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Local News 07 20 26 · KMUD News

• 0:00
  Speaker A: Foreign.
• 0:06
  Speaker B: Welcome to the KMUD News. I'm your news director, April Lewis, and I'm glad to be with you for this broadcast. In this episode, we'll start with some local updates, then move to stories on continued safety issues in Shelter Cove, possible good news for the cannabis economy, and the humble Registrar of Voters responds to Trump's election claims this this is KMUD News, Starting off with an update on the Garberville Sanitary District. Some listeners had concerns about possible water restrictions coming to Garberville after mandatory conservation was declared by the neighboring Redway Community Services District. While median river levels remain below 50% of normal, Redway's specific situation was caused in part by a tank being out of service. Its replacement was supposed to be online by now, but unfortunately due to a part not arriving, that didn't happen and is why Redway is currently missing some of its water storage capacity. Garberville's Sanitary district does not have the same tank issue and Ralph Emerson, the General Manager of the Garberville Sanitary District, stated over email the river is currently sufficient for Garberville Sanitary District's operational and customer demands, but we watch the river levels in cubic feet of water per second every day. We will enter drought preparedness and implementation measures when the river reaches unsafe levels as described on our website in the Garberville Sanitary District Drought ordinance. End quote. So while drought preparedness may make its way to Garberville eventually, there's their water district is currently in a better position to handle low river flows versus what is happening in Redway. An update on yesterday's Situation the shutdown streets in downtown Eureka from the Eureka Police Department on July 19th at approximately 9am Officers with the EPD responded to the 300 block of east street for a report of a female in crisis who was on the roof of a building. Upon arrival, officers located the female sitting on the edge of the roof with her legs dangling over the side. Officers immediately secured the area and requested additional resources due to the nature and complexity of the incident. Personnel from the City of Eureka's Mobile Crisis Team, the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office Crisis Negotiation Team, a mental health officer from the Community Safety Engagement Team, Humboldt Bay Fire and City Ambulance responded to assist. After approximately four hours of negotiations, the female voluntarily came down from the roof. She was medically evaluated at the scene and was transported to a local medical facility for further care. A Final Update on the Burr Fire On Sunday, the Cayman News Department's Emergency Response Team had alerts going out concerning the Burr Fire, which was located south of Dinsmore in the area of Burr Valley Road and Thompson Creek. We shared video of the wildfire, including the air attack response to our social media channels thanks to a KMUD listener in the area. Despite the remote fire site and the blaze quickly growing to 30 acres, Cal Fire air support followed by local ground crews quickly got control of the situation. We want to thank all local fire departments who receive calls for service, including Bridgeville, Fortuna, Rio del Lolita and Garberville. We are truly grateful for the work of our local volunteer fire departments. In Cal Fire, only two structures were reported as damaged and neither were reported as housing. Up next, our main stories. This is KMUD News. Some upbeat developments for the cannabis industry were discussed during an online presentation. Daniel Mintz reports.
• 4:06
  Speaker C: Leading members of the Humboldt County Growers alliance have described the county's cannabis industry as emerging from an era of decline with new opportunities on the horizon. Stabilization of the cannabis economy and some encouraging signs for the future were discussed during a July 14 online presentation to the Community Economic Resilience Consortium. Indy Riggs of Galactic Farms, the Alliance Board's vice president, said, we've gone through a lot of change, changes and transitions, but we're doing really good and have a lot of awesome stuff going on. The positive happenings include cannabis participation in the California State Fair, the state's newly released regulations on cannabis, appellations of origin and development of the county's low impact camping ordinance under a new state bill. This year is the alliance's 10th anniversary and Willow Creek Cannabis Farmer has Hannah White, the Alliance's board president, reflected on
• 5:06
  Speaker D: the timespan it's been a long and interesting road and we are at a much different place 10 years into it than we were in 2016. I think we can all see the impacts that legalization has had. Some of them have been great and some of them have been less great. We've lost a lot of farmers just due to attrition, due to challenges of the regulated market. The incredible overproduction across the entire state and just cost of compliance and taxation and overproduction has created challenging market dynamics for producers. Although I do believe things have kind of stabilized and so we're really seeing the cultivators and the businesses in Humboldt. I feel stabilized. You know, I feel like we've kind of lost. We're done in the like shed of businesses.
• 6:09
  Speaker C: Regulatory conditions are improving and White highlighted the recent federal reclassification of Cannabis to Schedule 3 under the Controlled Substances act that allows state licensed medical cannabis operators to deduct business expenses on federal tax returns and facilitates research, research is continually expanding and will help the region establish its brand under the state's Appellations of Origin rules for cannabis.
