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During this week’s regular meeting, the Humboldt County Planning Commission took its first look at a draft ordinance to regulate short-term rentals in unincorporated areas of the county.

The proposed rules, which have been in the works for several months, would provide a regulatory framework for the permitting and operation of short-term rentals (dwelling units that are rented to guests for 30 consecutive days or less, through services such as Airbnb or Vrbo) to avoid adverse impacts to the county’s available housing stock.

The goal of the ordinance is to “protect the values of the community,” Keenan Hilton, an associate planner with the county Planning and Building Department, explained during Thursday’s meeting. “In particular, prevent[ing] the loss of housing stock … and preserving neighborhood quality.”

On the other hand, Hilton said, short-term rentals offer economic gain for property owners who aren’t interested in renting to long-term tenants. “There are hundreds of members of our community that are involved in this industry and have invested a lot in it.”

Of the 34,093 residential units in unincorporated Humboldt County, approximately 567 are being used as short-term rentals. “That number constitutes 1.66 percent of the total housing stock of the county,” Hilton said. 

The draft ordinance differentiates between specific communities and separates the greater Humboldt Bay region – “where housing availability has been impacted and housing costs have risen ahead of the pace of wage growth” –  from the rest of the county, according to the executive summary of the ordinance. To ensure short-term rentals don’t overwhelm the Humboldt Bay region, the total number of permits would be capped at two percent of the total housing stock.

“If the number of permits issued for existing short-term rentals exceeds the cap … then no permits will be issued for new short-term rentals until the number of permitted short-term rentals in the county falls below the cap,” Hilton said. “So, if through attrition the number drops down below the cap at that point, we would accept new applications.”

Who is considered “existing” under the proposed rules? Anyone who establishes a short-term rental before the ordinance goes into effect.

“Optimistically, that’s in December of this year,” Hilton said. “If you established your operation in November, you would be considered an existing operation as it’s written right now.”

The draft ordinance notes that no permits will be issued during the first two months following after it goes into effect, but interested parties can still apply. “Two months after the effective date of this ordinance the department will issue permits for qualifying locations with existing short-term rentals,” the document states. “If the number of permits issued for existing short-term rentals exceeds the cap … then no permits will be issued for new short-term rentals until the number of permitted short-term rentals in the county falls below the cap.”

The draft ordinance would also limit the number of rental permits for a single property owner to no more than five parcels.

Speaking during public comment, Lissie Rydz, founder of the Do Nothing Society, an Arcata-based community engagement project, called attention to the county’s housing crisis.

“There is a monumental housing crisis happening right now,” she said. “I just checked Craigslist and there are only, like, 300 rentals on Craigslist. There are 150 Airbnb rentals right now, today. … My first rental in 2011 in downtown Arcata was $550 [per month] for a studio, a big studio. I saw last year that the same place is $1,300. … I’ve met so many people that I didn’t expect [that are] sleeping in cars. … This is it hurts me a lot to, like, hear all these stories and to not feel like there’s enough being done.”

Arcata resident Raelina Krikston presented several data points to illustrate why property owners would be incentivized to list properties as short-term rentals rather than long-term rentals. 

“[In] Arcata [there are] 237 listings, each generating an average of $41,000 a year,” she said. “Eureka with 277 listings, each one of these generating an average of $43,000 a year. McKinleyville, with 154 generating $54,000 a year. And Trinidad with 157 listings. Each [short-term rental] in Trinidad generates an average of $83,000 annually, and has an occupancy rate of 74 percent. So again, it’s easy to see why property owners would choose to list their properties as short-term rentals based on this income potential.”

Speaking on behalf of the Humboldt Association of Realtors, Bernie Garrigan, a real estate broker with South Fork Real Estate, asked the commission to delay its decision on the short-term rental ordinance.

“The complaint process [outlined in the ordinance] specifically seems to lack any sort of guidance or implementation as to what quantifies as a complaint,” he said. “Our recommendation overall is to delay any sort of adoption of the short-term [rental] ordinance until we can totally fulfill – with clarity – what measures would need to be taken to protect community members and their rights and property owners.”

Jessie Reichenbach, a local short-term rental operator, urged people who are concerned about the proliferation of short-term rentals to consider both sides of the issue.

