Imagine finding yourself at the crossroads of managing natural emergencies and fostering community growth, all the while keeping a spirit of civility alive in politics. In our latest podcast episode, we sit down with Steve Madrone, Humboldt County's 5th District Supervisor, for an intimate exploration of his public service journey. With anecdotes that traverse from the familial roots to the heart of community resilience, Steve offers a glimpse into the life of a local, enriched by a storied history and a dedication to solving problems with innovation and grit. From the respectful exchange with a fellow candidate to the hardy nature of Humboldt's residents, this conversation is a testament to the power of issue-focused discourse and the human spirit's capacity to thrive amid challenges.
Join us on a nostalgic journey that connects the orange-scented memories of Anaheim to the rugged beauty of Humboldt's landscape, where a transformational camping trip ignited Steve's ambition to protect our forests. As we traverse the winding paths of Steve's career, we encounter the fusion of law enforcement with forest management and the pioneering educational philosophy of Humboldt State University. Here, the seeds of environmental stewardship are sown, sprouting community projects and sustainability initiatives that continue to push the envelope on what it means to care for our planet. Steve's reflections are a masterclass in how passion can evolve into purpose, guiding us through the academic innovations that are shaping tomorrow's guardians of nature.
Our conversation takes a pragmatic turn as we confront the complex issues of healthcare and homelessness, considering the potential ripple effects of a healthcare-for-all system and innovative housing solutions. Steve's real-world examples of sanctioned camps and his interactions with insurance professionals shed light on the intricacies of these societal challenges. As we address wildfire preparedness and the realities of sustainable development, the discussion moves from personal stories of safeguarding homes to larger questions about community investment in infrastructure. Wrapping up, we delve into the exciting developments and community projects within Steve's Fifth District, all the while underscoring the pivotal role that listening and collaboration play in the art of governance. This episode isn't just a window into Steve Madrone's world—it's a call to action for engaged citizenship and collective progress.
Find us on Facebook at 100% Humboldt.
Imagine finding yourself at the crossroads of managing natural emergencies and fostering community growth, all the while keeping a spirit of civility alive in politics. In our latest podcast episode, we sit down with Steve Madrone, Humboldt County's 5th District Supervisor, for an intimate exploration of his public service journey. With anecdotes that traverse from the familial roots to the heart of community resilience, Steve offers a glimpse into the life of a local, enriched by a storied history and a dedication to solving problems with innovation and grit. From the respectful exchange with a fellow candidate to the hardy nature of Humboldt's residents, this conversation is a testament to the power of issue-focused discourse and the human spirit's capacity to thrive amid challenges.
Join us on a nostalgic journey that connects the orange-scented memories of Anaheim to the rugged beauty of Humboldt's landscape, where a transformational camping trip ignited Steve's ambition to protect our forests. As we traverse the winding paths of Steve's career, we encounter the fusion of law enforcement with forest management and the pioneering educational philosophy of Humboldt State University. Here, the seeds of environmental stewardship are sown, sprouting community projects and sustainability initiatives that continue to push the envelope on what it means to care for our planet. Steve's reflections are a masterclass in how passion can evolve into purpose, guiding us through the academic innovations that are shaping tomorrow's guardians of nature.
Our conversation takes a pragmatic turn as we confront the complex issues of healthcare and homelessness, considering the potential ripple effects of a healthcare-for-all system and innovative housing solutions. Steve's real-world examples of sanctioned camps and his interactions with insurance professionals shed light on the intricacies of these societal challenges. As we address wildfire preparedness and the realities of sustainable development, the discussion moves from personal stories of safeguarding homes to larger questions about community investment in infrastructure. Wrapping up, we delve into the exciting developments and community projects within Steve's Fifth District, all the while underscoring the pivotal role that listening and collaboration play in the art of governance. This episode isn't just a window into Steve Madrone's world—it's a call to action for engaged citizenship and collective progress.
Find us on Facebook at 100% Humboldt.
