Ulansey tapped for Eureka Planning Commission
UPDATE: Putting Ulansey on the Planning Commission required a 4/5 vote because he lives outside the city limits. The motion failed 3-2.
###
Eureka Mayor Virginia Bass has appointed Humboldt CPR chairman Lee Ulansey to the Eureka Planning Commission.
HumCPR spends a lot of money to champion a “rural lifestyle” that promotes development on timber and ag lands. People should have an “absolute choice over where and how” they live, Ulansey wrote in the last CPR newsletter.
In that case, this planning thing should be a breeze.
Despite these free-wheelin’ ideals, Ulansey once called for a “strict code of conduct” for county staff that refused to tout his line. But conflating unrelated issues to exploit legitimate public outcry to boost his political clout is a-ok.
One wonders what makes a “rural lifestyle” podium-pounder from Kneeland suitable for the Planning Commission in Eureka — the city where all hill folk will be rounded up and forced to live like rats in cages following the General Plan Update, according to his supporters.
Ulansey owns a few properties in the rat’s-nest-by-the-bay, maybe that’s a sufficient qualification.
The appointment, along with several others to various commissions including the Housing Authority, Parks & Rec., and the Redevelopment Advisor Board, will happen as a matter of routine at Tuesday night’s meeting unless any Councilperson or meeting attendee pulls it for discussion.
And if the Planning Commission doesn’t work out, no worries. Mr. Strict Code of Conduct is now filling a seat on the Humboldt County Grand Jury.
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Somebody wants to run for supervisor? Lookout Mark.
It is absurdly unlikely that Ulansey would consider running for Supervisor. He has regularly said that his goal is to do his part to support fair land planning alternatives that allow families to live on the land and then to get back to his own land. Though to be fair if he did decide to run for office his organization with it’s thousands and thousands of supporters would provide a formidable base. He has said he might run for Freshwater School Board again.
HumCPR is the largest membership organization in Humboldt County because of the effective leadership of Lee. What a good person to help make rational land use decisions.
Uh-oh.
You just don’t see words like: “Conflating” anymore.
farewell resource lands, hello developer nation.
Ulansey can be a little rough around the edges and he is certainly blunt with his opinions but he is truly one of the few really honest people around. Ask him his opinion and he will tell you the truth. Even if you disagree with his positions we could use more such upfront and honest appointees.
“It is absurdly unlikely that Ulansey would consider running for Supervisor.”
It is well known that he strongly considered it in the last round, bowing out for Plumley.
It’s encouraging to see community members with a range of political views getting involved.
Perhaps he considered it last time because he believed someone had to and then stepped down when there was another option. Anyway we could do a lot worse than an outspoken guy who is also fair and honest in any position.
Great. Lee is a good addition to Eureka planning. Don’t you agree that balance is important to the process.
Lee’s a good choice to balance things out unless he keeps up this bullshit about everyone being forced to live in the dense urban slums. So tired of listening to those rediculous scare tactics-
Ideologues do not add balance to anything.
Who on the planning commission is Lee “balancing” out?
Maybe he’ll learn something about what planning actually involves. Not that the City of Eureka is the best example, but the guy could use a little understanding about the public servants he seems to despise so much.
Scary…
Lee is a good and honest man contributing to his community. Those who make snarky comments about him don’t tend to do a fraction of the work he does.
Honest or no, this is a great example of how business runs the city instead of the citizens.
Lee Ulansey is a good, decent and honest man. Any board he is on will benefit from his input.
8:10 am,
“To disallow or limit something on one end of the spectrum of anything creates and forces a shift over to the other end of the spectrum of that anything, sts.”
Further, the words of Ann Lindsay trying to sell her position imputates her as one using language through sales pitches of sorts to force as much as possible connected to population densities into urban settings. Her postulations on the General Plan Update proves this as well since she gave reasons why. Remember too, if you do not already know, she has gone to local services district meetings to voice her position, as well as, Kirk Girard.
Additionally, in-filling has always occured, so plenty of the arguments about in-filling are not necessarily new, just regurgitated. Instead, the General Plan Update regarding densities should be referenced and explained as restrictions on out-filling, imo.
