PREVIOUSLY: Live in Valley West? Here’s Your Chance to Decide How $15,000 Will Be Spent on Improving Your Neighborhood

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More trees, murals, dance and theater classes and an artisan/flea market may all soon be coming to Arcata’s Valley West neighborhood, thanks to $15,000 in American Rescue Act Plan (ARPA) funds allocated by the City for Valley West improvement. During tonight’s meeting, the Arcata City Council will consider approval of eight proposed projects to spend the funding on.

The projects, which focus on community engagement and beautification of Valley West, will be presented to the council by Comunidad Unidad del Norte de Arcata (CUNA) – a group formed through nonprofit Cooperation Humboldt to focus on improving the Valley West neighborhood. After conducting community outreach, CUNA composed a list of 12 project proposals for spending the $15,000. Valley West residents were then given the opportunity to vote, both in-person and online, ranking their top project choices. Out of 12 proposed projects, the eight with the highest votes were selected to present to council.

Here is the list and estimated cost for each project from the city staff report: 

• Fruit Trees in Valley West Park—$750
• Outdoor Picnic Amenities at Hallen Basketball Court—$3,200
• Artisan market/flea market/tianguis—$1,950
• Teen meetups—$1,500
• Weekend dance classes—$400
• Weekend theater classes for children—$600
• Mural—Rebound Project (Basketball court mural on Hallen Drive)—$5,000 
• The Mural Man—Park Project (5 murals)—$1,600

Completion of the eight projects, CUNA reports, are estimated to cost $15,400 to complete – $400 over the ARPA funds budget. But CUNA says that it plans to cover the remaining costs by either fundraising or allocating the cost from CUNA’s supply budget.

Assuming the council approves the list, the projects will be implemented by CUNA staff, volunteers and Arcata city staff. City staff would be in charge of installing the picnic tables and planting the fruit trees, which will be done with help from volunteers during a community work day, and CUNA and community volunteers would provide a two-year commitment to care for the trees.

The City and CUNA would partner to facilitate weekly teen meetups, which will offer Valley West teenagers an opportunity to participate in activities like bowling or beach trips. CUNA and the City would also work together to plan the tianguis (outdoor artisan/ flea market), selecting an appropriate setting and day and finding vendors to participate. According to CUNA’s report, the children’s weekend theater classes would be run by the Arcata Playhouse and the weekend dance classes (for teens and adults) would be facilitated by local dance studio Redwood Raks and dance teacher/ events planner Shoshanna.

The Mural Man Project, run by Benjamin Goulart, would add five colorful murals to the parks in Valley West, working with volunteer youths and teens to complete the pieces. Goulart has worked with youths on several other local mural projects, including a piece for the Eureka Street Art Festival and the mural at Arcata’s Rotary Park. According to the report, these murals would be painted on wood and hung on fences, so that they could be occasionally switched out for different pieces. Rebound – a recently formed DreamMaker project of the Ink People Center for the Arts – would be in charge of painting a mural on the Hallen basketball court, with CUNA helping select the artists that would contribute to the painting. For an example of the type of work Rebound does, you can check out this project the team completed on the Shay Park court.

CUNA’s report says that Valley West community members suggested several other useful improvement projects, such as adding additional garbage cans, fixing broken street lights and adding additional street lighting, adding bathrooms to the parks and more. These projects were not included in the list of proposals because they were either not feasible with the budget, or should fall under a different budget item. This $15,000 was specifically aimed at beautification and increasing community engagement in Valley West.

CUNA also says that only 74 residents voted on the proposals, a more modest turnout than the group was hoping for. But CUNA does feel that this was a successful pilot program and that it plans to continue implementing this type of participatory budgeting in the future. If these projects are completed swiftly, CUNA hopes it will generate community enthusiasm and will help bring in more people for the next round of voting, when CUNA will decide how to spend an additional $30,000 in ARPA money. The report does not say how soon the next vote will be, however.

In the meantime, if you have thoughts on these proposed Valley West projects, you’ll want to attend the Arcata City Council meeting tonight (Wednesday, April 6) at 6 p.m. either online or in person at Arcata City Hall – 736 F Street.

You can view the full agenda and directions on how to participate here.

The man was screaming, but the beating didn’t stop.

It was June 27, 2000, and a group of rogue cops was at work in West Oakland. The Oakland police officers operated in one of the most dangerous beats in one of the most violent parts of the city. They called themselves the Riders.

