Inside UDJ by Editor K.C. Meadows

I am in Connecticut with Anne Satterthwaite, a good friend who got an email with a pro-McCain poem trashing Obama using "Twas the Night Before Christmas" as a template.
We sat down and wrote the following response:

Twas the night of the elections
And all through The House
Mr. Bush was in hiding
Quiet as a mouse.

We in our bathrobes,
Mac Books in our laps,
We're glad that Obama
Had skirted Rove’s traps.

When all of a sudden
We heard a strange noise,
Our TV was hijacked
By “Fixed” News’s boys.

In a last pitch for Palin,
On this final day,
They tried not to mention
“A Heartbeat Away”

We snapped off that program
We’d heard all their trash
As had untold millions
Who sent in their cash.

To Obama we rallied
We knew from the start
From W’s policies
McCain would not part.

More torture, invasions
So much hyped-up scare,
While Osama takes cover
Safe in his lair.

While our nations’ debt
Achieves a new height,
And medical coverage is way out of sight,
Foreclosures are up,
And job market down,
Businesses failing all over town.

We’ve already tried
Tax cuts for the rich,
And now the American Dream’s
In a ditch.
Financials are falling
And credit is tight,
Trickle down theory
Will never work right!

So we leave you to think....
(And thinking’s a start)
Let’s clean up this mess
WITH SOMEBODY SMART!

Posted by K.C. at 01:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A word to the wise: when you have your ballot in front of you, make sure that you are voting for the person you intend to. The circles to fill in are set just a little below the name of the candidate and I am afraid some people will end up voting for the wrong person if they are not careful. I voted absentee this year since I will be on the East Coast Nov. 4 (I know, ironic, my local poll is reopened and I won't be here) and when I voted my ballot at the county clerk's office I actually had to count down the names, and then count down the circles to make sure I was voting for the person I wanted to vote for.
So BE CAREFUL!
Speaking of polls,l I understand that the clerk's office is having some trouble finding poll workers in the Hopland area. If you can help out, contact them.

Posted by K.C. at 08:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This was on the DDR Web site. As you may know, DDR owns the property where th UKiah Mervyn's store is located.
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Developers Diversified Realty Provides Updates on Mervyns and Additional Disclosures Regarding Balance Sheet Strength
October 20, 2008: 08:00 AM EST

Developers Diversified Realty (NYSE: DDR) ("Company"), the nation's leading owner, developer and manager of market-dominant shopping centers, today provided updates regarding the status of its joint venture investment in stores occupied by Mervyns and additional disclosures with regard to the strength of its balance sheet. Recent speculation regarding both topics has prompted the Company's desire to ensure that the facts are readily available.

Scott A. Wolstein, Developers Diversified's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, stated, "I have learned first-hand through an unfortunate series of margin calls relating to my significant investment in the shares of Developers Diversified that there are potentially severe consequences to an over-leveraged balance sheet in a capital constrained environment. I am committed to applying those lessons to ensure that Developers Diversified meaningfully reduces its financial leverage to enable it to succeed in spite of the challenges of today's capital markets. While I believe we are positioned to meet all of our financial obligations over the next several years, I am extremely committed to taking additional proactive steps, making use of all necessary financial measures, to meaningfully reduce leverage and, in so doing, enhance our financial flexibility and provide additional comfort to both our equity and our fixed income investors."

Mervyns Investment Updates

Developers Diversified also today provided updated information regarding its investment in stores occupied by Mervyns, a privately-owned retailer with 38 locations within the Company's 730-property portfolio. Developers Diversified does not expect its financial results to be materially impacted by the retailer's recent announcement that it would liquidate, due to the protections provided to the Company by letters of credit aggregating over $32 million and significant tenant interest already expressed for the locations currently occupied by Mervyns by numerous higher credit quality retailers.

