Posts Tagged ‘law’
Another voice has been added to a growing chorus that says Security National, owner of the polluted Eureka Balloon Track, is stonewalling the California Coastal Commission.
Followers of the controversy know that SN has, in recent months, turned 180° by waving the flag of the Regional Water Quality Control Board — as if the conservative banking class had suddenly embraced a system of regulation.
But it appears Water Quality Executive Officer Catherine Kuhlman won’t be played like that. In a letter to Security National henchman Randy Gans, she echoes other recent remarks about how SN is stonewalling the California Coastal Commission. Even better, Kuhlman isn’t offering a skirt for SN to hide behind in its lawsuit against the CCC.
The Coastal Commission has requested from you additional information as part of that appeal process. It is our understanding that you have not yet provided that information and have filed suit against the Coastal Commission, asserting, in part, that pursuant to Public Resources Code section 30412(b) the Coastal Commission does not have the authority to take any action that would conflict with the implementation the SIRAP. We disagree, however, that the Coastal Commission is taking any action that is in conflict with a determination by the Regional Water Board relating to water quality. Our concurrence with your SIRAP was conditioned upon your obtaining all required permits, including a coastal development permit, and was not intended to, nor do we believe it could, supplant the independent regulatory authority of the Coastal Commission or any other agency…
Our concurrence with your proposed SIRAP recognized that several of the activities you proposed required permits from other agencies, which you have not obtained.
Security National is owned by local big shot and failed banker Rob Arkley.
Download the full letter or read it here.
Tags: Arkley, Balloon Track, ca, California, coast, Eureka, Humboldt, law, lawsuit, Local, Northern California, Rob Arkley, Security National
Posted in Humboldt Blogs, Opinion | Comments Off
The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors accepted $170,000 from the federal government for marijuana-related law enforcement work Tuesday morning, despite one individual’s advice.
Tags: ca, Humboldt, Humboldt County, Humboldt County Board of Supervisors, Humboldt County News, law, law enforcement, Local, marijuana
Posted in Times-Standard | Comments Off
About 4:15 p.m. Friday, Sheriff’s deputies and California Highway Patrol officers were called to the scene of an attempted screwdriver stabbing to avenge a earlier stabbing in the 100 block of Laws Avenue, Ukiah, the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office stated.
Tags: ca, California, California Highway Patrol, Humboldt, law, Mendocino, Mendocino County, Northern California, Ukiah
Posted in Mendocino-Lake Counties | Comments Off
Law enforcement is looking for a suspect in yet another brazen daytime armed robbery on Monday, although this most recent incident has not been linked to seven others since March 25.
Tags: armed robbery, ca, Eureka, Humboldt, Humboldt County, Humboldt County News, law, law enforcement, Local, robbery
Posted in Times-Standard | Comments Off
About 4:15 p.m. Friday, Sheriff’s deputies and California Highway Patrol officers were called to the scene of an attempted screwdriver stabbing to avenge a earlier stabbing in the 100 block of Laws Avenue, Ukiah, the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office stated.
Tags: ca, California, California Highway Patrol, Humboldt, law, Mendocino, Mendocino County, Northern California, Ukiah
Posted in Mendocino-Lake Counties | Comments Off
The following items were compiled from reports prepared by law enforcement agencies. Reports are calls for service or other complaints by area citizens, which may only reflect one point of view. Not all reports result in either an arrest or a citation.
Tags: ca, California, Humboldt, law, law enforcement, Northern California, Willits
Posted in Mendocino-Lake Counties | Comments Off
An Arcata city ordinance restricting where and how an individual can panhandle went into effect today, but the Arcata Police Department isn’t quite ready for it.
Tags: Arcata, Arcata Police Department, ca, Humboldt, Humboldt County, Humboldt County News, law, Local
Posted in Times-Standard | Comments Off
Following the resignation of Trinidad Police Chief Ken Thrailkill earlier this week, the city is looking into establishing formal interim services with the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office until the city council can find a replacement.
Tags: ca, city council, Humboldt, Humboldt County, Humboldt County News, Humboldt County Sheriff, Humboldt County Sheriff's Office, law, law enforcement, Local, Trinidad
Posted in Times-Standard | Comments Off
Local law enforcement agencies continue to search for a Eureka man suspected of committing a string of seven armed robberies, the latest of which occurred Monday night when he allegedly held up a grocery store at gunpoint.
Tags: armed robbery, ca, Eureka, Humboldt, Humboldt County, Humboldt County News, law, law enforcement, Local, robbery
Posted in Times-Standard | Comments Off
Ryan Sundberg is sporting new duds thanks to contributors to his campaign for Humboldt County Supervisor. But were those expenditures legal?
The above flyer notes a state law that expressly prohibits spending campaign funds on clothes, even if the intended purpose is for the campaign. Similar federal laws are on the books, as learned by former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin who blew wads of campaign cash on new threads for the family in 2008.
