Joint press release from the Karuk Tribe, Ridges to Riffles, the Yurok Tribe and the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations:

Klamath Basin, CA – Despite the wet winter, the Department of Interior has announced plans to cut Klamath River flows up to 30% below the minimum mandated by the Endangered Species Act to protect listed coho salmon. River flows will drop below 750 cubic feet per second (cfs) for the first time in decades. This could prove disastrous to juvenile coho salmon along with other species including Chinook salmon, steelhead trout, and Pacific lamprey. The Yurok Tribe and the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations have already filed a 60-day Notice of Intent to sue the federal government.

“We know from experience that flows this low lead to massive fish kills. It happened in the fall of 2002 and the spring of 2004,” said Yurok Vice Chairman Frankie Joe Myers. “This plan is reckless and it disregards the best available science.”

In 2002, similarly low flows led to the infamous Klamath Fish Kill when tens of thousands of adult salmon died as they tried to make their way to their spawning grounds.  In 2004, similarly low flows caused a massive juvenile fish kill which in turn led to a collapse of the entire west coast salmon fishery.

“Thousands of fishing industry jobs are at stake,” said Glen Spain, Pacific Northwest Director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations. “This plan could lead to another fisheries disaster that will cost local coastal communities hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue.”

Work begins this year on the removal of the lower four Klamath dams. While this will provide some relief to beleaguered salmon runs, fish still need adequate flows to survive.  Klamath River flows are largely a function of how Upper Klamath Lake is managed further upstream from the dams. Upper Klamath Lake is a natural lake that was drained, rerouted and dammed in the early 20th century to allow federal regulators to divert water from the Klamath River to the 225,000-acre Klamath Irrigation Project.

Upper Klamath Lake is also home to two species of ESA listed sucker fish, known as koptu and c’waam. Department of Interior officials claim that the cut in flows is necessary to meet Upper Klamath Lake levels needed for the recovery of these species. However, current weather forecasts suggest there will be enough water to meet ESA requirements of both suckers and coho salmon without cutting river flows.

“This is an uncalled-for risk to the health of the river and west coast fisheries,” said Amy Cordalis, Director of Ridges to Riffles and attorney for the Yurok Tribe. “Salmon runs desperately need a good water year. Mother nature is providing that but federal agencies are taking it away.”

Cordalis notes, “For millennia suckers and salmon thrived together in the Klamath. The problem is the water management choices that Interior is making, not the competing needs of different fish species.”

“The Department of Interior should be focusing on Klamath Basin-wide restoration plans, including the upper basin marshes and lakes, not proposing plans that threaten the future of one of America’s greatest salmon fisheries,” said Karuk Chairman Russell ‘Buster’ Attebery.

Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

On Jan. 24, 2023, at about 4:16 p.m., Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to a business on the 400 block of Machi Road in Shelter Cove for the report of a disturbance.

According to employees at the business, 41-year-old Elena Elaine Stanley, reportedly entered the business in distress. When an employee attempted to console Stanley, she became violent toward employees, throwing store items at them and causing approximately $1,200 worth of damages to the business.

Deputies located Stanley in a parking area at the boat launch nearby. Stanley was determined to be under the influence of alcohol and was arrested without incident.

At approximately 6:53 p.m., a Shelter Cove resident contacted the Sheriff’s Office to report a vandalism and burglary of their home on the 500 block of Muskrat Circle earlier that afternoon. The victim provided deputies with surveillance footage from the residence which showed Stanley forcing entry onto the property and into the home. While inside the residence, Stanley reportedly caused over $11,000 worth of damages.   

Stanley was booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility on charges of vandalism (PC 594(b)(1)), burglary (PC 459/461(A)) and disorderly conduct under the influence (PC 647(f)).

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.

Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

On Jan. 25, 2023, at about 11:18 p.m., Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputies on patrol in the Willow Creek area conducted a suspicious vehicle investigation on an occupied vehicle parked in a pullout on Highway 299.

Deputies contacted the driver of the vehicle, 53-year-old Joseph Richard Bartholomew, and observed drug paraphernalia in plain view. Deputies detained Bartholomew and conducted a search of the vehicle. During the search, deputies located over 8 grams of methamphetamine and an unsecured loaded firearm.

