DRAFT
VOTERS UNION PLATFORM 1/31/10
Preamble:
Land
use planning is the crucial power of county government. For too long,
elected
officials have functioned as referees overseeing development and
exploitation
without adequate planning under an ideological philosophy favoring
deregulating
private enterprise.
We
are facing a New Era of Limits. The frontier is closed and there is no
more
wilderness to conquer and tame. Instead, we are faced by dynamics of
overwhelming significance and magnitude: Global Warming and Peak Oil.
The
policies of the past have destroyed Timber and Fishing just as we said
they
would. Corporations have raped and run. We live in the ruins of the
their
excesses.
In
order to rebuild our local economy, we must start with the
Precautionary
Principle and Environmental Protection First and see what new
employment
opportunities we can create from that. County government should take on
the
public welfare, as well as job creation as mission obligations, not
merely
profit enhancement for private interests.
We
should redesign all our local policies so that those of us who live
here now
benefit first, and if there's anything left over, that it be disbursed
with
equity among those who inevitably will come from outside to gobble up,
retool
and exploit our resources, always requiring them to pay the true costs
of the
projects they propose.
Most
importantly, we should nurture and protect those among us who are
vulnerable
and seek justice and respite from the rigors of a society that seems to
value
individual aggrandizement over all else.
Instead
of cutbacks of social services, we need to reprioritize county
government to
perform its proper functions and meet the needs of citizens, not simply
be an
easy lifetime career for establishment family members.
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Tax
revenues may never again reach former levels during which county
departments
added employees with vague duties based on nepotism and featherbedding.
We
urge a complete restructuring of county government that retires middle
managers
and prioritizes the welfare of line-level workers, including a
reduction in
their health insurance premiums.
Put a cap of $95,000 a year on all county elected and appointed
department head salaries.
Rewrite travel and expense policies to put an absolute cap on such
expenditures
per year.
The
current County Executive Officer should be excused and the position
reconfigured as an Administrator reporting to the elected board. All
the
assistants in this office should be dismissed and their duties
performed by the
Administrator.
The
county retiree pension system should be brought under direct control of
supervisors.
Support union bargaining and grievance process.
Increase
county worker wages and decrease medical premiums over time. Reduce
overhead
by consolidating departments and eliminating middle management. Allow
workers
more say in how their departments are run.
AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Settle the California Legal Services lawsuit
to force
the county to provide affordable housing according to state law. Lands
so
zoned must be suitable for residential use and compatible with
surrounding
uses. Involve neighbors in siting.
CAMPAIGN FINANCE LIMITS
Support campaign finance ordinance in county
elections
Adopt the entire 2007 Energy Task Force Report as a recommended
energy
element of the county General Plan. Form a citizen commission to
implement the
plan over time.
Throw out the consultants and
appoint
citizens to rewrite the General Plan and the UVAP.
Appoint a citizen commission to write special forest practice
rules for
Mendocino County that will provide for the quickest possible return to
forest
productivity. Apply for grants to hire unemployed people to restock and
cultivate overharvested timberlands. Charge corporations for these
services and
earn the revenue as income for the county.
Reinstate the grading ordinance process to develop rules that
govern
conversion of ag land to other uses, loss of riparian habitat, creation
of
hillside erosion, development of agricultural ponds in compliance with
CEQA.
Would not apply to individual residential ownerships.
Lobby Sacramento and
Washington for decrminalization
Convince
the Sheriff to phase out multiagency
eradication
programs like COMMET and CAMP and the annual aerial flight school.
Support
the Medical Marijuana Cultivation Ordinance chapter 9.31 to encourage
civil vs. criminal enforcement.
Establish a citizen committee to investigate and
report
to law enforcement and the public on grow situations that disturb
public
order and create danger or nuisance anywhere in the county.
Create zoning ordinances to control where marijuana
is
grown. Support a county initiative
measure to tax marijuana cultivation.
Continue
official county opposition to federal Minerals Management Services
5-Year Plan
to lease oil and gas drilling tracts off the Mendocino Coast.
Continue
to oppose the Navy's plan to convert the Washington, Oregon and
Northern
California Coast to a war games and military research and development
zone.
Continue
to oppose the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's granting of
preliminary
pilot project permits for ocean borne electrical generator device
arrays.
Support
the California Marine Life Protection Act Initiative's development of
ecosystem
wide marine protected areas within the 3-mile limit of the North Coast
Study
Area.
Encourage citizens to bring resolutions to the board on all
topics great
and small including impeachment of criminal presidents, ending wars,
reverse
global warming, etc.
The Precautionary Principle is a token farce at this time. It
must be
rescued from being a pilot project to being the overall guiding policy
of
county government from top to bottom.
Conservation
and planning before any new development projects. Fix Mill Creek Dam.
No new
water projects. Phase out the Eel River Diversion owned by PG&E
above
Potter Valley. Decommission the dams, and drain Lake Pillsbury.
Redesign Lake
Mendocino as wildlife habitat and a flood control resource with less
water, not
more.
There
is not sufficient water to promote new growth. Live with it.
Limit
frost protection water from the Eel to current users, and see there is
a
manager to prevent fish-killing dewaterings in the Russian.
NO MORE ALCOHOL
LICENSES
Mendocino
County it already exceeds a limit
on State of California Type 20 alcohol licenses for retail beer and
wine
off-sale that call for no more than one retail location per 2,500
people. Order
the Sheriff to not support waiver memos of public necessity and
convenience for
more package stores over this limit.