At the April 9, 2025, Redwood Valley Municipal Advisory Council meeting, state and local leaders offered a sweeping look at the issues shaping the community’s future. Scott Alonso, District Director for Assemblymember Chris Rogers, outlined how the only Democrat representing a rural California Assembly district is fighting for the North Coast—highlighting state funding wins, proposed bills to lower speed limits, and efforts to ban cockfighting without targeting backyard chicken owners. Supervisor Madeline Cline discussed upcoming Highway 101 construction, a potential ordinance banning retail nitrous oxide sales, and the county’s strained budget. The Redwood Valley Recreation Center Steering Committee shared progress on turning a defunct school into a vibrant community space, while cannabis cultivation, solar energy policy, and ongoing road maintenance sparked spirited community conversation.
Scott Alonso, District Director for Second District Assembly Member Chris Rogers, introduced himself to the people of Redwood Valley. Alonso spoke about his role in assisting residents of the Second District, which stretches from Santa Rosa to the Oregon border, and east to Trinity County. It is the only rural assembly district held by a Democrat. There are two other Rogers reps, one who works with Alonso, and the other who handles the Eureka office and Trinity County.
Alonso said Rogers brought in over $100,000 for his constituents to settle EDD and unemployment cases, helping to obtain paid family leave and other benefits. Contact Rogers’ Ukiah office if you need help with a state government issue, at (707) 463-5770.
There are 17 bills that are District-specific. One of them will change how Caltrans calculates speed limits, and would allow Caltrans to lower the speed limit on state roads, a hot topic in Mendocino County. The state legislature has jurisdiction over Caltrans, but not county roads.
Alonso is working with Supervisor Madeline Cline to change a law saying that local utility districts need to pay for construction costs incurred during road work that involves moving utility lines. Highway 101 will undergo construction to smooth the curves and dips through downtown Hopland. This requires moving Hopland utility lines. Because Hopland has such a small public utility district, it can’t afford to pay for this work caused by Caltrans. Rogers is working to solve this.
Other bills affecting this area concern offshore wind energy, geothermal energy, and cockfighting. Rogers is working with humane societies to ban cockfighting, while ensuring that farmers and keepers of backyard chickens are not caught up in a ban on roosters.
MAC Member Chris Boyd asked if Rogers can do anything about PG&E’s decision to lower payments to homeowners with solar panels who provide energy back to the power grid. Alonso said Rogers has received over 4,000 constituent comments on this issue, which is a decision approved by the California Public Utilities Commission. Alonso said the Solar Rights Alliance advocacy group is fighting on behalf of solar users.
Rogers has a Town Hall Meeting scheduled for April 14 at Sonoma State University, but will probably not have any meetings scheduled in Mendocino County until later this summer and fall due to the legislative schedule in Sacramento. Rogers was in Ukiah at the recent Town Hall meeting with Congressman Jared Huffman at Mendocino College. Sign up for email news from Rogers at his website.
Alternate Member Marybeth Kelly alerted Alonso to the community effort to create a Redwood Valley Recreation Center at the abandoned Redwood Valley School. Alonso recommended that they look into the Strategic Growth Council, which provides grant funding for such uses. Supervisor Cline added that she has been studying Solano County’s successful transformation of a closed school into a community space.
The RVRC Steering Committee is working on a grant application to fund a proposal for creating a community center. They applied for a Community Development Block Grant, but are not sure if they will get it. This is an important cause and “the working group is not letting go of it,” said MAC Chair Dolly Riley.
Supervisor Cline provided highlights from the April 8 Board of Supervisors meeting. Next fiscal year’s budget is a work in progress. Expenditures are increasing, mainly due to “well deserved raises” for county employees. Revenues are flat. The supervisors are considering a hiring freeze, which is preferable to layoffs, because the county needs to be able to have employees staffing departments to provide services.
Prop. 172 is supposed to provide sales tax funds for fire agencies within the county. This funding has been delayed each year. The BOS voted to allocate the portion of sales tax revenue to the fire departments.
Cline is pursuing an ordinance for a county-wide ban on retail sale of nitrous oxide cannisters, known as whipits. Orange County has already banned the retail sale of nitrous oxide. Nitrous oxide would still be available for legitimate commercial use, and available online.
Cline will host a Fire Hardening Town Hall meeting from 6 to 8 PM Monday, May 19, location TBD. Representatives from the FireSafe Council and CalFire will discuss what we can do get our homes ready for the upcoming fire season and they will also talk about homeowners insurance. Cline will post details on her Supervisor Facebook Page.
Cline and Supervisor Ted Williams are tackling the issue of road maintenance by the County Department of Transportation. Staff was directed to use $1 million for hot patching. There is a 20-year maintenance plan that the DOT follows. Redwood Valley is in line for road work in two years.
