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Until a couple of weeks ago, the “Yes on Measure F, Housing for All” campaign had been a pretty cheerful affair, its website and political mailers featuring cartoony illustrations of suburbia and stock photographs of smiling families in, uh, some nice-looking town that’s definitely not Eureka.

But the last couple of political mailers and social media ads have assumed a much darker tone. “CHEATERS ALWAYS LOSE!” one recent mailer scolds in all caps. The campaign’s anger is palpable. “For some people, if they can’t win fair and square, they CHEAT!” the mailer says on one side. On the other, a rallying cry to honest citizens: “We won’t let a small group of SORE LOSERS undermine our democracy!”

Who cheated? Well, the evidence of this nefarious, democracy-hating fraud is presented in a pair of side-by-side photos, “BEFORE” and “AFTER” images that the campaign also highlights in this video:

The implication is that some unscrupulous saboteur sneaked onto the front yard of a “Yes on F” supporter, defaced their sign to reverse its meaning and then replaced it in exactly the same spot at precisely the same off-kilter angle.

Little did this lowdown scoundrel know that the vigilant patriots behind “Yes on F” were one step ahead. They’d evidently had the foresight to snap a “BEFORE” photo, so when the sign was replaced with a vandalized version, the “Yes on F” crew returned to the scene of the “crime” to capture an “AFTER” shot — again, at the identical angle. (Skeptics point out that the photographer even seems to have convinced dandelions, debris and the sun not to budge between shots.)

According to the property owner, however, that’s not at all what happened. Chris, who asked the Outpost not to use his last name due to fear of retaliation, said that’s his front yard and his modified sign depicted in the campaign mailers. He says he covered up the “YES” with a “No” after the sign was stuck into his lawn without his permission.

“I’m just a retired old guy that paints and gardens and walks my cat on a leash and does good things for my community,” Chris said when reached by phone last week. “It’s not like I’m heavily political, right?”

Chris said he started receiving unsolicited text messages from the “Yes on F” campaign last month. 

“Finally, I started responding, because sometimes I can be a smart-ass,” he said. “And I asked them for four ‘No on F’ signs. They texted me again. I asked them for four ‘No on F’ signs again.”

But the texts kept coming, and finally Chris decided to go ahead and accept a “Yes” sign.

“In their [campaign] stuff they say they’ll deliver it to your front door, which would be fine,” he said. “I do political art so I figured, let them spend money [and] give me a sign. I might do political art with it like I have in pretty much every election for the last I-don’t-know-how-long.”

Some days later, Chris returned home from running errands to discover that, rather than delivering the sign to his front door, someone had erected one in his front yard, shoving the legs of a wire H-frame into the ground near the trunk of a skinny fruit tree.

“And that was kind of weird,” Chris said. “They came to my front yard and put up a ‘Yes on F’ sign after it was pretty obvious I was a ‘No’ person.”

He pulled the sign out, brought it into his studio and “tidied it up pretty quick,” he said, referring to his painted modifications, which changed the “Yes” to a “No” and whited out a QR code and the slogan “Housing for All.”

Now, having seen the mailer describing his art project as criminal vandalism, Chris suspects he was set up.

“I think they knew I was going to do it, and I think they thought it would work to their political advantage to claim that their signs are getting vandalized,” he said.

The “Yes on F” campaign suggests that anti-Measure F crimes have been rampant. The first flier on this topic says that within 24 hours of distributing the first batch of campaign signs, “many were vandalized or even stolen.”

The flier describes such actions as “a tremendous display of weakness and cowardice by a small group of people who think the way to win an election is to illegally stop the other side from campaigning.” And it warns, “These incidents have been reported to the police.”

Have they, though? Eureka Police Department’s public information officer, Laura Montagna, said no.

“We don’t have data that supports that at all,” she said after being contacted by the Outpost on Monday. Montagna said she checked with both EPD Chief Brian Stephens and Commander Leonard LaFrance and looked through the past three months’ worth of call logs but found no reports of such vandalism.

