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PREVIOUSLY:

• Mystery Item on Tonight’s Eureka City School Agenda Suggests Imminent Action on Jacobs Campus, but the School District Won’t Share Details
• Eureka City Schools Board of Trustees Unanimously Votes for So-Called ‘Land Exchange’ With Mystery Developer
• The Eureka City Schools Board Voted on a Resolution Last Week That Was Not Published Before the Meeting. Is That Legal?

DOCUMENT:

• “Eureka City Schools — Board of Trustees: Deal or No Deal”

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Press release from the Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury:

The Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury has released the fourth report of their 2023-2024 term, entitled Eureka City Schools – Board of Trustees: Deal or No Deal.

On December 14, 2023, the five-member Eureka City Schools Board of Trustees approved a real- estate transaction exchanging property at the site of the former George C. Jacobs Junior High School for a small residential property plus a multi-million-dollar financial consideration. This report does not address whether the transaction is a good or bad idea for the district. It is about the Eureka City Schools Trustees decision-making process in this matter.

After months of protracted negotiations, a deal between Eureka City Schools and the California Department of General Services, on behalf of the California Highway Patrol, seemed likely to conclude at a purchase price of $4 million.

On December 14, 2023, the Eureka City Schools Trustees were suddenly presented with a proposed Resolution and Agreement for a unique real-estate deal – exchanging the Jacobs property for a small residential property at 3553 I Street in Eureka plus a multi-million-dollar financial consideration – with an entity named AMG Communities-Jacobs, LLC. The proposed property exchange would bypass California Education Code requirements for the sale of exempt surplus property.

Within the span of three hours the Trustees met in closed session to discuss the real estate deal, reportedly for the first time, and then voted in open session to approve that deal. The public only had access to the details for about an hour and a half before the vote.

The Brown Act was enacted in 1953 to provide for public participation in governmental decision- making. It applies to all legislative bodies, standing committees of local government agencies, and governing bodies of non-profit corporations formed by a public agency. In essence, with few exceptions, all governmental decisions must occur in open meetings that allow meaningful public participation in the decision-making process. California residents have a right to both observe and participate in official decisions before those decisions are made.

A secretive, last-minute, quick-judgment, behind closed doors decision, in an intentionally compressed time-period, and without public knowledge, is exactly the kind of decision-making the Brown Act intended to avoid. In selling the Jacobs property, there was no effective opportunity for the public to know about, consider, and participate in an important decision regarding selling a valuable public asset, even if the result of the decision is perceived to be in the near-term best interests of students.

The Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury concludes that the Eureka City Schools Trustees acted hastily and without sufficient due diligence. While apparently literally complying with the technical requirements of the California Government Code (Brown Act) with respect to a real-estate transaction, the Trustees violated the law’s general intent for public participation and transparency in decision-making.

If you want to serve your community in a unique way that could improve local government this is your opportunity. Applications to serve on the Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury can be found at https://humboldtgov.org/510/Civil-Grand-Jury. Additional information provided by the Civil Grand Jurors Association of California can be found at https://cgja.org/.

Junie Speier passed away peacefully in her sleep on June 9, 2024. She was 100 years old. She was born June Ann Balsiger in Los Angeles, California on Feb. 8, 1924. She graduated from Los Angeles High School in 1942 and attended Santa Monica Jr. College, majoring in Art & Physical Education.

Junie met the love of her life, Ted Speier, in 1943 in front of the Brown Derby in Los Angeles, while he was on leave in the Army. They were married in 1944 & it lasted almost 75 years. They had three children & raised them in Eureka, California. Junie enjoyed fishing and waterskiing at Big Lagoon in her earlier years and later enjoyed swimming, gardening, and hunting for agates and driftwood, plus spending time with her children at their Big Lagoon cabin. She was very artistic and made a lot of driftwood people and painted rocks to give as gifts.

Junie was an American Red Cross lifeguard and swimming instructor in Los Angeles and then, after moving to Eureka, she taught all the fourth through sixth graders how to swim. She also taught social dancing and etiquette to fifth through seventh graders when she started the Frolic Club in Eureka. Junie will be remembered for her outgoing personality, infectious smile and wonderful sense of humor. She was an inspiration to us all.

From 1950-1981, she taught exercise & swimming for the Eureka Adult Education classes. She was an American Red Cross volunteer for sixty two years & received their Lifetime Achievement Award in June 2004 at the age of eighty.

Junie was preceded in death by her husband Ted, her parents, Henry and Anna Balsiger and her brother, Hank Balsiger. She is survived by her children, Teddie Bell and husband Ken from Spokane, Washington, Spencer Speier from Midway, Utah and Shannon Speier from Hawi, Hawaii: her grandchildren Makani Speier-Brito, Brisa Speier-Brito and numerous nieces and nephews.