One officer beat Delphine Allen on the soles of his feet with batons, according to trial testimony. Riders members pepper-sprayed him and drove him under a freeway overpass, where the beating continued, a rookie officer who witnessed the beating would later testify.

[For the record: This story has been corrected to explain that the Riders were a group of rogue Oakland cops and not part of a task force.]

Allen called out for his mother, who lived nearby. “I thought they were going to kill me,” he said in court.

What happened over the next 22 years would reshape the Oakland Police Department and transform it into a progressive model for law enforcement agencies across California.

The rookie police officer who witnessed the assault on Allen filed a complaint in July 2000. The resulting scandal upended the department and touched off a massive overhaul in how the department judges its own officers’ conduct.

Today, Oakland has arguably become the state’s most watched police department with both a federal monitor and strong civilian oversight. In this city of 435,000 across the Bay Bridge from San Francisco, civilians have the power to overrule the police department.

“The direction that Oakland is taking is the inevitable path for a modern-day progressive police department,” said Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf. “And so I believe that we’re on the front lines, we’re the vanguard of police reform.”

Statewide data help tell that story. The Oakland Police Department sustains complaints against its officers at a higher rate than any other major law enforcement entity, except the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, according to a CalMatters analysis of Department of Justice data.

Complaints originate with citizens, or from the department’s internal affairs unit. A sustained complaint means the department believed the person who complained, and could discipline those officers involved.

Statewide, law enforcement agencies sustained 7.6% of complaints against their officers from 2016 to 2020. In those years, the Oakland Police Department sustained complaints at an average rate of 11.3%, the data show.

In 2018 and 2020, the department sustained more than 15.2% of complaints, double the state average, the data show.

“I think we’re doing a much more thorough evaluation,” said Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong. “I also think when you have a community with very low trust in law enforcement, it means that law enforcement has to make sure that they have legitimate and professional processes so we can build trust.”

The California Department of Justice has collected the number of complaints and those sustained since 2016, the result of a bill that that ordered agencies to establish a procedure to investigate complaints by the public against officers and publish the results.

The Oakland police complaint process is now handled by both the department’s internal affairs division and a civilian panel that oversees the department.

Among the rank-and-file, there has been fallout.

Today, officers are leaving the department in higher numbers, from an average of about four per month late last year to 10 or 15 a month since then, according to Armstrong.

“We haven’t seen these type of numbers since I’ve been at the department, and that’s been over two decades,” Armstrong said. “When you work in a big city that’s under the microscope like Oakland, I’m sure that can be challenging to some officers.

“I’ve been pushing the same message to officers, that you can’t escape the calls for reform,” he said. “No matter where you go, you’re going to see more community involvement, the community paying more attention to the actions of officers.”

“When you work in a big city that’s under the microscope like Oakland, I’m sure that can be challenging to some officers.”
— LeRonne Armstrong, Oakland Police Chief

The website Oaklandside reported that, in a sample of 30 exit interviews with Oakland police officers, half were leaving because of dissatisfaction with leadership at the police department or city, and seven cited “heavy discipline.” Others cited family reasons, low morale, better jobs or the federal monitoring team.

“I’ve been doing some exit interviews with officers that are choosing to go to other departments, and what I tell them is the Oakland way is going to be the American way any minute now,” Schaaf told CalMatters.

The Oakland Riders’ legacy

Before the Oakland rookie police officer blew the whistle on the Riders scandal, he was told that beating, kidnapping and planting drugs on people were simply how police work was done, he testified in court.

At trial in 2004, the former rookie, Keith Batts, testified that he didn’t immediately report what he saw. He was new to the department and feared repercussions for reporting excessive use of force.

Three members of the Riders would be fired, but juries would later acquit them of some criminal charges and deadlock on many others. A fourth member, Riders leader Frank Vazquez, fled the city in November 2000 and prosecutors have said they believe he’s in hiding in Mexico.

More than 100 people sued the police department in federal court. The cases were combined into a negotiated settlement agreement, in which the police department consented to reforms and accepted a federal monitoring team. The team would oversee dozens of proposed reforms at the department, especially concerning its use-of-force policy and the process by which complaints are treated.