Investment Summary

Developers Diversified owns 37 real estate locations leased to Mervyns in a consolidated 50% joint venture with Macquarie DDR Trust ("MDT"). These assets were acquired for $407 million and subsequently leased to Mervyns for 15 years at an annual initial triple-net rental rate of $30.5 million, increasing at 2% annually. The transaction was purposefully structured to provide the joint venture with sufficient credit enhancements in the event Mervyns defaulted or declared bankruptcy. The structure also offered a stable income stream with limited operating risk, no financial impact to the Company's corporate overhead, and no additional required capital investment. The specific stores acquired represented less than 20% of Mervyns' entire portfolio at the time of acquisition, and were specifically selected for their locations, quality and potential attractiveness to other retailers.

The acquisition was financed with cross-collateralized mortgage financing, which was exclusively secured by these Mervyns assets and which is non-recourse to Developers Diversified and MDT. Pursuant to the terms of the financing, the variable rate portion of the loan, which has a principal balance of approximately $46 million, was recently extended through October 2009, and has a subsequent extension available at the borrower's option through October 2010. The fixed rate portion of the loan, which is also non-recourse, and which has a principal balance of approximately $213 million, has a concurrent maturity in October 2010.

The equity contribution of the acquisition was funded on a 50% basis each by Developers Diversified and MDT, of which the Company's portion was approximately $75 million. Developers Diversified has already received approximately $25 million in net cash flow after debt service since the Company acquired the portfolio approximately three years ago.

Developers Diversified's investment is protected by two letters of credit available for the benefit of the Company and the joint venture. First, the terms of the acquisition contained a contingent purchase price adjustment secured by a $25 million letter of credit from the seller of the portfolio. This letter of credit has been drawn in full and funds are available for re-tenanting expenses. Second, another approximately $7.5 million letter of credit was provided by Mervyns as security deposits on the Mervyns leases. The Company's aggregate financial exposure, including one wholly-owned asset, is $17.6 million in pro rata annual base revenues, or less than $10 million ($0.08 per share) in net cash flows after debt service. The Company confirms that Mervyns is current on all rental payments through the end of October 2008.

Retenanting Outlook

Since Mervyns' bankruptcy filing was announced in July, Developers Diversified has received strong interest from many retailers interested in leasing or buying space currently occupied by Mervyns. However, Mervyns has not yet rejected any leases, nor has it announced a definitive auction date for many of its locations. Therefore, it is possible that retailers or other interested parties, including owners of adjacent retail assets, may still acquire the Mervyns lease locations through the bankruptcy proceedings, in which case the buyer of such locations will be obligated to perform under the current Mervyns lease and neither the joint venture norDevelopers Diversified would be obligated to spend any funds to retenant such space or would experience any interruption in rental payments.

At the time of acquisition, Developers Diversified and its partner recognized the potential risk associated with Mervyns' credit and underwrote the investment based upon the long-term value of the underlying real estate. The majority of these assets are located in high-quality, market-dominant community centers and enclosed regional malls. Twenty-seven of the Mervyns assets are located in California, with nearly 1.0 million square feet in the Los Angeles metropolitan area and over 500,000 square feet in the San Francisco area. The remaining assets are located in Arizona (5), Nevada (5) and Texas (1). Due to the infill nature of most of these markets where retail sites are extremely difficult to entitle and develop, or costly to acquire, the Company is confident of its ability to retenant the stores that it is able to recapture and aware of several retailers that view the portfolio as an important opportunity to gain market share in markets that are difficult to penetrate.

Balance Sheet Strength

Developers Diversified today provided additional details with respect to its upcoming debt maturities and potential sources of capital that are expected to satisfy its cash needs in 2009 and beyond. In addition, the Company confirms that it is compliant with its debt covenants as of the end of the third quarter and anticipates that it will continue to satisfy these requirements going forward, as it has in its 14 years since receiving its investment grade credit rating. The Company is currently rated BBB with a stable outlook and Baa2 with a stable outlook from Standard & Poor's and Moody's, respectively.

Cash Flow Generation

Developers Diversified's core business of leasing space to well-capitalized retailers continues to perform well, as the Company's primarily discount-oriented tenants gain market share from retailers offering higher price points and offering more discretionary goods. These long-term leases generate consistent and predictable cash flow after expenses, interest payments, and preferred stock dividends of more than $300 million per year. This capital is available for use at the Company's discretion for investment, debt repayment, and the payment of dividends on our common stock.

