Humboldt County Auditor-Controller Karen Paz Dominguez. | File photo by Andrew Goff.
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Humboldt County is negotiating terms for the early departure of embattled Auditor-Controller Karen Paz Dominguez, who may leave office within a week, according to First District Supervisor Rex Bohn.
After a closed session hearing at the end of Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, Deputy County Counsel Natalie Duke reported that “authority has been delegated to the County Administrative Officer [Elishia Hayes] to execute a final separation agreement” with Paz Dominguez, who recently lost her re-election bid to challenger Cheryl Dillingham.
Hayes was also given direction to return to the board at the next available meeting to ratify the agreement.
Asked after the announcement how soon the transition would occur, supervisors Virginia Bass and Michelle Bushnell declined to comment, but First District Supervisor Rex Bohn said it would “probably be within a week.”
Asked for comment, the County Administrative Office sent the following statement via email, attributed to Hayes:
The county has been struggling for years to get the Auditor to complete some of our most basic financial reports, and the Board this year sued the Auditor to mandate that she complete those tasks in response to a state suit on the same issues.
Timely and accurate financial recordkeeping is critical to the county’s ability to secure state and federal funding and ultimately to provide services to the most vulnerable members of our community. Accordingly, we have come to a tentative mutual agreement with the Auditor regarding the lawsuits filed by the Board and the State Controller wherein she will end her term early. Auditor-Controller-elect Cheryl Dillingham will assume the role of interim Auditor-Controller until her term officially begins in January. We appreciate Ms. Paz Dominguez’s cooperation with this transition.
The Board has always been focused on ensuring the county can continue serving our community - providing public safety services, housing, road repairs, trails, workforce and economic development and other critical services. The Board has full confidence that Cheryl Dillingham will be successful as Auditor-Controller and serve the people of Humboldt County well.
The announcement came after the board returned from a closed-session hearing with legal counsel to discuss existing and potential litigation. The cases under discussion included the California Attorney General’s suit against Paz Dominguez, both personally and in her professional capacity, and the county for failure to comply with fiscal reporting requirements, as well as the county’s own suit against Paz Dominguez for misappropriating public funds, failing to comply with legal reporting requirements and violating a conflict-of-interest doctrine, among other charges.
Last week, Paz Dominguez told the Outpost via text that she’d talked with her staff about the possibility of Dillingham “coming aboard” before she’s due to take over the auditor-controller office in January, “and we all agree that we want what’s best for the department long term so we’re all going to work together.”
Asked if if she planned to leave office before the end of her term Paz Dominguez replied, “No, not necessarily. The department is short-staffed and we need everybody right now. As you know, I don’t feel entitled to the position of A-C so I am staying flexible. I wouldn’t just leave Cheryl and the team hanging but if we all agreed that there was a ‘good’ time for the transfer to take place before January, I would happily transition.”
Asked for an update on the situation earlier today, Paz Dominguez said via text, “Under the advisement of counsel, I will not be providing a comment at this time.”
The City of Eureka celebrated the groundbreaking for the Elk River Estuary Enhancement Project with
a golden shovel gathering on June 28, 2022. City officials were joined by staff, project contractors,
consultants and partner agencies to kick-off the construction phase.
The Project will restore and enhance estuary and inter-tidal wetland habitat across approximately 114
acres of City property, located west of Highway 101 between the Herrick and Humboldt Hill exit. The
City of Eureka worked closely with the State Coastal Conservancy to align more than six million dollars
in grant funding toward the project and related natural resources benefits such as habitat restoration,
Spartina eradication, adaptability to climate change, and coastal access.
The north side of the project will restore 25 acres of low-functioning salt marsh and remove 20 acres of
Spartina to create a channel network with varied marsh plains. South of the Elk River the project will
convert 89 acres of existing pasture into a salt marsh and inter-tidal channel network, connecting to the
Elk River, to reclaim historic floodplain and provide capacity for king-tides and resilience to sea level
rise.
The restoration work will create seventy-eight acres of salt marsh habitat and 2.8 miles of navigable
channels connected to Elk River. The project will construct public access amenities including a new
non-motorized boat launch, a new parking area with trailhead via the Humboldt Hill exit, and a one-mile
extension of the Eureka Waterfront Trail.
A construction contract was awarded to Figas Construction to perform earthwork, grading, water
management, and trail construction. Redwood Community Action Agency Natural Resources Division
will conduct the Spartina removal effort. During the summer construction season trail segments along
Pound Road and the Hikshari’ Trail will be closed to the public at intervals.
