The MENDOCINO COUNTRY Independent
Posted January 4, 2009


MENDOCINO COUNTY BUILDING CODE WARS
By Anon Forrest
    The Building Codes were mandated upon all rural Calififornia in 1965,  Homes existing at that time were "grandfathered" into legality by virtue of their existence.
    The Codes were, and are, written by the building "officials" themselves via their closed meeting conventions (sponsored with perks by the building industry, labor unions, materials' interests, et al.) No public participation or oversight exists to this day. No citizen review. No non-industrial appeals. No legislative review, input or oversight. It's called adoption by reference.
    Grandma must have been busy in the outhouse at the time, but she was doomed when five-gallon-a-flush toilets were suddenly imposed upon all unincorporated areas of the State. These so-called Sanitation Codes were imposed at the behest of the Society of Environmental Health Officers.
    Health had nothing to do with it. Perpetual employment and tons of concrete did, as well as sub-rosa growth control: ie, no perk, no build, no growth. Pit privies (and all waterless toilet devices) were only legal if your individually prescribed septic tank failed to function...after its approval and installation.
    And then The County Grand Jury of 1973 issued a report calling for a Task Force composed of the departments of Building Inspection, Land Use, Environmental Health, Tax Assessor, and Sheriff to "Seek Out and Combat the Violators" of the pertinent county codes. (Direct Quote) This report was received and its actions adopted.
    The chair of this Grand Jury was Ray Hiatt, former chief Building Official who felt that the offenders of the codes had caused his early retirement by questioning his authority.
    Tax Assessor "Web" Brown (father-in-law of Carrie Brown) and Sheriff Reno Bartolomei publicly refused to participate. They were not experiencing any problems and considered their offices to exist for reasons other than harassing the folks in the woods.
greenfield.jpgA Greenfield Ranch owner builder home in 1984.


Going up Country Roads
    Donald Uhr, former Building Official of Sonoma County and fresh from the kill of Morning Star Ranch, was hired to "do the job" up here in Mendo Land. So on February 4, 1974, a 4-WD rented Jeep with chains on every wheel was observed mired to the running boards 4 miles up our mountain: four suits, four briefcases, and four pairs of polished shoes.
    Fortuitously, five of us were watching and listening behind a nearby stump. While they discussed their mission, and their opinion of us, one of us volunteered to step forward and dig them out. Our biggest stump-mate posed as a college student on a nature hike to gather more information and help them get the hell off what remained of our road.
    Returning to our homes, we tuned in our neighborhood CB channel and learned that 3 cabins, 6 chicken coops and a duckhouse (3' ceiling) had been declared UNFIT FOR HUMAN OCCUPANCY and ordered to VACATE AND DESTROY. That night, our neighborhood gathered to decide what to do. We could either sell and leave, or change the law.
    We had a brief session with Barry Wood, a civil lawyer in Ukiah, who reported back the County's policy: to become legal, our homes must be first destroyed and then plans submitted for their reconstruction. Without permits, the houses did not exist, and being on the property tax roles didn't count.
    A month later on March 13, 1974, a crowd of 500 packed the First Christian Church in Ukiah. We had come from every corner of the County via word of mouth and a mimeograph machine. Every single person there knew the score. Communications were established, volunteers came forward, the hat was passed, and United Stand fired up and hit the road (in a '63 Ford Falcon and the mimeo.)
    Our mission was to educate the public at large that we were not an enemy but an asset.
    On April 16, 1974, United Stand gave a presentation to the BoS which included a slide show of cabins existing throughout the County.  There was standing room only.  US asked the Board to consider a proposal to examine the "Back to the Land" issues raised by the Code Enforcement Task Force.  
    In response, the Building and Land Use Review (BLUR) committee of the board was set in motion.  The only clear-headed member was Burgess Williams.  Augie Avila was a really nice guy, but he felt it would be better for everyone if our cabins were abandoned in favor of Mobile Homes.
    With the help of the Brown Act, we were eventually allowed to attend these sessions, but not participate.  BLUR was a bust, but at least the key players were in one room...not out running around in their jeep.
     United Stand was running around, however,and in the Faithful Falcon.  The US Slide Show was given at least 75 times to every major player then in the County.
    As an extra bonus, The Mendocino Grapevine under Stu and Sue Chapman became a weekly newspaper in the summer of 1975 with the United Stand Again News included in the center fold. The old mimeo ate it.
    After 1982, MENDOCINO COUNTRY MAGAZINE fulfilled this role for several years with United Stand Again.
    Five years of intense lobbying and four laughable criminal trials later, United Stand was active in seven other counties of CA and in three other states. Our plight had appeared on every major TV and radio network, and received the blessing of both Jerry Brown and Ronald Reagan.
    Class "K" became a regulation via the State Housing and Community Development Commission and then the State Building Standards Commission. All the County BoS had to do was adopt the damn thing and we could all go home. But it was not to be....
    By this time, Mendocino County United Stand had over 1200 couple-bucks-at-a-time members, as well as financial and/or political support from the most far flung bases in politics, the John Birch Society to the ACLU.
    United Stand had infiltrated every breast-thumping politically active local group in the County and stopped the train. "The Right of the People to be Secure in their Homes against Unreasonable Search and Seizure" rang true; we were all citizens, valuable citizens, and weren't going away.     Furthermore, we voted.  

