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PREVIOUSLY

• NoHum School Board Votes to ‘Dismiss’ Arcata High School Principal; Teachers and Community Members Shocked
• ‘It is Great to Be a Tiger’: Arcata High Principal Ron Perry Issues Statement to School Community
• NoHum Union School Board Provides ‘Deeply Unsatisfying’ Statement on Reassigning Arcata High Principal Ron Perry

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Ron Perry hasn’t said much publicly since the Northern Humboldt Union High School District’s Board of Trustees unceremoniously demoted him on March 12.

In a move that stunned and outraged many in the Arcata High School community, the board voted in closed session to accept the recommendation of district Superintendent Roger Macdonald and reassign Perry from his role as principal, a job he’d held for less than two years, to an unidentified teaching position starting next school year.

Public outcry has been vociferous, with students, parents, staff and community members overflowing subsequent board meetings to voice their disapproval and demand an explanation. More than 1,000 people signed an online petition urging trustees to reinstate Perry. And a group of five women — all parents of current or former AHS students — launched a GoFundMe campaign and are using the proceeds to pay former Humboldt County District Attorney Paul Gallegos as he challenges the board’s decision on legal grounds. They’ve dubbed themselves “Eye of the Tiger: Guardians of Arcata High School.”

Through it all, Perry has mostly stayed above the fray, at least publicly. Three days after the board’s contentious decision he released a public statement encouraging unity and a shared focus on student empowerment. Perry closed his statement with the message, “It’s great to be a Tiger.”

Behind the scenes, however, Perry was reeling. In documents obtained by the Outpost, Perry acknowledged that his immediate response to news of his imminent demotion was “angry disbelief.”

‘The experiences of the past several weeks have shocked me and turned my world upside down.’
–Ron Perry

In an April 22 letter to Superintendent Macdonald, Perry wrote, “The experiences of the past several weeks have shocked me and turned my world upside down.”

In his first interview since the board’s decision, Perry told the Outpost that he has accepted a position teaching U.S. History and AP U.S. History next year at Eureka High School, where he previously worked for nearly 18 years, teaching social science courses and filling various other roles (wrestling coach, department chair, student activities director) from 1994 through 2012.

“It’s a great fit for me, because there’s so many people I’m still really, really tight with in Eureka City Schools that I love and respect,” he said. “So it’s a great place to land.”

Still, Perry remains upset at the way things went down in Arcata. He said Macdonald caught him completely off guard when he came into his office on March 1 and informed him that he planned to recommend demotion to the board of trustees. 

Perry said that during his time as principal, he and Macdonald met weekly to discuss current initiatives, analyze data, reflect on recent professional development trainings and talk about ways to improve. Macdonald would often ask him what he needed and how he could help. In January they’d driven together to Sacramento and back, and there was no indication that such a move was forthcoming.

“We did have extended periods of time together, Roger and I, and he never brought it up,” Perry said. “And so that was disappointing to me, and that’s one of the reasons why I was so incredulous. I was incredulous and surprised.”

Asked if Macdonald explained his reasoning during that March 1 meeting, Perry said he mostly remembers his own reaction.

“At the time, I was angry and I perhaps dominated the conversation,” he explained. Over the following days and weeks, he said, Macdonald offered “a lot of different rationales” for his decision. “Roger has said, you know, he respects me and he likes me and he wants me … to continue to contribute to [the Northern Humboldt Union High School District]. He just perhaps doesn’t see eye-to-eye on the way I approach things. … Essentially it comes down to the fact that I wasn’t doing things the way he wanted me to.” 

In his six-page April 22 letter to Macdonald, Perry gets into some specifics, referring to a range of allegations that Macdonald levied in a memo to Perry about events that had taken place since that March 1 meeting in Perry’s office. (The Outpost has not seen Macdonald’s memo; the superintendent said privacy laws prevent him from releasing it.)

‘I continue to believe that the decision to reassign me was a mistake, and I am not alone.’
–Ron Perry

“Yes, I responded with angry disbelief when I was informed that I would not be the Principal of Arcata High School in the coming year … ,” Perry’s response letter says. “I was saddened not only personally but also for the campus community, which may not benefit from the developments our team was prepared to implement in the coming year. … I continue to believe that the decision to [re]assign me was a mistake, and I am not alone.”

Perry defends his tenure as principal at length and says he disagrees with a variety of assertions made by Macdonald: that Perry admitted to not receiving professional development; that he “evaded” a professional consultant; that he doesn’t see curricular leadership as an essential part of his role as principal; that he has ignored issues pertaining to the bathrooms, parking lots and attendance; that he does not pay attention in meetings; and that he failed to grow and improve over the past two years.

“I am a dedicated professional who enjoys the work and embraces the challenge of improvement … ,” Perry says in his letter. “No one is perfect, and I have made mistakes. We all do. I pride myself in the work I have put into becoming a better principal in all parts of the job.”

Perry told the Outpost that when he wrote that letter, he was still hopeful — albeit doubtful — that the board might reconsider its decision and hire him back as principal. He had yet to apply for the job with Eureka City Schools.