The major project features will be constructed and open to the public by December 2022, with ongoing
Spartina eradication, re-planting, and monitoring continuing through 2027.
Rose Patenaude, Northern Hydrology & Engineering; Patrick Sullivan, GHD Inc.; Brian Ontiveros, Ontiveros & Associates; Aaron Stephenson, Wiyot Cultural Monitor; Jesse Willor, Eureka City Engineer; Natalie Arroyo, Eureka Councilmember; Bob Figas, Figas Construction; Miles Slattery, Eureka City Manager; Adam Figas, Figas Construction; Katie Marsolan, Eureka Project Manager
You’ve probably heard by now of Arcata’s Gateway Area Plan — a plan to rezone 138 acres of land mostly west of the downtown/Arcata
Plaza area to allow for the creation of high-density housing and mixed use developments — and if you haven’t, you might want to catch yourself up by reading through some of the articles linked above. But you probably still have some questions about the plan and what exactly it will look like for the City of Arcata.
Now’s your chance to have some of your questions answered during a public presentation from the City’s design consultant, Ben Noble. The meeting will be held online on Wednesday, June 29 from noon to 1:30 p.m. The first hour will include a presentation from Noble on form-based codes, examples of how they have been used in other communities and how the Arcata is looking to utilize them with the Gateway Plan. The last 30 minutes will be dedication to questions from the community.
Map of the Gateway Area from the City
If you’re not able to attend the meeting, no need to worry! The meeting will be recorded and available on the city’s website and Youtube channel after the meeting. You can also email questions to the Community Development Department prior to the meeting.
There will also be many more opportunities to share your thoughts on the Gateway Plan in the coming months, including at the Arcata Planning Commission meeting on July 26. You can sign up for notifications on engagement opportunities at this link.
Here’s more info from the City of Arcata:
On
Wednesday, June 29 from 12-1:30 p.m., there will be an hour-long
presentation from the City’s design consultant, Ben Noble, as well as 30
minutes for general Q&A from the public following the presentation.
The session will be held as a lunch “brown bag” session and will be
recorded and available on the City’s YouTube channel and the City’s
website after the meeting.
This
session will contain multiple informational segments, including 1) an
introduction to form-based codes and how they function in regulating
physical form, including examples from other northern California
communities; 2) information regarding the current thinking from the
City’s consultant on a form-based code’s application in our local
context, as well as a review of guiding design principles currently
under consideration; and 3) an overview of options for permit
requirements within a form-based code model.
To attend the meeting, please use the following link:
Or join by phone:1-669-900-6833 Webinar ID: 826 1163 4660
If you are unable to attend the meeting but would like to submit comments, please do so to David Loya at dloya@cityofarcata.org and copy Delo Freitas at dfreitas@cityofarcata.org.
Staff will ensure that questions submitted by June 28 are either
addressed in the presentation or asked of the City’s consultant during
the Q&A section of the recorded session.
[Note: The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office contacted the Outpost after we published this press release to express concern about the original headline, which included a vaguely naughty, cattle-related euphemism for “nonsense.” The word in question “is not language we would ever use when communicating officially with the public,” Public Information Specialist Samantha Karges said via email. Of course not. The Outpost apologizes for that bullshit.]
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Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:
The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office has recently received reports of a “work from home” job offer scam targeting our community.
According to one reporting party, a post recently made on a local Facebook group advertised a remote position with the company Miroculus.
The original poster of the advertisement falsely identified as an executive with the company and even conducted an interview with the reporting party prior to offering them the position. The scammer advised the reporting party to purchase a newer-model iPhone and send it to them in order to “install software to allow for the remote work.” Thankfully, the reporting party recognized this to be a scam and confirmed with the actual company that this was not legitimate.
While organizations across the country are increasingly offering remote, “work from home”, positions, community members are urged to take caution and fully vet job openings before submitting personal information.
Keep an eye out for these red flags to see if a remote job offer is legitimate:
The job is too good to be true: The job offers high pay for little or no work.
There is little information on the company online.
A second contact cannot confirm the legitimacy of the job offer: Call the company’s HR department to make sure that they really did send you the offer or really do have that job opening.
There are warnings online: Always research the company and reviews before submitting information.
You’re required to pay upfront for training, certifications, directories, materials, or equipment.
The employer communicates poorly: Communication with a legitimate employer should not contain spelling and grammar errors or exhibit unprofessional behavior.
The job offer comes from an unfamiliar email address not associated with the company: A legitimate job recruitment email will most likely come from an email address from the specific company.
The company wants you to apply through Facebook or in an unusual way: Most major companies will list their job openings in the “Careers” section of their website. If the position is not listed on the company’s site, it may be a scam.
