August 19, 2021 — The consent calendar and CEO report from this week’s Board of Supervisors meeting were full of big news.
Earlier this month, the Board drew up an allocation plan on how to spend the one-time $22 million PG&E settlement fund for the 2017 wildfires, which started in Potter Valley and devastated neighboring Redwood Valley. Much of the money went to items the supervisors thought would ease the burden of the next disaster, but many Redwood Valley community members felt that they had been overlooked.
After an outcry, the Board agreed to allocate a quarter million dollars from the fund to the grange in Redwood Valley. They also resolved to ask the FIre District Association for advice on how best to spend another one million dollars from the same fund, leaving about $2.7 million for the next emergency.
Supervisor Glenn McGourty pulled the PG&E allocation item from the consent calendar to make an eleventh hour pitch for funding the grange, whose members have long yearned for a commercial kitchen and major repairs. About two dozen letters pleaded for consideration, reminding the board that the grange became a focal point of the community during the fires. A member of the Municipal Advisory Council called in to say that just over 16% of the money had been doled out to Redwood Valley, and to ask that the board redo the entire process.
McGourty demurred on the general, but acquiesced in the particular.
The board agreed unanimously with his suggestion to fund the grange but not revisit the allocation process, and also agreed to allocate half a million dollars to solarizing the libraries, rather than providing them with generators as was originally requested, so they could serve as gathering places during evacuations or power outages.
They also provided $1.5 million to carbon reduction plans, with a view toward using funds from ARPA, or the American Relief Plan Act, to fund other requests on the list of priorities for the PG&E money.
The Redwood Valley Calpella Fire District did receive funding for two vehicles, but the water district did not receive the money it requested for fire hydrants. County analysts told the board that that project could be paid for by ARPA, which, according to the CEO report, became law on March 11. The money can be used by local governments to shore up the economic and public health impacts of the pandemic. Mendocino County has been approved for close to $17 million of that money, half of which was awarded earlier this month. $4.6 million of that is eligible for water and infrastructure projects.
Another consent calendar item about land use and building code authority drew angry letters from neighbors of the Ukiah Gun Club, in the eastern hills. These included a letter and a call from a legal firm, which are often steps toward establishing standing for a lawsuit. The Gun Club is on city-owned property in the unincorporated part of the county, which places it in a confusing jurisdictional situation. While a shooting range is an allowable use on rangeland, neighbors believe the gun club poses fire and other environmental risks. The board agreed to enter a joint powers agreement with the city to share land use authority over the property, which the Gun Club is leasing until the end of 2044.
County Counsel Christian Curtis attempted to shed some light on the circumstance, saying that “when the city owns property in the county’s jurisdiction, the city is immune from the land use and the building laws on that property, so the county is unable to apply its laws to that location.” With conflicting opinions from the Attorney General on the topic, Curtis concluded, “that’s left a significant amount of confusion for some time as to exactly what laws the county can apply to the Gun Club while it’s operating on the city property.”
The Board voted to enter a Joint Powers Agreement with the city of Ukiah to share land use authority over the property, which the Gun Club is leasing until the end of 2044.
And the drought task force is churning through the bureaucracy that will be required to carry out the plan to truck water from Ukiah to the coast. McGourty told Supervisor Ted Williams that he thinks 65,000 gallons a day could be forthcoming.
The board also appointed five of the six applicants to the redistricting committee to follow up on the census by redrawing the borders of the supervisorial districts, if warranted by changes in population. Initial numbers indicate that the county population has grown by about 4,000, with slight increases in Ukiah, Willits, and Point Arena.