Macdonald told the Outpost via email that he and the board are limited by law in what they can say about personnel decisions, but his general practice when making such decisions is to meet with the affected employee privately to notify them about what he plans to recommend to the board, and to give the employee an opportunity to either respond or resign.

“I cannot comment specifically on any conversations that I had with Mr. Perry regarding his employment as they were confidential conversations, but I did follow my usual practice,” Macdonald explained via email. 

Letter of Reprimand

While both Macdonald and the board have steadfastly refrained from publicly offering evidence or explanations for their decision, citing legal protections for confidential personnel matters, last month the district released to the North Coast Journal a letter of reprimand that Macdonald sent to Perry on Aug. 1, 2023. 

According to the letter, two investigations conducted during Perry’s first year as principal — the 2022-2023 school year — found that Perry was not following the law and that he had “displayed a lack of knowledge of relevant District policies and procedures.”

The investigations were launched in response to a pair of complaints from parents. In the first case, Perry suspended a student without knowing what that student had been accused of and without offering a legally mandated pre-suspension conference, according to Macdonald’s letter. The letter also says Perry “abdicated responsibility for the disciplinary action to the district office” and that he declared he “did not know or read school board policies as that was not [his] job.”

The investigation into the second matter found that Perry responded in “a very lackadaisical and haphazard manner” when a parent reported concerns that his child was threatening to kill a specific teacher. 

‘You have shown a lack in basic skills necessary for a school administrator … ‘
–Letter of reprimand

“Both incidents demonstrate a lack of understanding of the laws you must implement in your position and the relevant District board policies and procedures and poor judgment,” the reprimand letter says. “Moreover, you have shown a lack in basic skills necessary for a school administrator, including parent communication and basic investigation procedures.”

Macdonald says in the letter that if such behavior continues, he will have to consider disciplinary action “including suspension or dismissal.”

In a phone interview earlier this week, Perry said the release of that disciplinary letter bothered him because he felt it gave the public a false impression of the reasoning behind his demotion. 

“I would argue that it wasn’t [due to] the things that were released in the letter,” he said. The student incidents in question had occurred nearly a year prior to the disciplinary letter, during Perry’s first months on the job, and Perry believed that he and his team had subsequently addressed Macdonald’s concerns and resolved any outstanding issues. And so, while he disagreed with both the tone and the substance of the letter, he chose not to write a response to be placed in his personnel file. 

“I [was] confident in my abilities — and my team’s abilities — to respond to these issues and fix it,” he said.

I asked Macdonald why this disciplinary letter was released publicly, despite being part of Perry’s personnel file. 

“In this case,” he responded, “the District consulted with legal counsel and determined that Mr. Perry’s privacy interest in certain records did not outweigh the public interest in disclosure, given the ongoing allegations of impropriety regarding his release [from his principal position].”

He cited various court cases as precedent, adding, “In short, in California it is now settled law that well-founded complaints against public employees are matters of public concern.”

Tigers Fight Back

Perry poses with a “Continuation Education Options” educator-of-the-year award in 2019. | Photo via NHUHSD.

Lisa Hansen is the main organizer behind “Eye of the Tiger: Guardians of Arcata High School.” She and her fellow team members — Diana Cavinta, Sue Moore, Sue Reeser and Jan Schmidt — have been among the most vocal defenders of Perry, and they’ve raised a variety of objections and concerns about the manner in which the board decided his fate.

In statements made at subsequent meetings, and in Gallegos’ letters to the district’s legal counsel on their behalf, the “Eye of the Tiger” guardians have alleged that at the March 12 meeting the Board of Trustees failed to abide by California’s open meetings law, the Brown Act, by not clearly identifying on the agenda that they’d be considering Perry’s dismissal in closed session, thus giving the public an opportunity to weigh in.

They also allege that Trustee Theresa Grosjean, who abstained from the vote to dismiss Perry, nonetheless violated conflict-of-interest rules in the Political Reform Act by participating in the closed-session deliberations beforehand. (Grosjean’s supervisor at her place of employment is Julie Perry, Ron’s wife.)

In response letters, attorneys with School and College Legal Services of California (SCLS), the firm representing the district, say these arguments lack merit. The board followed the explicit language of the Brown Act, they say, and there has been no evidence that Grosjean participated in the board’s deliberations.

But the legal battle remains active, with Gallegos and SCLS exchanging letters. Initially, the “Eye of the Tiger” team aimed to force the board to rescind its decision and reinstate Perry as principal. Now that Perry has accepted a position at Eureka High, Hansen says their goal is to improve the board’s procedures and to shine a light on the administrative deficiencies and injustices that led to his departure. 

In pursuit of their mission, the team has conducted interviews, researched previous board decisions and even questioned the qualifications of Kristin Ferderber, a middle school principal in Salinas who has been hired to replace Perry. They’ve also amassed dozens of documents, including letters of support for Perry, procedure manuals, board correspondence, emails, voicemails, testimonials and more.

Addressing Macdonald’s 2023 disciplinary letter, Hansen said their team has been contacted by a parents whose complaint led to one of the investigations, and this parent blames other members of the AHS administration employees in the district office, not Perry, for mishandling matters.

