Letters (August 5, 2020)

• New Blood
• New CSD Trustees Sought
• Fair Play For Sprinkle
• Muzzling Williams
• Down With Bushansky-ism
• Measure B Questions
• It's More Complicated....
• Unforgiveable
• Notices To Vacate
• Open Wide
• Claimed?
• Bad Dreams
• Twelve!
• Memo Of The Week

NEW BLOOD

Editor

As I am sure you know, the Legal Notice for the AVCSD election was published in the July 8 edition of the Beloved Advertiser. The Legal Notice from the County Clerk-Recorder's Office however, was published one time only. So…

Will there be some kind of announcement forthcoming in the web edition? Quite a few readers subscribe to the web site, but do not receive the paper edition.

Because Anderson Valley is not incorporated the definition of the AVCSD is “quasi-corporation.” Meaning they are not incorporated and cannot take actions or make decisions similar to a corporation. California CSD law strongly encourages the turnover of new members every four years thereby the representative community will eventually be heard, and also to avoid self-interests and ingrained clan-like decisions. 

The deadline for interested members of Anderson Valley to sign up for the election is August 7th (5 PM). Three openings are available - this is probably one of the most critical elections regarding the AV district in many, many years. Some members of the board have been continually appointed by the Board of Supervisors in lieu of an election because no one signed up to run in an unknown election. No election in years - some appointed positions go back before 2011 according to Mendocino LAFCo. Basically, Anderson Valley Community Service District directors have been reappointing themselves or like-minded members year after year after year! 

If no one applies by August 7 for the election then another 4 years will be added to current members' appointed term; that could possibly total over 13 years or more!! No mention who is up for reelection or appointment as the case may be from the local service district. In the Legal Notice it states three directors - Long Term (meaning four years).

Three members equals a quorum, future critical decisions are in jeopardy if no new members are seated. The pending Developer fees up for consideration August 5 will substantially cripple new development in the Valley. Available housing is a huge issue - developer fees impact all new building in addition to the mandatory sewer/water plan that charges new development $10,000 for hook up to mandatory sewer/water. 

Candidates wishing to file for board membership may contact the Office of the County Clerk, located at 501 Low Gap Rd, Room #1020, Ukiah 95482. Phone 234-6819.

The only qualifications are the candidate must be a registered elector (voter) residing in the district. The district encompasses Yorkville, Boonville, Philo and Navarro.

This board is long overdue for some new input, experienced ideas, intelligent foresight, and at the very least capable of respect, honesty and dignity when dealing with the public over the mandatory municipal sewer and water issue. 

The associated CSD services are in excellent hands; they provide life saving, fire and other important services to the community, their integrity is beyond question and very much appreciated. 

However, we desperately need new representation on the Anderson Valley Community District Board of Directors. Now is the time to step up and fill out the paperwork. August 7 is only a few working days away! Please!!!

Joan Burroughs

Kelseyville

NEW CSD TRUSTEES SOUGHT

Dear Anderson Valley Community,

Elections are coming up and this is an excellent time to make a commitment to serve your community. There are three openings for Community Services District Directors on November 3rd. Although the three incumbents (Soderman, Christen, and I) are willing to serve once again, we are always looking for new Community members who are willing to help steer the District. In the past, incumbents have continued to serve for longer than they had planned because no one stepped up to take over. I can’t tell you how many recruitment speeches I have made over the years!

In the interest of full disclosure, I am going to tell you about the commitments of the job. I need to do this because we have had folks drop out once they realize the level of time and effort involved. 

A Director must:

Be familiar with Roberts Rules of Order. (Don’t worry – we’ll teach you.)

Take trainings that are legally required by all Directors. There are three separate trainings mandated by State Law that need to be refreshed every other year: Brown Act, and Ethics, and Sexual Harassment. These can either be done in person (not during COVID) or virtually. Your test results at the end are submitted to the District and the County.

Attend the regular meeting on the third Wednesday of the month. Before the meeting Board members need to fully read the Directors’ packet and the Reading File to be ready for discussions and perhaps vote.

