Ricky, Don’t Lose That Leg

Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office press release: 

On Monday, September 19, 2016, a puppy, Ricky, was dropped off at the Humboldt County Animal Shelter with a broken leg. Ricky, a 3-month-old heeler mix, was found running loose at a rest stop on Hwy 101. The surgery to fix his leg cannot be done locally, and must be completed by a specialist in the Medford, Oregon, area. The estimated cost of the surgery is $2,800. The funds for the surgery will come from the Friends for Life Emergency Medical Fund.

If anyone would like to donate to Ricky’s surgery, please send a check or money order made out to “Friends For Life Emergency Medical Fund” to the Humboldt County Animal Shelter, 980 Lycoming Ave, McKinleyville, CA 95519, or drop by the McKinleyville Animal Shelter during business hours. No donation amount is too small.

For further information, please contact the Humboldt County Animal Shelter at 707-840-9132.

MARTHA L PAUL
12/01/52 — 09/20/16

It is with heavy hearts we announce the passing of our beloved Martha.

She was the most caring, sweetest, honest person you’d ever know. Anyone who met her knew this about her and loved her dearly.

After her mother passed in 1961, she took on the role of motherhood  of six siblings at a very young age. At age 17 she married her husband James M Paul Jr. On October 24th they would have celebrated 46 years of marriage. They raised two beautiful children — son James Paul and daughter Jennifer Nielsen. Family meant everything  to her.

Thanksgiving  was her favorite  holiday, simply because it brought all the family together  with tons of food and laughter, and the stories were endless. 

She loved the outdoors, camping, fishing just being at the lake.

So many memories we will hold in our hearts.

She is predeceased by her parents Lincoln and Cordelia Matney and father-in-law James Paul Sr.

She is survived  by husband James Paul Jr; son Jimmy (Tami); daughter Jennifer (Brent); six grandchildren who she adored and was so proud of — Brandon, Katee, Lilly, Danielle, Chase  and Lindsey; seven siblings Larry (Diana), Dan (Stephanie), Donna (Barry), Rita (Rich), Joel (Liz), Gerald (Cindy) and Rick; numerous nieces  and nephews she loved like they were her own; brothers-in-law Donald, Thomas and spouses.

Martha is so loved and will be sorely missed by her family and friends. 

She is truly an angel.

Forever in our hearts, we love you.

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The obituary above was submitted by Martha Paul’s family. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here. Email news@lostcoastoutpost.com.

The tension in our nation between the black community and the police is palpable. It feels like one bad incident and cities will burn … again. Recently Elizabeth (Liz) Smith, member of the Eureka Chapter of the NAACP and Executive Director of the Boys & Girls Club of the Redwoods, had a cup of coffee with me to discuss issues of race, policing and justice. Both of us felt we should lead a discussion locally.

In late August Liz and I assembled a small group of police officers and people of color. We held a private function where we broke bread, threw the cards on the table and had open, honest and sincere dialogue. (Thank you Redwood Capital Bank and the Ingomar Club.) The level of openness at this initial meeting is debatable, but I saw a group of smart, dedicated professional people (community and police) who were direct, honest and open about their perceptions and experience. Each person listened intently to one another seeking to understand. The discussion was enlightening, powerful and humbling.

I would invite people of color to mentor EPD. Teach us.

If we stop here we have failed. We must push on to a place where all people are respected and feel safe. A place where we reach toward the high ideals of the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. who said, “Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.”

Over the upcoming year, the NAACP and EPD will host a broader community meeting to discuss race, policing and justice. Eureka, we can show the world how love works. We can meet and respectfully discuss tough topics, listen to each other and create a path forward, together. A path not determined by political party, but rather a highway of compassionate discourse and understanding, fairness and hope.

Monday, January 16, 2017, is MLK day. Members of the NAACP and EPD will stand for justice by marching together from EPD to the Adorni Center. There, we can celebrate Dr. King and continue to pursue his ideals. In a small way fulfill his dream. When protestors in Selma, Alabama, crested the bridge in 1965, peaceful protesters were met by riot police with tear gas and night sticks. Here we can dim that vision of travesty, honoring the memory of civil rights advocates by marching arm-in-arm as we crest the 5th Street hill walking toward the courthouse.