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to the 100% Humble Podcast with my new best friend, steve Madrone. Hey, steve, Good afternoon, scott. How's your day? It's going good. Good, getting things done, getting things done. Glad you're here, yeah, I appreciate it. So, real quick, tell us what your job is, your name, rank, serial number, what are you all about?
Speaker 2:Yeah well, serial. I'm not giving out my social on air, but that's for sure. Mine is I guess that is our serial number. I guess it would be Steve Madrone, current 5th District Supervisor for Humboldt County and 5th District. Looking at your map is everything north and east of the Mad River except for the city of Blue.
Speaker 1:Lake and the Mad River is like right here along 299. Sure, is this whole the city of Blue.
Speaker 2:Lake and the Mad River is like right here along 299. So this whole quadrant, right yeah, the whole Northern two-fifths of the county, jeez, that's huge.
Speaker 1:That's a big district. That's a really big district Compared to the rest of the state. That's probably geographically pretty big, as big as some counties, right? So that's true, yeah. Yeah. So Nick and I were debating how long have you been a supervisor?
Speaker 2:I'm in my sixth year, so five and a half years.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Wow, yeah, how's it going. Oh, I love it, it's a great job. I mean, you know there's a lot of difficult parts to the job. There's no doubt about that. Sure, and it's kind of a 24-7, even though we're not technically first responders, it sometimes feels that way with all the emergencies we have here. Oh my gosh, In In Humboldt, we go from fire to flood, flood to fire, wind. You know Crazy winter. But no, I really enjoy it. It's considered a privilege to be able to work with people and try to help solve problems.
Speaker 1:You know, I don't know. I'm sure people ask it doesn't pay tremendously, right, it's much less than the department heads or the sheriff, that's for sure.
Speaker 2:But it still pays quite a bit for Humboldt County's status.
Speaker 1:It's about $100,000 a year. So it's not a stipend, it's a wage.
Speaker 2:It's a wage unlike city council members or service district board members or school board members, who maybe they get mileage reimbursements or a very small stipend. But like a mayor of a city gosh, I can only imagine how many hours that is in between your paid job right and everything else. The morning calls the text, so it is a full-time job and that's good, because it is more than full-time work, frankly speaking.
Speaker 1:Let me hit you with my two hardest questions that people really struggle with. Okay, you probably already have them who is Steve Madrone and what do you want? That was my father-in-law's genius question. Most people go I don't know who I am and therefore I don't know what I want.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely Well who I am. I'm a newcomer. I've only been here 50 years. You're fresh. And it's interesting because I've met many people that lay a serious claim to being a local. They've been here 10 or 20 years, but they're a particular culture or a particular belief system or whatever, and somehow they think that that's the case, that's local. Yeah, I say that not as a joke, frankly, but because our Native peoples, as you know, have been here thousands of years Long time, and there are a lot of other homesteaders and early settlers. Their families can trace back 100, 150 years as well. So I do see myself new in that way. But I have been here a long time and I've got four children, 19 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren Good for you, man. Most of them live here in the county and some on the property. We've got a few acres up in the area up above Trinidad and a couple of homes and we're able to kind of help take care of each other A compound.
Speaker 2:It's a village. Yeah, absolutely. Just like you know, the native peoples had villages that were 30 to 50 or so people and those were extended families, basically, you know. So I feel lucky 19 grandkids.
Speaker 2:I see my kids and grandkids as often as I do. It's a real blessing. That's cool. So that's who I am and how long I've been here. But you know, what I want to see is us solving problems. You know, humboldt is an incredible place full of natural resources oh boy, and incredible. You know hardy people and we always have a lot of challenges and I live and breathe to try and work with people and figure out how to move forward and get things done.
Speaker 1:You triggered a thought of me. Larry Doss said people with grit Absolutely. I thought that, absolutely. You said it in a different way, perfect.
Speaker 2:Well, and Larry would know he's done a lot of work with getting people homes and helping to finance all that. He's also a rancher, as you may know, sure, and I've enjoyed running into Larry over the last year and a half. That's cool, you know, seeing each other at different, or at community service district meetings, things like that.
