[Kzyxtalk] Fwd: letter

[Doug McKenty]

Wow,

Thanks for filling me in on the whole story. 

Sent from my iPhone

> On Apr 30, 2015, at 8:15 PM, sako4 at comcast.net wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> To the Editor:
> 
> Don’t blame Beth Bosk for the chaos that ensued during the April 21, Mendocino County Board of Supervisors meeting, when the hack-n-squirt agenda item was discussed, and ultimately defeated.
> 
> The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors had set aside 90 minutes for the item at its April 21 meeting to discuss the fire danger that results from the timber industry practice of intentionally adding over a million new standing dead hardwood trees in our forests every year.
> 
> Why a fire danger? Why so many dead trees? Because a patchwork quilt of both living trees and dead trees is the result of hack-n-squirt. Trees with lucrative commercial value, like redwood, spruce, and Douglas fir, get to live. Trees like tan oak, an ancient native of the Pacific Northwest forest, perceived as "junk trees" by big timber companies, are killed.
> 
> The dead trees are left standing right next to the living trees. It's crazy. It's a forest fire waiting to happen.
> 
> Meanwhile, thousands of gallons of a non-selective broad-spectrum systemic herbicide called Imazapyr finds its way into groundwater and the forest ecosystem.
> 
> Although the County cannot regulate the use of Imazapyr -- that’s the domain of the State of California -- it can regulate fire danger in the name of public health and safety.
> 
> Supervisor Hamburg had introduced a measure asking Mendocino Redwood Company -- the biggest, but by no means the only offender -- to stop using hack’n’squirt voluntarily. It wasn't an ordinance. It wasn't a demand. It was a request. Had Hamburg's measure passed, the Board of Supervisors would have been merely asking Mendocino Redwood Company to be good neighbors. Yet, Mendocino Redwood Company was expected to refuse even this mild and reasonable request.
> 
> Environmental activists, like Ms. Bosk -- and more than a hundred other concerned citizens like her in board chambers -- had been assured there would have been ample time for comment.
> 
> So why the chaos on April 21?
> 
> A board chair — any board chair of any public meeting — must enable the group to transact business with speed and efficiency, must have an agenda of timed items and stick to it, must put controversial issues at the front of the agenda, must protect the rights of each and every individual to be heard at the meeting, must ensure full and free debate of each item of business brought before the board, and must preserve a spirit of harmony within the board chambers.
> 
> The problem with Mendocino County is that our Board of Supervisors meetings are a hybrid of two different types of meetings. One general type is decision or policy-making meetings. Another is information-sharing meetings, which are used to get public comments.
> 
> The purpose of the public comments-type of meeting is to hear from all concerned parties to ensure that all opinions are considered before the decision making-type of meeting.
> 
> Unfortunately for Mendocino County, the Board of Supervisors often decides how it’s going to vote long before hearing public comment. The Brown Act notwithstanding, most issues are decided long before a board meeting. The board's vote is a mere formally, and public comment is a spectacle.
> 
> Hence, the spectacle of a shouting match between Board Chair Carre Brown and Beth Bosk, with Ms. Bosk threatened with being dragged out of the meeting by law enforcement. At some point, Hamburg jumped in. The crowd started shouting. Rising to their feet. It was like Roman theater. The Colosseum or Circus Maximus. To be sure, Beth Bosk is a star performer, like Bathyllus, Pylades or Apolaustus.
> 
> Indeed, Ms. Bosk is a star. A much-respected organizer of Redwood Summer. A newspaper publisher. An eco-frontierswoman. The best friend that old-growth redwoods ever had.
> 
> The sad thing is that the spectacle of the April 21 meeting stemmed from real anger and frustration. The Supervisors had made up their minds long before public comment.
> 
> Don’t blame Beth Bosk.
> 
> John Sakowicz
> Ukiah
> 
> 
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