Arcata’s Gateway Area Plan may be nearing the next steps to completion,  with the Planning Commission discussing form-based codes, proposed building heights and possibly making an official recommendation during tonight’s meeting,

To recap, the Gateway Area Plan (GAP) is a subsection of the city’s General Plan, which need to be updated every few years to accommodate Arcata’s changing needs. The plan would rezone 138 acres of land in and around the Creamery District to facilitate the development of high density housing. This is necessary for a couple of reasons: First of all, you’ve probably heard that Arcata and Humboldt are expected to see huge population growth in the coming years and people need housing. Secondly, the California Department of Housing and Community Development requires all cities to create a feasible plan to build more housing. If Arcata fails to meet that requirement, it will not be eligible for all kinds of state grant programs and things like that. 

In order to prevent the city from having to build out into the surrounding agricultural lands, city staff worked to identify existing sites within the city that would have the potential for housing development. The part of town in and around the Creamery District, which staff started calling the “Gateway Area,” is ideal, according to staff, because it contains many underutilized sites that are zoned for industrial purposes. 

The Planning Commission’s discussion tonight will focus primarily on form-based codes, something you’ve probably heard mentioned a lot if you’ve been following the gateway plan. If you want to dive deep into form-based codes, you should watch this video from the Form-Based Code Workshop, held on Aug. 16. Basically, form-based codes are a way for a city to have more control over what new buildings look like. Rather than using conventional zoning, which focuses on allowed uses for a site, if Arcata adopts a form-based code, it can bake in requirements for the aesthetic of the buildings like building heights, setbacks and general building design. 

The biggest concern surrounding the city’s plans for the Gateway has been building heights. Staff is recommending that the maximum height be different for different neighborhoods within the Gateway area, ranging between five and eight stories, which some community members and planning commissioners have felt is too high. Staff is also recommending implementing a community benefits program, which would require developments to include a certain number of amenities that would benefit the community – such as green spaces, community gardens, rooftop dining, etc. – to determine the building height and density. The more benefits a developer agrees to provide, the bigger it could build. 

Some planning commissioners have expressed concerns over the community benefit program idea, saying that some of the listed amenities might only benefit residents rather than the entire community, and that some of the listed amenities should be requirements for all new development. The staff report includes a list of concerns and considerations to be discussed at the meeting written by Planning Commissioner Judith Mayer. You can read it here. 

If the commission feels ready, it may make a concrete recommendation to the Council during tonight’s meeting on any aspect of the plan, including proposed building heights. But that will depend on how the conversation goes. According to the staff report, the commission does not yet feel equipped to make any decisions until all of its concerns, and the concerns of the community have been identified. 

If you have concerns about the Gateway Area Plan, you’ll want to attend tonight’s meeting because the community will also have a chance to voice their concerns through a poll that will be taken during the meeting. 

“The polling results are not intended to show how important any particular issue is, and the results will not be used in this way,” the staff report says. “Instead, the poll will provide the public efficient access to the process to ensure all ideas are on the table among those participating. There will also be a paper option in the meeting to allow those without devices to be heard. Additionally, since users can add as many responses as they wish, the public may share devices in the meeting.” 

The Planning Commission will meet tonight at 6 p.m. You can read the full agenda and directions on how to view and participate, in person or virtually, here. 

UPDATE: The toilet has been fixed, and the Subway is back in effect.

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This is the Subway with the toilet problem. The other ones are OK, as far as we know.

Roachy speaks.

Hardcore fans of the Subway Sandwiches location at the corner of Fourth and T streets in Eureka are going to have to seek succor elsewhere for the time being, after the county’s Health Environmental Health Division closed the facility down for having an inoperable toilet and “standing wastewater on the bathroom floor” this afternoon.

“A food facility shall not operate if there is sewage overflowing or backing up in the food facility,” this afternoon’s health inspection report helpfully notes.

The facility will have to remain closed until such time as the wastewater is cleaned up and the toilet is repaired. 

Your Eureka Subway options have become extremely limited since the onset of the pandemmy. Best we can tell, the closest still-open Subway is across town in the Eureka Mall, around the corner from Winco.

DOCUMENT:

• “Inspection of Subway #23069,” Sept. 27, 2022.

Cal Poly Humboldt release:

Cal Poly Humboldt is providing support for an affected student and gathering details from partners and law enforcement about a recent police action at a local school.