“They pay a lot more attention to police conduct in Oakland.”
— Rocky Lucia, attorney for the Oakland Police Officers’ Association

The original monitoring team and its successor, appointed in 2010, have both praised and condemned the Oakland police for their conduct since 2003. But in the ensuing two decades, one fundamental change has made the biggest difference: Oakland residents have garnered a lot more power over their police department.

First, in a 2016 ballot measure, the city’s voters put the whole department under civilian oversight. Then, in 2020, the civilian police commission fired the city’s police chief.

In December, the city hired its first inspector general for the police department, a civilian position overseen by the civilian board.

Rocky Lucia, an attorney for the Oakland Police Officers’ Association and several other Bay Area police department unions, said the level of oversight in Oakland exceeds what he’s seen anywhere else.

“They pay a lot more attention to police conduct in Oakland,” Lucia said. “There’s more eyes on people. There’s policies, software programs, there’s resources committed. It’s more than I’ve ever seen anywhere else in the state.”

While he said he’s not certain that Oakland should be spending the amount of money it does on oversight, given rising crime rates that began during the pandemic and the city’s always-muddy financial situation, only 18 months removed from a $62 million budget shortfall. But Lucia acknowledges that the department is identifying potentially problematic officers.

“They’re catching these things early,” Lucia said.

A tale of two scandals

Two years before the beating of Delphine Allen, a different and more infamous gang task force controversy erupted 350 miles south: the Los Angeles Police Department’s Rampart scandal.

The Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums – or CRASH – unit was to Los Angeles what the Riders were to Oakland: an elite group of cops on a special detail that made big busts in the LAPD’s Rampart Division.

CRASH unit officers were also accused of robbing a bank, stealing cocaine from the evidence room and replacing it with Bisquick, and beating a suspect until he vomited blood.

As a result, in 1998 the LAPD instituted a new policy: All complaints against an officer would trigger an investigation.

Complaints against officers piled up, major crimes arrests dropped and officers started to complain that the system treated them unfairly.

“Complaints against officers soared,” wrote University of Chicago economics professor Canice Prendergast in a 2021 paper analyzing the scandal’s fallout. “These were sustained at high rates, resulting in suspensions, resignations and terminations at levels far higher than before.”

Any complaint tied up officers’ promotions and transfers. Predergast found that the level of sustained complaints was even more damaging to police morale.

So the officers radically reduced their engagement with the public, according to Prendergast’s paper, which is named after the practice of non-engagement: “Drive and Wave.”

From 2016 to 2020, the last year for which statistics are available, the LAPD sustained complaints at a rate of 5.2%, below the statewide average for that period.

Arrests plummeted. The LAPD accepted a federal monitor from the U.S. Department of Justice in 2000 and nearly 90% of LAPD officers interviewed by the monitor in 2001 said a fear of discipline stopped them from “proactively” doing their jobs.

Then, the LAPD was then handed a big win by, of all things, the federal monitor itself, which encouraged the department to clear up its backlog of complaints.

Prendergast found the police department’s solution in long-buried LAPD archives, a decision that was put out among the department’s employees but never publicized: The LAPD gave its commanding officers the power to dismiss complaints against their subordinates.

That meant complaints could be dismissed moments after they were filed, and an officer’s superior was the one to judge their actions.

The result was that, beginning in 2003, sustained complaints fell dramatically, and penalties for sustained complaints were much more rare, Prendergast found.

From 2016 to 2020, the last year for which statistics are available, the LAPD sustained complaints at a rate of 5.2%, below the statewide average for that period.

“Disciplinary measures across the board became less likely,” Pendergast wrote, “even when an investigation ruled against the officer.”

Some officers ‘just tired’

Under California law, there are four outcomes for a complaint against a police officer.

Complaints can be sustained, which means the investigation proved the allegation to be true by a preponderance of evidence.

An officer can be exonerated, meaning the officer did what was described, but it didn’t violate department law or policy.

Complaints can be ruled “unsustained,” meaning the investigation failed to clearly prove or disprove the allegation. Or, complaints can be determined “unfounded,” which means the investigation clearly showed the allegation was untrue.

For much of the Oakland Police Department’s time under a federal monitor, most complaints were relegated to the “unfounded” bin, ​​said John Burris, one of two lead plaintiff attorneys in the settlement agreement between the police department and the city following the Riders scandal.

With civilian oversight since 2016, he said far fewer complaints were dismissed as unfounded.