Officials Target Unwanteds:
    Running a whisper campaign of social and economic bigotry, supervisor Barbero had already begun soliciting and receiving confidential family information from Dennis Denny, Mendo Welfare Department boss; and one of the Broaddus Boys on the Board of Education was funneling school information on the location and status of our kids to Al Beltrami the County Administrator, and he, in turn, dutifully sicced Uhr on the kids' homes. There were others in this conspiracy, but you get the idea.     
    In the general election of 1976, Al Barbero narrowly defeated Burgess Williams, Jim Eddie replaced Harvey Sawyers,     Two years later, John Cimolino replaced Augie Avila, and Norman de Vall beat Ted Galletti. Ernie Banker was the leftover odd ball.
    Enter Clean Slate, or as United Stand called it, Clear Snake. Instead of a uniform regulation to serve all California do-it-yourselfers then and in the future, Clear Snake was a quick local fix to serve a few. Clear Snake was instant amnesty for a few, then and there, future cabin builders, like our children and their children, be darned. Because the sitting Bigots of the Board could call it a "compromise," it was adopted, expired, and was buried.

Initiative Buried by Board
    When the Supervisors made the end run of Clean Slate, United Stand gathered and qualified enough voter-registered signatures to put the issue to the voters.  The United Stand Cabin initiative to force Class K on the ballot was gathered and validated after Clear Snake was adopted.
    The US Initiative put the adoption of "K" to the voters. Back then, lots of people here could remember their land roots...and US proved in the Code War Trials that the DA (Duncan James via Lee Adams) could not find twelve voting citizens who would hang us. It was the future of free choice self-housing for all at stake.
    When we presented our initiative to the BOS, their County Counsel told the Supes they still had a choice to put it on the ballot or ignore our petition. They chose to ignore it.

Suit Rejected in Supreme Court
    Jared Carter, champion of Property Rights, volunteered to take it to the State Supreme Court in 1983. Our suit challeged the codes as presciption (thou shalt) as opposed the prohibitive (thou shall not). It was based on (l) performance codes not being considered in the permits issued home construction and (2) no option of performance was being levied on our currently threatened homes.
    A year later, Rose Byrd, Chief Justice, refused to hear our appeal for relief because, like most city liberals, she decided relief was already in place based upon the existence of Clear Snake.
    US had very little to do with the General Plan Intent Section except to note that our simple and affordable homes fit the Housing Element to a "T".  And at no expense to the County, either.  
    Since the great majority of the Old Timers around the County had always prided themselves on self-reliance and independence, US ideas  fit right in.  Old Timers also understood the need for extra housing for extended families; they weren't called Communes, that's all.  US figured there was enough to tend without dragging Land Use into the fray, and the commune issues could be dealt with at a less dire time.

The Threat Renewed
    Now that chicken has come home to roost. Now come the bureaucrats, for whom the housing slump presents an employment threat; and here come the social malcontents; and realtors who pad their pockets regardless of who looses what; and here we go again.
    Today, Class "K" could (conceivably) be adopted and implemented as it should have been 30 years ago. Unfortunately, like last time, many people will have to be frightened witless before the type of organization needed for this job can be rebooted.

Anon Forrest led a movement of back to the land owner builders in Mendocino County threatened with “red tags” and “abatement for two decades. That threat is now being renewed by Puritans in county government and the local aristocracy.