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Measure AG falls 165 votes short

22 DAYS AFTER THE ELECTION, The Mendo Results (Partial)

WILL LEE won a Fort Bragg City Council seat (1,623 votes, 35.77%) with BERNIE NORVELL winning the second seat with 1,527 votes (33.66%).

MEASURE AG: THE SHERIFF'S direly needed Mental Health facility — lost by just 165 votes, probably thanks to the obfuscating opposition from Supervisor Hamburg, a recipient of County-paid mental health services for a member of his family. Sour grapes? Yes, because it means no local facility for Mendocino County which must now ship mental health cases to distant facilities and huge cost to the taxpayers.

Measure AG:
YES: 24,190 (66.22%)
NO: 12,342 (33.78%)

Number of Precincts: 250
Precincts Reporting: 250 100%
Times Counted: 38,730/51,035 75.9% turnout
Total Votes: 36,532

Needed to win: 2/3 of 36,532 (total votes) = 24,355
Votes for: 24,190
Margin: 165 votes

9 Comments

  1. james marmon December 1, 2016

    .666 were bad numbers to try to beat, things are really going to get crazy now.

    The Board will now fork over millions to Schraeder for the 6 bed facility she has been asking for.

    NAMI, ER staff, and the BHAB will support the transfer of Mental Health funds to Schraeder’s bank account without delay and with no questions asked.

    James Marmon
    The Prophet.

  2. Lazarus December 1, 2016

    Look for the old Howard Memorial Hospital to surface again, seismic faults and all.
    As always,
    Laz

    • james marmon December 1, 2016

      I concur……

      Chairman

      The Frank R Howard Foundation

      Margie Lee Handley is recognized in her local area of Willits, Calif., as a pillar of the community where she was raised. She is a successful real estate developer who operates Harrah Industries, which was established by her father Robert “Bob” Harrah in the 1940s. She also served as vice president of Microphor, Inc., for just under a decade and as president of Hot Rocks, Inc., a manufacturer of asphalt and aggregates.

      Mrs. Handley continues carrying on her father’s legacy as president of the board of directors for the Frank R. Howard Foundation. The organization, which supports Howard Hospital and its mission to provide high-quality health care in Northern Mendocino County, has benefitted immensely from her philanthropic and fundraising efforts over the years. She also served for four years on the California Transportation Commission and was an appointed member of the State of California Economic Strategy Panel for five consecutive years. The panel developed a Strategic Plan for Economic Development in California. She has also been an active member of many local, state and national boards.

      As one who has never shied away from fulfilling her civic duty, Mrs. Handley has played an active role in local elections and campaigns for the Republican Party, serving as a committee member, delegate, district chairman and committee member over the years. She is also a member of the Mental Health Advisory Board of Mendocino County and the California Small Business Roundtable.

      http://www.zoominfo.com/p/Margie-Handley/608518

  3. John Sakowicz December 1, 2016

    A “Puff Unit” is designed to function as a psychiatric intensive-care ward, holding the most severe cases until their condition can be stabilized.

    For more than 10 years, elected officials, psychiatric professionals, law-enforcement leaders, and a host of patient advocates have complained about the lack of psychiatric beds. Grand juries have repeatedly weighed in, urgently demanding corrective action be taken.

    In that time, nothing has been done, until Sheriff Allman’s Measure AG, which was just this month was defeated by only 165 votes.

    Nothing, it seems, can be done. Ever. But maybe not.

    A constellation of circumstances ​— ​some the product of national political forces, others the result of local dynamics ​— ​could conspire to create genuine opportunity to significantly change how mental-health services are provided in Mendocino County.

    Immediate help could come from Ukiah Valley Medical Center (UVMC) and Adventist Health.

    Why not? While most hospitals across the country are retreating from mental-health services as too expensive to operate, UVMC could start talking about opening a new acute-care wing with some beds for acutely ill psychiatric patients and other beds for geriatric psychiatric patients.

    The project could be a joint partnership with Mendocino County’s Department of Health Human Services and Redwood Quality Management Company (RQMC), the County’s primary private mental-care provider.

    UVMC just started an advanced wound c.

    In the recent past, UVMC has built a new pavilion for surgical services and an entire wing for birthing and obstetrics.

    Why not psychiatric beds? The reimbursement could be there to make this economically viable for UVMC.

