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Over a dozen representatives of the local arts sector filled the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors chambers on Tuesday to urge the board to maintain critical funding for art and theater programs made possible by the county’s transient occupancy tax (TOT). 

The emotional testimony came in response to a proposal from staff that sought to keep $880,000 in funding generated by Measure J, a TOT hike approved by voters in 2022, in the county’s General Fund to help stabilize the county budget, rather than allocating the funds to outside organizations for various arts- and film-related projects.

During a presentation to the board, Deputy County Administrative Officer Jessica Maciel reiterated that the county is facing a $12.4 million budget shortfall for the current fiscal year. The extra $880,000 would “ensure that resources would be available, should more emergent needs arise in future fiscal years, providing protections for critical essential services,” according to the staff report. The TOT funding allocations are detailed in the chart below. 

Speaking during public comment, Leslie Castellano, executive director of the Ink People Center for the Arts, said the funding provided by Measure J helped the Ink People establish the Underserved Communities Fund, which offers support to BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color), LGBTQ+ and other underserved people looking to create art projects that benefit the greater community. She urged the board to keep the funding in place.

“I want to thank you for your bold decision last year to invest – really for the first time – in the arts and culture sector as a way of, you know, really seeing what kind of good work could be done through arts and culture in terms of addressing economic development, addressing public safety [and] addressing public health,” she said. “I think your investment is yielding results. … You can see it as an investment in the people who are in your community and their well-being.”

Cassandra Hesseltine, executive director of the Humboldt-Del Norte Film Commission, also encouraged the board to look at the funding allocation as an investment in the community’s future. She noted that the Star Wars-themed festival Forest Moon Days, which received funding from Measure J, brought in “over 6,500 attendees [to] the region.”

“We would like to have an increase in our funding actually, believe it or not, because we think we can help bring in more money,” she said. “Our return on investment for your regular funding that you guys give us is 500 percent.”

Johnson | Screenshot

Similarly, Calder Johnson, managing artistic director for the North Coast Repertory Theatre, asked the board to think of the arts as service and a source of enrichment to the community. “When we start talking about arts, culture, events [and] gatherings … we’ve seen the data showing how much of an effect this has on mental health, physical health, social health, community well-being [and] suicide prevention. … This is a service.”

Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal expressed his own appreciation for the arts sector, noting that he is “a huge fan of Star Wars” (First District Supervisor Rex Bohn, earlier, claimed never to have seen a Star Wars movie), but ultimately urged the board to direct the funding back to the General Fund to prevent layoffs.

“We are looking at cuts across the county,” Honsal said. “I know we need to work on generating more revenue – I’m all about that – but right now, we may have to lay off people this year.”

Following public comment, Third District Supervisor Mike Wilson suggested the board keep half the $880,000 in the General Fund and allocate the other half to the programs, as previously planned.

“I think these budgets are moral decisions in a lot of ways about what’s important,” Wilson continued. “They are investments, and I do believe that the arts … it’s just that we’re coming into some pretty tight times.”

Second District Supervisor Michelle Bushnell offered her gratitude to the people who spoke in public comment but said she was leaning toward staff’s recommendation to keep the funding in the General Plan.

“[Fourth District Supervisor] Natalie [Arroyo] and I went through the budget ad hoc process and it was very painful,” Bushnell said. “We had to tell each department that we’re looking at layoffs and we’re looking at cuts and we won’t be able to fund essential services,” Bushnell said. “While I do think – and know – that the arts are so important to our community … I just can’t right now knowing that we have a budget talks in less than a month and we’re going to tell people that they can’t fund their departments.”

Arroyo also acknowledged the importance of being “really strategic about the investments we’re making” and suggested that the board create an ad hoc committee to look into the issue further. 

“I kind of hate to say ‘Let’s do another ad hoc!’ but perhaps that’s one approach we can take [to provide] a little more evaluation of this funding stream for the purpose of generating revenue,” she said. “We’ve reined back a lot of other expenses around tourism … but we also need to look at ways to make revenue and catch up.”

Arroyo made a motion to create an ad hoc and volunteered to serve. The action was seconded by Wilson. 

Bushnell asked if Wilson if he would be willing to sit on the ad hoc committee but quickly volunteered to do it herself, joking that he and Arroyo “think too much alike.”

The motion passed 5-0.

Measure Z Funding Recommendations

The board also approved a list of funding allocations for projects funded by Measure Z, the county’s half-percent sales tax intended to maintain public safety and essential services, totaling $4.08 million. 