Burris said cases dismissed as “unfounded” were the ones that bothered him the most.

“[Complainants are] not lying. I may not be able to prove it, but something happened,” Burris said, and noted that unfounded complaints also disappear from officers’ personnel files.

Today, when a complaint is filed, the Oakland police and the Civilian Police Review Agency launch parallel investigations. Each makes its own conclusions.

When there’s a difference of opinion, the question goes to another set of civilians – the Civilian Police Commission, which holds final authority on questions of officer misconduct.

Tyfahra Milele, chair of the Civilian Police Commission, said she can empathize with officers who feel they are over-policed by their civilian overseers. She said that officers tell her they’re more afraid to engage residents because they’re worried about a complaint, which can tie up their promotions and damage their careers.

Since the police-related killings of Ahmaud Aubrey in Atlanta, Breonna Taylor in Louisville and George Floyd in Minneapolis, “there’s much more of a vigilance around police and accountability,” Milele said. “Some officers are like, OK, I’m gonna go to work and ride this wave. Some [officers say] this isn’t the role for me, all these other factors are making it difficult.

“We have some officers that are just tired.”

Despite what Burris, the attorney, described as widespread opposition among the department’s rank-and-file to civilian oversight, the results have been a higher level of scrutiny of officer behavior, according to lawyers on both sides of the city’s 2003 negotiated settlement agreement.

Attorneys representing Allen who originally brought the lawsuit in Oakland expect the settlement agreement with the police department to end in 2023 or 2024.

A hearing before U.S. District Court Judge William Orrick in San Francisco to determine the department’s progress is set for April 27.

“It’s taken a long time, but we’re finally getting traction,” said Burris. “Our hope is we’ll fundamentally ingrain things in the culture.

“It’s my worst nightmare about the case, that it’s all for naught. That it goes back to the way it was.”

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

Painting alarming scenes of fires, floods and economic disruption, the California Legislature’s advisors on Tuesday released a series of reports that lay out in stark terms the impacts of climate change across the state.

The typically reserved, nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office outlined dire consequences for Californians as climate change continues to alter most aspects of daily life. Much of the focus of the six-part series is detailing the economic cost as the changing climate alters where and how Californians build, grow food and protect the most vulnerable residents.

• Wildfires, heat and floods will force more frequent school closures, disrupting education, child care and availability of free school lunches. More than 1,600 schools temporarily closed because of wildfires each year between 2017 and 2020, affecting nearly a million students a year.
• Workers in outdoor industries like agriculture, construction, forestry and recreation — 10% of California’s workforce and mostly made up of Latinos — will continue to bear the brunt of extreme heat and smoke.
• Wildfire smoke may have killed about 20 people among every 100,000 older Californians in 2020, and is projected to become more deadly. A 50% increase in smoke could kill nine to 20 more people among every 100,000 each year.
• Housing, rail lines, bridges, ports, power plants, freeways and other structures are vulnerable to rising seas and tides. “Between $8 billion and $10 billion of existing property in California is likely to be underwater by 2050, with an additional $6 billion to $10 billion at risk during high tide.”
• Extreme heat is projected to cause nine deaths per 100,000 people each year, “roughly equivalent to the 2019 annual mortality rate from automobile accidents in California.”
• Lower-income Californians, who live in communities at greater risk for heat and floods because of discriminatory housing practices, will be hit especially hard by climate change and have fewer resources to adapt.
• Housing will be lost: For example, in the San Francisco Bay Area alone, 13,000 existing housing units and 104,000 job spaces “will no longer be usable” because of sea rise over the next next 40 to 100 years.
• Beaches will disappear, too: Up to two-thirds of Southern California beaches may become completely eroded by 2100.

The report’s unsaid but unambiguous conclusion: Climate change could alter everything, spare no one in California, so legislators should consider preparing for sweeping impacts.

“These hazards will threaten public health, safety, and well-being — including from life-threatening events, damage to public and private property and infrastructure, and impaired natural resources,” the analysts say in their report.

The pain, and costs, will be shared among state, regional, local, private and industry sectors, according to the report.

Scientists say it’s not too late to stop the most severe effects, although the clock is ticking. Technologies and other solutions already exist to reduce greenhouse gases from fossil fuels and other sources and prevent more irreversible harm, according to a landmark international scientific report released Monday. But international accords and plans continue to fall far short, with emissions expected to keep increasing.

