No guns for Humboldt County Code Enforcement Unit
UPDATE (12/15/09 4:25pm): Eric Kirk has a discussion on his blog about today’s meeting, but he missed this part which include Jill’s comments about the hybrid model, and Clif’s motion to house the CEU in the County Counsel’s office.
The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors voted to keep the Code Enforcement Unit in the County Counsel’s office today, adopting a model that will save county money and focus on civil code compliance.
Details of the model will be worked out at a later date, but today’s decision keeps members of the unit unarmed, with the ability to call the sheriff for backup if needed.
Supervisor Jill Duffy tried to quell community upset over the apparent dismissal of 17 unanimous recommendations by last year’s Code Enforcement Task Force (CETF). She said the County wasn’t considering them because CETF was formed to create a hybrid model overseen by offices of the District Attorney and Sheriff, but that a hybrid was no longer an option. Duffy herself was on the CETF, but some fellow CETF members disagreed with her assessment.
CETF member Liz Davidson said the 17 recommendations must stand independent of the adopted model. “Especially the issues of amnesty and regularizing 50 years of unpermitted building,” she said.
“There is a tolerance for the past intolerable behavior,” said Dan Taranto who noted Code Enforcement’s failure to provide annual reports as required for 12 years. He said the county is maintaining a double-standard when it comes to compliance with the rules.
Some speakers suggested scraping the unit all together while throwing verbal barbs at the County Counsel’s office.
But Duffy said anger is misdirected when pointed at County Counsel Wendy Chaitin, and seemed to suggest the ire should be directed at former interim county counsel Ralph Faust. She also said the DA should take some responsibility for the outrageous officer abuses that included an officer pointing his gun at an unarmed mother holding her children.
Several speakers requested the County meet with Dirk Voss, president of the California Association of Code Enforcement Officers, who scored points with residents last week when he said “there’s absolutely no reason whatsoever for a code enforcement officer to ever have to carry a gun.”
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10 Responses to “No guns for Humboldt County Code Enforcement Unit”
1. Eric Kirk Says: December 15, 2009 at 3:06 pm
2. I’m not sure why the DA should take responsibility. He was never given the power to exercise the responsibility.
3. And did they in fact decide against the guns? I hope so, but I wasn’t clear about that in the wording of the motion. It was housed with County Counsel in 2007, but they had guns anyway.
4. Eric Kirk Says: December 15, 2009 at 3:08 pm
5. Oh, and by the way – First!
6. Ernie’s Place Says: December 15, 2009 at 3:26 pm
7. “there’s absolutely no reason whatsoever for a code enforcement officer to ever have to carry a gun.””
8. Well… uless you were going to shoot somebody. Even Obama says that there are some people you just can’t reason with.
9. A Non A Me Says: December 15, 2009 at 3:39 pm
10. Humboldt County is between a rock and a hard place, they looked the other way while all the rural “development” happened and then they decided to do “something” and made a huge mess of it. Now the real challenge, do they continue to ignore all the unpermitted development and stick it to the folks who want to be legal?
11. Heraldo Says: December 15, 2009 at 3:58 pm
12. And did they in fact decide against the guns?
13. My understanding is it’s implicit in the decision to keep the CEU housed in the County Counsel’s office.
14. They may have had guns in 2007, but that permission was revoked by the DA. Someone correct me if I’m wrong.
15. Lucky 13 Says: December 15, 2009 at 4:38 pm
16. My understanding is the same…County Counsel cannot oversee a department with guns without the “Hybrid” method, i.e. using DA or Sherrif to partially oversee the agents, which both departments have been unwilling to do.
17. Johnny O Says: December 15, 2009 at 4:43 pm
18. I covered the CETF last year and I remember Jill being rather hostile and long-winded during those proceedings. She would often talk over other members and make snide remarks when certain accusations or suggestions arose.
19. Granted, she was trying to maintain order and stay on task, but she squelched discussions on issues that were important overall.
20. Anonymous Says: December 15, 2009 at 6:17 pm
21. Oh yeah Jill, it’s all Ralph’s fault, he was County Counsel for less than a year, but the past 30 years of Humboldt County looking the other way is suddenly all his fault.