Hansen and her team say Perry never got the support he needed to succeed. They argue that under Macdonald’s leadership, the district stopped conducting staff surveys; that Arcata High School has fewer administrators per student than other schools in the district; that the board is disproportionately filled with trustees from McKinleyville; that Macdonald and his team didn’t exhaust all administrative remedies before dismissing Perry; and that the board failed to consult with important stakeholders (the Arcata High site council, its students, parents/guardians, etc.) before making its decision.

Public Outcry

The first board meeting after Perry’s dismissal, held in the Arcata High library on April 9, overflowed with Perry supporters, including students, staff members and parents, who demanded answers, decried the board’s “mistake” and sang Perry’s praises. 

Dressed in orange and black as a unified show of support, they described Perry as a dedicated, compassionate and capable leader who cares deeply about student success and shows up to more student events than any principal in recent memory.

“He encourages us, cheers us on, helps us get to class on time and, most of all, puts his heart, soul and NBA Finals-worthy announcing voice into everything he does,” said Melanie Luh, Arcata High’s associated student body president.

‘I have never encountered a stronger natural leader nor anyone with more passion and loyalty for Arcata High School.’
–Lisa Hansen

During her own turn, Hansen said she has “never encountered a stronger natural leader nor anyone with more passion and loyalty for Arcata High School.”

When the board cut off public comment after just 20 minutes, with the room still packed, attendees were angered, and as reported in the Mad River Union, supporters chanted Perry’s name when they eventually left the venue. At last weekend’s Arcata High graduation ceremony, Perry received a standing ovation from students and other community members.

“It’s been said that I have many friends,” Perry said by phone earlier this week, “but I would prefer [to say] I’ve earned the respect and friendship of many quality people.” 

He acknowledged that he was an at-will employee, meaning Macdonald and the board were entitled to fire him for virtually any reason at all. But he sees the public response over the past three months — and last weekend in particular — as vindication.

“The argument of the collective masses, whether it be parents, students or teachers, was they just that they disagree [with the board’s decision], and I think that the last week’s events are testimony to the fact that they are likely correct.”

Macdonald said that while he “most definitely” considers the opinions and experiences of the school community when making personnel decisions, the diversity of opinions may not be fully reflected by the apparently unified voices at recent board meetings.

“I receive feedback every day from staff, parents and students regarding the performance and effectiveness of our site principals,” Macdonald said. As for the disciplinary letter from 2023, Macdonald said he released it because he was legally obligated to do so, not as a personal attack on Perry. He even agreed with Perry on this: The incidents referenced in the letter do not represent the totality of his reasoning for recommending dismissal.

“While there’s a lot of attention on that one document, decisions like this aren’t made based on one incident or one document,” he said.

Ron Perry’s Final Principal’s Report

The NHUHSD Board of Trustees met again this past Tuesday, and at the outset, one of the trustees pulled an item off of the consent calendar. The item called for the board to accept the latest batch of principal’s reports, which are typically routine updates about progress on school goals.

But Clerk-Trustee JoAnn Moore flagged Perry’s report for discussion.

“I have been coming to board meetings for more than 17 years, pretty regularly. … ,” she said. “I have never seen a principal’s report that was submitted for Arcata High like this before. Ever. For somebody who taught history, the amount of self-serving and disinformation that was in that report is remarkable.”

In particular, she called attention to Perry’s closing paragraph, where he says, “The decisions and actions of the board and superintendent have exacerbated the sense of toxicity amongst staff, students and families this spring. The overwhelming flow of messages voicing opposition to these decisions is testimony to the depth and degree of the emotions in our community and the feeling that significant errors were made.”

Fellow trustee and Board President Natalie Giannini called out another paragraph, one in which, under a section for reporting on progress toward meeting equity goals, Perry notes that Arcata High finally has a new scoreboard, which he says “creates more equity between our athletic programs at AHS and those at MHS.”

Giannini felt that was inappropriate. 

“I think it’s really frustrating to see the AHS principal’s report put a scoreboard under equity … ,” she said. “To use [that section of the report] to make a final dig was, I feel like, insulting to that work, and that really upset me.”

Grosjean was upset by the report, too.

“For me, the accusation that we are fully responsible for any toxicity in this district is super disingenuous,” she said, and she suggested that his comments reflect “a selfish need to get the last word.”

The board wound up voting 4-1 not to accept Perry’s final report.

Clearly, while Perry has moved on to a new district, the Arcata High community remains divided and destabilized by the events of the past few months. 

Hansen said she found the board’s decision not to accept Perry’s final principal’s report “crazy,” saying it offered accurate information and valid evidence about the current state of affairs.

Reached by phone Friday morning, Perry said he considers everything in that report factual and based on the feedback he’s received from members of the school community. Comments that “might be seen as critical by some are what we need to hear in order to move our school forward,” he said.

In our initial interview earlier this week, Perry said he is “coming to grips” with what has happened and where he wound up.

“The opportunity to go back to Eureka is is a great, great thing,” he said. “But more importantly, I’ve been reaffirmed with the opinions of people who matter more than that of one individual — or the collection of five individuals. You know, the people I love and respect have voiced their opinion that this was an error.”

