County discusses COVID-19 updates, fire safety and cannabis
UKIAH » The Mendocino Board of Supervisors met Tuesday, Sept. 22, to discuss it’s bi-monthly COVID-19 updates, implement a new fire safety evacuation plan, and begin a discussion on how they plan on salvaging the county’s cannabis cultivation permitting program.
Before diving into these subjects, the board was met with multiple public comments, many regarding a closed session item where the board discussed with property negotiators the purchase of a South Orchard Ave. property, in Ukiah.
The property is being considered to be converted into affordable housing for individuals with housing insecurity. Many members of the public expressed concern for their own properties surrounding the area, citing noise, waste and drug use as already being a problem, and they fear it will get worse with the development of the affordable housing property.
The board proceeded to authorize the acquisition of the property during their closed session.
Megan Van Sant, a senior program manager with the Advocacy and Collaboration Team at the Mendocino Health and Human Services Agency, explained the circumstances of the project following the board’s decision.
“This project is not a homeless shelter … it is also not free housing … It’s not going to solve the problem of homeless encampments that some of your previous public commenters described,” she said. “I do think it’s going to be somewhat of a leap of faith, but something we can ultimately be proud of.”
Supervisor John McCowen pulled a handful of items fromthe consent calendar for discussion, including an item that ratifies
the purchase agreement of a Ukiah property for use as an alternative care site for isolation and quarantine, according to McCowen.
“Currently there is no one in the facility for those services, and then after the pandemic, the board will have the opportunity to repurpose it for another use, and I thought staff might comment briefly on the intended future use,” McCowen said.
According to Janelle Rau, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, the Health and Human Services agency is considering using the property for alcohol and other drug treatment for women, pregnant people and youth.
The board moved to adopt the remainder of the consent calendar, aside from the few items pulled for later discussion. They then moved on to discuss various county disaster updates, including COVID-19 and wildfire-related issues.
According to Dr. Andy Coren, Mendocino Health Officer, the county still remains in the purple tier, but is on track to reduce its status to red and begin phases of reopening.
The county has had 875 confirmed COVID-19 cases, four are currently in the hospital, with two in the intensive care unit as of 7 p.m. Monday. Two additional patients are in ICUs outside of the county. Mendocino county has had 18 coronavirus-related deaths.
“There continues to be a considerable disparity with the Hispanic-Latino population suffering more from this illness andwe are working aggressively on that,” he said
While Mendocino saw a good week, recent cases have presented cause for concern, according to Coren. Fowler Auto Center in Ukiah has been the location of an outbreak, with 20 cases. Four minors have also tested positive, raising concerns about potential outbreaks in schools.
“We're checking on the schools that they attend to see if it actually constitutes an outbreak. It is concerning because we're on the verge of trying to open schools, and we don't know exactly what the effect is going to be on the student population, and of course the staff and their families,” Coren said.
Coren also issued an updated Shelter-In-Place-Order, which condensed the order to reduce redundancy with state orders, it “removes nearly all local restrictions specific to the local tourism Industry,” which includes hotels and campgrounds, and “removed the restriction requiring restaurants, wineries, and tasting rooms to discontinue serving alcohol at 8:00 p.m.” according to the order. Local businesses still must adhere to state restrictions and operate outside.
Following other COVID updates from staff, Mendocino County Sherif Matt Kendall gave an update on the August Complex fires, which has burned more than 878,000 acres with 45 percent containment— as of Monday morning.
CalFire, in collaboration with local sheriffs, requested an extra 125personnel from the State and National Guard to help. Despite this, Kendall said there are still areas of the fire which are dangerous and high risk, especially on windy days.
“We're looking really good for Mendocino County but we're simply not out of the woods yet,” he said.
After further discussion and a brief recess, the board moved on to discuss a Wildfire Vulnerability Assessment, a Public Outreach Plan and an Evacuation Plan.
The assessment measures the fire risk of different areas of the county, based on different factors including risk and fire history, and outlines emergency preparedness plans, including evacuation procedures. It also lists specific improvements .that could be implemented W to reduce risk in certain areas.
Supervisors Ted Williams and Carre Brown expressed concern about the funding for the safety improvement items listed and recognition of areas not labeled as highrisk by the assessment.
Brentt Blaser, Emergency Services Coordinator, and Bob Newman, with Category Five Professional Consultants, reiterated that they are going to continue to revise and revisit aspects of the assessment.
While the board voted unanimously to adopt the item, Vice-Chair Dan Gjerde pointed out that fixing significant infrastructure issues will be a drawn- out process.
“Many of the problems that were identified in the plan were created over decades, and not every problem is going to be resolved even in a couple of decades,” Gjerde said. “When whole communities are built with one road in and one road out over a period of many decades, there's quite a bit of infrastructure that's just lacking … It's just not possible to undo all of the errors that were made in the past, in a matter of a year or two.”
Supervisor Brown and Scott Cratty, Director of the Mendocino County Fire Safe Council, then brought forward an item asking for direction on how to draft an ordinance addressing code changes in order for local authorities to enforce abatement of hazardous plant material and brush on private properties in order to reduce fire risk.
Following this, the board discussed garbage management in the City of Mendocino, where members of the public have been leaving large amounts of garbage in and around public receptacles. The board voted unanimously to install locks on the receptacles, continue additional garbage pick-up days and coordinate with the sheriff's office for enforcement.
They then move on to tackle issues surrounding cannabis cultivation permitting, presented to the board by the Cannabis Ad Hoc Committee consisting of Williams and Board Chair John Haschak.
“This has felt a bit like a post-mortem exercise trying to identify how the failures came about,” Williams said. “It seems that the failurewas a composite of state policy, county execution, applicant documentation and their ability to follow the ordinance, and inherent complexity in the process.”
Williams pointed out issues surrounding California Environmental Quality Act requirement costs, poor record-keeping and short staffing, among other issues, which have clogged up the permitting system.
With the permitting deadline approaching, Mendocino county's legal cannabis production — a program which brings the county about $5 million a year — could be at risk, according to Williams.
“The adhoc is not making a proposal, just highlighting that either we need to step up and execute, which means fund execution, or we won't get this done in time,” he said. “The current deadline is Jan. 1, 2022, at which point only state annual license holders will be in a position to continue cultivating.”
The board voted unanimously to adopt the recommendations of the ad hoc committee and willmeet on Oct. 13 for a special meeting regarding the topic.
The Mendocino Board of Supervisors will meet again for a regular meeting on Oct. 6 at 9 a.m.