“I lost my dad about five years ago to cancer and then I got diagnosed with cancer last year,” she said. “[I] went through several surgeries over the winter to try and remedy that. … We started renting out our home when I was going through the surgery so I didn’t lose my home, and now we are planning on living out of the county for just a year or two while we spend time with our remaining family members. It’s not greed and it’s not always us trying to invest and then make the money somehow, we’re just trying to cover our mortgage so we can come back once we’re back on our feet financially and live in the home that we love.”

As the meeting approached the four-hour mark, Commission Chair Noah Levy said he’d have to cut public comment short due to time constraints. “What are our options for moving forward on this?” he asked.

“Our plan is to bring this back on Oct. 5,” said Planning and Building Director John Ford. “I was thinking, because you really didn’t get a chance in [this] workshop to really make comments or explore things, we could continue the workshop [on] Oct. 5 and we can put that on first on the agenda.”

Commissioner Brian Mitchell asked if the commission would be willing to hold a special meeting on the topic. “I strongly feel like we need to have a separate meeting directed solely for this,” he said. “It’s not fair to have so many people waiting on topics that are completely not germane to what they’re interested in. And it’s very hard for us to switch gears between all these different topics.”

Ford noted that staff has agendas “projected through the end of the year” and said an extra meeting would be a viable option if the commission was open to it.

After some additional discussion, the commission unanimously agreed to continue the workshop to Oct. 5.

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Stepping inside of ¡Hey Juan! Burritos for the first time in probably about 20 years, I was instantly transported to my high school days when I, like many Arcata High and HSU students, frequented the tiny restaurant in Northtown Arcata. Back then the place was known for its laid-back, party-friendly atmosphere and its heaping portions of fairly inexpensive food. It was also known for its food being, well, not very good. 

Oh, and the cinnamon. Who could forget that the beans tasted so much like cinnamon? 

But apparently those large, messy portions of cinnamon-seasoned food were enough to keep people coming back, because the business has continued operating since it first opened more than 40 years ago, making it somewhat of an Arcata institution. 

Now, current owners Matthew Pipis and Scott Henderson have been making some big changes over the last few years that they hope will make the community view the famous !Hey Juan! food in a different way. 

“I’d tell somebody I bought Hey Juan’s and the first thing they’d say is ‘Oh, that’s the place with the death paste’ and ‘Don’t the beans taste like cinnamon?’” Scott Henderson, co-owner of ¡Hey Juan!, told the Outpost during a recent interview at the restaurant. “Those are always the two things!”

¡Hey Juan! Burritos, most commonly referred to as Hey Juan’s (like with many names, people seem to like adding an extraneous apostrophe “s” ), was first opened in 1982 by James “Gavin” Embry, who ran the restaurant for 33 years. Embry, who was originally from Panama, was an accomplished mountain climber and world traveler and is said to have started the restaurant using some recipes that he brought back with him from his travels in South America. Embry spent a lot of time at the restaurant and even lived in a small apartment behind the kitchen. 

In 2002 ¡Hey Juan! was taken over by an employee of Embry’s, Stormy Mcmakin, who ran the restaurant for the next 15 years. After Mcmakin came down with a serious illness, she decided that it was time to step away. 

Pipis had been a regular at !Hey Juan! since he first moved to Arcata in 2007 from Roseville to attend Cal Poly Humboldt (then HSU) and was a big fan of the cheap food and cheap beer. Pipis had no previous restaurant experience, he said, but he had dreamed of eventually owning his own restaurant. 

Then in early 2018 Pipis was invited to participate in the BIG Chili Cook-Off in Blue Lake, an annual event put on by Mad River Brewing Co. to benefit Big Brothers and Big Sisters of the North Coast. Pipis said that he had no plans to enter the cook-off, but a friend of his who worked for the City of Blue Lake called him on the night before the event and said they needed another contestant and asked if he could do it. Pipis enthusiastically accepted, before he learned that it meant he would have to cook seven gallons of chili that night! 

So, he contacted Henderson, who did have cooking experience, to help him. Pipis said he really did not know what he was doing and started by actually Googling “how to win a chili cook-off.” After finding some information on the magic formula for a winning chili, he bought the ingredients and the two managed to cook a huge batch of chili and enter the event. Much to their surprise, the formula worked and Pipis and Henderson won the 2018 BIG Chili Cook-off. 