Attend Special Meetings when it is necessary to convene to take actions required before the next regular meeting. For example, the Board might need to meet to approve a grant request before its deadline. On rare occasions directors must meet in emergency sessions to handle critical issues that are extremely time sensitive.

Serve on additional committees that meet regularly or as needed: Current committees are Budget, Personnel, Loss Control, Fire Protection, Emergency Medical Services, Policies and Procedures, Recreation, Airport, MCAFD (Mendocino County Association of Fire Chiefs), and the new Water Projects committee. As you can see, there are more committees than there are Directors, and so Directors need to plan on at least one to three additional meetings a month beyond the regular third Wednesday evening meeting. Directors tend to gravitate towards their interests and abilities. The Community is the beneficiary of retirees who come in with a lot of experience and high levels of skill and a great deal of energy to serve.

Directors must be professional and be able to keep confidential any interaction with staff, volunteers, or individuals in the public. 

If you feel you can dedicate yourself to your Community, please start attending meetings (all are public except for Closed Sessions which are very rare). There is no better way to get a feel for the responsibilities of the job than to watch the Community Services Board in action. 

Valerie Hanelt, Chair

Anderson Valley Community Services District Board

Boonville

FAIR PLAY FOR SPRINKLE

Dear AVA editor,

My name is Donald Edward Dellett. Since March of 2013 I have been an inmate at Chino state prison. Since June of that year I have been in prison for a crime against an individual and society as a whole. I pled no contest then came to prison as a confused and psychologically damaged man who hurt the most those I claimed to love.

Guilty and lost within myself with no sense of self-worth or self-knowledge, I met men here at Chino who helped me through my cognitive tempest. These good men saw a broken man despite the crimes committed, a fellow broken human being hurting and alone. One of these good men was Mark Sprinkle, the topic of the July 8, 2020 Off the Record column in the AVA.

I am moved to write in support of Mark as a person I've lived beside for over five years. I knew him first as a positive influence in our dorm of over 140 men in search of my own recovery, insight and meaning of life. I signed up for a peer-to-peer program sponsored by Chino prison. I was told of this program that fellow inmates who were trained and certified by the National Alliance on Mental Illness out of Chino taught by Dr. Kondo, to counsel and mentor other inmates seeking understanding into their own life's crimes and all levels of victim impact.

In this one-on-one group program I was assigned to Mark as his Mentee. This was a confident program where not only does the mentor confront the mentee in cognitive distortions and life crime denials, but is there for emotional and psychological support in recovery. Mark was among the few included in the training by Dr. Kondo, currently head of the crisis beds at Chino.

In my time with him I learned of Mark that he had successfully completed training in both the Criminal Gang Anonymous program and the Alternatives to Violence P. With these, Mark help me through many ethical and troubling distortions of thinking and behaviors of my past. He has supported all his mentees with advocacy and encouragement into the other recovery programs that would have otherwise been missed. I have come to know him as a knowledgeable, compassionate, accepting and insightful person.

The article written by Mr. Anderson was in response to the denial of Mark’s petition to the court to consider unfairness of sentencing. Mark was first offered 3-5 years for his crimes in 1996. However, in his decision to battle for his freedom he took his case to trial. Mark was ultimately sentenced to 16 years to life times two. Quite an unfair dissimilarity in sentencing, wouldn't you say? From 3-5 years to life times two? If this was because of the heinousness of the crime it would be understandable. But the initial offer by the District Attorney of 3-5 years suggested the opposite! Mr. Anderson's article speaks more on this injustice of sentencing. I only want to share with you the man I know today. Mark not only helped me when I was down but showed me the love and compassion of God.

I am near the end of my 11 year sentence. I will be given a final chance to make something positive of my life. Something, I admit, I failed to do many times before. Because of much effort on my part and the support of people like Mark I have finally come far from that broken and psychologically damaged man who was lost within himself, not seeing a way out.

