Commentary and Opinion By Linda Sutter – March 27, 2023

Let’s talk about the consent agenda for the Tuesday, March 28th, Board of Supervisor meeting. Especially since Chairman Darrin Short wants to hide a few things in this particular spot without public comment. 

#2 on the Consent Agenda wants to give all the social workers a pat on the back for protecting Del Norte Children. Ha! The Foster Care program is the worse offender. First they figure out a way to make the child leave the county. Second they Get Doctor Singh from Eureka to sign off on psych drugs to overdose the kids to the point of derealization, resulting in placing these kids in filthy homes, unreported rape, and other horrendous misdeeds. Not to mention that when these kids receive drugs they are not properly interviewed, there are no physical monthly home care contacts, and the child comes out 10 times worse than it had before it went under their care.  Yeah, let’s give them some appreciation. I especially want to shout out to Lila Hounahni, Jessica Rotola, and Katie Sanders. They are the biggest offenders of child abuse.

Let’s go to item #6. In this item Del Norte Social services wants to amend their contract with Aegis Treatment Center. Originally the contract was not to spend over $100,000. But within 6 months they spent $69,000 plus dollars. Now they want $100,000 more. See that item should be placed on the regular agenda for public comment, but not with Darrin Short in charge. He wants to hide the public money expenditures and then hold his hand out for more money through measure R that everyone voted for under the guise it was for “essential services and infrastructure, such as law enforcement, emergency dispatch, disaster response services, code enforcement, animal services, veteran services, planning and capital improvements vital to a thriving community.” 

#7.  Oh this is a good one. The infamous HASP program. It was only 11 years ago when a person could give the director fresh fish and the director would mark them as attending. I’m sure the inflationary cost of living will cause the price to mark you as “present” to go up. This isn’t worthy of discussion though because Darrin Short says so. 

#8 Well nothing like hiding contaminated Smith River water from the public hey? Where are our environmentalists on this matter and why did former Chairman Jerry Hemmingsen hide this from the public? Well, take a look for yourself: 

“Legacy mines in the Smith River National Recreation Area (SRNRA) pose a serious threat to the drinking water of downstream communities in Del Norte County. Over 90 legacy mine sites containing hazardous mine waste have been inventoried, assessed and prioritized as to the need to address contaminants. Hazards include toxic levels of arsenic and various metallic ores. A cluster of priority sites are located in the headwaters of Rowdy Creek which is an important municipal water source for the Smith River community.”

And, Chairman Darrin Short isn’t bothered that the public can’t speak on this matter? Why?

#9 the Mintier Harnish agreement, a consultant group that was supposed to have had their job completed, the job was to prepare the 6th cycling element for the Governor. So much for that, this is what it promise:

“The Consultants will facilitate a community open house designed to engage residents and stakeholders throughout the county. The open house will provide a common understanding of the purpose of the Housing Element update, outline the key steps in the process, and gather public input on housing conditions and distinct economic, social, and geographic housing needs. The open house will focus on answering the question: What are your housing concerns? The open house will also allow for the review of the housing sites inventory. “

I have yet to see an open house, anyone else? 

#10 on the Consent agenda where the public only has 3 minutes to speak on 14 items is an approval for the sheriff to use public money to buy plaques for an annual event. The cost of the plaques was not submitted but taxpayers are paying for this and the dinner to follow. This, by all rights is unlawful, but hey it is for the good of the community right?

The consent agenda is supposed to have “Non-controversial issues that do not require debate or deliberation.” Let’s look at this next item on the Consent Agenda.

#14 grants Social Services to come into your home under the guise of  AB1057. This should be talked about and presented to the public to inform the public what is the criteria that will cause Social Services to come into your home to make sure your doing all right? What would cause this interaction? Knowing what I know from court records of our youth this is not a good thing. Why are we not discussing this? No transparency. What’s next, are you going to allow Social Services to nail our doors shut so we can’t get out? What is Chairman Darrin Short thinking? Simply, he is not.

There were more items on the consent agenda, however, these that I mention are well worth investigating because we have Supervisors who are not being transparent, who are not asking questions, and don’t realize what a disservice that is to the public, not to mention our right to know.