Sandra “Sandy” Lee Heddinger passed away peacefully the evening of September 19, 2024 in Eureka while encompassed by love and family.

A devoted gardener, Sandy brought beauty and life to her surroundings, nurturing not just plants but also those who knew her. She could always be found puttering in her garden, pulling weeds and watering her beautiful flowers. She had a particular fondness for hummingbirds which could be seen at the many feeders set up through her gardens, and Sandy took great pleasure in watching them flit among the plants. The only thing that brought Sandy more joy than her garden were her loved ones.

Sandy had an established career working at Safeway, and she could always be counted on for a cheery greeting and a helping hand. Many of her long-standing customers from Safeway, became customers in a new way when she bought the best pizza joint in town, Babe’s Pizza. Sandy’s hard work was a key to Babe’s success, but her favorite part of owning her pizza joint was always the people she met while there. She was always floating from group to group, telling jokes, offering up toasts. After making the decision to sells Babe’s, she took her infectious smile to Costco, where her open and friendly demeanor was perfect for passing out samples. Throughout her long career, at Safeway, Babe’s and Costco, it was her dedication and vibrant energy that made a lasting impact on colleagues and customers alike.

Sandy will be missed and always remembered by her children Douglas Jr Simmonds (Jody), Carmen Clark (Robert), and Terri Heddinger; as well as her grandchildren Mandy, Joseph, Matthew, Michael, Ricky, Douglas III, Alisha, Katie, and Tyler; and her dear friends Kathy, Chris and Lisa.

Sandy was predeceased by her parents, Santina DelGrande and Hap Churchman and her daughter Angela Simmonds.

Sandy’s memory will live on through her loved ones, any time they see a hummingbird, or hear a Barry Manilow song on the radio. Her family encourages all who were lucky enough to know Sandy to take a moment to reflect on her life and the joy that Sandy brought to those around her.

We’re closing in on the end of September, so now’s the time to look back and reflect on the year that has been. And all told: Pretty damned good year, wasn’t it? Pretty wet!

We’re talking about the “water year,” of course – that period from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30 that meteorologists and other scientists use to talk about rainfall here in the U.S. of A. Look at the LoCO weather report down at the bottom of our homepage. See the line for “year to date” precipitation? On Oct. 2, that number will reset to zero. That’s because we’re talking about the water year, not the calendar year.

Anyway, to repeat ourselves: Pretty damned good! This year, for the first year since 2016-2017, we had a significantly wetter year than average. (I’m arbitrarily defining “significantly wetter,” here, as 20 percent above average.) The year before – 2022-2023 – was about average. Before that: Three years of severe California drought.

Here’s how 2023-2024 has played out:

Started off, in the first three months, just barely struggling to keep pace. But as of January 1, the skies really cut loose! We’re talking flood warnings. Highway closures. Snow packing. Major coastal erosion. Inconvenient in the moment, but we banked some moisture for the summer months.

Hats off to the 2023-2024 water year. But what’s the long-term forecast? Are we going to keep this streak alive, or are we headed back to drought days?

Short answer: No one knows! And that’s because the usual thing the meteorologists talk about when they talk about long-term forecasts are El Niño or La Niña patterns in the Pacific Ocean. And though these patterns can have very dramatic effects elsewhere in the world, it turns out that they have little bearing on the amount of rainfall we get here on the North Coast.

You see that? By far the wettest year we’ve had in the last decade was a La Niña year … but so was the very driest year! Same with El Niño years – they can be wet or dry, at least here in Humboldt.

For what it’s worth, this year they’re predicting a very high probability of a weak-ish La Niña pattern forming sometime soon, which would mean generally a drier-than-average winter for the state of California as a whole.

While we have you: If you’re a real weather nerd, the National Weather Service’s ENSO Blog is a surprisingly lively and fun read that is more or less accessible to the lay reader. (“ENSO” is the acronym for “ El Niño-Southern Oscillation,” the technical name for the El Niño/La Niña cycle.) Also, of course, you should be tuned in to the super-geeky Weather West blog.

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As a scientist with the California Department of Fish & Wildlife, Scott Bauer takes a data-driven approach to his role as the Fourth Ward representative for the Eureka City Council. If there’s a local problem that needs solving – whether it be multimodal transportation needs or increased access to affordable housing – Bauer leans on evidence-based research to guide the decision-making process.

“I deal with data every day of my life,” he told the Outpost during a sit-down interview this week. “I also believe that our laws should be based off of data.”

