Call to Order and Approval of Minutes of 7-14-21 and 8-11-21.
Present: Jini Reynolds, Shannon J, Nancy Macy, Dolly Riley, Patricia Ris-Yarbrough, Marybeth, Gizmo, Sarah Reith, Elizabeth Salamone, Cathy Monroe, Travis Killmer, Christine Boyd, Sattie Clark, Katrina Frey, Glenn McGourty, Jeanne Chin, Matt Kendall, Sheilah Rogers, Meridyth Reinhard, Adam Gaska, Darcie Antle. Minutes for 7-14-21 and Minutes for the 8-11-21 were approved by vote. The meeting was called to order by Dolly at 5:00 pm, Chris moved to adopt the July 14 minutes, Patricia seconded the motion, all approved. Katrina motioned to approve the August 11 minutes, Jini seconded the motion, all approved. Chris and Dolly noted that, again, editing needs to be better. Patricia volunteered to help find the glitch in formatting between Google and Windows
Public Comments
Marybeth- the Ukiah Unified School District meets tomorrow to discuss the future of Redwood Valley’s school. She wants to encourage everyone to make some public comment in regard to what happens to the property. Dolly- if anyone wants the links to those meetings to email her at dollypriley@gmail.com. Cathy Monroe- A mysterious group has offered to fix the railroad in exchange for user access to haul coal. Dolly- It’s a Montana company that wants to truck coal through Sonoma down through Mendocino to be further be shipped overseas, this threatens redwood trees and is a major contributor to carbon emissions. Sheilah- Even our congressmen are concerned about this. Patricia asked for the link to the school board meeting in the chat.
Report from County and Agencies on Current Events A vote was taken later in this Agenda item for the MAC to support a request to fund projects using Build Back Better funds. Guest Speaker: Sarah Reith on PG&E's enhanced vegetation program: Road A is an example of the enhanced vegetation management plan AB2911- PG&E can remove trees and things deemed to be hazardous for the lines. Under normal circumstances, an environmental report and geology would need to be taken into consideration. A lot of these carbon-sequestering trees are healthy and blue oaks that take a significant amount of time to grow. AB2911 does require notice of any cuttings, which does leave room for negotiation. There is some confusion about which markings mean what and which trees are not to be cut down. there have been reports of property damage, left personal belongings, and unnecessary cuttings. PG&E is not required to show how this will prevent wildfires and is unmindfully cutting. With a budget of over a million dollars. Nancy Macy- Dead roots and chips are not an effective way to prevent erosion and can contribute to wildfires. Jeanne Chinn- The white paper around the atrocities of PG&E; it's disgraceful how little notice, and how little training these arborists have. Many of those blue oaks did not need to be taken down. It's cheaper and lasts longer to improve infrastructure. Nancy Macy- The PSPS now called community wildfire safety plan. PG&E now has community resource centers, and system hardening- Their goal is three miles. These bare copper and aluminum wires are often in high fire danger and in coastal areas can start sparking on their own. Those 146 miles of power line will be cut completely in conjunction with herbicide. Marybeth- Does PG&E have a mitigation plan? What about the winter rain? Nancy- The most recent plan which is 500 pages long mentions environmental safety but looking at the water corridors and wind tunnels it is clearly a lie. Gizmo- These wind corridors are a huge red flag. Sattie- Glenn is this an issue that you would be willing to sponsor? How should we bring this to the supervisors? Glenn- I’m really wondering how these people get away with this, you couldn't even do this to your own property. I'll bring this to the board. they would be better off sending that money to put cables underground rather than destroying the environment. Sarah- Kellen Keizer is holding PG&E off with sheer willpower demanding an environmental review given it’s a protected waterway. Jini- has had a conversation with the PG&E arborists, they said that PG&E is calling for total clearcutting regardless of the rules. Christine- What is the most effective way to push back? Nancy- If you bring this committee to the supervisors and make a public stink about it. You can take concerns to the CPUC. Darcie Antle, Asst CEO & Disaster Recovery Finance Director - PG&E Settlement funds. Discuss August 17 BOS decision. Grange funding, and using funds to send water to Mendocino for tourism. Since the 2017 fires were expanded to prevention, recovery, resilience, and mitigation. Most of this funding is intended on going towards projects such as the park. Katrina- Why is the park receiving funding? Darcy - That funding is coming from another source but still qualifies for funding due to the fires. Glenn McGourty- We should have a guest speaker come to talk about the lawsuit because it disrupted many communities for well over a year. Darcy- Not only the ash runoff in the creeks, but the over-excavation contributed. Marybeth- Maybe we could have a representative from the building and planning come to talk about the reimbursement. Elizabeth Salamone- I was very concerned about the water security because we received very little funding. Come advocate for water security, the locks are important but so is water security. Sattie- We consider a lot of the allocations to be inappropriate. Potter Valley was supposed to get that money to repair the community. We have a problem not with the individual parks but with Redwood Valley getting little more than 16 percent. We know that you don't make those decisions but we are disappointed that our letters weren't taken into account and we got very little of our funding. Darcy- Until the year is closed by the Auditor-Controller we don't have a confirmed amount of dollar carry over. As of right now the Planning and Building department is planning on using tourist and tax dollars to pay back the PG&E settlement funds. Dolly- Agricultural water has ceased, residential users only get 55 gallons. I think that money would have been better spent on infrastructure such as tanks to help prevent this in the future. Elizabeth- Glenn made it very clear that this money needs to be paid back. There are also other funds to help with water storage, and the chances are slim, this won't be immediate. It's not an easy feat to pull off because we have one water truck. Chris - was contacted about