4d) Discussion and Possible Action Regarding Current County Boards and Commissions Including Providing Staff Guidance to Dissolve Select Boards and Commissions Not Required Under California Law
(Sponsors: Executive Office/Clerk of the Board and County Counsel)
The community MACs are valuable entities for the outlying, unincorporated towns in Mendocino County. The Round Valley MAC has several successful projects to show as a result of the MAC meetings.
CalTrans attended meetings to discuss the Covelo SR 162 Corridor Multi-Purpose Trail, to receive community input as to safety elements of the plan (primarily pedestrian safety) and to share opportunities for the Clean CA program. Outcomes of hearing from us include:
• Planning a week of free trash clean up in the valley
• Obtaining grant funds to make safety improvements to the downtown streetscape
County DOT attended meetings to hear from the community about unsafe driving situations throughout the valley. Outcomes of hearing from us include:
• vehicle speed study conducted on Howard Street
• placement of new speed limit signs on Howard Street
• application for an active transportation program grant to increase safety around the schools (the County was not awarded an ATP grant but we appreciate the attempt to obtain funds for the needed safety improvements).
• installation of a yield sign at Grange & Main Street
CHP attended meetings to hear from the community about unsafe driving activities. Outcomes of hearing from us include
• increased safety patrols and better coordination with the Sheriff around unsafe driving behaviors.
Sheriff Kendall attended meetings to maintain a continued dialogue with the community about public safety concerns as well as the MCSO actions in response. Outcomes of hearing from us include:
• Increased safety patrols
• better collaboration with CHP on the issues of reckless, exhibition driving in town.
Solid Waste of Willits attended meetings to discuss unmet waste management needs. Outcomes of hearing from us include:
• Resulting actions; increased capacity at the dump.
There are countless future opportunities for community involvement and improvement as long as the MACs are able to continue to function in our rural communities.
Respectfully, Tina Wilson
It’s my understanding that on Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors is discussing eliminating our County’s Municipal Advisory Councils (MACs). This elimination is supported by Ted Williams and Mo Mulheren, neither of which have MACs in their towns. The effects of such elimination would set back our whole County.
I urge the BOS to vote to continue providing for MACs in Mendocino County.
Please note that our community in the Town of Covelo has greatly benefited from the three years we were approved to have the Round Valley Area Municipal Advisory Council (RVAMAC) actively working to improve communications with the County Board of Supervisors.
These RVAMAC meetings have allowed us to meet on numerous occasions to advocate for our community with our Supervisor and our Sheriff almost monthly, as well as with representatives from the MCOG, the County Department of Transportation, the County Office of Emergency Services, the California Highway Patrol, and CalTrans.
I personally have been involved since the beginning of our RVAMAC to the present day and have participated in one of its working groups for disaster preparation. We have been, and currently are, working on a disaster plan for our area. One of our projects has been to offer free residential address signs to help emergency personnel find locations. The dissolution of our MAC by the BOS would set back communications with our community and the County.
Please review the following information.
HISTORY OF OUR RVAMAC
The RVAMAC held its first meeting on October 2, 2019. In November 2019, resulting from new community energy and enthusiasm, the formation of numerous working groups was approved by consensus. Only two of the groups appear to be currently active: Disaster Preparedness and Economic Development, the latter having a very broad scope.
Despite the hard work by these committees, their activities are not generally recorded in MAC minutes. For example, much progress has been achieved in reducing trash (including the CalTrans dump week) as well as preparing for disaster, strategizing on economic development, decreasing the number of loose dogs, and much more.
Refocusing the RVAMAC on its intended purposes while continuing to encourage the community to work collectively on issues may be advisable. Our community greatly benefits from having a MAC to connect with County and State agencies; this should remain a primary MAC activity. Each MAC meeting provides a forum for community comment on non-agenda items, which is the ideal place and time to report on the community's collective work and to request that the MAC voice a concern or idea to the appropriate governmental agency.
Development of the Municipal Advisory Council:
Designed and implemented a new website.
Formed the Council that holds 2 seats for RVIT members to ensure collaboration between the RVAMAC and RVIT.