I do agree that there exists problems in rural areas, but also there exists problems in urban areas. I am one who believes that where there are more people, there exists more problems. This has really nothing to do with land per se, but more to do with people and their conducts.
Jeffrey Lytle
McKinleyville – 5th District
He is honestly driven by an extreme ideology.
I’m not sure Lee even has an ideology beyond “Don’t Tread on Me.” That’s where rednecks and hippies unite, and it ain’t complicated. This isn’t the first time either, either here or anciently back East, when that value united urban and rural rebels.
I’m no gummint hater, or I wasn’t before I experienced ours. I don’t want to be one. But political movements that take their policies from drumming hates and fears into slender majorities like Rove and Atwater did, drive me uncomfortably deeper into gummint resenting even though I know our gummint’s too poor, negligent and unsupervised to actually implement the invidious policies, except randomly and cruelly. I doubt Lee feels very different about these things. I admire him for sticking to his guns, and keeping his (metaphorical!) powder dry.
This guy doesn’t live in Eureka. Wassup?
It isn’t about hippies and rednecks. Its about real estate developers and pot growers.
People should have an “absolute choice over where and how” they live, Ulansey wrote in the last CPR newsletter.
Great, just what Eureka needs!
Since 75% cannot afford to purchase a home here I look forward to Mr. Ulansey’s strong advocacy supporting affordable housing construction so that Eureka families have that choice and will cease their Exodus.
Or, will that conflict with Ulansey’s rental empire and Eureka’s booming property management industry?
To this day, the developer community decides where and how people will live… Hence the disparity in housing affordability, the inadequate infrastructure, ($40 million needed NOW for sewer updates),emergency services, deadly traffic, unsafe streets, collapsing public budgets, declining population, closing schools, increasing blight, poverty, crime, drug abuse and homelessness.
It was a profitable run while it lasted; building all those large remote homes, big cars, and the usurious loans that kept it all going right up until the bailouts.
It’s not in Ulansey’s perceived interest, or history, to change this one bit. Once he earns his keep, developer money will make him a formidable candidate for city council, as it ALWAYS has.
He merely needs to chose the ward to move into.
If you can retain the development community’s largess, this is the logical stepping stone to supervisor… witness the current Jackson and Leonard delusions, vessels of a failed status-quo.
An excellent choice.
Wheel dude lay off the bong,
Humboldt county’s lack of infastructure is flat out due to financial mismanagement and lack of prioritization by the planners. For years Girard has been recieving grant funding based on bogus housing element, where did this money go? not to infastructure. affordable housing is becoming impossible to build, tough to provide homes for under $200k when you looking at huge hook up fees, sewer upgrades, poorly planned traffic patterns that require expensive mitigation. Yet Girard has spent millions upon millions on increased staff time, a $10million plus Gen. Plan, failed redevelopment policy and many many other fiascos under Bonnie’s and Jimmy’s watch.
take it from those who do things, because you clearly don’t – bike paths and infill development ain’t going to fix the problem, good leaders will. Give this guy a chance you might be surprised.
Ulansey has created a diverse coalition of thousands of people with divergent ideas and perspectives from all across the county. He has hippies and rednecks actually talking together and not trying to kill each other. They are even agreeing on major issues. Seems like the ability to build that kind of consensus is exactly what our community needs.
SECTION 311. ESTABLISHMENT OF BOARDS, COMMISSIONS AND COMMITTEES.
The Council may create advisory or appellate boards, commissions and committees, prescribe their duties and fix their compensation, if any. The members thereof shall be appointed by the Mayor with the approval of the Council, subject to the following requirements:
(a) On or before December 31 of each year, the City Council shall cause to have prepared an appointments list of all regular and ongoing boards, commissions and committees the members of which are appointed as herein provided. The appointees’ list shall contain the following information:
(1) A list of all appointive terms which will expire during the next calendar year, with the name of the incumbent appointee, the date of appointment, the date the term expires, and the necessary qualifications for the position.
(2) A list of all boards, commissions and committees whose members serve at the pleasure of the Mayor and City Council, and the necessary qualifications for each position.
(b) The appointments list shall be made available to members of the public for a reasonable fee which shall not exceed actual cost.