This time I have let go of those old lies, those old cognitive distortions I believed in my past. With help from good and honest people like Mark, I have faced them and let them go and developed positive social skills and coping mechanisms. I know I will face many challenges -- jobs, housing, registration, treatment programs, and building a social support team in my new life. I have one sister and my Sexual Additions Anonymous sponsor. bBut I will need others to assist in my success. Mark has been a critical member of my pro-social support team here at Chino. I know I am not the first to say this, but Mark deserves his chance to do the same for himself as I have. He has served 24 years. 24! On what would have been a 3-5 year sentence if he had not chosen to be an advocate for his own freedom. He has not been stationary in this 24 year period in prison but has been working hard on his own recovery while graciously assisting others including myself in theirs.

It is well past time that he be given the help, support and acceptance he has given and shown to so many others. I am no legal eagle and I don't know what can be done for Mark. However I want to put a face to who he has become and share my mentor, my friend, with you all.

Thank you for your time.

Donald Edward Dellett AS-9872

Chino Institute for Men (CIM) B-2-236-L.

P.O. Box 441

Chino CA 91708

MUZZLING WILLIAMS

Editor,

Re: “The Williams Problem”:

If you don’t have the data, you cannot govern. The keepers of the data are County Staff in various departments. It seems to me that all Supervisor Williams is doing, is trying to do the job we elected him to.

County CEO should not try to impede this; should rather encourage it.

Supervisors are elected to govern. They cannot do so without essential information from County Staff. Limiting their access to 1 hour per week makes a sad joke of an already not funny joke.

Supervisor Williams is merely trying to do the job we elected him to do, CEO should pave the way for him to obtain whatever information he needs to do his job to the fullest of his ability and capacity.

To be honest, other Supervisors would be earning their keep if they were to follow suit. Ask the uncomfortable questions, dig down for the hard data. It’s not that he should be doing less, it’s that the other 4 should be doing more.

Asking more pertinent questions of Staff, e.g.: does it really take over 30 hours to process a marijuana grow permit? If so, how? What is eating up the time? Does a project in the Town of Mendocino really require a 146 page Staff report? How? Why?

The County Government / bureaucracy gravitates to the same-old-same-old way of doing things. Efficiencies can be had, but not without current data. Williams’ service offers the County a way out of its bad-old-ways.

More Supervisors would better serve the interests of the entire people if they took a more active interest in actual governance. Put something on the Agenda that’s important to you and your constituents. Stop waiting for the CEO to lead.

You have to lead. As uncomfortable as it may seem.

This “Williams” rule is an insult to representative government. Folks ought to speak out about it, loudly.

Lee Edmundson

Mendocino

DOWN WITH BUSHANSKY-ISM

To Whom It May Concern:

I do not agree with and will not condone the direction the Mendocino Coast Recreation and Park District (MCRPD) board has taken in recent board and committee meetings. There has been no pursuit of adaptation to the COVID-19 pandemic to provide recreation opportunities to the public and other board members have stated that MCRPD’s “only solution” is to sell off the regional park property. Realistic solutions that will bring the MCRPD out of debt and provide a multi-use park for the public have been brought to the table by people that have volunteered hundreds, if not thousands, of hours to find rational reachable solutions, yet have been thrown away lest a decision have to be made. 

My personality is one of action, not discussion and pontification. Members of the board have shown time and again that their direction is to ruminate rather than move towards a defined goal. MCRPD is at a pivotal time with the regional park property. Partners that have multiple avenues of resources have been brought to the table and repeatedly ignored due to bruised egos of board members.

MCRPD has become the “park district” that is willing to throw away it’s only opportunity to provide a park for the public it is chartered to serve because developing the park property is not simple and easy. 

MCRPD has become the “recreation district” that will not provide recreational opportunities in tough times because it is too difficult to think outside the box.

I will not be part of a government organization that receives tax funds but will not provide the resources in its charter, recreational opportunities and a park, to the citizens that pay said taxes. MCRPD has become the epitome of “bad government” at the direction of the majority of its board members. 

Effective immediately I resign my position as a board member of the Mendocino Coast Recreation and Park District.

I wish MCRPD luck in its future endeavors to provide recreational opportunities and park facilities.

