Nielsen to sue City of Eureka

Former Eureka Police Chief Garr Nielsen has filed a claim against the city of Eureka which will likely lead to a showdown in Federal Court.

Details at the Humboldt Sentinel.

Occupy Wall Street movement coming to HSU

Protestors acting in solidarity with their compatriots in New York will occupy the quad at Humboldt State University for 24 hours this weekend.

Participants are asked to bring tents, sleeping bags and musical instruments to the quad at 3:00 Saturday afternoon.

More information here.

There’s a lot of footage of cops behaving badly in New York, abusing non-violent activists and journalists.  This one is getting lots of attention.  NYPD Deputy Inspector Anthony “Tony” Bologna is such a bad ass that he pepper sprayed a small group of unarmed women already corralled behind temporary police orange fencing. NYPD says they are investigating the incident.

Original.

Balloon Track lawsuit tossed by Supreme Court

When the so-called Citizens for a Better Eureka lost their case in Humboldt County Superior Court challenging the Coastal Commission’s say-so over the blighted Balloon Track, they took it to the California 1st District Court of Appeals.  There, they lost again.

Now the California Supreme Court has denied a petition for review of the Appellate Court’s decision.

The lawsuit was a factual dud from the get-go, but was heartily supported by Rex Bohn, 1st District Candidate for Humboldt County Supervisor, who took to the podium during a press conference announcing the suit in February 2010.

Solar power systems on display

[Press Release] Plan It Green is happy to announce the 9th Annual Solar & Efficiency Tour will be held on Sunday, Oct. 2nd starting at 10:30 AM at the Aquatic Center rm. 203 on Waterfront Drive, Eureka (next to Adorni Center).

This year’s tour is proud to feature several innovative high-profile buildings including the Winzler and Kelly new offices (LEED Gold certified) and the Escarda Place new housing development which are affordable, efficient houses that utilize solar heating strategies such as southern glazing, solar hot water systems and PV systems.

For this year’s tour, which is free to public, will be energy efficient buildings, solar space heating, solar water heating and solar electric (photovoltaic) applications. Among the featured properties are the following:

• Arcata City Hall – photovoltaic system
• A “net-zero home” featuring energy efficient appliances, solar space heating & solar PV
• The Potwawot Health Clinic – solar PV system
• A “solar car” – converted electric vehicle that’s powered by the sun
• A converted Eureka bungalow with solar hot water & solar electric
• An Arcata office building with grid-tied solar with battery backup
• A grid-tied solar powered ranch in Bayside
• An off-grid solar home on Elk River Rd. in Eureka
• An energy efficient, affordable housing development in Arcata featuring solar space heating design, solar hot water and solar electric
• Two solar water heating systems applications – one for 4-person home solar hot water (Arcata) and another for hot water and radiant heating space heating (McKinleyville)

The tour is free to the general and begins at 10:30 at the Aquatic Center with a presentation on new energy upgrade programs offered by PG&E and CHF low-interest financing. Attendees will learn why efficiency and renewable energy pays off in more than just financial terms and how they can undertake a project of their own. Experts will be available all day at each facility to give guided tours and answer questions.

Membership Never Felt Dumber

[Guest Post]

It’s not Class Warfare. It’s Math.

Dean Christensen is Coast Central Credit Union’s million dollar man. Twice in 2011, his million dollar compensation package has been explained away in the North Coast Journal.

First, in the Journal’s February 17th issue, Heidi Walters explained how a report from the Orange County Register on CEO pay “missed the mark,” and “ran under the deceptively simple title ‘Credit unions lost money, execs made money.’” It was nothing but out-of-town journalists besmirching Humboldt’s finest… pay no attention.

Christensen’s salary made a second appearance in the Journal in September, when Walter‘s cover story “Giants of Nonprofit” put it in context by pointing out the “hundreds of thousands” in grants Coast Central makes to the community. Walter’s quoted Coast Central’s VP of Marketing, Dennis Hunter ($168,300 in 2009), who explained Christensen’s pay package ($1,001,700 in 2009) this way: “We kind of look at it as, we have $900 million in assets — we have to have someone qualified to run an organization like that.”

Well, Dennis Hunter makes a point! Let’s compare Coast Central with Provident Credit Union, another credit union about twice its size. Thanks to a law requiring credit unions to list the compensation of everyone making more than $100,000, and thanks to the wonderful non-profit-watch outfit GuideStar, such comparisons can be pretty easy.

Provident has 93,000 members to Coast Central’s 53,000. Its total assets and total liabilities are both about twice those of Coast Central’s and it has 290 employees to Coast Central’s 175. It pays 15 people more than $100,000 while Coast Central only has eight people getting more than $100,000. Provident’s headquarters is in Redwood City; Coast Central’s is in Eureka.

We’ll compare savings and checking account rates in a moment, but first let’s look at the CEO pay packages. Provident reported $711,000 in 2009 compensation to CEO Wayne Bunker. Coast Central? $1,001,000 to CEO Dean Christensen. Maybe it’s due to the high cost of living in Eureka compared to the Bay Area.

Hmmm. Onward to checking account rates. Provident pays 2.26% on up to $25,000 in its Super Reward Checking. Coast Central? Looks like they pay 0.10%. Provident pays its members 22 times as much.

Savings? Provident and Coast Central rates are about equal, but why would you put your savings in a term deposit paying 0.4% when you could have it earn 2.26% in checking?

What about mortgage rates? Provident’s at about 4%, Coast Central, 4.55%. Coast Central charges you more for a mortgage loan.

How do you feel about women in top management? Of Provident’s 15 employees paid more than $100,000 in 2009, seven were women. Of Coast Central’s eight, only one. (You could probably guess this: she’s in charge of Human Resources. But would you guess she makes only half of what Provident’s Vice President for Human Resources makes?)