• 6:38
  Speaker D: And something that you may or may not be aware of is that Cal Poly, the Cannabis Studies program, received a $10 million endowment for their Cannabis Studies program. So it creates a future where we have money coming in in the academic space to help do research. And I think something that's really exciting, you know, for the legacy of producers in Humboldt county is how we might be able to tandem research also with development of regional appellations of origin. Currently, HCGA is very involved with and has been honestly for about 10 years as discussion has been on drafting California Cannabis Appellations Program.
• 7:25
  Speaker C: Studying the region's cannabis presents great opportunities for not only highlighting the value of those products, but also the region itself, White said the state and county allowances for low impact camping will give private landowners the chance to host campsites without expensive commercial permits, which opens opportunities for cannabis farm tourism. The positive trends and some persistent challenges were discussed in this exchange between Greg Foster of the Redwood Region Economic Development Commission, the meeting's host, and White.
• 8:00
  Speaker E: This is exciting stuff.
• 8:02
  Speaker F: I mean there's more to come. The industry is not dead, as they say.
• 8:06
  Speaker D: It's not dead and it's actually really exciting. We have our local law enforcement still flying legal and not legal farms looking for environmental harms and labor violations. But you know, it's we're still operating under prohibition and as many gains as we've made, there's still so many more to be made, but really feel like we're in a stable. We, we, we want to feel we're in a stable place here and I think county wide we really have that. I feel so great grateful for the relationship we have working with the planning department and county staff and really the support we have from the county and supporting appellations and supporting reduced tax relief for our cultivators.
• 8:55
  Speaker C: For KMUD News, this is Daniel Mintz.
• 9:09
  Speaker B: Shelter Co's lack of police presence and code enforcement were a major concern at the most recent Resort Improvement District Board meeting, including comments from Humboldt Supervisor Michelle Bushnell, KMUD News reports. KMUD News had previously reported on the Shelter Cove Resort Improvement district meeting of June 18, where Shelter Cove resident Mary Jo Athey had reported feeling unsafe and documented part of their hair being pulled out by Christy Rose, another resident of the area who allegedly resides in unpermitted housing. At the recent July 16 meeting of the Shelter Cove Resort Improvement District, issues of code enforcement and a lack of sheriff presence in the district led to hefty debates, including between local residents and Humboldt Supervisor Michelle Bushnell. The meeting also included new testimony by residents that was a bit harrowing, especially claimed incidents involving live weapons and shots fired outside of local homes. Debate over enforcement issues at the recent Resort Improvement District meeting focused on a proposed letter drafted to send from the Shelter Cove Board to the Humboldt Sheriff's Department. We'll start meeting audio with General Manager Chris Christiansen announcing the proposed letter as an action item.
• 10:27
  Speaker E: Purpose of this action item is to approve the attached letter to the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors and Sheriff's Office regarding law and code enforcement concerns in Chilcote. This stems from a public comment made at last month's regular board meeting, plus other public comments made in the past expressing concern about the prevalence of property code violations.
• 10:49
  Speaker B: The Shelter Cove Board then suggested some edits. Here's General Manager Chris Christiansen reading a suggested additional paragraph of the proposed letter to the Sheriff's
• 11:01
  Speaker E: as residents of a remote and isolated community in this expansive county, we acknowledge limitations on services. We appreciate the county's position and understand the necessity to collaborate. As a fellow governing body, we empathize with the daunting tasks of maintaining and improving public services. However, that is no excuse for law enforcement to ignore threats and attacks made against our residents, especially when those attacks could improve or could involve discharging a firearm at a private citizen. This repeated, violent and unprovoked behavior is exactly the reason that the Sheriff's Department exists. It is disheartening to hear that our residents and board staff can be repeatedly threatened, attacked, injured with documentable injuries, and shot at. While the local police do not even have the time or interest to investigate an individual in a more populated area with this, many incidents over such a short period of time would have already been deemed a threat to themselves and others.
• 11:58
  Speaker B: Shelter Cove Resort Improvement District Board members then discussed the issue further with multiple members expressing concern over the current lack of police presence and enforcement in the Shelter Cove area. Shelter Cove Resort Improvement District Vice President Tessia Bouchain then read a prepared statement on the issue of code enforcement and safety in Shelter Cove.