Cline plans to hold constituent meetings once a month, which will take place Fridays at noon in different parts of District 1. Check her FB page for locations and dates.
Community member Gizmo Henderson commented that even though there is a budget freeze, the County’s grant writers are looking at other places to find money, such as settlement funds from prior lawsuits that may allocated to the roads.
Regarding roads and transportation issues, Cline said MCOG takes in most funding from Caltrans to distribute locally . MCOG is still taking comments on the Regional Transportation Plan.
The BOS voted 3 to 2 to approve the re-interpreted cannabis ordinance at the 20,000 square foot limit for mature cannabis plants cultivation. Cannabis Subcommittee Members Boyd and Patricia Ris Yarbrough expressed disappointment at this expansion for cultivation. Redwood Valley is a checkerboard of ag and rural residential zoning. Some of the ag permitted cannabis grows bump right up against people‘s backyards that are zoned residential. Boyd said, “The issue is where to site these things.”
An audience member wanted to know whether the MAC was officially opposed to cannabis cultivation in Redwood Valley. Chair Riley replied that there the MAC has a Cannabis Policy Subcommittee, but the MAC “isn’t all of one mind.” Boyd said if the BOS wanted to change the ordinance, there should have been a public process, and “it is still a controversial issue.”
Kelly announced that April is Grange month nationwide. The Redwood Valley Grange hosts regular meetings of the 4-H Club, the RV MAC, the Humane Society for Inland Mendocino County, and The Sons of Italy. The commercial kitchen is almost finished. Sees Candy is available for sale at the Grange as a fundraiser for painting the walls.
The Grange hosts Monday night line dancing led by Supervisor Maureen Mulheren. A Flea Market is held on the Second Saturday of every month. April 18 is Family Game Night. The annual Easter Bake Sale will be on April 19 from 9 AM to 11 at the Grange, then at noon, the event moves to the Humane Society of Inland Mendocino County on Uva Drive for an Easter Egg Hunt.
The Mobile Spay Neuter Care-a-Van is set for April 24 at the Grange. Contact Animal Care Services at 707-463-4427 for an appointment.
Faizan Corporation submitted an amended application in February with plans to build a 10-pump gas station on North State Street. This will eventually end up on the BOS agenda. The MAC will monitor the agenda and respond to the BOS when the item is set on calendar.
The MAC voted to take no action on a development proposal to subdivide a residential parcel on Road E.
The Redwood Valley Community Action Plan is in line to be reviewed by Planning Director Julia Krog. If there are only minor changes, the CAP will be submitted to the BOS for review and approval. If there are major changes, it will come back to the MAC for further revision.
The MAC sent the Gualala MAC a draft ordinance for a five year moratorium on new gas stations in hopes that the Gualala and other County MACs will join the RVMAC on the issue of the gas station moratorium.
The MAC added a subcommittee on Fire Prevention and Home Hardening.
Alternate Member Sonia Pio announced that jobs are available on the City of Ukiah and Mendocino County websites. If you are looking for work, check them out.
Next month’s guest speaker will be Laura Garza from the Mendocino County Drought Resilience Committee.
The next meeting will be on May 14 at 5:30 pm.
We’re loving the road patches up Tomki!
There is a topic that gets brought up once every thirty years and shot down: the Tomki Y. There are many families with upcoming and new teenage drivers taking on that intersection and it’s incredibly dangerous!! You have to pull into the road to see around that corner and get onto Tomki. No one slows down or stops and the stop sign on West Road gets run over every few weeks. I’m currently teaching my kid to creep out past the stop sign as far as he dare while looking super hard and quickly both ways. Naturally no one uses their blinker.
This intersection needs to be a three way stop.
Nobody stops?
Not even one ?
Wow
And no blinkers… ever?
Jeez
It’s called hyperbole
Except it’s barely hyperbolic, people were spinning donoughts there just the other day.
Reducing speed limits wont help. We need more police presence and more enforcement. How about fixing Road A in Redwood Valley? It has chewed through a set of tires that only had 25000 miles. We have some of the highest taxes in the nation and some of the worst roads, trash everywhere, out of control bums and tweakers. Oh and we also welcome pedophiles….because they are human too! Look around. Voting left isn’t working.
Sounds like the BOS should allow that gas station to be built so there would be funds for the roads in redwood valley.
Sounds like the BOS needs to give an itemized report of the money RV got them for “OUR” fire
Someone doesn’t know how budgets work…
Someone. ….your mom.
Someone still lives in their mom’s basement…
How do budgets work?
Rogers will be in Casper soon
Sorry I can’t remember the date.