A Fortuna High School coach and math teacher was handcuffed and led away to jail at his arraignment today after Judge Kelly Neel raised his bail by $65,000.
Gary Frankland Landergen, 56, is charged with the felony child molestation of three 15-year-old girls. He posted $35,000 bail when he was arrested on April 6, but was taken into custody again this afternoon after Neel increased his bail to $100,000.
Deputy District Attorney Carolyn Schaffer asked for the higher bail, saying Landergen took advantage of being in a position of trust as the girls’ coach.
Landergen was accompanied by attorney Zack Curtis, who argued Landergen has been out of custody for a month and has caused no problems.
“He has every intent of taking care of the court date and answering to these charges,” Curtis said. He said Landergen understands the seriousness of the charges and has been careful to stay away from young people.
Neel also signed restraining orders today, meaning Landergen is not allowed to contact his alleged victims in any way. He does not live far from the school and must stay at least 10 yards away.
A bail hearing is scheduled for Friday, though Landergen may post the additional $65,000 before then.
Landergen is charged with four felony counts of child molestation involving Jane Does One, Two and Three. He also is accused of three misdemeanor counts of sexual battery. A conviction on any of the charges would require him to register as a sex offender.
All of the alleged crimes occurred over just a few days: March 30 and 31 and April 2.
According to the district attorney’s written complaint, Jane Doe One reported Landergen “grabbed her buttocks with his hand while saying ‘I love you.’”
Jane Doe Two said Landergen touched her upper thigh near her buttocks, and on another occasion patted her buttocks with his hand. The complaint alleges Landergen molested Jane Doe Three but does not give details.
The three misdemeanor sexual battery charges involve Jane Does One and Two, along with a third Jane Doe who is listed as “under 18 years old.”
Landergen was accompanied to court by several supporters, including a young man who took his phone before he was jailed.
Defense attorney Curtis told the judge he was making a special appearance today, meaning he has not been hired.
Fortuna High School placed Landergen on administrative leave shortly before he was arrested by Fortuna police.
Landergen’s arraignment was not completed today, but should be on Friday.
The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors (from left): Steve Madrone, Mike Wilson, Virginia Bass, Rex Bohn and Michelle Bushnell. | Screenshot.
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The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors engaged with some of the county’s most intractable problems on Tuesday, looking for new approaches in addressing homelessness, mental health care and the slow-motion disaster wrought by its own financial management.
In a morning hearing, the board heard from local health care providers who outlined the immense challenges in local mental health care, which have been exacerbated by the COVID pandemic and insufficient resources.
Roberta Luskin-Hawk, chief executive at Providence Humboldt County, told the board that the entire country is facing these challenges, and at Providence-St. Joseph Hospital things have reached “the breaking point,” with an influx of mental health patients causing a surge in workplace violence and impacting core services in the emergency department.
“I think we’re at the point where we need help from the Board of Supervisors, really looking in a very global way,” Luskin-Hawk said. “Many of the [local] health care leaders have said we need a gap analysis to look at everything from outpatient care to crisis stabilization to inpatient care to post-acute chronic care, and we really need to know what we have and what we need.”
In recent years and months the hospital has been forced to manage an increasing number of patients on so-called 5150 holds — that is, patients who’ve been deemed potentially dangerous to themselves or others and confined involuntary for up to 72 hours. Many children have been held at the hospital even longer, Luskin-Hawke said, and recently the sheer number of them meant some were placed in hallways so medical staff could attend to other emergency room patients.
That environment became a “pressure cooker,” she said. “It’s noisy. It’s scary. It escalates them. It’s not good care for them … [and] our staff is overwhelmed because they’re not trained primarily in mental health.”
Experienced nurses didn’t feel safe in the workplace, and they began leaving in significant numbers. Hospital administrators have worked with the county Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) on temporary fixes, including visits from the county’s mobile response team.
“But, really, we should be looking at [is], What would the best care look like and what resources would it take to make that happen?” Luskin-Hawk said.
Paul Bugnacki, the county’s deputy director of mental health, gave a bit of historical context to state and local mental health care and noted that Humboldt is one of just two counties in the state that operates an acute psychiatric hospital — the 16-bed Sempervirens facility in Eureka.
That’s not nearly enough to manage the county caseload, Bugnacki said. A recent report from the California Hospital Association found Humboldt Countyshould have 68 beds for inpatient acute psychiatric care, given its population. And yet the county’s state’s psychiatric bed capacity shrank considerably between 1995 and 2016, declining by 42 percent.