“These hazards will threaten public health, safety, and well-being — including from life-threatening events, damage to property and infrastructure, and impaired natural resources.”
— Legislative Analyst’s Office report

California’s legislative analysts did not conduct new research; instead, they compiled existing data and projections, providing a comprehensive clearinghouse for legislators as they enact policies and approve budgets.

State Sen. Bob Wieckowski, a Democrat from Fremont and chair of the budget subcommittee on resources, environmental protection and energy, said he plans to turn to the reports as references and rationale for the subcommittee’s budget proposals.

“It’s impressive,” he said. “(It) turns the climate conversation into an all-hands-on-deck versus, ‘Oh, this is just some tree hugger over here.’”

The analysts make no explicit policy recommendations but they advise legislators to consider such questions as: How can the state avoid exacerbating climate impacts? How can lawmakers protect the most vulnerable Californians? And how should California pay to prepare and respond to climate change?

Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, a Democrat from South Gate, asked the Legislative Analyst’s Office to assess the impacts of climate change on a variety of policy sectors, and the reports grew from there. They frame climate change as a complex, multi-disciplinary problem that requires response from all of the state’s agencies.

Project manager Rachel Ehlers said the aim is to assist lawmakers incorporate climate change into decisions outside of traditionally environmental realms, including housing, health and education. For instance, would a new housing policy “have the potential to inadvertently worsen climate change impacts?” she said.

Last year’s budget package reflected the overarching scope of the problem, proposing to spend $9.3 billion over three years to bolster the state’s responses to drought, floods, fire and sea level rise.

Despite the state’s climate-forward reputation, critics and many legislators note that California’s follow-through has been inconsistent.

The reports come in the lead-up to California Gov. Gavin’s Newsom’s May revision to his January budget blueprint, when the administration can reframe and update its proposals. Thus far, the proposed budget included more than $22 billion for climate change efforts that include protecting communities against wildfires and extreme heat.

Despite the state’s climate-forward reputation, critics and many legislators note that California’s follow-through has been inconsistent.

“I don’t at all feel that we are leading the world anymore,” Rendon, a Democrat from South Gate, told CalMatters last year.

Although the state passed a $15 billion climate budget, California Environmental Voters, an advocacy group, gave California its first “D” grade for what it called its climate inaction last year.

“We’re plagued by ‘climate delayers’ in Sacramento – members of the Legislature who talk about climate change but don’t back up those words with action,” CEO Mary Creasman wrote in a CalMatters commentary.

Last month, a coalition of California’s environmental justice advocacy organizations pushed for a phase-out of fossil fuels, and warned that clean air regulators have failed to adequately consider public health in crafting the state’s blueprint for curbing greenhouse gas pollution.

California is already reeling from climate change

The analysis made clear that many of the worst consequences are already here, even as it noted that future impacts are coming sooner and may be worse than scientists had predicted.

Summer temperatures scorched records as the state’s second-largest wildfire tore across Northern California during the third-driest year on record for rain and snowfall. California must brace for yet more climate hazards, the reports warn, from extreme heat to more severe wildfires, whiplash from drought to flood and sea level rise along the coast.

Drought clutches California and a statewide heat wave forecast for Wednesday is poised to sap the remaining snowpack that supplies about a third of the state’s water. California’s firefighting arm warns that a record-dry start to the year could spell a devastating fire season ahead.

It’s a disaster drumbeat Californians have heard many times before. The Legislative Analyst’s Office has released report after report assessing the state’s climate policies and spending. It has warned that sea level rise will submerge billions of dollars in homes, roads and businesses by 2050, and that the state must accelerate planning to protect state assets including college campuses, prisons and even state workers from soaring heat, flooding, fire and extreme weather.

Newsom’s administration launched a preemptive response to the reports, with the Monday release of its updated climate adaptation strategy. The guidelines pull together plans from 38 departments and address priority issues, such as protecting communities vulnerable to climate change and combating risks to health and safety.

California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot said the strategy is “a matter of protecting our residents and our communities or natural places from climate threats that are already here.”

State officials regularly recalibrate the official response to climate change, often in response to dire reports. Four years ago, California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment released under former Gov. Jerry Brown warned that climate change would lead to death and property damage on the order of tens of billions of dollars by 2050.