(c) Whenever an unscheduled vacancy occurs in any board, commission or committee for which the Mayor and City Council have the appointing power, whether due to resignation, death, termination or other causes, a special vacancy notice shall be posted in the office of the City Clerk, and in other places as directed by the Mayor and City Council, within twenty (20) days after the vacancy occurs. Final appointment to the board, commission or committee shall not be made for at least ten (10) working days after the posting of the notice in the City Clerk’s office. Notwithstanding the provisions of this subsection (c), the Mayor and City Council may, if they find that an emergency exists, fill the unscheduled vacancy immediately. Persons appointed to fill such a vacancy shall only serve on an acting basis until the final appointment is made pursuant to this subsection (c).
The chairman of each board, commission and committee shall have the power to administer oaths and affirmations relative to any business brought before or under consideration by the respective board, commission or committee of which he is the chairman.
Thanks for posting that, Bill. Do you have a link?
It’s going to be an interesting meeting.
http://www.amlegal.com/nxt/gateway.dll/California/eureka/charterofthecityofeureka/articleiiicitycouncil?f=templates$fn=altmain-nf.htm$3.0#JD_311
http://urlet.com/remainder.tells
Bad links?
Not working on this end either.
Wow they both work for me I just tried them again.
You can go to city website
http://www.ci.eureka.ca.gov/default.asp
then click on municipal code to get there.
have a peaceful day,
Bill
§ 33.002 QUALIFICATIONS.
Membership on such bodies shall be representative of the entire community insofar as possible, and members on such boards and commissions shall be willing to serve as a civic responsibility and without compensation. No member of any board or commission shall hold any paid office or employment in the city government, unless, by ordinance or resolution, such membership is specifically authorized or required. Appointments of qualified non-city residents shall require a four-fifths vote of the Council for confirmation. In order to be eligible for appointment to any board or commission, a person shall be a qualified registered elector of the City of Eureka, the Humboldt Community Services District, the Humboldt County Service Area No. 3, or be the owner of a business located within the city limits. However, in no event shall less than a majority of any board or commission be made up of qualified registered electors of the city, the County Community Services District or the County Services Area No. 3.
(’63 Code, § 2-1.102) (Ord. 2876, passed 7-18-61; Am. Ord. 374-C.S., passed 10-19-82; Am. Ord. 552-C.S., passed 2-4-93; Am. Ord. 553-C.S., passed 3-4-93; Am. Ord. 644-C.S., passed 5-15-01)
§ 33.005 APPOINTMENTS: TERMS.
(A) The members of each such board or commission shall be appointed by the Mayor with the approval of the Council. The members thereof shall serve for a term of four years and until their respective successors are appointed and qualified.
(B) The members first appointed to such boards and commissions shall so classify themselves by lot that each succeeding January 1 the term of one of the members shall expire. If the total number of members of a board or commission to be appointed exceeds four, the classification by lot shall provide for the grouping of terms to such an extent as is necessary in order that the term of at leastone member shall expire on each succeeding January 1, and that the number of terms expiring in any year does not exceed by more than one the number expiring in any other year.
(’63 Code, § 2-1.105) (Ord. 2876, passed 7-18-61; Am. Ord. 644-C.S., passed 5-15-01)
§ 33.006 VACANCIES.
(A) If a member of a board, commission, or committee fails to file a financial disclosure form, if required by the city’s Conflict of Interest Code, in the manner and at the time required by law or violates § 33.013 of this subchapter, his office shall become vacant and so declared by the Council.
(B) Any vacancies in any board or commission, from whatever cause arising, shall be filled by appointment by the Mayor with the approval of the Council. When a vacancy occurs, any appointment to fill such vacancy shall be for the unexpired term.
(C) If a member of a board or commission absents himself from three consecutive regular meetings of such board or commission, unless by permission of such board or commission expressed in its official minutes, or ceases to be a qualified elector of the city, his office shall become vacant and shall be so declared by the Council.
(D) Any member of a board, commission, or committee may be removed with or without cause by a majority vote of the City Council.
(E) Applications for all scheduled and unscheduled appointments shall be solicited by press release.
(F) The Council may each year, at the time of board and commission appointments, create a sub-committee of two Council members to review applications and make a recommendation for the appointment to that board.