John Huff

Fort Bragg

MEASURE B QUESTIONS

Editor,

Measure B Committee:

1. Why did you choose to siphon off over $6.3 million of Measure B funds for the Jenine Miller and Donna Moschetti “Measure B Program Funding Suggestions” when these funds are needed to hire: Crisis Residential Treatment (CRT) staff – Nurses, Overnight workers, Day Program teachers and others.

2. Wasn’t Measure B intended to fund urgently needed facilities and treatment programs to support people with mental illness with early intervention in CRTs and a psychiatric health facility (PHF)? Fortunately the 23-hour CSU (Crisis Stabilization Unit) idea has been dropped because the CRTs and PHF can handle the treatment needs.

3. Can you work with the Board of Supervisors (BOS) to get 2 CRTs up and running in existing buildings? In addition to hiring new staff, current mental health and substance abuse staff can work out of the CRT to do: counseling, case management, medication management, and crisis help.

4. Can the old Dr. Rohr office by Coast Hospital be acquired for a Fort Bragg CRT? Can you find a suitable place to lease for a Ukiah CRT? 

5. Can you work with the BOS to develop a partnership with Adventist Health for a PHF and only bring in a Crestwood (as Sonoma County did) if necessary?

6. Does law enforcement have to be involved with people who need mental health services and supports? Isn’t early intervention at a CRT a better option? The need for law enforcement will be rare and this will help decrease stigma and discrimination.

7. Are you aware that the Chair of the Measure B committee also chairs the Boards of Directors of: NAMI, Redwood Community Services, Inc. and Manzanita Services Inc., resulting in potential for conflicts of interest? The Kemper Report states, “Measure B funds are intended to supplement, not supplant, existing sources of funding for mental health and SUDT services.” The County already gives NAMI money so giving them $1.4 million of Measure B money is supplanting and unnecessary as NAMI has always provided education on mental illness, advocacy and support with volunteers?

The Kemper Report states that, “Measure B funds are intended to fund programs that address shortcomings in the service continuums for both Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Treatment, … with an emphasis on community-based services that reduce the need for higher level services.” Kemper pointed out that we have “no meaningful alternatives to inpatient psychiatric care, and there are insufficient front-end services that support persons with mental illness and reduce the incidence of crisis conditions.”

Kemper said that a CRT can prevent crises from occurring in the first place and a good model may be the San Francisco County Progress Foundation walk-in voluntary Urgent Care Center with a CRT program.

Mental Health support and services through the CRTs can perhaps be extended to partnering with the clinics for satellite Day Treatment Programs in other communities. Day Treatment Programs can be available to help others who do not need to stay overnight at a CRT. Meaningful personal growth classes and self-help support groups are needed in every community. Supporting people with front-end services empowers people, avoids decompensation, and decreases stigma and discrimination. 

Until we’re on the other side of the pandemic and small classes and support groups can meet together, it is possible to create workbooks of self-help techniques, and have phone and computer connections to help people find their own self-management techniques. 

Sonya Nesch

Comptche

IT'S MORE COMPLICATED....

Editor,

Regarding Louis Bedrock’s surprisingly naive assertion that transexuals are “essentially homosexuals in dresses,” the situation on the ground is more nuanced. Many born as biological men transexuals are heterosexually oriented and take or keep women as partners and wives after their gender transitions. Furthermore, Mr. Bedrock overlooks the many biological women who transition to men. Not all of them are lesbians. In the 1990’s, there was a bearded and handsome woman to man transexual bartender at San Francisco’s Lone Star Saloon who was popular, shall we say, with some of the queer men clientele. It is unlikely that anybody would undergo the demanding regimen of a sex change procedure to have access to a “homosexual” partner considering that same-sex relations have been legal in the USA for many years.