After having served nearly four years as the Ward 4 representative on the Eureka City Council, Bauer hopes to secure a second term in the upcoming General Election. He’s running against first-time city council candidate Thavisak “Lucky” Syphanthong.

The Outpost met with Bauer in Old Town Eureka on Tuesday afternoon to talk about the upcoming election and some of the city’s most pressing issues, including homelessness and housing, ongoing infrastructure improvements, the importance of renewable energy, and, of course, Measure F. Our conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

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Lost Coast Outpost: Thank you for taking the time to chat this afternoon. I suppose I’ll start off by asking you to introduce yourself to the folks who aren’t familiar with Eureka politics. Can you tell me about the ward you represent and what you do outside of your role on the Eureka City Council?

Bauer: I’m Scott Bauer, I have lived in Eureka for over 20 years and a little over 11 years in the Fourth Ward. I have two kids; one is a Eureka High student and the other is now in college at Montana State in Bozeman. My wife is a nurse at St. Joe’s; she’s been there for over a decade. Both of us have been active in politics for many years; she worked for Congressman Mike Thompson doing fundraising for a few years and I was on the California Association of Professional Sciences Board of Directors for 12 or 14 years. I’ve been politically involved for most of my life, whether it be union work or working to get people elected that we respected. I work for the California Department of Fish & Wildlife (CDFW) as a scientist, and I’ve been working for the state for 25 years. I’m a career civil servant, permitting, enforcement, all that kind of stuff. In my free time, you know, I’m an outdoorsman, so fishing, hiking, hunting, etc. I’ll do anything that’s outside.

Eureka’s ward map. Click to enlarge.

I represent Ward 4, which is full of great people, like the whole city. Eureka is on a “true ward” system, which means you only vote for the representative of your ward, which upsets a lot of people but I think it’s great. All of our wards are very interesting looking, but it’s not due to gerrymandering, it’s just based on population.

LoCO: You’re running for your second term on the Eureka City Council. Can you tell me what drew you to run for the council in the first place?

Bauer: Oh, that’s a great question. My kids hate when I tell this story, but we were driving north through Eureka one day, and they’re like, “This town is so ugly,” you know, along the 101 corridor, and I explained to them – like I’ve explained to a lot of people who want to see things change faster – that we’re a utilitarian community. We were built for mining, timber and fishing. Our economy was based on a hard-working industry, so beautification and having a beautiful city wasn’t the first priority, you know? But my kids would say that from time to time and I’ve always been someone that looks for a solution when there’s a problem. I don’t like when people complain and don’t take action. So, I decided to try and do something about it. I talked to my wife and she said, “You’ve been involved in politics your whole life, why not?”

And that kind of dovetails into why I’m running again – Eureka is my home and I have civic pride and I care about it. That’s why I ran for the first time and that’s why I want to continue to represent this city. I feel like the city is doing a lot; renewable energy is coming, we’re getting really close to breaking ground on some big projects and I want to see more housing built. I want to see people appreciate this city because I think it’s valuable. 

LoCO: Can you talk about some specific obstacles you encountered in your first term? 

Bauer: Well, there are general government obstacles, as well as the speed at which things occur. Having a background in civil service, I understand permitting and how things take time. You want things to happen immediately, but there’s the public process and there’s a permitting process. You know, I want to see the Bay to Zoo Trail built, but these things take time. So, that is an obstacle to me but it’s also a part of society and something we can’t necessarily change. In the last few years, for example, the city has made a lot of progress with Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs). The permitting process is way easier now. So, the more we can do to reduce obstacles, the better.

There’s also the challenge of getting people to have the shared vision that, I think, our city council has. I see people in two camps: Those that pine for some other time, like the 50s or something, who feel we should just go back to that, and those that are like, “We have challenges, we have climate change, we have homelessness and addiction, we have all these things that we can’t just go back.” So, what do we do going forward, you know? That’s the fun stuff – well, it’s not fun – but that’s the stuff that I enjoy, you know, solving problems and trying to find solutions. 

One of the things I’ve done during my time on the council is serve on the board of directors for the League of California Cities and we get involved in legislation. I take that as an extension of my council work that I’m going to try and protect Eureka. One of my goals for these next four years is to get more money from the state because relying on our tax base isn’t enough. … So, what can I do at the state level to bring in funds to make sure that legislation doesn’t get passed that affects us in a negative way or prevents our forward momentum? That’s how I see obstacles and challenges getting handled, by taking a proactive look but always looking forward. 