22. longwind Says: December 15, 2009 at 7:05 pm
23. What Jill said today was that Wendy Chaitin was being unfairly pilloried for code enforcement structures that had actually been created by her short-term predecessor, Ralph Faust. It may seem odd that Wendy never mentioned his name while stonewalling Jill during the Task Force hearings, but there are so many oddities here to enjoy, we can’t cover them all.
24. Faust came to the county counsel’s office freshly retired here from the Coastal Commission, where he had been chief counsel and prosecutor for 20 years. In just a few months he apparently recruited the ‘rogue’ agent who was so ‘out of control,’ met with other departments to coordinate armed interventions for additional county departments whose administrative failures might best be arbitrated at gunpoint, and retired again. Soon, he browbeat the Supervisors for six minutes of public comment for listening to fools like their constituents who thought he’d done anything wrong in that work he was so proud of.
25. That was the first most of knew of Ralph Faust’s existence. A couple of months later he became Mark Lovelace’s appointee to the Planning Commission. It’s a winning resume, sports fans.
26. And Mark emphasized today that he still leans toward arming code enforcers, although our Chief Administrative Officer, for all her hours on the phone interviewing 25 counties, couldn’t find another one that ignores the advise of experts like our boys do. Apparently some things are more important than enforcing code, but no one will tell us what they are.
27. It was one weird day in the Supes’ chambers, but we heard a vague commitment to take up the report presented to the Supervisors 15 months ago. Merry Christmas!
28. Anonymous Says: December 15, 2009 at 7:38 pm
29. right, Chaitin was unfairly pilloried, so why not unfairly pillory Faust? Everyone else is doing it.
This temporary post will be removed if the original reappears.
It’s not an unfair assessment of Faust. He is a man on a mission.
Supervisor Jill Duffy tried to quell community upset over the apparent dismissal of 17 unanimous recommendations by last year’s Code Enforcement Task Force (CETF).
My response = I blogged this on another of H’s threads after it was reported that a “Task Force” was being created to fix something (CEU) that did not need fixing as per structure. This was a political fear campaign to coincide with a GPU process = FRAUD!
In reality, simply put, the circumventions and abrogations of “this CEU process” just NEEDED TO STOP! The problem is elected officials, like Jill and Co. (Supes), who WILL INTENTIONALLY NOT RECOGNIZE TRUTH. A truth is this – Respondet Superior is not being carried out in many political situations which are liabilities to the jurisdiction. This is an abdication of duty by all the Supes’ responsibilities to “The People” – the same people that voted them into office; and, if not more importantly, the voters who did not vote these officials into office who become “compounded victims” within the community trying to preserve the nation we live in based on constitutional rights.
Consider this prop.,
DOES – LIFE – NEED – TO – BE – SPELLED – OUT – FOR – YOU?
Question Reality?
Jeffrey Lytle
McKinleyville – 5th District
To those of whom are concerned,
…..and “Time” magazine recognized FED Chairman Ben Bernanke as “Man of The Year”, pffft!
Jeffrey Lytle
McKinleyville – 5th District
Heraldo,
as per #27 – it was a nervous, temperamental moment judging by the use of the rubber-band toy to ease the inner tensions which were most likely a result of a probable political roadblock due to constituental peer pressures. Details to come later……
Jeffrey Lytle
McKinleyville – 5th District
Does this mean Bonnie Blackberry will now push for the dope growers to cease carrying weapons also?
Or are only the law abiding people supposed to be unarmed?
Rose, I do think you raise an important point, because I don’t buy into the notion that visiting a property where the owner has refused entrance is necessarily safe. I just don’t see the problem in bringing in Sheriff escort when they see a problem.
Still, I hope you don’t mind my quoting you on my own blog. It does deserve some discussion, even with the issue resolved.
Rose;
No, law abiding people are all supposed to be armed, that keeps all the other thugs at bay. That’s what “A well armed and regulated militia” is all about. Thugs is an all inclusive term.
peace
d
I don’t mind, Eric.