“[We competed] against a bunch of restaurants,” Pipis said, jokingly. “So when we won, we had big heads.”

Hot off the win, Pipis decided that it was time to make his restaurant-owning dream come true and offered to buy !Hey Juan! from Mcmakin. He offered to work shifts at the restaurant so that it could stay open, and asked that, in exchange, Mcmakin teach him how to run the business. Pipis hired a lawyer to help with the transfer process and said that his lawyer even advised him that the restaurant was probably not a good investment. But Pipis really wanted to move forward, and on May 12, 2018 he and Henderson became the official owners.

You might think that taking over an already established restaurant would be relatively easy, but this was not the case, Pipis said. With the transfer of ownership, the restaurant had to undergo a new inspection and the health department handed the owner a long list of violations that needed to be corrected to bring the restaurant up to code. The biggest challenge, Pipis said, was that the restaurant didn’t have enough square footage for a commercial kitchen. But Pipis managed to convince the owner of The Hutch, which is directly next door, to lease the restaurant a section of the store’s space. After knocking a hole through the wall, they were able to install a walk-in cooler to add the necessary square footage. 

After managing to make all of the necessary changes, Pipis and Henderson were ready to reopen !Hey Juan! And, at first, things were going pretty well. Of course, the business hit another roadblock in 2020 when COVID forced everything to close down. Pipis said that he, like many folks, had a pretty hard time dealing with lockdown and was feeling discouraged about the decision to take on the stresses of running a business. But it also gave him some time to rethink the business and when things started opening back up again, Pipis and Henderson decided it was time to make some changes to help the business thrive. 

“We realized we’d been using these same recipes,” Pipis said. “We decided to have a chef, who’s a friend of ours, come in and go through our whole menu and take a look at our food, and we changed some of our processes.”    

Pipis and Henderson tweaked some of the more than 40-year-old recipes and started prepping their food in small batches, cooking their meat, beans and rice daily. They also developed a contract with Cal Poly Humboldt’s dining services and opened a second !Hey Juan! location at The Depot on campus. At first, Henderson said, they had to make the food and staff the location themselves. But last summer they penned a “licensing contract” with the university’s dining services, which basically means that the owners are given money for the use of the ¡Hey Juan! name and recipes, but Humboldt Dining provides its own staff and supplies.

Pipis and Henderson also started a product line of sauces and spice blends, which are already available for purchase at The Depot location and will soon be available at some local grocery stores including the North Coast Co-op and Murphy’s Markets. 

Though they’ve made a lot of changes, Pipis and Henderson still want to keep the original !Hey Juan! spirit alive. The famous Death Paste is still the original recipe, and although their food prices have gone up, they still try to give a hefty portion, with each burrito weighing one and a half pounds. It was also important to them to keep the beer prices low, and they claim to have the cheapest beer in town, with $2 pints of PBR and $3 pints of all their other beers. They also still make the famous mimosas, which are $6 a pint. 

And as for the notorious beans, Henderson said that they do still put in some cinnamon, but it’s about one quarter the amount of the previous recipe and is much more balanced and not overwhelming in cinnamon flavor. And I can attest to this, because I ordered a burrito and could not detect any cinnamon! And I have to say, I did not miss it. 

So if you long for the same !Hey Juan! food that was there when I was a teenager – a huge, messy burrito that immediately fell apart when you tried to eat it and tasted a lot like cinnamon – then you might be disappointed. And Pipis and Henderson said that a few old-timers have not been too happy about the changes, but when they try the new food they usually change their tune. 

“Overall, we get a way better response from the community,” Pipis said. “A restaurant is for serving the community and that’s what we want to do…and now I’m very proud of what we’re serving.”

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Beware, Humboldt County shoplifters! As part of California’s “largest-ever single investment to combat organized retail crime” — a $267 million infusion to 55 local law enforcement agencies — the Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office will soon receive a grant of more than $2 million, which DA Stacey Eads plans to employ by developing an Organized Retail Theft Prosecution Team.

Eads. | LinkedIn.