Message from Northern Humboldt Union High School District Superintendent Roger Macdonald:

June 21, 2024

Good afternoon Arcata High School Community,

Please join me in welcoming Kristin Ferderber as the Arcata High School Principal effective July 1, 2024. Ms. Ferderber has made Humboldt County a regular family vacation spot for years and is excited to make it her home.

Kristin Ferderber. Photo via the Spreckles Union School District.

I want to thank the screening and interview committee that helped make this important decision. Our team was made up of fourteen faculty, staff and administrators and one very involved parent. All made important contributions along the way and were in consensus in recommending Ms. Ferderber.

Ms. Ferderber stood out with her confidence, personality and experience. She was able to answer all of our questions with examples of how she has led and taught in the past. Her references all shared that she displayed the same “can do” attitude that we saw in her two interviews and confirmed that she does have the varied and exceptional skills that we witnessed.

Ms. Ferderber has just completed the school year as a middle school principal in Salinas. She has also served as a high school Dean of Students and taught high school English, ELD, Journalism and Leadership. As you might expect, she also took on leadership roles such as Department Chair and WASC Coordinator.

Ms. Ferderber was able to join our admin team earlier this week for some of our professional development and was able to meet some Arcata High staff as well. I will work with her on a transition to our District, which will include extensive onboarding over the summer. Ms. Ferderber is looking forward to engaging with our community and we will have events planned starting in August for you to meet, greet and get to know her.

I am grateful for the feedback and encouragement that I have received from so many of you and am impressed with all of the work being done to end the year on a positive note across the District as we prepare for the coming school year.

Wishing you all the very best over the summer holiday.

Roger Macdonald

Superintendent

Press release from the Humboldt County Superior Court:

HUMBOLDT COUNTY CIVIL GRAND JURY NEEDS MORE APPLICANTS!!!

The Superior Court has received some applications since April, but we are still short! WE NEED MORE MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC WILLING TO SERVE ON THE 2024/2025 HUMBOLDT COUNTY CIVIL GRAND JURY. PLEASE APPLY AND HELP SERVE YOUR LOCAL COMMUNITY’S INTERESTS! Your public service is needed and will be greatly appreciated!!

The Humboldt Superior Court empanels 19 citizens to act as an independent body of the judicial system each fiscal year (term: July 1-June 30). The Court also encourages citizens to apply and be considered to serve as alternates if and when vacancies occur during the term of service. The Court accepts applications from citizens representing a broad cross-section of the Humboldt County community. The Civil Grand Jury is currently meeting in-person one day a week and via Zoom one day a week (their weekly meeting schedule and time commitment may vary from 10-30 hours).

The primary work of the civil grand jury is to investigate and review citizen complaints concerning the operations of city and county government as well as other tax supported and non-profit agencies and districts. Based on these reviews, the grand jury publishes its findings and reports recommending constructive actions to improve the quality and effectiveness of our local government. The civil grand jury does not review or consider criminal indictments.

For more information and the application process, please visit the Court’s web site at:

(this link)

or, contact Administration at 269-1245 with any questions you may have.

You may also download, complete, and email a Civil Grand Jury Questionnaire to: GrandJuryApps@humboldtcourt.ca.gov or we can email you an application. Thank you for your interest in serving your local community!

With College Cove in the background, a garden of (real) native plants below and symbols sprinkled throughout, David Josiah Lawson’s image will overlook the university where he would have graduated in 2019.

Watching community members add paint to the north-facing wall of the D Street Neighborhood Center in Arcata on Thursday afternoon, Charmaine Lawson, Josiah’s mom, said she can’t imagine a better place for the mural. 

“Everyone can see. It’s right above his university, and he would ride his skateboard down from campus to Safeway,” she said. “I feel like his footsteps, his memory, his vision, his light – everything is being shown right here.”

Written across the mural, in Josiah’s own handwriting, are the familiar words: “Justice for David Josiah Lawson.”

Seeing those words is a heavy thing, Charmaine said.

“It should be ‘Honoring the Life of David Josiah Lawson,’” she said. “It’s heartbreaking for me to see the words ‘Justice for David Josiah Lawson’ after seven years.”

Josiah was killed by stabbing at a college party in Arcata in April 2017, and no one has been convicted in connection with the killing. The Lawson family has fought tirelessly to see justice and keep Josiah’s story alive over the seven years since.

“For those people that know what truly happened and can shed some more light to what really took place that night… they’re out there, and they’re going to come forward,” Charmaine said. “If they still live here in Humboldt County, they’re going to see this and they’re going to be like: ‘Wow, this was unfair.’”

The mural is one result of a 2021 settlement agreement between the Lawson family and the City of Arcata. Charmaine expressed gratitude to the City of Arcata, and particularly Arcata City Manager Karen Diemer, for supporting the mural.

Project leader Benjamin Funke said that the mural is a community effort, start to finish. It’s a collaboration between the Lawson family, the NAACP Eureka Chapter, the City of Arcata, the Rotary Club of Arcata Sunrise and REBOUND, a DreamMaker project of the Ink People. 