Though Tuesday’s reports were focused largely on how California must adapt to the ravages of climate change, the Legislative Analyst’s Office has also warned repeatedly that California’s landmark greenhouse gas market, cap and trade, will fail to meet California’s goals to reduce emissions.

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

Carol Leigh Ammon passed away on March 21, 2022 in Red Bluff, where she was a resident of 20 years. She was born on August 7, 1951 to Ardith and Louis McConnell in Hoopa, and was the youngest of 8 siblings. Her siblings were David, William, Howard “Louie”, Michael, Mary, Nora, and Robert “Bob” McConnell.

She was a proud Yurok woman and spent her life spreading love and kindness. She appreciated and enjoyed sharing her culture with family and friends. She grew up in the beautiful Hoopa Valley, surrounded by her loving family. As a young girl, Carol attended elementary and high school in Hoopa, graduating in 1969, and later marrying Ronnie Ammon. She attended CSU Chico State majoring in English. After a few years of college, she moved to McKinleyville so that she could be closer to her family and to raise her children, Nicole and Lee Ammon. She worked as a dental hygienist during her stay in McKinleyville.

Carol was a devoted mother, grandmother, great-grandmother. She was proud of all of them. She enjoyed being a Girl Scout leader when her daughter Nicole was young. Carol, Nicole and other little girl scouts once traveled to southern California for a National Girl Scout Conference, later taking a detour to Disneyland. She was proud that her son Lee had grown up to be a good father, grandfather, mechanic, and a fixer upper of old cars.

Carol had a nurturing and loving heart, always taking care of others. She cared for her mother Ardith in her elderly years and many of her nieces and nephews were close to her growing up and spent much time with her. Until Carol became disabled, she was an in-home health worker - a job she was good at as a naturally kind and nurturing person. She once said that the most difficult part of taking care of elderly people was losing them.

Lady slipper orchids and shooting stars, bluebells and trilliums, firecrackers and Indian paint brushes — what a wonderful legacy to leave. Though she may not have known it, Carol made a great and lasting impression on many of the younger family members throughout the years. She often watched them after school so their parents could work and cared for them with kindness, patience, and a loving heart. She’d take them on nature walks up the dry creek bed exploring and admiring the wildflowers all along the way. She instilled in many of them an appreciation and love for nature, plants and especially wildflowers. Her brother Bob would jokingly say, “Here comes the plant police” because she was always tending to his houseplants. She spent a lot of summer days with loved ones on or near water – the river, ocean, creeks, and lakes. She didn’t major in Botany in college, maybe she should have but it really didn’t matter because she was the family’s personal botanist.

She leaves behind a large, loving family and friends and will be missed by those whose lives she touched. Carol is survived by son Lee Christian Ammon (Rebecca), grandchildren: Joshua Ammon, Thomas Blake Jr, Britany Goodluck, Erica, Alex, and Lee Jr, Isaiah, Kiarra, Christian, Kiayleah Ammon, Wassic Ammon Gemmill, Kendal Jackson, Rayanin, Buckley, and Arayah Hoaglin, great grandchildren: Lyla B Goodluck, Adele Singletary, Angel and Jackson Gabriel, Lilly, Charlotte, Macario, and William Ammon, brother Robert McConnell (Deborah), sisters Mary Hall (Al), Nora Shields; sister in law Norma McConnell and many nieces and nephews, cousins and friends. Carol was preceded in death by her daughter Nicole Ammon, parents Louis and Ardith McConnell, brothers William, David, Howard and Michael McConnell, great-grand mother Fanny Rube Dowd, grandparents Louisa Dowd Wilder and Edwin Wilder, great aunt Mamie Ryan Parton, and great uncle Jim Hunter, uncles Roy Wilder and Donald Irving Wilder, aunts and uncles Thelma Mahon (Joe), Edwina Evans (Reece), Joyce Wilder Plummer (Robert), nephew Michael D. McConnell Jr, nieces Karla McConnell Turtle, and Pamela McConnell; aunt Juanita Wilder; brother-in-law Donald Shields; sister-in-law Yvonne Pratt McConnell; husband Ron Ammon; mother and father-in-law Blanch “Molly” and Chauncy “Jube” Ammon.

Memorial services were arranged by and held at Blair Funeral Home in Red Bluff on Friday, April 1, 2022 from 4-7 p.m. There will be a celebration of life reception at Post 415, American Legion Hall, Hoopa on Saturday, April 9, 2022 at 4 p.m. Carol will be interred in Humboldt County. We will serve food and share stories, photographs and memories of a wonderful sister, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, auntie and friend to many.