In addition to this operating cash flow, and notwithstanding the current dislocation in the financial markets, Developers Diversified continues to raise capital from asset sales. The Company is currently in negotiations regarding outright sale of assets to third parties, as well as advanced negotiations regarding the creation of joint ventures with institutional investors through which we extract significant equity from a group of our existing assets. The Company has sold over $100 million of assets year-to-date, including $73 million within the third quarter. The Company has another $69 million of assets under contract for sale and $94 million subject to letters of intent on behalf of itself and its joint ventures. Recent and prospective buyers include local individuals, regional private investors, insurance companies, and large REITs. Despite the challenges in the financial markets, the Company believes that asset sales will continue to generate considerable proceeds.

Developers Diversified also continues to receive proceeds from secured debt financings. Year-to-date, the Company has originated or extended approximately $1.2 billion of mortgage capital, of which approximately $1.1 billion represents new financings. Based on negotiations with lenders currently underway, the Company continues to receive quotes on refinancing and new debt, and anticipates successful financings to continue to occur during the remainder 2008 and throughout 2009, despite the current disruption in the financial markets. Further, some transactional activity continues to occur generally within the broad unsecured corporate debt market, although currently at considerably wider spreads than other forms of financing. The Company has historically actively accessed this market on a regular basis, and will continue to monitor it as the Federal Reserve, U.S. Treasury, and FDIC seek to restore normalcy.

Developers Diversified has $1.325 billion in aggregate capacity on its unsecured corporate credit facilities and, as of September 30, 2008, had $364 million in availability. The credit facilities are funded by more than 30 participating lenders, none of which represents more than 10% of total capacity. The Company also maintains a portfolio of unencumbered, wholly-owned real estate assets, with an estimated value of approximately $5.5 billion, which could provide a future borrowing base or could be sold in order to repay unsecured indebtedness.

Use of Funds

Excluding loans that Developers Diversified has the option to extend, the Company has approximately $400 million of consolidated debt and approximately $350 million of joint venture debt, of which its share is less than $60 million, maturing in 2009. Unsecured indebtedness comprises approximately $275 million of the 2009 aggregate amount. Total consolidated and joint venture debt maturing in 2010 without extension options aggregate approximately $2.0 billion, of which the Company's share is approximately $1.2 billion. Approximately $500 million of the 2010 aggregate amount is comprised of unsecured indebtedness. The great majority of the secured debt is non-recourse to the Company. Notably, no significant maturities occur from February 2009 through April 2010, thereby providing considerable time to ensure that all future maturities can be appropriately addressed.

With respect to capital expenditures, Developers Diversified has significantly reduced expected spending related to its development and redevelopment portfolios. Further, the Company views this form of expenditure to be completely discretionary. The Company is able to control capital expenditures by phasing construction until a sufficient level of pre-leasing is achieved and financing is in place.

Development spending on projects in Russia is expected to be suspended for 2009 and potentially beyond. No additional spending will occur unless and until locally-funded construction loans become available on commercially acceptable terms. Development spending in Brazil is also expected to be curtailed and further expenditures will only be funded from recycling internally generated joint venture capital. The Company's highly leased shopping center in Manaus will open in April 2009 and additional development projects are not expected to commence in the immediate future.

The Company intends to utilize a combination of equity raised from expected asset sales, including sales to joint ventures, retained capital, and existing and prospective financings to fund its debt maturities and, to the extent the Company determines appropriate, any incremental capital expenditures. While the Company reviews numerous investment opportunities at highly favorable pricing and terms, it does not expect to invest significant capital in these projects until debt maturities are appropriately addressed. Moreover, in the unlikely event that the capital markets remain indefinitely closed, the Company believes that it can rely on its free cash flow, asset sales, and unencumbered asset pool as sources of funding.