Because she had over ninety people who attended her 100th birthday party in February, we ask you to remember her the way you last saw her, since we won’t be having a memorial service. We will have a private gathering in December with the family members, sharing their fondest memories of Junie. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in honor of Junie Speier to: Hospice of Humboldt, 3327 Timber Fall Court, Eureka, CA, 95503 or American Red Cross (Humboldt County Gift Processing), 1565 Exposition Blvd., Suite 100, Sacramento, California, 95815.

Please send cards to the Speier family, 2560 D Street, Eureka, CA, 95501.

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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Junie Speier’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here.

Gordon Jerry Nitsch, a longtime resident of Coalinga, died at his home on Wednesday, April 17, 2024. He was 89 years old.

Gordon was born in Boelus, Nebraska to Rudolph and Eunice Young Nitsch. In 1937, the family moved to California and settled in Cutten. From the age of four he told everyone he wanted to be a truck driver.

He attended the local grade and high school where he was active in the band program playing a trombone. It was at Eureka High School where he met the love of his life, Janet Still. Gordon and Janet sat next to each other in band. When there was a test involved, Gordon would play her part. They both held up their trombones at the same time, Gordon would play, and Janet would just pretend to play. He graduated from high school in 1952 and in 1954 Janet and he were married. They moved into a small house in Cutten that Gordon and his father had built.

His first job was for Precision Lumber Company as a truck driver, but in 1958, he was drafted and entered the US Army. After basic training, he was sent by ship to serve in Germany. Speaking of ships, he disliked the voyage so much that he very rarely ever set foot on a small boat, let alone a large ship , for the rest of his life. Janet followed him soon after to Germany. He spent his entire enlistment in Germany, and he and Janet traveled the continent when Gordon could take time off from his duties.

After they return from Germany and his release from the Army , he began working for Precision Lumber Company in Eureka again. Soon after the birth of their first son in 1960, (Gerald ) Jerry, he was given the opportunity to move to Coalinga, California to oversee the companies trucking interest of hauling asbestos ore from the local mines to the mills in the nearby mountains. Their second son (Ronald ), Ron was born in 1964 in Coalinga.

After the mining closed in the early 1980s, and after 33 years with Precision Lumber Company, he went to work for a local oil contractor, Bud’s Equipment as a truck driver.

In 1989 he lost Janet to cancer.

He worked at Bud’s until his retirement.

In retirement, he enjoyed working in his yard, visiting with close neighbors, and spending time with his family. He was always willing to listen to any person‘s problems and give them some advice if he thought it would help. Gordon was a fun person to be around, and he had a loud, wonderful laugh. When he told stories of the past, there was always a grin on his face and a twinkle in his eyes .

He will be missed.

Gordon survived by his brother Doug and sister-in-law, Doris, and sons Jerry and Ron; daughter -in-law Andrea, and grandchildren, Lauren, and Andrew . He is also survived by nieces, Barbara Valdriz and Sue Bradbury.

Graveside services will be held in Eureka at Ocean View Cemetery on June 11, 2024 at 1:30 p.m.

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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Gordon Nitsch’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here.

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Press release from the Eureka Police Department:

On Saturday, June 8, 2024, Eureka Police Dept. Patrol Officers conducted a traffic enforcement stop on the 4000 block of Broadway.

As a result of the stop, 36-year-old Edward Brinson was placed under arrest for a felony warrant and a search warrant was authored for his vehicle. The search resulted in locating nine firearms and various stolen property including vintage US Currency Notes and Coins. The property is valued at approximately $5,000.

Brinson was booked for his felony warrant, a felon being in possession of a firearm(s), and for possessing stolen property.

If anyone has information regarding missing firearms or vintage currency please contact Eureka Police Department Criminal Investigation Unit at (707) 441-4300.

On Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco heard oral arguments in the case of Kyle Zoellner v. City of Arcata, in which Kyle Zoellner’s attorney alleged that Arcata Police Department detective Eric Losey fabricated evidence that led to her client’s arrest as the primary suspect in the stabbing death of David Josiah Lawson in 2017.

The appeals case was filed after a U.S. District Court overturned the decision of a federal jury that sided with Zoellner against Losey and the City of Arcata, both of which happened in October 2022. If the jury’s verdict had stood, the City and Losey would have been ordered to award Zoellner more than $750,000 for “malicious prosecution.”

Whether or not the District Court’s decision to overturn was made in error is the question now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Arguments made on both sides in Monday’s hearing centered around questions of “qualified immunity” – which protects government officials in cases of lawsuit if the official acted “in a reasonable but mistaken way” – and probable cause.

“A reasonable officer with Mr. Losey’s knowledge would believe there was a fair probability that Mr. Zoellner stabbed Mr. Lawson,” U.S. District Court Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley wrote in the October 2022 ruling that overturned the jury’s verdict.