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

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The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the transfer of $381,482 from the county’s General Fund to the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) during the board’s regular meeting Tuesday to cover financial losses associated with delayed postings by the Auditor-Controller’s Office. 

The item, which was pulled from the consent calendar by Second District Supervisor Michelle Bushnell, stated that the auditor-controller’s failure to post Internal Service Fund (ISF) and Cost Allocation Plan (CAP) charges to the general ledger in a timely manner prevented DHHS’ Public Health branch from meeting several claiming deadlines for reimbursement. The money will restore what Public Health has lost in state and federal reimbursements between Fiscal Years (FY) 2019-20 and 2020-21.

Green | Screenshot

“Had the ISF and CAP charges posted to the general ledger timely, we would have been able to include those costs into the claim for Public Health and been 100% reimbursed,” said Trevis Green, deputy director of Financial Services for DHHS. “…At this particular moment, Public Health itself is subsidizing the federal and state government for programs that we’re putting on on their behalf.”

Impacted services included several nursing and dental programs, substance abuse prevention initiatives and projects through the Mental Health Services Act. 

Had Public Health gone ahead and filed for reimbursement without proper backup documentation, “that would be fraud,” Connie Beck, director of DHHS, told the Outpost.

County Administrative Officer Elishia Hayes noted that the expense “should not be the burden of the General Fund” but acknowledged that Public Health would not be able to recuperate the funds otherwise. 

“This has been a perpetual problem for our organization for a number of years,” Hayes said. “…This is problematic for our organization and puts us at great risk of losing dollars which may become a burden of the general fund just to keep programs running and being effective for our community.”

First District Supervisor Rex Bohn asked Hayes whether the associated paperwork had been done correctly. “This is real money,” he said. “…We’re throwing things at the wall hoping we have enough money…but it’s not getting done.”

Bohn emphasized that “something seriously needs to happen” for the financial health of the community at large. “It’s, I don’t know, probably the most frustrating thing ever.”

Bushnell made a motion to approve staff’s recommendation which was seconded by Third District Supervisor Mike Wilson. Following a brief public comment period, the motion passed in a unanimously 5-0 vote.

A second suspect in the gruesome slaying of Hoopa resident Julius “Jules” Tripp must stand trial on charges of murder and conspiracy to commit murder, Judge Kaleb Cockrum ruled today.

Cockrum, after listening to evidence presented during a two-day preliminary hearing, held 20-year-old Daniel Armendariz to answer on all charges. His arraignment is set for April 19.

Tripp, 42, was homeless and sleeping in a camper off Highway 96 on July 20, 2020. After a roadside confrontation with Bronson Moon Lewis Jr., Lewis allegedly stabbed Tripp multiple times and left him lying down a steep, wooded slope between Hoopa and Weitchpec.

Then Lewis and four companions drove south to Hoopa, where Lewis got a rifle and returned to the scene.

According to witness statements Tripp was still alive. He could be heard breathing heavily and screaming “You guys are going down for attempted murder!”

Then witnesses heard gunshots.

Although Lewis is charged with stabbing and shooting Tripp, Armendariz allegedly was by his side during the entire episode. Armendariz reportedly got a pocket knife out of Lewis’s truck when Lewis and Tripp were fighting, and he may have handed Lewis the machete that was used on Tripp. He also went with Lewis when he got the rifle from a residence in Hoopa.

Also, Cockrum noted when making his ruling this morning, Armendariz reportedly told Lewis after the killing that they were in this together.

“Don’t worry about it,” Armendariz allegedly said. “If you go down for murder I go down. We’re in this together.”

Armendariz, interviewed by sheriff’s Investigator Mark Peterson after the killing, denied involvement and pointed the finger at Dale Mabry, who was driving Lewis’s truck when they came upon Tripp’s camper in a pullout. Armendariz said Mabry was the one who was with Lewis when Tripp was killed.

Cockrum said both Armendariz and Mabry made “self-serving statements” about their roles. Mabry was the driver, he was the one who decided to bump Tripp’s camper with Lewis’s truck, and he used the truck to push Tripp’s old pickup and camper over a cliff. Also, when Lewis told Mabry to stop the truck and turn around after Tripp threw a tire rim at them, Mabry obeyed.