According to campaign disclosure forms, Sundberg spent $248.41 at Ginanni Menswear in Eureka, and another $141.03 at Famous Footwear.
In case you can’t read the text from the flyer, here it is:
Surely an insurance broker like Ryan Sundberg can afford his own sportscoat. Instead, it looks like Sundberg tapped his campaign donors for a shopping spree in violation of California Law.
With shopping reminiscent of Sarah Palin’s famous and controversial clothes grubbing prior to the Republican National convention, Sundberg reported on his March 17th campaign filing that he spend nearly $500 at the Bayshore Mall on designer clothes.
Sundberg did not report what he bought for all of that cash, but he was seen wearing a spiffy sportscoat at his campaign kickoff in January.
Tags: ca, California, CAMP, Eureka, Humboldt, Humboldt County, law, Northern California, Republican, Ryan Sundberg
Posted in Humboldt Blogs, Opinion | Comments Off
Investment managers, labor unions and politicians often get the blame for exploding debt in government pension plans. But some critics point to another culprit: actuaries, the financial experts expected to make sure the plans are sound.
The case of one East Bay actuary shows the deep impact of inaccurate benefit calculations. Ira Summer and the firm he owns, Public Pension Professionals, have been accused of errors that cost local government plans in California and Florida millions.
Fresno and Kern counties were among the entities that sustained losses on Summer’s watch. In both San Joaquin Valley communities, the growing shortfall now threatens the financial health of pension plans.
Actuaries are responsible for the economic and demographic assumptions that ensure employees and employers pay enough into a plan. They estimate how much a plan will make from investments, how long retirees will live, what will happen to salaries over time.
Pension boards approve the assumptions, but board members tend to rely on the expertise of actuaries because the estimates are based on complex information.
Summer has made millions of dollars from contracting with local governments in California, some of which retained him for several years. In one year alone, he earned about $400,000 total from five California counties where his firm provided actuarial service.
In separate lawsuits, Fresno and Kern counties successfully sued Summer and his firm for professional negligence. Fresno reached a settlement, and Kern won in court. The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District also won a judgment against Summer, and shoddy work has been alleged by pension managers in San Mateo, Tulare and Imperial counties.
Some communities may have skipped legal action because Summer let his insurance lapse in 2006, leaving little financial recourse for those who win suits.
Summer said he couldn’t comment for this story because he’s involved in a dispute with insurers.
Records show, however, that Summer has acknowledged mistakes in plans he handled. In 2006, when Fresno County’s retirement board had his work audited, Summer promised to correct errors, according to board minutes. That same year, Summer told a retirement board in Palm Bay, Fla., that his firm had erred in some calculations, according to that board’s minutes.
When one pension plan replaced Summer, the new actuary found that an error by Summer had had a significant financial impact, according to a report by the Conference of Consulting Actuaries. The report doesn’t identify which plan, and the conference would not elaborate.
Summer declined to help the actuary get to the bottom of the mistake and failed to cooperate in the conference’s investigation of his conduct, according to the conference, which took the rare step of publicly reprimanding Summer.
Fresno County’s pension shortfall has grown fourfold in the last five years, to almost $800 million last year – one of the biggest increases among the state’s largest local government plans.
Investment losses account for about one-third of that increased shortfall, records show. More debt was created by actuarial changes to the plan, including changes resulting from Summer’s work.
In 2006, four years after he was hired, Fresno County requested an independent audit of Summer’s work. Although aware of problems with Summer elsewhere, county retirement administrator Roberto Peña said the audit was done simply because it is good practice to do so.
The audit by actuaries in the San Francisco office of the Segal Co. turned up a number of problems. First, following Summer’s advice, the county required employees to pay for cost-of-living increases in the plan, breaking the previous practice of splitting that cost with employers, and differing from other plans across the state, auditors found.
The Fresno County Employees’ Retirement Association opted to reimburse the employees, further depleting the fund.
The audit also turned up problems with how Summer calculated inflation for some pensioners.
While those mistakes might not appear serious, they carried high costs.
“All of the changes that affect plan cost, the impact is multiplied for plans that have relatively larger benefits,” said Paul Angelo, the Segal actuary who audited Summer and later replaced him as Fresno’s actuary.
Fresno County has one of the most generous plans in the state. The county had to set up a supplemental pension because then-Gov. Gray Davis vetoed the higher benefit approved by county leaders in 2000.
As a result of corrections made after the audit, the county’s pension shortfall grew by almost $160 million, records show.
In its lawsuit, Fresno County’s retirement association accused Summer and his firm of causing $99 million in damages to the plan. The association’s attorney claimed Summer was running a “sham company” out of his home, and said the company had “a long and exotic history of failing to ensure that they have the assets or insurance necessary to satisfy the many claims against it.”
Because of Summer’s insurance problems, the retirement association agreed to settle the suit for $250,000 last year, Peña said.