“I think it’s really important to the spirit of the piece – it’s about bringing this community together, and that’s why it’s at a community center. This location is just perfect,” Funke said. 

“Every student that goes to school here, and every student that will go to school here, is going to be able to see this mural and ask who Josiah Lawson was. That story is never gonna go away. It’s gonna live.”

From location to process to the actual image, just about every element of the mural is symbolic.

The content itself is intentional down to each brushstroke. The design’s focus is the widely recognizable photo of Josiah – the one used on posters calling for justice – redrawn for the mural by his aunt. Because it was the natural environment that drew Josiah to Humboldt, he sits before College Cove and is framed by redwoods on either side. 

“When you see it, you’re like, ‘Oh, I’ve been to that space before!’ and so that helps humanize Josiah,’” Funke said. “I think it’s going to have a much more uplifting, more celebratory feeling to it than what we’re used to seeing as his image in the public eye.”

A dreamy skateboarder made of cloud zooms through the sky, because Josiah loved skateboarding. And the team plans to add a message from Charmaine in a facsimile of her handwriting somewhere on the mural. That message will convey that the artwork is “not just for DJ – this is for every missing and murdered person in Humboldt County,” Charmaine said.

“For me, this is just a small token for my son but a bigger token for those families who are seeking justice.”

Planted along the bottom of the wall will be a garden of native flower- and fruit-bearing plants, supplied and maintained by Arcata Rotary. Charmaine said she likes to imagine people coming to pick a berry and talk to Josiah.

Though progress is moving quickly, the team said they’ll be working on the mural at least through the weekend. Community members are invited to come pick up a paintbrush and climb aboard the aerial lifts to help finish it up. 

“It’s an honor to get to work on a project like this,” said Blake Reagan, one of the muralists working on the piece. “There’s a lot of feelings involved. I try to express joy in my work, but sometimes art is more than joy. Art can be in memory of people. Art can question justice. Art has a big spirit, and hopefully this mural encompasses a few of the purposes for murals.”

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Have you, like us, been wondering what happened to the bears removed from the tree by Pierson’s last week? Or if the bears spotted out for a sunset stroll in Arcata on Saturday were the same urban ursidae as the family in the tree?

It’s been a bears-filled couple weeks around here, so Peter Tira, information officer with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, hopped on the phone with the Outpost to provide a much-needed situation report.

First off, yes – the urban bears camped out in the Pierson’s tree and spotted hopping over the Pho Hoang fence are the same mother and cub. The pair are now in Samoa.

Bears have one of the best senses of smell in the animal kingdom (seven times greater than a bloodhound!), so Tira said that peninsula residents should secure any and all potential smelly attractions: garbage should be tightly lidded, pet food (even chicken feed) kept inside, bird feeders emptied and fruit trees monitored for fallen bear treats.

“We don’t want to see these bears any more comfortable than they already are in urban areas,” Tira said, “we want them to make their way back to the wild.”

After removing the bears from their tree perch on the morning of June 10, CA Fish & Wildlife deposited the family in forested habitat about 30 miles away, according to Tira. The sow (mom) was collared, and Fish & Wildlife’s Northern Region headquarters has been tracking the family’s movements since.

Over the course of last week, the bears crossed Highway 299 near Blue Lake, followed the river to Arcata – making it to Northtown by Saturday evening – and followed the curve of Humboldt Bay out to Manila.

On Tuesday night, the mother bear was struck by a vehicle on the Samoa Peninsula around 10 p.m. The driver reported the incident, including that the bear they hit was collared, and Tira said the sow is injured but still mobile. The cub remains unharmed.

So, why have these bears taken to the urban coastal lifestyle? Simple: They’ve learned that Eureka, Arcata and even more sparsely populated communities like Samoa are hotspots for free food.

“It’s a lot more calories for a lot less work,” Tira said, adding that while bears catching on to the easy snackings of developed areas is common in California, the pair’s return to town is not what Fish & Wildlife wanted to see happen.

If mother and cub become an ongoing problem, Fish & Wildlife will remove them to wild habitat (again), according to Tira.

Sightings can be reported to the Fish & Wildlife Northern Region headquarters at (530) 225-2300 or askregion1@wildlife.ca.gov.

Pictures can also be sent to the Outpost at lostcoastoutpost@gmail.com.

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Humboldt Bay Fire Chief Sean Robertson is trying to keep his department afloat amid an “acute staffing crisis” that has plagued the agency for nearly two years. 

Robertson, who will retire as chief at the end of this year, did not attribute the staffing crisis to a single issue, but said non-competitive wages have made it difficult for Humboldt Bay Fire to retain employees. In the last two years, the department has seen 17 employees, including several high-ranking staff, leave for higher-paying positions with the Arcata Fire Protection District and other agencies in the Bay Area. The department is currently down by seven people, which has forced the department to implement rotating closures at its five stations. 

The Outpost stopped by Fire Station 1 in Eureka this week to chat with Chief Robertson and Brandon Harlander, fire captain paramedic and union president, about the ongoing staffing crisis and the department’s future. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

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LoCO: Can you describe the current staffing challenges at Humboldt Bay Fire? How many positions are currently vacant?