We’ve got a lot to do in Eureka. If you’ve been to the Friday Night Market, it’s insane! People want to hang out in Old Town; they want to enjoy each other’s company. We need to keep moving forward in a way that makes this town super valuable as a place for people to live in the future.

LoCO: That’s funny, I just referred to Friday Night Market as “insane” while talking to some friends recently. It really is amazing to see how many people come out. Eureka has become so vibrant, it’s really cool to see.

Bauer: Well, and some people would say it isn’t. We get comments at council meetings all the time about how horrible it is, and I’m like, “What vision are they seeing?” You know, I can see issues, but they just see darkness. And I feel sorry for them, frankly, because that’s all they see. You know, when I go to Friday Night Market and I see 100 people I know, I walk out of there feeling like life is good.

LoCO: Well, to that point, there are real concerns with homelessness, mental health, needle litter and drug use in Eureka, but these are difficult issues that can’t be solved through a one-size-fits-all approach. There are people in the streets that really need help. That help often starts with access to mental health services and housing. Can you expand on that and talk about what the city is doing and can do to address some of those concerns?

Bauer: Yeah, we’ll start with policing. As you know, we have CSET – the city’s Community Safety Engagement Team – and they’re out there trying to de-escalate situations, which, 10 years ago, would have ended up in someone being hauled off to jail. So we’ve got these incredible law enforcement personnel that are trained in mental crisis like we never would have thought and it’s critical to making our community safer. 

We’ve also hired mental health clinicians, mostly through grant funding, to go out with law enforcement and respond to the person who’s having a crisis. That way there’s a law enforcement presence close by to help them if things go wrong. … We also have these issues that can’t be addressed through law enforcement. That’s what people feel, but I have to remind people that this is a societal problem. It’s not something that’s [exclusive] to Eureka, this is happening everywhere. …

On top of that, the county has MIST [Mobile Intervention Services Team] and we have all these different programs that are trying to address housing. You know, Betty Chinn’s Blue Angel Village is going to be done soon. … We’re building facilities to try and get people a place and then, hopefully, we can address their mental health issues. We’re doing our damnedest to address those issues. And like I said, everything takes time. … The business of the city council is very much like a business. It can be tedious and it can be a challenge, but that’s how the city is run. … I feel like we’ve done a lot with the leadership of our city. Our city staff are great; they’re just human beings trying to make our city better and there’s always more to do. 

LoCO: I’d like to stay on the topic of housing, a key issue in this year’s election. What is your stance on Measure F, the “Housing for All and Downtown Vitality” initiative?

Bauer: I’ll be voting “no” on Measure F. It’s not a question. I’ve had friends tell me, “This seems great! You know, housing for all!” I think the easiest way to get a feel for how authentic it is is to look at how much money somebody puts into an initiative. Who’s behind it? Do they really care about the city? And I would argue, no.

[The city has] done what it can to pave the way for people to build housing. We just need people to come in, get grant funds and do it. These things take time but the reality is, Measure F would not help with that. Some people seem to think that a few parking lots versus housing is a trade-off that they’re not willing to do, and I don’t understand it. I mean, I don’t ever have a problem finding parking in Eureka and I live and work here.

It’s interesting that in this little tiny city, someone has spent over a million dollars to pass an initiative. Why? 

LoCO: Can you talk about how Measure F would impact the city’s efforts to build new housing in Eureka and how it would affect the city’s Housing Element?

Bauer: Well, it kind of upsets those efforts because the overall gist of [Measure F] is to maintain parking. If you build, let’s say, 90 units on top of parking, it makes it cost-prohibitive for the developer, right? So, what do we do? We have a Regional Housing Needs Allocation that says the city needs “x” number of new housing based on its population. If the [the city] can’t do that because it’s restricted by a particular ballot measure, the state could tell us that we’re in violation of state law and we can be sued. … It essentially throws our Housing Element into turmoil. … We just need housing, and this initiative makes it more challenging to build that housing.

LoCO: Keeping with the topic of housing, during a recent city council meeting you voted against the passage of the Vacant Building Ordinance. Can you explain some of your concerns and why you voted against the ordinance?

