Inside UDJ by Editor K.C. Meadows

As I was driving to Philo for my radio show last Thursday night at KZYX, I was delighted at a row of homes at the west end of Boonville which are decked out beautifully in Christmas lights. If you have time, go to Boonville via 128 from Cloverdale or the Mountain House Road cutoff from Hopland and you'll also see some spectacular light arrays around Yorkville too. Good going you Boonville and Yorkville residents whoever you are. It's a treat.

Speaking of the radio show, I didn't have a guest so I opened the phones lines and the conversation got right onto the subject of a slaughterhouse in the UKiah Valley area. Absent any real proposal from anyone, it's just guess work at this point but I was glad to hear at least a couple of callers who seem to have an open mind about the need for a meat processing facility here in our area where we can get local animals slaughtered humanely, and environmentally soundly and be able to have a sustainable meat market right here. Not to mention leather goods and other byproducts.
It would be a shame it seems to me to have this opportunity yet chase away any prospective investors in such a project simply because all they are hearing is no, no, no, no way. Let's all keep an open mind. I'll agree that a small mobile processing facility that goes to the ranch would be great, but it also requires the feds to give us a mobile inspector too and that may not be realistic. Let's keep it mind but not insist on something we don't thhink will happen. Of course no one wants a big smelly, slaughterhouse where animals are mistreated and humans feel degraded just by being a part of the process. I think we can all agree on that.
But I think of the rewards for our local - and yes, regional - ranchers in having a state-of-the-art meat facility in our area: local meat processed humanely, available in local stores at a reasonable price meanwhile providing good agricultural jobs.

By the by, don't miss the upcomnig issue of the Daily Journal in which we will print the Christmases past stories some of our readers sent in. They are charming and I thank all of you who wrote for sharing those wonderful stories - and photos - with us.

Posted by K.C. at 09:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I couldn't help but shake my head at the way the new mayor of Ukiah was chosen. First, when I found out that Mari Rodin was chosen, I was surprised, since I thought that it would either be Phil Baldwin or John McCowen. The first because he had seniority and the second because he is arguably the most popular and active of the council members.
Since Baldwin took himself out of the running, Mari Rodin would be next in senioriy and for that reason would, in my view, be a logical choice. But that's not how the council made its decision. Rodin got the Mayor's gavel by what our reporter Ben Brown brilliantly coined the "T-ball" political method: in other words, everyone gets a chance.
Yes. The decision was based on who had the shortest time to serve before the next city council election and among those people, the most seniority. The thinking was that since the mayor's job can be passed on from year to year, it's only fair to give council members with the shortest time left in their terms a chance to be mayor (in case they don't get reelected) over members who have just won reelection and therefore have a full four years to go.
I think the job ought to go to whoever is senior and hasn't yet served. This year it would have been Rodin anyway (after Baldwin withdrew) so the T-ball method came up with the same result.
(For those of you who don't know what T-ball is, it is beginning baseball training for little kids where everyone always plays and batters get to continue swinging until they get a hit.)
Baldwin, meanwhile probably did us all a favor by withdrawing, although I would have loved to have had him made mayor only to put the exclamation point on his relection. But listening to the howls from his opponents would have gotten old - those opponents by the way are already whispering about a recall. I'm not sure getting too many votes is a valid argument for recalling an elected official.
Baldwin meanwhile, was at his best last week when he stepped away from the mayor's post saying he preferred not to be at the center of power but a kind of elder statesman, a sort of "Queen Elizabeth" without the billions." Great suff Phil.
Well the mayor's role in UKiah is a ceremonial so it doesn't much matter. The only real power is running the meetings and anyone among the five council members now in office can I believe do that intelligently.

Posted by K.C. at 09:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here's a question for readers out there. Do you read the comics, the horoscope, or Annie's Mailbox? Do you work the puzzles? Last week at Schat's there was some discussion about the comics and surprisngly, several people said they never read them. It is sort of a newspaper industry given that everyone reads these features and could not do without them. Also, is it time to pull the plug on the Peanuts comics reruns, now that Charles Schulz is long dead and they have been recycling for six years and replace it with some other comic strip? If so, do you have a suggestion for a replacement?
If you don't read our print version, do you read the comics somewhere else?

Posted by K.C. at 12:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So I've been waiting to hear what the anti-Phil Baldwin group are saying about their nemesis being reelected to the City Council. Bascially the argument goes: "Well, if you look at the numbers, every time he's been reelected, it's by a smaller percentage of the voters." I point out of course, that the percentage says more about the number of candidates in the race than Phil's personal popularity. I also point out that if they believe Phil's win was just a fluke of numbers (they are anxious to say that Mike Whetzel was only 40 votes behind Phil and I point out that in a city election 40 votes is a lot of votes) then the strategy of getting multiple conservative candidates to run actually worked against them.
You'll soon see a letter from the perennial Baldwin blaster David Anderson in our pages which is the perfect post-election whine: Ukiah's going to heck in a handbasket and the communists have taken over.
I also find it interesting that all three candidates who voluntarily accepted campaign limits won in the city election. More than anything that should tell people using consultants like Muelrath Associates that we're on to them (Kudos to Katie Mintz for her reporting on that for us.) I think the thing people found most objectionable in this race was the perception that there were these shadowy big money people behind Jeanne Metcalf and Mike Whetzel - maybe not Jim Mulheren. People like Phil and Mark Ashiku, and Dick Selzer and the Employers Council plot and plan and what they really should do is pick a candidate they like, come out in public with money and support, say it out loud and let the voters decide. Mark Ashiku had a coronary over the mailer that went out extolling the virtues of the three candidates volunteering for campaign finance limits. Yet those people at least had the guts to put their name on a piece of paper and say here's what we support. The opponents just pile up money and try to pretend they have nothing to do with it. Why?
Here's another question asked this week at Schats to which we will get an answer: Who's going to pay the outstanding thousands of dollars in debt that some of the losing candidates have? I believe they will have to keep reporting these debts and any payments made toward them in campaign statements until it's all paid off.
On a completely different topic, if you missed the ceramics club sale at Mendocino College Friday, put it on your calendar for next year. I have been going to this for about 10 years and get great Christmas gifts there, many of which are for me (my husband Bob said this year No More Bowls! but I came home with two any way). The sale tables of bowls, vases and other stuff that the potter obviously felt "didn't come out right" are some of the best bargains around. The other tables of the good stuff, sadly for me, gets more expensive each year but there are always some gems in there. You have to be there right at noon to find the bargains and gems because everything is pretty much snapped up by 12:30. Kudos to the ceramics club for another great sale this year. Now if I can only being myself to part with these bowls ...

Posted by K.C. at 09:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)