The focus of Humboldt’s response has been providing support for the student who was involved, who was on campus as part of an internship. The student contacted University officials yesterday to report the situation and to request specific types of support and engagement. The University is working to help her through the situation.

The incident involved concerns about a possible gun at the school, which was reported by a witness.

The report led to an urgent response by officers from Arcata Police Department. The Humboldt student was at the location at the time of the response, and was questioned by the officers, which was a difficult and traumatic situation. She was deeply affected emotionally by the interaction.

Cal Poly Humboldt’s priority is providing support as needed by the student who was affected. The University has been in contact with APD and the City of Arcata about the situation, and is seeking further information on the matter, including their protocols and procedures. The University is also in close contact with the school site to gain a better understanding of what occurred and about their procedures.

Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

On Sept. 25, 2022, at about 9:57 p.m., a Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputy on patrol in the area of U.S. Highway 101 near Garberville observed two motorcycles, one without a rear license plate, traveling in excess of 90 miles per hour.  

The deputy attempted a traffic stop on the motorcycle without a plate, and the driver failed to yield. Deputies pursued the motorcycle for approximately 28 miles, after which officers with the California Highway Patrol (CHP) – Garberville Division assumed control of the pursuit. At approximately 10:30 p.m., deputies were notified that the motorcycle had been involved in a collision near the 5400 block of Briceland-Thorne Road, and the driver, later identified as 26-year-old Dylan Edwardknee Sally, had fled into nearby vegetation. California Department of Fish and Wildlife K9 Link was deployed, successfully locating and apprehending Sally. During a search of Sally and his belongings incident to arrest, deputies located drug paraphernalia.

Dylan Sally was booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility on charges of evading a peace officer (VC 2800.2), fleeing a peace officer (VC 2800.4), resisting a peace officer (PC 148(a)), possession of a controlled substance paraphernalia (HS 11364(a)), driving without a license (VC 12500(a)), failure to provide evidence of insurance (VC 16028(a)), failure to display a license plate (VC 5200(a)) and unsafe lane change (VC 22107).

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office would like to thank the California Highway Patrol- Garberville Division and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife for their assistance with this investigation.

Anyone with information about this case or related criminal activity is encouraged to call the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at (707) 445-7251 or the Sheriff’s Office Crime Tip line at (707) 268-2539.

Earlier this month, Supervisor Mike Wilson woke to find his car had been stolen from outside his Arcata home. He called the Arcata Police Department. He posted something on Facebook. And he texted Sheriff William Honsal.

This happened over the weekend of Sept. 10-11. The following Monday, just after noon, Honsal sent this email to county deputies, with cc:’s to department leadership and the dispatch center. It read:

Good Morning Patrol,

I will give a $40 Dutch Bros card to anyone that locates and recovers Supervisors Mike Wilsons Stolen Vehicle.

Description: [redacted]

There have been sittings [sic] in Orick and Rio Dell. If you recover it, please send me a copy of the 180 for payment.

A couple of hours later, a deputy wrote the Sheriff back to ask for details about the sighting of the vehicle in Rio Dell, and promised to look for it later. That was the sum total of email correspondence about the matter sent or received by the Sheriff, according to the results of a Public Records Act request filed by the Outpost.

As it happened, Supervisor Wilson’s car was found shortly after this near Red Bluff, so apparently no member of the Sheriff’s Office was able to claim their $40 bonus in the form of coffee-based beverages. But the incident may leave a bitter taste in the mouth of some Humboldt County citizens, along with some questions. Is it right for the Sheriff to offer extra incentive to officers for solving crimes affecting people with some status in the community – in this case, a person who is one-fifth responsible for setting the Sheriff’s Office’s budget, and indeed the Sheriff’s own salary?

Ed Obayashi is a deputy sheriff and legal advisor to numerous police agencies in California, and a law enforcement trainer who has provided services to departments around the state, including in Humboldt County. Told about the details of the case recently, Obayashi said his concern would be that “the optics are obviously not conducive to an impression of equal service.”

“There’s nothing illegal about it, and probably they don’t even have a policy that prohibits it, or addresses it,” Obayashi said. “Just from an optics standpoint, there would probably be some in the community who would question that the leader of a law enforcement agency may be going out of his way to provide a financial incentive, when the department would not do that for the typical crime victim.”