Eads tells the Outpost that this “ORTPT” will consist of a dedicated deputy district attorney, a D.A. investigator and an administrative analyst. Their task: to curtail organized retail theft within our community.

“We plan to develop community outreach and training programs designed to support local businesses in theft prevention and response, as well as information sharing and open lines of communication leading to thorough investigation and successful prosecution of organized retail theft crimes,” Eads said in an email.

Recent headlines across the state and beyond have highlighted “smash-and-grab mobs” that descend on luxury retailers, and numerous retail chains, including Whole Foods, Old Navy and Nordstrom, have closed their downtown San Francisco stores in recent years, with many citing crime as a key factor.

Rates of retail theft and robbery have risen across the state in recent years, according to the Public Policy Institute of California, though shoplifting has declined somewhat since hitting a peak in 2015. 

In a recent announcement about the grants, Governor Gavin Newsom unleashed some Grade A tough-on-crime rhetoric.

“Enough with these brazen smash-and-grabs,” he declared. “With an unprecedented $267 million investment, Californians will soon see more takedowns, more police, more arrests, and more felony prosecutions. When shameless criminals walk out of stores with stolen goods, they’ll walk straight into jail cells.”

Eads’ approach will be more nuanced, judging by the intentions she articulated in her email. Her team’s first task will be identifying the frequency of organized retail theft along with “the factors involved in commission of such crimes.”

And while she hopes this information will help protect the community, reduce recidivism and secure more successful prosecutions, Eads said she doesn’t plan simply to lock up all perpetrators. Rather, she intends to use some of the grand funds to develop a diversion program for low-level, first-time offenders.

The grant money, which comes from the Board of State and Community Corrections (BSCC), was mostly bestowed on local sheriff’s offices and police departments — 34 of them, to be exact. 

But California D.A.’s got in on the action, too. After a competitive grant application process, Eads’ office was one of 13 district attorney offices statewide to receive funding. Most received the same (or very nearly the same) amount as Humboldt County’s DA Office ($2,050,000), though a few received less.

The BSCC approved the funding recommendation amounts at a meeting last week, and the money is slated to be dispersed on October 1.

“As this is a new opportunity, we are very much in the early stages but eager to work hard to reduce organized retail theft within Humboldt County,” Eads said, adding, “I hope to share more as we move forward.”

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The following press release was issued by Lopez-Wagner Strategies on behalf of the Resighini Tribe of Yurok People, Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation and Cher-Ae Heights Indian Community of the Trinidad Rancheria:

It’s an unprecedented day for Indigenous sovereignty and Indigenous-led coastal conservation as three federally-recognized California Tribal Nations announce the Yurok-Tolowa-Dee-ni’ Indigenous Marine Stewardship Area – the first-ever ocean protection area designated by Tribal governments in the United States.

The Resighini Tribe of Yurok People, Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation and Cher-Ae Heights Indian Community of the Trinidad Rancheria each took action to protect nearly 700 square miles of their ancestral ocean and coastal territories, and waters to advance long-term Tribal stewardship and governance, as well as Tribal and State co-management of critical ecosystems to protect and support cultural lifeways and economies, while directly addressing climate impacts. The Yurok-Tolowa-Dee-ni’ IMSA stretches from the Oregon and California border to just south of Trinidad in Humboldt County – about 290 miles north of San Francisco – and will directly help the state of California to achieve its biodiversity and durable conservation goals by 2030.

This first Indigenous Marine Stewardship Area (IMSA) in the U.S. and California (IMSA) is home to species of high cultural value to the Tribal nations including mussels, seaweed, kelp, clams, abalone, surf and night smelts, salmon, candlefish, green sturgeon, shorebirds, and eels, or lamprey. 

“We do not seek the permission of other governments and can no longer wait to act to preserve and protect this culturally and ecologically important place,” the three Tribes proclaimed in Tribal designation documents for the IMSA announced today from California’s State Capitol on California Native American Day.

In June, the Tsawout First Nation in British Columbia declared an Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA) for 155 square kilometers – approximately 60 square miles – of its territorial ocean waters in a substantive move for the reclamation of rights, lands and waters, while other successful Indigenous-led protected areas can be traced back decades globally. The Yurok-Tolowa Dee-ni’ declaration protects more than 11 times the amount of ocean space as the Canadian example – and together, these consequential designations show the Indigenous sovereignty and leadership advancing the protection of 30 percent of waters and lands across North America by 2030. 