Adopted consensus voting procedures.
Engagement with state and local agencies and projects:
MCOG attended meetings to give updates on the Covelo SR 162 Corridor Multi-Purpose Trail and to hear about transportation planning needs, to address public safety issues and to increase mobility solutions for our rural community.
CalTrans attended meetings to discuss the Covelo SR 162 Corridor Multi-Purpose Trail, to receive community input as to safety elements of the plan (primarily pedestrian safety) and to share opportunities for the Clean CA program. Outcomes of hearing from us include:
Planning a week of free trash clean up in the valley
Obtaining grant funds to make safety improvements to the downtown streetscape
County DOT attended meetings to hear from the community about unsafe driving situations throughout the valley. Outcomes of hearing from us include:
vehicle speed study conducted on Howard Street
placement of new speed limit signs on Howard Street
application for an active transportation program grant to increase safety around the schools (the County was not awarded an ATP grant but we appreciate the attempt to obtain funds for the needed safety improvements).
installation of a yield sign at Grange & Main Street
CHP attended meetings to hear from the community about unsafe driving activities. Outcomes of hearing from us include
increased safety patrols and better coordination with the Sheriff around unsafe driving behaviors.
Sheriff Kendall attended meetings to maintain a continued dialogue with the community about public safety concerns as well as the MCSO actions in response. Outcomes of hearing from us include:
Increased safety patrols
better collaboration with CHP on the issues of reckless, exhibition driving in town.
Solid Waste of Willits attended meetings to discuss unmet waste management needs. Outcomes of hearing from us include:
Resulting actions; increased capacity at the dump.
Mendocino County Office of Emergency Services
MOVE 2030 Economic Development Planning was discussed at two meetings.
The MAC developed a needs priority list for Round Valley's economic development.
The MAC determined one of the top priorities was an emergency fire hydrant water system in the downtown Covelo core to increase fire protection and to encourage reconstruction of buildings lost to fire or demolition. Outcomes of this work include:
The newly formed RVCDC has taken on this project to seek funding for the planning phase of this project.
A county-wide MAC group was formed to facilitate the sharing of project ideas and resources between the various county MACs.
Assembly Member Jim Wood attended a meeting.
Travis Killmer, Mendocino County Executive Office Disaster Recovery Field Coordinator, attended meetings and was formally appointed to act as a liaison between our community and the County’s Executive office to better facilitate the use of county resources to meet our local needs.
County Supervisor John Haschak attended meetings. Some tangible outcomes of his presence in the MAC meetings include:
CDBG grant to provide funds to clean up the valley, in partnership with the Round Valley Indian Tribes.
Advocacy on our community’s behalf regarding the cell phone companies who were ignoring outage issues. The increased pressure helped to increase connectivity for residents in the valley.
Coordination with the Solid Waste of Willits to obtain funds to add another trailer to increase capacity at the dump.
In addition to actions taken by the MAC through writing letters of support or opposition for relevant agencies and organizations, the MAC has also engaged with State and local agencies to raise concerns to help the community that have led to actions taken by local and State agencies on behalf of the Round Valley Area community.
AREAS IN NEED OF IMPROVEMENT
Refocus work of MAC on land use, permitting, county ordinances, economic development, and public projects
Increase outreach to and participation by the community in general.
Increase Native American participation and develop a collaboration between Native and non-Native populations.
Increase sharing of information from County and State officials as to all matters of public concern.
Increase RV community feedback to the agencies that serve us.
Improving MAC meeting procedures (most importantly voting and council members' freedom to express their points of view)
Ensuring that all voices are heard
LIST OF ACTIONS TAKEN AND LETTERS WRITTEN
2019
December: Voting procedure action.
2020
January: Action item for preparation and posting of the approval of minutes.
February: Letters to the County Planning Commission and the appropriate State agency in opposition to our only local bank’s departure.
November: Support letter for Covelo Cannabis Advocacy Group for banning hemp in Round Valley.
December: Letter addressed to the County Director of Transportation, Howard Dashiell, requesting an engineered traffic study.
