2010 DRAFT VOTERS UNION PLATFORM

 

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.

 

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

 

 

RESTRUCTURE COUNTY GOVERNMENT

         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.

         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.

 

ADOPT ENERGY TASK FORCE REPORT

    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.

 

REJECT THE GENERAL PLAN

          Throw out the consultants and appoint citizens to rewrite the General Plan and the UVAP.

 

SPECIAL FOREST PRACTICE RULES

    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.

 

BRING BACK GRADING ORDINANCE

    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.

 

END THE POT WARS

         End  Sheriff's discretionary eradication programs like COMMET and CAMP and the annual aerial flight school.

         Support the Medical Marijuana Cultivation Ordinance chapter 9.31.

 

PROTECT THE COAST

         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.

 

THINK GLOBALLY

    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.

 

WATER CONSERVATION FIRST

         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.