In retrospect, he said, the association erred by not checking Summer’s insurance. It routinely makes those checks now.
In a brief conversation with The Bee, Summer said he continues to work as an actuary in California but declined to say where.
Tags: attorney, ca, California, court, Humboldt, law, lawsuit, Local, Northern California, San Francisco
Posted in State News | Comments Off
Cal Fire announced it will be doing defensible space inspections starting Monday.
State law requires homeowners who live on land for which the state is responsible to have the inspections.
Tags: ca, CAL FIRE, California, Humboldt, law, Northern California, Ukiah
Posted in Mendocino-Lake Counties | Comments Off
The following items were compiled from reports prepared by law enforcement agencies:
Willits Police Department
March 29
Report: 7:24 a.m. Mentally disturbed man sitting over the rail with one leg over the side on intersection of Walker Road and Highway 101.
Tags: ca, California, Highway 101, Humboldt, law, law enforcement, Northern California, Willits
Posted in Mendocino-Lake Counties | Comments Off
Eureka City Manager Dave Tyson won’t be getting off so easy.
A court ruling dismissing Tyson from a major harassment lawsuit against him and the city has been appealed by attorneys for former EPD dispatcher Tawnie Hansen. The appeal was filed Thursday.
Humboldt County Superior Court judge John Feeney dismissed Tyson from personal liability in the case in January, but cleared the way for Hansen’s case to proceed against the city.
The lawsuit is based on an anonymous blog allegedly run from inside the Eureka Police Dept. that peddled salacious gossip about an alleged affair between Hansen and Police Chief Garr Nielsen. Both have denied the rumors.
Hansen alleges that Tyson failed to prevent the workplace harassment by pursuing an over-broad “global investigation” that effectively buried her complaints, and that Tyson aided and abetted the harassment. She is seeking $1.4 million in damages.
An earlier lawsuit was settled when another former dispatcher, DeeDee Wilson, agreed to pay Hansen $10,000 following allegations of libel and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
[Image source.]
Tags: attorney, ca, California, coast, court, EPD, Eureka, Garr Nielsen, Humboldt, Humboldt County, Humboldt County Superior Court, law, lawsuit, Local, Northern California
Posted in Humboldt Blogs, Opinion | Comments Off
A hazardous-waste landfill that Kettleman City residents blame for a rash of birth defects has improperly stored PCB – a cancer-causing chemical that can cause reproductive problems, federal inspectors said Thursday.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency notified Waste Management that its landfill has violated disposal rules for polychlorinated biphenyl, a now-banned toxin found in electrical transformers and coolants.
Waste Management has 60 days to correct the problems or the EPA will stop sending PCB to the landfill from its cleanup sites, and the company could face fines, the EPA said.
The violations could damage the company’s ability to fight allegations by residents that its landfill is to blame for birth defects.
They also could hamper Waste Management’s efforts to expand the landfill about three miles from Kettleman City. Kings County supervisors on Dec. 22 approved a permit for the expansion. But the company also needs permits from federal and state agencies.
Jared Blumenfeld, EPA administrator for the Pacific Southwest region, said Waste Management first must correct the PCB disposal problem before he will consider a permit.
The EPA will not issue a permit “until we’re confident the facility does not present a health risk to the community,” Blumenfeld said Thursday.
Waste Management said it is correcting the problems. The health and safety of Kettleman City residents is the company’s top priority, the firm said in a news release, adding that it has worked with the EPA for decades to run a safe operation.
Residents in the San Joaquin Valley community of 1,500 – where most people are poor and Latino – believe toxic substances at the landfill could be responsible for birth defects beginning in 2007. To date, 10 babies have been born with defects, including cleft lip and cleft palate facial deformities. Three of the infants died. An 11th baby was stillborn with birth defects.
The EPA announcement of violations Thursday was “bombshell news,” said Bradley Angel, executive director of Greenaction for Environmental Justice and Health. It should raise concern that the company is “not capable of safely handling hazardous materials that can be linked to cancer and reproductive health problems,” Angel said.
PCBs were manufactured in the United States from 1929 until their manufacture was banned in 1979, according to the EPA. They vary in consistency from thin, light-colored liquids to yellow or black waxy solids, according to the agency’s Web site, and were used in hundreds of industrial and commercial applications.
Federal inspectors spent five days in mid-February at the landfill near Kettleman City and found several problems with disposal of PCBs.
“We found PCBs in places they shouldn’t be,” Blumenfeld said.
The chemicals were not contained where they were stored and where they were finally disposed of, in violation of federal regulations, he said. The company also failed to decontaminate the PCB storage area, Blumenfeld said.
He said he ordered the landfill’s inspection to make sure the operation was in compliance with federal laws.
Tags: ca, California, Humboldt, law, Northern California, Trial, United States
Posted in State News | Comments Off
Another voice has been added to a growing chorus that says Security National, owner of the polluted Eureka Balloon Track, is stonewalling the California Coastal Commission.