If you believe you have been exploited by a work from home job scam, you can file a complaint with the FTC online or by calling 877-382-4357. You can also report the scam to the California Attorney General’s Office.
Oysters for the “best oyster contest.” | Outpost file photo
Arcata’s first real Oyster Fest in two years left many Humboldters feeling dissatisfied this past weekend due to long lines, new admission costs and a limited number of vendors.
Despite the negative reviews, stand-in Oyster Fest organizer “Shoshanna” Anthony, who prefers to go solely by “Shoshanna,” told the Outpost that Arcata Main Street did the best with what was available this year.
“This was a comeback year of pulling pieces back together again,” Shoshanna said. “It’s a massive effort to get a large event back together. Oyster Fest means a lot to people and we’re sorry that people were frustrated. Everyone [involved in planning the event] worked super hard and did their best on all fronts.”
A fence has separated Oyster Fest from local bars in past years. | Outpost file photo
Long lines, drunken behavior and irksome, ever-changing regulations — like plastic fences wrapped around the Plaza — have long made Oyster Fest a subject of local drama. But resurrecting the event after a pandemic-induced, two-year hiatus that included one failed online event in 2020 and the complete resignation of Arcata Main Street’s previous Board of Directors presented an entirely new set of challenges for the local nonprofit.
“The online event lost money due to live-streaming expenses,” Shoshanna said. “We had the live-stream capacity to have around 80,000 viewers. It was a little overkill considering we had several hundred.”
With little-to-no budget, limited vendor resources and no way of knowing what restrictions would be in place in June, a new and mostly inexperienced AMS Board of Directors began planning the 2022 Oyster Fest in December.
After some deliberation, the board decided to downsize the event by reducing capacity from 15,000 people to 5,000. This included moving the event from the Arcata Plaza to a nearby field in the Creamery District, and scattering people throughout Humboldt County by encouraging them to celebrate at designated restaurants instead.
“Restaurants have been so short-staffed that the idea of staffing and running an oyster booth is not something 90 percent of the booths from past years want to do,” Shoshanna wrote in an Oyster Fest response letter for the Mad River Union earlier this month. “Prices are up in all areas for us too, and due to having to plan at least six months ahead, it’s been very important to have the event somewhere we can handle the logistics with a much smaller team, with a controlled capacity.”
Encouraging festival-goers to eat their oysters at Humboldt restaurants was also supported by many local business owners, like Meredith Maier of Six Rivers Brewery in McKinleyville, who was unable to attend this year’s festival due to staffing shortages.
“Every restaurant in the county is incredibly understaffed,” Maier told the Outpost. “I saw a ton of tourists come through [my restaurant] on Friday and Saturday. I commend them for putting on such a hard event. My heart hurt that they got backlash. They put so much love and effort into it.”
In addition to downsizing the festival, the board also agreed to add a $15 entrance fee to subsidize the event costs and help AMS recoup its budget after the COVID-19 shutdown. The fee was one of the most common gripes among festival attendees, who noted that the added cost didn’t alleviate the festival’s notoriously long lines.
The long lines, Shoshanna said, were an unintended result of the board’s “zero waste” concept for this year’s festival. Unlike past years, the 2022 Oyster Fest avoided single-use plastic cups by switching to reusable steel cups that were included with each entrance ticket.
“We made a big commitment to zero waste, which had a couple of repercussions,” she said. “Beer lines usually use plastic cups and servers just have them ready and hand them to people. Having to get each personal cup refilled probably took a little longer.”
Shoshanna said that the board is well aware of the public’s criticisms of this year’s event but said that any future changes will be up to the new AMS executive director. The nonprofit is currently in the process of filling the vacant role and hopes to hire someone by the end of the summer.
With this year’s Oyster Fest complete, Shoshanna is stepping away from her temporary, title-less role with AMS, which she referred to as “duct tape during the pandemic.” While Shoshanna said that she was hurt by this year’s negative reviews, she said that she still plans to be involved with Oyster Fest in a limited capacity and is encouraging other local community members to volunteer and get involved in the process.
“I was kind of crushed, but I feel much perkier today,” she said. “I feel that everyone’s gotta give each other a little grace. For goodness sake. Things like local organizations, events committees and government boards are stretched thin and welcoming people to participate. Jump in and help. We made Oyster Fest as beautiful a day as we could, and I’m so proud of everyone who brought their energy. It was a comeback event and we look forward to making it bigger and better.”