(’63 Code, § 2-1.106) (Ord. 2876, passed 7-18-61; Am. Ord. 366-C.S., passed 10-5-82; Am. Ord. 644-C.S., passed 5-15-01)
http://www.amlegal.com/nxt/gateway.dll/California/eureka/titleiiiadministration/chapter33otherdepartmentsboardsandcommis?f=templates$fn=altmain-nf.htm$3.0#JD_33.001
http://urlet.com/interestingly.plans
Appointments of qualified non-city residents shall require a four-fifths vote of the Council for confirmation.
there ya go.
have a peaceful day,
Bill
I think Larry and Mike are the ones who interviewed candidates and submitted all names for appointees this year.
There ya go.
Have a peaceful day yourself. Don’t think this perceived wedge issue will go anywhere. Assume you will be there to add your 2 cents?
I will try to be there to ask the Mayor to provide emergency shelter to our homeless poor this winter.
Perhaps my representative on the city council will put it on the agenda for the next meeting.
have a peaceful day,
Bill
He is not a member of this community, period. So if he gets on the Eureka Planning commission what does that mean? Someone from Kneeland will be deciding city planning issues. I just don’t get this one. Does it mean that someone from Willow Creek, or Fortuna, can do the same? I wonder if one of these communities would extend the open hand to a Eurekan. So he owns some property here in town, and so do many people around the state. Can they be appointed by the Mayor as well? There is something very fishy here.
Time To Get Real wrote, He is not a member of this community, period..
So, I’m curious how you felt about past Mayor of Eureka, Pete Levallee, trying to appoint that guy that had the Holistic Health Center outside Garberville to the Planning Commission? I forget the guy’s name.
Someone who lives in Kneeland and owns homes in Eureka isn’t a member of this community? Nice try but you’ll have to do better than that, period.
Motion to appoint Ulansey to Planning Commission failed.
you gotta love Mike Jones’ rationale–Kneeland is part of Eureka because the Kneeland kids rode the bus to Eureka High when he was a kid.
You also gotta love Jones comment that Ulansey and Regan were picked due to a “gut decision.” There’s plenty of reason to distrust that gut.
even better is the mayor’s rationale that Ulansey brings people together from opposite sides of the spectrum, like uh environmentalists and the timber industry!
Virginia, could you be referring to Bill Barnum and Peter Childs? Steve Horner and Bonnie Blackberry? (I’d oinclude Estelle except that now we know she isn’t an environmentalist)
Hilarious!! Yet no one could bear to mention HumCPR by name…
Virginia really struggled when she wanted to say “rednecks and hippies” but clearly didn’t want to reveal that she reads the Humboldt Herald.
Perhaps that spectrum the Mayor was referencing was the one which includes the stoned on one hand and the paranoid on the other.
All the best people read the Humboldt Herald.
We are all in good company, even if you don’t agree with me.
Yeah, just what we need. More cows crapping in streams, McMansions in the hills, and less trees.
Some people think more with and/or about their gut than they do with their brains…
Libertarian philosophy sounds good, until you consider the whole greed and human ignorance thing…
It won’t be HumCPR that unites the hippies and rednecks. Hopefully something will before it’s too late.
Just a few years ago they voted down a Eureka resident with a masters degree in urban planning and years of professional city-government experience working in the Bay Area because they thought she might have an “agenda”.
The Mayor seems to like CPR’s agenda… No messy academics or any of that plannin stuff…”Lettin people do as they like with their G.D. land never caused any problems before in California…until those damn scientists and all their figur’n and calculat’n…”
Developers saturated their land in Eureka with profitable, low-wage big-box stores, while equally saturating the area with profitable big homes, miles from downtown, unaffordable to any of these thousand new workers. They’re ready to continue with thousands more unaffordable units in Cutten, as if this profitable growth model hasn’t already failed everywhere else. No matter where Eureka’s working families move to, they’ll continue paying for the bailout of this unbridled, greedy industry.
Developers should be thanking county staff, they predicated the General Plan on the completion of Eureka’s Martin Slough Interceptor, envisioned 30 years ago, soon estimated to cost $40 million! (Not the developer’s problem).
Eureka will begin the discussion on the new residential water/sewer rates this September 17th.