Bauer: Sure. You know, I have a wide net of friendships and I talked to a lot of people about this ordinance and my feeling was, is this really an issue? Is this something that is actually preventing people from finding housing? And we don’t have the information on that. I deal with data every day of my life and … I also believe that our laws should be based off of data. You know, is there a problem we’re trying to solve? And frankly, I’m not sure I see it right now. …

LoCO: I’d like to shift gears to infrastructure. The city has made a lot of progress in recent years through capital improvement projects, including trail building, repaving city streets and more. Some projects have received near-unanimous support from the community, while others have been extremely divisive, such as the Dolbeer/W Street Couplet Project. Can you talk about the delicate balance between pushing forward new, innovative projects while also hearing constituents’ concerns about too much change too fast?

Bauer: That’s a great question. You know, I like to remind people that there was a time when the city was spending $700,000 a year on roads, which doesn’t do hardly anything. After Measure H passed, which I campaigned on and supported, we’re spending $2.5 million on roads and we’re able to do quite a bit more. And while we’re doing that … we’re fixing the city’s sewer system. Our water system is more than a century old and we’re slowly doing the work that needs to be done to make our city operate efficiently. 

When it comes to things like bike lanes and bulb-outs – which are proven safety measures – it’s about the bottom line. Change is hard, and I totally understand that. At the same time, you get through it and you learn to change your driving habits. I realize that I turn slower because of bulb-outs. If you do hit somebody, the impact’s gonna be a lot less significant because you’re going slower. It is a safety feature, and it’s totally working, even though people still hate them. 

It’s the same as bike lanes, right? We’ve been a car-based culture for about a century, roughly. And to change that, you know, from a historical perspective, is huge. It’s hard for a lot of people but it needs to happen. We should all be able to enjoy the roads that we pay for. If you’re a biker, the road should be safe for you, too. If you’re a pedestrian, there should be a flashing beacon at that busy intersection that people still don’t stop at, you know? 

Right now, we need to move as fast as possible to change how we think of transportation because we are in desperate times with climate change. We need more bike lanes because we need to get out of our vehicles. We have to, for the planet’s sake, for our children’s sake. And some people won’t be able to for health issues or whatever it may be, but those people will still have the same access they’ve always had. 

LoCO: On the topic of climate change, the next few years are going to be really important for economic development in Eureka – and Humboldt County as a whole – with the burgeoning offshore wind industry. Can you talk about this opportunity and what it means for our community?

Bauer: As a scientist who spends a lot of time looking at climate research and trying to understand it as best I can, we literally don’t have another five years to change how we live if we want the world to be the same. If we don’t really care, then by all means, we just continue. (And to be clear, this is me talking, not the City of Eureka, though I believe the city is supportive of all of this.) Life is filled with trade-offs and it’s a matter of human survival, at least in the current state of society, that we figure out alternative sources of energy beyond what we’re currently doing. There’s a huge amount of fuel out [in the ocean] because wind is fuel. We’re still trying to figure some things out, like where does transmission go? The city should get enough to power us with 100 percent clean energy. We can’t bypass Humboldt County and take it to Red Bluff and down the I-5 corridor. We need to fight for that energy to stay here and the excess can be taken somewhere else. I really strongly believe in that.

I’m the vice-chair of the Redwood Coast Energy Authority (RCEA) board and we’re constantly talking about these issues. And again, I understand the concerns. You’ll be able to see wind turbines from all over the place while they’re being built. … There are impacts locally, but the global picture is something that we can’t deny. We can’t pretend that we’re not a part of the solution, you know? So we need to figure it out and do it with the least amount of impact to our community and to the environment. …

LoCO: Shifting back to Eureka’s Fourth Ward, what are some ward-specific issues you’d like to focus on in your second term?

Bauer: I’d love to see the Bay to Zoo Trail get built. I know there are community members in the Fourth Ward who are concerned about that, but there’s some misinformation about trails … breeding crime when the opposite is true. People using trails make it safer. So I’d really love to see that happen.

I would also love to see us take Cooper Gulch Park and completely restore it, which we’re pursuing grant funds for right now. We’re doing a big fish habitat restoration project there, which is super cool. I want to see that park turn into something that people take pride in. It’s really important for us to get more multimodal transportation as well. I have a lot of friends in the Fourth Ward who ride their bikes to town. We gotta make it easier for people to get around in any kind of fashion. 

