2008
10.25.08 Hope you are all ready for Halloween and the holiday season that is right around the corner. We are having some fantastic October weather these days. Hopefully it will continue to be nice out for the trick-or-treater's on Friday. Since we don't have sidewalks or much street lighting here we don't get very many kids on Halloween. A lot of the action is in Scotia, which does a fantastic job of decorating and really gets into the spirit of Halloween. It is fun for the grown-ups to see all the kids having a great time in a safe and family friendly environment. Scotia is a very unique place and we hope they never lose those qualities that make it special. We are bummed to hear about the power plant closing in the next couple of years. The plant has provided a great service to the community with the green waste disposal as well as providing good jobs. The number of newly registered voters is exceeding all expectations in Humboldt County as well as nation wide. This is the most important and consequential election in memory for both local and national issues. We have a large number of ballot initiatives in addition to prop. 8 which is getting the majority of the press. Take a look at our voter's links in order to evaluate all the information before making your decision. We have two city council positions on the ballot as well as the 2nd district supervisor. Estelle Fennell was going door-to-door today in Rio Dell in order to meet the voters and talk about the issues. Thank you for the nice conversation and we wish you all the luck. We have two candidates on the ballot and an active write-in campaign by the encumbant Johanna Rodoni. The Rio Dell polling location will be at Monument Middle School as usual. People in Scotia will go to the Fire Hall for their voting. We anticipate a large turn-out (hopefully) so be sure and allow time. If you are dropping off an absentee ballot for someone, make sure that you have the signature of the voter on the envelope. Be sure and keep an eye on the ongoing Dave Gundersen saga. The former police chief didn't feel the need to attend his sentencing hearing this past Wednesday. Despite the hearing being scheduled about a month in advance, Gundersen failed to show up and instead traveled down south to Newport Beach to see his sick mother. Defense attorney Russell Clanton told Judge Watson that he didn't advise his client to show up at the sentencing because he was confident that the judge would grant his motion for a continuence. The judge didn't like that answer and reprimanded the attorney for his apparent disregard of the courts authority in making the decisions and setting the schedule. The judge stated his opinion that Gundersen was simply "arrogant" and didn't believe that the laws applied to him (in his defense, the laws around here haven't applied to Gundersen for a number of years now). In a demonstration of the courts authority, Gundersen was remanded back into custody on a $200,000 bail. The sentencing was rescheduled for November 21st at 2:00. The bailiff took Gundersen by the arm and escorted him out of the court room. I am sure that Gundersen was very shocked as he usually gets away with everything and has never really suffered any consequences for his actions. I hope that the judge sentences Gundersen as harshly as possible. As a police chief, sworn to uphold the law and placed into a position of authority, he had a higher responsibility than the regular citizen. I wonder if any of the other cronies that are used to running the show around here are getting nervous? It is a demonstration of the progress Humboldt County is making towards getting past the cronie network that has had a stranglehold on the county for so long. Gundersen wasn't an isolated individual, he worked closely with others around Humboldt County who helped provide protection for their illegal activities. -Sharon 10.16.08 Election season is in full swing. There are a number of ballot measures to review and decide on. You can find good nonpartisan information at a variety of sites. A few of the better ones are listed here at VoteWatch. Don't forget to vote on November 4th! If you vote by absentee ballot then make sure you get that turned in by election day. Our local elections include two city council positions and the county supervisor seat for the 2nd district. There are three people running for the two open council positions; Marc Barsanti (incumbant), Jack Thompson (Planning Commission Chair), Bud Leonard (incumbant). You can find information about Leonard at the VoteWatch page audio clip as well as in his deposition after the illegal appointment of then Mayor Jay Parrish as City Manager. The county supervisor race has Estelle Fennell against Clif Clendenen. Johanna Rodoni has been running as a write-in. Both of these races will be very important for the future of our local community. Do we stay with the politics of the past or do we move past the same old croynies and strive for the future? 10.10.08 TGIF! I have been busy this last week as part of the jury pool for the Barger case See: Suspected pot farm killer starts trial Times-Standard According to judge Reinholtsen there were 600 people in the pool of jurors. Judge Reinholtsen seems like a pretty good guy to me. I have watched a couple of criminal cases in his court. He will hold freshly convicted felons feet to the fire. The Times-Standard has a good write up about it. The police have arrested the driver of the silver Ford Mustang that was involved in runnng Debra Quigley's Chevrolet Tahoe into a utility pole, killing nine year old Nicole Quigley and seriously injuring the other passengers. Nineteen year old Anthony Flores is said to have been involved in the street race that took place on route 299. Debra Quigley's Tahoe was uninvolved in this race. Police believe that the other racer, thirty-one year old Jason Whitmill, was responsible for clipping the Tahoe with his Poniac Sunfire. Flores may be charged with fleeing the scene of a crime. Whitmill was aprehended at the scene, as his Sunfire also flipped from the roadway. Police have been searching for the silver Mustang since Monday. A sighting of his recently spray painted Mustang in McKinleyville is what led to Flores' arrest. The Ford Mustang still has not been located. The 1998 convertable has the license plate 6EMK473, and it is believed to have been spray painted black. Anyone who has seen this vehicle, please call 911 or 268-2000.