Judge Scott Corley’s identification of probable cause became a point of note as the appellate judges – Jacqueline Nguyen, Ryan D. Nelson and Daniel Bress – assessed exactly what the case required of them.

“We’re being asked here whether the district court erred in making a probable cause finding as to Losey, correct?” Judge Nelson asked from the bench. “We cannot just decide and say, ‘Hey, there’s qualified immunity for those counts?’ We actually have to reach the probable cause determination?”

Nelson answered his own question shortly thereafter, noting that the court’s finding of either probable cause or qualified immunity would “get you to the same place” (that place being: support for the District Court decision to overturn Zoellner’s victory).

Opening the appeal, Zoellner’s attorney, Elizabeth Zareh, argued that because “no additional facts” had been presented since the jury’s initial decision siding with Mr. Zoellner, probable cause “should not be relitigated.”

“If it is being relitigated, there should be a strong presumption that there is no probable cause and the burden [of proof] should shift on the other side to show whether there was sufficient evidence,” she said, referring to the Judge Dale Reinholtsen’s decision to release Zoellner in 2017 and the 2019 Humboldt County Grand Jury decision which declined to indict Zoellner, or any other person, in the stabbing death of Lawson.

Zareh also argued that qualified immunity “would not come into play when there is a fabrication of evidence by the police officers,” reiterating claims that Losey fabricated evidence against Zoellner in a police report detailing the eyewitness testimony of Jason Martinez, which was subsequently repeated in the charging summary submitted to the Humboldt County District Attorney’s office by Arcata Police detective Todd Dokweiler in April 2017.

In the report, Losey wrote that Martinez had identified Zoellner as the person who stabbed Lawson.

“He [Martinez] made a statement to Detective Losey that he was at the party, and he was walking from a distance, and he saw someone stop Mr. Lawson,” Zareh said, adding that Martinez neither named nor “described the physical appearance” of the person he saw with Lawson.

Losey alerted the DA’s office to the erroneous claim in the report – which Lori Sebransky, the attorney representing Losey and the City of Arcata, referred to in Monday’s hearing as a “mistake” – before the May 1, 2017 preliminary hearing in the murder case brought by the District Attorney.

The hearing was followed by a Humboldt County Superior Court decision that the DA did not have sufficient evidence to hold Zoellner to answer for the crime, which was followed by his release and subsequent suit against the City of Arcata and select Arcata Police Department personnel for malicious prosecution, unlawful arrest, defamation and other violations of rights. Losey was the only individual defendant named in the 2022 trial after a U.S. District Court judge threw out part of Zoellner’s case earlier that year.

Despite Zareh’s initial stand against relitigating probable cause, the longest statements in the hearing from either side recounted the scene officers arrived to on April 15, 2017, the date of the stabbing, with Sebransky arguing that probable cause was reached and Zareh highlighting what she said were “significant issues” with the evidence.

Zareh went first, arguing that no witness had reported seeing Zoellner with a knife and that the knife found at the scene lacked DNA or forensic evidence tying it to Zoellner. She also focused on what she said were discrepancies between eyewitness accounts of the fight between Lawson and Zoellner and the blood patterns found on the scene and on Zoellner’s clothes – saying that his shoes and hands were clean, and the blood on his clothing was never forensically linked to Lawson.

“There’s testimony that Mr. Zoellner suffers from severe blood issues relating to his nose, bleeding from his nose,” she said, adding that Zoellner’s father had previously testified that even as a child, “every time there was any kind of minor impact, he was bleeding very heavily.”

Sebransky, on the other hand, called the evidence for probable cause “quite strong” and pointed out that it was “undisputed” by the plaintiff in trial before beginning her review of the evidence.

She began by saying that witnesses pointed the first officer on the scene to Zoellner, and that he found Zoellner “covered in blood” before learning that Zoellner and Lawson had fought because “he [Zoellner] was questioning whether somebody stole the girlfriend’s phone.”

She described the testimony of an eyewitness, Paris Wright, who had seen Lawson after the fight. “He is not stabbed,” Sebransky said. “Everything is fine.”

“A few minutes later, Paris Wright hears a scream, looks up the hill, sees Mr. Zoellner in a [second] fight with Mr. Lawson,” she continued. “When Mr. Wright pulls them apart, he sees that now Mr. Lawson is stabbed.”

Sebransky also argued that the discovery of a kitchen knife at the scene, which she called “unusual” in a stabbing “outside of a kitchen,” and the fact that Zoellner was a chef and kept knives in a bag in his car contributed to probable cause.

“No one else that night had been in a fight with Mr. Lawson,” she concluded, “And no one else that the officers could discover had any kind of a motive to kill him.”