The Outpost reached out to representatives of the “Yes on F” campaign, including Gail Rymer, the Tennessee-based spokesperson for Security National (the Rob Arkley-founded real estate servicing firm sponsoring the initiative), and campaign co-chair Mike Munson. We explained that we’d spoken with a man who took credit for modifying the sign as a work of “political art” and we asked for details about this and all other alleged incidents that have been reported to police.

Munson replied via email, saying he’s currently in Chicago and would forward the inquiry to a colleague. Rymer sent the following statement:

I’m glad you mentioned art. Voters surveyed have identified a strong desire to maintain downtown parking to keep the area a vibrant center for art, culture, and tourism. Measure F does precisely this and is a win-win for the arts, residents, and small businesses. 

Thanks very much for your ongoing interest. Nice work on identifying an individual who confessed to “cheating and lawbreaking” by defacing political campaign materials and trampling on the democratic political process. The authorities will appreciate that, as well. 

We’ve got links to our previous Measure F coverage in this post. To read the official arguments for and against the measure, as well as the Eureka city attorney’s impartial analysis, click here. Election Day is Nov. 5.

PREVIOUSLY: 

• At Special Meeting This Morning, Humboldt Supervisors Will Consider Disciplinary Action, Dismissal of a High-Ranking County Employee

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After a closed-session special meeting that lasted nearly three hours, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors has voted to “accept the resignation” of its director of aviation, Cody Roggatz, effective immediately.

The vote was 3-2, with supervisors Mike Wilson, Steve Madrone and Natalie Arroyo voting in favor and supervisors Michelle Bushnell and Rex Bohn opposed.

No reasons were given for this parting of ways with Roggatz, who was hired by the county August 2018 to head a new, standalone Aviation Department, which had previously been a division of Public Works.

As the Outpost’s Izzy Vanderheiden noted this morning, the usually easy-to-reach Roggatz has been out of the public eye since the big air show at the California Redwood Coast-Humboldt County Airport in McKinleyville last month. Last week the county issued a somewhat frosty statement in response to a question about his whereabouts.

Press release from the Eureka Police Department:

On September 14, 2024 at approximately 11:40 p.m., officers with the Eureka Police Department responded to the 800 block of Pine Street on a report of an assault. Upon officer arrival, they learned that during the assault an individual had been stabbed numerous times with an unknown object. The victim was uncooperative and wouldn’t provide any information in regards to the assault to officers and initially refused medical treatment.

The victim was contacted numerous times by law enforcement during the investigation and finally agreed to seek medical attention for their significant injuries. The victim was transported to the hospital for treatment. There are no known suspects at this time, however this was not a random act and there is no known threat to the community.

This is an ongoing and active investigation and EPD is asking anyone that may have information about this assault to contact Detective Sergeant Cory Crnich at 707-441-4300.

We’re sending millions and millions of gallons of water out into the ocean to protect a teeny, tiny fish called the smelt, which isn’t making it anyway.

And at the same time, you’ve got wealthy people building fabulous homes in Beverly Hills and they only get 32 gallons. And our farmers: Thousands of acres dead and barren. And these forest fires, which are much worse than in Austria.

It’s one of the worst deals we’ve ever seen.

Solution: Stop sending the millions and millions of gallons of water into the Pacific Ocean. Instead send it to the farmers and Beverly Hills, and also send it backwards up the rivers to water the forests.

So proclaimed former President Donald Trump on a campaign stop in Rancho Palos Verdes Friday. If elected, he promised to cut off federal disaster aid to California unless this plan is implemented.

At a special meeting this morning, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors will meet in closed session to consider disciplinary action and/or potential dismissal of a public employee, an unusual action typically reserved for high-ranking staff members.

The closed-session item doesn’t indicate what happened or who is involved, which is typical for personnel-related matters. The same item appeared on the board’s Aug. 27 agenda, but “no reportable action” came out of the discussion.