    Medicaid, the nation’s largest payer for behavioral health, is on the cusp of allowing stand-alone psychiatric hospitals into its provider networks for the first time.

    The change, which was finalized in April, introduced new capacity and competition in the acute-care psychiatric market. It also increased access to acute mental-health and substance-abuse services for low-income adults, many of whom get stranded for days in emergency departments or find themselves cycling through jails and homeless shelters.

    The policy represents a radical break for Medicaid, which has never reimbursed for either short- or long-term care in stand-alone psychiatric facilities. Before Congress created Medicaid, states financed the hospital bills of mentally ill adults, and legislators in the 1960s wanted to keep it that way.

    Community hospitals, which are eligible to receive Medicaid payment for adult psychiatric hospitalizations, already see a stream of mentally ill people in their emergency departments. Many hospitals could now add licensed psychiatric beds to treat them.

    • james marmon December 1, 2016

      John, we can’t just keep handing over money to the Schraeders, we don’t know what kind of job they are really doing, no one is speaking up, and I believe the County is not getting the best bang for their buck, not even close.

      This is what is in the works right now statewide, we need to join in with these other counties on this venture and stop screwing around.

      California counties look to private firm to run new state psychiatric hospital

      “A statewide consortium of county mental health officials is planning to create California’s first privately-run state mental health hospital. It says it’s the fastest way to address the persistent shortage of beds for the state’s most dangerously and severely mentally ill.”

      http://www.scpr.org/news/2016/10/27/65578/ca-counties-look-to-private-firm-to-run-new-state/

  4. Eric Sunswheat December 1, 2016

    Regressive taxation such as a sales tax, often most adversely affects those least able to afford it, low income residents. The County could have developed a plan and issued bonds, since it is a money maker proposal with projected revenue stream.

  5. Thomas Allman December 1, 2016

    We certainly were able to draw attention to a possible solution. Over 4,500 good folks signed the petition to get it in the ballot. At this point, I’m anxious to see if anyone on the BOS understands that over 66% of the voters view our mental health situation as needing help (understatement of the year).

    I would like to say thanks to the thousands of people whom I have spoken with on this subject. To the detractors, I would love to hear your solution, and see you act towards getting it accomplished. It’s pretty damn easy to criticize, so let’s see you start doing something other than being critical. If you are not part of the solution, you are certainly part of the problem.

    Deputy Sheriffs should not have to be the defacto mental health technicians. It’s time the county understood that the mental health crisis is not going away without a viable solution. Enough politics, let’s see some action.

    Tom Allman, Sheriff

  6. BB Grace December 2, 2016

    re: “Deputy Sheriffs should not have to be the defacto mental health technicians.”

    That is exactly my belief Sheriff Allman.

    I did not sign the petition for Measure AG ballot access and I voted no, not to be a “detract” the genuine effort to solve the mental health crisis, but as a tax payer I’m witnesses excessive Health Department waste and services that don’t “fit” our cultures the Behavioral Health Board under Ortner failed to even acknowledge.

    Sheriff Allman, Sir, I applied to be on the Mental Health Board under Kendal Smith and Dan Gjerde. The last time I was rejected, I continued to attended meetings at my cost for nearly a year. I’m very grateful for the Kemper Report.

    Kemper Report mentioned Stepping Up Inniative (SUI) that your department took $150K for mental health training. At a past BHAB Meeting, Tom Pinizotto handed out copies of a SUI webinar. Mr. Pinizotto didn’t get the message. SUI is for the COURTs, Justice department, to step up and end the “frequent flyers” cycling through the system. Counties are closing jails as Justice Department works with Social Services. I found the $29 Billion SUI budget more attractive than paying more taxes, knowing the County is wasting the $20 Million they take from tax payers.

    From my perspective, Ortner was a scapegoat for Mendocino CEO Department of Health failures. As you said Sheriff Allman, mental health is a crisis. I appreciate you stepping up. I never saw it as your job.

    Respectfully, B. B. GRACE

    • james marmon December 2, 2016

      Yeah Ms. Grace, Ortner was scapegoated, Angelo, Cryer, and Lowery all should have been fired. Cryer got out of there fast after Mr. P’s departure. The BOS is useless, they too should sliver out of sight.

      Free Tom Woodhouse.

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