The Resighini Tribe of Yurok People, Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation and Cher-Ae Heights Indian Community of the Trinidad Rancheria each acknowledge the need to have direct participation in how their waters and lands are managed, as well as the future of their cultural resources and traditions associated with these sacred places as the climate crisis accelerates. 

“This declaration is the culmination of years of hard work to protect our ocean and coastal waters. As Yurok people, we take our stewardship responsibilities very seriously and are proud to work with other sovereign Tribal Governments to do the work we were meant to as Tribal people,” said Fawn C. Murphy, Chairperson, of the Resighini Tribe of Yurok People. “We are so excited to be the leaders in this effort!”

The Yurok-Tolowa Dee-ni’ IMSA designation is the first such Tribal designation in U.S. History – and it aims to safeguard an area under threats, which include sea level rise and coastal erosion, by enhancing Tribal stewardship and applying Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) across a range of important management needs facing the region such as, poor water quality, ocean acidification, species and habitat loss, offshore development, and other climate crisis impacts affecting the health of their communities. The three Tribes are actively involved in several on-going ocean and coastal research and species monitoring projects.

“The intent of IMSAs is to recognize Tribal Governance of unceded ocean and coastal waters through continued stewardship, to support cultural lifeways and economies, to enhance biodiversity, and to provide durable conservation measures designed to protect and restore ocean health that are rooted in Indigenous Traditional Knowledge,” said Jeri Lynn Thompson, Chairperson of the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation.

“A resilient marine ecosystem is essential for the well-being and protection of cultural and traditional species of importance to Trinidad Rancheria,” said Garth Sundberg, Chairman of the Trinidad Rancheria. “Since time immemorial, we have honored the inherent balance and interconnectedness of ocean resources and coastal communities. Today, we celebrate this historic action with our partnering sovereign Tribal Governments.”

The resolution reads, in part:

“Our Tribes hereby declare and designate the ocean and coastal territory from what is commonly known as the California – Oregon border (north) to Little River (south), mean high tide (east), and out three (3) nautical miles beyond the outermost islands, reefs, and rocks, and including all waters between those and the coast (west), which encompasses to be the Yurok – Tolowa Dee-ni′ Indigenous Marine Stewardship Area or IMSA; and be it further resolved, these waters are also claimed by the State of California, who through its California Natural Resources Agency Pathways to 30x30: Accelerating Conservation of California’s Nature Report, support the concept of Indigenous Marine Stewardship.” 

The Tribes also acknowledge that there are other Tribal Nations who share this ocean space and have welcomed those Tribes to participate at any time in the future.

In April 2022, the California Natural Resources Agency released its “Pathways to 30x30 California” report which commits the state to strengthening partnerships with Tribes and specifically identifies IMSAs as a priority action. A background resource, with more on how this historic action aligns with several of the State of California’s policies and ensures Tribal Nations be given the opportunity and the funding to lead, can be requested.

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The mission of the Cher-Ae Heights Indian Community of the Trinidad Rancheria is to preserve and promote our cultural and traditional beliefs; improve quality of life and self-sufficiency; uphold tribal sovereignty; create positive partnerships; and protect the environment in order to provide a healthy community, honor our elders, and guide our youth. Learn more at www.trinidad-rancheria.org.

The Resighini Rancheria Tribe of Yurok People exercises sovereignty and self-determination through stewarding our ancestral lands and waters and maintaining our Yurok traditions. We work to preserve our natural resources and promote the social, cultural, political and economic survival of our Tribe for future generations. Learn more at www.resighinirancheria.com.

The mission of the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation is to exert and protect the inherent sovereignty endowed upon the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation to promote our tribal identity, and the wellbeing of our people, community, and environment by building a strong foundation, managing resources, and perpetuating our cultural lifeways and legacy. Learn more at www.tolowa-nsn.gov.