The proposed action happens to coincide with the sudden absence of Humboldt County Aviation Director Cody Roggatz, who has helmed the department since 2018. Roggatz, who is usually quick to respond to the Outpost’s inquiries, hasn’t replied to recent requests for comment. To our knowledge, he has not been seen at a county-related event since last month’s Rumble Over the Redwoods airshow.

Messages sent to Roggatz’s county email immediately bounce back with an automatic response that says he is “temporarily unavailable” and directs aviation-related inquiries to Airport Operations Manager Curt Eikerman and other administrative staff.

The Outpost contacted Humboldt County Public Information Specialist Cati Gallardo to see if Roggatz is on administrative leave. We received the following response:

Director Roggatz is unavailable at this time. The county will not comment at this time but will provide additional information if and when it becomes appropriate.

The county’s Aviation Advisory Committee, which meets on the fourth Tuesday of each month, hasn’t held a meeting since May. The committee’s Aug. 27 meeting was abruptly canceled with no explanation.

Reached for additional information, Aviation Advisory Committee Chair Alex Stillman told the Outpost that she received a cancellation notice from county staff about two hours before the meeting was set to begin.

“When we asked [about it] we weren’t told anything,” she said. “We’re sort of concerned because we have Aviation Day at Murray Field coming up in the spring, and we want the aviation club at Cal Poly Humboldt to be able to get on board with that right away. … We’re on schedule to have our regular meeting this month. If we don’t we’ll be five months without a meeting.”

Asked if she had been in direct contact with Roggatz in the last month or so, Stillman said no, adding that she received the same emailed auto-reply we did. “We are in the dark because everything is, of course, close-lipped when it comes to personnel,” she said.

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The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors will meet for closed session in board chambers at the Humboldt County Courthouse today at 10 a.m. If any action is taken, it will be reported to the public at the end of the closed-session meeting.

Ronald Latney used to believe his vote didn’t matter. But after returning to jail this year, he realized the difference it can make — especially locally.

“I try to tell everybody … like, man, we need to vote, because our lives depend on this,” he said, mentioning district attorney races and bail policies. “That’s very impactful on me and what I’m going through now.”

It also helps him feel involved in the world, he said: “Sometimes we feel like we’re forgotten about, so to speak, except for our family. But this does definitely make me feel like I’m a part of something.”

Latney is able to vote with relative ease at a jail in San Bruno, where he’s serving time. But his experience isn’t all that common.

While California prides itself on making voting easier, some groups of voters still face barriers. That includes many people in county jails, though the state has allowed most to vote since 2016.

The latest data from the California Department of Corrections shows that about 92,000 people are in state prisons, and many are ineligible to vote. But in 2023, another 78,000 were in county jails, according to the Prison Policy Initiative, a Massachusetts-based nonpartisan research group, and about 60% of them have not been convicted of a crime, so are eligible to vote.

A disproportionate number of people in jails are Black or Latino, and sometimes wait years until they go to trial.

Most California jails don’t offer in-person voting, and voting by mail can be challenging. People might be registered at one address, but even if their mail is being forwarded to their jail, they get released or transferred elsewhere.

Advocates who have tried to help those jailed to vote list a host of hurdles that vary by county. Due to lengthy mail screening, some don’t get voter guides in time. Others don’t get voter guides at all, because people in jail can only receive mail under a certain page limit, or without staples.

Voter information is key to the process, advocates say — letting people know if they’re eligible, or how to register or vote. But advocates face their own barriers, such as limits on how often they can visit jails or how long they can stay.

The state does not track the number of incarcerated people who vote, but some counties have encouraged more participation: Since 2010, nearly 9,200 jail inmates have voted by mail or at in-jail booths in Los Angeles County.

Advocates want to build on that program through a bill introduced by Assemblymember Isaac Bryan that would start a pilot program for in-jail voting in three counties. The bill passed the Legislature in the session’s final days in late August, and awaits Gov. Gavin Newsom’s decision by Sept. 30.