Look, we used to hike and ride in the hills above Fieldbrook. In the 70s when the pot-growers moved in, we had to stop because we were getting shot at. Not by rednecks, but by nice looking young college student-types. There’s a reason why ANYONE going up into the hills needs to be armed. And the pot-growers aren’t going to put away their substantial armament.
There’s another issue to consider – all this upheaval CLMP has brought about is going to have unintended consequences – ones they are not going to like – I’ll elaborate on your post, Eric.
The left in Humboldt should step up and offer a candidate for supervisor races, and I hope Kaitlin or someone like her ( a Green , a Peace & Freedom, or Independent lefty) will step up and offer an alternative to right wing Republicans and centrist Democrats.
have a peaceful day,
Bill
Rose, the actual issue is that arming compliance officials is lousy policy. It creates problems and solves none. This isn’t a matter of opinion but of expert witness, as well as observation and common sense. Doesn’t it give you pause that absolutely no one but Humboldt County would threaten to point guns at you to perc-test your toity? Or to throw you out of your cheap housing for business code violations?
If we were capable of it, we’d be embarrassed by this ridiculous discussion of penis-substitutes dragging on for more than a year and a half. We should qualify for a pharmaceutical subsidy by now! Which might pay for remedial training. Heck, as we on the blogs well know, pens make perfect penis substitutes. Now, what can we do with clipboards . . .
btw Heraldo, any idea what happened to this thread last night? That was way weird.
WordPress has been a little unstable lately. Twice before posts have disappeared but last night’s glitch was unique. I don’t know why it happened.
Firefox has also been a source of grief lately. Maybe the internetz are getting too big.
the Times standard quote this wed a.m.=”Clif Clendenen quickly made a motion to keep the unit under the supervision of the county counsel, saying that it would save the county money.”
Clendenan is for saving money???? what??? this guy said the exact opposite last week. He was the one advocating that C.E. wear guns and continued to mix that civil office up with criminal enforcement.
He then was the Supe that wanted to spend an additional $175,000 EXTRA that our county does NOT have to arm more C.E officers in the field.
He only changed his “mind” when he realized that his position was wildly unpopular and flip flopped in order to save his buns politically.
Clendenan is a real disappointment, I’m sorry I let myself get talked into voting for him.
More than likely even Clif realizes giving the thing to Gallegos would be a fookin’ disaster.
And speaking of arming the guys – what happened to Gallegos’ assault team plans?
At Eric’s blog, that issue about the tax assessor and the legality of the buildings is a REALLY big one – and the one that is going to bring about really, truly unintended consequences that CLMP and co. is NOT going to be happy about.
Person after person got up and spoke angrily about paying taxes on their house and equating that with legality, claiming that the County was not playing fair. This lack of appreciation for and recognition of the situation is going to hurt you now.
That is a big mistake, because now, the County will rectify the situation and the various County agencies will begin sharing information which was previously kept separate.
Yes, you may have been paying taxes for structures on your property, but the assessor did not turn you in to the Building Dept. and no one came after you for violations.
Now they will. I am sure everyone will thank CLMP.
Making government more efficient is NOT conducive to that free and happy lifestyle the back-to-the-landers want.
She also said the DA should take some responsibility for the outrageous officer abuses that included an officer pointing his gun at an unarmed mother holding her children.
Funny how no one mentions that the code enforcement officer, who had previously attempted to inspect the shit holes the folks at Yee Haw had constructed had been warned to stay off their land. It wasn’t because they were worried about building citations, it was because they were harboring an armed felon with a criminal history of violence. Funny how that little tidbit never gets mentioned, and yet at yesterday’s Supes meetings all we heard was that a poor widdle mommy holding her poor widdle baby had a gun pointed at her. Maybe you should ask that idiot why she stood in the doorway why law enforcement personnel, with good reason to fear for the safety of everyone on the property, asked known felon to come out and show his hands.
You are full of it. That isn’t even close to the truth. My God read the court report.