Then there are also basic issues you hear about all the time, like roads. Paving is just never fast enough and I really want to work with state legislatures on that and find out how we can get more money for cities. You go to Southern California and all the freeways are constantly under construction. They’re adding lanes and spending hundreds of millions of dollars. We get a little bit of funding, but we need to quadruple that so that our infrastructure isn’t beaten up and suffering from 30 years of neglect. We gotta do better. 

Our hospital is also in the Fourth Ward and it needs to be maintained as a vibrant place. It has seismic issues that they’re working on but it’s a huge economic engine. We need to really work with [the hospital’s leadership] to ensure that we have that critical care facility to keep our community healthy. 

LoCO: Thank you for your time this afternoon. Is there anything else you’d like to add regarding your re-election campaign? Closing thoughts?

Bauer: You know, I’ve been thinking a lot about this and I want this campaign to be focused on community resilience. I think there are three pillars to it: housing, transportation and funding. My mission is to hopefully leave this community in a more resilient place after eight years. You know, creating more abundant transportation options, ensuring that we can weather natural disasters. That is my goal, and I hope to get an opportunity to promote that.

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Click here to learn more about Bauer’s campaign. If you’d like to ask him a few questions of your own, head on over to LoCO Elections!

Election Day is Nov. 5.

California State University is anticipating state spending cuts next summer of nearly $400 million and a delay in promised state support of more than $250 million. The projected budget gap may prevent the system from enrolling new students, offering employee raises and spending more money to boost graduation rates.

Cal State’s Board of Trustees heard system senior finance staff detail the grim fiscal outlook Tuesday at a public meeting. They presented figures that show a 2025-26 budget hole of about $400 million to $800 million — a sizable chunk of Cal State’s estimated operating budget of $8.3 billion next year.

“I think we’ve got a lot of broken calculators in Sacramento,” said Trustee Jack McGrory at the hearing. “We’re expected to increase enrollment, fulfill the needs of the labor market and continue to grow the economy, and at the same time, we’re facing these incredibly massive cuts. “What happens to our 500,000 students with these incredibly massive cuts? … We’re talking layoffs. Everybody’s got to face up to that.”

He and others stressed that the system has been in a state of fiscal distress for several years. Last year the trustees indicated that Cal State spends $1.5 billion less than it should to adequately educate its students — a figure that predated the austerity measures that may be on the horizon.

The smaller, $400 million amount is the projected budget hole from mandatory new expenses and state cuts, minus new revenue from the tuition hikes the board approved last year. Those tuition increases — growing 5% annually from this year to at least 2028-29 — aren’t enough to counteract the state cuts that lawmakers said they’d enact next year. The mandatory expenses include $60 million more for health insurance premiums for workers and $55 million in increased financial aid for students.

The proposed $400 million cut is equal to the money the system spends to educate 36,000 students. Cal State enrolled more than 450,000 students last fall.

“What happens to our 500,000 students with these incredibly massive cuts? … We’re talking layoffs. Everybody’s got to face up to that.”
— Jack McGrory, trustee, California State University board

The larger $800 million figure is the budget gap when taking into account spending Cal State feels it should pursue, such as employee raises and more spending on student academic services.

“Cuts would particularly affect the most vulnerable students, limiting their access to academic support tools, advising, counseling and engagement programs,” the agenda document reads. Also at risk is the system’s efforts to improve graduation rates for Black students, a population Cal State has struggled to serve.

A trustees committee approved a budget request to Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday that would largely avoid the projected deficit; the full board is expected to approve it today. In January, Newsom will debut his budget proposal for the next fiscal year. He and lawmakers will negotiate a final budget June of next year.

Why Cal State has a budget problem

That one-two punch of potential cuts and funding delays were spelled out in the budget deal that the Legislature and Newsom finalized this summer. It could have been worse: Initially, Newsom wanted to apply cuts to Cal State this budget year to address California’s multi-billion-dollar deficit. But lawmakers pushed back to buy the university another year to prepare for the cuts and possibly avoid them if the state’s revenue picture brightens. Steve Relyea, the top finance officer at Cal State, said system leaders should get credit for advocating for that reprieve.

Still, Cal State officials are setting a foreboding tone, warning of “severe consequences for students, staff and faculty across all CSU universities” that “could lead to larger class sizes, reduced course offerings, diminished student services, layoffs and hiring freezes,” the system’s 2025-26 budget proposal reads.

Some campuses have already laid off workers this year or plan to. Meghan O’Donnell, a lecturer at Cal State Monterey Bay and a senior officer in the systemwide faculty union, told CalMatters that the jobs of hundreds of lecturers have been totally slashed or reduced because campuses are cutting the overall number of classes they offer.