9.26.08
9.25.08 I will probably have the Special Meeting of the Rio Dell City Council online by Monday. Hopefully next Tuesdays meeting we will have some feedback on the value our citizenry got from the recent trip to Tahoe that Rio Dell City Clerk Karen Dunham and our city accountant took. It’ sounds like a really brutal job to work for the city of Rio Dell. Also Stay tuned for more media of the People v. Gunderson. We have some good video that we will be publishing in time. I may put together something for Access Humboldt as well. The People v. Gunderson case was a testament of how well our legal system works. There are many varying opinions on the outcome. This case is not over however. I expect there will be an appeal filed and there may be further charges brought by the People of Humboldt County thru our elected representative District Attorney Paul Gallegos. In my honest opinion both the DA and the Defense Russell Clanton did the best with what they had for evidence. More to come Steve :-)
9.11.08 When someone lies to you, what of what they say can you then believe? Steven L. Wolff PS. The United States Constitution 9.5.08 TGIF! Thanks to all our friends! You know who you are :-) Keep the information coming. People shouldn't have to live in fear of City Hall, Rio Dell Police department, or any other public entity that so quickly spends our money. We will bring all the information public that we can. We will also continue to honor the victims of City Hall and their friends by keeping their information and names private unless they so choose to go public. It is part of that fear thing. People here are afraid. With what we have witnessed who could blame them! Keep up the good work and pat yourselves on the back. The truth is a community asset. Also: Check out the Lost Coast 4x4 9th Annual River bar Cleanup! Another great asset to our community. Thanks Carl. You guy's and gal's Rock! Steve :-) 8.15.08 Be sure and take a look at the postings regarding the big Gundersen trial going on currently. Steve is keeping a close eye on this trial and will update the site as often as possible. The current wife and accuser, Darcy Seal, is also a police sargent formerly with Blue Lake Police Department. The city actually had to change the rules regarding having the Chief's wife working under his chain of command (No nepotism here). There has long been talk about the Blue Lake Police Department and Gundersen in particular. Let's just say that there were some issues with public trust in the BLPD. When the current allegations against Gundersen were investigated a number of unregistered automatic and semi automatic weapons were found in their home, along with multiple prescription bottles of drugs with other people's names on the bottles and some with evidence tags from BLPD. The allegations involving the prescription drugs were dropped as they were possessed by both Gundersen and Seal. The LA Times did a good write up of the situation in June of this year. Gundersen was found on MySpace advertising himself as an "arms dealer" and "explosives expert." When Gundersen was initially arrested, the Rio Dell Police Department returned two Colt AR-15's which they had received from Gundersen ( Times Standard article from 3/5/08). Why did Rio Dell have possession of unregistered assault weapons? What other ties does Rio Dell have with Gundersen? If Rio Dell PD was close enough to Gundersen to know that he possessed these weapons and actually borrow them (for whatever reason), did we also know about other suspicious activities? There is currently a federal investigation going on into the gun charges and who knows what else. I wonder how many cronies around Humboldt Country are getting very very nervous? Gundersen has been untouchable in the Humboldt County courtroom of Judge Michael Brown in the past (as most cronies are). Brown dismissed the civil action against Gundersen after he falsified DMV records. Brown was the same judge who dismissed the grand jury indictment of Gundersen in 2007 too. Fortunately, this case hasn't been transferred to Brown, it is before Judge Bruce Watson. On a side note, Judge Brown thankfully retires at the end of this year. Judge Joyce Hinrichs will be taking over his position in January. This may signal a significant change for the cronies and their guaranteed protection in Brown's court. We will wait to see if the rampant croniyism in Humboldt County is affected by Brown's retirement. 