Along with the rest of the county’s budget, Measure Z funds have dried up in recent years due to a reduction in economic activity across the county, which has cut millions of dollars from the county’s projected income. At the end of last year, the board made the difficult decision to cut funding for the county’s Mobile Intervention Services Team (MIST), which serves homeless people experiencing mental health crises, to maintain essential county services. 

This round of funding allocations was no different. The Measure Z Citizen Advisory Committee went through an extensive ranking process to develop the following list of recommendations:

• $500,000 for Public Works to prep chip and seal two miles of Mattole Road.
• $1,100,000 for Public Works to replace three pieces of heavy equipment.
• $197,901 for the City of Fortuna to reinstate its school resource office.
• $188,324 for the Sheriff’s Office to continue using the evacuation software platform Genasys.
• $2,100,000 to the Humboldt County Fire Chiefs’ Association for equipment, training, dispatch fees and planning.

Bohn said he was happy to see a chunk of funding going to his district because it usually “doesn’t get anything.” 

“We’re in a tough time,” he said. “We’re lucky we got what we got. If it’s creative bookkeeping, we’re lucky with what we got.”

Quincey | Screenshot

Deputy County Administrative Officer Sean Quincey warned that next year’s funding allocations will be even more sparse than this year. “We’ve had a lot more difficult conversations in terms of how the pie is getting split,” Quincey said. “Next year, we don’t expect to have nearly as much funding available for Measure Z. And if there’s no change in our process … there’ll be another difficult year full of difficult discussions and conversations.”

However, Quincey noted that there was $45,665 left in the current round of funding. The board was divided on whether the money should be given to Public Works for additional road repair work or to the City of Arcata to help fund a juvenile diversion program.

Bushnell made a motion to approve the list of funding recommendations and allocate the $45,665 to Public Works, which was seconded by Bohn. 

Wilson made a case for Arcata’s juvenile diversion program, suggesting that the board give the remaining funds to the city and, if it can’t come up with the matching funds needed for the program, the $45,665 will go to Public Works. Bushnell and Bohn agreed and the amended motion passed in a unanimous 5-0 vote.

Issues at the Trinidad Rock Quarry

At the beginning of Tuesday’s meeting, the board presented certificates of appreciation to representatives of Mercer Fraser Company, Granite Construction and Operating Engineers Local 3, all of whom donated supplies and services to help Public Works staff and the Westhaven Community Services District with the installation of road humps on Sixth Avenue in Westhaven. 

The item appeared on the board’s consent calendar, which is typically approved in a single motion along with the rest of the calendar without much discussion. However, the item drew an unexpected amount of attention from the public as several community members seized the opportunity to call out Mercer Fraser for creating an alleged “environmental disaster” at the rock quarry near Trinidad. 

Numerous speakers, including residents of the communal living village “Yee Haw,” claimed Mercer Fraser has not had a permit to operate the quarry in nearly two decades, while others alleged that environmental degradation at the quarry is threatening air quality and nearby watersheds. 

“We’re not okay over there on Quarry Road – the situation is not okay,” said one speaker, who only identified herself as Claire. “The plants, the animals and the people are all being impacted. I look forward to this being on the agenda at another moment where we can go further into the paperwork documenting the disregard, documenting the unpermitted status [and] documenting the impact on the waterways and on air quality. It’s all there.”

Fifth District Supervisor Steve Madrone acknowledged that there are “lots of issues going on in the quarry area,” but did not speak directly to the commenters’ concerns.

“I know sometimes it’s hard to separate things, but when somebody does a good action, I believe they deserve recognition for that,” he said. “[This project] was a very important thing for the community. That doesn’t mean there aren’t issues at the quarry, I think we all know that there are. … [T]he county is going to be engaging with Mercer Fraser in regards to things that need to be taken care of.”

The consent calendar was ultimately approved 5-0.

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Other notable bits from today’s meeting:

• The board approved a request from the Fish and Game Advisory Committee to look into the possibility of installing a fish cleaning station at the “Jimmy Smith” boat launch property in Fields Landing.
• The board also approved a proclamation recognizing Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP) week in Humboldt County. According to the FBI’s National Crime Information Center, an estimated 5,203 indigenous girls and women were reported missing in 2021, “disappearing at a rate equal to more than two and a half times their estimated share of the U.S. population.” Julia Oliviera, an MMIP investigator with the Yurok Tribe, thanked the board for the proclamation, noting that she is the only dedicated MMIP investigator in the state. “I hope soon there will be more of me out there,” she said.
• The board approved a resolution in support of the Rumble of the Redwoods airshow, which will take place at the Humboldt County Airport on Aug. 10 and 11.