The lecturer job cuts have occurred at the campuses of Chico, East Bay, Humboldt, Los Angeles, Monterey Bay, San Bernardino, San Francisco and Sonoma. Lecturers have fewer job protections than faculty with tenure or who are on the tenure track.

The union expects to see formal system data about faculty job loss and work reductions in November. O’Donnell said Cal State Monterey Bay put its faculty on layoff notice last year, but the union was able to negotiate and five faculty marked for layoffs instead got voluntary separation agreements. Meanwhile, in her academic department of humanities and communications, four tenured faculty at Monterey Bay took early retirement packages while three others quit and found university jobs outside the Cal State system. Meeting the state’s goals of enrolling a higher number of new students than past years is also at risk, officials said.

“Enrollment growth is very challenging at a time when you’re not getting the resources,” Relyea said. “You can’t bring in additional students if you don’t bring in faculty to teach the students”

Current budget problems

Already the system is working to close an operating deficit of $218 million this academic year — even after new revenue this year from the tuition hikes and some extra state support. It’s a repeat of last year’s situation of ever-higher revenues but even higher expenses. And like last academic year, campuses are coping by pulling from reserves, not filling vacancies and combining under-enrolled classes or outright cutting them.

Several trustees also noted that the system doesn’t adequately sell its story to lawmakers and the public about the impact the reductions have had on the system. “We’ve almost been too effective at making these cuts year over year over year,” said Diego Arambula, vice chair of the board.“A hiring freeze is a hiring freeze, and that does impact students if we’re not bringing someone into a role that we know is important,” he said. “It’s impacting our staff, who are taking on more to try and still meet the needs of the students who are here.”

“No organization can survive with that level of budget cut.”
— Tomás D. Morales, campus president, CSU San Bernardino

Meanwhile, eight campuses are working with even less money because the system began its plan of pulling some funding from schools that are missing enrollment targets by at least 10%. Cal State leadership rerouted the money to nine schools with growing enrollments. Those eight campuses are down a combined $21 million this year — with San Francisco State getting hit the hardest by losing $6 million.

Relyea said the campuses are facing the prospect of pulling money from academic services to afford keeping the lights on. “If you’re going to delay maintaining that electrical system, there’s a risk. Are you going to take that risk? How does that compare to the risk of not funding student counselors.

Even campus presidents with enrollment growth say they’re struggling. San Jose State has cut $55 million from its budget the past two years, in part by not hiring new staff and avoiding replacing non-faculty job openings, its president, Cynthia Teniente-Matson, told the trustees.

To raise revenue, the campus is enrolling 300 new non-resident students — who pay much more in tuition — in majors that aren’t over-enrolled, she said.

Cal State San Bernardino had an average operating budget of $266 million until last year. Now it’s eyeing an average operating budget of $217 million if next year’s expected cuts come through. “No organization can survive with that level of budget cut,” the campus president, Tomás D. Morales, told the trustees.

The system’s reserves also aren’t enough to ride out a large multi-year deficit. Cal State campuses have a combined $777 million in one-time funds saved for economic hardships — enough to sustain operations for about a month. The system’s goal is to have enough saved for at least three months of operations. Other reserves of about $1.5 billion are meant for debt payments, financial aid and contracts.

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CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

Many students start community college with the hope of getting an associate degree and then transferring to a four-year institution, such as a California State University or University of California campus.

But a state audit, released Tuesday, found that the vast majority of these students never accomplish their goal. “Only about 1 in 5 students who began community college from 2017 to 2019 and intended to transfer did so within four years,” the audit states. Transfer rates are even lower for students in less affluent parts of the state and in rural areas and for students who are Black or Hispanic, according to the audit.

The state’s higher education systems are designed so that students can spend two years at community college, two years at a university, and then graduate with a bachelor’s degree. Tuition at community college is cheaper than at any Cal State or UC campus, so in theory, a student who follows this path is saving money.

In practice, few students ultimately transfer and those who do take so long to do it that they lose out on any potential savings.

Without a bachelor’s degree, career prospects are often dim. Many jobs require a bachelor’s degree, and on average, young adults with a bachelor’s degree earn $16,000 more than those with only an associate degree. Adults with only a high school education earn the least on average.

In 2022, Gov. Gavin Newsom set a goal to increase the percentage of working-age adults with a postsecondary degree or certificate from 55% to 70% by 2030. Improving the transfer process is critical to reaching that goal, the audit states.