8.12.08 Summer is coming to an end soon and the back to school season has begun. That also means that election season is starting up in earnest. The local elections will see two Rio Dell City Council positions open and both incumbents running for re-election, Council Member Marc Barsanti and Mayor Bud Leonard. There is one challenger, Planning Commission Chair Jack Thompson. This is a critical time for Rio Dell's future as we annex Metropolitan to build the new wastewater treatment plant and talks to annex Scotia start back up again. Rio Dell is teetering between a bright future or falling backwards into the cronyism and "special favors" of the past for a select few. It is important that Rio Dell continue to move away from the good ol' boys network headed by Leonard and the gang. The city is building up rapidly and many more subdivisions are planned. Are we going to start to follow the law and comply with building codes or are we going to keep allowing illegal building permits and shoddy construction? Do the citizens of Rio Dell deserve better then what they have gotten up to now? I think we do! If you would like to review an example of what Leonard (and his buddies) have done for Rio Dell, take a look at the depositions taken when they broke the law and appointed Parrish city manager. Coincidentally, this was done at the exact time Palco was pushing hard to have Rio Dell take over Scotia without any infrastructure improvements and Parrish was a long time employee of Palco. Nothing suspicious there, right? 8.3.08 We hope everyone has enjoyed Wildwood Days these past five days! We have had beautiful weather and the events seemed to be well attended. We will get up a series of pictures and video of Wildwood Days soon. There are not enough hours in the day! We were told that the logging show was going to be dedicated to Virgil "Leroy" Hall, who had passed away earlier this summer. He was a very decent person and it is a loss to us all that he is gone. He helped out a great deal in past logging competitions for Wildwood Days and his son, Chris Hall, has been the winner in past competitions. It was a very fitting tribute and I am sure the family appreciated it. We are very relieved that the painfully drawn out bankruptcy trial seems to be over. Mendocino Redwood and Marathon Financing has won the day. The new company, Humboldt Redwood Company, is currently restructuring and should be hiring back roughly 250 workers. I have heard that the rents and utilities have gone up significantly on the houses in Scotia as well. That didn't surprise me as it had all been subsidized by Palco for years. This is going to be a very crutial part of Scotia's future as well as Rio Dell. The company has stated that once the bankruptcy were over they would immediately look to begin annexation talks with Rio Dell. It is going to be interesting to see how they settle the issue of infrastructure in Scotia. That was the sticking point long ago. Palco didn't want to invest in any infrastructure repairs and then acting City Manager John Miller wasn't going to accept that. In the past, the city has talked about taking over properties like the Eel River Sawmill and Scotia on the belief that they could apply for and receive grant money to make repairs or clean up. Grant money is how Rio Dell has functioned for the most part in the past but how reliable is that in a recession? These are all matters that will have to be talked about and negotiated. It is in everyone's best interests to stay informed and participate in this process. We would appreciate any updates or information from people who live in Scotia, work for the new company, or otherwise have anything to share. The comment period on the changes to the Rio Dell General Plan, zoning changes and annexations has begun and will end soon. Take a look at the videos and information posted here at the RioDellTimes.com or go to City Hall and request to see the documents yourself. 7.12.08 Hope everyone had a good Fourth of July. The Rio Dell Fire Department had some fireworks for sale that were lots of fun for the kids. That is a big fundraiser for the dept. so it would be beneficial to the community if everyone supported our local firefighters. Wildwood Days is coming up at the beginning of August. Lots of fun activities for everyone and the booths are always interesting to shop around at. Last weekend was a memorial service for the husband of a good friend of mine. Virgil Leroy Hall was found dead after being reported missing for a number of days. The best guess is that he suffered a medical problem while driving out on a fire road to go see if a friend needed help evacuating their property due to the fires. He went down an embankment where it was very difficult to see the truck from the road. A fire crew that was driving down the road knew to be on the look-out for this vehicle and the guy who sits up high in the back of the truck was able to see down the ravine and spotted the truck. Leroy was a super decent person and it is a real loss to the community as well as his family. The service was standing room only, which is a real testament to the life of Leroy and his family. To make a bad situation even worse, the Times-Standard ran an article about the death that was horribly wrong and caused a great deal more pain to the family. The article implied that Leroy was driving on a closed down dangerous road and essentially deserved what he got. They never contacted the family or looked into the details of what happened so we don't know where the crap they published came from. On the T-S website, there is an area for comments where people