Ted Trichilo passed away on March 23, 2023. He was a third-generation Californian, born in Oakland on November 20, 1921. Ted attended public schools, and in 1939 entered the University of California as a pre-pharmacy student.

As a seaman in the Oakland U.S. Naval Reserve, he was called to active duty in February, 1941, serving with the Navy in the Pacific and Atlantic, and with the U.S. Marines in the Pacific. He was discharged after the war as chief pharmacist mate and re-entered University of California College of Pharmacy at the Medical Center in San Francisco.

Ted graduated from U.C. College of Pharmacy in 1948, and began his career as a pharmacist at Day and Night Pharmacy in Downtown Oakland. Later, he moved his family north to Humboldt County, where in 1950 purchased a small drug store in Loleta. In 1957, Ted took over Brown’s Drug Store on Main Street in Fortuna, which he later renamed Fortuna Prescription Pharmacy. In 1963, Ted became the first pharmacist at Redwood Memorial Hospital, and then in 1965, became the director of pharmacy at St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka. He retired from pharmacy in 1983.

Ted married his wife Josephine in February of 1947, and was the father of three children — Paul, Diana, and Teddy. The Trichilo home is in Fortuna where the family has enjoyed the surrounding forests and the undisturbed redwood environment. As a lifelong environmental activist, Ted served on the Board of Directors for the Audubon Society and the Sierra Club, and in 1975 was named Audubon’s “Man of the Year.” In 1979, he was appointed to the Humboldt County Planning Commission, and later served as Humboldt County representative to the BLM citizen’s advisory committee.

Since retirement, most of his time was spent caring for a year-round garden and small farm. When outside chores were done Ted would catch up on his reading, and was particularly interested in history. As an avid watercolorist, his subject matter usually focused on wilderness and wildlife, especially birds. Ted was a lover of authentic Italian food and enjoyed preparing savory dishes for his family and friends. He also loved the game of bridge, and enjoyed playing the card game for many years.

Ted was a duck hunter and fly fisherman, and throughout his life enjoyed numerous fishing trips to local rivers. He loved the outdoors and the wonders of the natural world, especially the bays, wetlands, and rivers of Humboldt County. He will always be remembered as a great environmentalist and a true friend of nature.

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Born February 27, 1962 and Creator called him home on April 2, 2023

Bud was preceded in death by his parents, two of his close nieces, Amanda and Mardell Markussen, and many other relatives. Bud is survived by his sister Doreen Markussen and his brother Ryan Markussen.

Born to Delgord Markussen and Mardell Jones. Bud, as he will always be fondly remembered, grew up on the Hoopa Reservation, where at an early age, he learned to love hunting and fishing. Bud was a kind, gentle man who always greeted you with a smile or a gentle nod of his head. Bud always loved spending time with family no matter what they were doing.

Bud began working at the Humboldt Recovery Center Program on August 15, 2010, as a valued employee. While working at Humboldt Recovery Center Program, Bud gave selflessly throughout the years, where he was always there to help no matter what needed to be done. Bud enjoyed going on the yearly camping trip with the Humboldt Recovery Center. He would eagerly teach the children and, often, their parents how to fish. Bud would also take some of the younger men in the program back to his home in Hoopa and teach them how to catch and process steelhead and salmon.

Bud was always ready to help anybody who needed work on their car and couldn’t afford to take it to the shop. Bud often enlisted the help of some of the younger men at the program, and he spent countless hours teaching them the basics of working on their vehicles.

There will be a viewing at Sanders Funeral Home in Eureka on Sunday, April 16, 2023 from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m., after which Bud will be taken home to the Hoopa Cemetery.

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HUMBOLDT TODAY: A man convicted of killing a Humboldt Hill man as he slept in his bed in 2019 gets early release; California snowpack measured at historic levels; plus, the state has removed the final mask and vaccination mandates. Those stories and more in today’s newscast with John Kennedy O’Connor.