The community college transfer maze

The transfer system is too complex, the audit says, and numerous studies have found that bureaucracy is partially to blame. Students who want to transfer face a maze of administrative hurdles and esoteric requirements — akin to a game of chutes and ladders.

“California community college students who want to transfer to a four-year college or university are trying to make progress, but one bad roll of the dice can set them back several turns,” said a June 2021 report by the Campaign for College Opportunity, a nonprofit organization.

Some Cal State and UC majors don’t accept certain community college courses, and some community colleges don’t offer the classes that students need. The Cal State and UC systems have different requirements for community college transfer students, and some students — even students who meet the requirements — get rejected, the audit found.

While most community college students who apply to a UC or Cal State get accepted, popular majors, such as computer science, and popular schools, such as UCLA and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, are far more selective, the audit found. If rejected, these students are supposed to go through a “redirection” process, where they get accepted to another campus. The state audit found that the CSU redirected more than 25,000 community college applicants to other campuses over the last few years.

In 2010, California lawmakers reformed the transfer process by creating a new kind of community college degree that also guarantees admission to a Cal State campus. Known as the Associate Degree for Transfer, it’s become increasingly popular and a key benefit to students, according to the audit.

Lawmakers tried — and failed — to have the UC system guarantee admissions for these community college students. Last year, lawmakers made a breakthrough by passing a bill that will require UCLA to prioritize certain community college students for admission beginning in the 2026-27 academic year. More UC campuses will participate in later years.

The state has also pushed the community college system to standardize how it labels courses to make it easier for students to determine what they need to transfer. Implementing the new system has been slow, however, and it won’t be complete until 2027.

The last major reform will go into effect next year. Beginning in the fall semester, the community college system will offer a new set of common prerequisites that both the UC and Cal State systems have agreed to accept.

But the audit found that these reforms alone are insufficient. Auditors recommended that community college campuses find ways to increase the number of counselors who can support transfer-bound students and that all three higher education systems should work to expand successful programs, such as the Associate Degree for Transfer.

When collaboration is ‘ineffective’

When California designed its current higher education system in 1960, it required both the Cal State and UC systems to make room for community college transfers. The UC system agrees to admit one transfer student for every two new freshmen who enroll, but it didn’t meet that goal last year, said UC spokesperson Stett Holbrook. Part of the problem, he said, is that community college enrollment declined.

The Cal State system doesn’t have a specific goal, but the audit said most campuses still enroll a high number of transfer students. The largest exception is Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where just 18% of incoming students came through the transfer system in recent years.

In 2017, the community college system set a goal to increase the annual number of students who transfer from about 80,000 to just over 100,000 by 2022. The system never achieved that goal, and the pandemic is in part to blame, the audit states.

Paul Feist, a spokesperson for the California Community College Chancellor’s Office, said the next goal is contingent on whether the Cal State and UC campuses can boost their own enrollment.

One challenge with the transfer process is that it requires the community college, Cal State, and UC systems to work together. Historically, that hasn’t been easy.

When the state Legislature allowed the community college system to begin offering their own bachelor’s degrees — a solution that avoids the transfer process altogether — professors at the Cal State campuses fought back, fearing that community colleges might siphon away students and force the Cal State system to lose money.

Each system has a different set-up: The UC is constitutionally independent, which means the Legislature has limited authority over it. The Cal State system is centralized, whereas the community college system is more similar to the K-12 system, where regional college districts make the majority of decisions.

There’s no official coordinating committee between the three public higher education systems. Such a committee did exist over a decade ago, but former Gov. Jerry Brown stopped funding it “because he believed it had been ineffective,” the audit wrote.

The audit didn’t call for a new committee but it did ask all three higher education systems to improve how they share data and information.

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Adam Echelman covers California’s community colleges in partnership with Open Campus, a nonprofit newsroom focused on higher education.

CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

Sandy was born on July 28, 1944, in Sacramento to Robert and Ida Albert. She sadly passed away on Sept. 19, 2024, at her home in Ferndale, with her family by her side.

Sandy was raised in Humboldt County, first living in Ferndale then moving to Fields Landing when her dad bought a commercial fishing boat. She graduated from Eureka High class of 1962.

Her parents Robert and Ida owned the Argo fishing boat in Fields Landing, where they had their crab stand. That is where Sandy and her siblings spent most of their time working and learning how to crack crab. Sandy blew her siblings out of the water by being the best crab picker there was.

