Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign Good evening and welcome to the local news. Today is Thursday, June 5th. I'm Jordan Pangelinan reporting for KMUD. In tonight's news, Mary Burke announces 5th District County Supervisor candidacy and fewer staff positions in Humboldt status quo budget.
Stay tuned. News on those stories and more coming right up.
Humboldt County 5th District Supervisor Steve Madrone has announced he will not seek re election.
Despite the election being more than a year away, Madrone has publicly endorsed a candidate to succeed him. KMUD News spoke with the endorsed candidate to learn more about her background, platform and vision for the district.
This is Mary Burke for KMUD News.
[00:01:15] Speaker B: What brought me to the decision to run for supervisor is it's. It's kind of been a logical progression for me from working for the past 11 years on watershed restoration.
What I found myself doing was leaning more and more into building community as the base of these projects. So, you know, ultimately what we were trying to do is build salmon habitat restoration, but I kept looking for ways that these projects could really connect with community and build healthier communities.
[00:01:54] Speaker A: One project Burke has worked with Madrone on was launching Army Corp. And county projects. One of her priorities is the reconfiguration of the lower end of the Redwood Creek levee system, a critical project for the preservation of salmon habitat and overall environmental health in the region.
[00:02:11] Speaker B: I've had a chance to work with Steve Madrone on one of the.
A couple of the large restoration projects. In fact, he's been critical up in Redwood Creek. We've just launched a project up there. So now I'm speaking from working with a local conservation organization in that role. I've had a chance to work with Steve launching a Army Corps county project that we've been participating in to look at removing the, or reconfiguring the lower end of Redwood Creek's levee system to restore the estuary, which is a really critical part of salmon life history. And that estuary is really broken. It's disconnected. And so Steve and I have had a chance to work in that realm. We've also had a chance to work together in McKinleyville.
I'm now the chair of the municipal advisory committee. But before that, I've been a part of a couple of subcommittees to that advisory committee to the county.
And Steve's participation in those groups has really helped advance their.
Helped us get farther really, than we ever could have without him. He's. He's brought a lot of information to the table and helps connect us with county staff. So, yeah, we've worked together on a. In a couple of different ways.
[00:03:46] Speaker A: Burke describes her mission as being a bridge between local government and the community with a focus on expanding community based initiatives and engagement. Her hands on experience in local governance has given her a deeper understanding of how to collaborate with residents and better address their needs.
[00:04:04] Speaker B: I guess I would say yes, I have had some roles in local governance and one of the ways that I felt the ability for being in elected office to shape change was when I was at mcsd.
You know, that agency does water, wastewater, streetlights, open space and recreation.
And you know, I have a background in public work. So I was like, okay, great. I can, you know, be knowledgeable about the public, public work side of things. But living in McKinleyville, I really leaned into, you know, how could we connect our community better through parks and trails and make sure that people have places where they just run into their neighbors and build that sense of community.
And I quickly found that McKinleyville being unincorporated, it's hard to work on projects that are not solely within like McKinleyville Services District Purview, like trails and connecting the community. So there's multi jurisdictions going on. Right. So I found it was a place where it helped me understand the landscape better of governance. So I, I first I understood what an incredible agency McKinleyville Community Services District is and then I understood I wanted to work in areas that MCSD didn't have purview.
So that's where I really leaned into the McKinleyville Municipal Advisory Committee.
Because the, the scope or the purview of what that group does, it gets into planning and it gets into future, you know, future thinking. Specifically, two areas are in terms of multimodal transportation in and out of McKinleyville and, and around town as well as incorporation exploration. And that is getting the information that the community deserves to have to understand whether incorporation would be a good idea for our future. This community has, you know, since 2000 when the last study was done, has shown interest in incorporation, but we just haven't had the information to know whether it's a good idea to move forward. So those are some of the ways in which I've been working in local governance.
[00:06:42] Speaker A: Though still early in her campaign, Burke is already shaping a platform that includes specific policy proposals aimed at increasing transparency, sustainability and community access to resources.
She emphasizes the importance of making these policies known and actionable throughout the county.