Honsal had little to say about the particulars of the incident when the Outpost wrote to ask for comment. We asked whether he had second thoughts about the appropriateness of offering incentives to his officers to solve certain crimes. We asked what he might say to a different person whose car had been stolen recently, who presumably didn’t get the same treatment.

“Thanks for your inquiry,” Honsal responded, via the office’s public information officer. “I regularly incentivize persistence, dedication, and all-around good work for public servants within my department.”

The law enforcement officer who originally alerted us to this affair had a different take, though. In his letter, he took offense to the notion that sworn officers needed perks such as this to prod them to do police work, and he wondered whether political favoritism was at play in this case.

“I find it appauling [sic] that a Sheriff would have to pay his guys extra to do their jobs,” he wrote in a letter to the Outpost. “If accepting this type of gratuity is common at HCSO, I think we as a community should be alarmed.”

For his part, Wilson said that he had no idea that Honsal had placed a bounty on his case until the Outpost informed him of it, and that he had no intention of seeking special consideration. He said he regrets having sent the text.

“In the emotion of having a car stolen, I reached out to, really, the only police officer I know,” Wilson said. “I was just not mindful in that moment. If I’d given it more thought, I wouldn’t have done it, for all the obvious reasons.”

DOCUMENT:

• Honsal email to the Sheriff’s Office staff, Sept. 12.

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More than 1.7 million Medi-Cal patients may get a new insurance provider in the coming months as a result of the state’s first-ever competitive bidding process, but critics and some providers fear the change will cause major disruptions to care.

California’s Department of Health Care Services last month announced its intent to award $14 billion-worth of Medi-Cal contracts to three companies — Health Net, Molina and Anthem Blue Cross — down from nine. The deal is part of the department’s multifaceted effort to overhaul the behemoth program that provides health insurance for a third of all state residents. Medi-Cal is the state’s version of federal Medicaid, which serves low-income residents.

“We are raising the bar for all of our managed care partners,” state Medicaid Director Jacey Cooper said. “We will be very focused on quality and access to care.”

The new contract includes strict new quality standards for patient outcomes and financial penalties for providers that do not meet the goals. The new benchmarks are “significantly better” than previous standards and competitive bidding is long-overdue, said Kiran Savage-Sangwan, executive director of the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network.

“This is a really big deal. It’s something that we have consistently advocated for the state to do more often and on a specific schedule in order to maintain accountability,” Savage-Sangwan said.

Many patients will keep the same insurance provider, but in four counties — Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento and Kern — the largest incumbent plans were ousted, precipitating a significant transition for nearly half of commercial Medi-Cal patients.

“We are raising the bar for all of our managed care partners. We will be very focused on quality and access to care.”
— State Medicaid Director Jacey Cooper

An ‘immeasurable’ disruption

In Los Angeles, Health Net, the largest Medi-Cal managed care plan in the state, lost its coveted contract to Molina. More than 1 million patients, roughly one-third of all Medi-Cal enrollees in the county, have Health Net. The other two-thirds have coverage through the county-operated L.A. Care Health Plan.

Medical providers in L.A. that serve primarily Medi-Cal patients say the decision to offer Molina the county contract could cause “immeasurable” disruption.

“It would be profound,” said Jim Mangia, president and CEO of St. John’s Community Health in south L.A. “You’re talking about completely changing providers and provider networks. It would completely interrupt their systems of care.”

Nearly 25,000 patients at St. John’s — a quarter of the facility’s patient population — have Health Net and would need to switch to Molina, which has far fewer patients and providers. Expecting the company to contract with an equivalent number of doctors and specialists as Health Net in the next year is unreasonable, Mangia said.

The state expects new contracts to be fully implemented by January 2024 with the transition period starting as soon as Oct. 10.

“They’re a minor player in the Medi-Cal market. “Can they get 10 times bigger in that many months? I doubt it,” Mangia said. “You’re going to see a tremendous lack of access to specialty care, to hospital care and to primary care.”

“Can they get 10 times bigger in that many months? I doubt it.”
— Jim Mangia, president and CEO of St. John’s Community Health

Molina did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Health Net Vice President of Communications and Marketing Darrel Ng said in a statement that the company would defer to providers’ assessment of the ramifications of the contract change.

Health Net appealed the state’s decision in Los Angeles and eight other counties where it lost bids. In the L.A. appeal documents, Health Net alleges that the state’s decision to move to Molina will “jeopardize the stability of Medi-Cal and its provision of services to California’s most vulnerable.”