Speaker 1:So funny story that you'll remember. Nick doesn't hear this, so first letter to the editor I ever wrote to endorse a candidate was Larry Doss. That was your first wow, first ever. And guess who I would run into in Trinidad at the parking lot campaigning a couple days before and Campaigning a couple of days before and hey, steve, how's it going? You were very gracious, hey Scott. Hey, I liked your letter to the editor of the journal. Well, you know this is awkward and you made it cool. You were gracious.
Speaker 2:We both stayed above board. We dealt with the issues that were in front of us. I think, and I appreciate that because we saw in the recent assembly race there was some pretty kind of you know, this stuff that people don't like to see. The really negative ad, the judge race right. Judge race, the assembly race. Did Greg lose? Did he end up losing? He did lose, yeah.
Speaker 1:And they dropped all that data on him right before the election. There's always a lot of interesting stuff in politics, isn't that timely? It's so weird that that happened. How did they get that data and drop it to the news?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, different story. So what do you? You're a problem solver. That's what you want to do is solve some problems. What do you see as our I don't know. I always joke in my life, in my home and my grandkids top three takeaways. If you were to say top three issues that we face as a county, what, how would you rank? What are they? Just generally.
Speaker 2:Well, healthcare has got to be right up there. Up top, I mean. Our healthcare system's falling apart at every angle. You know, with the lack of workers wanting to get into the profession, how difficult it is for the workers that are in the profession Like if you go to the ER room, you know, at St Joe's or Mad River, and you see the you know overwhelming need.
Speaker 2:Oh boy, and you know it's easy to see burnout and all kinds of other issues. Yeah, young people that are coming into the medical profession don't want to get into personal practice because of malpractice lawsuits and other kinds of issues, so they're looking to work for a hospital or a clinic or whatever. And we don't have nearly enough of them and we don't have enough housing, not only for them but working class families, as well as our large homeless, our population of people experiencing homelessness, sure. So that's another huge issue the mental health issues, the you know, public health, mental health, our health care system, people experiencing homelessness due to lack of housing and there are a lot of reasons for all of that. Sure, lack of housing, and there are a lot of reasons for all of that. Sure.
Speaker 2:Proposition 1 has some really good things in it. It just barely squeaked by in the recent March election Tell us about that but some of them you know well, there's going to be care court, there's going to be more hospital beds and other kinds of things happening across the state, but it's going to divert money away from some of our very important preventative programs like what's called HCTC, humboldt County, transitional Age Youth Programs. That is preventative. They're out there working with young people who are having all kinds of problems and they're helping to mentor them. They're helping them develop job skills.
Speaker 1:Is that Youth Bureau?
Speaker 2:It's part of DHHS Department of Health and Human Services. And then there's a Hope Center and we have a hospital here. We're lucky to have one some providence but it's ancient and we all know it needs to be rebuilt.
Speaker 1:It's got many beds?
Speaker 2:yeah, not very many beds. We don't have youth beds, so I would say, you know the three H's? How's that sound? Hammond Hammond. No, that's me. Yeah, that's you. That's the trail. That's a bunch of other history. Hammond Trail yeah, we own the trail.
Speaker 1:Did you know that?
Speaker 2:That A Hammond family goes way back here in Humboldt, oh yeah, for sure. Into the early lumbering and such Hammond Lumber, Hammond Railroad.
Speaker 1:They had a monopoly on the redwood industry at one time. They did, they had, they played that there was a Monopoly buster that came in and they did GP and LP Yep split them up.
Speaker 2:That was back in the late 60s, early 70s, I think.
Speaker 1:So we'll come back to the three H's. So the three H's.
Speaker 2:Housing, Housing, homelessness and health care.
Speaker 1:Good, that's an easy way to kind of corral it.
Speaker 2:Not that there aren't a lot of other problems that start with other letters, like R or Rhodes and many other things right D for drugs, drugs coming in, being produced. You know all of that stuff. So plenty to work on right. Yeah, there's no lack of projects.
Speaker 1:So tell me early, Steve, you came up 50 years ago, so class you must have came to Humboldt in 75 for- 73. Three okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I did. I came to go to school and become a forester. Yeah, me too.