Staff at this year’s Oyster Fest. | Photo by Shoshanna
The Yurok Tribe received a $1.4 million USDA Rural Development Program High Energy Cost Grant to procure portable solar units for tribal homes that do not have access to grid electricity.
“The transportable solar devices will make life a bit easier for many of our families and elders, who will soon have a dependable power source for the first time,” said Joseph L. James, the Chairman of the Yurok Tribe. “This project is consistent with our values and our long term plan to develop an environmentally sustainable community. I would like to sincerely thank the USDA for investing in the Tribe.”
“This investment in some of the most rural tribal areas of my congressional district is an excellent way to bring power to chronically underserved people through resilient and clean solar energy,” added Rep. Jared Huffman, CA-02. “I’m thankful that the USDA recognized this significant need for the Yurok Tribe.”
“This grant couldn’t have come at a better time. The portable solar units will take a tremendous amount of financial strain off of our families and our elders in the Pecwan/Weitchpec area. Many of our elders are on a fixed income and due to the spike in gas prices they are having a hard time paying for fuel to keep their generators running for only a few hours each day,” said Mindy Natt, who represents the Pecwan District, which has one of the highest densities of off-grid residents on the Yurok Reservation.
“The Planning and Community Development Department is working hard to implement the Tribal Council’s goal of making clean, affordable electricity available to all reservation residents. In the long term, our objective is to achieve energy independence on the Yurok Reservation,” said Michael Gerace, the Yurok Planning and Community Development Department Director.
The Tribe must purchase the transportable solar units before the devices can be distributed to the community. The Tribe expects to serve approximately 50 homes with these funds, but the final number is subject to change because of fluctuations in the price of materials and supply chain issues. Once the units arrive, the Tribe will make an announcement to let people know about the distribution process.
There is an urgent and widespread need for electricity on the Yurok Reservation. In 2018, the Tribe and PG&E installed powerlines along the State Highway 169 corridor in the Pecwan area, but the lines do not extend much further than the pavement in most places due to funding constraints. A short distance from the highway, there are hundreds of family homes that do not have a dependable power source. Approximately 40 percent of the families living adjacent to 25 miles of Highway 169, between Weitchpec and Wautec, are not connected to the electrical grid and many use aging generators to power their homes. For the residents who rely on generators, common daily activities, such as washing clothes and cooking food, are exponentially more expensive.
In addition to putting financial pressure on tribal families and elders, the lack of grid electricity has severally limited economic development on the upriver half of the reservation, where there is a disproportionately high unemployment rate. The Tribe is taking action to increase the number of jobs and improve access to dependable power sources. Last year, the Tribe constructed three new buildings in the Tulley Creek area, which created numerous new, well-paying employment opportunities in fire protection, emergency services and transportation as well as law enforcement. This year, the Yurok Agricultural Corporation opened the Weitchpec Nursery, which cultivates a wide variety of vegetable starts. The business is expected to expand in the coming years.
To date, the Tribe has installed solar arrays on multiple tribal buildings and homes. Most recently, the Tribe, in partnership with the Schatz Energy Research Center, placed a 28-kilowatt photovoltaic system on the Tulley Creek Transportation Building and received funding to mount a second series of solar panels on the Tulley Creek Fire and Fitness Center. Both facilities are part of the Tulley Creek Emergency Services Complex. These projects are components of a larger effort to construct a microgrid to power the entire complex, which also includes the headquarters of the Yurok Fire Department and Yurok Office of Emergency Services as well as a satellite Yurok Tribal Police station. The Tribe has developed designs for the project and is currently seeking funding to implement it. The Tribe is also pursuing funds to extend power lines to the homes that are not connected to the electrical grid.
Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:
On June 27, 2022, at about 8:39 p.m., a community member contacted the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Emergency Communications Center to report a suspicious device discovered near the roadside on the 2100 block of Arbutus Street in the Cutten area.
The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Team was dispatched to investigate. During this time, local residents were advised to stay indoors while deputies investigated.
Utilizing an EOD robot, deputies determined the suspicious object to be a large modified illegal firework. The device was retrieved, safely transported to a remote area and rendered safe.
There is no perceived threat to the public at this time.
With the Fourth of July approaching, the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office would like to remind the community that the only fireworks legal to use in California are those approved by the Office of the California State Fire Marshal, known as “Safe and Sane” fireworks. Please do not attempt to alter any firework device or attempt to make your own.
If you see something suspicious or out of place in your neighborhood, do not touch or move it, but contact your local law enforcement. To report the use or possession of illegal fireworks, please use the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office Non-Emergency Line at (707) 445-7251. Only utilize 9-1-1 to report fire, injuries or other emergencies.