Robertson: We have an acute staffing crisis; we’re essentially down by seven people right now. We have 48 firefighters designated in our staffing model but we’re currently at 45 because we have three permanent position vacancies. We also have four temporary vacancies that are either from a military leave deployment, illness or injury, and those have [extended] from one to 12 months. 

We have a policy that says if we have this many long-term vacancies – a month or more – we have to shift to a four-station deployment model. There are many reasons for that policy, but the primary motivation is to protect our firefighters from getting burned out because that happens from mandatory overtime. It is also more fiscally responsible because our overtime budget has, historically, been significant as we often have a staffing shortage. 

We can usually backfill people leaving the department via recruitment but we’re not seeing qualified candidates. We’ve been recruiting firefighters since January and received about 30 applications. From our first round of interviews, 11 people qualified and five came to our invited interviews but we still didn’t get any good candidates out of that process. We’re going to try again but if we’re unable to fill those positions we’re likely going to be in this staffing model for the rest of the year because it takes several months to get people through our background and physical process to get hired, and then it takes another two months to get them through all the training they need. 

We’ve lost 17 people in the last two years to higher-paying agencies. Almost half of those people went to the Arcata Fire District because they passed a special district tax – Measure F – that enabled the district to offer significantly higher wages and a great benefits package. They took seven of our people, almost all of [whom] had 10 or more years of experience and were in the upper ranks. That had a huge effect on us. That started two years ago, and since then the rest of the people we lost have gone to other agencies across the state. 

The fact is, we’re one of the lowest-paid municipal fire departments in the state and there are a lot of jobs out there. If you go to Arcata Fire, you can make $30,000 more a year as a captain. And if you go to the Bay Area you can make double what you would make here. We can’t compete with the Bay Area, but we’re trying to be more competitive locally. 

Our primary concern, again, is the acuteness of this crisis. We can implement short-term solutions but it’s going to compound eventually. And in the next five years, a lot of our staff is going to be approaching retirement age and they’re gonna leave. We’re going to lose a huge amount of knowledge and experience, and we’re trying to figure out how to solve that problem. We expect that we will have to keep one station closed through the end of the month, but we’re hoping to staff all five stations in July because some of those people on leave are going to come back. 

Harlander: I just want to add that the citizens have been very supportive of us with the passing of Measure H [the 1.25 cent sales tax] on the city side and the benefit assessment on the fire district side, which won’t take place till 2025. We just want the citizens to know how much we appreciate them and ask that they be patient with us.

We’re unique compared to law enforcement because they can stack calls and save some of them for later. We can’t do that. We have to go now, whether it’s a call about someone’s house flooding, their water heater catching on fire, the classic cat stuck in a tree, and everything in between. And when we’re not on an emergency, we’re training for an emergency. 

LoCO: How has this staffing shortage impacted the department’s response time?

Robertson: Yes. We’re seeing a one- to three-minute increase in our response times. In the last two months, we’ve had nearly 10 significant incidents in Station 4’s jurisdiction, including a few structure fires and a gunshot situation. That delay in responding to those significant issues can have a consequence, but our firefighters have continued to demonstrate exceptional skills through this challenging period. We’re very fortunate to have the people that we have. Again, it just reinforces the need to have and keep those experienced firefighters. 

Our call volumes are always fluctuating but with this spike in significant incidents, we have much more overtime that needs to be filled. The regular rest cycle we have programmed into our schedule is not occurring, and that fatigue builds up over time. It’s not just physical, it’s emotional and mental because they’re not getting the rest they need at home and their families are affected. That’s why we’ve gone back to rotating between stations rather than keeping Station 4 closed.

Harlander: Being down to four stations becomes a safety issue for both the firefighters and the citizens, and it becomes a less safe community for everybody. We understand our job is inherently dangerous, but when we lose that extra personnel that we would normally have at the scene of a fire or vehicle extrication that can affect the patient or victim involved.

LoCO: What do you attribute the staffing crisis to? I know fire departments are navigating similar issues across the country, but is there anything impacting Humboldt Bay Fire specifically?

Robertson: There are several variables. Post-COVID, we’re seeing a totally different labor pool out there, and I think that’s really impacting every industry. But for [fire departments] specifically, we’re all competing for a limited number of personnel and employees, and everybody else is able to pay their employees way more than we are.

As for local barriers, there is no way to get your Fire Fighter 1 Certification here locally. You have to go to a certified testing center to get that certification, and the nearest ones are in Santa Rosa and Shasta. We try to hire local people as much as possible, but that’s become an issue. 

Since COVID, I would say 90 percent of the people who have applied have no experience. They worked in a simple retail job or at a warehouse before the fire academy, they got their EMT and Fire Fighter 1 certifications, and now they’re looking for a job. In these last four years, we’ve had problems dealing with basic social skills and basic task functions. Like, we have to teach someone how to use a screwdriver. We have to teach them how to talk to people and interact.

Harlander: These are real conversations that we’ve had.