It’s absolutely true that managing an institution with more than 100 employees requires competence and deserves reasonable compensation. But the idea of a non-profit is to contribute to the society that has granted it non-profit status, not just to be almost as competitive as the non-profit and for-profit outfits you supposedly replace.

Coast Central has grown under Christensen’s leadership. But here’s a nagging question: if you are not offering your members a deal anywhere near as good as larger credit unions, why should anyone be happy that you’re growing? If your CEO makes $300,000 more each year than the CEO of a credit union twice your size, yet you brag about giving away $20,000 here and $10,000 there, why should anyone be happy that you’re growing?

The answer, both times, is “you shouldn’t be happy.” Unless, of course, your last name is Christensen.

Don’t fear the choppers

[Press release]

Contractors for IP Networks’ Highway 36 broadband project are using helicopters as they work along the PG&E transmission lines in the area between Bridgeville and Ruth Lake. These line crews are aware that the presence of helicopters and ground crews in the vicinity of large marijuana grows may raise concerns, so they want the community to know that they are not interested in the grows and are just trying to do their job.

The IP Networks project will provide a second high-speed internet connection for our area by running 127 miles of fiber-optic cable along the PG&E easement between Highway 5 and Eureka. This will keep our area connected even if the existing line gets broken or interrupted as has happened many times in the past, most recently this past August. The project will also connect several un-served and under-served communities along the way including Wildwood, Mad River, Ruth and Bridgeville, delivering service to 527 rural households over a 218 square-mile area.

These helicopters and crews work for 3-Phase Line Construction, IP Networks’ primary contractor. As they work through the area, residents should expect to see helicopters pulling cables and dropping off line crews, along with trucks and ground crews accessing the PG&E easement. 3-Phase crews hope to complete their work in this area by October 2nd. Until then, their crews will be working from 7am to 7pm, Monday through Friday, and occasionally on Saturdays.

Eureka Police lose big in Martin Cotton case

Martin Cotton and daughter, Siehna.

A lawsuit brought against Eureka Police for the 2007 death of Martin Cotton II was unanimously decided by an Oakland jury today in favor Cotton’s family.

Verbena Lea attended the trial and told KMUD news that Cotton’s young daughter, Siehna, was awarded $1,250,000 for the pain and suffering inflicted on Cotton and $2,750,000 for wrongful death.

The jury also found that the conduct of Eureka Police Officers Justin Winkle, Gary Whitmer and Adam Laird “shocked the conscience” and thereby awarded Martin Cotton Sr. $500,000.

In addition the jury awarded punitive damages for which the officers will be personally liable.  Laird and Winkle were ordered to pay $30,000 each while Whitmer is on the hook for $15,000.

The family’s attorney Vicki Sarmiento said Cotton, 26, died from blunt force trauma to the head and would have survived with medical attention. Cotton died after being taken to the Humboldt County jail after an altercation with police and others at the Eureka Rescue Mission.

Eureka Mayor Frank Jager was coroner at the time of Cotton’s death and initially tried to blame it on an overdose of LSD.

Medical Pot Fertilizer Co. Just Says No To Meat Industry Slop

[Press Release]

Humboldt Plant Fertilizers (HPF) is breaking new ground by becoming the only natural liquid plant nutrient company banning any use of slaughterhouse by-products such as the bone meal, blood meal, and feather meal almost universally found in all other natural fertilizer products.

Every product manufactured by HPF now bears the “Holy Cow” symbol, which clearly states the pledge to never use animal by-products. The other major nutrient lines may have single amendments, but nota stand alone system of natural nutrients for vegetarians to grow medicinal marijuana.

Eureka weed shipped to NFL players house

Two and a half pounds of marijuana from Eureka landed at the Kentucky home of National Football League player Jerome Simpson of the Cincinnati Bengals Tuesday. State narcotics agents had been tracking the package after it was intercepted in Sacramento.

ABC News reports:

“The house was set up as a potential distribution network,” said Tommy LaNier, head of the National Marijuana Initiative, a group that is funded by the Office of National Drug Control Policy and helps coordinate marijuana enforcement operations around the United States.

“They had it all set up to receive supplies of high-grade marijuana from Northern California, and from there, it was being distributed from that residence,” he said.

In what might be an unrelated coincidence, Simpson’s teammate Rey Maualuga went to school at Eureka High and played for the Loggers.

Larry Glass more popular than the Brady Bunch

[Click image to biggify.]

The North Coast Journal rolled out its annual Best of Humboldt issue today.  Pick up a copy to see the winners, near-winners and losers. (Digital copies hit the internetz sometime tonight or tomorrow).

Humboldt County Supervisor Jimmy Smith won the “Best Elected Official” category, with Congressman Mike Thompson and Supervisor Mark Lovelace coming in a close second and third.

But the big revelation is that ousted City Councilman Larry Glass made the list — and he “managed to earn more votes that the city’s three new councilmembers combined,” sayeth the Journal.

Glass got 2% of the vote, (as did Supervisor Virginia Bass). Eureka City Council members Mike Newman and Marian Brady each nabbed .03%.

It is hard to believe there are people (or perhaps just a single person) out there who really believe either one of those fools is the “Best Elected Official” in Humboldt County.  There’s a mighty big rock somewhere in Eureka, and the space beneath it appears to be occupied.

In the “Best Blog” category, the Humboldt Herald came in at #2 (quit yer snickering), second only to Hank Sims’ new gig, the Lost Coast Outpost. The Journal said it was a “bittersweet honor to bestow.” This time last year, Sims was the captain of the SS NCJ.

“Despite Rob Arkley’s claims to the contrary, Hank is a journalist,” writes the Journal’s Andrew Goff.