Soft Medicine Sanctuary in Sebastopol, reporting from the Democrat found.

Mayo accused Pinkston of sexual abuse between February and May 2025, and an alleged sexual assault in McKinleyville after breaking up. The court documents published by the Press Democrat additionally accuse him of forced entry and medical neglect while pregnant.

When reached by phone Friday, Mayo said the details from the restraining order request becoming a public matter has been uncomfortable and embarrassing. But she argued accountability is a way of caring for someone.

“Holding those closest to us accountable is a great way that we can show our love and invite possibility for change,” she said.

She said things started adding up after hearing others impacted by Pinkston. Regional social media pages have been populated with stories of alleged abuse in recent weeks.

“When I thought I was alone I was suffocating. When I discovered the truth everything made sense,” she said in a message to the Outpost.

The pair are currently finding a settlement in court, according to Mayo.

The Democrat also reported on business issues, including a partner seeking financial information through a lawsuit in Sonoma County. In a statement on social media last week, Soft Medicine Sanctuary said it had cut ties with Pinkston, and announced Saturday it would entirely close.

UniTea, located in Northtown Arcata, formed after Pinkston became interested in forming a kind of successor to “The Thing,” a since-closed event space on the Arcata Plaza that offered ecstatic dancing nights.

UniTea opened Feb. 1, 2025, and had closed by the end of November. While the three technically formed the business together, “he was rarely there at all,” said Will Wright, a founding owner who was running the business by the end. He said all local owners are standing in solidarity with victims.

In a court declaration supporting Mayo’s restraining order request, Wright pointed to “concerning behaviors” of Pinkston including lying, lacking transparency and spinning stories to paint himself in the best light.

UniTea, which peaked at three employees, was making efforts to reopen amid tough financial prospects.

“Had we reopened, it would not have been with Jonathan involved. We were in the process of separating,” said Wright. The business closed before these efforts were finalized, but he said they were aiming to turn UniTea into a fully local business.

He wanted to emphasize any money made at the location was not supporting Pinkston, and was rather used to keep UniTea running — though revenue never covered their expenses.

Mayo said the business was “a really beautiful vision,” but also a passion project where members didn’t make an income, and it hadn’t yet gotten off the ground by the end of the year.

Wright said he has hopes to offer a similar thing in the future; but for now, “we’re just wrapping everything up.”

A sexual assault lining up with the reported McKinleyville incident is being investigated by the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office, a spokesperson confirmed to the Democrat, but no charges have been filed in Humboldt County, according to court records. A spokesperson did not confirm the connection to Pinkston to the Lost Coast Outpost by publication time.

An email to Pinkston’s attorney seeking comment was not returned.

Mayo’s temporary restraining order was granted by Judge April Van Dyke on Dec. 1. Meanwhile, documents submitted by Pinkston seek an agreement to see the couple’s daughter, access to whom he said was unlawfully blocked.

The Sebastopol-based business has additional locations in San Francisco and Nevada County.

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Press Democrat coverage:

• Sebastopol business owner ousted after allegations of sexual assault, financial coercion surface