Some providers, however, were less concerned about the change, predicting that there would not be much of an impact on patients.

“In theory nothing should change. Technically, Health Net and Molina switching places should have no impact on the consumer,” said David Ryu, chief strategy and advancement officer at Kedren Community Health Center, a primary care and acute psychiatric hospital system in South L.A.

That assessment, however, assumes Health Net will subcontract with Molina, giving them access to their network of providers. Neither Health Net nor Molina have stated whether they will pursue that option.

If Molina retains the contract offer after the appeal process, Medicaid Director Cooper said there will be a 15-month transition period to ensure enrollees are aware of the change and do not experience any interruptions in coverage.

“We’ve been planning for this transition for months, probably even close to a year at this point,” Cooper said.

That planning includes hiring staff dedicated to the transition and contracting process and ensuring provider networks overlap significantly enough to prevent patients from losing access to doctors.

“We will make sure through our readiness process of all managed care plans…that they are ready and able to handle those continuity-of-care requests,” Cooper said.

Mangia predicted, however, that community health centers will be left to handle the most vulnerable and difficult-to-manage patients. A third of St. John’s patients do not have valid phone numbers or addresses, largely due to housing instability. Those patients frequently have complex health needs and providers are only able to find them when they show up at emergency rooms.

“Where are they going to send the letter? The state is going to send them a letter that says ‘You no longer have Health Net. You need to choose a new plan.’ Then people come in, they don’t understand it, they need help filling out the application. That’s a huge responsibility to dump on community health centers,” Mangia said.

“Every time there’s a change in health care in California, the cost and work of doing it gets pushed on the (health centers).”

Holding plans to higher standards

The state intends to award 28 new contracts across 21 counties to Health Net, Molina and Anthem Blue Cross, but the selections have raised questions about whether the plans can actually meet the new quality standards. Over the past decade, health outcomes and quality metrics have stagnated or gotten worse for Medi-Cal enrollees, and the three winners, which have current contracts across two-thirds of the state, maintain spotty track records.

Some of the new requirements include:

• Meeting updated quality benchmarks;
• Publishing reports on patient outcomes, appointment access and wait times, and patient satisfaction;
• Investing up to 7.5% of annual profits into community-based organizations with additional investments required if quality benchmarks are missed;
• Hiring a chief equity officer and developing a plan to reduce health disparities;
• Monitoring primary care utilization and identifying patients that may be missing preventive care opportunities.

In 2019, the department updated its quality benchmarks, requiring California Medi-Cal plans to perform better than 50% of all Medicaid plans nationwide. The previous requirement was to do better than 25% of plans nationwide. Enforcement of the benchmarks was suspended due to COVID-19.

“Before we were letting all of our plans fail. Now we’re holding them to the average,” Savage-Sangwan said.

Anthem Blue Cross, which was offered the greatest number of contracts, historically has achieved poor to mediocre outcomes. For example, between June 2020 and July 2021, Anthem failed to meet 59% of its quality benchmarks across the 12 regions where it serves Medi-Cal members. Those metrics include breast cancer screenings, diabetes management and completion of childhood immunizations.

Health Net had a similar failure rate across seven counties. while Molina failed to meet quality benchmarks 38% of the time across four counties. Ng, of Health Net, said COVID-19 made 2020 “a difficult year for all of us” when it came to meeting quality standards, but the company recognizes the need for improvement and has made a “multi-million-dollar investment in quality over the past several years.”

Anthem and Molina did not respond to requests for comment. The state Department of Health Care Services said three years of quality metrics were analyzed during the bidding process.

Losing bidders have submitted appeals in more than half the counties where bidding took place, claiming competitors overpromised their Medi-Cal services and that the Department of Health Care Services implemented an unfair scoring system.

One such appeal came from Community Health Group, the largest Medi-Cal provider in San Diego County and one of the highest-performing insurance plans in the state. It lost the initial bid to Health Net and Molina.

“(The decision) was quite shocking,” said chief operating officer Joseph Garcia. “In every measurable metric, we are way ahead.”

In 2019, Community Health Group was the fourth-highest-ranked Medi-Cal insurer in the state, according to state data, beaten only by San Francisco Health Plan and two Kaiser plans, which tend to serve healthier patients. In contrast, Molina’s San Diego plan ranked 16th and Health Net’s ranked 29th.