• 12:21
  Speaker G: If Humboldt county code enforcement and the Sheriff's Office were adequately enforcing existing laws and ordinances within Shelter Cove, there would be no need for this letter. More importantly, our community would not continue to face preventable threats such as increased fire risk, raw sewage entering our waterways, hazardous materials violations, and unsafe living conditions associated with the unpermitted structures that fall that fail to comply with both RID and county codes. For nearly 20 years, the district has worked through the proper channels to encourage a stronger code enforcement and law enforcement presence within our community. We have funded officer trainings, subsidized housing for resident deputies on multiple occasions. And yet those efforts have produced little lasting improvement. With the notable exception of sheriff Tom Allman's tenure. Shelter co property owners pay property taxes that are comparable to those paid by the residents of, I believe, Fortuna. And yet the level of services we receive from Humboldt county remains inadequate. What we need is not higher taxes. What we need is for Humboldt county to prioritize Shelter Cove and provide the services in line with the tax revenue our community contributes.
• 13:48
  Speaker B: But even after clear public comment and support from the Shelter Cove board members, the letter to the sheriff's department was suddenly put in doubt by an unlikely sour supervisor, Michelle Bushnell. Bushnell attended parts of the meeting over zoom and expressed clear displeasure for the Shelter Cove board potentially sending a formal letter to the sheriff's office instead of other communication avenues.
• 14:14
  Speaker A: I want to concur with what your fire chief said. I don't agree with this letter only because you haven't tried another avenue, which would be to have a meeting with the sergeant in that area and with the sheriff who I did inform the was coming forward. I think that it's really important that those lines of communication stay open before and that you try those avenues previous to doing, you know, a letter like this, it's very simple to call me and say, can we set up a meeting? It also is, you know, the same can happen with the sheriff. I understand people's concerns, but I do think it's really important that we get the entire story and what happened. Additionally, I also think that some of the CCNRs with the shelter Cove properties are things that can be enforced by the RID and haven't been done. And I think that needs to be a collaboration with code enforcement is separate from the sheriff's department. They are not. They do not work in the same office. They do not have the same budget
• 15:23
  Speaker H: line items.
• 15:24
  Speaker A: But I do agree with all the concerns that I've heard and I would hope that, that I could help facilitate a meeting.
• 15:32
  Speaker B: But then local resident Mary Jo 80, the same resident who had her hair pulled out, chimed in and complained over the humbled sheriff's inadequate response to her own and other neighborhood situations, including a story with gunshots fired.
• 15:47
  Speaker H: They sent a sheriff's officer to my house.
• 15:50
  Speaker E: He talked to me.
• 15:52
  Speaker H: Never talked to Christine Rhodes. Now Fred Meyer, that was here in
• 15:56
  Speaker E: the beginning, he was shot at by her. He lives across the street from her.
• 16:01
  Speaker H: He Ran into his house and called 911 and they asked if he had
• 16:05
  Speaker E: a picture of her with a gun.
• 16:07
  Speaker H: He said, no, I was running for my life. They said, well, I'm sorry, but there's nothing we can do. She shot at him again. He called again.
• 16:15
  Speaker G: He was made.
• 16:16
  Speaker H: The victim a sheriff never, never came out. Two different incidents of gunshots.
• 16:22
  Speaker B: Supervisor Michelle Bushnell's response to the resident focused on going through a more formal process to address concerns in Shelter Cove. Bushnell claims to only recently have learned of ongoing safety issues in the COVID
• 16:36
  Speaker A: For one thing, I don't know the situation entirely, and those 911 calls are recorded so we can play them back to see what was said. And I appreciate. I know this is a serious situation. I'm happy to facilitate any kind of meeting and talk with the deputies and to talk with the sheriff, which I had told Chris. But I have to know that it's happening. And nope, this is the first time. I don't. I don't troll Facebook. I don't have time and I don't. That's not the way I communicate with people in the job as supervisor. My phone number is out there. Call me anytime. My emails out there. I'm happy to help with any situation that I can, but I have to know about it. And I really, once again, thank Chris for letting me know. And I did let the sheriff know he's out of town right now, but I think it's really important that we have those lines of communication. Also with your statement that, you know, you said she's mentally ill. I don't know that, but there are other means that can happen to get people help and to try to help the situation that. That are more than just the sheriff. But thank you so much. I really appreciate knowing about this, and I will try to facilitate a meeting with the sheriff out there. I'm going to talk to him about it and get him out there so that the board can talk to him.
• 17:58
  Speaker B: Other Shelter Cove residents also did not like Bushnell's suggested approach for Shelter Cove to ask for more help from the Humboldt Sheriff's Department. Here's public comment at the Resort Improvement District board meeting from Wendy Ball.
