I'm a Libertarian living in Humboldt County, CA. I've lived here in Eureka since 1973 and joined the Libertarian Party in 1992. This blog will mostly focus on local political issues, but I may stray into state and national issues as well, when I can't help myself. Please post your comments by clicking on the "comments" link at the bottom of each post. Although I do moderate comments, you need not be a registered user to post them.
I'll agree with Pete Nichols of Humboldt Baykeeper on this one. Paying $100,000 a year for a Director of Maritime Commerce seems a bit silly when only two ships a month come to Humboldt Bay.
posted by Fred Mangels @ 8:10 AM
23 comments
23 Comments:
The Eye regularly reports on the Harbor District meetings. There's only one sensible guy on the board and he is routinely voted down. Until the media (bigger than the Eye) casts light on what happens at those meetings, you'll continue to see money spent this way.
I've noticed that but, in fairness to the other papers, I did read about this earlier on in either the Reporter or Times- Standard. I forget which.
It got my attention at the time but something else got even more attention, otherwise I would have mentioned it here back then.
How nice of Mike Wilson to post that first comment praising himself. Like the Eye's Hoover he is another one of these narcissists who pollute the local blogs.
Most of these 4-1 votes happen when Wilson votes against something because it might just possibly help the railroad. As usual with these Arcata yuppie pricks, putting their own kind on a roomier bike trail is more important than providing real mass transit options for children, seniors and the disabled.
I bitched about the County librarian's salary in an E.R. column and got a nasty response from one of the underling librarians that the guy's salary was well worth the $89,000 or whatever it was because of his expertise and knowledge.
Now I ask you, when was the last time you went to the main library and got "expert knowledge" from the librarian s there? You're lucky if they wait on you and I swear the difference in attitude between main librarians and your little town librarians is amazing.
The townie librarians are doing the lion's share of interpersonal dialog between readers and librarians and they're are always nice helpful people, at least all the ones I've met.
What's their salaries compared to the $89,000 per for the main librarian?
And in terms of customer service, amounts of information to keep track of, that $89,000 librarian couldn't hold a candle to the Burger King manager in Fortuna who has to make sure 1000s of meals are prepared on time, money receipts correct, employee relationships ok, etc, etc, compare that to the slow walk around the library to file a book in the correct place..
If we continue to tie our executive salaries to other more prosperous area salaries we will only make the brain drain happen faster where locals go to the higher salaries.
Cull the materialists out at the beginning I say and let those really dedicated to community service fill the jobs and move up in position as they deserve.
Well the NCRA got caught with its pants down. Telling everyone up and down the 300 miles of track different stories and then telling the California Transportation Commission something different (not unlike the Harbor District).
Freight trains raise ruckus in Novato
Supervisors back new analysis of Novato freight train plan
Plan To Move Trash By Rail In North Bay Under Fire
Screw the NCRA, but those tracks have innate value over and above how those fools can mismanage it. Why is local light rail so unimaginable? Have you seen how damn crowded those buses get during the school year?
Haha 10:02, I'm not Mike Wilson. How sad of you to bring your Buhne Tribune antics over here. Please, go home troll.
Anyone reading the Eye would arrive at the same conclusion... the board is whack, but no one cares about it because, what the hell do they do besides spend money anyway? Board membership is one of those things you see on the ballot and don't give a damn about. So if no one gives a damn, it's really easy to end up with $100K positions being created because, where's the oversight? I think the Eye only covers that group because the reporter is a surfer.
Oh, and 10:02, go ahead and proceed to tell me I'm Hoover, or Arkley or whomever lives in your conspiracy fantasy world.
I attend those meetings. Its a joke. For the first half hour you listen to Ronnie Pelligrini talk about her recent camping trip and the Charles Olivier goes off on the good ol days of shipping... and how it all will come back. His chest get pumped with pride and eyes close to tears.
That board is delusional.
The fact that even Fred is questioning the expense tells you something about that board.
The fact that you people believe anything you read in the Eye is proof enough you live in a world of one-sided delusion. Kevin has propped up Mike Wilson ever since he ran for the seat, and will keep on doing so no matter how stupid and obstructionist he gets. Thankfully the rest of the county doesn't rely on Arcata to figure out their transit needs. Just look how mismanaged and badly built that Arcata Transit Center is.