Speaker 1:So a lot of people did right. Who did?
Speaker 2:Because Humboldt was well known as the forestry school in America, unless you were going to a higher level like Yale or some of the other places right, but Humboldt was the place I was a Boy Scout growing up in Orange County in the 60s, 50s and 60s. What town In Anaheim originally. So we were a mile and a half from Disneyland and it's all orange groves We'd ride our bicycles through the orange groves. Hang out out front, get free tickets from people leaving Sweet and the entrance fee was a buck and a quarter.
Speaker 1:And now it's a buck and a quarter A hundred. Buck and a quarter, yeah, and now it's a buck and a quarter A hundred buck and a quarter, that's right, or more.
Speaker 2:It's probably more 200 buck and a quarter, yeah.
Speaker 1:The joke is that when you live by Disneyland you don't go much, but you guys.
Speaker 2:Oh, we did all the time, but I spent most of my time on the only place you can touch the earth in Disneyland. Oh, the island Tom, actual dirt. We used to go out there and smoke weed and you're running around in the caves and all this stuff.
Speaker 1:We'd go out there and smoke weed and be crazy. But you were a Boy Scout so you didn't do that no, no, didn't do that.
Speaker 2:No, I came to Humboldt to figure that one out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my story's the opposite. I came up and got sober from being a feral child in San Diego.
Speaker 2:Yeah, in 78. So you're way older than I am. But you know, growing up as a Boy Scout we went. The main thing we did was went camping, a lot, sure, and that got me to the eastern Sierras, up to Mammoth and other places and I was like, wow, there's more to the life than Orange County Right, which was being suburbanized, you know, pretty rapidly. Everything was being cut down.
Speaker 2:And now it's a mess, all the trees and stuff it, the congestion, just everything. It kind of outgrow its means right, which is a basic tenet to maybe pay attention to. And so people ask you when you're young, scott, what are you going to be when you grow up? And you'd say a forest ranger, forest ranger. Of course that was what I would say, and I meant it, because everybody I'd see when I went camping I thought was a forest ranger. Weren't they cool? Whether they were in the store or the campground or wherever, they're all forest rangers, everybody's a ranger of some. Who is it? And it was this dream of. Well, wouldn't it be neat to live in a place where most people like to go to recreate, you know, on their vacation?
Speaker 1:and actually live there, you know. Turns out it's pretty much law enforcement.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, that's exactly. My friend Brian's a ranger, it was that or laying out harvest plans to cut down trees and I wanted to plant trees, I wanted to do forest health work, I wanted to do watershed work.
Speaker 1:Was that your major at Humboldt, my?
Speaker 2:major was natural resources and it was a five-year major, believe it or not, when it first was created, because what you did was you took a little bit of every science and economics, and social science and psychology. That's a great major. So you took a little bit of everything, which meant you were being trained as a generalist, but with the potential to become a specialist in any number of fields if you just took a few more classes.
Speaker 1:Like a business major, then master's in whatever.
Speaker 2:Economic development.
Speaker 1:So you have the basis of calculus and physics and chemistry, right.
Speaker 2:Well, especially all those as a bachelor's. But then I came back to humboldt before it was cal poly in 26 and in 2011, got my master's there in watershed management, oh well and uh, hydrology, wildland hydrology. So you know terry rolliffs, I do, I know terry quite well a great guy.
Speaker 2:He was one of the professors, along with dr rudy becking and others, that had this vision to create the natural resource department, because everybody was kind of doing their own thing, because he was fishery right, he was a fisheries here's fisheries, here's soils, here's wildlife, here's forestry, and they were all their own different thing and there was no integration. And they brought it under one, so the idea was let's have that all integrated and create some programs where people learned a little bit about all those things.
Speaker 1:So that was Humboldt State. Really very, very innovative. Yeah, terry's a great guy yeah. Remember the cluster program was a general ed program. Yeah, so we were part of that. So all of his hippie feral children got to do you'd really like this. It's quarter system. You get 20 units, pass, fail Yep, and you got to show up.