[CORRECTION: That last sentence originally said there had been a reduction in the number of psychiatric beds in the county. However, Humboldt’s number has been steady at 16 since 1968. The Outpost regrets the error.]
The current problems with mental health care date back to the 1960s when the closure of state-run mental hospitals occurred, “releasing individuals back into their home counties without a comprehensive plan to support and sustain systems of care for those suffering from mental illnesses,” Bugnacki said.
Humboldt County has been designated a “critical shortage area” for licensed health care providers by the Health Resources and Services Administration, which allows providers to offer certain hiring incentives including a loan repayment program.
“But this is not enough to attract and compensate quality professionals to come work for us,” Bugnacki said. The county has engaged staffing agencies to fill the gap, but those employees are temporary and charge higher rates than what full-timers make.
Meanwhile, the county has been working to get an adult crisis residential facility up and running, but staff have encountered issues including NIMBYism, he said. Meanwhile, COVID led the county jail — which is a designated mental health treatment facility — to book only felony offenders, prompting an influx of minors being admitted to the county’s Crisis Stabilization Unit.
“It’s not a sustainable solution,” Bugnacki said.
First District Supervisor Rex Bohn asked the county’s behavioral health director, Emi Botzler-Rodgers, how she’d solve these problems if she had “pixie dust” to throw at them.
Lacking pixie dust, Botzler-Rodgers focused on smaller goals, saying the county recently obtained about $200,000 through a Mental Health Block Grant to hire case managers to help people in mental health crises. Her department was seeking board direction on how to allocate those funds.
Third District Supervisor Mike Wilson said this relatively small amount represents “a Band-Aid approach,” and Luskin-Hawk agreed, saying the county needs to look for “broad and robust” solutions.
Fifth District Supervisor Steve Madrone suggested approaching the problem via the county’s facilities master plan, possibly by converting a county-owned parking on Eureka’s Fifth Street into a multi-story DHHS building complete with a new Sempervirens location.
“You know, with the huge state surplus that’s happening right now, I think it’s an excellent time to sit down with [state] Senator [Mike] McGuire and Assemblyman [Jim] Wood’s staff with our staff at DHHS and our hospital leaders and really have a really solid conversation around where we’re heading with this.”
Until then, Band-Aids will have to do. The board authorized staff to negotiate with Providence over how the $200,000 grant will be spent and come back in three months with a status report.
Housing Trust Fund
In the afternoon, the board unanimously agreed to submit an application to the California Department of Housing and Community
Development for up to $1.5 million. That money could be matched with another $1.5 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to establish the Humboldt County Housing Trust
Fund.
The idea behind this fund is to stimulate development of more affordable housing countywide, including construction and financing loans to build multifamily rentals,
emergency shelters, transitional housing and permanent supportive housing. Funds could also be used to help low-income families purchase or rehabilitate homes or help cover costs of construction, conversion, repair and rehabilitation of accessory dwelling units.
Planning and Building Director John Ford said DHHS has another $200,000 in grant funding to contribute to the effort, bringing the total to $3.2 million. Wilson noted that this is “a pretty significant chunk of money” and said it may be time for the county to reevaluate its approach, structurally, to addressing homelessness and housing.
Andrew Whitney, housing and grants coordinator with Planning and Building Department, said county staff has begun focusing on developing housing for those making 60 percent or less of the region’s median income, which works out to $29,850 annually for individuals and $41,800 for a family of four.
Bohn voiced frustration and impatience over the apparent lack of new housing development, and he asked Whitney to be specific.
“What would you do with that [money] tomorrow if you had it sitting right in front of you? Would you go buy a piece of property and start building stuff?” Bohn asked. “… I mean, because everybody asks, when are we going to build something? Because there’s a lot of money floating around but we don’t seem to be building a lot.”
Whitney acknowledged that it has been a while since the county built a housing project, and he offered a fishing analogy. “Basically what this does is it baits the hook,” he said. “It baits the hook. And we don’t have a project specified. I wish we did. But we are working with partners in the community … that would bring forward a proposal to utilize this funding.”
Wilson said it’s important for the county to establish a Housing Trust Fund.
“It’s like creating the bank account to show that we’re serious, and I know there are funds and programs that require that you have a Housing Trust Fund in order to be able to get those that funding,” he said.
Madrone noted the wide variety of local organizations and program — both within the county and outside of it — working on this issue. He said it may be time for the county to take a step back and evaluate the big picture, much like the board discussed earlier in the context of mental health care.
“Soon we really ought to sit down and think about these different programs and how we can clarify the roles of each of these organizations and maybe even make them more efficient and able to move forward on their particular missions,” Madrone said.