Bartholomew was arrested and booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility on charges of convicted felon in possession of a firearm (PC 29800(a)), possession of a controlled substance while armed (HS 11370.1(a)), possession of a controlled substance (HS 11377(a)), carrying a loaded firearm not registered to the individual (PC 25850(c)(6)) and possession of a controlled substance paraphernalia (HS 11364).

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.

A law passed in 2020 compels the state Justice Department to investigate all incidents in which a police officer shoots and kills someone who is unarmed.

But the department isn’t investigating all of the incidents law enforcement agencies are referring to it — in at least 17 cases to date, the state has opted not to investigate.

The exact number and details about those cases are a bit of a mystery, CalMatters has learned. The Justice Department said it had not been tracking each report it received and could readily provide details only for cases in which its agents visited the scene or opened an investigation or reports. After CalMatters began raising questions in November, the department managed to track down some information on the 17 rejected cases, and acknowledged there were more.

CalMatters launched its own tracker to follow the police shooting cases the Justice Department is investigating, which number 31 and counting.

The department now says it has reversed course and begun tracking every report that comes in.

“Given the mandate and the need to rapidly implement a major new statewide initiative, our office focused on…qualifying events,” a Justice Department spokesperson wrote in an email to CalMatters Jan. 20. “We did not previously consider tracking calls for non-qualifying events. However, we are now tracking the information on our end and we’re more than happy to provide updates on those figures as needed…”

Under the new law, whenever a police department or sheriff’s office thinks one of their officers has shot someone who could be considered unarmed — including those carrying Airsoft rifles or other weapons not considered deadly — they’re compelled by law to report it for review.

The law says: “A state prosecutor shall investigate incidents of an officer-involved shooting resulting in the death of an unarmed civilian. The Attorney General is the state prosecutor unless otherwise specified or named”

There were 31 open investigations into the shootings of unarmed people as of Wednesday, but it’s impossible to know what percentage that represents of the total number of calls the department has received.

But sometimes a lot hinges on the definition of “unarmed.” The Justice Department may opt not to investigate a case if it determines the person killed was, in fact, armed in some way. For example, if the slain person was in a car, the deputy attorney general making the call might determine that person was using the car in a manner that constituted potential deadly force.

In any event, when the Justice Department doesn’t take a case, it also hasn’t been publishing an explanation as to why.

The review process for the shooting of unarmed people is public record, and the Justice Department has maintained a page recording the names and locations of the people shot and the officers suspected of shooting them.

Failing to report the original calls from law enforcement agencies — whether the person they shot was unarmed or not — makes analyzing the decision-making by the Justice Department more difficult. This was, after all, a law enacted in the wake of the George Floyd shooting to create a layer of state oversight.

For instance, there were 31 open investigations into the shootings of unarmed people as of Wednesday, but it’s impossible to know what percentage that represents of the total number of calls the department has received. They have logged at least 66 total calls since July 1, 2021.

The legislation creating the program to investigate deadly police shootings does not explicitly mandate how the Justice Department will maintain records. The Justice Department told CalMatters that the program’s operations are up to them.

“Oh it’s absolutely troubling, but I’m just a lawyer, I’m not the family who lost a loved one,” said Izaak Schwaiger, an attorney representing the family of Pelaez Chavez in a federal lawsuit against the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office and the deputy who shot him. “And for those folks out there who are relying on some oversight … to just get turned a cold shoulder like this is indefensible, and it’s a misapplication of the attorney general’s duty under the law.”

In that case, even the Sonoma County District Attorney has complained that the state Justice Department needed to be more transparent about its decision to not investigate.

The two authors of the original bill creating the program refused to comment on the way the Justice Department has been handling cases. One is Assemblymember Kevin McCarty, the Sacramento Democrat whose spokesperson said he would soon introduce legislation expanding the Justice Department’s mandate to investigate all deaths at the hands of law enforcement. The other is Attorney General Rob Bonta, a former legislator who now heads the Justice Department.

Other legislators heavily involved with policing also refused to comment. A spokesperson for Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer, a Los Angeles Democrat and chair of the Assembly Public Safety Committee, said he would issue a statement, then stopped returning calls and text messages.