Developers Diversified Realty owns and manages approximately 730 retail operating and development properties in 45 states, plus Puerto Rico, Brazil, Russia, and Canada, totaling approximately 157 million square feet. The Company is a self-administered and self-managed real estate investment trust (REIT) operating as a fully integrated real estate company which acquires, develops and leases shopping centers. Additional information about Developers Diversified Realty is available on the Internet at http://www.ddr.com.

Macquarie DDR Trust (ASX: MDT) ("MDT") is an Australian Real Estate Investment Trust which is managed by an affiliate of Macquarie Group Limited (ASX: MQR), an international investment bank, advisor and manager of specialized real estate funds, and Developers Diversified.

Developers Diversified Realty Corporation considers portions of this information to be forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, both as amended, with respect to the Company's expectation for future periods. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that its expectations will be achieved. For this purpose, any statements contained herein that are not historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. There are a number of important factors that could cause the results of the Company to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements, including, among other factors, local conditions such as oversupply of space or a reduction in demand for real estate in the area; competition from other available space; dependence on rental income from real property; the loss of a major tenant; constructing properties or expansions that produce a desired yield on investment; our ability to sell assets oncommercially acceptable terms; our ability to secure equity or debt financing on commercially acceptable terms; our ability to enter into definitive agreements with regard to our financing and joint venture arrangements or our failure to satisfy conditions to the completion of these arrangements. For additional factors that could cause the results of the Company to differ materially from these indicated in the forward-looking statements, please refer to the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly revise these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that arise after the date hereof.

Contact:
Michelle M. Dawson
Vice President of Investor Relations
Developers Diversified Realty
Email: Email Contact
Phone: (216) 755-5500

Posted by K.C. at 01:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

All I can say is, if we are going to bail out homeowners who spent too much on homes they could not afford, then I want the government to make whole my 401k account too. In the past three weeks my husband and I have lost almost half of what we had set aside so far for our retirement (which WAS going to be in just a few years for my husband). We were encouraged to do this as responsible Americans. (And believe me, I know we are not alone.) I'm not demanding a bailout per se, but if we are getting to the point of bailing out people with mortgages, I am just as at-risk if I have no money for my golden years. Come to think of it, Purina sounds like a good company to invest in right now.

Posted by K.C. at 10:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A local reader stopped by the office to show me something he had just purchased at the North State Street Republican Party Headquarters: a "$3 bill" made to look like real US currency with Barack Obama's face on the front in Arabic headress. There are a lot of other just plain stupid political references on the bill, like the signature of Teddy Kennedy as "Chief Socialist Advisor," but it is the clear, bigoted, racist prejudice of the bill's portrait of Obama of which all Republicans should be thoroughly ashamed and I find it really shocking that our own local Republicans would buy into such a stunt. It does nothing to advance any serious views you have and reveals you as not only desperate, but unprincipled.

Posted by K.C. at 04:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

As someone of the following generation who still thought Paul Newman one of the most attractive men in the world but also No. 1 on the all around good guys list, I was really sad this morning to log on to the Internet and find that he had died. His death was not unexpected. It was widely known that he was very sick. Last month New Yorker magazine did a story on him that was clearly a prelude to his obit, but somehow the reality of it is hard to swallow.
The world is just not as good a place today as it was yesterday.
If more people could do what they loved in life, be true to their spouse for decades, raise their children to care about the future and just give away to good causes the money they don't really need, what a world this would be.

Posted by K.C. at 09:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Remember Chris Stone, the man who is trying to build some housing at the south end of town and getting the runaround from the county? The last time I wrote about him he was awaiting a promised meeting with county officials. Right after that episode it turns out that the county decided it can't talk to him directly anymore because at some point in his addresses to supervisors he said something about having to resort to some legal action if the county continues to jerk him around. So, the county, instead of meeting with him as promised turned around and said, oh no, now we can't meet with you because you are a potential lawsuit.
That is a twisted, stupid attitude and one that just confirms why no one wants to come to this county to try to create jobs, or desperately needed housing or anything else. When someone actually does file suit against the county, then by all means go to your corners, but to cut off communications with someone hiding behind "you might sue us" is cowardly and uncalled for.

