The Redwood Valley Municipal Advisory Council (MAC) recently convened to address key community issues, including the development of a noise ordinance, updates on local disaster relief efforts, and ongoing community development projects. Discussions ranged from securing a new permanent location for United Disaster Relief of Northern California to progress on the Redwood Valley-Calpella Fire Department’s funding and equipment needs. The council also reviewed potential impacts on the community from local government decisions and upcoming infrastructure projects.
The MAC has a new Owl camera to use during Zoom meetings. None of the MAC members are techies. Vice Chair Jini Reynolds, and her husband/unpaid assistant Peter, valiantly manage to run audio/visual for the meetings, as it has been impossible to keep a paid part-time assistant in this role. Reynolds struggled a bit to connect the new Owl Meeting Camera, which greatly improves the audio and visual quality for those participating by Zoom. The Owl swivels and points to whoever is speaking, displaying their face on screen, eliminating the need to pass a microphone or have the speaker get up and walk to the podium. The other slight glitch with the Zoom setup, is that Mendocino County has eliminated all “.org” website extensions, and the transition to “.gov” extensions for all county offices, boards and committees is still underway.
This month’s guest speaker was Sheilah Rogers of United Disaster Relief of Northern California. Many of you are familiar with this organization, formed during the terrible fire storm of 2017, to help people who lost everything. Since then, Danilla Sands and other volunteers have built this into a formidable organization that serves Mendocino, Lake, and most recently Butte Counties. UDRNC is a nonprofit “fiscally sponsored by North Coast Opportunities,” according to the website. They have struggled to maintain commercial space, and finally have been able to secure a permanent location in the former Coca-Cola bottling plant on Babcock Lane, Ukiah. Their current location on Airport Park Blvd. is not large enough and has been broken into by vandals several times. The new location will be fenced, and best of all, has loading docks for large trucks. They can now take advantage of corporate donations of end-of-season merchandise delivered by semi-truck. Rogers was a founding member of the RV MAC, but has since turned her attention to UDRNC. The move-in date is December 1. They need donations and volunteers to help with the move and clean up the old building. Matching grant funding has been obtained to match donations up to $100,000, and another grant of $50,000 was awarded from T-Mobile. They are looking for an architect to build conference rooms in the new building. They need rooms with comfortable furniture for stressed-out disaster victims to meet with counselors who provide help filling out the endless forms that follow a disaster.
First District Supervisor Glenn McGourty said he is busy despite the fact that the BOS does not meet in August. McGourty has been working on a proposed noise ordinance. There were close to 500 noise complaints to the Sheriff’s Department and Code Enforcement in the past month. Complaints ranged from loud parties, to roosters crowing, to barking dogs. McGourty said, “We will go through the pathway of administrative citations.” An appeal officer will be appointed. “We are committed to making the district a good place to live.” He expects the noise reduction hours will be 10 PM to 7 AM. McGourty has been working with the Sheriff, Code Enforcement, Planning and Building, and County Counsel to craft the noise ordinance. They have reviewed the County of Monterey’s ordinance. Monterey County has a problem with unpermitted parties of 800 to 1,000 people, with admission being charged and alcohol being sold. Those are difficult for a couple of patrol deputies or code enforcement officers to handle. Monterey has fines of escalating levels for various infractions. This will be on the agenda of the September 24 BOS meeting, with a discussion of party permit applications. You may post online comments to the agenda item prior to the Sept. 24 meeting, or you can make public comment at the meeting. McGourty hopes to announce in advance what time of day the noise ordinance will be discussed, so people who want to attend will not have to sit through the whole meeting. Gizmo Henderson commented that the amount collected from fines should go back to the noise enforcement department, not into the County general fund.
Supervisor-elect Madeline Cline said loud parties at Lions Park generate a lot of complaints. McGourty said that the party permit states that the park closes at 9 PM, but there are no county employees who are available to come close the park gates. Sometimes the Fire Department can send someone over to lock up.
