Just before 10:00 on Wednesday night, the Ukiah City Council voted by a bare majority to table a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. The Council received over thirty letters on both sides of the question. Many supporters of the ceasefire resolution stated that they are Jewish, before citing their dismay over the Israeli bombing Gaza. But opponents advised the local governing body not to weigh in on international issues by passing a non-binding resolution. One questioned why the council was delving into foreign affairs when people are hungry and homeless in Ukiah.

Proponents of a post-dam diversion have decided what kind of structure they’ll ask for when PG&E submits its license surrender application for the Potter Valley Project. A number of questions have yet to be answered, especially about sediment management and how much water will continue to flow from the Eel into the Russian River. But after months of committee meetings and analyses across a wide spectrum of interest groups, a new joint powers authority decided unanimously on March 19 to pursue a pump station that would divert water from the Eel River into the Russian River during high flows.

At a meeting hosted by the Grass Roots Institute on March 14th, Mendocino County Planning and Building Services Director, Julia Krog and Fort Bragg, Special Projects Manager, Sarah McCormick provided updates on the municipality's Local Coastal Planning for Sea Level Rise. Point Arena, which received its funding before the county and Fort Bragg, announced their findings in September of last year.

The numbers of voters affected by the ballot mishaps in the recent election are coming into focus, with 880 ballots returned from the Antoni Lane misprint and 177 who received ballots for the wrong district.

The California Coastal Commission voted unanimously to ask for more information about a $31.4 million federal loan.

The Board of Supervisors wants to raise the transient occupancy tax on short term rentals by 2% to bring caregivers’ wages up to $20 an hour. They also agreed to research how to pay all county workers a livable wage, which, according to the MIT living wage calculator, is $23 an hour for a single adult living in Mendocino County.

The outcome of tight races is still uncertain as the ballot count continues.

The California Coastal Commission is swinging hard on a federal declaration that the Mendocino Railway’s plans to rebuild a collapsed tunnel and rehabilitate the line between Willits and Fort Bragg are exempt from environmental review. At a hearing on Thursday, March 14, the Commission will discuss a letter it plans to convey to the US Department of Transportation, objecting strongly to a process it calls “highly unusual (and) not provided for under the regulations” that govern the management of coastal zones.

The city of Ukiah is poised to join others in calling for a cease-fire in Gaza. At its regular March 6 meeting, the council voted 3-1 with Mayor Josefina Duenas abstaining and Council Member Doug Crane opposing a motion to bring the resolution forward at a future meeting. Crane said he was not necessarily opposed to agendizing the resolution, but he wanted to first have a discussion about the council’s policy of voting on things that do not come directly under the local body’s purview.

In what one Ukiah Valley water leader calls “the next big era of major water decisions,” the City of Ukiah has joined up with Redwood Valley and the Millview water district to form a new water authority. The aim is to qualify for state infrastructure grants to create a more reliable water supply for small communities. The new authority has around 8500 to 9000 water users, with about half of them in the city of Ukiah. That’s pretty small by state standards, but First District Supervisor Glenn McGourty, who is retiring this year, thinks the water authority will help smaller districts comply with ever-increasing state requirements.