Gender has been viable as a choice and not as destiny at least since Shakespeare allowed Rosalind to choose to be a boy in the Forest of Arden in As You Like It. Virginia Woolf’s Orlando transitions from man to woman in the 19th Century. As usual, James Baldwin said it best, “There is a man in every woman and a woman in every man. Sometimes this is reorganized only when the chips are, brutally, down — when there is no longer any way to avoid this recognition. But love between a man and a woman, or love between any two human beings, would not be possible did we not have available to us the spiritual resources of both sexes.”

If old hippies want to reduce gender fluidity among the younger generation, they should keep quiet about it. Objectively speaking, long hair looks awful on most men. How many of you old dudes would have kept your hair long if it didn’t make your parents’ generation angry?

On the other hand, consider supporting gender fluidity among the younger generation if you want to be taken seriously as an Anti-Fa Elder. Trump’s exclusion of transexuals in the military and escalating hate crimes against transexuals are wedge issues among liberal and leftist Millennials. Check out Taylor Swift’s “You Need to Calm Down” video on YouTube and Ryan Murphy’s Pose on Netflix to appreciate that for many idealistic 21st Century Youth, drag queens and transexuals are almost the new Sidney Poitier.

Richard Russell

San Jose

UNFORGIVEABLE

Editor,

Another week of supposedly violent protests by those weak cowards who only make the news when they are in numbers. Just a bunch of the sickest numbskull scumbags I've ever seen. I'm ashamed. Can't believe what they're trying to do to President Tromp so he won't win the next election. It won't work. He will win, no doubt, then four more years. President Trump will put them out for the count before it's over. They are not winning, they are losing big time and they won't forgive themselves when it's over. Ugly. Despicable. What the liberal mayors and governors of these cities are letting them do. Unbelievable.

God bless Donald Trump, I hope he kicks their asses.

Jerry Philbrick

Comptche

NOTICES TO VACATE

Editor,

There’s been coverage of the executive order Gov. Gavin Newsom signed to halt evictions. In my opinion, there has not been enough coverage concerning the thousands of renters who are receiving “notices to vacate,” aka get out, with shelter-in-place orders still in effect.

These are people who are paying their rent. Why does the media under-report this issue?

Renters in San Francisco and Sonoma counties are told you’re only protected by the governor’s order if your income is impacted by Covid-19. This is unjust. These counties are not the only ones. Sonoma and San Francisco counties should address this clearly, as some cities in Los Angeles County did, by including landlords “may not issue notices to vacate” during the pandemic.

There’s a housing crisis in California. Notices to vacate can make some renters homeless, especially low-income renters.

This issue should never be ignored. It’s more important not to ignore it during the orders to shelter in place, and it’s very important when there’s a coronavirus spurge in California. Please cover this issue.

Kuango Chapman

Fulton

OPEN WIDE

Letter to the Editor:

Friends and flamers, let me give you a bone to chew on, a chicken bone perhaps. Oh my! Swallow hard!

A black gentleman named Christopher O’Neal authored a book titled “Thank God for slavery/domesticating my ancestors.”

In his book Mr. O'Neal stated if the black race had not been forced into slavery, relocating here in this country, they could very well be standing on their shores looking west.

You don't like these “tidbits” of fact? Don't buy the book!

Reality is sometimes very hard to swallow. Take another slug of that cheap wine. Do a line or two or three. It's not going to solve your ongoing problems but you won't give a “burl.” Just another perfect day here in Lala land. Take a nap! A long nap, I'll wake you.

On the other hand if you don't get accidentally choked or shot by the police you may live long enough for you and the other wobblies to poke that righteous stick into another ethnic hornets nest. What? Who? You say. Look in the mirror. It be? Open your eyes! Wider!

God bless America, the Donald, Jerry Philbrick.

Getting older and angrier

Boonville

CLAIMED?

Letter To The Editor,

Open the July 27 issue of the paper and there on page 7 is a story by my old running buddy, Jim Gibbons. Met him at a race in Boonville in which we finished 1-2 in September of '78. Good guy. We both were teaching in Willits. We ran together many afternoons for a couple months. I had just moved to Ukiah from Southern California, in the process losing my long time running buddy. In January I had run a 2:37 marathon under less then optimal conditions. My goal was to break 2:30. Jim provided a much needed running companion.