A judge then questioned Sebransky about Zareh’s argument that the blood pattern officers encountered at the scene was in a different area than eyewitnesses reported to be the site of the second fight between Zoellner and Lawson, to which she responded that Wright said that he had seen Lawson crawl after being stabbed.

The judges’ final question for Sebransky centered on the plaintiff’s claim of fabricated evidence, and she reiterated that while Losey’s report was made in error, there was “no fabrication.”

“If the only thing we had was a fabricated statement, this guy did it, and that turned out to be false, then no qualified immunity,” Sebransky continued on to say, “But whereas here we have all of this other evidence supporting qualified immunity, then qualified immunity would still apply if the court chose to go down that road instead of just making a decision on the constitutionality of the arrest based on the probable cause itself.”

The hearing concluded with a brief rebuttal from Zareh, which clarified the plaintiff’s claims of fabricated evidence and was cut short for time, before the Court called recess for the day without making clear when its decision on the appeal can be expected.

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CORRECTION: This post initially misspelled the name of Lori Sebransky. The Outpost regrets the error.

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Ed note: Gillen Tener Martin is working for the Outpost this summer. She’s on an internship from her journalism program at Paris’ prestigious Sciences Po. Disclosure: she previously worked for the City of Arcata, beginning in 2019. She was uninvolved in the case this article covers.

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PREVIOUS LoCO COVERAGE OF THE LAWSON CASE:

• Jail Records Reveal Name of Suspect in Fatal Arcata Stabbing
• Arcata Police Receive Anonymous Email Detailing Specifics of Arcata Homicide, Beg Author to Come Forward; Suspect Officially Named
• ‘He Was the One’: Josiah Lawson, Humboldt State Student and President of Brothers United, Remembered at Campus Prayer Service
• Zoellner Pleads Not Guilty to Arcata Stabbing Murder; Bail Set at $1 Million
• United by Tragedy, HSU Community Celebrates the Life and Mourns the Death of David Josiah Lawson
• ‘It Should Not Have Happened’: Friend of Arcata Murder Victim Believes Racism Delayed the Emergency Medical Response That Could Have Saved His Life
• ARCATA MURDER HEARING: First Witnesses Cast Doubt on Whether the Police Department’s Suspect Could Have Stabbed Victim; More Testimony Coming Tomorrow
• ARCATA MURDER HEARING: Witness Testifies That Lawson and Zoellner Were Grappling as the Victim Bled; Police Officer Describes Chaotic Crime Scene
• ARCATA MURDER HEARING: Friends Testify on ‘Girl Fight’ Between Lawson and Zoellner’s Girlfriends Prior to Fatal Stabbing
• ARCATA MURDER HEARING: More Testimony on the Knife Found at the Scene; Lawson’s Friend Testifies He Saw Zoellner Drop Something Shiny
• Judge Dismisses Case Against Kyle Zoellner, McKinleyville Man Arrested in Stabbing Death of HSU Student David Josiah Lawson
• Arcata’s Police Chief, Vice Mayor React to Zoellner Hearing Ruling
• ARCATA MURDER HEARING: Kyle Zoellner to Be Released After Judge Reinholtsen Rules Not Enough Evidence to Hold Him For Stabbing Death of Josiah Lawson
• (PHOTOS) Protesters March Through Arcata Demanding ‘Justice for Josiah’
• HSU Faculty, UPD, Brothers United Participate in Radio Town Hall on Lawson Case Tonight; Arcata Mayor Releases Statement; HSU Walk Out Planned Tuesday
• (PHOTOS/VIDEO) After Busy Week, Family and Friends of Josiah Lawson Still Seeking Justice
• Josiah Lawson’s Mother Offers $10k Reward for Information Leading to the Conviction of Son’s Killer
• Arcata Calls in Outside Investigators, Approves $21K Reward for Info Leading to Conviction of Lawson Killer
• Kyle Zoellner Appears in Court to Request Law Enforcement Return His Cell Phone, Laptops; Judge Says No
• (VIDEO) This Morning’s Lawson Murder Press Conference Offers Few Updates
• Public Investigator Working With APD in Josiah Lawson Case
• Kyle Zoellner, Once Suspected of Homicide in David Josiah Lawson Slaying, Files Claim Against City of Arcata For Defamation, Pain and Suffering, Emotional Distress
• (PHOTOS) Hundreds Turn Out for Eureka MLK Day People’s Rally and March for Justice
• DA: Grand Jury Declines to Indict Anyone in David Josiah Lawson Case
• (VIDEO) Justice for Josiah Activists Hold First Monthly Vigil Since Grand Jury Decision; Charmaine Lawson Vows to Keep Fighting
• ‘Justice For Josiah’ Advocates Demand Arcata City Council Turn Lawson Case Over to the State
• Arcata Police Release Images of Potential Josiah Lawson Stabbing Witnesses, Ask Public’s Help
• TWO YEARS
• (WATCH) ‘Who Killed Josiah?’: Documentary Takes a Look at the Lawson Case
• California Attorney General’s Office Says it Will Not Take On Josiah Lawson Case
• ‘Racism Kills!’ Supervisor Bohn Adjourns Meeting and Leaves Chambers Amid Outcry Over Derogatory Joke
• Humboldt High Schoolers Announced as First David Josiah Lawson Scholarship Recipients
• Josiah Lawson Documentary Set to Air on Los Angeles Television Later This Month
• (AUDIO) Charmaine Lawson, Arcata Police Chief Ask Witnesses to Josiah Lawson Slaying to Come Forward in Public Service Announcement.
• (VIDEO) ‘Justice for Josiah’ Activists Shut Down Arcata City Council Meeting
• Outside Review of Lawson Case Complete; Emergency Response Deemed Appropriate But More Training Recommended
• On the Third Anniversay of Josiah Lawson’s Death, Arcata Police Once Again Ask for Witnesses to Come Forward
• (VIDEO) Charmaine Lawson Interviewed for TV Documentary Series ‘Still a Mystery’; Episode on the Murder of HSU Student Josiah Lawson to Air Tonight
• Civil Grand Jury Finds ‘Failures’ and ‘Ineptitudes’ But No Direct Evidence of Racial Bias in Review of Josiah Lawson Homicide Investigation
• Submissions Sought for David Josiah Lawson Oration Festival
• Charmaine Lawson Settles Lawsuit Against City of Arcata; Terms Include $25,000 Contribution to Scholarship Fund, New City Mural and Additional, Undisclosed Terms
• Eureka City Schools Board Overturns Mural Ban, Making Way for BIPOC Student Art
• Five Years
• Charmaine Lawson Continues to Seek ‘Justice for Josiah’ Five Years After Her Son’s Death