Bohn offered one of his characteristic analogies, saying that when it comes to local efforts on housing and homelessness, “We’ve got a lot of people swimming in the same direction but we’re in a bag.” Then, with a callback to Whitney’s own analogy, Bohn added that the county should “get them all out of the bag and they can go fishing.”
DHHS Director Connie Beck, appearing via Zoom, said that while this money may not fund any individual housing project, it could fill funding gaps for a variety of local developers, helping multiple projects come to fruition.
“I think there’s a lot of potential out there,” Beck said. And she challenged Bohn’s characterization of the broader situation, noting that right now, 199 units financed through the state’s Homekey program are going in across the county.
“There’s a lot of work that’s been happening,” Beck said. “I apologize if you’re not up to speed on all of those, but there’s a lot of really good work happening and staff have been working really hard on this.”
The board approved the grant application and directed staff todevelop a public process for deciding how the funds will be spent. The vote was unanimous.
Delinquent Financial Reports
It’s not news at this point that numerous financial transactions and reports, spanning multiple fiscal years, have not been completed, leading to a cascade of management challenges and a steadily growing tally of lost revenues. (A spreadsheet attached to Tuesday’s agenda lists the delinquent reports, the associated risks and the total number of days they’re late.)
“These transactions and the lack of data that is available is posing a challenge for my office in proposing a responsible and well-informed budget to your board,” County Administrative Officer Elishia Hayes said.
Chief Financial Officer Tabatha Miller was on hand with newly appointed Treasurer-Tax Collector Amy Christensen to discuss those challenges and propose a modified schedule for adopting a budget for the upcoming 2022-23 fiscal year.
Miller said the most important of the outstanding reports is probably the 2019-20 Single Audit, which had a COVID-extended due date of Sept. 30, 2021. The county has $93.7 million in state and federal pass-through funding that’s dependent on completion of that report, Miller said.
The county is facing repercussions from various granting agencies, and Miller said they’ve begun to take action. For example, the state’s Employment Development Department (EDD) has issued a cash hold on important workforce program funding, and a continued delay could result in partial suspension or termination of those funds.
Plus, the delinquent single audit must be submitted before the District Attorney’s Office can collect $413,000 from the state for victim witness protection. Caltrans has placed a hold on funding for new projects, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has also cut off funds to the county.
“The stakes are becoming more and more dire,” Miller said.
Still, county staff plan to submit an initial 2022-23 budget for the board’s consideration in June, though they recommended that the board postpone final adoption of that budget until late September, when staff expects to have a better understanding of the county’s financial picture.
Miller said the county has been busy trying to catch up on bank reconciliations, a regular bookkeeping task that, until recently, hadn’t been completed in nearly three years.
Miller also addressed the county’s “missing $28 million,” a discrepancy between check totals cleared by the bank and county financial records submitted to outside accounting firm MGO by the Auditor-Controller’s Office. Miller said that by taking a closer look at check records for one particular day she was able to find the missing checks, identify the associated vendors and conclude that the money’s not really missing; it just wasn’t recorded properly.
“So we’re not real sure what happened or why [MGO] didn’t get the proper information,” Miller said. “But it’s a little frustrating because it did end up creating quite a bit of work on their part, which essentially cost the county money, but it also means that we didn’t get bank reconciliations turned back over from them.
Instead, the county got a list of 3,650 checks that need to be individually verified, traced back to valid vendors and invoices.
Paz Dominguez called in via Zoom and offered to clarify how the county got to this point. She said that if the CAO’s Office had made any attempt to engage with her office “beyond one meeting,” or to collaborate on the day’s presentation, then she wouldn’t need to clarify the situation publicly.
Regarding the missing $28 million, Paz Dominguez said the county’s financial reporting software used to send the relevant reports to MGO automatically, and she suspects that a “forced hotfix” on that software is probably responsible for subsequent issues.
She went on to say her office has not been receiving timely information from the Treasurer-Tax Collector’s office, which makes it “very difficult for our office to even attempt to reconcile the bank statement anywhere near 10 days after the end of the month.”
The delays have also prevented her office from issuing an outstanding check register report.
“So maybe [Christensen] could speak to that and I would love for her office to reach out to my office, or vice versa, so that we can settle on a schedule for when we can expect deposit information and when we can expect checks to be cleared in the system.”
Paz Dominguez said many of the financial reporting issues under discussion are not actually new, and at this point her office is “not being invited to the discussion or to the table.”
Neither Hayes nor Christensen jumped in to respond to Paz Dominguez’s comments, but Second District Supervisor Michelle Bushnell asked them to provide some clarification.