No one, it seemed, wanted to talk: A number of the groups who were registered supporters of the original legislation creating the Justice Department program didn’t return calls or emails from CalMatters, or declined to comment. One person who wouldn’t be quoted by name said that the groups worried that publicizing each call from a law enforcement agency would make the agencies less likely to report their shootings in the future.

“There should be some record, a digital record, that a telephone call was made,” said David Loy, legal director of the First Amendment Coalition. “Incoming and outgoing calls, even if it’s only to record … the fact that a call was made should be (available). I mean, my cell phone bill has a record. Every call that came in and out of my cell phone, that’s a record that exists. I can’t believe that the state doesn’t have a similar record.”

Shot shoeless in a creek

One of the calls the Justice Department chose not to investigate came from the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office.

At about 7:30 a.m. on July 29, Sonoma County dispatchers took a call about a man breaking a house’s window with a rock. Deputies found 36-year-old David Pelaez Chavez in a hilly area and tried to communicate with him in Spanish, according to body camera footage released by the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office.

The deputies did not tell Pelaez Chavez in Spanish to drop the hammer and tiller he was holding in one hand, and the rock he held in the other. As he bent over, standing shoeless in a creek, a deputy shot and killed him.

In a Sept. 7 letter to Bonta, Sonoma County District Attorney Jill Ravitch questioned the lack of transparency after the state turned down a potential investigation, noting:”It would be helpful to have a written explanation of how the determination was made to decline participation in the investigation…”

“I was concerned that the decision had been made without enough evidence and it was a little preliminary given the situation,” Ravitch told the Press Democrat in Santa Rosa.

CalMatters has found that the Justice Department has struggled to meet the goals set by the police shooting law — including the attorney general’s own pledge to complete investigations in one year. Internal emails indicate that Justice Department employees were worried that the new workload would overwhelm them. Department officials also have complained that the Legislature slashed in half their original $26 million budget request to cover these investigations.

Police shootings are politically charged, and Schwaiger, the plaintiff’s attorney in the Sonoma County case, said the lack of funding means Bonta’s office has less time and fewer resources to investigate cases with little upside to the department: Push for charges against police officers and you’ll enrage one set of constituents; fail to bring charges and you’ll upset a different set of voters.

“There’s no more labor intensive investigation that can be done than the investigation of a police officer involved in some kind of a killing,” Schwaigert said. “And there might be something to the fact that they don’t have the manpower or the money to do it.

“I think their earlier position upon the adoption of this law was that they’ll make it work, no matter what. The truth is, they haven’t.”

Investigations into police shootings of unarmed people throughout California begin when the law enforcement agency itself calls in the shooting to a Los Angeles-based 24-hour call center — these are the calls that the Justice Department has just started tracking.

The call center contacts an agent at the Department of Justice, who then confers with department attorneys into whether the incident could qualify as a fatal shooting of an unarmed person.

If the Justice Department agent finds there is enough cause, the department will send a Deputy Attorney General to the scene of the shooting. This had happened 49 times as of Jan. 16. After processing the scene, Justice Department attorneys then decide whether to take up the case.

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

The California State University system is putting campuses on notice: Enroll more students or lose money.

It’s a stunning reversal of fortune for the 23 campuses of the country’s largest public university system, which have collectively lost 27,000 students in two years — part of a national wave of declining college enrollment.

In fall 2020, Cal State posted its highest-ever enrollment, a capstone to almost ceaseless growth in its six decades as a unified system. Now, it’s home to 25,000 fewer students than the state says it should educate.

That’s despite a deal with Gov. Gavin Newsom that the system continue to attract more Californians to its campuses — and graduate them at higher rates — in exchange for increased state funding.“The California State University is facing an unprecedented moment in its 62-year history,” said Steve Relyea, executive vice chancellor and chief financial officer for the system, at this week’s Board of Trustees meeting.

Funding reshuffle plan

Seven campuses in particular — CSU Channel Islands, Chico State, Cal State East Bay, Cal Poly Humboldt, Cal Maritime, Sonoma State and San Francisco State — are missing their state enrollment targets by 10% or more. They’re not paying a financial price for that, even as several other campuses are exceeding their enrollment goals by more than 10%.