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Despite ongoing staffing constraints, Humboldt County’s Code Enforcement Unit (CEU) has made significant progress in recent years resolving longstanding issues on nuisance properties across the county. 

At today’s Humboldt County Board of Supervisors meeting, Code Enforcement Manager Dean Beck presented the CEU’s annual report for 2023. Beck pointed out a “steady decline” in unassigned code enforcement cases, which have decreased from 450 in 2020 to just 88 this year, thanks to “improved processes and procedures” within the unit. All told, the CEU closed 176 percent more cases in 2023 than were opened, he said.

“One of the things that we looked at was [how] cases were being assigned,” Beck explained. “Late in 2023, [we] did an assessment of open [code enforcement] cases by APN [assessor parcel number] to identify how many open cases there were, to whom they were assigned, and to provide a method of assigning new cases. This is a similar method to how building inspections are assigned to inspectors. …  Using the new process, the CEU should be more efficient when doing inspections and can visit several properties in a certain area in one outing. This will save both time and fuel.”

However, staffing has proven to be challenging, Beck said. The CEU lost nearly 40 percent its staff in 2023. “All of these contributed to an increased workload by the remaining team members,” he said. “The number of staff has been reduced from 13 to 8. With this reduction in staff, work must be prioritized and the volume of cases that can be addressed simultaneously has been reduced.”

In 2023, the CEU set up a multi-agency task with the Sheriff’s Office, the Environmental Services Division of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), the Planning and Building Department, Public Works and County Counsel to address some of the county’s most “difficult” properties.

Seven properties required county abatement in 2023, including the Green Valley Motel and nearby gas station along Highway 101 in Orick. In 2021, the county deemed the motel uninhabitable due to extremely poor living conditions. The deteriorating condition of the motel made it a candidate for abatement, Beck said, but a pending real estate transaction postponed the process. In January 2022, a fire erupted at the adjacent gas station, destroying both buildings. The abatement process, completed in May 2023, cost the county $475,052.

The CEU abated five other nuisance properties, including the old Judy’s Market on Highway 36 in Carlotta, a property on Lupin Road in Arcata, an uninhabitable mobile home on Weiler Road in Eureka, two garbage-strewn properties in Fields Landing, and a property with numerous abandoned vehicles and solid waste issues on Salmon Creek Road in Miranda, as seen in the breakdown below.

The county has at least two multi-agency cases coming up, Beck said, including one in Stafford and another at Yee Haw, a longstanding communal living property on Quarry Road near Trinidad. “Both of these cases are from 2012,” he continued. “It should be noted that a proposed amendment to the [tiny home] ordinance that would benefit the owners of the Quarry Road [property] has been in the works.”

Switching focus to cannabis enforcement, Beck noted that illegal outdoor grow operations have become nearly non-existent due to significant advancements in aerial imagery technology. “The success of the cannabis abatement program cannot be overstated,” he said. “The volume of outdoor cannabis cases continues to decline.”