Speaker 2:There's no tests, no grades but you had to show up. Yeah, tests, no grades.
Speaker 1:But you had to show up and participate and probably you go, wow, come on, it was the best thing ever.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:The people and all the disciplines came in, like Terry and different people, and taught us well. It was good and there was that house up on the hill.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the Buck House, the old Buck House, the alternative energy, which now they've actually down the hill a little ways, but right there under the BSS building they've got their own operation there that shows how to do gray water systems or storm water runoff, rainwater gardens. You remember the?
Speaker 1:yurt that was back there, Absolutely yeah. The yurt, so we had all of our classes in the book house. Yeah, up on the hill, it was great.
Speaker 2:It was a good time. It was the last little kind of wild place on the campus until they needed to build the five-story BSS building.
Speaker 1:It was really beautiful there. Yeah, my wife and I met in that program. Huh, wonderful. I think you met Joni, probably.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I probably have over the years. Hey, Joni, how are you doing Sweet At one of those events? We go to chamber events or something.
Speaker 1:I think we did so. You came up from Orange County when Orange County was a nicer village, yeah yeah and stayed here. Did you meet your wife and buy the property?
Speaker 2:She came to the dorms at Humboldt the same semester I did. I always joke that I saw her across the room and fell in love. Sure, it was actually several years later that we met, but yes, I did see her and fell in love right there on the spot. And we've been together now 44 years. Bless you guys, so yeah we're very lucky, I feel, in this world.
Speaker 1:And four kids. That created 19 grandkids.
Speaker 2:That's really cool, Well six of those were adopted foster kids, that's wonderful. So you can build your numbers really quick. If you want to take in even more, that's great. Bless my daughters, the family, for bringing those kids into our family. And there's a lot of challenges. But, boy, they're so much better off having been adopted than just staying in the foster system or not having anybody. So are you the patriarch of the village? I am, apparently.
Speaker 1:I wouldn't say I'm the leader. Your wife lets you do that every day.
Speaker 2:I go to the women to get most of my permits, like if I need to mow, there's the wildflower committee. I have to go to go through them and get ratified.
Speaker 1:It's good, I love it, you know man, it's uh.
Speaker 2:Some people are threatened by strong women, but I am not. I admire them I think they rule the world and they're stepping up and humbled. If you look around, more and more boards are becoming a majority, if not almost entirely, women who have stepped up for positions on city council, school boards, boards. And, yeah, they got the long-term family at heart right.
Speaker 1:One of my first guests was Bethany Shea from Catalyst Church. Oh wonderful. You know, Bethany and Jason. I don't think.
Speaker 2:I do Right across from the co-op.
Speaker 1:we've got a church that she's had dinner with them last night in Blue Lake. She's tremendous. Yeah, a girl pastor.
Speaker 2:Everybody who would have figured you know the world's changing and we can either get angry about it and fight each other on petty, stupid little things, or we can try and find that common ground and see the good in each other and find out places we can work together on stuff.
Speaker 1:Or going advanced maturity philosophy with Joni and I is let's get curious. Yes, absolutely. Oh, he's a Trumper. Oh, he loves Biden, oh, he loves women, pastors what's?
Speaker 2:up with that? All of a sudden you've got commonality. Talk to me, how do you figure that? And then, when you think about the effect on your own health of just being angry all the time and blaming everybody else, like the problem all exists somewhere else, as compared to loving yourself, recognizing your frailty, working on the things you can change, because you can't really change anybody else. No, we can change ourselves Sometimes If we want to. It's not easy, but there's a lot of support out there to do that if we seek it out.
Speaker 1:That's my joke. I'm not good at anybody, I can barely do me day to day, and it's a full-time job. Right, it is a full-time job. So the top three issues, the three H's, what would be, I don't know, early first steps for health. I mean, we've got Destination Humboldt, bringing doctors in early for training and residency and paying their debts. So I'm actually part of that, which is really cool. That seems to be a proactive move it is Well.
