How railroad proponents can woo cyclists…

 

Part I

 

Part II

 

 

Open Door will be less so after cuts

From the April 22, 008 issue

By Daniel Mintz
Press Staff Writer
 

State budget cuts will fall hard on health care, and community clinics are bracing for Medi-Cal losses that will force them to reduce services –

a turnabout that could affect residents of all income levels.

The potentially drastic effects of Medi-Cal cuts and payment delays were described at the Tuesday, April 15, Board of Supervisors meeting by Herman Spetzler, CEO of the Open Door Community Health Center and board chairman of the North Coast Clinics Network. After mentioning the “inevitable cuts” coming in the next fiscal year – Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has already approved a 10 percent Medi-Cal funding cut – Spetzler requested that supervisors create a task force to provide “some help with deciding, as we have to deal with limited resources, on who it is we’re not going to provide care to.”

 

The state’s budget deficit could top $20 billion and Medi-Cal funding is one of many targets for spending cuts. Delay of some payments has also been approved, and Spetzler’

s Open Door facilities in Arcata, McKinleyville and Eureka will deal with both cuts and cash flow problems. 

Open Door will lose funding at a time when local health care is struggling to meet demand on all levels. The county’s Open Door clinics treated 22,000 patients last year, said Spetzler, adding that 7,000 of them were new –

those who can afford health care but chose Open Door because there are limited options here. 

“The deterioration of the private sector, primary care side is a fundamentally dangerous aspect of what’s happening in our community,” Spetzler said. “Access to health care in our community is in a perilous time.”

 

Open Door has expanded its hours into evenings and Saturdays, Spetzler continued, and “we still are turning away hundreds of people all the time.” He gave supervisors a heads up on an emerging and troubling trend. “I don’t know whether you’ve heard about the difficulty in the emergency rooms, but people are waiting two-and-a-half to five hours in the emergency rooms for services they shouldn’t even be getting in an emergency room in the first place,” he said. “That’s because we’re at capacity.”

 

And Medi-Cal cuts will reduce Open Door’

s total budget, much of which pays for staff. 

“We don’t have the ability to absorb any reduction in resources without it impacting staff,”

Spetlzer said. Creation of a task force will allow the county and health clinic directors to work as a team when health care funding gets tight and difficult decisions need to be made, he continued. 

“How do we bridge that, how do we make the decisions on who doesn’t get access?” said Spetzler. “And what do we do as we overburden our emergency room system?”

 

Supervisors voted to create the task force, which will include supervisors Bonnie Neely and John Woolley, county staff and health clinic directors. Woolley is a member of the Community Health Alliance, which is working on improving local health care resources, and he asked if it could help. Spetzler said it could, but he believes “a smaller group that actually deals with numbers”

is best. 

“When things get really complex, the moral issue becomes, do you see those who need the care the most?”

he asked, explaining that if some privately-insured patients have the most intense need for services, they could displace those who are subsidized by Medi-Cal and the county, sending them into emergency rooms. 

Last-minute airport meeting notice

The unedited press release below arrived via e-mail shortly after 5 p.m. today. I wonder why a meeting about such an important topic can’t be announced sooner? Go figure.

 

By the way, I would recommend that you show up at 4 p.m. rather than the 4 a.m. start time listed in the notice. Then again, maybe the consultants have more information to share than I’m aware of.

****

Mead&Hunt, Airport Consultants, along with the Humboldt County Public Works Aviation Division scheduled a public session to update those interested in the ACV Runway Safety Area Project.  Interested parties are invited to attend the presentation to be held Wednesday April 30, 2008 from 4:00 AM to 6:00 PM at the McKinleyville Senior Center. The Senior Center is located at 1620 Pickett Road, McKinleyville, California.

 

 

 

Board clears manager in embezzlement, rescinds previous charges of belligerence

By Jack Durham
Press Editor

The McKinleyville Community Services District Board of Directors announced last week that its manager has been cleared of two allegations made against him that were never previously made public – that he was personally involved in embezzling district funds and involved in a collusion in connection with the alleged embezzlement.