So, a new plan: Any campus missing its enrollment target by 10% or more will permanently lose up to 5% of its state enrollment funding, which will then be sent to campuses exceeding their enrollment targets. This won’t go into effect until 2024-25 at the earliest, giving campuses time to plug their enrollment gaps.

In the subsequent two years, any campus missing its targets by 7%, and then 5%, respectively, would lose 5% of its state student enrollment funding each year. The plan isn’t set in stone like a traditional funding formula. System leaders said its details can change.“These actions are really intended to incentivize as much upward movement of campuses to and above their enrollment target,” said Nathan Evans, an associate vice chancellor and chief of staff who helps to oversee the system’s academic mission for students and faculty.

If this plan went into effect today, the seven campuses missing targets would lose a combined $38 million to other campuses — enough to educate 4,500 full-time students — in the first year of the plan. Campuses with deeper enrollment holes would see steeper cuts.Despite the shuffling of dollars, those seven under-enrolled campuses will “be funded at a higher level than their enrollment would justify” in the first year of the plan, said Jolene Koester, interim chancellor of the Cal State system. She made those remarks in response to concerns from some trustees that the plan deprives money from campuses already hurting for more students.

But unless those campuses staunch their enrollment losses, campuses stand to lose as much as 15% of their enrollment funding for the duration of this three-year plan, explained system spokesperson Michael Uhlenkamp in an email. These “budget reallocations” would be permanent, he added, but campuses could recover their money if their enrollment rebounds.

The penalized campuses would also miss out on additional enrollment growth dollars that are part of Newsom’s compact with the system. That money — part of the more than $200 million in new state funds Newsom is promising annually — would only go to campuses meeting or exceeding their enrollment targets.

All of this additional money will help campuses meeting their targets hire more educators and add more classes.The Cal State system has no history of rerouting money like this, Koester said, “but we are in a position where we have to take the risk of acting in order to fund the enrollment where the enrollment can take place.”

Enrollment picture

Multiple factors explain Cal State’s enrollment slide. Among them is the collapse of enrollment at California’s community colleges, whose transfer students typically account for a third of Cal State’s total student body. As a result, Cal State now enrolls the equivalent of 11,000 fewer new full-time transfer students than it did in fall 2020.

The biggest loss, though, is among existing students. Between fall 2020 and fall 2022, the equivalent of roughly 24,000 currently enrolled undergraduates disappeared from the Cal State system.

Part of the reason is that students on average are collectively taking fewer classes. In the last two years, students began taking .4 fewer units a term. That may seem insignificant, but with more than 400,000 students, that fraction of a change means the equivalent of 8,000 fewer full-time students enrolled.

The penalized campuses would also miss out on additional enrollment growth dollars that are part of Newsom’s compact with the system.

Another enrollment headwind is the number of students coming back for another year of study. Only 81.7% of last year’s starting freshmen came back for a second year, the lowest first-year retention rate at Cal State since 2008, and far below the 85.5% of freshmen who started their education in 2019.

There are bright spots for the system: About 2,000 more new freshmen enrolled in fall 2022 than in fall 2020.

But even recent high school graduates may no longer be a source of continued enrollment growth for Cal State given that the state’s K-12 population is expected to crater by more than 500,000 students between 2020 and 2030.

Workers well past their high school years or adults with some education but no college degree will need to increasingly become a greater source of enrollment — and by extension tuition revenue — for the system, some trustees said.

“The demand for access is no longer just in the (typical) college-age population,” said Julia Lopez, a trustee. “The demand for access is in the older non-traditional student.”

Current re-enrollment efforts

In late 2021, the system began appealing to students who dropped out during the pandemic to come back to the campus. System leaders said those efforts are ongoing.