While nearly all Republicans voted against it, the bill has no official opposition on file.

Topo Padilla, a board member of Crime Victims United, said that he did not understand the need for the Legislature to intervene. “I do not believe there’s a sheriff in the state of California that is saying lawful mail cannot be delivered to an inmate,” he said.

The bill, he said, shows him again that Democrats in California “focus more about taking care of people that have been convicted of crimes than they do about victims of crime.”

But for Latney, he believes his vote directly affects his ability to get out of jail — and stay out.

He arrived at the law library at the jail, in a visit last week arranged by the San Francisco Sheriff’s Office, with a red folder that held a write-up of his own experience with state laws, and a printed-out opinion piece from former prisoner Richard Richardson, whose voting experience resonated with Latney.

“I can honestly say that I made my mistake .. I’m paying my debt to society, and I’m just ready for this to be over with,” he said. “I know that voting can make things like this possible and can help better my circumstances, and later on in life.”

The jail upon a hill

Melinda Benson, director of Prisoner Legal Services for the San Francisco Sheriff’s Office, said every eligible person incarcerated in California should have a “meaningful” opportunity to vote.

“I say meaningful, because it’s not meaningful in a lot of counties. It might be just that they make an announcement that you can reach out to the Department of Elections,” she said. “The rule is that the Department of Elections has to make that opportunity available, but that’s it. That’s really the only guidance.”

Benson’s staff of three provides legal services, and also goes cell-by-cell to talk through each person’s eligibility and steps to register. A big push at the San Francisco County Jail involves convincing those incarcerated that they really can vote.

“I’m a lawyer, and I’m telling them, ‘No, you’re absolutely legally eligible to vote.’ They don’t believe me,” Benson said. “And then when they have the opportunity to do it, it’s pretty moving.”

The Sheriff’s Office began its voting outreach program in 2003, based on interest in San Francisco’s mayoral race, and worked with the elections office to ensure anyone eligible could fill out absentee ballot forms.

Since then, the state has gradually expanded eligibility, such as to those on parole. And a 2021 state law which ensures that a mail ballot is sent to everyone registered made the process much easier for Benson’s department.

Data from four elections in San Francisco from February 2022 to March 2024 show that a third to half of jailed people who requested voter information went on to cast ballots.

Thomas Neal of San Francisco speaks about voting while incarcerated in the San Francisco Sheriff’s Office Jail in San Bruno on Sept. 11, 2024. Neal said that voting, particularly in local elections, is important and it’s something he has done most of his life. Photo by Florence Middleton, CalMatters

Thomas Neal, 45, who is also incarcerated at its San Bruno jail, said voting has always been important to him. He sees it as his civic duty. His experience in San Francisco County jail has been better than in other counties, where he said he had to petition for voting resources to be made available.

“I shouldn’t have to argue about wanting to vote. It’s my right to vote,” he said.

Outside groups find workarounds

A big advantage for the San Francisco program is that the team is in-house. Elsewhere, outside advocacy groups have to go through a myriad of workarounds.

Spread the Vote tries to set up relationships with someone inside the jail — a priest, rabbi or a counselor — who can be a point of contact to answer voting questions. The group aims to boost voter participation by eliminating barriers such as not having an ID card.

Kat Calvin, executive director of Spread the Vote, said that it takes more than just providing pamphlets to empower those incarcerated to vote.

“We’ve tried to work with California jails, and we’re always told, ‘Oh, we’ve got it. We’re so great.’ But then I’ve gotten letters from people who are incarcerated in California jails saying, ‘I’m trying to vote, but they won’t give me a pen. They’ll only give me a pencil,’” she said. “It’s those little things that make it impossible.”Spread the Vote works in 20 states, and creates voting guides geared to those in jail, sent early enough to avoid mail processing delays. Depending on local rules, they might also set up ballot collection boxes in jail.

The VOICE program in the Alameda County public defender’s office has registered nearly 1,800 people since 2016, mostly at the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin. It shows those in jail how to look at voter guides online to get around the limits on stapled guides.

