Election brings out hypocrisy
Campaigns for local elections give voters the opportunity to compare an incumbents lofty statements with their previous performance in office.
Given the circumstances, Supervisor Roger Rodoni finds himself in a pickle. After years of living large on Palco’s dime while giving his cowboy best to trash critics of Maxxam’s community-destroying ways — including wasting $1.5 million in taxpayer money on a loser lawsuit — Rodoni is forced to voice concern about the timber co.’s prosperity in hopes of winning re-election.
“The prosperous and sustainable future of Pacific Lumber Co.’s timberlands, lumber mill, employees and town of Scotia is one of the most important economic and cultural assets of my district,” Rodoni said. “I will do everything in my power to support their vitality into the future.”
The only vitality he’s supported in his time on the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors is Maxxam’s. He’d be foolish to think we didn’t notice.
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The Humboldt Herald 
I didn’t notice.
What election doesn’t?
At least he is no longer just hoping for the best.
I asked this question before and I’d really like to know. What has Rodoni’s appeal been to his district voters for the many years he’s been a Sup? One answer I heard was he supports a low level of marijuana law enforcement. That wasn’t very convincing to me, is there another reason a Rodini supporter out there in blogland can offer?
He’s not one of “them”.
Hey, Roger has good points! He believes in less government (it makes his job easier).
if roger really believes in “less government” he sure is making a big exception for the recent violent code enforcement raids around the county. haven’t heard squat from him about the use of the code enforcement unit as a trojan horse to allow the durg task force to search properties without a warrant. maybe we’ll hear different at the April 4th CLMP forum at the vets hall in Garberville (2:00pm, by the way). but i’m betting that what we’ll hear from roger is some of his trademark folksy doublespeak.
roger apparently believes in a low level of marijuana enforcement for his circle of good-old-boy cronies, but plenty of unconstitutional police state tactics for the rest of his constituents.
what roger offers is a “folksy” image, with his cowboy hat and his maxxam-subsidized hobby ranch, an image that evokes a certain nostalgia for a bygone era, and appeals to quite a few folks in the district, for both good and bad reasons.
Puttin’ the Country back into the County, that’s Rodge. Personally, I prefer Estelle Fennell. That’s an endorsement.
Roger hearkens back to the good old days when a handful of good old families and their aw-shucks retainers thought everything through for us, and the train ran on time. That Humboldt-wide culture has its last stronghold south of the Bay in Fortuna, Rio Dell and outposts of Ferndale, the employment base of the last huge private employer in the county.
My favorite illustration of this was when Fortuna’s City Manager announced the final closing of PL’s Fortuna mill by saying “not a single job will be lost” to Fortuna, since some workers would still commute to Scotia. It takes a special public servant to think 300 hundred lost jobs is no loss at all, but that’s Roger’s base, where President Campbell presided over PL’s destruction, then got elected mayor by a grateful populace still getting put out of work. Nice work if you can get it. Hard to believe they can keep thinking that way without paychecks.
link, 206, or perhaps your favorite illustration comes from a work of fiction.
The Fortuna establishment named PALCO Business of the Year not long after the company announced bankruptcy. Meanwhile the people of PALCO have clearly moved from Faith to Hope and are headed for Charity.
thats not exactly the “illustration” 206 paints though is it turtle?
I just discovered the strangest thing.
I can read these messages, and yet, I don’t actually have to write a comment of my own!
Hey, idiots, it wasn’t Rodoni wasting Humboldt County taxpayer monies, it was you guys!
Ethically challenged as usual, Heraldo, which makes your advice, your thoughts, your actions, just a bunch of hooey on the ground the rest of us just have to step around.
You got me Steve. I’ve been blowing your taxpayer dollars on a Big Mac Value Meal every day at 12:30 pm. Do I feel guilty? No way. It’s a value meal.
Steve, what are you smoking?
The folks in Fortuna like Roger, as they like Bush. Apparently you do NOT have to do good to be well liked by this bunch.
Clif and Estelle need to give the voters a reason to leave Roger behind.