• 18:11
  Speaker H: Yes, Wendy Ball. And I am just a little shocked that Michelle's not supporting your letter. Please send that letter. It's been two years. She's out of the loop. I'm sorry, but that doesn't mean it hasn't been happening. And, Michelle, I sent you an email and asked you if you wanted to go have coffee. So I Could give you a little bit of background on what's going on. It's appalling to me that nothing has been dealt with. I'm going to do another restraining order because that's what the sheriffs tell me I have to do in order for them to be able to do their jobs. 69 page form that I'll have to drive to Eureka and make three trips up to Eureka, which I did last February and they dropped the ball on me. But I'm willing to do it again for Mary Jo. But I'm just appalled. Todd and I listening here at the coffee shop to Michelle saying that asking you to not send that letter. We're begging you to send that letter. Thank you all.
• 19:03
  Speaker B: This put the Shelter Cove board in a bit of a pickle where they had clear opposition to a formal letter addressed to the Sheriff's Department from Supervisor Bushnell, but also public support for a letter addressing resident concerns over safety and code enforcement. Board member Tessia Bouchain expressed understanding for Bushnell's concerns, but also the years long issues in Shelter Cove that the Resort Improvement District Board is dealing with and the letter would address.
• 19:32
  Speaker G: Do apologize to you, Michelle, and to Polk County Sheriff's Office or Consul if this seems like this is, we're just springing this on you. However, you know, we have, we do have the paperwork that documents that this has been an ongoing issue for at least a couple years, this particular issue. And so I don't know, I'm kind of on the fence about, you know, I would like to be able to sign a letter.
• 20:04
  Speaker B: Fellow board member Wes Bonheim expressed the importance of taking up Supervisor Michelle Bushnell's offer of working on further dialogue with the Sheriff's Department. Bonheim also expressed continued frustration at the situation with the Sheriff's Department in Shelter Cove and the need to send a letter out with some edits included.
• 20:23
  Speaker E: I do think that it is pertinent
• 20:25
  Speaker F: that we work with, you know, that
• 20:28
  Speaker E: we take the offer from the county supervisor and that we work with Ms. Bushnell and get this done and we meet with the sheriff about long term code enforcement. And so I think that, you know, we have been kind of put on the back burner and not prioritized in the way that I think we need to be. And so getting this letter out I think would be good. There are some changes. I think even the languages you read it that I wrote last night, I would like to make some edits to that.
• 20:58
  Speaker B: After some debate, it was decided by the Shelter Cove Resort Improvement Board that the best way forward is for General Manager Chris Christensen to draft and send a letter to the Humboldt Sheriff's Department, Humboldt County Board of Supervisors and the District Attorney directly. The motion was voted on and passed unanimously by the Shelter Cove Resort Improvement District Board. Many residents in Shelter Cove are concerned over ongoing safety issues, and we'll have to see how the sheriff and county government reacts to the letter from Shelter Cove General Manager Chris Christensen. But for now, the letter detailing Shelter Cove's issues with a lack of sheriff presence and enforcement is being finalized and likely will be sent in short order. Reporting for kmud, I'm April Lewis. President Donald Trump used a national address Thursday to allege widespread vulnerabilities in the nation's election system, including the theft of voter data by China and the registration of non citizens. But the documents he released provided no evidence that votes were manipulated or that any election outcome was changed. Lauren Schmidt spoke with Humboldt County Clerk, Recorder and Registrar of Voters Juan Pablo Cervantes about the claims.
• 22:21
  Speaker I: President Donald Trump claimed Thursday that China carried out what he called the largest theft of election data in history, acquiring 220 million US voter files during the 2020 election election cycle. But an Associated Press review found no evidence that China used the information to manipulate votes or change the outcome of the election. And much of the information contained in voter files is already public and is routinely used by campaigns and political parties.
• 22:54
  Speaker F: In one sentence, he talks about how easily accessible voter rolls are.
• 22:59
  Speaker I: That was Humboldt County Clerk, Recorder, Registrar of Voters Juan Pablo Cervantes.
• 23:04
  Speaker F: And they're fairly accessible research folks. Campaigns, they're able to access voter records. It's a it's in in the law that they're able to do so. It's why you get so much junk mail before an election.
• 23:16
  Speaker I: David Becker, the executive director of the center for Election Innovation and Research, called Donald Trump's announcement a dud, saying it offered nothing new and cast no doubt on the 2020 election. Donald Trump also highlighted a new Department of Homeland Security report that he says identified roughly 278,000 non citizens registered to vote in California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Nevada. However, the findings have not been independently verified.