In 2023, the CEU’s cannabis team opened 41 new cases and closed 136, 121 of which were from previous years, Beck said. In conjunction with the Sheriff’s Office and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the CEU issued 29 warrants resulting in 29 new cases.

The board’s comments generally revolved around the need for more proactive enforcement of nuisance properties. First District Supervisor and Board Chair Rex Bohn urged staff to use their enforcement tools to address minor issues early on, preventing them from escalating into prolonged abatement problems.

“If they’re not going to clean it up in 12 months and they’re not going to pay any the fees in 12 months, they’ve pretty much committed to not paying for the next two years,” he said. “[Y]ou should make one trip, give then them the warning second trip, and if they’re not going to do it, then we start the [legal] process. But numerous trips of telling them to clean up, and they say they’re going to clean up but they never do.”

Similarly, Third District Supervisor Mike Wilson expressed concern for the time and money being spent on abatement and suggested property owners recoup some of the cost.

“I think that we need to figure out ways to have some of those property owners be more financially responsible for all the efforts that we’re using,” Wilson said. “We need to be equitable in the way that we provide these services across the county. … If we’re doing abatements that cost more than the property’s worth, we were never going to recoup that money and [it’s] just footed by the public.”

Planning and Building Director John Ford said the CEU is working to change its overall approach in dealing with enforcement. “To be blunt, we’re finding that constant pressure on property owners is the way that things get done,” he said. “You can’t just send them a letter and hope that they’re going to deal with it if you’re not talking to them almost every day, in their face. It sounds kind of blunt, but that’s where the change gets made.”

Bohn asked if the enforcement process was entirely complaint-driven or if CEU staff have the authority to open a case on a property. “Are you able to drive by a house and go, ‘Oh my god, I’m glad that’s not my neighborhood!’ and put it on the books or open the case?” he asked. “Or do you have to get a call from a neighbor?”

Ford said he could look into it, but emphasized that “there is a fine line with enforcement.” If there is not a complaint on record, the county could be accused of discriminating against an individual,” he said. “It’s far easier for the county to defend a position that is complaint-based [because] it’s not something that anybody in the department or any individual had against somebody else and just decided to get revenge or something.”

Fifth District Supervisor Steve Madrone also brought up the issue of enforcement at homeless encampments and the possibility of a sanctioned encampment, noting that there has been a surge in camps around the McKinleyville area since Devil’s Playground was dispersed in 2016. 

“I know Eureka tried hard to try and figure that whole puzzle out and it was not easy,” Madrone said. “Frankly, it probably would have been better just to bring services and sanitation [on site] because what we’ve done now is dispersed [people] all over the place. Pretty much any wooded area in McKinleyville has homeless camps, and I get calls constantly from the neighbors very upset about it. [They are] very concerned for the safety of their children and the perception of danger, and in real cases, some cases real danger from folks doing drugs and other kinds of things. Not that all homeless people are because many of them are just down on their luck.”

Fourth District Supervisor Natalie Arroyo, who sat on the Eureka City Council at the time of the Palco Marsh evictions, said she didn’t “want to go too far down the rabbit hole,” but acknowledged that it was a “very difficult time for all of our communities.”

“[The eviction] was necessary to relocate people so that the Humboldt Bay Trail could be constructed there,” she said. “Not only did folks relocate elsewhere in Eureka, but they relocated to the Samoa Peninsula and a number of other places. I’ve seen the impacts of that, but I’ll just say from my perspective – because it does intersect with code enforcement and sanctioned camps – we did have … a number of sanctioned camps that were rotating between different sites … . But they were, I would say, by and large not a success.”

Arroyo said she would support “something like that in the future” if the county was able to identify a robust funding stream to support it.”

After a bit of additional discussion Second District Supervisor Michelle Bushnell made a motion to approve the report, which was seconded by Wilson. The motion was approved 5-0.

DOCUMENT: Code Enforcement Unit Annual Report: 2023

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Other notable bits from today’s meeting:

• The Planning and Building Department will be closed on Fridays for the foreseeable future. The board unanimously approved staff’s recommendation to reduce the department’s public counter hours to Monday through Thursday, from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. to give staff more time to focus on their workload. “Managing the public-facing counter and working on online projects simultaneously has proven challenging due to erratic flow of customers at the counter,” according to the staff report. “Dedicating staff time to these activities will allow staff to concentrate and reduce project turnaround time.” The item was unanimously approved along with the rest of the consent calendar.
• The board also received an annual report from the Humboldt-Del Norte Film Commission. Cassandra Hesseltine, the executive director of the commission, touted the organization’s success in bringing several big motion pictures to the region in recent years. Hesseltine said film productions have brought in $12.4 million “direct dollars” to the region since 2011. The board did not take any action on he item but agreed to accept the report.
• The board also approved staff’s request to revoke conditional use permits for two connected Redway businesses – the Country Club dispensary and Grass Roots Distribution – at 3525 Redwood Drive. “This is not controversial,” Ford told the board, noting that the permit holder hasn’t been in touch with staff since last year and is rumored to have skipped town. He recommended that the board revoke the permit to allow another applicant to take over the space. The motion was unanimously approved 5-0.

