It’s impossible not to recognize the seemingly institutional dysfunction in the governing process whether it be at the local, state or federal level.
Our elected representatives and their staffs far too often flummox themselves and disrupt the orderliness of the governing process by creating problems seemingly out of thin air.
Too many elected officials seemingly go out of their way to create problems when their primary purpose is to solve problems. Most people don’t have lofty expectations of their elected representatives. Most would settle for an adaptation of the Physician’s Oath, “First, do no harm.”
Most politicians don’t understand their role as elected officials. Elected officials are supposed to carry out the wishes/demands of clear majorities of constituents unless what they’re asking is unlawful or totally unfeasible, neither of which are applicable with 99.9% of the issues they deal with. It’s not the elected official’s job to substitute their judgment for that of their constituents when those constituents overwhelmingly demand a different course of action than that contemplated by their representative.
If you don’t mind, I’ll share several stories with you about Johnny Pinches, because he truly understood this critical dynamic between elected officials and their constituents.
What follows are excerpts from columns I wrote when Pinches was on the Board of Supervisors.
Current supervisors might find an insight here or there to reflect on.
Pinches frequently warned his Board colleagues, “We’ve got to do a better job holding Department heads accountable, because if we don’t do it, who is?”
Here’s an example of what he was talking about.
Back in the early 2000s, Pinches hastened the retirement of Budge Campbell, who ruled over the county Department of Transportation for 30 years.
For years Campbell ran DOT without even minimum oversight from the Board. By the Supes own admission, they deferred to Campbell because they found DOT’s operation, especially the intricate financial set-up and related Byzantine accounting system created by Campbell, too perplexing for them to get involved in.
Pinches doggedly went through DOT’s budget and discovered a special account with over $2 million of so-called non-designated funds. This was money that no one knew existed until Pinches found it. It was a critical source of revenue because at the time Mendocino County was broke, but it was just sitting there, unused, in what Campbell called a “rainy day account.”
Pinches argued the money should be liberated to fund what he termed “constituent projects” out in the rural areas. He wanted the funds spent on repairing and upgrading roads. Campbell fought Pinches tooth and nail over control of his budget. At one point Campbell told the Supes, “You know, somebody should consider that maybe ol’ Budge knows what he’s talking about and you (the Supes) should listen to him.”
Signaling that Campbell’s battle was lost, Supe Seiji Sugawara stated, “I wouldn’t say he (Campbell) pulled the wool over our eyes, but the fact is we didn’t fully recognize the implications of the facts.”
With that admission on the record, the rest of the BOS had no choice but to back Pinches. The special account was liberated for the so-called constituent projects. Budge Campell’s secret “rainy day” fund was split evenly between the five supervisors. Pinches used his share to chip-seal Branscomb Road from the town of Branscomb to the Coast. The other Supes spent their found money on their “pet” road projects.
Pinches led the fight to block a proposal from the Department of Social Services cutting general assistance payments to the needy. The DSS proposal arose during the heady days of Clinton’s so-called “Welfare Reform.” Pinches shamed his wavering colleagues into supporting his opposition when he juxtaposed spending priorities of the Feds with the realities of administrating welfare at the county level of government. “If we can afford to build billion-dollar Stealth bombers we don’t need,” he stated, “we can help our people. Welfare reform should cut back on administrative costs not on the few dollars that go to the people on general assistance.”
Pinches also locked horns with DSS Director Allison Glassey over a mid-1990s deal with Fort Bragg tycoon Dominic Affinito. The transaction called for Affinito build a new DSS facility in the coastside town, which he would then lease to the county. Glassey told the Supes there would be little cost to the county since the state would pay for 85 percent of the lease expense. She described the basic deal as a 20-year lease with Affinito that would pay him $16,423 per month for the first year. Each successive year thereafter, the rental payment would increase by 3.5 percent. At the end of the 20-year lease, taxpayers will have paid Affinito approximately $5.5 million for a building that cost $2 million to construct. Pinches called the proposal “a great deal if you’re a developer but a lousy one for the taxpayers — they’re getting ripped off.”
Pinches argued that it would make more sense — and a bargain for the taxpayers — for the county to construct its own building but was unable to sway fellow Supes, who voted to OK the deal. The Board majority defended the Glass Beach project by arguing that since 85 percent of the lease payments were funded by state tax dollars, the remaining expense was minimal to the county. Pinches sarcastically rejoined he wasn’t aware that county and state taxpayers were separate groups: “I thought government took money from the same taxpayers. I’ll remember that the next time the IRS asks me why I haven’t paid my federal taxes. I’ll tell them here in Mendocino County we only pay county taxes, the rest is all free tax money that comes from other groups.”
Pinches may have lost the fight but he was right then, and he’s right now.
There are numerous other instances where the Laytonville cowboy collided with the establishment over issues and policies where the public was getting a raw deal. His efforts assisting a neighborhood group opposing a monopolistic garbage transfer station in north Ukiah are well known. He successfully picked up the cudgel in behalf of people opposed to Caltrans’ use of herbicides. He used the BOS dais as bully pulpit to excoriate the gross mismanagement of the railroad by the NCRA. And, of course, there’s his long-standing war against the Pot Wars and his calls to legalize weed.
“The existing marijuana laws are the best price support system that I have ever seen for a farm product,” quipped Pinches. “They’ve driven the price of marijuana up higher than the price of gold.”
A couple of years ago, in the wake of the abysmal failure of both state and county cannabis legalization, Pinches said to me, “You were right about what a mess legalization has become. You think growers look up in the sky and wish those helicopters were still flying around?”
Jim Shields is the Mendocino County Observer’s editor and publisher, [email protected], the long-time district manager of the Laytonville County Water District, and is also chairman of the Laytonville Area Municipal Advisory Council. Listen to his radio program “This and That” every Saturday at 12 noon on KPFN 105.1 FM, also streamed live: www.kpfn.org)
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