They also described a new partnership with Los Angeles Unified School District, the state’s largest K-12 public school system, to work with high schools that send few students to college. This spring Cal State will unveil a dual-admission program for high schoolers who want to attend community college first but still maintain guaranteed admission to the Cal State system. Cal State leaders are also hiring an enrollment marketing firm, Virginia-based SimpsonScarborough, to help with attracting more students. The Cal State Chancellor’s Office hasn’t finalized the contract, so financial details of that deal aren’t available, Uhlenkamp wrote.Some campus presidents say expanding student housing will also attract more students. San Francisco State, among the seven campuses with the most severe enrollment problems, is adding 750 new beds that will be rented out to low-income students at a discounted rate. The project is part of the state’s planned massive $4 billion infusion to build more affordable homes for college students.In past years 2,000 students appeared on waitlists for campus housing at the university,” said Lynn Mahoney, president of San Francisco State, at Wednesday’s trustees meeting.

“My enrollment will improve dramatically if I can promise first-year and second-year students campus housing,” she said.

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

Stanley Henry Pfister of Willow Creek passed away peacefully on Monday, January 16, 2023, surrounded by family. Stanley, known to friends and family as Stan, was born on March 14, 1950 in Fresno the second of four children to Hank and Doris Pfister. He remained there until graduating from Fresno State University in 1972 with a degree in history and then began working toward his teaching credential, which was completed a year later.

Stan joined the US Forest Service, first working in southern California before moving north and finally settling in Orleans in 1978. In the 32 years he worked for the Orleans Ranger District, Stan served as an Engine Captain, Helibase Manager, Timber Prep Specialist, and Fuels Management Officer. Maintaining our natural resources was close to his heart, and he worked diligently with community members to best manage cultural resources for local basket weavers. He was also an EMT and volunteer firefighter with the Orleans Volunteer Fire Department. He was happiest working outdoors in nature, and would often reflect proudly on finding the perfect job that paid him to be in the woods. Stan was not one to remain idle for very long, so shortly after retirement and moving to Willow Creek, he went on to work at Ace Hardware for nine years, as well as serving as a docent, board member, and president of the board at the Willow Creek China Flat Museum.

He was always willing to go the extra mile for anyone who asked and could always be counted on to lend a helping hand. An avid Giants and 49ers fan, he was seldom found without a baseball cap and a big smile. Stan thoroughly enjoyed reading, loved spending time spoiling his granddaughters, always appreciated a good meal, and took in as many Humboldt Crabs games as he could.

Stan is survived by his wife of 43 years Sally, son Kevin, daughter-in-law Tara, daughter Lisa, granddaughters Alexis, Elsie, and Olivia, sister Kathy Echols, and brother Jim Pfister. He was preceded in death by his parents and younger brother Steve. He will be greatly missed by all those who knew him. A celebration of life will be held later this summer.

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

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Humboldt County is in desperate need of mental health services. 

Local health care providers and Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) staff have spent the last year looking for long-term strategies to address the ongoing mental health crisis, which has only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and insufficient local resources. The county has tried to get an adult crisis residential facility up and running for some time but hasn’t found a viable location for such a facility until recently.

During this week’s meeting, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors took its first look at a proposal to build a behavioral health crisis triage center in Arcata and unanimously approved a letter of support for a grant application that would partially fund the construction of the facility.

The proposed facility, which is inspired by Be Well Orange County, would provide approximately 12 crisis stabilization beds, 12 sobering cots and nine mental health crisis residential beds, though the design and square footage of the facility has yet to be finalized. The facility would be built on property owned by Mad River Community Hospital but the exact location of the property has not been disclosed.

Several members of the North Coast Health Leadership Team emphasized the “extremely critical” need for additional mental health services in Humboldt County.

“This would be the best thing that could happen to really improve [mental health] care in Humboldt County,” David Neal, chief executive officer for Mad River Community Hospital, said. “What’s going on at Mad River [Hospital], Redwood [Memorial Hospital] and St. Joseph’s [Hospital] is a really grave concern. … We [need to] develop a unit where these patients could be housed, get the appropriate care that is necessary … so they can succeed in getting the treatment needed to then transition to other levels of care.”

Behavioral Health Director Emi Botzler-Rodgers said the proposed facility presents “an amazing opportunity to address mental illness in our community.”

“There is lots of judgment of people with mental illness and I think we as a community are still really learning about how to stop stigma and discrimination,” she said. “I think this is one of the ways to do it, to just recognize the need in our community and come together to normalize that people with mental illness need care with dignity and respect and kindness.”