the federal Build Back Better funds for economic resiliency. They asked if the MAC had any projects that they wanted to apply for. In total, we came up with 9 projects. We didn't have time to put this through the MAC so we did not involve a quorum. One of these projects is 10-20 million for water pipes from Ukiah to Redwood Valley. Above-ground infrastructure and storage tanks for water at $250,000 per site. Mitigation of burned terrain to promote resilience at $5 million. ADA compliance of the Grange, road connections of Little Lake with Redwood Valley at $6 million. Fire station improvements, garage coverage, 8 vehicles, $220,000. Emergency communication- hazmat extraction equipment. Jini mentioned Road A and road B improvements such as crossings, and turnouts. Chris- I’m unsure how likely it is to get these grants but it's plausible and we're still in the first step. Patricia- How will we receive these funds? Chris- We are still in the initial steps but we would be working with several different agencies. Elizabeth Salamone recommended reaching out to Debra for help with this. Sattie- Reimbursed? Will we need to pay for these projects first? Chris- No this is more like a cash giveaway as far as I know. Dolly- Is this list with the inclusion of road and B something the MAC would support? Sattie moves, Patricia seconds, approved unanimously. Sattie requested to have a discussion and possible action to create a MAC Ad Hoc subcommittee with a goal of Local Government Engagement. Sattie- There are MACs all over the county and while the Brown Act prohibits meeting without the quorum, my suggestion is to meet with other members on how we can support each other on our issues. It would be very informative for other MACs to have a few minutes at each meeting so we can collaborate. Jini - There was a group of Mendocino and Sonoma County MACs, Aka The Big MAC. I can forward those connections to you. Redwood Valley water issue updates. Chris relayed president Tom's water usage reports- We’re seeing a 50 percent decrease in usage. FloKana used 341 thousand gallons of domestic water, they were able to plug many holes and reduce their usage but it is still heavy. There is a lot of misinformation about the water situation. If you have any questions, call, or join the monthly zoom meetings and she would be happy to send the link to anyone who needs it. Patricia- FloKana is using hundreds of thousands of gallons of processed water because agriculture has been shut off. Jini- I understand that there are leaks but there are still three businesses up there. Shannon- Are businesses allowed 55 gallons or is this drinking water? Elizabeth- It's best to contact the district itself because they set the mandate. Katrina- Some people could be using wells; they might be needing processing water for the wine. Elizabeth- Expanding the flood control district to include Redwood Valley. We are lucky that Millview is willing to allocate us water. If Redwood Valley would have been a customer of the flood control district their water wouldn't have been turned off this year, we want this to move forward. Send a representative to the water district meeting on your behalf. Fire preparedness update. Gizmo- we've got One Less Spark posters in Home Depot, North American Organics, and a booth at beer fest to talk about fire safety. Member Sattie Clark motioned to approve. Member Patricia Ris-Yarbrough seconded the motion.

The roll call vote:

Aye Chair Dolly Riley Aye Vice-Chair Jini Reynolds Aye Treasurer Katrina Frey Aye Member Chris Boyd Aye Member Sattie Clark Aye Member Patricia Ris-Yarbrough Aye Member Adam Gaska
Cannabis Policy Ad Hoc Subcommittee: Patricia, Sattie The referendum was successful at the board of supervisors’ meetings on the 14th of September to either rescind the cannabis ordinance or send it to the voters. We are unsure of the time limit, we're all just waiting to see. Patricia- Glenn is currently undecided on how he will vote, he is leaning towards accepting the expansion ordinance. He is open to accepting the third option, but I’m unsure how he will vote. Patricia urges everyone to attend the September 14 meeting and make their voice heard.
Development Review Ad Hoc Subcommittee: Marybeth, Jini, Patricia Marybeth- besides the Redwood Valley School, the planning commission ordered the re-zone of the cookie factory and a couple of properties up the street from Mario's Italian. We spoke to Alex Degrassi regarding community character concerns: this will be cannabis drying and packaging and a storefront dispensary. This has already been set in motion and will be just like the smoke shop in town. Patricia- Is this the same permit that we missed regarding the dispensary up the street? Marybeth- This is a new dispensary entirely. Sattie emailed Alex Degrassi to see if he remembered this; he attached several applications from 2019, she could forward this to anyone who needs it. Adam- I tried to go look for the past minutes and couldn't find anything. Dolly- Is there anything objectionable about this new dispensary where the cookie factory used to be? Marybeth- We can't really do anything about it now, but since it's been rezoned it could be a dog kennel or something else.
CAP: Interim Community Action Plan and Design Review: Chris, Sattie
We need to let Glenn McGourty know to pay attention to requesting the approval of the community action plan, Dolly stated a written request to P&B before the end of the year would be a good idea. Adopt-A-Road is coming up on 9-18-21. Marybeth- Check your email and socials to find the poster to get more info.
Officers and Members Reports and Announcements Marybeth is very interested in getting CERT training in the community, she found someone who would love to do it. Meeting indoors is slowly coming back but if there is a group interest in pursuing that she could make it happen. Dolly- I feel we need to give our attention to what's in front of us. Chris- I wonder if that might be something the Grange would be interested in sponsoring. Patricia (Pien)- I've done Cert training two or three times in San Francisco and it's community glue that would be very helpful in Redwood Valley. Marybeth- I was thinking just as a guest speaker but if I can coordinate directly to get it going I will. Dolly- We took a vote to support the build back better funds, I will send the road A and B description to everyone.
Adjournment. Next meeting 10-13-21.
Dolly adjourned the meeting at 7:03 the next meeting being on October 13th.