Speaker 2:The biggest overarching umbrella is healthcare for all, which has been on the platform for a long, long, long time but never seems to quite happen, and I would say that's the power of the pharmaceutical corporations and insurance companies. Yeah, not any dig at you and your profession. We're not that big. I've been with State Farm for 40 some years, so, and I've had great service and great care, so in no way would.
Speaker 2:I want to disparage the hard work that people do and the difficult decisions in a world with fire and loss and everything else. But within the healthcare system it is well known that actually adopting that now government's not great at running anything right. So you know, trying to get something to become more government regulated has its own pitfalls. There's no doubt about that. But the way things go right now is pharmaceuticals are the richest lobbying entity on the planet, bar none.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:More than defense, more than oil, energy, any of it Part of the broken lobby system, and so things don't happen that are going to affect the bottom line there, and what that is is it's taken out of the people and the lack of health care or the cost of it. And I just had a conversation with St Joe's today about things that are going to have to change there because of the bottom line, and so we've got to fix that. And as a county official, I know for a fact that the county would save millions of dollars in terms of its health insurance plans and all the rest of it if we had, you know, healthcare for all systems in place. So there's a lot of money to be saved and better care to be acquired.
Speaker 2:It's not easy. It hasn't worked everywhere perfectly. There is no. I mean, that's the one thing you first have to realize in anything in life. Right is perfect's not on the table, it's just not. But there are ways to make things better. Yeah, and I think we've got a lot of work to do in that arena.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the open-door clinic has come up a couple times. Yeah, you were early in. Herman Spetzler when Mailman in the old building there?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was maybe. Well, it bounced around in several places for sure, that's become a Without them.
Speaker 2:I mean, they're half the system in Humboldt, right. And then you got Mad River and St Joe's, right, but without Open Door and North Country Clinic. I mean, my goodness, they're covering a lot of bases, oh yeah, and they are nonprofit and so they run from a different model. Not that they don't also struggle with costs and everything else. You know how could they not? Everything's gone, everybody does yeah, so no simple solutions. I don't actually have to be the one responsible for making it happen, but if I have a microphone in front of me and I can speak to what I believe should happen, you bet, yeah, that's part of the solution?
Speaker 1:And how about homelessness? What are your initial? Hey, could you fix homelessness?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I get that a lot. I get that a lot, and Prop 1, like I said, is going to take away from some of these preventative systems, and so what happens is the outcome of that is that more people will fall through the cracks and, potentially, juveniles as well as adults end up experiencing homelessness. Juveniles as well as adults end up experiencing homelessness. One of the things I try to tell people in my district and that I talk to in the county is that you know you probably already have homeless camps nearby you If there's a wooded area near you there's homeless camps, and there's at least one, if not multiple camps in that area, and there's no sanitation, there's no garbage, there's no way to bring services to them, and it's a horrible life for them as well as others.
Speaker 2:Now there's some that, no matter what you do, no matter what programs you create, they're going to still live in the woods Right, and that has to do with all kinds of other choices and decisions and conditions that they may be experiencing.
Speaker 1:So dart, throw. What do you think? That percentage is Third Half Of the population. That would stay in the woods, oh of the people experiencing homelessness.
Speaker 2:They would just choose the woods Could be as much as a third, okay. Some places it might be only 10 or 20%. Okay, but it's significant. But the more significant number is the other side of that 100% puzzle, which is 60 to 80% of the people, if given half a chance, could probably turn their lives around. That requires resources and some people have no empathy for that. They think that, well, they should just make better choices and get their lives together Serves them right. These are not all people, and many of them aren't just people that have just gone and decided to be this way. They're dealing with mental health issues that only get worse in a condition where you can't get a shower but once a month or whatever it might be. Some of them might be people that just got an injury and got prescribed opioids and before they knew it, the prescriptions ran out and they were addicted and then they started getting them on the street and then they lost their home and their job and things unraveled.
Speaker 1:Or my wife left with my best friend and lost my job and drank myself to death.