[00:07:00] Speaker B: Well, I think this is early on in my campaign, so I'm putting these pieces together and you know, I think you may hear my knowledge and basis for understanding what the right ways are to move forward change as I get out into the community and have more conversations. But I'll say really leaning into resilience, working to make sure that we are not only prepared for times of disaster, but we have the resilience of a local community that can support local producers, be it CSAs, grass fed beef, you know, and really benefit from the abundance of this area in a way that builds community and builds the economy. So keeping attention on our local economy now more than ever is important. I think what we see is the pace and scale of change is, is faster than ever before and I know that makes for a really challenging business community. You know, doing business with constant changes.
It's it's not easy, but we have a really creative population here in Humboldt that I know can lean into the.
[00:08:28] Speaker A: Changes with nearly a year to go before the primary election, Burke is actively engaging with residents to share her ideas and hear their concerns. She encourages community members to reach out, attend events and learn more about her candidacy and values as the race for county supervisor takes shape, KMUD will continue to provide coverage on all emerging candidates and campaign developments leading up to the next primary election.
An overall reduction in staffing is part of Humboldt County's budget for the upcoming year, with the Planning and Building Department being particularly affected, Daniel Mintz reports.
[00:09:10] Speaker C: Humboldt County's budget has a $12 million deficit that will be covered by forwarding a fund balance built up previously, but that approach is not expected to be sustainable.
At its June 3 meeting, the county's Board of Supervisors discussed and took some preliminary actions on the budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1.
The $629 million budget is described by staff as a status quo budget with fewer staff positions and no room for the additional funding requests departments have made in previous years.
In addition to covering the deficit, the fund balance forwarding will allow contributions to the county's General Reserve and deferred maintenance funds.
But Deputy County Administrative Officer Jessica Maciel said a five year budget forecast shows expenditures are expected to outpace revenue growth.
The county's number of full time employees under the budget is 2,237.
Maciel described how it's a decrease and how staffing has significantly decreased in two major the Department of Health and Human Services and Planning and Building.
[00:10:27] Speaker A: This is a decrease of 108.6 positions, or 4.6% over the prior year adopted positions due to negative fund balances and restructuring.
The majority of this reduction is in DHHS.
DHHS deallocated 98.9 positions, or 7.2% over the department's fiscal year 2425 positions.
In addition, Planning and Building has made significant reductions over the last two years. In this budget, they have deallocated 12 positions, or 18.4% over the department's 2425 positions.
And in the 2425 budget, they deallocated seven positions. So in two years, they have reduced from 72 to 53 positions.
[00:11:16] Speaker C: During a public comment period, County Sheriff Billy Hansel acknowledged the staffing reductions and lobbied for staffing to support an across the board need upkeeping county buildings and facilities.
[00:11:29] Speaker D: This has been a challenging year, but we've all kind of tightened our belts and we've worked together to try and make sure that this happens. It does hurt because we've all reduced services, we all have cut positions and those kind of things, but we all know that we're in this together. One thing that I want to echo what's what Supervisor Madrone said is that public works and building maintenance is failing within the county.
And so we need to put money into this and, and getting the engineers, getting the architects in place.
We've had several building projects, the sheriff's office, that have been delayed for five plus years and we can't get done because higher priority emergency. Emergency projects are always coming up and that's what the priorities are. Something's falling apart, something's falling down. And so we need to make that as the emergency. But in reality, we need to put maintenance into our structures in order for us to save money in the long term.
[00:12:18] Speaker C: Hansel added that county departments have been fiscally responsible and he asked that a hiring freeze be lifted.
Supervisors have been routinely approving exemptions from the freeze and agreed it should be lifted.
Supervisors agreed to consider the staffing for facilities maintenance in the near future.
The board also decided to approve Measure O roads and transit tax funding for administrative staffing. Measure O is expected to generate $27 million a year in revenue. And Supervisor Steve Madrone said having enough staff in place will allow the county to deliver the road and transit projects it's promised.