In 1:00's fantasy world Kevin Hoover built the intermodal transit facility. Uh huh. He's only on record multiple times decrying its crappy-from-inception design. Time to stop popping Quaaludes, my friend.
If I was Mayor things would change a lot in Arcata.
Like everyone leaving town?
Nick, things would be much simpler if you would simply declare the 1-inch layer of air around your body to be your own independent nation. Pick up a crown from Burger King and declare yourself a monarchy.
Hey Stephen, check it out- there are two kinds of people in the world:those with brains and ability and those who couldn't pass the civil service test. The latter usually end up in the Taxpayer's League or whining on blogs.
Stephen, theres alot more to running a library then helping some old washed out fool find Mein Kampf.
Hey there 1:00
You should talk to Dave Maserve. He is right there with you. Read his letter in the NCJ.
Meserve knows less about this issue than he knows about his butt hole. If he really attended the meetings (as I did) he would know there is no way to build the trail along side the rail. Further more it is more likely (if ever in any of our lifetimes) to build light rail down the center of 101 than on the NCRA ROW.
8:23 and 9:12 are completely right. HumCo Government has unfilled positions because qualified persons don't like what is on offer.
Previously the County would have just hired unqualified persons, from the local losers and whiners. Can't do that now since new residents know their rights and the legal liability of County incompetence is too great.
Incompetance is why Fred and his ilk were let go and are now unemployed welfare recipients. Hopefully he'll move from HumCo to Trinity County and increase the average IQ in both places.
Please listen carefully. The NCRA wants the rail for FREIGHT. There will never be a light rail on those tracks for mass transit. That is just the shiny thing dangling in front of your eyes meant to confuse and distract you.
With what is happening in Marin there doesn't look like a very bright future for the NCRA.
COOS BAY - Port officials aren't allowed even to speak the company's name, at least not in public. The company hasn't said publicly that Coos Bay is its preferred destination. The railway hasn't committed to the $150 million in needed improvements to make the project work. The federal government is years away from signing off on any number of obstacles to the biggest single industrial development the South Coast has ever seen.
Building a $500 million to $700 million facility for large shipping containers in a port in this remote locale requires a certain amount of faith.
But if the pieces keep falling into place, this project could transform the local economy in ways not seen since the raging demand for timber products after World War II.
Port officials are negotiating with APM Terminals North America, the U.S. arm of the world's largest shipping company, Dutch-based A.P. Moller-Maersk Group, to bring as many as 2 million shipping containers to Coos Bay's North Spit each year - five times as many as the Port of Portland.
The project would provide as many as 2,500 permanent local jobs and pump almost $130 million in wages into the state economy. Average wages for those jobs are expected to be $52,000, according to a port-commissioned economic development study. The study also projected that indirect effects could mean 10,000 new jobs statewide, many of them in Eugene - the containers' first stop after being taken off ships and loaded onto trains.
The containers carry products such as electronics, clothing and other goods to the United States from abroad.
"The more rail transportation we get in this area (the more it) will help not only with the specific jobs created, but in beefing up the rail access we already have," said Jack Roberts, executive director of the Lane Metro Partnership, the county's leading economic development agency. "We can get more shipments, the timing is better. ... Rail access is one of the things a lot of companies are now looking for in terms of location decisions, because trucking is not as competitive with high gas prices."
APM Terminals operates container terminals in 45 ports, according to the company's Web site, and handled more than 28 million containers in 2006 - a growth of more than 18 percent in a year.
"This is huge," said State Sen. Joanne Verger, D-Coos Bay. "It's as big as anything the state of Oregon has had happen for a long time."
Last week the Legislature sent to Gov. Ted Kulongoski a bill that sets aside $60 million in lottery funding to deepen the shipping channel in Coos Bay from 37 to 51 feet. It is a mammoth task and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is being asked to match that money with $60 million in federal funds, and sign off on the environmental impacts of a dig that would make Coos Bay's channel deeper than the Columbia River.
Verger is confident that the Corps will play ball, but even if it doesn't, she said, APM has agreed to put up the $60 million itself. The company also has agreed to reimburse the state every penny of its investment if the facility isn't built by 2019.
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