can make up any identity they want and hide behind "anonymous" postings. While most comments were very nice and supportive, there were some that were so vicious and horrible that it makes you wonder what kind of person could say these things. In response to the story and the mean comments, Marleen Hall, Leroy's wife, wrote a beautiful narrative of the facts and the family's response (you can read it on our front page). A few more mean comments came up, the T-S refused to delete them despite repeated requests, so someone compiled a list of all the advertisers for the T-S and encouraged a boycott. This was posted to the comments page and the T-S quickly took that down (so they can take down postings when they want to). We have the list and will be publishing it as soon as possible. The Planning Commission meeting last Wednesday was to approve the 13 lot subdivision off of Riverside that is talked about at the 6.25.08 meeting (Watch here). We were unable to make it to the meeting where the commission voted and approved this development. The plans and the details should be available in their entirity at City Hall. The tape recording of the meeting that the city does should also be available for public review. The next City Council meeting, July 15th, is supposed to include a tour of the areas that are being proposed for annexation. We will post the time and details as soon as possible. Speaking of the City Council, the July 1st meeting is online now. On the second video, Ingo the Police Dog is introduced to the public. He is a gorgeous german shephard who was trained in the Czech Republic and has been working in Trinidad prior to coming to Rio Dell. The dog triggered on Joe Enes and his hat the second Ingo came into the chambers. I had never witnessed a trained police dog in action before. Watch for Ingo around town with Police Chief Graham Hill. 6.24.08 I attended the Planning Commission study session this evening in preparation for tomorrow night's meeting. The commission will be voting on their recommendations for the general plan updates which includes zoning changes and annexation of multiple properties. The planning commission meeting is your opportunity to express your views on the future development of Rio Dell. The city is primed for growth and it will happen. What kind of growth and at what cost is up to everyone. The recommendation will be for the city to annex the Eel River Sawmill site and down the strip of property at the base of the hills up to Moore Fuel. The area from the old sawmill site down to half way through the Eel River is also included. Property at the end of Bellevue will be annexed as will more property down Blue Slide. There are already plans for subdivisions on these sites. There will be zoning changes in the recommendation. Including a zoning change to allow for a subdivision to be built up the side of Monument Mountain. The property includes the existing water tower and 41.7 acres of surrounding forest and grassland on the side of Monument Mt. which is currently zoned Rural. This zoning would change to 31.7 acres of Suburban density and 10 acres of Urban Residential density. The engineer spoke of a need to grade the property in order to build on it. That would mean cutting levels up the side of the mountain to allow for suburbs. How stable is Monument? Guess we will find out. There will be three subdivision proposals on the table as well. This includes a 13 lot subdivision on Riverside Dr. and a 4 lot subdivision on Painter St. The General Store is Open! The cute little red store sits on Davis St. near the freeway entrance. There are plans to add a deli to the little market. The store was developed by Dean Smithers, who is also building the miniature golf course at the corner of Wildwood and Davis St. Watch for the Grand Opening! 6.6.08 Looks like the Mendocino plan was finally approved by the bankruptcy court in Texas. Yeah! Out of the possible outcomes, it would appear to be the best one for the people around here. Once they have finalized whatever they need to finalize and Marathon takes over the town of Scotia, the annexation talks will begin. We will have to see what the company has in mind as far as the infrastructure that needs extensive and expensive repairs is concerned. That was the big stumbling block before when Palco didn't want to put the money into the repairs before dumping it all on Rio Dell. Thankfully the former interim City Manager John Miller insisted on the needed reports and studies of the infrastructure to validate what most people knew. The prior city manager certainly appeared to be pushing the annexation through as fast as possible for his long time employer. Building official charged with corruption. This building official was taking bribes, issuing illegal permits and falsifying inspections. Sounds like a pretty horrible example of a human being that certainly needs to be held accountable for the crimes he is charged with. The story can be read here from MSNBC. The official is charged with "bribe receiving, tampering with public records, falsifying business records, filing a false instrument and receiving unlawful gratuities." 