Robertson: And I don’t think this is something that’s just specific to the fire service. The police department has had a huge staffing shortage as well, but they’re much more competitive locally than we are. And on top of that, we’re competing against every other service industry where there are safer and easier jobs that people can do. That said, we think it’s the best job in the world. And there aren’t a lot of jobs where you can go through six months to a year of training and start out – even with our bad pay here – at $52,000 a year. That’s still pretty significant.

LoCO: I know you, Chief Robertson, have brought this issue to the Eureka City Council at least twice in the last year. How has the council responded to the ongoing staffing crisis? Has Humboldt Bay Fire asked for additional funding from the city?

Robertson: The City of Eureka and the Humboldt No. 1 Fire Protection District are our parent agencies, and they provide funding for our JPA (Joint Powers Authority), which we formed eight years ago. I have constantly asked the JPA Board of Directors to help support our firefighters to avoid having to lose so many people. Of course, it’s very complicated as labor contracts often are, especially with a JPA that has two parent agencies. There’s definitely support from the JPA, but the city and the district need to support their firefighters more, and I think they’re well aware of that. The challenge is how to do that and be fiscally sustainable. 

When Measure H passed in 2020, the city had more revenue coming in but the district’s revenue was still relatively flat because of COVID’s effect on sales tax. We were able to absorb it and maintain what we had because of our reserves. And then we came out of it with this acute staffing crisis because of staff joining Arcata Fire. 

In the fall of 2022, I asked if we could provide an essential worker stipend to our firefighters like the city had given to the workers earlier that year, but because we don’t qualify for ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funding, we couldn’t pass anything onto our firefighters. We have to rely on the county or cities to give us ARPA money. The city was able to provide an essential worker stipend to our firefighters. We were also able to advance the last year of the COLA (cost-of-living adjustment) by six months. So, that was a way to at least take care of the people that are still here, right? But it was too little too late for a lot of other folks.

We’ve been trying to negotiate a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the JPA [and the Humboldt Bay Firefighters Local 652] – which we passed at [Wednesday] night’s meeting – but it’s only for 18 months. The MOU asks the JPA board to help our firefighters more to prevent us from losing more people.

LoCO: You mentioned earlier that Arcata voters passed a special district tax to help fund operations at the Arcata Fire Protection District. Could the JPA do something similar?

Robertson: Unfortunately, we don’t have that ability. We’ve certainly discussed forming a special district, which is what Arcata Fire has done, but that is another process. 

We don’t really have the ability to go get our own funding. We’ve looked at several alternative revenue sources, including community paramedicine with St. Joe’s Hospital, an alternative interfacility transfer agreement with the hospital, or something similar to what the CSET (Community Safety Engagement Team) is doing. You know, assisting a nurse or a mental health clinician in taking care of people on the streets to prevent them from going to the hospital. However, there’s a lot of legislature [sic] that prevents us from doing that. We’ve looked at almost every opportunity we can to obtain more independent funding but it’s very complicated.

LoCO: I was anticipating that this conversation was going to be more focused on the need to get the city council or voters on board for a sales tax measure to give firefighters a wage hike, or something to that effect, but this is, as you said, very complicated. 

Robertson: It is, it’s complicated! That’s a big part of this issue. And I would say the police union, or other city departments, are probably dealing with something similar. The City of Eureka, for example, is having a hard time hiring an assistant city attorney because it’s competing with other cities and the county. The county seems like they’re doing fine with recruitment, but look at their budget right now. What’s going to happen next year? They’re probably going to have to lay off a bunch of people.

And looking at the Arcata Fire District, they offered this amazing contract and an incredible benefits package to their employees but now they’re not offering those same benefits because they’ve gone through all of the revenue they got from the special tax. My perspective is a bit biased because of the loss of our people, but I started in Arcata 28 years ago, so I have a deep affiliation with them. So, is their funding actually sustainable? When the tax sunsets in 2030, will it be renewed? Have they been good stewards of their money? I’m a taxpayer in Arcata and I’m going to be thinking about things like that. The pressure is on us all the time, especially the fire chief.

It wasn’t an easy decision when we reduced service to four stations but it wasn’t sustainable. It was crushing us. It’s important to emphasize that this isn’t easy for anyone. It’s not that the city council sucks and they don’t support us, it’s not that the administrators suck, the unions suck, etc. They want to support us and we’re all trying to work on the same thing. But the reality is, we’re having a huge crisis.

Harlander: We are a young department and our labor group is working on building those relationships with JPA members and the city council to educate them on what we do. There are some misconceptions about what we do and don’t do but we’re working on building a positive relationship and moving forward because we haven’t really had a relationship in the past. It’s been an us versus them dynamic and we’re trying to get rid of that that mindset. It’s been an uphill battle.

LoCO: That reminds me, I came across a statistic somewhere – possibly from Humboldt Bay Fire – that said something like 90 percent of the calls fire departments respond to are non-fire calls. Is that true?

Robertson: That is true. Only four percent of our calls are for fires. We go to a lot of other calls that you could say are fire-related, like smoke checks. But our call breakdown, which is coded into our system in a particular way, says four percent of our calls are for actual fires. Around 60 percent of our calls are medical. The rest are false alarms or what we call “good intent” calls where people just call us for whatever their problem is like their water heater is leaking or there’s a bear in a tree. 