• 23:49
  Speaker F: It'd be relatively easy for somebody to give me a list of a single undocumented person on my roles, and nobody's ever been able to do that. This is something that you can figure out empirically and that if you felt such a strong conviction that it was the case that you would do so, and yet nothing is materialized on that front.
• 24:08
  Speaker I: Trump also questioned why California certified its election results on July 10th, about a month after Election Day. State election officials say it's because ballots postmarked by Election Day can continue arriving for up to seven days afterward. And counties must verify signatures and, and accurately process millions of mail ballots before certification. California Secretary of State Shirley Weber said, quote, accuracy comes before speed. Close quote. And Cervantes agrees.
• 24:40
  Speaker F: The short and sweet part of that is that it is like that because that is how voters prefer to vote. If voters brought in, you know, if all of the vote by mail ballots were received a week before the election, I could certify that election the day after. If I had, you know, if I had the ability to chunk the work up like that, that would be the case. But it is the case that Californians like to vote on election day, election night, even. I receive as many ballots on election night as I do the entire almost month before the election. And that's because that is how Californians want to vote. It is not, you know, it doesn't benefit me to have an election process that lasts longer. Believe me, I'd, I'd like to have a day off over a three month period, but that's just the preference that voters have.
• 25:30
  Speaker I: Trump had previously suggested deploying federal agents, including ICE officers, to polling places and has proposed expanding the federal government's role in overseeing elections. However, under the US Constitution, the administration of elections is the responsibility of state
• 25:49
  Speaker F: and local governments and not just the Constitution. There's a statute in place that says that, you know, government agents, federal agents can't be, you know, a part of the election process at polling places.
• 26:01
  Speaker I: Earlier this month, Trump also removed members of the Federal Election Commission, drawing criticism from voting rights groups and raising fresh concerns ahead of November's midterms.
• 26:14
  Speaker F: I think it's my job to be concerned.
• 26:15
  Speaker I: One country largely absent from Thursday's address was Russia. One of the declassified intelligence documents released by the administration describes Russia as the foreign actor that most aggressively sought to penetrate U.S. election systems in 2020, primarily in an effort to undermine Joe Biden's campaign. Despite what many Democrats and voting rights advocates describe as an effort to undermine the midterm elections. And so doub, Cervantes said voters should remain confident in California's election system.
• 26:50
  Speaker F: My colleagues and I, we're not looking for blind faith. The system we're building is one that needs you to participate, that requires you as the voter, to show up not just to vote, but to work the election, to observe the election, to be a part of that process. Misinformation happens in a vacuum, and anything we can do to inoculate with you. Inoculate you with the truth or inoculate yourself with the truth. I think that's a step towards democracy. Democracy just doesn't end at the polling booth. And most importantly, the key part of this whole process that I don't hear folks talking about is that elections aren't run by some deep state entity. They're not run by, you know, purely government officials. Elections in California and in the United States are run by our community. You know, it's, it's people's grandmas and, you know, their cousins. It's, it's the person down the street. Elections in California and in the states are run, is run by voters. It's the people coming together and, and making this democracy happen.
• 27:56
  Speaker I: For kmud, I'm Lauren Schmidt.
• 28:00
  Speaker B: That's all for our news broadcast. Thanks for listening. Thanks for a rotation of broadcast engineers. Dennis Mar, Katie Phillips, Bianna Federico, Michael McCaskill, Larry Lashley, and Javier Rodriguez. Also thanks to our reporters for this broadcast, Daniel Mintz and Lauren Schmidt. KMUD news is now on streaming platforms, including Apple, Podcasts and Spotify. You can download our stories and newscasts for offline listening. You can also follow us on social media AMUD news, including Facebook and Instagram. Do you have issues important to you that deserve more attention? Attention? Are there stories we're missing or that you're curious about? You can give us a call at 707-923-2605 or send an email to newsema.org Redwood Community Radio Incorporated is funded by Press Forward, the national movement to strengthen communities by reinvigorating local news. Learn more at PressForward News. Redwood Community Radio acknowledges that its transmitter sites are located in the unceded territory, the Sikyon Wailaki. We, India, Wilco and Kato people. We honor ancestors past, present and emerging and acknowledge the ongoing cultural, spiritual, physical connection that these tribes have to the region. I'm April Lewis. Stay tuned.
• 29:09
  Speaker D: In.