The board also voted to drop the discipline/dismissal/release meeting notice issued last September and rescind allegations made against Marking involving alleged belligerence to the board.

Marking cleared 

The MCSD board met in closed session to discuss the issue at the beginning of the Wednesday, April 16, meeting after which board President John Corbett made an announcement. The announcement was difficult to hear, so Corbett repeated it during a break, saying “There were allegations that the general manager was personally involved in embezzling the coke, well the soft drink funds, and personally involved in collusion with (another employee). The board found those were not valid and therefore we’re referring personnel to the general manager.”

The board’s decision means that Manager Tom Marking can handle personnel issues with regard to the alleged embezzlement.

The announcement was the first time that it was disclosed that Marking was accused of embezzlement and collusion. According to Marking, those accusations against him were made in writing by former Business Manager Jim Harding. Harding denies that he made those allegations.

Former treasurer’s accusations

Last month former Business Manager and Treasurer Harding – who worked for the district for 11 years – said he was forced to retire after he suspected financial irregularities and his efforts to have the matter properly investigated were thwarted by Marking. Harding said Marking decided to conduct the investigation himself and wouldn’t provide any details of the investigation or share his findings with him. As the MCSD’s chief financial officer, Harding said he felt he had to speak out or he could be seen as being part of a cover-up.

In an interview last month, Harding made it clear that Marking was not the suspect in the alleged embezzlement. He did, however, say that it looked like a cover-up, as Marking told him to drop the matter. Harding said the embezzlement centered around money from soda machines at the McKinleyville Activity Center. Harding declined to name the suspected employee.

Marking has flatly denied the charges, saying that the investigation was properly conducted and Harding was kept in the loop.

‘A line of bull’

After Wednesday’s meeting, the board’ s announcement from its closed session was posted on the McKinleyville Press Blog. After comments from the public were posted on the blog critical of Marking, the manager responded with criticisms of Harding and his critics.

“You guys are a hoot,” Marking wrote. “You guess at everything but what is so obvious, that Harding has been feeding you a line of bull; but you are so very gullible and want so badly to believe all this drivel. Do you really expect Harding to admit that he has lied to you and done some really stupid and unprofessional things, like accuse the GM of embezzlement, fraud and collusion? Since you all know him so well, go ask him.”
“When it’s put in writing and signed with his signature, there is not much doubt. And go ask about the tens of thousands we have now had to spend because of his ego and vindictiveness,” Marking wrote. “We could have built a playground and finished the soccer fields with less than what this has cost. Go ask him why he has so much self loathing that he tried so desperately to tear down what we are trying so hard to build up for the community.”
Marking continued “Hey Durham, go ask Harding face to face if he ever made written accusations that accuse the GM of embezzlement and fraud. Just because he didn’t publish it with you doesn’t mean he didn’t do it. And ask him about Section 632 of the Penal Code and if has ever done something so sneaky and dishonest as that?”
Harding was contacted on Friday and asked whether it was true that he accused Marking of embezzlement and collusion in writing. “Not true,” Harding responded.

The alleged penal code violation referenced by Marking involves secretly recording a conversation without the other person’s knowledge. Harding declined to comment on the allegation.

On the McKinleyville Press Blog, Marking suggested that perhaps Harding was secretly working for someone to cause problems at the MCSD.

“Go ask some tough questions and ask him what his motives are? Who he is working with and why would he put his career at risk for such a stupid thing. And go ask about his response to the long letter sent to him about the investigation and where is his evidence of all this embezzlement and fraud… or has he finally figured out he is the one delusional,” Marking wrote.

When asked about his motives, Harding said he thought there was a cover-up and felt he had a fiduciary responsibility to let the public know about the financial irregularities.

When asked about Marking’s suggestion that he may have been working for someone, Harding responded “I have no idea what he’s talking about.”

Marking’s contract

Also at last week’s meeting, the MCSD board discussed Marking’s employment contract with the district. As of last week, the contract was still being reviewed by the MCSD’s attorney so the board was unable to take action on it.