6.2.08 Hello to my professors who make it to the site:-) As some of our friends and family know, Sharon and I are back to college which occupies virtually every spare minute. We are at the end of a break right now and are getting our schedules for next term worked out. Don't forget to vote tomorrow! Sharon and Richard will be running the polls again this year. This election is as important as any other. Tomorrow, Rio Dell inhabitants will be voting to fill District 2's seat on the Board of Supervisors. Also, we will need to decide which eminent domain propositions to support and which to vote against. Election Day wouldn't be complete without a City Council Meeting; hopefully you are able to attend, but if not we will be filming like always and you will be able to view the meeting online and (eventually) on Access Humboldt's channel 12. Also- Looks like Rio Dell is finally getting that miniature golf course. We've been watching the concrete go in and it looks like they're doing a good job. Interestingly, the Bayshore Mall just opened up an indoor miniature golf course. We hope that they can conduct a profitable business here. and Metropolitan is being shafted! That's the way I sum up what the Rio Dell City Council is doing to them with the "Alternative 5" plan which is to pump our sewage across the bridge out of Rio Dell etc. At least it's not in my backyard, eh Mayor? ... Finally, the ball field at Fireman's Park has been graded. There was a substantial amount of damage to the field from the Public Works dumptruck driving across it. They had just flooded the field to kill gophers, then the next day they drove the dump truck around on it...I wonder if he was just following orders. Hmmm.
4.1.08 Happy April Fools Day! It was a gorgeous spring day in Rio Dell so I decided to sit in a budget meeting for the better part of the evening. No really, I did. =^) The council held a draft fiscal year 2008/09 budget study session. To save you from sitting there for an hour and a half, I will summarize the major items. You can thank me later. First of all, Rio Dell is getting the short end of the stick from the state in their new budget. We are not alone in this, everyone is getting equally reamed for the most part. It looks like the state is withholding the transportation money that we have been trying to get to finish the Wildwood Ave. repaving project for quite awhile now. We will be lucky to see that money in 2010. There are multiple accounts that are being shorted by the state budget and our expenses will outspend the revenue. City wide revenue is projected to be $2,326,330.00 and expenses will be around $2,412,882.00. Fortunately we have reserves to tap, at least for awhile. There is a chance that we might also take a $100,000 blow to the police budget. That is about the equilivent of two full-time officers (with benefits). There are still a number of unknowns for now as the state is still battling it out. The state seems to have money to put into the prison system around the state but not pay for education, roads, services or just about anything else. The high energy prices are hitting everyone hard and I don't know of anyone who isn't really feeling the pinch with no end in sight. That reminds me, your water bills are going up by 3%. Take a look at the small print at the bottom of the water bill you just received. This only amounts to approx. $1.50 per unit, so it isn't a huge increase but with every bill rising fast this doesn't help. The council will be looking again at the sewer rates as they did not include an annual increase like they did with the water rates. This should also be around 3%, which is less then the current rate of inflation. We will have the video of the council meeting (minus the study session) up as soon as possible. In the mean time, go play tennis at the recently renovated courts on Davis St. They are open for business, so enjoy. -Sharon 3.30.08 I was at the courthouse earlier this week and just happened to notice the schedule for courtroom 4, Judge Michael Brown's courtroom. On the 27th, a case management meeting was held in the ongoing case of People v. Creams Dismantling. The case is being prosecuted by Paul Gallegos and the case number is DR070841. We will try to keep an eye on this one as it has such a direct effect on Rio Dell and the fall out from car amnesty day. In case you don't remember or weren't here for this event, check out the pictures here. The decision to put the car wrecking yard in Fireman's Park continues to reverberate. Do you think anyone could have possibly forseen that putting a wrecking yard in the park might not have been a good idea and the risk of leaking auto fluids existed? Of course! Common sense precautions were not taken and the toxic fluids were flowing freely throughout the parking lot and right into the new water system. Surprisingly enough, it actually rained in January and that helped expedite the