“I do believe Mr. Mabry has some criminal liability in this case,” the judge said.

As to Armendariz, there was testimony he was the one who said Tripp needed to be “finished off.” And at least one witness said Armendariz joined in when Lewis was threatening his companions with death if anyone talked about what they saw.

Dale Mabry was called as a witness during this hearing but refused to testify, invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. But another Mabry, Milton Mabry, testified via Zoom this morning that he spoke with Bronson Lewis five days after the killing.

“He pretty much told me what he did,” Milton Mabry said. “Chopped (Tripp) up and then went and got a gun and shot him.”

Asked whether Lewis said he was alone at the time, Milton Mabry responded “He didn’t say.”

In arguing Armendariz should be held to answer for murder, Deputy District Attorney Trent Timm said Armendariz got out of the truck with Lewis after they encountered Tripp, and both he and Lewis obtained knives.

“He was out there when Mr. Lewis mutilated Mr. Tripp’s body with a sharp object,” Timm told the judge. “We don’t know if it was one or the other, or both of them.”

Witnesses could see “swinging motions” from where they were parked up on Highway 96, but they couldn’t see who was swinging.

Defense attorney Meagan O’Connell argued it was Lewis who retrieved a machete from his truck and Lewis who used the machete to attack Tripp.

“There’s no indication the pocket knife was used,” she said, noting witnesses saw blood on Lewis and his machete, but no blood on Armendariz.

“There’s no evidence that any action on the part of Mr. Armendariz actually caused Mr. Tripp’s death,” O’Connell argued, saying the prosecution needed to prove Armendariz had the intent to kill.

It was witness K-lynn Dowd who said she heard Armendariz speak about finishing Tripp off. But O’Connell noted Dowd said she wasn’t paying close attention to Armendariz, and “there is a possibility that someone else made that statement.”

O’Connell also said it could be argued the killing was justified, as Tripp was much older than Lewis and he had thrown a tire rim and a rock at Lewis’s truck. Armendariz could have been protecting Lewis, himself and others, she said.

Timm said the idea of Armendariz protecting others from Tripp “is — quite frankly — ridiculous and insulting.”

Lewis, then 18, turned himself in on Aug. 25 after witnesses implicated him in the killing and Tripp’s remains were found. Deputy Coroner Chad Zeck testified he saw a skull, arm bones, leg bones and a patch of skin. The skin was tattooed, Zeck said, and he could make out the words Tripp, Yurok, hostile, and Native.

A forensic pathologist determined Tripp suffered “sharp-force trauma” to his arms and the back of his head, and he was possibly shot as well.

Armendariz was not arrested until November 2020, after testimony implicating him was presented during Lewis’s preliminary hearing.

Both Armendariz and Lewis remain in Humboldt County Correctional Facility, where Lewis celebrated his 20th birthday today. His trial is scheduled for later this month.

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Eureka Police Department release: 

On Saturday we responded to the area of the Samoa Bridge after a caller reported witnessing a couple take a seal pup from the bay and put it in an aquarium in their vehicle. Officers quickly stopped the vehicle and rescued the seal pup.

California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) and the North Coast Marine Mammal Center responded to take over the investigation and care for the seal pup.

CDFW says this is the time of year many wildlife species from seals to deer leave their young unattended in safe areas, sometime hidden, while the mother leaves to feed. With seals, this commonly means on a mudflat in Humboldt Bay. Many people assume the newborn seal is abandoned, but that is rarely the case. The best thing to do is keep your distance and leave the animal alone. The mother will return. If people think the animal is in fact abandoned or hurt, they should not approach or touch it and call the North Coast Marine Mammal Center at 707-951-4722.

The occupants of the vehicle were detained and the investigation by CDFW is ongoing. Marine mammals are protected federally by the Marine Mammal Protection Act. It is unlawful to feed or harass wild marine mammals including dolphins, porpoises, whales, seals and sea lions. If prosecuted, NOAA Office of Law Enforcement could enforce civil penalties up to 11,000, up to 1 year in prison plus criminal fines, and forfeiture of the vessel involved. The public is instructed by NOAA to keep at least 50 yards (150 feet) away from seals. State laws also protect marine mammals and violators can be charged criminally with a misdemeanor.

Thank you to the alert witness who called this in and provided a detailed description of suspects and vehicle!