Sounding weary, Hayes said, “You know, honestly, I don’t know that it’s helpful to the conversation. Ultimately, we’ve been coming to your board and discussing this since 2020.”
Referring to the broader fiscal management issues, she continued, “This has been a problem for two years, almost all of these transactions that we’re speaking of today, and it’s come to a critical juncture where it’s impacting my office’s ability to make prudent and responsible financial decisions for your board and to bring good recommendations before your board on how the next year’s budget should be prioritized and allocated.”
The board wound up voting unanimously to accept staff’s recommendation, aiming for a tentative “place-holder” budget to be established in June with a final one adopted before the state’s October 2 deadline.
Humboldt County Correctional Deputies and medical staff at the Humboldt County Correctional Facility used medication to save two individuals suspected of opioid overdose.
Monday night, at around 5:40 p.m., correctional deputies were alerted to two medical emergencies occurring inside the same housing unit. Deputies located the two female inmates unresponsive and exhibiting signs of opioid overdose. Each incident required multiple administrations of Naloxone. Also known as Narcan, Naloxone is a nasal spray commonly used to counter decreased breathing caused by an opioid overdose.
By quickly responding and administering the life-saving medication, correctional deputies effectively saved both inmates’ lives. The inmates were transported to a local hospital for treatment following the incidents and are expected to recover.
Correctional deputies conducted a search of the unit and located approximately .6 grams of suspected fentanyl on Monday. Since then, through multiple searches, correctional deputies have now located approximately 19.8 grams of suspected heroin. An investigation into how the substances entered the facility is being conducted.
Inmate Angela Dawnstar Lockwood, age 32, was found to be in possession of 19.8 grams of heroin. Fresh charges of possession of a controlled substance in a correctional facility (PC 4573(A)) have been added to her booking.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid and a Schedule II narcotic that is approximately 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin. Humboldt County has seen a substantial increase in illicit fentanyl distribution, possession and overdose cases, including an alarming number of overdose deaths.
According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, a lethal dose of fentanyl consists of two milligrams, equal in size to a few grains of salt. As of July 1, 2021, the Humboldt County Coroner’s Office has responded to 15 fentanyl overdose deaths.
Due to the rising prevalence of fentanyl in our community, Humboldt County correctional deputies have been equipped to carry Naloxone and have received training on its administration.
Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal commends the correctional deputies and medical staff for their quick actions in saving four lives.
Testimony ended this morning in the jury trial of murder suspect Gearold Sotolongo, with jurors expected to hear closing arguments tomorrow.
The last witness in the trial was Sotolongo himself, who admitted he stabbed Roger Yale but said he had no intent to kill and was acting in self-defense after Yale accosted him outside the Hoopa Mini-mart.
Video of the February 2016 incident shows Yale sitting on a curb, then rising up and moving toward Sotolongo as he walks by.
A brief wrestling match, only partially visible on the video, ends with Sotolongo making a fast, thrusting motion toward Yale, who drops to the ground. The knife blade passed between two of Yale’s ribs and punctured the left ventricle of his heart.
Toxicology tests revealed Yale had ingested a potentially toxic amount of methamphetamine. Dr. Mark Super, who conducted Yale’s autopsy, testified the meth could have affected Yale’s behavior a lot or a little, depending on his tolerance.
Yale, 30, died in the back of an ambulance while waiting to be flown to a hospital. Sotolongo has been in jail since about a month after the stabbing. During that time he has been involved in numerous fights with other inmates. He testified he believes he has a cultural obligation to beat up certain people.
Under questioning this morning by Deputy District Attorney Roger Rees, Sotolongo said he can’t remember what he did with the clothes he was wearing during the stabbing. Nor can he remember where he slept that night.
Sotolongo and a group of his acquaintances had been drinking together all night the night before, and when the killing occurred they had been in the process of panhandling enough money to buy another bottle.
On 5/24/2022, at approximately 1510 hours, the CHP Trinity River Area was advised of a vehicle vs. motorcycle crash on SR-299 in front of the Salyer Store in unincorporated Trinity County. CHP Willow Creek units were the first to arrive on scene and discovered the driver of the Toyota had fled the scene. The motorcycle rider was transported to a hospital in Humboldt County for suspected major injuries.
A preliminary investigation at the scene indicated the driver of the Toyota was traveling westbound on SR-299 when he turned left toward the Salyer Store parking lot. Prior to turning left, the Toyota driver failed to yield the right of way to an approaching eastbound Honda motorcycle. The motorcycle rider applied the brakes, however, was unable to avoid collision with the Toyota. The rider of the Honda crashed into the right side of the Toyota and was subsequently ejected.