Lay back in the recliner and start to read. Yes, I remember him telling me about running in college. He was a half miler with times better than mine. He ran with Howie Hawkes. I know Howie! Also a good guy. He was the contractor who did a beautiful renovation of my home. Oh, here is my name. In one sentence my attitude changed.

“Roy claimed he got up at five every morning and ran ten miles around Ukiah, meaning the days he ran with me after school were twenty mile days.” 

CLAIMED? CLAIMED? Claimed is a word used to express possible doubt as in “Trump CLAIMED he was valedictorian at Wharton.”

If you squint and breath deeply while slowly tapping your left foot as you read the rest of this, it will seem less like the rantings of a senile old fart. 

CLAIMED? Jim, every single f-ing day we ran together, I had run 10 miles from my home in Rogina Heights, down Talmage into town, around the west side and Todd Grove Park then back via Perkins and up Watson Road to home where I showered, dressed and went to Sunny's Doughnuts before heading to Willits. Yes, it was dark and cold.

After school you and I would run many afternoons. In my log I see references to you (ex: “Fri 9-29 12 miles, part fast with Jim Gibbons”). You made reference to my running 100 mile weeks (If indeed I ran those morning miles as “claimed”). Yes, except for the week I eased up before a marathon in January I ran well over 100 miles every week of 1978. The total for the year was 6,822 miles. This translates to 18.7 miles a day, 130.8 per week. The two months during which we ran together were 600 and 601 miles. Didn't miss a day for seven and a half years, 2,727 days. I usually don't work those numbers into casual conversation but aspersions have been cast against my integrity.

CLAIMED? CLAIMED? Am I taking offense over the use of that word? You bet your butt I am. The competitive fires have been stoked, Jim. It's on. I'll meet you at the senior center. The minute the bingo game is over, we'll man our walkers and race around the parking lot. 

“Claimed” my ass. 

Roy Mason Swett

Ukiah

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JIM GIBBONS REPLIES: Good to hear from you Roy. Sorry about that awful “claimed” word. I guess I found it hard to believe someone could run 100 miles a week and still work a full time job. I’d get tired if I ran more than 50. Maybe I was jealous because you beat me? Anyhow, I hope you forgive me and enjoy the rest of my book. Aloha.

BAD DREAMS

Editor,

From it’s inception — what, 5-6 years ago? — you have been whining, though maybe not in print, about “Black Lives Matter.” So I feel your declaration that the “rote calls for BLM are starting to annoy you” is disingenuous.

But even before I got to that part of your online July 29 “Off The Record” I was already choking on your notion that right now we are experiencing “the rosiest ethnic relations we’ve ever had in our riven country”.

Rosy? My god!

Rosy?:

When an unarmed Black man, Ahmaud Arbery is killed by two guys because he is jogging through their White neighborhood? And then prior to the BLM protests the powers that be refused to prosecute.

Or when Elijah McCain a Black teenager returning home from a convenience store at night through a white neighborhood with earplugs on and dancing is put in a choke hold and killed by police?

Or when a young white supremacist kills 9 members of a church Bible study group in Charleston, South Carolina?

The Ors go on and on and on to undeniably point out that systemic racism is extant within the bowels of the legal, economic, social and law enforcement facets of American culture.

That you would describe American ethnic relations as rosy must be senility. The only two people I can think of that would agree with that obtuse sentiment would be Kanye West and Donald Trump. Oh! And maybe your local pal Jerry Philbrick.

Though I might agree with you relative to the phony Dems that take a knee before the camera I do wonder at the obvious bias that infuses your psyche, compelling you to designating Black Lives Matter protestors as “incoherent demagogues with no plan other than demonstrating their own virtue”.

Donald Trump’s racist views appear to have support from close to 40% of the American people who are bigoted to the point of xenophobia. That we in opposition to the ongoing racial injustice that has in fact been systemically embedded on this continent since the arrival of Christopher Columbus and feel that it is past time for it to change have no plan is no reason to put us down or belittle us. 