Lastly, we can mentor. The Boys & Girls Club needs responsible adults who are willing to serve as positive guides to kids, many are people of color, and help them succeed. Eureka this is your opportunity to help heal the racial divide. I would also invite people of color to mentor EPD. Teach us. Help us navigate the turbulence of policing a free society where people of color often feel singled out for enforcement and are disenfranchised from government. Teach us to understand fairness and aid our implementation of procedural justice through fairness.

Then, just maybe, Eureka can demonstrate to the world what a just and free society looks like. Peace, civility and hope can be palpable also.

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Andy Mills is Eureka’s chief of police.

A 22-year-old man was arrested for public intoxication this morning after multiple Eureka residents reported a naked person wandering their yards near Huntoon and B Streets.

After several minutes of callers updating EPD on the suspect’s location, officers found Phoenix Campbell-Loya of Arcata petting a dog near the 2200 block of California Street.

Campbell-Loya was transported to the Humboldt County Correctional Facility and booked for public intoxication.

Image from the Inspire Communities Nationwide website.

A Humboldt County ballot measure aimed at regulating rent hikes on mobile home tenants has prompted an influx of big-money donations from park owners hoping to defeat the initiative. Seven donors have spent a total of $135,000 to date fighting the measure, though when you look at the men behind the corporate donors there are really just five. Measure V proponents, meanwhile, have cobbled together $5,781, primarily from donations of $100 or less. 

The Humboldt Mobilehome Owner Coalition, a political group formed by residents of local mobile home parks, has been working since last year to develop and promote Measure V. If passed, this measure would prevent the owners of mobile home parks in the unincorporated parts of the county from making large and/or frequent rent increases.

Specifically, park owners would be allowed to raise the rent just once a year, and the amount of that increase would be tied to inflation via the Consumer Price Index. The measure would also mean that when a mobile home is sold or transferred, the new tenant’s rent could only be hiked by five percent above the previous tenant’s rent.

Park owners would be allowed to raise rents to pay for improvements to their parks, but only if they obtain written approval from more than half of the mobile home owners/tenants. And if park owners don’t feel they’re earning a fair return, Measure V provides an appeal process with the county.

Proponents say Measure V would protect vulnerable residents, including many seniors, from exploitation at the hands of corporate park owners. Most people living in mobile home parks subsist on limited incomes, and their equity is tied up in the mobile homes themselves, making them “captive renters.”

In their ballot argument, proponents say, “As the moms and pops who built our mobilehome parks age out, predatory, out-of-town corporate investors have been taking over.” 

Opponents, meanwhile, characterize Measure V as an “unfair” and “unnecessary” rent-control initiative that would harm the community, in part due to the costs of bureaucracy and potential litigation (fighting the measure in court, should it pass) and in part due to decreased property tax revenues. 

The Humboldt Mobilehome Owner Coalition disputes those claims, arguing, for example, that bureaucratic costs will be defrayed by fees paid by renters. But opponents now have a large war chest with which to spread their message. Let’s take a look at some of the big donors.

GREG EVANS:

As president and general manager of Evans Management Services, Greg Evans oversees a property management company controlling about 40 mobile home parks around the western United States. 

In January Evans was named chairman of the board of the Pacific Legal Foundation, the ultra-conservative law firm known for supporting pro-business causes while fighting against environmental regulations, public school integration programs and gay marriage.

Also a board member on the Laguna Seca Raceway Fund, Evans is an ardent proponent of private property rights. Twenty years ago he founded the Committee to Save Property Rights, now part of the Western Manufactured Housing Communities Association, or WMA. As its website explains, the WMA is a Sacramento-based trade group created “for the exclusive purpose of promoting and protecting the interests of owners, operators and developers of manufactured home communities in California.” The members of this association “collectively own, operate and control over 175,000 mobilehome spaces in California.”