FYI: The Code Enforcement Task Force and the Code Enfocement Committee. are two very different entities. Jill was on the CETF and is now on the Code Enforcement Committee which presented options to The Board of Supes. on Tuesday December 15th The new group did not include any member of the public , it was an in-house group
At Eric’s blog, that issue about the tax assessor and the legality of the buildings is a REALLY big one – and the one that is going to bring about really, truly unintended consequences that CLMP and co. is NOT going to be happy about.
Blake Lehman called for the Assessor and Building Department to work with each other tonight. Again, I don’t think anybody with an unpermitted structure wants that. They’d just as soon pay their taxes on it and let it lie.
Funny how no one mentions that the code enforcement officer, who had previously attempted to inspect the shit holes the folks at Yee Haw had constructed had been warned to stay off their land. It wasn’t because they were worried about building citations, it was because they were harboring an armed felon with a criminal history of violence. Funny how that little tidbit never gets mentioned, and yet at yesterday’s Supes meetings all we heard was that a poor widdle mommy holding her poor widdle baby had a gun pointed at her. Maybe you should ask that idiot why she stood in the doorway why law enforcement personnel, with good reason to fear for the safety of everyone on the property, asked known felon to come out and show his hands.
I should say that Officer Connors admitted to several of us at the CEU meeting in Garberville that the mother got “a raw deal.”
Yes,
and the Health Care bill can come up with new bills too; bill, after bill, after bill for a process which a committee meets time, and time and time again…..
CEU Process – it does not matter if it is one committee or another with another name. In the end, creating committee after committee just means that the results of the previous committee did not meet the “design criteria” that backdoor politics had choregraphed for a pre-ordained result, which btw, is oligarchial in nature.
Rose’s statement here,
is somewhat valid on a non-defined political surface, but, maybe not really in that it is a situation that can be played at least from 2-3 different political vantage points:
#1. How does an assessor or other dept. find out? – Realtor advertisements and their county lists of comparable properties and neighborhoods, satellite (Google), neighbor (you made her made), PGE (you have an account), phone (you like internet and talikng), cable (you like the boob tube), other service or 3rd party who comes out to property (including another govt. dept. or agency by land, sea or water), etc… theoretically, all of these and more examples are PROBABILITIES NOT LESS THAN ZERO.
#2. The assessor knows that the list of probables (in #1 above) is large enough that diclosing something illegal is part of their job requirement, so, they report it, even though they can claim they did not – how are you gonna prove it?
#3. The assessor simply puts a value on the book and it just so happens that the CDS Dept. (or any other dept., agency, person, group, etc…) randomly has people go in and look at Parcel Map Books and legal tax information from multiple “local sources” to “spread about” public and private information.
#4. At the beginning of each “New Year” anyhow, everyone’s house is illegal and not conforming to all the codes. So, the real conundrum becomes evident with the sinisterisms of County & State Government pertaining to “The Housing Market” in that:
A. The housing industry was a creationist manifestation to make housing a major part of the “American Economy”. Now, how would it look if the departments sent out letters to a bunch of property owners creating a process which would affect the money rolling in when the good times were rockin’ or no one was really saying anything! Rather, wait until crapola hits the shrouds that will be optioned to the community. Now, make money in the good times and beat it out of ’em in the bad.
B. If the departments were enforcing what they already knew for years, then guess what, Real Estate “market values” would be much lower and the government departments would not have been taking in as high a return in taxes, service fees, etc… based on valuations which were propagated through manipulated market data and appraisal practices. Afterall, who wants to buy a piece of property with a “cloud attached to it”! – HOUSING STOCK / INVENTORY GOES DOWN!
C. Now, it comes down to the government not wanting to be “shown up” by the people who have lived in “supposed” non-compliance for years, but only after Humboldt and California approve of money in the form of taxes, while creating fees and charges ORIGINATING FROM HIGHER VALUES THAT WOULD OTHERWISE BE LOWER if the jurisdiction had enforced it’s own rules originally when the non-compliance was borne.
In the end – Greed seems to run government too!
Jeffrey Lytle
McKinleyville – 5th District
Don’t know if I would want to do Code Enforcement unarmed in the #1 pot area of the US.