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Here’s a map of the Marine Stewardship Area:

PREVIOUSLY:

• TRAVEL ALERT: Highway 101 is Closed at Richardson Grove

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Press release from the California Highway Patrol:

On 09/20/2023 at approximately 1330 hours, a pedestrian was walking from a trail on the west roadway edge of US-101, south of the Richardson Grove State Park entrance. Based on witness statements, the pedestrian stopped just west of the west roadway edge on the dirt shoulder awaiting a family member. At that time, a vehicle which was later identified as a 2010 Black Toyota Tundra, driven by Earl Castillo of Leggett, was traveling southbound on US-101.

Castillo allowed the Toyota to travel off the west roadway edge and crashed with the pedestrian standing on the dirt shoulder. Castillo failed to stop at the crash scene, fleeing southbound on US-101. Shortly after the crash, CHP personnel arrived on scene. CHP located vehicle parts identifying the involved vehicle as black Toyota pickup. This information was broadcast via CHP Dispatch and a be on the lookout for the involved vehicle was requested. Multiple Cal-Trans employees who heard the broadcast observed the Toyota matching the description and called it in to CHP dispatch. While traveling on US-101, two officers observed the Toyota and attempted to make an enforcement stop. The Toyota failed to yield to the patrol vehicle’s lights and sirens and traveled northbound at a high rate of speed. The Toyota attempted to flee up a private driveway but due to a locked gate, was unable to continue.

Officers conducted a high risk stop and detained Castillo. Evidence from the scene and damage Castillo’s Toyota were consistent with the vehicle’s involvement in the crash. Upon evaluation, Castillo was determined to be DUI and was placed under arrest for 23153(G)VC, 20001 VC, 192(C)(1) PC, 1203.2 PC, 2800.1 VC. Castillo was transported to the Humboldt County Jail and booked on the above charges. Due to the nature of the crash and charges, a bail enhancement was requested and granted. The California Highway Patrol Garberville Area is conducting follow-up and ask if anyone observed the actual crash or the Toyota fleeing the scene to please call the office at 707-932-6100.

The Garberville Area CHP would like to thank citizens who stopped at the scene and rendered aid. The following agencies assisted with this investigation: Cal-trans, Garberville Fire, Cal-Fire, City Ambulance, and State Parks.

A week after negotiations to rescue California’s floundering home insurance market stalled out in the Legislature, the state’s top insurance regulator put out his own rescue plan that effectively amounts to a trade for the state’s major insurers.

Under proposed regulations Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara announced this afternoon, major insurers will be required to cover a certain share of homeowners in the state’s most wildfire-prone areas. In exchange, the Department of Insurance will allow companies to charge more to cover the rising costs of doing business in a fire-ravaged state.

Lara called the package of new proposed regulations “the largest insurance reform” since 1988, the year California voters passed a proposition requiring insurance companies to get prior approval before raising premiums.

The plan is meant to reverse what has amounted to a slow-motion exodus of private home insurers from the state. In the last year and a half, seven of the top 12 property insurers operating in California have either placed new restrictions on where they do business or stopped selling new policies here entirely.

The biggest player of all, State Farm, announced a freeze on new policies in May, kicking off a fresh round of panic among homeowners scrambling to find affordable insurance policies and lawmakers eager to tackle the crisis.

For years, insurance companies have complained that current rates and the existing regulatory process don’t allow them to recoup the cost of doing business in the state’s most at-risk regions. By easing some of those restrictions, while requiring the companies to expand their coverage, “it’s the department calling the bluff of insurers,” said Rex Frazier, president of Personal Insurance Federation of California, a trade group.

In principle, that’s a trade-off insurers are willing to make, he added, though it will ultimately depend on how the specific regulations are crafted in the coming months.

Amy Bach, executive director of the consumer group United Policyholders, struck a similar note.

Lara “did not sell out to the industry here, in my opinion, he struck a deal,” she said. “Whether it’s going to manifest positively overall…the proof will be in the premiums.”

But Consumer Watchdog — an advocacy group that Lara all but called out by name during his presentation as “bombastic” and a group “materially benefiting” from the current regulatory system — came away with a difficult conclusion.

“He’s basically capitulated to the industry,” Jamie Court, the group’s president, said of Lara. “There’s not really much coming back for the consumer in here.”

Picking up where legislators left off

Despite mounting public angst and calls for action from top lawmakers, the politics of addressing the problem in the Legislature proved too thorny this year.