[00:12:59] Speaker A: We're going to have to be really careful to deliver, just like with Measure Z. And I think we've done a great job with Z. We can always do more public information outreach on how the money is truly going to public safety. And so that people really see that with Measure O, we are going to have an annual report from the audit, auditing committee or whatever about where did the money go. And that's great, but I think, you know, as we're delivering, there's nothing better than really informing the public about what we're delivering and also having a robust staffing situation to be able to deliver, you know, and to fulfill the promise. And as Tom said, he has high confidence of the ability to actually deliver all these projects. But I assume that includes if we have the proper staffing in place to actually manage, administer, contract and do all these things.
[00:13:52] Speaker C: Supervisors unanimously voted to approve lifting the freeze and funding measure o staff positions. Other actions included various fund transfers and continuance of voluntary unpaid furloughs.
Final approval of the budget is set for June 24th.
In Eureka for KMUD News, this is Daniel Mintz.
[00:14:15] Speaker A: Turning to Mendocino county.
The county seeks state help as tribal disputes, violence complicate illegal cannabis crackdown KZYX's Elise Cox reports.
[00:14:28] Speaker E: As Mendocino county grapples with the impact of widespread illegal cannabis cultivation, supervisors are asking state agencies for help.
On May 6, they unanimously agreed to make a formal request.
But even as violence related to illegal cannabis erupts in remote areas of the county, residents who are most affected remain conflicted about a crackdown.
These include residents of the Round Valley Indian Reservation, where one person was killed and two people suffered gunshot wounds in connection with an illegal grow a week ago.
On Wednesday, sheriff deputies responded to a 911 hang up call that was traced to Mina Road. In the course of investigating the incident, deputies discovered a body and two injured gunshot victims in the vicinity.
Enforcement on the reservation, however, is tricky.
The reservation itself is dotted with so many cannabis greenhouses that they can be seen from Google Earth.
However, however, according to an attorney representing the Round Valley tribes, these groves comply with tribal regulations governing cannabis cultivation.
[00:15:45] Speaker F: The Kovalov Indian Community enacted its own cannabis laws. It strictly prohibits the growing, cultivation, sale, possession, distribution of cannabis for any purpose except for medical marijuana purposes.
[00:16:05] Speaker E: That's Lester Marston. He's representing the Round Valley Indian Tribes and three residents who are suing Mendocino County Sheriff Matt Kendall over a raid that took place last July and that included some tribal properties.
Marston said Sheriff Kendall exceeded the lawful scope of his authority.
[00:16:27] Speaker F: He went on an Indian reservation and enforced illegal search warrants and confiscated and destroyed personal property that was belonged to individual members of the tribe.
[00:16:46] Speaker E: The sheriff isn't commenting on these particular raids, which took place between July 22nd and 23rd, 2024.
Kendall will say that his office responds to requests for service from the public.
[00:17:00] Speaker F: The sheriff, particularly me, gets calls constantly regarding these illegal growth. I'm getting called tribal members.
I grew up in Round Valley. I grew up in Kovalo. I get a lot of Correspondences, calls for service, things like regarding these illegal cultivations. And I don't get to ignore those I've got to deal with.
[00:17:23] Speaker E: Since the July raids, however, the sheriff's office has been walking a fine line. That's because after the raids, the tribe sent the sheriff a cease and desist letter regarding cannabis enforcement.
Marston says that after receiving the letter, the sheriff began withholding services.
Kendall says that's not true.
[00:17:42] Speaker F: I explained to my deputies that when it came to the illegal grow sites, until we.
And we can get this, this issue hashed out regarding whether or not it has the authority to remove illegal grows. But we're handling calls for service left and right in the Round Valley area.
[00:18:00] Speaker E: This included the recent 911 hang up last week.
[00:18:04] Speaker F: Jose responding now. I would hope so. I would hope that that's what he was. He would be doing. But the fact of the matter is, for a long time, the Kovalo Indian community has been complaining to the sheriff about organized crime being up in the Round Valley, illegally growing marijuana on federal lands. And. And they couldn't get the sheriff to do anything about it. And so they started complaining not only to the sheriff, but started bringing this matter to the public. And then all of a sudden, does the sheriff go out and put together a task force to go after the cartel or the illegal grows? No.
[00:18:46] Speaker E: Marston says Kendall went after legal grows and that Kendall knows Kovale well enough to know the difference.