Larry has done a huge disservice to an honest guy and to the community. His and Atkins shenanagins have now called into question all other board and comission members who live outside the city. They have established that none of them have been legally voted in and must now be confirmed or not. All past actions by those boards with unlawfull members must be retracted and started over. There are now dozens of hard working folks who have just had all their hard work undone. All this from a guy who doesn’t even really live in the city anyway. Thanks Larry.
That darned Larry. Supporting government by the people. The nerve.
BTW 7:24 – You LIE!
Oh those shenanigans – like conforming to the city charter. Wow.
My opinion is that EVERY city employee should be required to be a resident of the city.
I can think of a couple of city employees right now who dont live here. The city pays their salaries, they should live here.
have a peaceful day,
Bill
?!?
Bill, as I remember it they can’t require employees to live inside the jurisdiction unless they pay them “on-call”. Commissioners and committee members are not paid employees.
7:24 is “mistaken” turtle. I can’t tell if it’s intentional or not, but consider the source (anonymous).
Hopefully, Frank and Mike will find some actual Eureka citizens to serve on these commissions. Non-residents have valid enough perspectives, but it’s simply a fact they are also “outside” interests.
There was a telling comment in today’s T-S by local Reaganite Peter Hannaford, not about the appointment issue but about how Eureka voters select councilmembers. Predictably pro-status-quo, Hannaford says “campaigns in Eureka are not costly affairs”. I beg to differ. How is the ward-election petition drive doing? Anyone know?
There should be an exemption I can file to not have to pay for any of this garbage. City “workers” need to get real jobs and feed themselves in the free market, not one of extracted wealth under threat of violence or jail.
Why should I be forced to pay for what is wrong and immoral?
Larry only wants to shut down Arkley and every
other kind of business that doesn’t fit his mold.
He is owned and controlled by Bonnie and Pierson
Company and will do anything to slow down the
process until he gets his way. He never changes.
You can predict with 100% accuracy, his line of
BS and exactly how he will vote on every issue.
And that’s bad because?
Predictable, thy name is Mike Jones.
Greg,
I researched this issue two years ago and found there are multiple cities around the United States that require residency for municipal employees.
These ordinances, while controversial to be sure, have always prevailed in court when challenged on constitutional grounds.
Though I think that all municipal employees should live where they get paid, I would be happy in Eureka if only the city manager and the heads of departments were required to.
It shows that the person is truly invested in our community.
have a peaceful day,
Bill
Sigh
Hey, just a guess here, but could Virginia’s advocacy of Lee Ulansey as her Planning Commissioner have anything to do with her running for Bonnie’s supervisorial seat?
Naw… why would she want to ingratiate herself with his minions? She doesn’t want their votes… ya think?
And of course her open support of HumCPR. Nice way to preload your run for Supe.
Getting cozy with the HumCPR crowd will get you lots of big campaign money for sure.
Maybe. But history shows it won’t necessarily get you elected.
It doesn’t hurt.
Seems HumCPR’s new site no longer lists supporters.
Average Eurekan – maybe Virginia supported Ulansey because he was the best person for the position.
I’m not so sure Virginia could determine that on her own.
NEC’s site doesn’t even list their Board of Directors.
Losing a local election with the developer community’s largess is a huge exception to the rule.
Travel the world’s unique and beautiful places and you typically witness the same fact.
Follow the money.
Mike and Frank made the recommendations to the mayor. Larry used to be on the committee with Mike but I guess that threatened to bring actual balance to the process. The left side of the dias (facing it) can’t have such a thing!
Meanwhile it’s the dumbest thing I’ve heard of recently (and that has a LOT of competition!) to appoint someone from Kneeland to decide on Eureka’s planning issues. I have plenty of problems with Lee’s philosophy but that isn’t the real issue. The issue is who has the real interest in the well being of the City? What happened to the incumbents who both expressed a desire to continue on the Commission? Who needs ‘em? We got us a real outback Kneelander to decide how we live. Nice work, Nancy…er…I mean Virginia.
One thing I’ve learned in my 2 and a half years here is that the position of Eureka Mayor is more than just a ceremonial position. Consider this flap and also the appointment of a replacement councilperson.