FURTHER READING: 

• Family Members ‘Blindsided’ Following the Early Release of Local Man Charged with Fatal Humboldt Hill Collision
• How’s Arcata Doing on Meeting its Housing Goals, And Should it Make K Street Traffic One-Way? Those Will be Some of the Questions Addressed at Tonight’s Planning Commission Meeting
• With Spring Snow Survey Complete, Klamath National Forest Says That the Current Snow Pack is Nearly Double That of an Average Year
• CONVERSATIONS: Let’s Check in With Cheryl Dillingham, Humboldt County’s Auditor-Controller
• The California Mask Mandate Is Gone. Now Some Patients Fear for Their Health.

HUMBOLDT TODAY can be viewed on LoCO’s homepage each night starting at 6 p.m.

Want to LISTEN to HUMBOLDT TODAY? Subscribe to the podcast version here.

Liz Martin “lost everything” the night her husband, 64-year-old Robert “Bob” Beland, was killed by a drunk driver who crashed into their Humboldt Hill home. 

Bob Beland pictured with his dog, Buddy. Photo: Liz Martin

“There just aren’t even words for this type of tragedy,” Martin told the Outpost during a recent interview. “We lost everything. The house, the business, my husband … rebuilding over these last few years has been a constant reminder that life will never be the same.”

Nearly four years after the tragic incident, Ryder Dale Stapp, the man responsible for Beland’s death, has been released on supervised parole.

Stapp was celebrating his 25th birthday, drunk and speeding down Humboldt Hill on the night of June 28, 2019, when his truck ran off the road and crashed into a house, killing Beland, who was asleep in his bed beside his wife. 

Stapp pleaded guilty to felony charges of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and to hit-and-run causing injury. On Feb. 25, 2020, he was sentenced to 11 years in state prison, the maximum term of 10 years for manslaughter and an additional year for the hit-and-run charge.

Prior to sentencing, Beland’s family was aware of the possibility that Stapp could be released in five and a half years for good behavior. They were “blindsided” when the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) informed them that Stapp would be released on supervised parole this year.

“My son [Dylan] and I originally received notice that he was going to be released in May earlier this year,” Martin said. “And then it was moved to the beginning of April and we were a little blindsided by that. … I don’t have any outrage, I’m just profoundly sad. That’s what I’ve felt since the beginning.”

Dylan Beland acknowledged that he never expected Stapp would serve the full eleven-year sentence for his father’s untimely death but said, “Three years is a punch in the gut and, to be honest, enraging.”

“Not because I am of the belief that every criminal should be locked away for life, but because my mom, my wife, my uncle and I are still every day grappling with the fallout of Stapp’s selfishness, stupidity and carelessness,” Beland wrote in an email. “What amount of rehabilitation could he really have received in these few years? And I wonder what message his early release conveys to the community regarding drinking and driving. [It] feels paltry.”

The Notice of Release does not offer any explanation for Stapp’s early release, only noting that “there are many contributing factors which determine [the] release date” of an inmate. 

Reached for further comment on the matter, CDCR spokesperson Mary Xjimenez told the Outpost that Stapp’s sentence was reduced because he participated in the California Conservation Camps program, which provides participants “with a 66.6 percent credit-earning rating” for individuals housed in a fire camp or minimum custody settings who are convicted of nonviolent crimes. “Stapp was released for parole … after serving his full sentence as defined by the law,” Xjimenez added.

Dylan Beland criticized the notion that Stapp’s actions were considered nonviolent and took issue with the state’s handling of DUI crimes. 

“I would like people to simply be reminded of the consequences of drunk driving – consequences that are rarely endured by the driver,” he said. “Please be responsible. My dad was the hardest-working and most generous person I’ve ever known. … It is heartbreaking that he was robbed of his retirement that he labored so hard for, for so many years. I miss him terribly.”

Martin still struggles daily to fill the void her husband left behind.

“Often I’ll think about sharing something, but I don’t have anybody like that to talk to now,” she said. “You just want to share something small that happened during the day or a wonderful photo you took – just the little things in life that you share with the person that you love. … He was my best friend. We shared so much together.”

When asked if she had anything more to share with the community, Martin remained hopeful that Stapp “has come to his senses and will make amends with the community.”