The grant funding would come from the California Department of Health Care Services’ Behavioral Health Continuum Infrastructure Program. The latest round of grant funds would pay for $480 million in projects to address significant crisis care gaps in California’s behavioral health infrastructure. 

“This is a unique situation where the state has a grant program where communities … can bring their ideas to the state for funding,” Connie Stewart, Executive Director of Initiatives at Cal Poly Humboldt, said. “This round of funding required a 10 percent match because of public and private partners.”

First District Supervisor Rex Bohn expressed enthusiastic support for the project and even suggested that the county “can do better” than a 10 percent match of $3 million to fund the project.

“This is long-term,” he said. “I think this is going to go a long way because … when you read stories of people that come out of homelessness and mental health [crises], it is because somebody spent some time with them and gave them dignity for a moment. Maybe that’s it. Maybe that’s our job.”

Fourth District Supervisor Natalie Arroyo asked how long patients would stay at the facility and whether or not people would be involuntarily held.

“Maybe this is nitty-gritty we can get into later, but the triage nature of it makes it sound like people are in and out of there relatively quickly,” she said. “Could you help me understand in broad terms how people come in and then get connected to other resources?”

It would vary, Botzler-Rodgers said, because the single facility would offer several components of care.

“Our goal is to get people to the right level of care,” she said. “They may come in, they may be triaged and they may not need to stay. They may just need to be linked to outpatient services and connected with a case manager or a clinician. … They may need more intensive, longer-term services like residential treatment, but at this facility, it’s really only 30 to 60, maybe 90 days. That would be the max.”

After public comment and some more discussion, Second District Supervisor Michelle Bushnell made a motion to approve staff’s recommendation to submit a letter of support for the grant funding application, which was seconded by Bohn. 

The item passed in a 5-0 vote.

Anti-Hate Resolution

The board also approved an anti-hate resolution condemning recent “hate events” in the county, including several instances of racism, antisemitism and an increase in hate crimes, discrimination and violence towards the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. Recent events include posting anti-trans signage in the community, anti-2SLBTQIA+ graffiti/vandalism in local schools and at a queer-friendly church, as well as harassing phone calls being made to at least one community organization.

The resolution, brought forth by Fifth District Supervisor and Board Chair Steve Madrone and Third District Supervisor Mike Wilson, emphasized the county’s commitment to “diversity, equity, and inclusion of all religions, ancestries, and ethnicities regardless of immigration status as well as people of any disability, gender, sexual orientation, or gender identity.” 

“While this resolution is broad and encompasses a lot of wishes and values in the community, I don’t think it’s speaking to abstract concerns,” Arroyo noted. “I think these are very real fears for people in our community and I hope that we follow it up with more forms of action. But in the meantime, I really appreciate it being brought forward and it’s an important moment in time to do so.”

During public comment, Humboldt County Human Rights Commission Chair Jim Glover reminded the board of the commission’s recent decision to create a “rapid response protocol” designed to address such issues in the community as they arise.

“We had two opportunities to respond to incidents targeted to segments of our population and to what some believe is a coordinated attempt to stoke fear,” he said. “To that extent, [the commission’s] efforts are meeting with some success. However, the commission is determined to educate the public about the inaccuracies being presented and the perceived hateful bias behind each event and the LGBTQIA+ Pride event in October that was interrupted by protesters.”

Glover added that the protesters were only focused on a single aspect of the all-ages Redwood Pride Halloween event: the drag show.

“The protesters would have had you believe that little else went on in that event except for a drag show for kids,” he continued. “There was far more to this event, but the focus of the protesters was only on one aspect.”

Glover thanked the board for bringing the resolution forward but urged the board to “be prepared to do even more in the future.”

Bohn made a motion to approve the resolution but said it should be “a little more encompassing” and include the homeless community as well.

“I think that is a crisis that we need to address,” he said. “I’m also proud that we’re bringing this forward but as we bring this forward, don’t forget the one [segment] of our population that is actually dying from us not doing anything is the homeless population. … I don’t know if it constitutes a hate crime, but it sure tears my heart apart that we’re not doing more.”

Arroyo said she appreciated Bohn’s comments and offered a second to the motion. 