Now Marston is asking the courts to clear up ambiguity around a federal law that Kendall says gives him the right to investigate crime on tribal land.
[00:19:05] Speaker F: We're asking the court to determine because Sheriff Kendall claims that there's this federal law, Public Law 280, that gives him the authority to do what he did.
We don't think that's the case. So the first thing we're asking the court to do is to determine that this federal law, public law toity, did not give the sheriff any authority to enforce the state's cannabis laws against Indians on the reservation.
[00:19:31] Speaker E: Speaking at the Board of Supervisors meeting, Steve Amato, president of the Mendocino Cannabis alliance, echoed some of the caveats about enforcement coming from the tribes.
[00:19:42] Speaker A: There are great concerns in our community about how enforcement has been used in this county throughout its history and the opportunity to be able to get any funds from the state. I think we need to make sure if those funds are coming in, they're really being used absolutely proper. It's critical we don't have a lot more room for error and mistake any longer. And if they're really going to be intended to go after the very baddest players and the atrocities that we are hearing from the sheriff and from other people throughout the county and in the newspaper every day. Let's make sure that that's what they're being used for because they're greatly needed if those stories are accurate.
[00:20:19] Speaker E: And so for now, residents are watching and waiting and hoping that assistance materializes and that the cannabis industry will finally be allowed to flourish out in the open without violence or fear. For KZYX News, I'm Alise Cox. For all our local stories, visit kzyx.
[00:20:40] Speaker A: In state News Youth Leaders Hold Town hall to Demand End to Pepper Spraying youth in Alameda County Juvenile Detention KPFA's David Hummel reports.
[00:20:52] Speaker G: The use of pepper spray, classified as a type of tear gas, is banned in juvenile facilities in 35 states across the country. But California is one of the few states that still allows the practice of justice. Advocates say the practice means children in juvenile detention suffer physical, emotional and psychological trauma at the hands of their supervisors, juvenile detention officers who employ to oversee the well being of young children.
Organizer Diodon Brew is youth advocacy and program coordinator of the Urban Peace Movement which organized the town hall. He spoke about his experience of being pepper sprayed three times detention I could.
[00:21:33] Speaker H: Tell you firsthand that it was very traumatic experience and had me questioning, you know, whether or not, you know, people actually cared about me. So I can only imagine for young people now today that still are kind of experiencing that like with that what's going through their mind and I empathize with them and are we really centering the needs and the well being of young people?
[00:21:57] Speaker G: KPFA spoke separately with Megan Stanton Trehan, senior advisor for the Youth Practice Group working under Disability Rights of California. Trehan says probation officers resort to using pepper spray as a first option.
[00:22:10] Speaker A: If one of the main ways that you deal with students not complying or young people not complying with directives or getting into some sort of altercation in this environment that something that harms them psychologically and physically, there's going to be continued long term impacts of that. And that kind of environment makes it really challenging for young people to see that as a classroom and not just like a threatening environment.
As a state, do we feel like it's acceptable for us to harm the young people while they're there by doing something like pepper spray?
[00:22:45] Speaker G: An ACLU report confirmed that widespread use of pepper spray in California juvenile systems runs counter to research on healthy physical, social and emotional development of young people. The study found that children sprayed in centers included those young as 12 and those in psychiatric crises. According to documents obtained through the California public records act.
Pepper spray is just one of the many harms that young people are exposed to inside of juvenile facilities, along with other tactics like dangerous prone restraints and straightjackets, which can cut off airflow and as well as physical and sexual abuse.
Despite longtime community opposition to punitive measures like pepper spray, only seven California counties have put in place a ban. In Los Angeles, the city board had voted to outlaw the use of pepper spray in juvenile facilities, but it was never implemented. Erickson Amaya, organizer with the group 67 Suenos, spoke at the Stop pepper spraying our kids town hall, calling out Alameda county for continuing its policy of spraying despite a ban being in place in neighboring Bay Area counties.