Posted by K.C. at 08:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Although the school doesn't really want to talk about it, on Wednesday some six or seven Willits High School students were sent to the principal's office, reportedly under the influence of pot brownies. Ambulances were called to take them to the hospital for what was termed on the emergency scanner "marijuana brownies overdose." Later it was learned that while the ambulances were called, the students were not sent to hospital and it may be that only one student was really under the influence. One high school student (not one of the seven) asked the next day if he knew what had happened, explained that the pot brownies in question were made with pure marijuana bud rather than hash oil, and commented that "Everyone KNOWS you can't make them with bud, you have to use hash oil."

Posted by K.C. at 08:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here's my question. With the State of California telling us they can't spend money, and with no budget in sight, where's Caltrans getting the money to repave miles of Highway 101 between Ukiah and Hopland - which by the way, didn't look like they needed repaving anyway. And doing it at night when you know all those workers are making gajillion-time dollars. I have been traveling all week between Ukiah and Willits and if Caltrans wants to repave something they should have started at Calpella and headed north. The slow lane between the bottom of Willits Grade and Calpella is terrible. (The fast lane is fine but that never means Caltrans skips repaving it anyway.)
But the worst of Highway 101 can't compare to most of the county's roads. This is where taxpayers throw up their hands and say government simply doesn't work: Caltrans has multimillions to repave pretty good roads and the county has no money to repave terrible roads. When you ask why, government officials tell you it's because Caltrans' money comes from some different pot of cash and can't be interchanged with the money from the lowly counties. What taxpayers however see, is their tax dollars being spent with no apparent sense of proportion or need.
You can translate that into just about any sector of government and there's not much secret about why taxpayers get riled up about government waste and inefficiency.

Posted by K.C. at 07:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For those who are going to be glued to convention coverage in the coming week, be aware that at the UDJ we have on our opening Web page all the coverage from our sister paper The Denver Post. Go to www.ukiahdailyjournal.com and you can click into the section and get the complete Denver Post coverage of the Democratic convention.
When the Republicans convene in Minnesota the week after, I believe we will have the same Web site access on our opening page from our sister paper in St. Paul.
So you can get all the convention coverage in the coming weeks right from www.ukiahdailyjournal.com.
We will also have stories from our own correspondent Tim Riley who will be attending both conventions on our behalf and will be looking to connect with Mendocino County residents there. If you know anyone locally who will be at either convention, email me their contact info at udjkcm@pacific.net and I'll make sure TIm gets it so he can talk to them while they're there.

Posted by K.C. at 09:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As happens here at the Daily Journal from time to time, we are having a splash of turnover in our newsroom staff. Some of you may have noticed the byline of David Minton. He is our new education reporter. He will cover Ukiah Unified School District, Mendocino Community College and The Mendocino County Office of Education. Also he will cover a variety of other things like children and youth, health and transportation, and write features. His phone number is 468-3522 and his email will be udjdm@pacific.net as soon as I get it set up - which should be today.
Our law enforcement and courts reporter Ben Brown is leaving us Aug. 29 for San Jose and we have a Humboldt State journalism school about-to-be-graduate Zack Cinek coming in. Zack hails from Willits and will serve a five-week internship with us to fulfill his last semester of course work. We hope to make him a permanent part of our staff at the end of that time. He will takeover the police/court beat. That beat also includes agriculture and the environment. After Aug. 29 contact Zack at 468-3521 or udjzc@pacific.net
Our sports editor Anthony Dion is leaving us for a new job in Colorado. His last day is Saturday. On Sunday I will become sports editor for a time so expect the sports pages to be abbreviated until we find a replacement. I have interviewed six candidates from all around the U.S. this week and will offer the job to someone today. If I get an acceptance this weekend I hope to have a new sports editor in place by mid Sept. at the latest. In the meantime all you sports coaches, parents and players, please use our web site sports reporting feature or call up at 468-3518 to report scores or just email udjsports@pacific.net with your game reports. I will have a photographer out and about shooting local games but I won't always have the results right away unless people call in. I will have no one to actually cover games. Our part time sports writer position is also still open, so anyone locally who wants to write sports and can learn to lay out pages on our Quark desktop publishing system should come into the office at 590 S. School St and fill out an application.