Sandy met Don Katri at a very young age while working at a square-dancing event. Later in life they met again in high school, which lead to them getting married in July 1963 and later having their three children — Rob, Brian and Kim. They first lived in the Bay Area for the first years of their marriage then they moved and spent the last 37 years of their marriage on the family farm in Ferndale. She spent her working days for DHHS-SSB, where she retired in 2009.

She loved everyone she met. She loved going on adventures such as going camping with her family, and she and her husband going on cruises every year after they both retired from the county, hitting all the casinos from Oregon to California. She took many trips to Reno and Las Vegas with her brother Jim and sister-in-law Sharon. Her favorite month was in August, due to the horse races in Ferndale. Everyone who worked with Sandy knew when it was August due to her taking one week off to go to the races.

She is survived by her husband of 61 years, Don Katri. Her children Rob (Julie) Katri, Brian Katri and her daughter Kim “bug” Miranda. Her grandkids Chris (Rosie) Katri, Megan ( Lindsay) Katri and Brandon Katri. Travis, Whitney, and Sammy Katri. Blake (Katrina) Miranda, Mikayla (soon to be Mrs. Riley Harris) Logan Miranda and Tegan Rumley. And her one and only great-grandson Radley Miranda.

She is also survived by her twin sister Sharon (Dennis) Decarli, her two sisters-in-law Josie Dunnigan, and Barbie Albert. Along with her numerous nieces and nephews. She is proceeded in death by her parents Robert and Ida Albert, her in laws Charles and Ida Katri and her two brothers Jim and Frank Albert along with numerous other family members.

We are going to have a private family service. The family of Sandy would like to give a huge thank you to Hannah and Itzel from Hospice of Humboldt for everything they have done for her and us.

Rochelle (Shelly) Honig passed away peacefully at home on July 3, 2024 at 81, after a courageous battle with pulmonary disease. She was a dedicated stay-at-home mom, a compassionate public health nurse, an enthusiastic farmer at the local farmers markets and a master gardener.

Gardening was one of Shelly’s greatest joys; she cultivated not only her own garden but also shared her bounty with local food banks, embodying her commitment to community service. Above all, Shelly was immensely proud of her five children, who grew into outstanding adults, carrying forward her values of kindness and resilience. She loved her farm animals, particularly her chickens and goats.

Shelly was born on November 14, 1942 in Kansas City, Mo., and grew up in Middletown, Conn.. After high school, she attended the University of Connecticut, where she earned bachelor and master’s degrees in biology. Her first job was at the (prestigious) Sloan Kettering Cancer Research Institute in New York City, where she worked until her first marriage to Jay Davis. She helped her husband through medical school working in a cancer-research lab at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

In 1975, she arrived in Humboldt County with her first-born, Jenny, and very pregnant with Adam. She and her then-husband were looking for a good place to raise their children (who would soon include a third, Emily) where they could “get back to the land.” She was initially a stay-at-home mom—kept busy by three active young children, also by hosting a 4-H group, baking healthy breads, and growing a huge garden where she raised food for her young family and numerous gophers.

When her first marriage ended after 20 years, Shelly earned a nursing degree at Humboldt, and met Ron Honig. They were married in 1994 and blended their families, and Shelly became a step-mom to Hilary and Madeline. They enlarged the house, and Shelly began working as a public health nurse. Shelly continued her life long quest of learning by taking up hobbies, chief of which was to study the Jewish religion and became active in the local Jewish community. She and Ron also managed the large apple orchard that had been planted on their two-plus acres.

They could be seen at the Arcata Farmer’s Market providing apples, apple butter and apple-cider vinegar — as well as eggs from a decent-sized flock of chickens. She and Ron became familiar faces and many of their customers became friends.

In 1999, she first became a grandmother (Zoe), and seven other grandkids followed (Malcolm, Savannah, Gage, Graham, Hadley, Sawyer, and Milo).

After a long-ish illness, she died peacefully in her own home on July 3, 2024, after three days in Hospice Care. She has left an empty spot for those of us who knew and loved her. She would not have wanted flowers or donations in her name. Rather, she’d have asked you to be kind to somebody you don’t know.

Shelly’s spirit will be remembered fondly by all who knew her. She leaves behind a legacy of love, compassion, and dedication to her family and community. A LIFE WELL LIVED.

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