2021
March: Redraft a letter previously approved by Council listing economic development objectives for Round Valley to send to the Board of Supervisors.
March: Letter to oppose proposed expansion of cannabis ordinance.
April: Letter to the Board of Supervisors in support of RV cleanup project.
April Letter to MCSO to support application of a grant to pay for incentives for Round Valley deputies.
June: Letter in support of Assembly Bill 43 which would allow local jurisdictions to set their own speed limits.
July: Letter of support to ask that Caltrans keep a Caltrans truck stationed within our valley year-round.
August: Letter supporting the Sheriff’s Office and the local California Highway Patrol’s efforts to educate our County DA and local judiciary on the necessity of prosecution of arrested individuals.
September: Action item for Jessica to invite CalTrans’ Clean California liaison to attend the next meeting.
November: Letter of support for the Redwood Valley MAC letter regarding PG&E’s overreach in clear-cutting trees along its power line rights-of-way, to be addressed to the Board of Supervisors.
2022
January: Letter to California Transportation Commission in support of the extension of the right-of-way certification process for the bike/walk trail.
January: Letter in support of exempting ham radio repeaters from the proposed fee.
May: Minutes show as DRAFT; and action taken to spend up to $1,000 for Zoom equipment to improve online meetings.
August: Action taken for a MAC table at our Blackberry Festival; approval of printing of planning document for public access; and a letter to the County Transportation Department about “correcting” the road signage to CR numbers and commonly-used names.
September: A second letter in opposition to the bank closure; approval of (draft?) MAC guiding principles (discussion at October meeting as to whether it was approved as draft or final); and a letter to request timely notification to MAC of referrals by the County Planning Department, letter to Community Foundation in support of our disaster preparedness working group’s grant application.
October: Support of Measure P; and hiring of a paid secretary.
I was alarmed to hear that there will be discussion and possible action Tuesday to eliminate the Municipal Advisory Councils that serve our County's unincorporated areas. I am surprised this would even be under consideration as our Round Valley Area MAC has been such a valuable means of communication within our community and between our community and County and State offices.
Have you recently found a pot of gold that will allow you to pay County staff to do the same work for outlaying communities that we have been doing in the almost four years we've been meeting?
Even though Covid-19 restrictions have been an issue for much of our existence, our MAC has worked successfully on behalf of our community to communicate our needs and facilitate projects that help our community thrive. Just a small handful of examples include:
-A speed study to demonstrate that people were regularly driving at freeway speeds through residential and school zones, resulting in the installation of improved speed limit/safety signage between Round Valley's Elementary, High School, and Charter Schools
-Installation of a yield sign at an uncontrolled intersection that was the site of numerous wrecks
-Communicating directly with representatives from CHP and CalTrans about unsafe driving that inspired them to install traffic calming measures and allow a pilot program of speed humps in town along Highway 162, part of a CleanCA grant awarded our community. This project is starting in a few weeks
-Working with MGOG and CalTrans to reallocate monies that had "expired" for the Bike and Pedestrian Trail along a stretch of highway where many pedestrians' lives have been lost. This project is currently underway
-Improvements at our transfer station that increased its capacity and a week-long free dump program that significantly cleaned up our town
Some of the above projects will ultimately save lives.
MAC Meetings give the opportunity for motivated individuals to communicate with our Supervisor and learn about grants and projects to help improve our community, to communicate directly with our Sheriff on safety issues that affect us, as well as with reps from MCOG on transportation safety issues, and with State offices.
I am a member of our Fire and Disaster Preparedness Working Group, and we are curating a list of street signs that are damaged or lacking street names to improve emergency response times. Several members of our group are collaborating with the Friends of the Library group to provide (numbered) reflective address signs to members of our community who are elderly, low-income, disabled or US Vets. So far over well over 100 signs have been ordered and/or distributed and installed.
MACs accomplish projects our County Government does not have the time or funding to do on its own. They allow involved citizens a forum for communication and collaboration, and give us a voice that can be heard by County and State offices. MACs are an example of Democracy at work. Now is NOT the time to eliminate the Round Valley Area Municipal Advisory Council.