The board did not take any action to amend the resolution to reflect Bohn’s comments, though the board seemed to agree with his sentiment. The motion passed in a unanimous 5-0 vote.

Legislative Platform for 2023

Almost every year, as a part of the usual beginning-of-the-year housekeeping duties, the board is tasked with approving a legislative platform for the coming year. The document details the county’s official stance on various legislative issues, ranging from public safety to more specific issues like offshore wind, to inform state and federal lawmakers of our local priorities.

The board took its first look at the document two weeks ago but could not reach a consensus on one of the community’s most contentious issues: Caltrans’ Richardson Grove Improvement Project. During that conversation, Madrone indicated he would vote against the entire legislative platform if the document included supportive language for the project, as he’s done in years past.

In case you’re not familiar, the project, which has been tied up in litigation by environmental groups for the better part of the last decade, proposes minor realignment and widening of Highway 101 along a 1.1-mile stretch through the iconic Richardson Grove State Park.

The project has been modified several times since its inception to reduce potential impacts on old growth redwoods along the highway but opponents, including Madrone, argue that the changes don’t go far enough.

“As a hydrologist, I understand some of the issues of root systems and other impacts to old growth redwoods,” Madrone said. “There are a lot of trees that have died back … and that has a lot to do with the disturbance of root systems, disturbance of hydrology, as well as opening up the highway and having desiccating effects on the tops of the redwood trees. Those are well-studied effects on old-growth redwoods.”

Madrone added that the highway realignment project could dramatically increase the volume of large semi trucks traveling through the area.

Bohn argued in favor of the project and emphasized that impacts would be “less than significant.”

“I won’t change my position on Richardson’s Grove,” he said. “No old growth will be affected, no growth will be cut and old growth will be taken.  … There’ll be less trucks if we have more space and that’s what they’re doing is allowing these larger, longer trailers to be able to go through the grove safely. It’s not going to be any big fuel-belching monsters coming through the trees.”

He added that the realignment project is essential for the county’s future and “for the betterment of the whole community.”

In an attempt to meet in the middle, Madrone suggested the county take a neutral stance on the project. He included a proposed revision to the legislative platform that would convey the county’s support for “efforts that would allow larger trucks into Humboldt County” as long as “no old growth redwood trees are affected with this construction, either from tree removal or root disturbance.”

During public comment, Tom Wheeler, executive director of the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC), urged the county to look into alternative solutions to the project.

“If the county is interested in promoting more efficient, more sustainable goods movement into and out of the county, there are things that we could do and legislation that we could possibly pursue,” he said. “ If we were to bring back something else along the lines of alternative solutions to allow for access during periods in which Highway 299 may be closed or something else. I think that that kind of fulfills the goal of the group goods movement.”

But throughout the debate, no one’s mind appeared to change. Arroyo said she could understand both sides of the issue and suggested that the board omit the item from the legislative platform entirely.

“I would prefer that our legislative platform is what we were asking our team to advocate for,” she said. “I would prefer that if we are not in agreement about something that it simply not be in there rather than say we’re neutral on something. I’d rather we just omit it.”

After some additional discussion, Bushnell made a motion to go with Arroyo’s suggestion and remove the item from the document. Arroyo offered a second. 

The motion passed 5-0.

Measure S Payments

Early on in the meeting, the board received an informational report from the county Treasurer-Tax Collector’s office regarding the county’s backlog of Measure S tax payments. 

Back in November, the Board of Supervisors agreed to temporarily suspend Measure S, the county’s commercial cannabis cultivation tax, for two years – 2022 and 2023 – to provide immediate financial relief to the struggling cannabis community. To further assist indebted farmers and offer a little more flexibility, the county will now allow any tax amount to be paid at any time.

“With the suspension of the annual billing of the Measure S tax, it has provided an opportunity for us to explore the option of taking payments during the suspension period,” said Treasurer-Tax Collector Amy Christensen. “Because the annual payments are suspended, that’s why we do have the ability to take on the payments. I’ll need to work with county counsel so the details are legal and we can proceed.”

Bushnell thanked Christensen for providing the option for struggling farmers. “This will be very helpful, I think, for people to come in and start chipping away at those amounts,” she said.