Speaker 2:Exactly Reasons for why these things happen. So we can either play that blame game or we can say who can we help and how do we help them? And what I try to say to people is that you already have these camps in your neighborhood. So would you not necessarily be jumping up and down excited, but could you feel that you would be willing to see if it works and have some sanction camps nearby, where there's, you know, management on site, there's facilities for garbage showers.
Speaker 1:How does that work across the nation?
Speaker 2:Well, you know, we can.
Speaker 1:Are there good stories we get?
Speaker 2:examples all over of problems where it failed and problems where it worked. Sacramento has been experimenting with different approaches for a long time. Chico has several hundred trailers they put on some surplus property that are like little tiny home units and stuff. We've got a modular plant out in Hoopa that's been shuttered forever and could be running again. Remember that, yeah, and I'm working with the tribe and Senator McGuire to see if we can get funding to open it up. Doesn't Betty Chin have something?
Speaker 1:Betty.
Speaker 2:Chin has stuff. Arcata House Partnership has all kinds of different programs they're doing with the city, the county, with DHHS. So if somebody came forward, we need non-profit partners. But if they step up and they're willing to partner with the county and get the funding they need, like Arcata House and others, wouldn't it be better to have a sanctioned camp, a sanctioned, safe parking lot, maybe still nearby in your neighborhood, but it's got all these better qualities about it. Wouldn't that be better than what you have right now?
Speaker 2:I know it's not what you'd like. What you'd like is not to have any homeless that you have to see or something. I don't know what it is, but and I get people with a lot of empathy and those that have almost no empathy for solving the problem and think it's a handout and it's, you know, whatever I don't know, I, I, I believe people are doing their best and then you know if they're in the situation they're in, it's for reasons that if you spend a little time with them, you might start understanding. Yeah, empathy it's a short supply but it's not easy. It's probably one of the hardest problems to solve, but so is healthcare. Yeah, even roads is a tough problem to solve.
Speaker 2:You know, I mean, everything requires resources, right, and we're living in an age right now where they're getting seemingly more limited. Right, the cost of living on every level is going up and people are going what do I pay my PG&E bill? Or go pick up my meds, or what?
Speaker 1:Can we talk about?
Speaker 2:gas real quick. Oh my goodness, yeah Right, humboldt, you can go anywhere and it's cheaper. Gosh, it's $5.89. Anywhere.
Speaker 1:That's the good news Anywhere you go.
Speaker 2:If you go on a trip, it's cheaper.
Speaker 1:We were in Boise, idaho, two weeks ago. It was $3.39.
Speaker 2:Same thing in New Mexico. It's crazy. It's like, are you kidding? It's the gas tax. In California it's the cleaner gas that we are required to burn for air emission control. So that's a special blend that costs a lot more money to produce. We have a limited number of refineries.
Speaker 1:But even Redding has much cheaper gas, redding does Central Valley on down and others.
Speaker 2:It may be a buck cheaper. So then you're in the four-something range, yeah.
Speaker 1:Is it a buck, a gallon, to transport it up?
Speaker 2:I know a couple of the guys actually that— it comes up by barge right, and it gets offloaded into the depot there in Eureka by the mall and then from there it gets trucked out, you know, and supplied to everybody.
Speaker 1:Well, a lot of the casinos have cheaper gas. They do so it can be done, well, they don't pay the gas tax.
Speaker 2:Okay, and there are a few other things I think they don't do.
Speaker 1:There's a reason, then, okay.
Speaker 2:And you know, speaking of roads, I mean the gas tax is not going to cover the cost of highways anymore once we go more and more electric, so the state's looking at a use tax, maybe using your GPS to track where you've been, Scott, and then, well, okay, you were five miles on county roads, 100 miles on state highway.
Speaker 1:Big brother, here's your bill.
Speaker 2:Here's your bill bro, let's see how that one works. Right, you used the highway. Oh look, Scott was at Steve's house today. What the heck's going on there?
Speaker 1:What was he doing up there at the village Right? So I'm hesitant to talk about the insurance crisis in California because I'm a State Farm agent and I have to be kind of careful to kind of never speak for the company and I'm not going to do that. But the truth is Ricardo Lara and the commissioner and the fires and the consumer watchdogs have repressed rates for a long time Yep and consumer watchdogs have repressed rates.