And if that’s not enough local government for ya, you’ll want to check out the Outpost’s coverage of Monday’s special budget hearing here. 

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The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors engaged in a lengthy, fraught and at times testy discussion on Monday about how best to market our region to tourists while the county government is in the midst of a budget crisis.

The specific question on the table was whether the county should stop directing hotel bed tax revenues (aka transient occupancy taxes, or TOT) to the Humboldt County Visitors Bureau (HCVB), a nonprofit that has served as the county’s designated marketing organization since its establishment in 1979.

Ultimately, the board chose to extend its contract with the bureau for just six more months, a move that renders the long-term future of the organization uncertain while disappointing its board of directors and executive director, Julie Benbow.

The board also voted to allocate nearly $200,000 in tourism and marketing funds to the county’s own Office of Economic Development, which will use that money to conduct a marketing assessment in collaboration with local cities. 

Lastly, the board allocated $10,000 to the Loleta Chamber of Commerce and $25,000 to the McKinleyville Chamber of Commerce, with those funds coming from Measure J, a two percent increase in the county’s hotel bed tax, approved by voters in 2022.

In introductory remarks to the board, Scott Adair, the county’s director of economic development, said county staff, local stakeholders and the board itself have discussed these tourism and marketing matters “ad nauseam” over the past year. Staff’s recommendation was to sever ties with the HCVB now, meaning its contract would expire with the end of the fiscal year on June 30.

In recent months, an ad hoc committee of the board, composed of Fifth District Supervisor Steve Madrone and Second District Supervisor Michelle Bushnell, has met with local chambers of commerce, the HCVB and other stakeholders, and their recommendation was to redirect funds currently being spent on travel and tourism activities toward an in-depth marketing assessment in collaboration with local cities, tourism districts and partners in the private sector.

For the upcoming 2024-25 fiscal year, $639,712 has been budgeted for tourism and marketing services. The ad hoc committee decided that this isn’t enough money to support a robust marketing campaign and recommended spending that money instead on county-wide travel and tourism efforts. 

Another reason cited for cutting ties with the HCVB was this: The bureau has failed to meet it contractual obligation to regularly submit detailed financial reports to the county – this according to Adair, Bushnell, Madrone and County Administrative Officer Elishia Hayes.

Bushnell defended the county’s pivot away from the HCVB, saying, “This in no way is a money grab … .This is really us trying to be responsible.”

Madrone said the county should improve collaboration with local municipal governments, adding that it’s “long overdue that we take a comprehensive view” of the various tourism marketing efforts in the region.

During the public comment period, a number of people spoke in defense of the HCVB, including leaders from local chambers of commerce. 

Benbow, the HCVB’s executive director, argued that her organization has met its contractual obligations, and she warned the board against cutting off its financial support. Doing so would sever important relationships that the bureau has formed with organizations across the country and destroy a reputation taken decades to build, she said.

“We believe that the county staff don’t have the professional tourism marketing expertise to effectively or efficiently replicate the many things that we currently do for Humboldt and its residents and its businesses,” Benbow said. “So we respectfully request that any decision made today, you do it knowing that it’s going to be a huge gamble.”

Ken Hamik, president of the HCVB board, also defended the organization. 

“By focusing on its mission, the bureau has been over-performing what the county has been investing … ,” he said. “We have the No. 1, by far, website in the county, the most visited by anybody, and it just cannot be recreated.”

When the matter came back to the board for discussion, First District Supervisor and board Chair Rex Bohn said he’s a big supporter of the HCVB and does not like the idea of throwing them out.

But Cody Roggatz, the county’s director of aviation, said his department has not gotten the support and partnership it needs from the HCVB. He also read from the organization’s contract with the county, saying that an obligation to hire an independent auditor to conduct an annual financial review has not been met.

Bushnell said she thinks Benbow and the HCVB have done a good job, “but frankly, there’s just not enough funding to market the county [in] the way it needs to be. … In our budget crisis that we’re having, we’re trying to look for ways to really be more efficient and to do a better job.”

Fourth District Supervisor Natalie Arroyo agreed. “There’s just not enough in this pot to be effective,” she said.

As the meeting dragged into the lunch hour, things started to get a bit heated. Third District Supervisor Mike Wilson took issue with a suggestion from Madrone to give a bit more of the limited Measure J revenues to the McKinleyville and Loleta chambers of commerce. Micromanaging such funds while the board was trying to make a much larger decision “muddies the waters,” drawing the board into a complicated rabbit hole, Wilson said.