flow of toxins into the water system. It was only after someone contacted the EPA that any measures at all were taken to try and stem the tide of hazardous waste. The idea of getting rid of the junked vehicles around Rio Dell is a great proposal but the implementation was disastrous. Of couse, it was the first time for an event like this in the city and mistakes are bound to be made, but come on...couldn't anyone figure out that a car wrecking yard might leak auto fluids? The parking lot has been repaved, at the city and fire departments expense, but you can't pave over the toxic fluids already leaked into our environment. If the city is to try another car amnesty day in the future, perhaps we should just gather the cars and let the actual wrecking take place in a wrecking yard and not our park. Just an idea. -Sharon 3.18.08 Happy Spring (tomorrow)! We have our usual mix of rain and sun this time of year and lots of daffodils coming up. Easter is this Sunday! Very early this year. The meeting last night included a presentation by Mike Jani of Mendocino Redwood regarding their proposal that is under consideration in the Palco bankruptcy. It was an informative discussion. The entire plan as well as the other plans can be read at the MRC site. There are multiple plans being floated out there but the one that seems to be garnering the most support by the wider public is the Mendo/Marathon plan. While Mendo Redwood would be running the mill and the logging, Marathon would be in charge of the town, the co-generation plant and the businesses. They are very interested in continuing the plan to sell the homes as they are an investment company and not a real estate business. It was made very clear that the talks about annexing Scotia to Rio Dell would begin again in earnest if Mendo/Marathon is the eventual winner of this battle. What is still unknown, as it is so early in the process, is who will be paying for the massive infrastructure improvements that are required and long overdue in Scotia. At least we wouldn't be trying to negotiate with the same players as when Palco was trying to hand off the town without any improvements at all. Rio Dell is in a better position with any negotiations also since we no longer have a Palco employee stearing the annexation through and our finance director actually knows what she is doing. That is a refreshing change of pace. We will still need to keep a close eye on the plan, for both the protection of Rio Dell as well as Scotia. After the presentation, the council voted for their choice of the bankruptcy plans. They unanimously chose the Mendo/Marathon plan as well as voted no for the other plans (rather than not expressing an opinion). Given the choices, I think that was the best decision. During the meeting, it was brought up that the corner lot next to Kreations (where the temporary fencing is going up) has sold and is going to be developed. They weren't talking about any proposals as they haven't been brought to the planning commission yet. In the past, there was talk of a miniature golf course there. Who knows if that is what will be happening. Anybody out there have any reliable info? The closed door meeting topic was "potential litigation-CDBG loan." The city attorney, David Martinek, was in attendance as well. I have no idea if the discussion included talk of the claim we have against the city or perhaps the CDBG project that is having trouble as the daughter of the home owner doesn't want her father taking on a loan that would have to be paid back out of his estate. It should be noted that since the city attorney did not respond to our claim within the time limit, the liability now hangs over the city for two years. If he had bothered to do the simple job of writing a letter denying the claim then any suit would have to be filed within 6 months. While his not responding to our claim works well for us, as citizens of Rio Dell we are puzzled why the city would continue to choose to have the liability hanging out there for so long. If they think we will get tired and just go away, they haven't been paying attention. I will be posting some recent correspondence with the city regarding our home loan. We contend that when the city paid administrators and the hired building inspector broke the terms of the loan contract, that voided the contract in its entirety. Check out the linked claim letter above if you are curious about the details. We wonder if these same people have broken other peoples agreements as well and thereby invalidated the loans. This would be done by issuing illegal permits, no permits at all or ignoring building codes, etc. People who have loans from the city need to carefully read their agreements and make sure that they are in compliance as well as hold the city to the terms of the contract. 