Meeting Notes
December 20, 2005
posted December 24, 2005
I apologize for the delay in posting the meeting notes. We had our phone line go out mysteriously and couldn't post. It got disconnected at the main, or so the technician said. We were the only people affected by this which is very strange.
We have also been very busy dealing with the most ridiculous situation imaginable. The building inspector of Rio Dell has taken out a restraining order against my husband due to emotional distress from "false accusations" and some vague fear for their safety. This is of course retaliation for the complaint we filed with the Humboldt County Grand Jury as well as investigators from HUD's Inspector General's office related to the First Time Homebuyers Program in Rio Dell. We have never been a threat to anyone except for providing the evidence and testimony to the proper authorities as is our moral obligation. The paperwork filed by this person included "evidence" of my family bothering this person by way of two pictures with no context whatsoever. One picture is of my husband standing in OUR front door waving to the building inspector with one finger. This was about the eighth drive by that day of this person and I think a pose was in order. The next picture this person included is of our oldest daughter also waving with one finger. The building inspector failed to tell the court that our daughter was chasing him off our property when he had stopped out front and proceeded to take more pictures of our children. My husband and I had been on our usual walk when the building inspector drove by and saw us away from our home. He immediately turned around and proceeded to drive to our house where he stopped and started to take pictures. (This person has been taking pictures of the children for awhile now in a pathetic attempt to intimidate us away from pursuing our complaint) Our daughter charged up to the truck of the building inspector and demanded that he leave immediately. He slowly began idling away while taking pictures, our daughter walked alongside his truck until he finally left our property. By the way, both of these pictures were taken about a year and a half ago. We have heard from people in town that this person is now showing these pictures of our teenage daughter around town while spreading lies about us. If you have seen any of the numerous photos this person has taken of our children, please email us. The proper authorities will be notified. Targeting children to intimidate the parents can not be tolerated by anyone, imagine if it were your own children. We will be posting the entire complaint filed against us as well as our response. When we appeared in court, Judge Brown stated that we hadn't filed a response. I had personally filed a very lengthy response which included 16 pages of supporting documentation as well as a video and audio recording. The Judge stated that there were just some papers stapled to the cover page which verified that we turned over our gun. (That's right, we had to turn over our families little .22 gun because this building inspector "fears for his safety." Our gun is now being held by the Rio Dell Police Dept. So much for our Constitutional Rights) In any case, the Judge did not read our response because the court clerk had stapled the papers together. The Judge wound up granting the restraining order which is still hard to believe. We have filed a Motion to Reconsider but it is a total gamble as is anything in today's legal system. In the meantime this building inspector who "fears for his safety" and felt the need to include all the members of his family on this order, drives by repeatedly. This is in violation of the ridiculous restraining order that they felt the need to have. Exactly how can Steve stay away from them when they are driving by repeatedly? We have gone to the police to ask about whether or not the people who sought this restraining order needed to stay away from us as much as we stay away from them. We can't seem to get an answer as to whether or not these people are in violation of their own restraining order. We will be posting more about our efforts for police assistance in the past and their lack of response, even when our children were followed home from school by this person two different days. In any case, we will be sure to post all of the information here at RioDellTimes.com and you can see for yourself. We have nothing to fear from posting everything since we have done nothing wrong.
The meeting of December 20th, 2005, began at 6:30pm with all the Council members present except for Marc Barsanti. The consent calendar was passed as a block but only after a couple of adjustments to the check register that Melissa Marks noted so that they would be part of the public record. There were three voided checks noted by Marks. Just prior to the meeting, they had been discussing a voided Laco Associates check due to an incorrect billing. The local Water Emergency extension was included as is standard for this section.
The Special Call Items were next and they included two pay requests. The first was for SJ&B Group, Inc for $331,031.51 and the other was to Granite Construction for $50,259.96, both of which are for the water infrastructure rehabilitation project. (We are getting some very nasty water often right now with all of the work plus the storms but this will all be done soon hopefully and well worth it) Both pay requests were passed unanimously. Next was a water bill adjustment claim filed by an owner of a rental on Dixie St. This person usually got $40 average water bills and got an astronomical bill due to an undetected mainline water leak. The adjustment requested was for $223.50, which is a 50% adjustment. Julie Woodall had questions about the specifics since this is an owner/tenant situation. The adjustment was passed unanimously. Next came the approval of a $500 annual contribution to the Rio Dell/Scotia Chamber of Commerce. Woodall had suggested this and she stated that years ago the city used to give a contribution to the Chamber but it was stopped in financial hard times years ago. She wanted to see this reinstituted as support of the Chamber. Marks had a question regarding whether or not this would come up annually for a vote or be automatic? This contribution will be coming out of the TOT tax, which I think stands for the Transient and Occupancy Tax which the local hotel pays into. (I don't know who else pays into this tax since we don't have a lot of hotels here) The contribution was passed unanimously. The last item on this section was a public hearing about a conditional use permit appeal but it was pulled from the agenda for now.
Public Presentations was next where I addressed the Council yet again. I had recently received (finally) a copy of the official response by the City of Rio Dell to the Grand Jury report. This was turned in to the Grand Jury too late for their online publication so I had not seen it although it had been paraphrased in an article in the Time Standard. The response was written by City Manager Jay Parrish who was Mayor at the time I was appearing in front of the Council and begging for their help. I was pretty upset about the complete disregard the city had for the Grand Jury report as well as the facts in our situation. The only point the city would even partially acknowledge was a problem with the building permits. I asked the Council if they were even a little curious as to how the permits were issued when no money had been paid and that there just might be a problem in the building permitting system. I will also be posting the text of the Grand Jury report as well as the entire response of the City. This is what the taxpayers of Rio Dell are paying for so they have the right to read it.
Reports by City Staff was next with nothing too remarkable to report. The water project seems to be going along fine and everything is pretty much on hold until after the Holiday. This is good timing since our weather has been so lousy anyway. The Mayor then announced the items they would be discussing in their closed session;
Real Estate Negotiations-Effluent Site
Potential Litigation-Roberts vs. Rio Dell
Potential Litigation-Nuisance Abatement Issues
Personnel Matter-Police Department
Litigation-Rio Dell vs. Enes
Potential Litigation-Concerned Citizens vs. Rio Dell (stay tuned for all the details that we can post!)
Personnel Matter-Finance Department
City Council Rio Dell California