One of the many parks owned operated by Evans Management Services is Humboldt Bay Mobile Estates, located on Humboldt Hill. Humboldt Bay Mobile Estates, LLC, contributed $35,000 to the “No on Measure V” campaign. Another $35,000 came from the Western Manufactured Housing Communities Association Issues Political Action Committee, the political spending arm of Evans’ trade association.

MATTHEW FOLLETT:

The website of FollettUSA boasts that president and CEO Matthew Follett “has been directly involved in the ownership and management of over 100 [manufactured home] communities with combined assets approaching $1 billion.”

Four years ago, thanks to “a major infusion of capital from a private equity partner,” Follett founded another company, Inspire Communities, with the goal of becoming, “one of the nation’s largest operators of mobile home parks,” according to the Sacramento Business Journal.

In the years since Follett has done just that with the company. Located in the Sacramento suburb of Gold River, Inspire now owns nearly 40 “communities” in 15 states, from California to Texas, Georgia, Michigan and beyond.

One of those communities is McKinleyville’s Ocean West Senior Village, which happened to donate $22,000 to the “No on V” campaign. Another Inspire-owned community is Arcata’s Lazy J Ranch. A $13,000 contribution to the “No on V” campaign came from Mesa Dunes MHC Investors LLC dba [doing business as] Lazy J MHP [mobile home park].

GUNTRAM WOLSKI

Wolski, whose home on four acres in the Santa Cruz Mountains is worth about $1.4 million (according to the real estate website Zillow), owns the Thunderbird Mobile Estates in McKinleyville, which donated $20,000 to the anti-Measure V effort. 

Wolski is a principal engineer at Cisco Systems, the largest networking company in the world. Based in San Jose, the multinational tech giant this year landed at number 63 on the Forbes Global 2000 list, with sales of almost $50 billion.

“There is no way I can manage an ordinance like this,” Wolski told the Times-Standard last week. His relative, Armin Wolski, told the Board of Supervisors that Measure V “will punish us for being compassionate, for having our rents so low, for being considerate.”

STEVEN LESTER:

A $5,000 donor to the “No on V” measure is Sea View Estates, LLC, which sounds a lot like Sea View Mobile Estates, the senior living mobile home park on Humboldt Hill. But the address on the campaign contribution form is 33105 Santiago Rd. in Acton, a small residential community in northern Los Angeles County. The street address is for the Stallion Meadows residential development.

It’s also the address of a Steven Lester, the registered agent for Sea View Estates, LLC. Lester is also listed, at the same address, as a partner or officer in a number of other California business entities — limited liability companies and limited partnerships.

JOHN BOVONE:

Another $5,000 donation came from Valley West Estates Limited Partnership, which, despite the name, has a San Jose address. The registered agent for the company, John Bovone, owns Western Management, LLC, which operates 43 residential communities in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.

One tenant of a Bovone-owned property complains online that he “obviously doesn’t care that his managers are renting out properties with severe sewage problems” where, when residents “wake up to find feces and urine everywhere they’re told they can let them out of the lease and return the down payment but NEVER do! It’s been 7 years and our $1592 check has yet to be sent!” Another calls him out by name and complains that her park has “turned into a ghetto … [and] a real hell hole.”

Together these five men — Evans, Follett, Wolski, Lester and Bovone — have, through their corporate entities, outspent Measure V proponents by a factor of more than 20 to one. Election Day, November 8, will reveal whether their investment pays off.

Christian Testanier.

Faulty email software has halted the City of Arcata and the Arcata Police Department’s ability to send and receive emails for more than 24 hours, and almost destroyed a month’s worth of public information.

Arcata Information and Technology Manager Dillon Savage tells the Outpost that he likely rescued a month’s worth of email records after a sleepless night and a last-ditch effort with Microsoft tech support.

“There’s data corruption of a specific part of the Microsoft Exchange server that handles all of our emails and data retention for those services,” Savage said. “Overtime it had been causing errors to the storage of that data, and caused the server to go offline yesterday.”