Not all advocacy groups find success.

In San Diego, for example, the sheriff’s department denied access to Pillars of the Community, so the advocacy group partnered with the League of Women Voters, which already worked with the jail.

The San Diego Sheriff’s Department said it works closely with the Registrar of Voters and the League of Women Voters to ensure access to voter registration and participation. In the case of the Pillars group, a sheriff’s spokesperson said some volunteers did not get security clearance, or didn’t submit requests early enough.

Some volunteers have criminal records, which could prevent them from getting clearance, said Brittany Stonesifer, a voting rights attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California.

Are there solutions in sight?

For Bryan, a Democratic lawmaker from Culver City, the only way to address inconsistent mail voting in county jails — sometimes due to a lack of technical assistance or staff — is to allow voting inside.

That’s why he introduced Assembly Bill 544, which requires the Secretary of State to provide grants to the elections offices in San Benito, Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties to set up in-person voting in jails — when the Legislature allocates funding, which might be an uphill battle given the state’s budget crunch.

“It increases public safety, it increases civic awareness, and it produces the best kind of electoral outcomes — where all eligible voters are able to be heard in our democracy,” Bryan said.

Assemblymember Isaac Bryan on the Assembly floor at the state Capitol on March 27, 2023. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters

If Newsom signs the bill, the pilot programs would be for elections in 2026 through 2028.

The proposal is based on the success of the Los Angeles County “We All Count” campaign, which set up in-person voting for the March 2020 presidential primary at the Century Regional Detention Facility. More than 90 people cast ballots, but the COVID pandemic suspended the effort. In 2022, the county expanded to a second jail and 40 people cast ballots between the two facilities.

Benson, of San Francisco Prisoner Legal Services, said any state mandate would be helpful, in case future sheriffs aren’t as supportive of voting access. “If there is a law in place, that will be followed, and if there are resources behind it — you know, now we’re talking,” she said. “So you’ve got to not just say that. It has to have some teeth.”

There are other ways the state could help short of in-jail voting.

Ucedrah Osby, president of the Bakersfield chapter of All of Us or None, an advocacy group for the incarcerated, said the state could spend more on voter education. And jails could allow outside groups more access, since voting information can have more impact coming from those with connections to the incarcerated.

Thanh Tran, an advocate who served two-and-a-half years of his 10-year sentence in jail, agreed. He said he was focused mostly on surviving each day, and it didn’t even cross his mind that he was still eligible to vote when he was shackled and belly-chained just to walk down the hallway.

Tran, whose sentence was commuted by Newsom in 2022, said he spent many days in solitary confinement, where he read the news and books on politics. After his release, he worked as a fellow at the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, where he helped advocate for Bryan’s bill.

“If I knew that I could participate in voting, I would have done it. But the thing is that I wasn’t offered it. I didn’t know it was a thing,” he said. “There were many, many barriers stopping me from even conceiving the thought of voting during my incarceration.”

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

Luther Lee Loudermilk was born June 17, 1927. On August 22, 2024 Lee went home to be with Jesus.

Lee was born and raised in Frankford, West Virginia, where he spent his childhood together with his 9 brothers and sisters maintaining the family farm. In 1946 Lee joined the Army and was stationed at Fort Lewis, Wash., where he met Dorothy Jane Carrington of Centralia, Wash. On March 21, 1948 they were married and had one child, Terry.

Lee had many talents and held a variety of jobs until in June of 1970 when the family opened Arcata Trailer Repair, where they serviced RVs. They did such good work that they had an article written about them in a publication of “Trailer Life” magazine. In 1971 the family began selling mobile homes and recreational vehicles under the name of Arcata Mobile Home Center Inc. until 2014 when they closed the business.

Lee began attending Trinity Baptist Church in 1954 and has been a faithful member ever since. Lee helped to literally build the second wing and also the current sanctuary of Trinity’s complex. Some of the positions Lee held at Trinity were Sunday School Superintendent for several years and Young Adult group leader, as well as Deacon.

