Mendocino County also operates on a less than representative level. The special interests of agriculture, timber and development have controlled county politics for many generations. Their proponents hold heavy influence over all the members of the Board of Supervisors, keeping a few of them cozy in their pockets. They have advanced their station in life at the expense of our children's future.
It's time for the Board of Supervisors to realize that the majority of the people they should be representing are not farmers, developers or part of the timber industry. They are working families with concerns for the future of their children. They want decent jobs, clean air and water, fish and forests. Business as usual in Mendocino County has caused job loss, excessive resource extraction, and environmental destruction with no accountability or thought of future generations.
The special interest groups have been given a free lunch in Mendo land. In fact they are so accustomed to getting their way they whine like spoiled children at the mere suggestion that they clean up after themselves. It makes no difference what the issue is, they've honed their complaining rhetoric into a mutual chant: If we have to do that you'll be putting us out of business. We'll have to fire our workers, and have no choice but to subdivide our land. Their county lackeys chime in with a chorus of: No staff for inspection, no time or money to enforce. Then the self-interested, whiners come in with a second verse: We are stewards of the land. We can monitor ourselves. We will use Best Management Practices, and write a letter tellin' ya all about it. Trust us.
How does the Building Department have the ability to enforce and inspect? Have they blindly trusted a contractor to use Best Management Practices? Have they ever accepted a letter from a builder in lieu of inspection? No! They charge for their services through the building permit process, making enforcement part of the price of doing business.
Pay as you go, no such thing as a free lunch, and pick up after yourselves are simple concepts most of us learned in kindergarten. It's time for Mendocino County's good ol' boy ruling class to learn those same lessons. You boys have had your fun; now it's time to pay!
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 2002
Permission granted to excerpt or use this article if source is cited