What is your plan? And in your 20 years or so as editor how effective have you been in changing the economic paradigm whose engine does feed at least in part on racial subjugation?

David Severn

Philo

---

Ed reply: Oh bullshit. What are you talking about? “You have been whining, though maybe not in print.” Whining to whom then, you in your senescent dreams? #I said the Fort Bragg woman who led a couple of the demos up there was unhinged and unfair to the city manager and Lindy Peters. I also said protests against systemic racism without an emphasis on changing the system is just a lot of virtue signaling of the type you specialize in. And, in the world outside Philo, race relations ARE better, and now consist of millions of genuinely affectionate, loyal inter-racial relationships where few existed when we were young. Brush up on your reading comprehension.

TWELVE!

Editor,

Enclosed is our renewal check for another year. It's been great to see the AVA is back up to 12 pages! Your website is fine, but we still prefer the paper edition; and now that we have so much more time on our hands it's been a delight to sit down with 12 full pages of the good old AVA! In fact, you might say you're part of the MAGA crowd: you've made the AVA Great Again.

Particularly enjoying all the history articles, Malcolm Macdonald is always a pleasure to read. We have been amazed to see you run essays lately by Doug Holland! We used to read his zine, Pathetic Life, back in the day, but haven't heard anything about him in years. Good to see he's still going.

Oddly enough all your articles about the Board of Supervisors are massively interesting; I am hooked on reading every one of them now. The revelation of the ugly underbelly of local politics is endlessly fascinating, if gruesome. I keep thinking that this clown show of corruption, laziness and fumbling is being played out every day on every level of government and one can only imagine with stunned horror the machinations at the level of international leadership.

We seem to be in a pandemic of insanity, as well as a viral pandemic. So here's to the AVA, keeping the readers entertained and well informed during this crazy time.

Sheri Calkins

La Honda

MEMO OF THE WEEK

The Trinity County Agriculture Alliance (TCAA), a licensed cannabis trade organization, is proud to have completed a successful petition drive to place afair, industry-informed county cannabis tax proposal on the November 3 election ballot. The Trinity County Commercial Cannabis Tax was created byindustry experts and participants, along with input from community leadersand subject matter specialists, and was inspired by the craft beer and wine industry. The petition garnered the support of 1,260 signers in only 5 days,which represents 16% of Trinity County’s registered voters and was made possible through the efforts of dozens of volunteers who braved 100+ degreeweather, hundreds of miles traveled and the risks of Covid-19.

A local, opposing, anti-cannabis group of individuals attempted to get theirown county tax proposal on the ballot via a petition, which was rejected by the Elections Office due to a failure to comply with elections codes. Their proposal was unpopular with many in the community and industry for not beingproduction based, arbitrary minimums and severe supply chain taxes that would eliminate many of the county’s small farms and impede future development, along with the potential for much-needed tax revenue.

The support by the industry to tax itself is unprecedented and a testament to the willingness of these licensed businesses to contribute to their community.If passed, TCAA’s tax, a

production-based, flat rate, tiered cultivation tax on commercial cannabis, willserve as a model for other counties and states to follow. It was designed to support Trinity County’s small farms, encourage the high-quality productionthat drives demand for Trinity County cannabis, and provide long-term,sustainable tax revenue. The tax includes:

A 2.5% gross sales tax on retail cannabis businesses within TrinityCounty.

A tiered tax rate of $15.44/lb. for cannabis flowers, $4.59/lb. forcannabis leaves, and

$2.16/lb. for fresh cannabis plant and tiered by a percentage of the full rate:

1- 100 pounds – 25%

100-400 pounds – 50%

400-1000 pounds – 75%

1000+ pounds – 100%

A bond in favor of Trinity County, or cash deposit, in the amount of$.50/sq. ft. of license type to insure the county can collect taxes due.

The Trinity County Agriculture Alliance is the first trade association of thecounty’s legal cannabis industry, with a mission to foster an ethical,sustainable, and prosperous cannabis industry in Trinity County byempowering members to advocate for their interests, promote their value,and support the communities they call home.