However, the board did vote 3-2, with Directors Javan Reid and Jeff Dunk dissenting – on some of the terms of the contract.

The terms included the following language “The discipline/dismissal/release notice of Sept. 19, 2007, including accusations and charges are rescinded.”
Marking was accused of belligerence to the board, in part due to letters he sent to the board. In one letter, he accused Director Jeff Dunk of “arrogance” and “grandstanding” and wrote that “his entire manner is offensive.” In another letter, Marking accused former Director Ron Coffman of having a “lack of character and ethics.”
After the letter regarding Coffman, then-President Reid called for a closed session to discuss the alleged belligerence. That meeting was canceled after Marking announced his “intent to retire” effective May 1, 2008.

The dynamics on the board changed last November with the election of Helen Edwards, which meant Marking had three supporters on the board – Edwards, Bill Wennerholm and John Corbett. All three support Marking’s proposed contract.

Under the terms approved by the board, the manager’s annual salary of $108,600 would be increased by the same amount as received by his fellow district employees for their cost of living adjust this fiscal year. Marking would also get six months of his annual salary after he leaves the district.

The proposed terms included a stipulation that Marking’s contract would have a termination date of May 1, 2009, with no allowances made for renewal or extension. Wennerholm made a motion to remove the word “no,” which would allow for the board to renew Marking’s contract next year if it so chooses. Wennerholm’s motion was followed by the 3-2 vote.

McKinleyville Art Night.4.18.08

>

$4 a gallon

We reached a milestone this week.

BREAKING NEWS: Seniors giving out free home-baked cookies at recycling center

Stop by Humboldt Sanitation and Recycling before 2 p.m. today and get a home-baked chocolate chip cookie, or two, from the ladies of the McKinleyville Senior Center. It’s their way of saying thank you for donating bottles and cans in the bins in front of the recycling center. Proceeds from those donations go to the senior center.

 

Those ladies know how to bake, so it’s really worth the trip.

 

 

Despite what was reported, it didn’t happen, even though it probably will

You may have heard on the local television news that the MCSD board approved a new contract for Manager Tom Marking at Wednesday’s meeting. And you probably read the same news in one of the local dailies.

I don’t want to be a nitpicky jerk about those news reports, but they’re both incorrect.

Despite what you heard or read, the MCSD board has not approved a contract with Marking. In fact, at Wednesday’s meeting the board didn’t even have a contract to consider. What the board had were some contract terms that they voted upon. The vote on some of Marking’s contract terms was 3-2, and that voting pattern will probably remain the same when the actual contract is presented.

The actual contract will come before the board at an upcoming meeting.

So the reports you watched on TV or read in the daily are probably valid predictions of what will happen, but not what happened.

More on this in Tuesday’s issue. 

More video coming, but not of Wednesday’s MCSD meeting

I had planned on posting a short video report about Wednesday’s MCSD meeting. The idea was to do an extremely abbreviated version of what happened.

Unfortunately, this plan coincided with a computer upgrade. Turns out the new software has changed just enough that I’m facing a small learning curve. (I also spent about five hours this week trying to figure how to download and upload email from Suddenlink. Turns out I had to use different “port” settings for sending and receiving.)

So due to time contraints, I’m abandoning that project for this week. Hopefully, in the near future, I’ll be able to post more video. For example, wouldn’t it be cool to film the Pony Express Parade and put it online?

 

 

My caviar and diamond budget takes a hit

In a column last October I wrote that “It’s often repeated like a mantra that ‘(Tom) Marking saves the district money.’” I was referring to some of the work he has done in-house rather than hiring consultants and contractors. 

This week Marking apparently found another way to save the district money – $25 to be exact. I got a call on my answering machine from a friendly employee who stated that the MCSD’s subscription to the McKinleyville Press was to be canceled per orders from “management.”

So on Tuesday, for the first time in nearly 12 years, there won’t be a McKinleyvillle Press delivered to the MCSD’s P.O. box.

The district still had about five months left on its subscription, so I won’t feel the financial hit until sometime in September when I’ll be short exactly $25. At that point I’ll need to make some adjustments to my opulent lifestyle.