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PREVIOUSLY:

• CHP: 64-Year-Old Humboldt Hill Man Fatally Injured in His Bed During Last Night’s Crash; Suspect Attempted to Flee, Charged With DUI
• Man Arrested After Fatal Humboldt Hill House Collision Out on Bail; Court Records Reveal Previous Speeding, Hit-and-Run Convictions
• Man Arrested After Fatal Humboldt Hill House Collision Charged With Gross Vehicular Manslaughter
• STAPP PLEADS NOT GUILTY: Man Accused in Fatal Humboldt Hill House Collision Faces Up to 16 Years in Prison, Remains Free on Bail
• DA Alleges Fatal Humboldt Hill Collision Suspect Bailed Out With Illegal Weed Money
• Hearing Delay for Man Arrested in Connection with Fatal Humboldt Hill House Collision
• Fields Landing Man Pleads Guilty to Fatal Humboldt Hill House Collision, Receives Maximum Sentence
• At Emotional Sentencing Hearing, Local Man Who Crashed into Humboldt Hill Home, Killing Local Business Owner, Officially Receives 11-Year-Sentence

Press release from the Klamath National Forest:

The Klamath National Forest has completed the April 1st snow surveys. These measurements are a part of the statewide California Cooperative Snow Survey program, which helps the State forecast the quantity of water available for agriculture, power generation, recreation, and stream flow releases later in the year.

Winter continued strong all through March. There were many snowfall events; and when snow did fall, it stayed in place and helped build up the local snowpack. The end result is an amount of snow that hasn’t been seen in years and quite welcome after the lows of the previous year. According to measurements taken for the April survey, the snowpack is at 178% of the historic average snow height (snow depth) and at 163% of the historic Snow Water Equivalent (“SWE”, measure of water content) across all survey points (see results table).

The Box Camp site was unable to be surveyed this year. An attempt was made, but due to high snow load, the route proved to be overly technical and difficult for snowmobiles to access. However, even without the datapoint, it is clear that it would have joined the other sites as well above the long-term April average.

April 1st is an important date for surveying snow because early April is historically when the snowpack is at its maximum; and this date has the greatest weight when the State forecasts annual water availability. To gain additional data for April, three extra locations are added to the surveys for this month to supplement the usual five Scott River watershed snow measurement sites. Of these, Etna Mountain and Box Camp are also in the Scott River drainage, and Wolford Cabin is within the Trinity River basin. These additional sites are generally considered too remote or difficult to access on a monthly basis.

Snow surveys are conducted monthly during the winter and spring months (February through May). Forest Service employees travel to established sites in the headwaters of the Scott River watershed to take measurements. The newest measuring site at Scott Mountain has been monitored for over thirty-five years; the oldest site at Middle Boulder has been monitored for over seventy years. Some sites are located close to Forest roads with good access, while others require hours of travel by snowshoe and/or snowmobile.

The height of snow and SWE are measured by a snow sampling tube with a cutter end that is driven through the snowpack, measuring depth. The snow core is then weighed to determine the water content (SWE). The information is forwarded to the State of California, where the data is compiled with other snow depth reports and becomes part of the California Cooperative Snow Surveys program. The data is managed by the California Department of Water Resources; more information is available on their website at http://cdec.water.ca.gov/snow/current/snow/index.html.

How long has it been since you’ve thought about the Humboldt County Auditor-Controller’s Office?

If you were an engaged citizen at this time last year, or even the year before that, chances are you would have thought about it a lot more frequently than you do now! The previous regime of Auditor-Controller Karen Paz Dominguez was a seemingly never-ending whirlwind of recrimination and controversy, and there was rarely a day when someone wasn’t accusing her, or she wasn’t accusing someone, of dark, nefarious deeds. While all this was going on, the state began to knock on our door, telling us that paperwork that was required from the office wasn’t actually being filed, putting all sorts of funding sources in jeopardy. 

Former acting auditor-controller Cheryl Dillingham handily defeated Paz Dominguez in the June 2022 election, and took over the office shortly afterward. Since then, the amount of news emanating from the office dropped precipitously to pre-Paz Dominguez levels.

So how’s it going, Cheryl Dillingham? Video above, transcript below.

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JOHN KENNEDY O’CONNOR:

Well, welcome to another Humboldt Conversation. I’m really thrilled to say we’re here today with Cheryl Dillingham, who is the Auditor Controller for the County of Humboldt, a position she’s been in now for just about coming up to a year.

CHERYL DILLINGHAM:

Nine months.

O’CONNOR:

Nine months, I’m sorry. Now, Cheryl, about this time last year, the Auditor-Controller was in the news every single day, which probably shouldn’t have been the case. How have things changed behind the scenes? Because now we’re not really hearing so much about the job, which is probably a good thing.

CHERYL DILLINGHAM:

Well, we’ve been working really hard in the auditor-controller’s office. I was really pleased that the staff are just amazing, and I’ve hired new folks that are really amazing too, and we’ve been working really hard to get everything done and to meet all the deadlines and communicating and working with everybody to serve the residents of Humboldt County the best we can.

O’CONNOR:

Because that was one of the challenges, I think: There was so much controversy around the role. Now although you ran for office and you were elected, you did actually have to step in at very short notice as interim controller. That must have been a very daunting situation for you.

DILLINGHAM:

It took me a little by surprise. And it was much quicker than I had anticipated. I was interim auditor-controller three and a half years previously. And I was surprised by a couple of things. First off, there was only one person still working in the office that was working in the office when I was there three and a half years ago, which is a pretty significant turnover. And it felt like there was a lot more work than there had been, that things had changed a lot more in three and a half years than I think they had in the previous 10, 20 years. And that’s probably good enough. And I’d lost all the people that knew how to do property taxes. So I spent the first few months just dealing with property tax apportionments and getting those done, because they’re very important, because that gets the money to your local special district schools, cities, and all of those people.

O’CONNOR:

Now during your campaign you talked about fiscal controls and the need to actually enhance them. So what processes and changes have you been able to put in place to restore the calm and order to the office?

DILLINGHAM:

So I’m going to start by saying it wasn’t that bad. There are actually really good controls in place. The one area where I felt like there was the biggest deficit was reconciliations. So we’ve implemented daily cash reconciliations, bank reconciliations, outstanding check reconciliations, and a lot of that sort of thing. And we’ve caught up on the backlog, and we’re pretty current on doing that. So that was the biggest change. But overall, staff has really good internal controls, and they’re doing their job really well.

O’CONNOR:

Now, one of the things you’ve already touched on — when you took over there was a backlog of delinquent fiscal reporting. What’s the situation now?

DILLINGHAM:

So we closed, so this is really sort of, this is daunting. We have, we are just getting ready to start the audit for fiscal year 2021. We will then be going straight into doing the audit for 21-22. We’re currently in fiscal year 22-23 and we’re starting the budget process for 23-24. That is a lot of years and sometimes my head just spins around when I’m trying to figure out which year I’m working on and I’m talking to people. But we’re trying to keep staff, like staff, some staff work mostly on current and then so to try to keep the, so you know which year you’re in. But we’re, I anticipate that we will be completely caught up and have our audit for fiscal year 2022-23 completed on schedule.

O’CONNOR:

Now there were a number of funds and grants that were available to the county from the state for things like infrastructure improvements that could not move forward due to the delinquent reporting. Is the county in better shape now in the eyes of the state?

DILLINGHAM:

The state recognizes that we’re making progress. We’re still behind on the deadlines, and I don’t believe we’re losing any funding, but I do think we still have some that is gonna be a little delayed in getting out. When we get the fiscal year 2020-21 audit done, which we think will be the end of June, I think that’ll make things a lot better. 

O’CONNOR:

So have you rebuilt relationships with the state and city bodies that had lost faith in the department under your leadership under your predecessor?

DILLINGHAM:

Communication, communication. So staff has been working really hard to communicate. We’ve had a couple of times where the state has called and said, where’s your such and such report? And we all look around and we’re like, I didn’t know we had to do that. We’re real honest. We’re like, oh, we’re so sorry. We’re just getting caught up to speed. We will get that to you next week. And so they’ve been very accommodating and are always happy just to hear us say, we’ll get it done. And we’ve been pretty quick about turning around anything that we discover. We’ve got a really good calendar going now of all the reports that we have to do. I’ve been working with local finance officers with the cities to get a local group going where we’ll get together and have peer discussions and have some local folks come and give us some presentations and get that group going. And I’ve now got staff that specifically works with special districts and cities so that they have a person they can call and develop a relationship with.

O’CONNOR:

That sounds like a great idea. Now one of the things — you’ve already mentioned it actually, you identified it during your campaign — was the need to recruit staff for your team. So have you now filled all of the available slots?

DILLINGHAM:

So the department has 19 positions. I have hired seven people since I started. Five of those are permanent and two of those are extra help. I still have a recruitment going right now for two positions. I’ve had one person leave since I started. She got a promotion, better job. It was good for her. So I have interviews for that job next week, and then I have another recruitment for the deputy, which is the second in command in the office that will be starting, the recruitment just ended. And so that’s kind of where we’re at with that. So that’s a lot of people, and they’re all getting up to speed. They’re doing a great job.

O’CONNOR:

Good to know. Now you also talked about the need to better harness technology to streamline processes to improve functionality. Have you been able to make any progress in that area?

DILLINGHAM:

This one’s an interesting one. So my first comment is, we’ve only got so many resources and really we’re just trying to get things done. So we’re constantly prioritizing and deciding what we have to work on, and implementing technology, honestly, it’s not easy. So that’s phase two. We figure when we get caught up, we’ll implement new technology.

We’ve got some great ideas. We’ve got requests for projects to do more workflow. Departments are really supportive of that. So we’re working on it, but it’s probably something that we’ll really start getting into about a year from now.

The other thing that’s just been interesting is, there’s just a lot of things that weren’t working. So some of the challenges with getting the audits done and some of those things were simply the reports that you needed to do it didn’t work. So we’ve gotten those fixed. The financial transactions report, which is the report we do for the state that was really delinquent, that was another, the reports didn’t work. We’ve got those fixed. So we’ve got reports now that basically just produce all the information that you need to plug it into the boxes in the report. Then the budget schedules also were another one that just didn’t quite work right and we’ve got those fixed.

So that is implementing technology, but it’s not quite as … I was looking more for things like workflow and reducing duplication of effort and that sort of thing, which we will be doing. I was going to say that.

O’CONNOR:

I was going to say — that’s something for the future.

DILLINGHAM:

Yep.

O’CONNOR:

Well Cheryl, it’s great that the Auditor-Controller is not the daily news story in Humboldt or Eureka every day as it was this time last year. So congratulations on that, you’ve obviously made an enormous amount of progress. Anything else you want to share with our Humboldt Today viewers?

DILLINGHAM:

I just want to thank my auditor-controller team and say that they’re a really amazing group of people and I felt that they had gotten, the last couple of years has been really hard on them and I just want to thank them for their dedication and they do a really good job of supporting. The auditor-controller’s office is like the last inch of service delivery for the citizens of Humboldt County. So, you may have economic development, working really hard to get a loan to make to a local business, and if we don’t cut that check at that point in time when it needs to be done, then the whole thing can just fall apart. And so, you know, our team does a really good job of helping, you know, get services out to the citizens. 

O’CONNOR:

It’s a very important cog in the wheel but it’s one that probably people don’t appreciate and don’t hear about. And of course when they were hearing about it, it was for all the wrong reasons.

DILLINGHAM:

It would be nice to have it be heard about for good reason.

O’CONNOR:

Well, I think we’re hopefully doing that with this message today. Okay. Cheryl, it’s been a pleasure to meet you. Thank you for joining us for a Humboldt Conversation and join us for another Humboldt Conversation very soon.

In less than 10 weeks, by July 1, California’s Reparations Task Force is set to deliver final recommendations to the Legislature for how the state can begin to undo 300 years of harm from slavery and racism.

With the clock winding down, two key questions remain unanswered: How much would the proposed reparations cost? And will the Legislature support the recommendations of the task force?

The first-in-the-nation task force was appointed in 2020 to study whether and how the state government should issue reparations for residents who are descendants of enslaved persons.

At a task force meeting March 29 and 30, state Sen. Steven Bradford, a Democrat representing Gardena, said it will be an “uphill fight” to get the Legislature to seriously engage with the recommendations.

Some new data is bearing that out.

Back in 2020, 12 legislators voted against the law that created the reparations task force, while 58 lawmakers voted in favor of it.

Recently, in an informal emailed poll of the 80 Assemblymembers by CalMatters, just three legislators stated their support for the task force’s years-long effort. The rest did not respond.

Assemblymember Tina McKinnor, a Democrat from Inglewood, said she “strongly supports monetary reparations for the descendants of formerly enslaved people and believes the Legislature would support the final recommendations from the Task Force.”

Assemblymember Damon Connolly, a Democrat from San Rafael (near San Francisco), said he also supports reparations and the task force’s preliminary recommendations, which he said are long overdue.

“These recommendations are the culmination of collaboration between experts who understand the scope and legacy of how racism and disenfranchisement have had long-term socioeconomic impacts on California’s African-American communities,” he said in a statement. “This report contains recommendations that are common-sense and comprehensive — changes that should have been considered long ago.”

Heavy lifting

Assemblymember David Alvarez, a Democrat from San Diego, noted the historic work of the task force but stopped short of saying he supports the preliminary recommendations.

“I appreciate the work the Reparations Task Force has done,” he said. “The Task Force is led by well-respected members of the African American community who have taken the time to study and discuss these historical effects over the last two years. Once the Task Force concludes their meetings and releases a final report with recommendations, I will review the complete findings.”

Bradford and Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer, a Democrat from Los Angeles, are both on the task force.

Bradford described the heavy lifting that remains to be done to get the Legislature to approve reparations. He highlighted a prior failed effort last session to get a constitutional amendment outlawing involuntary servitude placed on the California ballot.

“Something as simple as removing that from our state constitution, where other states have, and we couldn’t even do that,” he said.

(Opponents of that measure noted that removing the language that allows involuntary servitude from Calilfornia’s constitution would result in tens of millions of dollars in extra state cost because prisoners would have to be paid for their work during incarceration.)

So far, news coverage of the reparations task force’s work has largely focused on what dollar amount the task force might recommend the state pay descendants of formerly enslaved people.

The figure that went around the world recently was $800 billion. But many news reports confused that number, saying it was a recommendation for reparations payouts when it actually was a partial estimation of financial losses that economists said Black people experienced over decades of inequalities.

Dollars “least important”

So far, the task force has yet to vote on specific dollar amounts at its meetings.

“We did not, at this last hearing, arrive at a single dollar figure. We’re not there yet,” said Cheryl Grills, a task force member and clinical psychologist. Grills is also a founding member of Community Coalition, which does outreach work in South L.A. communities.

The news media’s preoccupation with a final dollar figure has become a point of frustration, task force members said. The task force and its experts have produced thousands of pages of documentation, data and research into various categories of injustice — everything from encounters with the criminal justice system to barriers to homeownership.

“We want to make sure that this is presented out in a way that does not reinforce the preoccupation with a dollar figure, which is the least important piece of this,” said Grills.

“It’s important, but it’s the least important in terms of being able to get to a point in our country’s history and in California’s history where we recognize that the harm cuts across multiple areas and domains and that the repair needs to align with that.

“It’s really unfortunate. I’m actually sad to see that our news media is not able to nuance better. It’s almost like, ‘What’s going to be sensational’ as opposed to what’s important.”

The task force at its March 29 meeting decided that descendants of American slaves in California would have at least two pathways for claiming compensation for the injustices and legacy of chattel slavery.

Two options

One of those avenues would be a baseline amount that would potentially apply to all descendants of American slaves who meet a California residency requirement. That compensation would be for the general community harm and legacy of slavery as well as the state’s role in perpetuating racism. The amount has not been decided.

The other route would be people applying for redress for specific injustices experienced under one of five categories outlined in a 40-page report compiled by economists working with the state Department of Justice.

Those five categories of harm include health, disproportionate mass incarceration and over-policing, housing discrimination, unjust property taken by eminent domain and the devaluation of Black-owned businesses.

Those category payments would be in addition to or instead of baseline compensation, task force members said.

Task force members do not appear to agree about whether or not the group should decide on a dollar figure recommendation to the Legislature. In an interview with CalMatters last week, Jones-Sawyer said the dollar amount would be up to the Legislature and governor to decide, while other task force members said the exact figure hasn’t been decided on yet.

The panel’s chair, Kamilah Moore, told KCRA, a television station in Sacramento, that it’s up to the state Legislature to ascribe a dollar amount, based on methodology economists recommended and which the task force approved.

“The task force is pretty much done regarding the compensation component. Our task was to create a methodology for calculation for various forms of compensation that correspond with our findings,” she told the station.

Hearts and minds

Jones-Sawyer said he agrees with Bradford that task force members have their work cut out for them. But he stressed the impact the task force’s interim report may have on “changing hearts and minds.”

“Any legislation is difficult. Period,” said Jones-Sawyer. “Some obviously are easier than others, but all of them require a lot of work.

“As I’ve spoken to individuals who didn’t even understand why we wanted to do this, there have been a few who have read the report and it was eye-opening for them,” he added. “For people who read the interim report, to hear them say ‘I didn’t know’ was probably the most gratifying thing I could hear.”

Jones-Sawyer said one of the most important recommendations from the report “doesn’t cost a dime” — an apology letter from the state of California.

“I think that one is as important as the others,” he said.

“Our history has been so buried, so erased, so denied, I think that is an essential element of our mission.”
— Donald Tamaki, lawyer and reparations task force member from San Francisco

The task force decided at its last set of meetings that California should issue a formal apology “for the perpetration of gross human rights violations and crimes against humanity on African slaves and their descendants.”

Donald Tamaki, a task force member and lawyer from San Francisco, said apologizing would acknowledge lost and often untold history.

“Our history has been so buried, so erased, so denied, I think that is an essential element of our mission,” he said.

Jones-Sawyer said he believes Gov. Gavin Newsom is taking the reparations responsibility seriously.

“I think the governor will do an excellent job in showing that he’s sincere about it, and that he believes in the apology that comes out of the state of California,” said Jones-Sawyer.

A divided public

Support for the reparations movement is pouring in from outside organizations. Tamaki and Grills have been reaching out to organizations throughout California, asking them to endorse the task force’s work. In a few weeks, endorsements grew from 30 to more than 130 organizations.

However a few people who phoned into the task force meetings during the public comment periods took on an angry tone.

Some callers and emailers said they might move out of California if Black people are paid reparations. Support and opposition among published emails to the task force were close — at least 104 expressed support for some form of reparations for Black residents while at least 93 said they were against it.

Many of the skeptics questioned whether other oppressed groups should get reparations.

“The most problematic issue is that California was not a slave state in the first place,” an email reads. “Many ethnic groups have been discriminated against in California — Indians, Asians, Latinos, LGBTQ+. If you open reparations to one group, you must do the same for all discriminated groups.” The writer’s name was redacted.

According to the task force’s interim report, despite California entering the Union in 1850 as a free state, its early state government supported slavery. In 1852, California passed and enforced a fugitive slave law that was harsher than the federal fugitive slave law and made the state more hospitable to slavery than other states, the report states.

Adding to that, in the latter 1850s, the California Supreme Court upheld the rights of an enslaver to retain ownership of Archy Lee, a 19-year-old Black man Charles Stovall took to California from Mississippi. The justices decided in Stovall’s favor because he had a persistent illness and had not known California’s laws, the task force reported.

“Many ethnic groups have been discriminated against in California — Indians, Asians, Latinos, LGBTQ+.”
— author redacted

Listening sessions

Nationally, views on reparations in general vary widely by race. A 2021 Pew Research Center study found 3 in 10 U.S. adults say descendants of people enslaved in the United States should be repaid in some way, such as with land or money. About 7 in 10 (68%) say these descendants should not be repaid, the study found.

Broken down by race, 77% of Black Americans support reparations, compared to 18% of white Americans.

The next set of task force meetings is scheduled to start May 6 in the East Bay Area. So far, an exact location has not been publicized.

In addition to task force meetings, some community groups, including the Coalition for a Just and Equitable California, are holding listening sessions about reparations across California. There will be a town hall in Riverside on April 21 involving Moore and a listening session in San Diego on April 29 with Montgomery-Steppe.

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