Elections have consequences, even for “ceremonial” positions.
have a peaceful day,
Bill
Anon 7:24 You need a laxative. Larry and Linda have done the right thing. This was a backroom deal to give the developers and large land holders an upper hand on the planning commission. They thought they would slip this one through before anyone noticed. His name may be revisited again if he moves to Eureka from his estate in Kneeland.
Estate?
Only in Humboldt would his place be considered an estate.
I am sure the pressure is on Ulansey is huge to move his residence to Eureka, likely for more than just the Planning seat. Ulansey vs Glass would be an impressive race? Maybe Ulansey and Glass can share an apartment? Larry gets M,W,F, Lee gets T,TH,S and on Sunday they can share and play gin. Larry might well be sorry for his vote in the long run. He loses a non resident moderate on Planning where he could keep his eye on him and gains a challenger who has the potiental to beat him for a Council seat where it really counts.
Moderate my ass. Arkley pawn is more like it.
Like him or not. Ulansey is many things but Arkley pawn is not one of them. To suggest otherwise means you have never had a five minute conversation with him. Arkley does not like his pawns feisty and independent.
Lee owns three properties in Eureka, one in Kneeland, one in Trinidad, and one in Fortuna and he’s upset at the prospect of lowering the threshold for resource land development. His Hum. CPR is financially backed by other developers. That may not make him Arkley.s pawn, but they may scratch each others back.
Arkley does not like his pawns feisty and independent.
Rob likes them feisty allright and …..Dependent. Lee fits right in.
Ulansey and Arkley have a common enemy — Kirk Girard. They both go ga-ga over him.
What do you think about Girard, H?
Ulansey vs. Glass? Ha ha ha! In the words of a former clueless President, “Bring it on!”
Fact is, Ulansey has little to no constituency in Eureka. In contrast, before running for council, Larry Glass worked every weekday in his shop in Old Town, for more than 30 years. He ACTUALLY knows most of his electorate, on a first hand basis. He has the trust of the voting Eureka public, which is why he won three years ago by the single largest margin of any candidate running. People who know Larry know that he is incorruptible. Whereas Mr. Ulansey has a well-deserved reputation as a stooge, witting or unwitting, for a developer-rights front group.
Go ahead, Lee: Make my day!
Thanks for standing up for democratic process Mr. Girard, we need people like you to maintain Humboldt County’s character as the place we want to live in.
Standing up for democratic process, that’s great to hear: So Girard is now in favor of a county-wide referendum on the General Plan Update? After all, that would be the “small-d democratic” approach. Leaving the decision to just 5 supervisors would be the “small-r republican” approach.
It’s interesting that the council did not reappoint the previous comissioners. Their excuse was new blood
was needed with new ideas. That along with gut feelings. (Jones is an ass.) Watch Leonard as he praises one of the previous comissioneers and then
votes against him. (Leonard is a troll.) They then
turned around and voted people who had been on
commissions for 20 years back in. Mayor Bass was
flustered when caught. (She’s a puppet and a liar
her nose should grow.) What hypocrisy.
Mayor Bass’s photo at Avalon with Cherie Arkley tells the real story 10:47
Move along people, nothing to see here!
Heraldo – this should interest you. Speaking of
commissions – Charlotte McDonald, Eureka Main St.
lives in Fortuna. Redevelopment law is different
than local civic ordinance. Look under California
Code Health & Safety Code Redevelopment Sections
33110 – 33115. 33ll0 in part reads: With the
approval of the legislative body, shall appoint
five persons, who are resident electors (voters)
of the community. Any learned people out there want
to check this out. I don’t think she legally can be on a commission.
Charlotte McDonald of Main St. lives in Fortuna, that figures. As businesses
in Eureka fail, Charlotee lunches and ignores the problems and needs of
the merchants. However, she did find time to spend an evening at Eureka’s
planning commission meeting, to go to bat for the rescue mission and
their illegal structure. By the way, last time I looked at Megan’s list
there were 10 registered sex offenders using the mission’s 2nd street address.
Thanks Charlotte, from all the residents and failing businesses in Eureka.
Eureka’s Planning Commission is pathetic. This inappropriate appointment seals the deal. Eureka ‘s future is bleak.