[00:23:55] Speaker H: This is a conversation that's been going on for a long time around the ethics, right. And the humaneness of actually using chemical agents to spray our kids in the first place. Here in the Bay Area, Santa Clara, San Francisco, they actually have a policy on the books to phase it out. Why is it all okay for our kids to get sprayed? But other folks in the other counties, you know, they feel like, no, we can't be spraying kids. And they actually went and put the effort forward to come with a policy. It might be a racial component there, right? I'm not. I'm not naive to think that in Alameda county we have 90% black and brown young people in our juvenile hall and a large majority of them are from Oakland.
[00:24:34] Speaker G: Organizers call for community based solutions to reinvest funds in education and mental health and demand that Alameda county put in place a ban on pepper spraying children in detention. Reporting for KPFA news, I'm David Hummel.
[00:24:49] Speaker A: In national news, National Nuclear Security administration holds hearing on plan to expand production of plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons. KPFA's Christopher Martinez reports.
[00:25:05] Speaker I: The National Nuclear Security Administration, or NNSA, is planning to expand the production of plutonium pits, the explosive trigger of nuclear bombs that makes them go boom. After being sued by organizations including Nuclear watch New Mexico and the Bay Area group Tri Valley cares, the NNSA held what it calls a scoping meeting to hear from the public about the plan. It was a rare opportunity for people to comment on the environmental impacts of nuclear weapons production.
[00:25:33] Speaker G: And.
[00:25:34] Speaker I: And the people weighed in. Patrick Bossel said his message to the National Nuclear Security Administration is simple. Don't do it. Just don't. You cannot discuss the environmental impact of pit production without discussing the environmental impact of what's going to happen if they ever get used.
[00:25:53] Speaker A: And if you say we're never going.
[00:25:55] Speaker I: To use them, then don't make them. Opponents of the plan say plutonium pits are poison with a radioactive half life of 24,000 years, making safe storage tricky. And they say there's another problem, the specter of nuclear proliferation. Mary Olson is with the Gender and Radiation Impact Project.
[00:26:14] Speaker B: I want to remind the NNSA that half the world has now signed a treaty, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which affirms that all of these activities go against a shared future and are therefore in the category with chemical and biological weapons illegal.
I encourage NNSA as parents and grandparents to work with our government to achieve this country adopting the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
[00:26:50] Speaker I: Joanne Sweeney also spoke against the plan. She's with the group Nuclear Watch south based in Georgia.
[00:26:56] Speaker A: And this whole idea that it's a law to have to have 80 new.
[00:27:03] Speaker B: Plutonium pits is ridiculous.
That law needs to be changed just like slavery.
[00:27:11] Speaker A: It's wrong.
[00:27:12] Speaker B: It's wrong minded.
[00:27:13] Speaker A: It's very exploitative. It's very dangerous to the well being of our country.
[00:27:20] Speaker I: Several of the speakers talked about the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty, a treaty aimed at halting the spread of nuclear weapons with the goal of achieving complete nuclear disarmament. John Burroughs went into a bit of detail, citing the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty's Article 6 production of pits for new.
[00:27:37] Speaker A: Design warheads on a new delivery system.
[00:27:40] Speaker B: The Sentinel ICBM, and on submarine based.
[00:27:44] Speaker A: Ballistic missiles qualifies as nuclear arms racing.
[00:27:49] Speaker B: The United States is obligated to pursue.
[00:27:51] Speaker A: Negotiations to see such arms racing at an early date.
[00:27:56] Speaker I: Tuesday's SCOPE meeting was the first of two the second takes place Wednesday, May 28th. Reporting for Pacifica Radio News, KPFA, I'm Christopher Martinez.
[00:28:08] Speaker A: That's all for tonight's broadcast. Thanks for listening.
Thanks to our engineers Lisa Music and Patricia Tinkler, and thanks to our reporters Daniel Mintz, David Hummel, Sophia Rice, El Fini and Christopher Martinez.
KMUD is online. You can find us on kmed.org and now streaming on most podcast platforms including Apple Podcasts and Spotify, where you can find and download our stories and newscasts for offline listening during the rural community.
You can also follow us on social media.
If you have questions or suggestions, you can give us a call at 707-923-2605. Again, that is 707-923-260 5 or send an email to newsmud.org Reporting for KMUD, I'm Jordan Panjalinan.
[00:29:07] Speaker B: SA.