Speaking during public comment, Craig Johnson, owner and operator of Alpenglow Farms, thanked county staff for offering a little more flexibility.

“This is a step in the right direction and we sure appreciate this,” Johnson said. “We’ve been coming to the board since 2017 asking for help to prevent this entire situation on a county level and we’re going to continue to show up and advocate for our community. … No one wants to be behind. It’s because of extreme economic challenges.”

Likewise, Natalynne DeLapp, executive director of the Humboldt County Growers Alliance, thanked the county “for coming up with a mechanism to support the [cannabis] community.”

“I would like to remind the board that up until our economic crisis started, we had an 80 percent payment rate. That’s pretty darn good,” she said. “It was not until … the collapse of the industry that it really just became an insurmountable challenge.”

Bushnell made a motion to accept and file the informational report, which was seconded by Wilson. The motion passed 5-0.

Cannabis Permit Appeal

Towards the end of the meeting, the board considered an appeal to a recent decision by the Humboldt County Planning Commission to approve a conditional use permit for Cisco Farms, Inc., for a five-acre commercial cannabis operation on Chambers Road in Petrolia. After more than three hours of back-and-forth discussion, the board unanimously voted to deny the appeal, with several conditions, and uphold the Planning Commission’s decision.

The appeal, brought forth by a group of Petrolia residents, cites numerous cumulative impacts associated with the cannabis operation. 

One of the appellants, John Williams, spoke at length about the community’s “laundry list” of concerns surrounding the project. The primary complaints focus on the size of the cultivation area, water availability on the property, impacts on road infrastructure, as well as traffic and public safety near the school along Chambers Road.

“What I want to talk about more is the impact on the community, which is pretty much neglected in the initial study,” Williams added. “We all know from experience that permit conditions and laws are not effectively enforced in the Petrolia area, we’re just too remote. … We think there will be significant impacts that won’t be mitigated and that means we think the Planning Commission erred by [approving the pemit].”

The applicant, long-time Petrolia resident Cisco Benemann, reiterated his willingness to work with his neighbors and said he had done so throughout the application process. 

Benemann (Screenshot)

“We held a community meeting at the community center [and] I listened to my neighbors’ concerns that live on Chambers Road,” he said. “I understand [their concerns] but this is a project I’m gonna scale [up] over time. I’m not going to come out of the gate at five acres and build this whole thing out. It’s gonna take time and will take one acre at a time. … I would like to be able to have the potential to grow and scale this project for the next 20 years.”

Around a dozen Petrolia and Southern Humboldt residents addressed the board during public comment. The majority of the commenters were against the project, including Petrolia resident and Treasurer of the Mattole Valley Resource Center Kathryn Radke.

“I am burned out in trying to help our community maintain its social fabric and its public safety,” she said. “Our community is supported by volunteers. I would love to have volunteers come in who are related to the large-scale [cannabis] industry but I have not seen them. I have seen many volunteers from the small-scale industry but quite a few of them have had to move. We’ve lost EMTs, we’ve lost fire department members, we’ve lost board members and active people who are involved in the social fabric because they are priced out and we need to replace them.”

On the other hand, a number of residents sympathized with the applicant and felt as though he had met all of the requirements under the county’s Commercial Cannabis Land Use Ordinance (CCLUO).

The board went back and forth on the matter for the next hour and a half trying to decide whether to deny the appeal entirely or require the applicant to adhere to a list of conditions to quell the community’s concerns surrounding the project. 

Ultimately, the board agreed on a list of additional conditions:

• Employees must arrive for work at the property before school starts and leave after school is out to avoid traffic safety issues involving students going to or leaving the school.
• The applicant and/or his employees must volunteer with local organizations for two hours a week once operations begin.
• The applicant must provide up to $20,000 in matching funds obtained by the community within the first five years for traffic safety improvements to Chambers Road.
• As the phasing takes place, the applicant will be subject to an annual review by the Zoning Administrator.

Bushnell made a motion to deny the appeal and approve the project with the aforementioned conditions, which was seconded by Arroyo. 

The motion passed in a 5-0 vote.

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You can find a recording of the meeting at this link.