Posted by K.C. at 08:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here's a press release we got today:

“For Better or For Worse” Sets Date to Start Over with New Material

Kansas City, MO (Aug. 13, 2008)—Calling the next phase of her comic strips "new-runs," Lynn Johnston announced that beginning Monday, Sept. 1, her immensely popular "For Better or For Worse" will start over again. Using new comic strips drawn in the style she used 29 years ago when the Patterson family first appeared on comic pages, Johnston will begin retelling their story from the beginning, eventually blending at least half of the classic original comic strips with new material.

Johnston explains her approach and talks about why changes in her personal life led her to back off from earlier plans to retire on a video posted on YouTube.com. Please copy and paste this url into your Web browser: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUzkOxgmmc4

“Everything in September is new,” said Johnston, "the punch lines, the drawing, all are new. The only thing retro is the way I'm drawing everything. I want it to flow into the classic material seamlessly.”

“This first year, the ratio of old to new will be at least 50-50,” explains Johnston. “I want this to be the best thing I’ve ever done, and I’m having so much fun drawing Lizzie as a baby again and revisiting all the characters.”

“For a generation of new readers unfamiliar with ‘For Better or For Worse,’ it’s a chance to begin an exciting journey; for current fans, it’s a chance to relive their favorite episodes,” says Lee Salem, president and editor of Universal Press Syndicate, Johnston’s syndicate. One such episode is the adoption of Farley, the Patterson’s beloved dog. That will come in October.

For the past year, Lynn Johnston’s widely syndicated comic strip has been a blend of new and old storylines.

“At first I thought that I could segue back and forth from today to yesterday, but that became very confusing. Some people really enjoyed it and some just wanted us to get on with the story,” she says.

Johnston will select material from her collection of almost 10,000 archival strips to help retell the Patterson family's story as her longtime fans remember it, pausing in spots to update references that seem confusing or even to flesh out characters she didn't explore in the first telling.

"I'm starting right at the very beginning—when Elizabeth was a little crawling baby and couldn’t say too much, and Michael was in kindergarten,” she adds. “I’m a better storyteller now, and I want to … improve the storyline or take a piece of art and make it better. What a luxury to change, fix and to augment. I'm such a perfectionist; I want to put my hands on it and have it tweaked here and there.”

Johnston says that a change in her marital status changed her mind about retiring completely.

"At this time in my life I thought I would be on a cruise ship to Panama or the Mediterranean, retired with my Tilley hats, my sneakers. But I’m a single lady now, and I want to keep working,” she says. “Because I don't have to work 365 days of new material into a year, I can still take some time off to paint and travel.”

“I’m considering this a renewal, not a retirement,” she adds.

Over the years, not only did her characters age in real time in the strip, but Johnston’s art style changed, too.

“When I first started the strip, the comic’s style was fast and loose, probably because I was so busy and I had to get it out fast,” she says. “It had a happy freedom to it. What I’m experiencing now by redrawing, it’s almost like I’m drawing portraits. I'm changing John's jaw. And over the years, Elly's nose grew up to the size of a potato. Now, I'm drawing it smaller again, the way it was when I first started to draw. There is a huge difference between the earlier and the later styles.”

“For Better or For Worse” has been syndicated since December 1979. In 1985, Johnston became the first woman to receive the Reuben Award for Cartoonist of the Year from the National Cartoonists Society. She has also received the Order of Canada and claims a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame. This summer, Johnston was inducted into the "Giants of the North" -- the Canadian Cartoonists' Hall of Fame. She lives in Ontario.

"For Better or For Worse" now appears in more than 2,000 papers around the world. Read by people of all ages, the award-winning comic strip deals honestly with both the lighthearted and the serious, and has effectively brought families together for laughter, tears and dialogue. Johnston has produced 46 books about her strip, and her strip has been adapted into six animated television specials and a popular animated series.