Sheriff Matt Kendall reported that in the past 30 days there were 378 noise complaints in the geographic area from Central Avenue to Redwood Valley, and 216 from Central Avenue to Ukiah. In crime news, in the past 30 days there were 107 incidents reported in Redwood Valley, and 26 calls for service, including violation of court orders, fraud, shooting, vandalism, theft, and welfare checks. There were 52 heat-related calls last year, and 82 calls this year during the same time period. The deputies were pulled away from this area during the fire in Boonville. Kendall said two new trainees are doing well. There are four in the police Academy, and some lateral hires, for a total of eight new hires.
Gizmo Henderson thanked the Sheriff for offering inmate services for landscaping on the Caltrans retrofit in Gualala. The jail has an excellent gardening instructor. They hope to work with the Mendocino College Landscaping Department to create a landscaping plan for the Caltrans project. He is hoping the inmates can become employable, so they can be released with skills. Kendall said, “I’m kind of proud of that one. Glad you brought it up.”
Chair Dolly Riley noted that in the past, the Sheriff’s Department has used the empty Redwood Valley School campus for law enforcement training. Will they still train if the campus becomes a recreation center? Kendall said he would not conduct law enforcement training at a recreation center. It is never good to have empty buildings, as they attract vandals, and he would be glad to see a rec center.
MAC Member Chris Boyd gave an update on the Redwood Valley-Calpella Fire Department. The budget money from Measure P is finally coming through. It will be used to maintain a fund for equipment replacement, which costs about $100,000 per year. The County and fire chiefs from throughout the county have negotiated for amounts allotted to fire departments from the Transfer Occupancy Tax and Proposition 172 Public Safety Funding. Since the County began using new finance software, funding to the fire departments is coming on a consistent basis
McGourty said County finances have been improved since Chamise Cubbison has been replaced with Sarah Pierce. “The transformation has been extraordinary.” The county now has a credit rating of A+. There is a state entity called Regional Government Services, a JPA available to assist county governments. McGourty said he asked Cubbison to get help from them with finances in 2021, and she declined to use it. Pierce is using RGS. “Finally we have a functional accounting system,” he said.
Boyd said the Fire Department is losing two board members, John Strangio, who will be running for Ukiah City Council, and Tony Howard, who is moving out of state. Boyd will remain on the board as Vice Chair. They need people with fire service experience on the board. If you are interested, please call or email the Fire Department. The annual barbecue in July raised approximately $30,000. That supports the purchases of equipment for volunteers. The Fire Department has applied for a $40,000 grant as well.
Henderson announced that at the last Board of Supervisors meeting he inquired about the emergency sirens that were demonstrated to the public over a year ago at the Redwood Valley-Calpella Fire Station. CEO Darcie Antle called the County Office of Emergency Services, and was informed that OES is waiting for PG&E to approve the County’s use of PG&E power poles on which to mount the sirens. McGourty said he will ask the County’s government liaison to contact someone at PG&E to get an answer.
Cathy Monroe announced that the first meeting on the County’s Drought Resilience Plan will be on September 5 from 3:00 – 4:30 PM in the Farm Advisor Building. Public input and participation is requested.
Alternate Member Marybeth Kelly gave an update on the Grange modernization project. New roof gutters are in progress. The kitchen lights will be installed next, and the mini splits are working well. Hernandez Electric is doing great work. A Harvest Dance is planned for November. The Grange Board meets on the third Thursday of each month, with a potluck dinner at 5:30 PM, meeting at 6:30 PM.