1.13.08 We are enjoying some nice weather today for a change. The storms have been something else but we haven't had it as hard as other areas. It has been an interesting start to the new year, weather wise at least. Be sure and take a look at the Metropolitan area when you drive by. The area that we are looking to irrigate the wastewater at is flooded, of course. It always floods there when we have heavy rains. The river didn't seem to breech the banks this time, but it has in the past. Keep your eyes on the still developing plans for the cities wastewater treatment plant. This is an important issue that affects all of us in one way or another. Even if you don't own property that is going to get effluent dumped on it, you will at least be looking at significant rate increases most likely. The city will be looking for grant funding of course but they have already mentioned that there may be additional costs that will have to be covered by ratepayers. Every community is dealing with issues of water and wastewater and we have to be looking at every option. We would be wise to study what other communities have done and how it is working for them. In other matters...There is an interesting video taken from a police car camera of a DA in Texas and his drunk driving hit and run accident (http://www.removedistrictattorney.blogspot.com/). Click on "DWI Arrest on YouTube. The DA was only charged with a DWI and not the hit and run. He was later found by police to be sitting in his car drunk at the courthouse parking lot. He was given a ride home. The DA is still in office currently. Don't forget about the Brookhaven Building Inspector that we have reported on in the past. The local DA and their Grand Jury have been busy dealing with corruption in their community. Including a Parks Dept. Commissioner, local land owners, school districts and former legislators. We wish our own local district attorneys office took fraud and corruption investigations as seriously. We know that their office is over burdened with drug related cases but at some point Humboldt County will have to deal with the long standing croynism and "good ole' boys" network. Times have changed from the wild west of the past and people are starting to expect equal treatment no matter who their friends and relatives are. The 2004-2005 Humboldt County Grand Jury did a good job of looking into the administration of the taxpayer funded First Time Homebuyers Program here in Rio Dell. After the release of that report, the city manager disappeared and the mayor was illegally put into that position. They then wrote a response to the Grand Jury that completely blew them off. We have been the recipients of various forms of retaliation ever since, including the fraudulent tax form telling the IRS that we had gotten $50,000 that we didn't report. That was a nice one. It took a year of the IRS investigating to clear that one up. We submitted a second grand jury complaint with the 2005-2006 Grand Jury that we were told was held over into the next session. The 2006-2007 Grand Jury, headed by Foreman Jim Snow, finally told us late in the session that they had "lost" the entire file, supporting documentation and it was deleted out of the computer. That sure sounds like an "accident" to us. We have repeatedly asked for information about the missing files but have been dismissed by the Foreman without ever looking into the disappearance. (don't forget about the grand juror who had taken evidence home in the Debi August case) We have asked the local district attorney to look into this and were told that we needed to talk to the presiding judge. We have written the presiding judge, Judge Feeney, who refuses to respond or look into the possibility of evidence tampering. We have contacted the State Attorney General who tells us that we need to contact the local DA. Round and Round it goes. In the meantime, every investigation done by the Grand Jury is suspect as the real possibility of further evidence tampering exists. We will be putting up the entirity of the Grand Jury complaint and supporting documentation soon so be sure and look for it. There just aren't enough hours in the day for everything! Here is some of the correspondence that has gone on so far. 1.11.08 TGIF! When the updates are slow you know we are busy behind the scenes. I have the last couple of city council meetings that will be coming online soon! Some of our slowness can be attributed towards a bumpy Vista upgrade. Vista is the future so come one come all. You just better make sure you have an XP machine sitting around to run some of the older software. What geek doesn't right ;-) Also I am told by an Eureka Police Department Officer that car accidents were up a lot this last year in Eureka. From just over 800 the year before to over 1100 this year. Thanks EPD for sharing. You might want to slow down a bit when its wet. 1.2.08 Happy New Year! Can't wait to see what is happening this year. Of course locally it is the new Rio Dell Sewer treatment plant. Here is a picture of what City Hall is showing off at the latest public hearing.
They look almost identical to me. Maybe the treated one smells better. More Rio Dell California coming Steve :-)
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