Savage said he expected bugs after the city spent $25,000 upgrading its entire network infrastructure in August. However, this fix has proven to be especially difficult.

“As far as I am concerned, the update did work the way it was supposed to,” Savage said. “Just like any new hardware, there are bugs that happen and unfortunately this is one that’s not as kind as I was anticipating it would be.”

APD Chief Tom Chapman said the absence of email has slowed communication around the office, but shouldn’t affect law enforcement’s impact in the community. However, if the city were unable to recover the lost emails, it would raise concerns about the city’s legal obligation to maintain public records.

“I don’t think it would really be impactful in terms of law enforcement functions. We’ll be inconvenienced but it’s not devastating to anything in terms of crime and criminal cases,” Chapman said. “Emails are a public record that we have a duty and obligation to retain. In the technology age you do the best you can to be in compliance, but when something like this happens, what do you do?”

Savage said that as of 4 p.m., city employees officially regained access to their emails.

“It looks like we have found a path forward,” Savage said. “Looks like we’re not going to lose anything.”

Louis Keith Taylor was born October 12, 1945 at home in Rogers, Arkansas. He passed away September, 23, 2016 at the age of 70 years at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Eureka, CA. He was preceded in death by his father Robert Louis Taylor; his brothers, Robert Lloyd Taylor, and Tony Martin Jr. He leaves behind his wife, Joanne Taylor, and her sons, Catlyn and Ty Lee Storm.

Additional surviving family members include his mother, Agnes Baker Pilgrim; sisters Sonja Taylor; Nadine Martin and Ramona Hudson, his children include John Harrington, Katrina Taylor- Sims, Creed Taylor, Dawn Taylor, “Stormy” Taylor- Widmark; Georgina Taylor Douangdao. He also raised Jaimoe and Brandy Kibby and also Jasmine Kaye. In addition, he helped raise his grandchildren Kimberly Edwards, Keyontae Taylor and Kody Kibby. His other grandchildren are Charlotte, Diana and Grace Harrington, Robert & Zhontae Sims; Hanna, Andrea Taylor; Kaleb, Kanaan, Kyla, Kwest Perez and Thavone Douangado Kayla Sydthong , Faith, Jaimoe Jr, Hope Kibby.; Jessie Widmark, Harmony Taylor; as well as 3 great grandchildren, and numerous nieces and nephews.

He has resided in California for over 30 years. In his early professional career, he worked for the State of California as a Parole officer in counties like Los Angles and Humboldt, where he later retired from. He also served as a certified tribal judge for the Confederated Tribes of Siletz, Oregon. He was instrumental bringing the sweat ceremony to Native inmates in the prison system. During these years, he also worked as a lawyer and helped many people in Indian Community. During his career, he established The Center for Indian Law and Economic Justice to ensure indigenous people were treated with dignity fairness. He helped many tribes establish their rights as Native American people. He spoke for and was the Chairman of the Human Rights Commission Board of Humboldt County. He taught at police academies throughout the nation. Further, he was also elected Chief of Police for the Hoopa Tribe.

He was a master regalia maker, tanning hides, stitching leather, creating horsehair roaches and bustles, doing beadwork he was a skilled horse trainer and rider. He was proud to be a member of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians. Throughout his life he was a traditional man and never wavered from this way of life. He held a black belt in the martial arts and sparred with Bruce Lee.

A memorial will be held on October 2nd 2016 10:00 a.m. at the The Retired Peace officers Association at 2351 Freshwater Rd. Freshwater California, and is open to the public. He will be interred at the Paul Washington Cemetery of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians in Siletz, OR, and will be laid to rest by the graves of his brothers: Robert Taylor and Tony Martin, Jr.

Donations may be made to www.gofundme.com in the name of “Uncle Keith Taylor.” (set up by his niece, Ember Hudson Tonge).

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The obituary above was submitted by Keith Taylor’s family. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here. Email news@lostcoastoutpost.com.