UPDATE, 4 p.m.: In a tele/videoconference meeting that lasted roughly 10 minutes, the four current members of the HCSD Board of Directors voted to appoint Eureka realtor Joe Matteoli to the seat left open by the death of former Director Frank Scolari.

Matteoli

General Manager Terrence “T.K.” Williams reminded the board of the three applicants: Matteoli, Humboldt Moving and Storage VP Joshua Sehon and Eureka Deputy Director of Public Works Michael Hansen.

After allowing for public comment (of which there was none), Director Alan Bongio made the motion to appoint Matteoli. 

“The reason I chose to make the motion for Joe is [that] our late director, Frank Scolari, had often told me he thought Joe would be a good fit for the board,” Bongio said. 

Director Dave Saunderson seconded the motion.

Director Gregg Gardiner then made a few comments. He recalled that after the sudden death of former Humboldt County Supervisor Roger Rodoni in 2008, his fellow supervisors appointed Rodoni’s wife, Johanna, to fill the remainder of his term. 

“So that’s just one thought that’s running through my mind,” Gardiner said.

He went on to speak highly of all three applicants for the vacant seat, saying Hansen, who has worked extensively with water and sewage systems in his job, is “eminently qualified.” However, he added that he was “concerned about a conflict.” He didn’t elaborate about that concern.

”All three are well qualified for the obvious reasons,” Gardiner said. And Joe has been in the community for a long time. He is well-connected and has served the community in his job as real estate professional for many years.”

Ultimately, though, he said he was supporting Matteoli “because that was Scolari’s wishes, according to Alan.”

Saunderson said he agreed with Gardiner 100 percent, and then he addressed the concerns about the appointment giving a candidate an advantage in next month’s election.

“I just don’t see it,” he said. “We’re only talking about two sessions, two meetings. I just don’t see the unfair advantage.”

The vote to appoint Matteoli was unanimous.

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Original post:

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Note: This post has been edited to correct the geographic description of HCSD’s service area. 

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In an election season dominated by the chaotic drama of the presidential race, not much attention is being paid to the Humboldt Community Services District, where six candidates are running for three available seats on the board of directors. 

That makes sense. While the HCSD is important — it provides water and sewage services for the unincorporated areas around Eureka, including Myrtletown, Cutten, Pine Hill and Humboldt Hill — it’s rarely intriguing. 

However, a bit of election season drama has developed, and part of it is playing out this afternoon.

At 3:30 p.m., in a meeting called exclusively for this purpose, the four current members of that board plan to appoint a fifth member to replace Frank Scolari, whose death on Aug. 28th created the vacancy. This appointment comes barely a month before the Nov. 3 election, and the sitting board members say they intend to select one of the candidates who will be on the ballot.

At least two of the other candidates are crying foul. They’re not pursuing the last-minute appointment, and they argue that by elevating one candidate so close to the election, the board is effectively putting its thumb on the scales of democracy and giving one of their fellow challengers an advantage.

“Why the rush?” candidate Heidi Benzonelli asked the Outpost last week. “This appointment is proposed less than a month before the voters decide, and [the voters] is who board members are supposed to represent.”

At a recent candidate forum hosted by the League of Women Voters, fellow candidate David Haynie said the timing and dynamics of the appointment concern him. “It may potentially give a bit of a leg up that the rest of the candidates running might not have,” he said.

The timing of the appointment also caught the attention of Julie Fulkerson, the former Trinidad mayor/city councilmember and 2017’s “Woman of the Year” in Humboldt County. 

“This serves no one well,” she told the Outpost on Thursday. “Selecting one candidate over others establishes an awkward relationship from day one and ignores the electoral process. … I don’t understand why this is on the agenda.”

Asked about the plan last month, current HCSD Director Alan Bongio said it’s simply preferable to have a full board whenever possible. “More minds is better than fewer,” he told the Outpost via phone. “We all kind of joked and said, ‘What would Frank want?’”

The topic also came up at the most recent board meeting, held on Sept. 22. During a staff report about the appointment, General Manager Terrence “T.K.” Williams said that the Humboldt County Elections Office had notified the district of a timeline.

The procedure for filling vacancies in any elected office is spelled out in California Government Code 1780, which gives the board 60 days from being officially notified of a vacancy to fill that seat. In this case, the timeline would expire on Nov. 7, four days after the General Election. If that deadline passes and the board has not taken action, then the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors “may” appoint someone to fill the vacancy within 30 days thereafter — by Dec. 7, in this case.

The three candidates who win on Nov. 3 will be seated on Dec. 5. The one who’s appointed this afternoon will attend just two meetings before Election Day. Why not wait to see whom voters select?

The Outpost sent an email to directors David Tyson, Gregg Gardiner and Dave Saunderson before the Sept. 22 board meeting to ask that question but didn’t hear back beforehand. 

That meeting, like so many these days, was held via Zoom. Williams began by reminding the board that at the previous meeting they’d authorized staff to initiate the appointment process. Notices were of the vacancy were posted on Sept. 9, and three applications had been received. They belonged to Joshua Sehon, vice-president of Humboldt Moving and Storage; Joe Matteoli, a realtor with Coldwell Banker Cutten Realty; and Michael Hansen, deputy public works director with the City of Eureka.

All three men are candidates for the three available seats on the board this election.

The other three candidates are Benzonelli, who’s a research analyst and president of the board of Eureka’s Westside Community Improvement Association; Haynie, director of operations at Arcata tech company StreamGuys; and Saunderson, who, as noted above, is already on the board. In fact, he’s the sitting vice-president. He was first elected appointed in 1995 2011 and has been re-elected five times twice since. He’s up for re-election yet again this year.

Seats on this board of directors aren’t especially lucrative. Directors receive a stipend of $100 per regular meeting, which are held twice per month, plus $50 for any special meetings. (Director salaries last year averaged about $2,000). But the benefits include full health care coverage, including vision and dental.

Former director Desiree Davenport, who resigned after moving out of the district earlier this year, declined the health care package during her tenure because she was already covered by her employer. But the other four directors have taken advantage of the health insurance, which cost the district nearly $90,000 in 2019, averaging of $22,492 worth of benefits per director.

At the Sept. 22 board meeting, Gardiner addressed the email I’d sent, which pointed out that appointing a director right before an election might influence that process by signaling to voters who the board’s preferred candidate is.

“In some regards, it is in fact that,” Gardiner said. “It is signaling. If we determine who a potential director is, we are signaling who we prefer. I’m not saying that’s wrong. I’m just putting it out there as a comment.”

Tyson countered, “That statement could apply at any point. It could have applied to me. I mean, I was appointed and had to apply soon after.”

Bongio said, “I think in the time I’ve been here, even before, I don’t think we’ve ever waited very long to fill a position. And since it is Frank [Scolari] …. I think he’d be sayin’ to fill the seat because we’ve got business with the district.”

The board unanimously decided to go ahead and make the appointment, scheduling it for today. We’ll update this post after the meeting to report which of the candidates was selected.