Garcia said he has “a lot of questions and a lot of concerns” about how the Department of Health Care Services awarded points to bidders. Health Net and Molina were awarded points for proposing community engagement strategies that Community Health Group already implements, he said.

“We’re going to give you more points because you’re going to do something? We should get more points because we’re already doing it and members don’t have to wait,” Garcia said.

Like in L.A. County, San Diego providers say this decision will cause a major disruption to patient care. Community Health Group serves the largest proportion of Medi-Cal patients — approximately 326,000 — out of the seven Medi-Cal insurers in the county.

“Good grief. Medi-Cal populations have a complexity of needs. It’s not like we can just transfer them and give them a new card. ” said Zara Marselian, CEO of La Maestra Community Health Centers in San Diego. “We’re going to have to hire more staff.”

“Medi-Cal populations have a complexity of needs. It’s not like we can just transfer them and give them a new card. ”
— Zara Marselian, CEO of La Maestra Community Health Centers

Marselian said La Maestra has worked with Community Health Group for nearly three decades and its history as a health center that grew into a Medi-Cal insurance plan gives it insight into what the population needs.

“They started managed care before the state did managed care,” she said. “They really understand the Medi-Cal population, the challenges, the disparities and the incredible amount of work it takes to help them navigate through all of the systems so they can attain health and well-being.”

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

Betty L. Ehrheart, 91, passed away peacefully on September 23, 2022 at her Ferndale home surrounded by family. Born November 6, 1930 in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania to Theodore and Elizabeth McFarland, Betty married Daniel O. Ehrheart in 1950. They had two sons, Rick and Ted. The family moved to Southern California in 1959 and after Rick and Ted were grown, moved to Ferndale in 1991 and built their dream home in the new McKinley Avenue neighborhood.

Betty worked for many years at Rockwell International in Southern California as a supervisor on both the Apollo and Space Shuttle projects. During her long career, The National Aeronautics and Space Administration presented the Group Achievement Award to Betty for her work on the Stabilized Payload Deployment System Team for use on the Space Shuttle Orbiter.

Shortly after Dan and Betty’s retirement to Ferndale, Dan was diagnosed with cancer and passed in 1997 at the age of 70. At the same time, Betty was diagnosed with macular degeneration and was eventually diagnosed as legally blind. An avid bridge player, reader, and needlepoint enthusiast, Betty turned to playing poker with her dear Ferndale friends, gardening and listening to books on tape. As he neared his death, Dan asked Betty’s younger friends to step in and make sure that she did not live a life of isolation. Dan would have been pleased. In the 25 years since Dan’s passing, Betty’s infectious sense of adventure, good-natured personality, humor and intellect translated to her large group of friends taking her on multiple trips across the globe, countless dinners, rousing musical events and full production birthday parties to mark her many milestones. If one wanted a “Betty date,” they’d better call early in the week since her calendar was usually full.

Shortly after Dan’s passing, friends started a weekly Wednesday pizza night at Betty’s house. Dozens of friends, neighbors, children and dogs have enjoyed epic Wednesday nights, where copious amounts of cheap red wine were enjoyed along with pizza, laughter, tears and memories. Two generations have now attended the weekly get together with many Ferndale children remembering Wednesday night dinner always being “pizza at Betty’s.”

As Betty moved on in years she also became legally deaf. Despite her two disabilities, she still persevered with her good nature and humor and never turned down a dinner invitation or a chance to travel.

Betty is survived by her two sons and Rick’s wife, Bonnie; grandchildren, Matt, Adam (Kelly), Shannon (Brandon Champieux); great-grandchildren Luke, Jude, Emme, Noah and Sierra. She was preceded in death by her husband Dan.

The family would like to thank all the caregivers that took such great care of Betty as her time came to an end. Her niece Sharan Wehn and husband Mike, Britt and Kevin Frey and Jacque Ruszala. A special thanks to Dr. Han and Dr. Douglass for their loving care.

A last pizza party will be held to celebrate Betty’s life on Saturday, October 1 at 2 p.m. at the Ferndale Atrium, 207 Francis Street, Ferndale. Friends are invited to come share stories, laughter and music. A mass at Assumption Catholic Church will take place at 2 p.m. on Sunday, October 2. Betty will be buried in a private ceremony at Ocean View Sunset Memorial Park in Eureka.