Gizmo Henderson was instrumental in lobbying at the state level to bring attention to sparks from trailer chains causing fires. His one-man campaign resulted in the Caltrans freeway signs about dragging chains. Letters have been sent to Caltrans, the DMV, and the State Insurance Commissioner. David Kelly of the Sacramento CHP Trailer Safety Division told Henderson that he will make this a priority. Kelly wants to use the turnouts in Caltrans Districts 2 and 3 (the Sierras), where cars pull over to put on winter chains, as places to pull over and check trailer chains during fire season. He also supports Henderson’s idea of replacing the current stickers on new trailers with a sticker containing a QR code with more information new trailer owners about tow chains. Henderson said, “It’s going to be a big state effort, but it started here with us.” Henderson’s ultimate goal is to reduce insurance rates in California through adoption of fire-safe techniques.
Chair Riley relayed notes from Adam Gaska on water issues. Trucks from the City of Ukiah will be driving through Redwood Valley, because of the water district consolidation. The City of Ukiah has requested that FERC direct PG&E to release more water from Lake Pillsbury. PG&E requested a variance from FERC of 25 cubic feet per second with the ability to go as low as 5 cfs. A week after the variance was granted, PG&E reduced the flows to 5 cfs. This reduces the flows through the East Branch of the Russian River through Potter Valley into Lake Mendocino to severe drought-level rates, when we are not in a drought.
Reynolds asked everyone to support the Redwood Valley Farmers Market. A new county inspector showed up, who was quite hard on one of the sellers at the market, writing her up for selling watermelons that were not on the list of produce that she provided to the county. McGourty suggested that the seller called the new Agricultural Commissioner, Angela Godwin.
Kelly reported on the successful turnout at the Ukiah Unified School Board meeting on August 8 in support of using the Redwood Valley School Campus as a recreation center. She learned after the meeting that Alex Rorabaugh Recreation Center will not be able to add the Redwood Valley group to its non-profit entity. The Redwood Valley group will form their own nonprofit entity. The planning group meets Mondays at 10:00 am at the Grange. (See MendoFever.com’s report on the School Board meeting.)
Ellen Drell of the Willits Environmental Center, who appeared at the June MAC meeting to ask the MAC Members and the community to join her in protesting a new interpretation of Section 10.A.17.070(D) of the County Cannabis Ordinance, came back to remind the MAC members that this will be on the agenda at the September 10 BOS meeting. She asked that the MAC send a letter of support for her position to the BOS. There was some question as to whether the MAC had a quorum, as only four members were present. Riley, Boyd, and Kelly voted to send the letter, with Reynolds abstaining, as she felt the language was too confusing to be understandable. Boyd stated that even legal cannabis cultivation brings crime and she does not want to expand cultivation in Redwood Valley. Drell feels that having planning staff recommend the change in interpretation of the ordinance, without having the Supervisors vote on it, was a violation of responsibility. McGourty said it’s “It’s best to air this out in public,” at the September 10 board meeting, and added that some counties down south have no limit on square footage of cannabis grows and hoop houses.
Riley said there has been no news on the status of the application by Faizan Corporation to build a new gas station in Redwood Valley. Caltrans has not yet submitted a new traffic study, which is needed before this can go any further. Some cities have voted to ban new gas stations, but Napa is the only county to do so. Boyd will review the various ordinances from other jurisdictions and report back.
Riley met with Planning Director Julia Krog and Planner Russell Ford regarding the status of Redwood Valley’s Community Action Plan. Ford will prepare a comparative table cross-referencing RV’s proposed plan with the County’s General Plan in hopes of streamlining the review. After that, Krog will confer with County Counsel.
Erin Moynahan expressed interest in joining the MAC Board. She became a volunteer firefighter at age 14, has a Master’s Degree from Pepperdine, and is the mother of three children. Solving traffic issues in Redwood Valley is one of her priorities. Four members of the MAC were absent. Riley announced that Adam Gaska submitted his resignation in order to focus on water issues, as he serves on several boards of local water agencies. Patricia Ris Yarbrough, Deborah Hughes and Kahli Johnson were also absent. Current Member Kahli Johnson has missed three meetings, which is grounds for being asked to leave the council. Riley will contact Johnson to see if she is able to continue serving.
The next meeting will be September 11 at 5:30 pm, at the Redwood Valley Grange.