LoCO: I mean, I do get it. Lighting a water heater can be scary!

Harlander: We’re more than happy to do it. That’s our job.

Robertson: Another thing that comes up frequently is people asking why we send our giant ladder trucks to a medical aid call or a tree down on the roadway. We have to be ready for anything after that. We had a call where the crew went to medical aid at the Rescue Mission and then they got a call right after for extrication on the highway. 

If we didn’t have the truck, we wouldn’t have all the tools we may need on hand or there would have been a delay if we had to go back and get the truck. People don’t realize that, but that’s why we have these ginormous trucks.

LoCO: What are the next steps for the Humboldt Bay Fire? And, Chief Robertson, can you talk about your career trajectory and how you will continue to support the department from afar?

Robertson: As I said, we’ve implemented this MOU with the JPA, and we’re hoping that that prevents anybody else from leaving. But the next step is preparing for the next year when we need to negotiate again and analyzing what our needs will look like. 

The Fire Fighter 1 Academy development at College of the Redwoods is my trajectory. I had planned to retire or step down as chief after five years when I initially took this job because I think that’s an effective period of time for a fire chief. This opportunity to be a full-time faculty at CR only came up two months ago when they created the position. The goal is to create an accredited fire academy. I think that is going to be a key part of recruitment and retention for Humboldt Bay Fire and other local fire agencies. I’ll start there in August, and our fall class is already full with 35 people. I’ll still be with the fire department to offer any advice through December, but a good chief steps out of their role to let the new chief do their job.

LoCO: Is there anyone in line to take over the position?

Robertson: The board made a selection last night and the candidates will be notified today. Once that’s all concluded, we’ll write up a press release.

LoCO: And what’s next for you, Captain Harlander?

Harlander: I’m going to continue to build this place and make it great. This is an awesome organization and I wish more people would come to work here. We’re a really, really family-oriented, tight-knit group of people. A lot of us hang out on our days off. And I’ll just say, I’m not going to be chief any time soon! I just want to keep building this place up.

LoCO: Is there anything else either of you would like to share with our community?

Robertson: We appreciate the community’s support and we encourage them to be more engaged with their fire department by learning more about what we do through our various social media accounts and engaging with the city council and the JPA board. We are committed to our mission statement, which is a “commitment to community service through leadership, vision, and integrity.” We have the obligation to respond when called and that’s what we do. We just need some understanding of our current position and its effect on the community with the station closure. 

Harlander: I would also like to encourage people to attend city council and JPA meetings. Also, come by the station for a visit! We love having visitors and we will always do a station tour and talk about our job because we love to do it. And if they’re interested in a career, you can always come on a ride along for a couple of hours or 24 hours to see what we do.

State Sen. Scott Wiener has introduced 52 bills this session, but he’s annoyed that he had to author one in particular.

“I’m gonna be honest that it’s frustrating that I had to bring this bill,” he told the Assembly Public Health Committee this week. “I should not have had to bring it.”

The legislation that irks the San Francisco Democrat is his Senate Bill 957, which would force California’s health officials to do what Wiener says they should have been doing anyway: provide a place on health care forms for people who identify as LGBTQ to voluntarily note their gender identity and sexual orientation.

For years, other Californians have been asked to voluntarily declare their race, age and whether they’re a man or a woman on various health care forms, providing researchers with important demographic data that helps inform treatments and responses to public health crises, Wiener said.

“If we’ll recall back to the beginning of the pandemic, when we realized that older people were much more likely to die from COVID and when we realized that there were much higher rates of infection and death in Black and brown communities, the only reason we knew that was because we had demographic data,” Wiener told the health committee. “Because when people would go seek health services, they were asked demographic questions.”

But Wiener, who is gay, said there’s not much data available for researchers when it comes to folks like him or lesbian, bisexual, trans and queer Californians. A big reason: state law, he said, gives health officials the option to place LGBTQ demographic questions on state and local health forms.

Wiener’s bill would require it.

He said it would close a loophole that he describes as “a massive blind spot in the system” – and one cited in a state auditor’s report last year. The report found that almost all of the dozens of state and local health care forms auditors examined were missing LGBTQ demographic questions. The audit noted that the California Department of Public Health has a new disease surveillance and reporting system scheduled to go live next year that would improve reporting.

Local health officials, however, told auditors they needed state guidance about what data to collect, something Wiener’s bill seeks to address by requiring them to collect sexual orientation, gender identity and intersexuality data “on any forms or electronic data systems, unless prohibited by federal or state law,” according to the bill’s analysis. State health officials would also have to provide a public report to the Legislature detailing their progress.

The bill’s sponsors include Equality California, California LGBTQ Health & Human Services Network, and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. Members of the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus are co-sponsors.

So far, only Republicans have voted against Wiener’s bill, which passed the Assembly health committee this week after advancing through the Senate this spring.

But Assemblymember Marie Waldron, a Republican from San Diego, wasn’t one of them. The former Assembly Republican leader told her colleagues on the health committee that the data collected could save lives.

“The more data available to health providers, I feel, the better,” she said. “We’re always talking about data-driven care and personalized medicine, and we can’t do it without the data.”

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