Dad loved his family and his friends, being with them was important to him. He loved fishing, gardening, bowling, playing cards, and camping. He enjoyed traveling with his wife, especially in their travel trailer. He was a kind and gentle man, always with a smile and a cute sense of humor.

When we were planning the 50th anniversary party for Lee and Dorothy, Jan (Debbie’s sister) was trying to recreate a cake like their wedding cake. While Dorothy was describing it, Lee reached into his wallet and pulled out a picture of them and the cake and one of the silver leaves from the cake!

Outside of work Lee enjoyed many activities. Camping in his travel trailer with family and friends was one of these activities. Terry remembers one camping trip at Klamath where there was dad and mom, myself and my wife, and three other couples, each of us with our own travel trailer. There was an unexpected downpour of rain. The RVs were parked in a circle among redwood trees. Within minutes Dad got out tarps and ropes and covered the area between the RVs with the tarps, so that we had a dry area in which to visit.

Lee also enjoyed gardening and canning. One summer he planted an abundance of beets. When it came time to can them, his sister Ruth and her husband Curtis along with Terry and Debbie made a production line to can a total of 103 quarts of beets, all in one day. Needless to say, beets were not planted for the next two years. Another canning adventure also involved Ruth and Curtis, Terry and Debbie, their son Bryan, and 300 pounds of Albacore tuna. A real production line was set up with Terry showing Bryan how to clean and fillet the fish. Mom, Ruth and Debbie stuffed the fish into jars while Lee and Curtis maintained the pressure cookers. If I remember correctly the process began at 8:00 am and finished about 7:30 pm.

Some of those camping trips with the RV went to Trinity Lake and Ruth Lake where the goal was to fish. Lee liked to fish the little creeks feeding the lake. After a successful early morning outing, we would have fried potatoes, eggs, and fried fish- yum!

Another activity Lee enjoyed was softball, fast pitch softball. His church joined a league in Arcata, which was active for several years. His position was catcher. When that league dissolved, the church joined a slow pitch league in which Lee also played catcher.

Traveling with his RV was something Lee also enjoyed. He and Dorothy took their RV on a cruise ship to Alaska, then traveled home making fishing stops along the way. They also made three cross country trips with the RV to the family home in Frankford, West Virginia.

Playing cards, Pinochle mostly, was a winter time activity. Many a Friday night were spent playing Pinochle with a large pot of homemade chili simmering on the stove just waiting for anyone who might want some. Some Friday nights there would be 8 or 12 people playing cards. I remember one New Years Eve where card games and board games were played until daybreak.

Lee also had a very active sweet tooth. He loved his sweets as you can see by the picture above. If he wasn’t all that hungry, he would just go for the dessert and skip the main course. Even if he was hungry, he might have some dessert first and the main course second. At church potlucks, he would load up first with desserts, so he would be sure to get some of the best desserts and get the basic food.

We want to thank Susan “Sam” Minton for the very special relationship she had with Lee for the past several years. She loved Dad, took care of him with all of his idiosyncrasies, and provided heart-felt care in Dad’s last days.

To all of the doctors, nurses, and aides involved with Dad’s care we give a big thank you. To the Palliative Care team at St. Joseph Hospital, we cannot express how much we appreciate the advice and love we received from you.

To the Hospice of Humboldt organization, you have a beautiful facility only to be outshined by the staff, nurses, and aides working there. You are a special group of people, thank you.

Thank you to the many brothers and sisters in Christ who have been and are praying for us.

Lee is survived by his brother Wallace, his only child Terry and his wife Debbie, three grandsons (Brandon, Bryan, and Geoffrey) and four great grandchildren (Claire, Patrick, Lorenzo, and Sebastian).

In lieu of flowers we would appreciate donations to Hospice of Humboldt.

A celebration of life service will be held at Trinity Baptist Church, Arcata, California, on September 21, 2024 at 2 p.m.