The community MACs are valuable entities for the outlying, unincorporated towns in Mendocino County. The Round Valley MAC has several successful projects to show as a result of the MAC meetings.
CalTrans attended meetings to discuss the Covelo SR 162 Corridor Multi-Purpose Trail, to receive community input as to safety elements of the plan (primarily pedestrian safety) and to share opportunities for the Clean CA program. Outcomes of hearing from us include:
• Planning a week of free trash clean up in the valley
• Obtaining grant funds to make safety improvements to the downtown streetscape
County DOT attended meetings to hear from the community about unsafe driving situations throughout the valley. Outcomes of hearing from us include:
• vehicle speed study conducted on Howard Street
• placement of new speed limit signs on Howard Street
• application for an active transportation program grant to increase safety around the schools (the County was not awarded an ATP grant but we appreciate the attempt to obtain funds for the needed safety improvements).
• installation of a yield sign at Grange & Main Street
CHP attended meetings to hear from the community about unsafe driving activities. Outcomes of hearing from us include
• increased safety patrols and better coordination with the Sheriff around unsafe driving behaviors.
Sheriff Kendall attended meetings to maintain a continued dialogue with the community about public safety concerns as well as the MCSO actions in response. Outcomes of hearing from us include:
• Increased safety patrols
• better collaboration with CHP on the issues of reckless, exhibition driving in town.
Solid Waste of Willits attended meetings to discuss unmet waste management needs. Outcomes of hearing from us include:
• Resulting actions; increased capacity at the dump.
There are countless future opportunities for community involvement and improvement as long as the MACs are able to continue to function in our rural communities.
Respectfully, Tina Wilson
It’s my understanding that on Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors is discussing eliminating our County’s Municipal Advisory Councils (MACs). This elimination is supported by Ted Williams and Mo Mulheren, neither of which have MACs in their towns. The effects of such elimination would set back our whole County.
I urge the BOS to vote to continue providing for MACs in Mendocino County.
Please note that our community in the Town of Covelo has greatly benefited from the three years we were approved to have the Round Valley Area Municipal Advisory Council (RVAMAC) actively working to improve communications with the County Board of Supervisors.
These RVAMAC meetings have allowed us to meet on numerous occasions to advocate for our community with our Supervisor and our Sheriff almost monthly, as well as with representatives from the MCOG, the County Department of Transportation, the County Office of Emergency Services, the California Highway Patrol, and CalTrans.
I personally have been involved since the beginning of our RVAMAC to the present day and have participated in one of its working groups for disaster preparation. We have been, and currently are, working on a disaster plan for our area. One of our projects has been to offer free residential address signs to help emergency personnel find locations. The dissolution of our MAC by the BOS would set back communications with our community and the County.
Please review the following information.
HISTORY OF OUR RVAMAC
The RVAMAC held its first meeting on October 2, 2019. In November 2019, resulting from new community energy and enthusiasm, the formation of numerous working groups was approved by consensus. Only two of the groups appear to be currently active: Disaster Preparedness and Economic Development, the latter having a very broad scope.
Despite the hard work by these committees, their activities are not generally recorded in MAC minutes. For example, much progress has been achieved in reducing trash (including the CalTrans dump week) as well as preparing for disaster, strategizing on economic development, decreasing the number of loose dogs, and much more.
Refocusing the RVAMAC on its intended purposes while continuing to encourage the community to work collectively on issues may be advisable. Our community greatly benefits from having a MAC to connect with County and State agencies; this should remain a primary MAC activity. Each MAC meeting provides a forum for community comment on non-agenda items, which is the ideal place and time to report on the community's collective work and to request that the MAC voice a concern or idea to the appropriate governmental agency.
Development of the Municipal Advisory Council:
Designed and implemented a new website.
Formed the Council that holds 2 seats for RVIT members to ensure collaboration between the RVAMAC and RVIT.
Adopted consensus voting procedures.
Engagement with state and local agencies and projects:
MCOG attended meetings to give updates on the Covelo SR 162 Corridor Multi-Purpose Trail and to hear about transportation planning needs, to address public safety issues and to increase mobility solutions for our rural community.
CalTrans attended meetings to discuss the Covelo SR 162 Corridor Multi-Purpose Trail, to receive community input as to safety elements of the plan (primarily pedestrian safety) and to share opportunities for the Clean CA program. Outcomes of hearing from us include:
Planning a week of free trash clean up in the valley
Obtaining grant funds to make safety improvements to the downtown streetscape
County DOT attended meetings to hear from the community about unsafe driving situations throughout the valley. Outcomes of hearing from us include:
vehicle speed study conducted on Howard Street
placement of new speed limit signs on Howard Street
application for an active transportation program grant to increase safety around the schools (the County was not awarded an ATP grant but we appreciate the attempt to obtain funds for the needed safety improvements).
installation of a yield sign at Grange & Main Street
CHP attended meetings to hear from the community about unsafe driving activities. Outcomes of hearing from us include
increased safety patrols and better coordination with the Sheriff around unsafe driving behaviors.
Sheriff Kendall attended meetings to maintain a continued dialogue with the community about public safety concerns as well as the MCSO actions in response. Outcomes of hearing from us include:
Increased safety patrols
better collaboration with CHP on the issues of reckless, exhibition driving in town.
Solid Waste of Willits attended meetings to discuss unmet waste management needs. Outcomes of hearing from us include:
Resulting actions; increased capacity at the dump.
Mendocino County Office of Emergency Services
MOVE 2030 Economic Development Planning was discussed at two meetings.
The MAC developed a needs priority list for Round Valley's economic development.
The MAC determined one of the top priorities was an emergency fire hydrant water system in the downtown Covelo core to increase fire protection and to encourage reconstruction of buildings lost to fire or demolition. Outcomes of this work include:
The newly formed RVCDC has taken on this project to seek funding for the planning phase of this project.
A county-wide MAC group was formed to facilitate the sharing of project ideas and resources between the various county MACs.
Assembly Member Jim Wood attended a meeting.
Travis Killmer, Mendocino County Executive Office Disaster Recovery Field Coordinator, attended meetings and was formally appointed to act as a liaison between our community and the County’s Executive office to better facilitate the use of county resources to meet our local needs.
County Supervisor John Haschak attended meetings. Some tangible outcomes of his presence in the MAC meetings include:
CDBG grant to provide funds to clean up the valley, in partnership with the Round Valley Indian Tribes.
Advocacy on our community’s behalf regarding the cell phone companies who were ignoring outage issues. The increased pressure helped to increase connectivity for residents in the valley.
Coordination with the Solid Waste of Willits to obtain funds to add another trailer to increase capacity at the dump.
In addition to actions taken by the MAC through writing letters of support or opposition for relevant agencies and organizations, the MAC has also engaged with State and local agencies to raise concerns to help the community that have led to actions taken by local and State agencies on behalf of the Round Valley Area community.
AREAS IN NEED OF IMPROVEMENT
Refocus work of MAC on land use, permitting, county ordinances, economic development, and public projects
Increase outreach to and participation by the community in general.
Increase Native American participation and develop a collaboration between Native and non-Native populations.
Increase sharing of information from County and State officials as to all matters of public concern.
Increase RV community feedback to the agencies that serve us.
Improving MAC meeting procedures (most importantly voting and council members' freedom to express their points of view)
Ensuring that all voices are heard
LIST OF ACTIONS TAKEN AND LETTERS WRITTEN
2019
December: Voting procedure action.
2020
January: Action item for preparation and posting of the approval of minutes.
February: Letters to the County Planning Commission and the appropriate State agency in opposition to our only local bank’s departure.
November: Support letter for Covelo Cannabis Advocacy Group for banning hemp in Round Valley.
December: Letter addressed to the County Director of Transportation, Howard Dashiell, requesting an engineered traffic study.
2021
March: Redraft a letter previously approved by Council listing economic development objectives for Round Valley to send to the Board of Supervisors.
March: Letter to oppose proposed expansion of cannabis ordinance.
April: Letter to the Board of Supervisors in support of RV cleanup project.
