County Supervisors meet for first time in new year
UKIAH » The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors reconvened for their first meeting of the year on Jan. 5. While the meeting was mostly organizational, the board addressed the freezer failure which resulted in the rushed distribution of more than 800 COVID-19 vaccines, as well as a proposal to hire an additional 10 officers to the county sheriff’s department in response to drug trafficking and organized crime.
To open the meeting, the board voted 4th District Supervisor Dan Gjerde in as the board chair, and 5th District Supervisor Ted Williams as vice-chair.
Maureen Mulheren and Glenn McGourty were sworn in on Jan. 4 as the 1st and 3rd District supervisors, respectively.
Following public expression, the board discussed the county’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the first weeks of vaccine distribution.
As of Jan. 5, Mendocino County had 2,663 COVID-19 cases, with 1,413 of them members of the Latinx community, according to Public Health Officer Dr. Andrew Coren. Total case numbers have increased by about 25 percent since Dec. 15, and there have now been 31 deaths.
While other outbreaks are being mitigated or have been contained, 80 inmates and 12 staff members have tested positive for coronavirus at the Mendocino County Jail, according to Coren, making it the largest outbreak in the county.
On the heels of this outbreak, the county faced another challenge when a freezer containing 830 Moderna vaccines at Adventist Health Ukiah Valley Medical Center failed early Jan. 4. The failure resulted in the rushed distribution of all doses throughout the county within the 12 hours before they expired at 2 p.m., according to Judson Howe, Chief Executive Officer of Adventist Health.
“We pulled together to make this difficult situation actually a success,” Adventist Health Medical Officer Dr. Bessant Parker said. “I quickly called Dr. Coren to get an OK to open it up beyond the tiers so that we would not waste any vaccines. At that point, what was key was to save vaccines.”
Adventist Health has since replaced the malfunctioning freezer and has tested the new one, as well as spread large quantities of vaccines out to additional freezers to ensure the incident does not happen again, according to Parker.
“Mendocino County Public Health is working diligently to ensure access to our vaccines,” Department Operations Center Manager Bekkie Emery said, explaining that county public health, which is partnered with Adventist Health, is working to better monitor vaccine freezer temperatures.
Following the COVID-19 update, the board moved on to adopt the majority of the consent calendar, except for one item which establishes a $100,000 agreement with Dr. Noemi Doohan, for County Deputy Public Health Officer services.
Mulheren, who pulled the item, inquired about additional options to fund other county health positions and said she would like to see the county hire a local Deputy Public Health Officer, since Doohan is not located within Mendocino County.
“I appreciate the need for Dr. Doohan’s services at this time but I think that a year-long contract leaves it too open-ended without having the resources in Mendocino County,” she said.
The board voted to approve the agreement, with Mulheren dissenting.
The supervisors also directed staff to revise the county’s 2021 Legislative Platform with the assistance of McGourty and Williams.
Board Supervisor John Haschak brought forward an item which suggests the formation and discussion of a long term strategic plan for the county, after receiving vision statements from the county departments over the last year.
Chief Executive Officer Carmel Angelo said county staff supported the formation of a long-term strategic plan.
“I’ve been here for 14 years and I’d love to see a strategic plan come from this board,” she said. “The board is the leadership and I think that what the staff want is to see a strategic plan and to see that direction come from this board.”
The board voted unanimously to approve the item.
One of the final items the board discussed was a proposal to hire an additional 10 deputies to the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Department over a three year period at a cost of just over $4 million, in order to address organized crime and illegal marijuana grows within the county.
County Sheriff Matt Kendall said in terms of drug trafficking violence, his officers are finding those involved are increasingly well-armed and equipped with protective gear.
“This is a pretty frightening thought,” he said. “We’ve run into a lot of people who are much better equipped to fight us than what we would like to see.”
The Sheriff’s Department’s Domestic Cannabis Eradication and Suppression Program eradicated 49 illegal grow sites, totaling in over 225,000 plants, 55,000 pounds of bulk processed marijuana, and 183 arrests in 2020.
The program currently only has one sergeant assigned to it and is extremely overworked, according to Kendall, who emphasized that his department and the county need to address other factors in addition to the proposed increased staffing.
Based on anecdotal evidence, he said he believes the department has remained approximately the same size for the last 50 years.
Williams said while it seems the Sheriff’s department hasn’t grown in the last 50 years, the county’s crime numbers remain relatively flat and do not yet reflect the threat of drug trafficking violence. He also said he was unsure of where the county would find funding without taking it from other departments.
The board concluded with a unanimous vote to have Williams and Haschak work with the department to better document and visualize evidence of organized crime within the county before asking for state assistance.
The Board of Supervisors will meet again on Jan. 25 at 1:30 p.m. for a limited meeting.
The Sheriff’s Department’s Domestic Cannabis Eradication and Suppression Program eradicated 49 illegal grow sites, totaling in over 225,000 plants, 55,000 pounds of bulk processed marijuana, and 183 arrests in 2020.