Biographical information and more can be found at www.amuniversal.com/ups and www.fbofw.com . Daily strips are posted on www.gocomics.com .

Posted by K.C. at 03:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I got back from a wonderful vacation at a beach house back east to find the surprising news about John Enquist, the long time Mendocino County Winegrowers Alliance director who went on to become the head of the newly formed Mendocino Winegrape and Wine Commission.
According to the press release from the Commission which we reported on when it came out the first week in August, Enquist allegedly misappropriated about $200,000 from the new Commission funds. The Commission and Enquist apparently came to a settlement after a state audit of the books as Enquist is not being prosecuted and the press release indicated he is not accepting any official liability. However he did repay the commission $217,803.82. What he was doing with that money will forever be a mystery to most of us I guess.
The Commission says it now has some new auditing procedures in place that will prevent whatever didn't happen from happening again.
The release also indicates that Enquist was terminated from his job last December, when at the time the public was told he was just moving on and they threw a big party for him.
I know that the business community hates bad news and a brand new commission already having a financial scandal doesn't help, but it also looks just as bad for the public to find out after the fact that all this was going on. I know everyone is always worried about someone suing someone and they have to be careful not to make a formal accusation in public against someone they weren't willing to formally accuse before the law.
They got their money back, so they just want to put it behind them.
Enquist obviously had the money on hand to give back to them and he was willing to pay the additional expenses of the recovery of the funds so he's no doubt glad to have the thing behind him too. Nothing has to go on his record or his resume. Unfortunately, Google will still be around and the reporting on this will be out there in cyberspace forever.
I assume the press release was approved by him or his legal representatives.
I am amazed at John. I worked with him on a couple of local projects and saw him several times a year and liked him when he was with the Winegrowers. He was always a good source for news on the local wine business. Why would anyone get tangled up in something like this? It makes no sense.

Posted by K.C. at 06:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Those who were sitting in the June 10 Board of Supervisors meeting heard from a local man who has been severely abused by the county's planning department and who has still to get any relief. Chris Stone has been trying since January of 2007 to build a little over 200 homes - some houses, some apartments -- on 50 acres at the south end of Ukiah across from the Redwood Health Club. The land is already zoned for exactly his kind of project and the project, by all accounts is well-designed, uses advanced sewer discharge systems, anticipates solar use and carves out a retail space for perhaps a local store. It has the lower, mdidle and upper income homes all together and from what I can gather is exactly the kind of development local politicians say they need and want.
So what does the county planning department do? It stalls and ignores Mr. Stone, demands unnecessary studies and generally makes the man spend hundreds of thousands of dollars without any sign that his project will move forward. Mr. Stone produced the environmental studies - although the project should really get a negative declaration since it's a zoned use - and based them on not only what the county's rules currently demand but used more challenging assumptions than the county would have.
What does the county planning department do? It decides to demand new studies based on what it thinks it might have in the Ukiah Valley Area Plan at some future date. And everyone knows the UVAP is far from being ready to adopt.
So Mr. Stone very politely - for someone who could and probably should have been raging much sooner - went to the Board of Supervisors and complained. The county planning department pretended to be on top of the situation, and supervisors promised Mr. Stone that he would get action from the tippy top, the CEO himself.
Mr. Stone tried to schedule meetings with the CEO to no avail. So he went back to the supervisors in July and lo and behold the county administration suddenly scheduled a meeting and acted like they'd never seen him waiting hopefully in their anterooms.
How that July 17 meeting went is unknown as of now, but Mr. Stone has another gab session in August.
County Planning Director Ray Hall is retiring in days - as far as I'm concerned he should have been retired after the Vichy Springs development debacle in the early 1990s. The county now has an opportunity to recharge its planning department - and not with $177,000 a year consultants and not with anyone who has been working in the department under Hall's "leadership." The county needs a talented planner who it will allow to be creative, but demand be responsive and who will lead the county into the future. This county's reputation for micromanagement, anti-developer sentiment and political mayhem will make that person difficult to find.

Posted by K.C. at 07:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)