Peeved, Madrone said he’s been advocating for McKinleyville to get a larger slice of the pie for years, and he voiced frustration with organizations acting like they’re entitled to certain pots of money.

“I just feel very strongly that Loleta and McKinleyville absolutely should be getting some share from this,” he said. “These are not entitlements. They’re going to change in six months, so get over it.”

Bushnell made a motion to extend the county’s contract with the HCVB for six months but later withdrew it in frustration when it looked like she wasn’t getting support from the rest of the board.

Ultimately, Madrone wound up making a very similar motion, proposing to extend the county’s contract with the bureau for six months with an allocation of $145,589.50 while allocating $10,000 to the Loleta Chamber of Commerce and $25,000 to the McKinleyville Chamber of Commerce through the use of Measure J. The motion also called for $195,589.50 in tourism and marketing funds to be used for the marketing assessment.

Bohn voted against the measure because it called for a termination of the county’s relationship with the HCVB six months hence. But the other four board members voted yes, so the motion carried 4-1.

Reached after the decision Monday, Benbow said she felt positive about the amount of support the HCVB received from the community at the meeting and said she and her board are “thrilled” that they have six more months to come up with “creative and visionary strategies” to market the county.

She also suggested that the county may regret its decision to cut off the organization. 

”I know the Economic Development staff is not in any position to take over any of the professional marketing endeavors that we do,” she said. “They’re quite overstretched, and none of them have tourism marketing experience or the contacts that the bureau have developed over the years with national and international media.”

The bureau’s website gets more than 1.2 million visitors a year, she said.

The HCVB’s board of directors will meet in the next few days to discuss what comes next and exploring other potential revenue sources, Benbow said.

During today’s meeting, Arroyo mentioned the possibility of issuing a request for proposals from other agencies to take over tourism marketing, but Benbow said such a process would be long and involved.

Asked what the HCVB will do if this really is the end of the line for county financing, Benbow vowed to plough ahead.

“I think that because we have such a commitment to not letting the county residents and businesses down, we would do our utmost not to totally stop our services but to work with the county if we can to continue until they come up with a model that is different – or a replacement.”

Measure J revenues

Earlier in the meeting, in deliberations that were only marginally less contentious, the board divvied up $350,000 from Measure J revenues as follows: 

• $150,000 to the Ink People Center for the Arts for projects with an economic driver; 
• $100,000 set aside in a Housing Trust Fund;
• $45,000 to the Aviation Department to create a destination marketing budget for the Humboldt County Airport; 
• $30,000 to the Humboldt-Del Norte Film Commission as matching funds for the three-day, Star Wars-themed Forest Moon Festival; and
• $25,000 to the Economic Development Division for administrative costs to manage the above projects and contracts.

That $350,000 represents less than 40 percent of the $880,000 in projected Measure J revenues for the upcoming fiscal year, and the board voted to keep the remainder in the county’s General Fund as a rainy day investment.

“If it remains unallocated,” a staff report explains, “[those] funds will be available to help the county maintain essential services in future years … ; however should that not be needed, the funds will be available for additional tourism activities.”

Humboldt-Del Norte County Film Commissioner Cassandra Hesseltine made a pitch for more money, saying her small staff will be unable to throw the third annual Forest Moon Festival next year on “a shoestring budget.” She noted that the latest Apple iPhone 15 advertising campaign features Star Wars “costumers” headed to a convention, an indication of the ongoing popularity of the franchise.

Hesseltine also said that Academy Award-winning writer and director Alexander Payne recently approached the commission about the possibility of the Forest Moon Festival hosting the world premiere of a documentary about Irvin Kushner, director of 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back.

Leslie Castellano, Eureka city councilmember and executive director of the Ink People Center for the Arts, spoke on behalf of the Humboldt Creative Alliance, a group the includes the Ink People, Centro del Pueblo, Playhouse Arts and North Coast Repertory Theater.

Staff’s recommendation did not include any money set aside for a Housing Trust Fund, but Wilson advocated for it, saying that by simply setting the $100,000 aside with that earmark on it, the county will be able to qualify for state and federal housing development funding.

The rest of the board agreed, and the above-referenced funding amounts were approved unanimously.

Reached after the decision, Hesseltine said she feels compassion for county staff and the Board of Supervisors having to make tough financial decisions during the budget crisis. But still, the cut in funding to the film commission is “unfortunate.”

With a staff of just 2.5 full-time employees, the commission is already overworked, she said. The Forest Moon Festival has proved to be a success, “but now I have to spend more time on top of everything else to go hunt money,” Hesseltine said. “And that’s brutal because what do I give up?”

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Here’s video of the meeting, courtesy Access Humboldt: