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A group of Eureka High School students and teachers showed up to last night’s meeting of the Eureka City Schools Board of Trustees to confront the board and Superintendent Fred Van Vleck over their management of the district. 

Taking turns at the microphone, the students lamented the recent and abrupt departure of several beloved educators, and they urged the board to remove Van Vleck, saying his bullying of staff has created a climate of fear. When Board Chair Lisa Ollivier responded with a prepared statement about how recent events are being “interpreted,” the students collectively groaned and jeered before walking out of the meeting.

Many of them wound up sticking around, though, waiting in the hallway or outside the district office for more than an hour while the board met in closed session. And when the meeting resumed, more attendees, including two Eureka City Council members, stood up to address the board, urging its members to take this crisis of faith seriously and to ensure that students feel heard and appreciated.

The board, for its part, defended recent accomplishments of district staff and leadership, pointing to the adoption of a new strategic plan and increased test scores at nearly all of its eight schools sites. 

They also tied the recent resignation of Eureka High Athletic Director and Assistant Principal Ed Sonia to his alleged failure to promptly notify the administration about the November 2 arrest of volunteer basketball coach Nathan Hentley on child sex charges. 

Despite the public outcry, the board stood firmly behind their superintendent. Just last month they unanimously approved a new four-year employment contract for Van Vleck, giving him a base salary of more than $246,000 plus retirement, health and welfare benefits and cost-of-living increases. 

In the prepared statement, Ollivier said, “We are proud of the impact Fred has made over the past 10-plus years, and we look forward to working with Dr. Van Vleck in the years to come.”

Students, teachers and their supporters gathered outside the district office ahead of the meeting. A portable table was set up on the sidewalk, and the assembled crowd ate snacks and sipped hot chocolate from styrofoam cups while talking among themselves and waiting for the meeting’s 5:15 start time.

Twice in the past two weeks, hundreds of Eureka High students have walked out of class in protest, marching the two blocks from EHS’s main entrance to the district office to wave signs and shout messages to the administrators inside. Van Vleck has yet to directly address the students’ concerns, deferring media inquiries to Interim Eureka High School Principal Rob Standish.

When last night’s meeting finally got under way, Ollivier announced that public input would be limited to 20 minutes, with a strict three minutes allotted to each speaker. She asked the audience to refrain from cheering or clapping because it would count against the 20-minute running clock. 

The first student to address the board was junior Jordan Phanh, who spoke about the departure of former teacher and athletic director Kristina Christiansen, who resigned last year and is now suing Eureka City Schools for harassment, a hostile work environment, sexual discrimination and retaliation.

“She claimed to have informed the Eureka City District about the issue, but no action was taken,” Phanh said, adding that district employees don’t feel supported or respected. He also spoke to Christiansen’s impact on him and other students in Eureka High’s AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) program.

“She was more than just our teacher,” he said. “She was our supporter, our mentor and our biggest motivator.” 

Phanh alleged that the board had contradicted its stated values and misused its power, leading to a widespread lack of trust in their leadership. He then addressed the superintendent.

“There is an apparent trend seen,” he said. “That trend is the resignation of our admin after having a direct conversation with Mr. Van Vleck. This is a trend that cannot be ignored.” He said Van Vleck needs to receive training on how to behave with employees and should have someone else present whenever engaging in direct conversations with them.

“If Mr. Van Vleck cannot comply with this or any of the suggested solutions today then I am confident that students will continue to voice and protest until Mr. Van Vleck resigns from his position.”

Throughout the meeting, Van Vleck sat behind a table stage right, his whiskered chin slightly raised, his face stoney and inscrutable. 

Senior Sidney Madsen also spoke about the toll that recent staff departures have had, saying Sonia’s abrupt resignation was particularly painful because “he didn’t even say goodbye or even clean out his office — other people did it for him.”

Yet another district employee, instructional aide and assistant athletic director Cara Heddinger, had just resigned earlier in the day, and Madsen said many students were in tears because of it. AP Biology and Chemistry teacher Rebecca Baugh, meanwhile, has stepped into the assistant principal position left vacant by Sonia’s departure, and Madsen said her departure from the classroom has negatively impacted student achievement.

“And being in that class now feels like distance learning again,” she said. “There’s no connection anymore. There’s no motivation.” Grades have gone down and students are suffering from the removal of educators with whom they’ve built relationships, she added.

Junior Nicola Costanzo brought up a change.org petition to remove Van Vleck, which has garnered more than 600 signatures. 

“As a community we’ve done all that we can do,” Costanzo said. “We’ve mourned. We’ve fought. We’ve protested. So now we call on you. Ultimately, the decision to remove Fred Van Vleck isn’t in our hands; it’s in yours.”

Jenica Huddleston, associated student body treasurer, quoted from the Eureka City Schools governance handbook, saying the board has fallen short of its mandates to promote good decision-making and create the best learning opportunities for all students.

“I can firmly say, on behalf of the students, that we do not feel that we are in a positive culture, and there has not been good decision making and policy,” Huddleston said.

The tide of public commentary briefly shifted as former EHS principal Jennifer Johnson, who recently took a job in the district office, addressed the board on behalf of herself and the instructional side of the executive team. She defended that team and “our leader, Fred Van Vleck,” saying they are passionate about students and firmly on “team Eureka City Schools.”

She said the district has implemented a variety of positive measures in recent years — bringing in instructional coaches and delivering professional development, for example — and was gaining traction until the pandemic hit. At that point, the district had to pivot, “and Eureka City Schools did that better than any district locally,” Johnson said.

The executive team supports the strategic vision put forward by the board, she said, adding, “We are excited about the direction and steps our superintendent and cabinet have taken to support our work in increasing student achievement.”

However, faculty support is not unanimous. Teacher and former coach Garett Montana, for example, spoke about the inspiring impact that late EHS coach Ray Mechals had on him and said this generation of students is having their role models taken away from them.

The assembled crowd largely ignored Ollivier’s request to refrain from clapping, and Montana’s comments earned an enthusiastic round of cheers. 

Fellow teacher Tim Olson, a 27-year district employee, said teachers and students have tried to sound the alarm, “but it’s not getting through.”

“We met with Fred,” he continued. “We talked with Fred. We said, ‘Fred? This management style ain’t working.’”

He said the district can’t afford to lose people like Christiansen, Sonia and former teacher and coach Ron Perry, who is now principal of Six Rivers Charter High School Arcata High School.

“Those are all winners,” Olson said. “Where are they? They’re making somewhere else great. They’re not making us great. They changed lives. And why are they going? Why is it common knowledge in this county that people don’t want to work at Eureka City Schools?”

With that, the 20-minute public comment window had closed, and Ollivier pulled out a sheet of paper and began to read the board’s prepared statement. She thanked people for attending and said the board values public involvement. The room sat quietly as she read until she said, “Please know that the board is very aware of recent events and how they’re being interpreted.”

As the students loudly stood and began filing out of the room, Ollivier beseeched them to stay. 

“Please wait,” she said into her microphone. “We listened to you. Please stay and hear this out.” 

About half of the crowd in attendance left as she continued reading. She addressed Sonia’s resignation, saying he had failed to notify Van Vleck, Interim Principal Standish or Human Resources about Hentley’s recent arrest.

“That’s a lie,” someone from the audience called out. After the meeting, both Olson and Heddinger told the Outpost that Sonia did, in fact, notify Standish about Hentley’s arrest. We caught up to Standish in the hallway of the administrative building to ask if that was true and he said he’d been “kept out of the loop on that.” A phone call and text to Sonia Friday morning were not returned before this post was published. 

Continuing her statement, Ollivier said that when Van Vleck confronted Sonia about his “failure to communicate,” Sonia was insulted and resigned on the spot.

“Frankly,” Ollivier said, “the board and Dr. Van Vleck were surprised by such an overreaction, and we were very disappointed that the former AD did not view this as a learning opportunity.”

She went on to say that Van Vleck is increasing his involvement with a student stakeholders group, and she expressed pride in his work before adjourning to closed session.

The meeting was scheduled to resume at 6:30 p.m. but the board didn’t reconvene until 6:54. Following a report from Student Board Member Sadie Smith, public comment was resumed, and more students expressed their concerns.

As did Leah Gee, a former district employee and mother of a Eureka High student. She chastised the board for reading a statement that chalked up the controversy to misinterpretations, a statement that had clearly been prepared before the students spoke. Gee said it came across as dismissive and left the students crying in the hall. 

A couple of students echoed that sentiment, saying it feels like the board isn’t really listening.

Bauer

Eureka City Councilmember Scott Bauer thanked the board for their public service and suggested that they should have extended the original public comment period beyond the 20-minute limit as a means of encouraging young people to participate in the public process. 

Fellow Councilmember and Mayor-Elect Kim Bergel said the board’s pre-written response made the kids feel devalued and failed to convey the gravity of the situation. She also suggested that the meeting should have been televised given its importance. 

The Outpost reached out to Van Vleck via email on Thursday morning, passing along a list of the questions and concerns that have been expressed recently and asking him to reply before noon today. He did not. 

Instead, his executive assistant, Micalyn Harris, issued the following press release this afternoon:

Statement by Eureka City Schools Governing Board

Provided by Board President Lisa Ollivier on Behalf of the Governing Board

November 18, 2022 - On behalf of the Board, thank you to those who attended the Eureka City School’s Board Meeting last night to express your support and/or concern regarding the direction of the District. We respect those who took the time out of their schedules to attend last night’s meeting. We value public involvement in our District.

We recognize the impact on our students due to the immediate resignation of the former Assistant Principal in charge of athletics (AD). The former AD had positive relationships with many of our high school staff and students. While a normal transition period would have been beneficial to our students and coaches, it was not an option, due to the AD’s sudden resignation.

We support Interim EHS Principal Rob Standish in his recommendation of Omar Khattab, a long-time Eureka City School’s employee and former Athletic Director, to fill the position of Assistant Principal in charge of athletics.

To ensure our students and their needs are addressed, two of our Board members, along with Superintendent Van Vleck and EHS Assistant Principal Baugh, met with Student Board Member Smith to learn more about the high school students’ feelings with the AD’s resignation. Additionally, we actively listened to the perspective of the students who addressed the Board last night.

Dr. Van Vleck is expanding his quarterly work with the Eureka High School Superintendent’s Student Stakeholders Group (SSSG) to include a Student Board Member led ThoughtExchange opportunity for all EHS students. (ThoughtExchange is known for allowing students to voice their thoughts and deliver the best solutions to our most pressing challenges.) The results of this work will help guide our direction forward.

As a Board, we have one employee, our Superintendent, Dr. Fred Van Vleck. We are proud of the impact Fred has made over the past 10+ years, and we look forward to working with Dr. Van Vleck in the years to come.

[CORRECTION: This post has been updated to remove an erroneous buy-out figure for Van Vleck’s contract.]

Big news from the most recent tally from the Humboldt County Office of Elections, which released its most recent report from the Nov. 8 election just a few moments ago.

The big news: G. Mario Fernandez has pulled ahead of John Fullerton for the Eureka City Council Third Ward seat, and seems on pace to take the election:

Elsewhere, as we see, Juan Pablo Cervantes is cruising to an easy victory over Tiffany Hunt-Nielsen in the clerk/recorder/registrar race, and Renee Contreras de Loach has a commanding lead for the Fifth Ward seat.

Elsewhere: Julie Ryan has easily defeated incumbent Alan Bongio, the embattled Humboldt County Planning Commissioner, for his seat on the Humboldt Community Services District. Mike Morgan lost his bid to return to the Trinidad City Council. Kyle Conley, Christina Mobley and Mike Johnson are in fine shape in the Fortuna City Council race.  

Here’s another big turnaround, though — a big shift in Dave Meserve’s Arcata Earth Flag measure, which would require the city to hang the Earth Flag on top of city-owned poles, with the American flag and the California flag underneath. The measure looked crushed on Election Night, but the late vote-by-mail ballots have swung that around sharply — it’s now 49.4 percent yes and 50.6 percent no and looks like it could be headed for passage.

View full results here.

There should be about 10,000 votes left to count, according to numbers released by the elections office shortly after the polls closed last week. The general rule is that these things trend leftward, and they sure did this time, with Cervantes and Fernandez picking up big gains. Expect more of that. 

But tune in next week for the definitive result!

Little hazy in Eureka today, eh? Your Lost Coast Outpost was startled from his slumber early this morning by the faint smell of smoke, and we can’t imagine we were the only ones.

As of this writing the air carries that tang — one more common to the summer than the fall, and to the inland regions of the state than to our coastline, where the blessed AC that is the Pacific Ocean generally purifies the environment 24/7.

Why is this? Well, it’s a combination of a slash burn up in the Elk River watershed and some uncooperative weather, which sent the smoke down into the bay rather than out in a different direction, where it was supposed to go.

Reached by telephone this morning, Debra Harris, the burn program officer for the North Coast Unified Air Quality Management District, rended garments and fell on her sword with the most anguished apology this reporter has ever encountered in more than two decades of reporting on Humboldt County governmental entities.

Harris immediately said she was the one who authorized the Elk River burn permit, and nearly as immediately took sole blame for the fact that the winds weren’t blowing as strongly as had been forecast. She reiterated and adumbrated on this theme for the length of a 15-minute conversation with a somewhat befuddled reporter, who had only called to ask if she knew where the smoke was coming from.  Harris ran down all the equipment and technology she uses to decide whether to issue a burn permit of this scale, and explained that the weather just did not behave as expected.

“We did everything we could,” Harris said. “And I came to work this morning, I said, ‘Oh boy.’”

All this is to say: The smoke is coming from a logging slash fire on Elk River, and Debra Harris — a good egg who takes her job seriously — is very deeply sorry.

The smoke should lift soon.

For our final episode of 2022 , we took a look at the results of the 2022 mid-term elections as they affect the Humboldt cannabis industry with our special guest, Congressman Jared Huffman.

The Humboldt Chronicles airs on “The Lounge” — KLGE, 94.1 FM — at 6 p.m. on the third Wednesday of every month (except next month). Find archives here.

For more than a week after the Nov. 8 election, control of the U.S. House of Representatives remained undetermined. All eyes had turned to more than half a dozen uncalled races in California when, on Wednesday, the Associated Press projected victory for Rep. Mike Garcia in his Los Angeles-area district, finally handing Republicans a slim majority in the new Congress.

As tense days ticked by without resolution, political pundits across the country once again lamented why the vote count takes so long in California, while conservatives resurfaced concerns that late-arriving ballots and slow results exposed Democratic efforts to steal close races.

In reality, the extended count, which will take a month to finish, is a consequence of California’s shift to overwhelmingly voting by mail, a convenience that requires several additional steps of verification by local officials once ballots arrive.

Though election experts in California say there are several ways the state could potentially speed up the tally, there is little urgency to prioritize them. With policymakers focused instead on improving accessibility, participation and security, the waiting game seems here to stay.

“Democracies are not meant to be efficient. They’re built on a foundation that every person’s vote matters,” said state Sen. Steve Glazer, an Orinda Democrat who leads the Senate committee on elections. Instant answers, he said, are not more important than ensuring the accuracy and integrity of the results.

Glazer added that no one has ever raised serious concerns with him about the speed of vote counting.

“The current hysteria generated by some is a lot of bunk that feeds their ideological agenda to the detriment of trust in our democracy,” Glazer said. “Is there a way to make it faster? Yes, there is. It is worth the price, the cost?”

Mail ballots slow the tally

The crawling pace of election results in California — with updates dribbling out day by day — stems from changes in how people vote over the past two decades. The state implemented no-excuse absentee voting in 2002, which during the coronavirus pandemic became a system where every active registered voter is mailed a ballot. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law last year making that permanent.

Some experts point to additional factors, including the sheer size of California and its independent redistricting process, which creates more competitive races where the outcome cannot be determined as quickly.

But the timeline is fundamentally driven by mail ballots, which simply take longer to count than those cast at a polling place on election day.

A recent analysis by the nonprofit California Voter Foundation found that, in November 2004, when fewer than a third of voters cast mail ballots, nearly 81% of voters were counted within two days of election day. By comparison, in the June primary this year, more than 91% of voters cast mail ballots and slightly less than half were counted within two days of election day.

As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, county election offices had counted about 9.1 million votes, but still had nearly 1.9 million ballots left to process.

The reasons are not nefarious. Local election officials verify the signature on every mail ballot and check that the voter has not already cast a ballot in another jurisdiction before counting it. To minimize the number of legitimate votes that are disqualified for procedural reasons, California accepts ballots postmarked by election day that arrive as much as a week later and gives voters an opportunity to fix missing or mismatched signatures on their ballots. Before certification, election offices also recount 1% of ballots by hand as an internal audit.

“We have a huge population of registered voters and California stresses enfranchisement, so we have a process that by law ensures both voting rights and the integrity of elections,” Secretary of State Shirley Weber, the state’s chief elections officer, said in a statement Tuesday. “I would call on everyone to be patient.”

Her office did not make Weber available for an interview, but spokesperson Joe Kocurek said that, with the count still ongoing, “It’s a little early for us to assess whether any changes are needed.”

But the lengthy timeline has contributed to a growing partisan split in trust in elections, fueled by conspiracy theories spread by former President Donald Trump that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him.

An October survey by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies found that 74% of Republicans in California believe election security in the United States is under threat, while Democrats were evenly divided. Large numbers of Republican respondents considered people voting illegally or trying to change results to be major threats, with more than half expressing no confidence in machine counting of ballots.

“The ironic thing is that the people who are making claims questioning the veracity of our election results because of the long vote counts are overlooking that the reason it takes a long time to count mail ballots is because we are ensuring the security of the vote,” said Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation, which advocates to improve election administration and access to voting.

Nevertheless, she said, California should work to speed up the process to deal with the perception of malfeasance — and the torrent of abuse that it has unleashed on election officials, who are burning out of the job at extraordinary rates.

“With elections, confidence is about people having confidence based on what’s actually happening and also confidence based on what they perceive is happening,” Alexander said. “Perception matters a lot.”

Changing voter habits

Some solutions could be as simple as messaging.

Several county election officials said that people turned their ballots in earlier during the 2020 presidential election, allowing their offices to process a greater share of votes in the weeks leading up to election day and announce those results as soon as the polls closed. This year, more were dropped off at polling places on election day, or were still arriving this week because they were mailed later.

Olivia Hale, registrar of voters for San Joaquin County, said she wants to run an educational campaign before the next election encouraging people to return their ballots earlier.

That could also be accomplished by creating more opportunities for early, in-person voting, such as the weekend before the election.

Only 27 of 58 counties in California use the new Voter’s Choice Act model, which replaces neighborhood polling places with regional vote centers that open 10 days before election day and offer registration, voting and other services. Counties are responsible for the cost and administration of the vote centers, including finding locations and election workers to staff them.

Hale said she still plans to advocate for San Joaquin County to adopt the system, because “our current model fits a model of election that was in the past.” But she would also like to see the state offer grants to help counties upgrade their equipment and hire more staff.

“I just want to do what gives the voters what they want,” Hale said.

Shasta County does not use the Voter’s Choice Act model either, but many residents have taken advantage of the option to come to the elections office in person to have their mail ballot processed immediately, said Cathy Darling Allen, the county registrar of voters.

About 2,000 people voted this way in the primary and that increased to more than 3,000 in the November election, which Allen attributed to skepticism around mail-in voting. She said the timeline for counting ballots is “a push and pull,” not just with voters but also with candidates and the media.

“We have tens of thousands of ballots. Of course that’s going to take us time,” she said. “Someone I worked with once told me, ‘Elections can be cheap and fast, and they can be accurate — but you have to pick two.’”

‘You just have to grind it out’

When election offices are dealing with mail ballots, however, there’s not much they can do to go faster. Processing each one takes significantly more manual labor, including verifying the signature, opening the envelope and extracting the ballot, and aligning stacks of ballots for the counting machines. Damaged ballots that cannot be read by the machines are duplicated by workers and run through again.

“Once you receive 100,000, 200,000 ballots like that, it’s just a chore. You just have to grind it out,” said Tommy Gong, deputy county clerk-recorder for Contra Costa County. “I don’t think there’s anything that could speed it up, other than maybe more equipment.”

Because each mail ballot envelope is scanned twice after it arrives — once to check the signatures and again to remove the challenged ballots for further verification or fixing — Gong said having a second sorting machine could speed up their tally by allowing them to undertake both steps simultaneously.

But that might also require more vote counters (Contra Costa County has six) and more employees (the county has 32 permanent and 65 temporary workers for the election) to maintain the pace, plus a larger space to house the massive machines.

“If that was a desire to be able to certify quicker, it would need to really be looked at holistically,” Gong said. “By doing things quicker, you certainly could be looking for ways to cut corners that could start chipping away at the integrity of the elections.”

Technological developments may ultimately help speed the vote count for mail ballots, though that is further down the line.

Gong said his office installed a new component on its scanner this year that opens the envelopes, so workers no longer have to put them through a separate machine. He’s less certain about automated signature verification, technology the bank industry is already using, because he believes that both workers and voters are more confident in human review.

Not a priority for policymakers

While California has radically overhauled its voting system over the past decade, adding automatic registration, universal mail ballots and free postage to expand access and participation, the speed of the count has not received much attention at the state Capitol.

A 2017 report by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office suggested that, to improve confidence in the election process, “the Legislature could make receipt of funding conditional on counties demonstrating efforts to improve the swiftness of their tallies.” That’s as far as the idea went.

Other programs have taken precedence in the budget. A request this year by 17 legislators and several voting rights advocates for $85 million to conduct voter education and outreach did not even get a committee hearing.

Legislators who focus on voting rights and election policy said they were open to ideas from local officials and other states that could speed up ballot processing, but they expressed doubts that there would be easy solutions that could work across the entire state. Policies such as simplifying candidate filing requirements and updating recall rules seemed to be a higher priority.

“It’s the kind of thing we get very focused on and passionate about now, as the count is going slowly,” said Assemblymember Marc Berman, a Palo Alto Democrat.

Berman, who carried the legislation to mail a ballot to every active registered voter in California, said creating new standards for how counties publicly report results and what information they share could be a simple, inexpensive fix.

“At a time when a lot of people are lying to the public to try to sow doubt in our democracy, that makes it that much more important for us to be as transparent as possible,” Berman said. “That transparency creates trust.”

Gail Pellerin, the former chief elections official for Santa Cruz County, was just elected to the Assembly. The Democrat said she hates the question of why counting votes takes so long, comparing the tally to wine-making — processes that can’t be rushed.

“I certainly would not want to compromise the intensive audits and verification and participation and security just to get it faster,” Pellerin said. “I think it takes the right amount of time to deliver democracy that is accurate and fair and transparent and accessible.”

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

“Big Mike” rode his Harley into the sky on September 22, 2022, after a long battle with liver cancer.

Mike was born to William and Peggy Mullin on August 23, 1955 in Eureka. Mike, the oldest of their two children, had a younger sister, Marcy. His father would later remarry and have his younger brother, Shannon.

Mike attended Eureka High School, where he was a star football player. He would later obtain his GED while serving our country in the United States Army. After his honorable discharge he came back home to Eureka. He followed his passion for fishing and went to work for Arctic Ice, fishing off the coast of Alaska for a number of years. Mike would eventually settle in Washington’s Spokane Valley.

Mike had many endeavors throughout his life. A self-proclaimed Jack of all trades, he owned many successful businesses over the years. Friends and family have described him as one of the smartest men they had ever known. There weren’t many things he didn’t know how to do, and if he didn’t know how to do something he would pick up a book and learn how. Mike enjoyed riding his Harley and fly fishing most of all. He was also one of the best pool players you could ever come across, winning tournament after tournament.

Mike leaves behind two daughters, Rebecca and Kalee; four grandchildren, Draken, Jax, Nicole and Barrett; his younger brother, Shannon; his dear friend Mike Ferguson, who will be spreading some of his ashes at Sturgis, where he enjoyed many biker ralliess. Mike spent the last decade with his loving partner Lori, who was a pillar of strength for him in the end.

At Mike’s request no funeral services will be held at this time. His memory lives on in all who knew him.

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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Mike Mullin’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here. Email news@lostcoastoutpost.com.

If you don’t already compost your food scraps, folks of Arcata, it’s time to start planning for it! During Wednesday night’s meeting, the Arcata City Council introduced an ordinance that will mandate composting all organic waste. 

The ordinance is a required step for bringing Arcata into compliance with SB 1383, which requires city and county jurisdictions to compost their green waste, such as food scraps and yard debris, in an effort to reduce the release of greenhouse gasses emitted by organic materials decomposing in our landfills. 

For the last two years, the local Solid Waste Local Task Force (LTF) – which includes members of Arcata city staff, along with representatives from other municipalities and the Humboldt Waste Management Authority (HWMA) – have been working on a countywide plan to bring Humboldt into compliance with the bill, which went into effect at the beginning of 2022. In addition to requiring California cities and counties to compost, the law requires jurisdictions to establish food recovery programs (which require food service businesses, like restaurants and grocery stores, to donate edible food) and to use recycled products – such as compost, mulch and renewable gas – for city projects.  

With all these different components, rolling out SB 138 is a pretty big undertaking. Luckily, rural communities like Arcata have been granted some extra time to implement the changes. Emily Benvie, deputy director of environmental and community services for the City of Arcata, explained to the council that adopting this ordinance by the end of the year is required to show that the city is on track. The city has another year after adoption to come into compliance with the ordinance, Benvie said.  

Once the service is rolled out, it would work like recycling and trash, where businesses and residents put their compost in a bin that is collected by the city. Benvie said that the city would implement a “three-bin system” with one bin for trash, one for recycling and a third, green bin for compost.

This brought up some questions with the council about what this would mean for people who already use a green waste bin for composting yard waste. (Recology does already offer pickup for yard waste, such as lawn clippings and leaves, which are processed at Wes Green Company.) Councilmember Alex Stillman asked if those people would have to use four bins. Benvie said the city would most likely have people use the same bin for yard waste and food scraps, which would then be separated during pre-processing. But Benvie added that the details are still being worked out. 

Another issue that still needs to be worked out is where the food waste will go once it’s picked up. Wes Green processes yard waste, but there is no local facility for composting food scraps. Benvie explained that the city is working with HWMA to develop processing pre-processing infrastructure as quickly as possible. In the longterm, the region is working to develop an in-county organic processing facility. In the meantime, the city is working to develop a franchise agreement with a processor that would transport the organic waste out of the area organic waste would be transported to an out of area processing facility. 

Benvie said that the topics of the franchise agreement, rate increases for collection, and infrastructure for processing will come before the council in spring of 2023.

Several community members expressed concern over the rate increases and the impact it may have on lower income people, and whether or not people should have to pay if they already compost themselves or use another composting business – such as Full Cycle Compost or Local Worm Guy. 

There are currently several provisions for waiving the service, including if a property is zero-waste, or if a property does not have space to keep the bin.  The ordinance would remove the zero-waste waivers, but the others would still apply. The ordinance also includes a waiver provisions for “self-haulers” – people who already use a service or take their compost to another facility. 

Benvie said that after the ordinance returns for adoption and before the changes start to roll out, there will be more opportunities for public questions and input. 

“Our intent is to really work with residences and businesses to provide them with ample time and education to understand the implementation of the ordinance as time moves on,” Benvie said during the meeting. 

[CORRECTION: This article previously stated that the ordinance would grant waivers to zero-waste properties or to self-haulers and has been corrected to reflect that the ordinance would actually remove the zero-waste waver.]

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The council was planning to vote on the approval of a contract that would increase the city’s contract with Planwest Partners – the agency that is developing the Gateway Area Plan – by $118,000, to complete more work around establishing zoning and land use policies for the Gateway Plan. 

But due to a Fair Political Practices Commission ruling, both Mayor Stacy Atkins-Salazar and Councilmember Alex Stillman must recuse themselves from discussions related to the Gateway Area Plan. Since Councilmember Brett Watson (who recently lost for re-election) was absent, the council would not have a quorum and the discussion was tabled.