In the final weeks of the legislative session that ended a week ago, lawmakers scrambled to bridge the demands of insurers — who called for higher premiums to cover more of their costs and for a more flexible rate-setting process — and those of consumer groups, who resisted calls to add to the financial burdens of homeowners. After negotiations floundered, Gov. Gavin Newsom hinted that his administration and Lara’s Department of Insurance might be willing to act on their own.

In a statement, Sen. Bill Dodd, a Napa Democrat involved in the unsuccessful negotiations, cheered Lara’s announcement. “Given that the Legislature is not in session right now, utilizing the commissioner’s regulatory authority makes good sense,” he said. “I know there is work that still needs to be done and I’ll be supporting these efforts any way I can.”

Insurance companies have pointed to three main reasons that doing business in California is increasingly a losing proposition: Escalating wildfire risk, ever-rising construction costs and the global price of reinsurance — insurance policies that insurance companies, themselves, take out.

While costs have increased, the amount the companies are allowed to charge homeowners is tightly capped and closely regulated in California, making home insurance policies relatively cheap by national standards. In order to raise rates, major insurers need a sign-off from the Department of Insurance.

Currently, insurance companies are not allowed to factor in the cost of reinsurance into those applications. They are also prohibited from using forward-looking models to predict future costs — something insurers say they desperately need as a warming climate and residential development encroaching into fire-prone areas results in fire seasons that are longer and more catastrophic than they have been in the past.

Lara proposed giving companies both of those tools, though companies will apparently only be allowed to itemize the cost of reinsurance as it pertains to California. It’s unclear how this calculation will be made.

Bach with United Policyholders said allowing companies to use predictive models isn’t inherently a bad idea — “Are these models nefarious tools of Satan? No,” she said — but hopes there will be transparency about which models are used and how they work.

In exchange for these new tools, companies will be required to cover homeowners in wildfire-prone parts of the state at 85% of their statewide coverage. For example, if a company provides 10% of the homeowner policies across California, they would be required to provide 8.5% of the coverage in areas deemed “at-risk.”

Court, with Consumer Watchdog, said 85% is 15% too little. “It’s a really sh — y deal,” he said.

California homeowners currently unable to get insurance on the private market can currently turn to the FAIR Plan, a last resort issuer of fire coverage funded through a levy on regulated insurers. Between 2018 and 2022, the number of homeowners covered by the FAIR Plan more than doubled to roughly 3% of all homeowners.

But the FAIR Plan policies are expensive and limited. And if the FAIR Plan runs out of money, it’s legally required to refill its coffers by levying a surcharge on major insurers. The prospect of the FAIR Plan running out of cash and slapping the industry with the bill has also encouraged insurance companies to scale back their coverage.

Consumer Watchdog regularly challenges the applications for higher premiums that insurance companies submit to the state, an intervention allowed for under the 1988 ballot measure. Today, Lara also said he wants to make it easier for the public to see who intervenes and how much they are compensated for doing so.

“One entity is involved in nearly 75% of all interventions for rate approvals, materially benefiting from a process that is meant for a broader public participation,” he said, referring to the nonprofit.

Lara also said that “throwing bombs is easy and putting out bombastic statements from entrenched interest groups doesn’t benefit anyone.”

Court said his organization would continue to fight back as the department drafts the detailed regulations. “We’ll be battling over this stuff for many months to come,” he said.

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

Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

On Sept. 20, 2023, at about 6:55 p.m., Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputies served a search warrant at a residence on the 400 block of Liscom Hill Road in Blue Lake to investigate community complaints of ongoing drug-related activity.

Ernest Michael Smither Jr.

While there, deputies contacted 46-year-old Ernest Michael Smither Jr. and a 70-year-old male. During a search of Smither Jr. and the residence, deputies located a total of five firearms, four of which were loaded, approximately 1.6 grams of methamphetamine and various ammunition.

Smither Jr. was arrested and booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility on charges of felon in possession of a firearm (PC 29800(a)(1)), person prohibited in possession of ammunition (PC 30305(a)), possession of a controlled substance while armed (HS 11370.1(a)) and possession of a controlled substance (HS 11377(a)).

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. To report suspected drug activity, ongoing trespassing or similar issues, file a report online at humboldtsheriff.org/report.