Both vehicles came to rest blocking the eastbound lane of SR-299. The Toyota driver was observed exiting his vehicle and entering a white Toyota FJ Cruiser which was driven from the scene in an eastbound direction.
The crash remains under investigation. It is unknown at this time if drugs and/or alcohol were a factor.
Anyone with information, who may have witnessed the crash, or have knowledge of the involved driver, his identity, and/or whereabouts, are are encouraged to contact Officer T. Fornaciari at the CHP Trinity River Area office at (530) 623-3832
Humboldt County Superintendent of Schools, Michael Davies-Hughes shared the
following statement with the educators of Humboldt County this morning:
To my fellow Humboldt County educators:
As an educational community and as Americans we find ourselves lost for words and
deeply saddened by yesterday’s senseless school shooting at Robb Elementary School in
Uvalde, Texas, which left nineteen young children and two teachers dead. It’s shocking and
heartbreaking. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the parents, caregivers, and families of
the victims whose lives are forever changed by unimaginable loss and unfathomable grief.
When the news first broke yesterday about this terrible tragedy, we also witnessed the
predictable reigniting of the debate over gun laws in America. It is a debate that
happens every time our country experiences a mass shooting, but it has not brought us
any closer to a resolution. Today, instead of focusing on the politics and the
concomitant rancor, as educators we can and must focus on what we do best, taking
care of our students. Our primary responsibility is to provide our students with a safe
learning environment, and it is a responsibility we carry out with excellence day in and
day out. Two and a half years of successfully serving students in the midst of a global
pandemic has proven that we can do hard things.
Today is a hard day for us all, and as you peer at the American flag flying at half-staff
outside your school’s entrance, I encourage you to not only be reflective about the
heartbreak at Robb Elementary but also resolute about your commitment to the well-
being of every child that crosses the threshold of your school building. Today, we share
in the grief of our country while we stand united in our belief that as administrators,
teachers, classified and support staff, our work matters, and the impact of our work will
make for a better tomorrow.
Well, now we know where Ford is headed. Looks like the City of Fort Bragg is getting back at Humboldt for taking its former city manager, Tabatha Miller, who was hired last year as Humboldt County’s assistant county administrative officer and chief financial officer.
Ford will be Fort Bragg’s next city manager. Here’s that city’s press release:
The Fort Bragg City Council is pleased to announce that John Ford of McKinleyville, California has accepted their offer to serve as Fort Bragg’s next City Manager. Mr. Ford’s anticipated start date is July 5, 2022.
After the resignation of City Manager Tabatha Miller last December, the City retained the executive recruitment firm of Peckham & McKenney to conduct a nationwide search for a new city manager. Over 15 applications were received, and following an initial screening by the executive recruiter, the City Council selected four candidates for final interviews. A multiphased final interview process was conducted which included interviews with the City Council and selected members of the City management team. Mr. Ford was the unanimous choice of the City Council.
John Ford has years of experience in local government having worked for the City of Thousand Oaks, the City of Roseville, the County of Monterey and most recently as the Director of Planning and Building for the County of Humboldt. While at the County of Humboldt, Mr. Ford was responsible for the reorganization of the Planning and Building Department to accommodate the legalization of cannabis cultivation. The department not only developed a new permitting unit but was also assigned the Code Enforcement unit.
His background includes successful coordination with federal, tribal, state and local agencies, including the California Coastal Commission, Department of Fish and Wildlife, in addition to many others. He has overseen the processing of many large and complex projects and has developed creative solutions working with other agencies.
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Original post:
Screenshot of Ford during a March Planning Commission meeting.
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In a move that seems to have taken even his own staff by surprise, Humboldt County Planning and Building Director John Ford submitted his resignation this morning, notifying the Board of Supervisors via email that his last day on the job will be June 24.
The message was short and to the point:
Subject: Resignation
Dear Chair Bass and members of the Board of Supervisors
Please accept this letter as my resignation from the position of Director of Planning and Building. My last day in the position will be June 24, 2022.
Sincerely
[signed]
John H. Ford
Ford, a veteran planner who came to the county in October of 2016, has overseen the Planning and Building Department during an unprecedented period of change in county land use following the statewide legalization of recreational cannabis.
The Board of Supervisors adopted the state’s first cannabis land use ordinance shortly before Ford’s arrival, and he has led the department as those regulations were implemented, revised and replaced with new ones under intense scrutiny and pressure, including lawsuits and industry push-back.
We’ve emailed Ford and left a voicemail seeking comment. The email kicked back an auto-reply saying he’s out of office until May 31. We’ll update this post with more information as it comes in.