April Letter to MCSO to support application of a grant to pay for incentives for Round Valley deputies.
June: Letter in support of Assembly Bill 43 which would allow local jurisdictions to set their own speed limits.
July: Letter of support to ask that Caltrans keep a Caltrans truck stationed within our valley year-round.
August: Letter supporting the Sheriff’s Office and the local California Highway Patrol’s efforts to educate our County DA and local judiciary on the necessity of prosecution of arrested individuals.
September: Action item for Jessica to invite CalTrans’ Clean California liaison to attend the next meeting.
November: Letter of support for the Redwood Valley MAC letter regarding PG&E’s overreach in clear-cutting trees along its power line rights-of-way, to be addressed to the Board of Supervisors.
2022
January: Letter to California Transportation Commission in support of the extension of the right-of-way certification process for the bike/walk trail.
January: Letter in support of exempting ham radio repeaters from the proposed fee.
May: Minutes show as DRAFT; and action taken to spend up to $1,000 for Zoom equipment to improve online meetings.
August: Action taken for a MAC table at our Blackberry Festival; approval of printing of planning document for public access; and a letter to the County Transportation Department about “correcting” the road signage to CR numbers and commonly-used names.
September: A second letter in opposition to the bank closure; approval of (draft?) MAC guiding principles (discussion at October meeting as to whether it was approved as draft or final); and a letter to request timely notification to MAC of referrals by the County Planning Department, letter to Community Foundation in support of our disaster preparedness working group’s grant application.
October: Support of Measure P; and hiring of a paid secretary.
Thank you for your consideration,
Mary Jane Cummings
72005 Hill Road
Covelo, CA 95428
707 983-9319
Dear Supervisors,
I was alarmed to hear that there will be discussion and possible action Tuesday to eliminate the Municipal Advisory Councils that serve our County's unincorporated areas. I am surprised this would even be under consideration as our Round Valley Area MAC has been such a valuable means of communication within our community and between our community and County and State offices.
Have you recently found a pot of gold that will allow you to pay County staff to do the same work for outlaying communities that we have been doing in the almost four years we've been meeting?
Even though Covid-19 restrictions have been an issue for much of our existence, our MAC has worked successfully on behalf of our community to communicate our needs and facilitate projects that help our community thrive. Just a small handful of examples include:
-A speed study to demonstrate that people were regularly driving at freeway speeds through residential and school zones, resulting in the installation of improved speed limit/safety signage between Round Valley's Elementary, High School, and Charter Schools
-Installation of a yield sign at an uncontrolled intersection that was the site of numerous wrecks
-Communicating directly with representatives from CHP and CalTrans about unsafe driving that inspired them to install traffic calming measures and allow a pilot program of speed humps in town along Highway 162, part of a CleanCA grant awarded our community. This project is starting in a few weeks
-Working with MGOG and CalTrans to reallocate monies that had "expired" for the Bike and Pedestrian Trail along a stretch of highway where many pedestrians' lives have been lost. This project is currently underway
-Improvements at our transfer station that increased its capacity and a week-long free dump program that significantly cleaned up our town
Some of the above projects will ultimately save lives.
MAC Meetings give the opportunity for motivated individuals to communicate with our Supervisor and learn about grants and projects to help improve our community, to communicate directly with our Sheriff on safety issues that affect us, as well as with reps from MCOG on transportation safety issues, and with State offices.
I am a member of our Fire and Disaster Preparedness Working Group, and we are curating a list of street signs that are damaged or lacking street names to improve emergency response times. Several members of our group are collaborating with the Friends of the Library group to provide (numbered) reflective address signs to members of our community who are elderly, low-income, disabled or US Vets. So far over well over 100 signs have been ordered and/or distributed and installed.
MACs accomplish projects our County Government does not have the time or funding to do on its own. They allow involved citizens a forum for communication and collaboration, and give us a voice that can be heard by County and State offices. MACs are an example of Democracy at work. Now is NOT the time to eliminate the Round Valley Area Municipal Advisory Council.
Thank you,
Pat Sobrero
Covelo/Round Valley