Heraldo—Rodoni raises cattle-for over 34yrs he has leased grazing rights from PALCO-long before he became a sup.The cows grazing in the meadows and pasture lands in turn helps keep the grass from becoming a fire hazard during the summer months.This is a mutual benefit to both parties.Please tell us what R.R. has voted on that would be considered a conflick of interest.
my I suggest that you pick up the phone and give Roger a call,If he not there leave a message,he will call you back.This way you can get”the rest of the story”.
Roger will call you back which is a whole lot more then you can say for Jill Geist.
NO ONE is less responsive to their constituents then Jill has been.
As for favors, can you imagine the conflict of interest that will arise if Plumley was to get elected. Half of his clients have business before the city.
What about Lovelace then – is he going to give up Healthy Humboldt? He certainly would come to the BOS with a bias.
Re Plumley – “half of his clients have business before the city” – did you mean County? City wouldn’t count at the BOS.
Bias? You mean education? experience? Lovelace’s “bias” sounds great to me.
10:14, it’s not that she doesn’t call people back. Maybe she just doesn’t call back the crazy people.
An informed opinion does not equal bias. Conflicts of interest relate to economic, not philosophical conflicts. DUH! If politicians couldn’t vote on anything other than what they had no opinion on, things would be even more screwed up than they are. Advocating for a healthy environment should be a no-brainer.
Tip of the hat to thorn , anon 2:06, and Gene for insight into the source of Rodoni’s popularity.
Interestingly to me, his popularity seems to come from his personality, status and vocation, not from any policies he promotes. If that’s so, it’s difficult to imagine that he can be defeated by opponents whose candadicy is based on particular policies.
It would seem that if an opponents’s policy appears to be popular, Rodoni can easily adopt it as his own. Perhaps the marijuana enforcement issue is an example of that?
11:12 am – You probably have “yours too” if you think his “experience” and “bias” is wonderful. Lovelace wants – Lots of small “cat size lots for all”. Don’t develop or think about living on any large lot or a few acres. He has his and doesn’t want anyone else to have theirs.
I meant his “political agenda” – and that is a bias. What do you think he would vote for if elected?? Would it be different that what he has been speaking on for a couple of years representing Healthy Humboldt? That is an “agenda”. Sometimes people with agendas run for the BOS or city councils to influence them – that is also a bias or “agenda” and they want to skew the vote if they can. In his case I don’t know if that would fly as BonBon controls and he would soon find out her death stare could stop him. You have to realize where the power is on the BOS and it wouldn’t be him. If he didn’t vote with the power then he would probably be “kicked to the curb” and might be the only no or yes vote for something. Geist has been “kicked” a couple of times as the Chair and probably found out that even the Chair doesn’t rule.
It is true Geist doesn’t call people back. I do have some rational friends that she hasn’t called back.
If only there were other communities that had just let the developers and the “free market” determine their growth, that we could then look to for an example of what happens when the people, through their government, do NOT try dictate what is and is not acceptable growth, but rather leave those outcomes to the speculators and developers.
LMAO 7:14! Where oh WHERE could we find such an example? :)
This is in today’s ER:
Dear Editor,
I am shocked and disappointed that Clif Clendenen would tarnish his good name by accepting a campaign contribution of $10,000 from an organization as morally disgraced as the Blue Lake Rancheria “Tribe,” even as the Pacific Legal Foundation prepares to file documents headed for the Supreme Court, consequent to the shoddy business practices and heartless greed of the BLRT’s white leadership.
This organization is not a tribe except as a legal fiction, whereby whites were adopted, as adults, for political and financial considerations; while real Indians, whose ancestry is of this land are denied tribal membership. Eight of 10 top management positions are held by these white adoptees who have invaded the Indian casino movement for their own gain, and now completely rule.
While the BLRT brags of its social contributions, it is a fact that those contributions account for less than 20 percent of over $5 million in federal and state tax-funded grants. Where is the rest of that money?
It is also a fact that at least several of the tribe’s list of claimed contributions are out-and-out falsehoods.
Clendenen should return the money ASAP, perhaps with a recommendation that it be spent to better the lives of needy elders and children — including real Indians — currently being irreparably damaged by the greedy and dishonest white leadership of the Blue Lake Rancheria “Tribe.”
Nancy Woodward
Blue Lake