Speaker 1:For a long time Yep and now the California Fair Plan $300 billion in exposure with a billion in the bank.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's like what's even happening.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah, and I don't expect you to fix that, or maybe even comment much Fair Plan doesn't seem all that fair for those that have been forced it's been called the unfair plan.
Speaker 2:I think it's common news. If not, people might hear it here but part of the reason why State Farm and Allstate and others said we're not going to write new policies in the state of California was that bottom line that they are responsible to their shareholders and others to adhere to. You know, in order to stay in a business in this world that we have in America and the rates have not been allowed to adjust over time and they were always figured out on past hazards versus projection of future hazards.
Speaker 2:Cost of materials, cost of labor, and yet we now have so many better tools to be able to actually assess future hazard. We know a lot more about home hardening and steps that we as individual homeowners can do to help our homes survive a wildfire. We have more exemptions from CAL FIRE that allow you to go out 150 feet from your home and do significant clearing, cutting.
Speaker 2:I'm getting ready to sell my first load of logs off of my property, nice, because it's seven acres. It was cut 40 years ago, and so there's 40-year-old sprouts that are now two-foot diameter and I'm limbing them up 50 feet high. Is cut 40 years ago, and so there's 40 year old sprouts that are now two foot diameter, nice, and I'm limbing them up 50 feet high. My son's my faller climber. My grandkids are my swampers. Nice, we've got a family crew going.
Speaker 2:A logging operation With my company, I'm now a licensed timber operator and, with all those exemptions, we can see that there are going to be a lot of landowners like myself that are not only going to do the work around their own home but across my whole property, with natural resource conservation, service assistance and funding, as well as working with my neighbors to make it more of a neighborhood approach of fuel reduction and fire prevention activities. Along with we set up a nest team, a neighborhood emergency support team with a phone tree. We've developed an emergency evac route to the east through Green Diamond Land thanks to their incredible cooperation. Wow, because we're on a one-end, dead-end road, like many people are in Humboldt, green Diamond. And how do you get out if the fire starts below you? Green Diamond? Well, that's it, because everybody butts up against Green Diamond or in Southern Humboldt, a little Humboldt Redwood. That's a good company. Yeah, I think those kinds of things are fantastic.
Speaker 1:And so you know what I'm hoping the evolution, that's a great model that you're talking about. It is, it's hard, stop that's kind of the future.
Speaker 2:What people are hoping for is that we will soon get past the current approach to insurance rates on an individual property that is being based on broad brushstroke maps or broad data, not site-specific site inspections that say you know what. These people have done everything right and, yes, they live in a forest environment, but they have done all of the things to help their property survive to avoid liability and adjust the rates appropriately to the site-specific.
Speaker 2:I know that costs a little bit more money, but every landlord would be willing to pay a couple of extra hundred bucks for a site visit to get an accurate rate, rather than tens of thousands of dollars of increased rate and bigger still a safe environment.
Speaker 2:For everybody. You're doing the right thing yeah. For the entire hillside yeah. And if you don't have insurance right now, or you're finding it hard to get it renewed or this or that, whatever, put your money into wholeheartening and doing all the things that actually might protect your home in the first place. Nice Insurance doesn't protect your home. No, it pays you if you lose it.
Speaker 1:But the bank wants you to have it. Yes.
Speaker 2:Sadly they don't, especially if you're selling a property and somebody's coming in to buy it. It's pretty much creating all kinds of chaos in that real estate field.
Speaker 1:That poor young couple that just qualified and they're in the escrow and they're ready to sign. Oh wait, insurance is triple. We're bumped out of the deal.
Speaker 2:What and it's not just an extra thousand, it's 5, 10, 15,000 kinds of stuff that we're hearing it's crazy money.
Speaker 1:So what are you hearing from Sacramento generally around? What are they saying? Well, there's some, I mean it's a crisis. They've seen this four or five years ago.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. It's two-part, at least two-part. One's in the insurance commissioner's realm, the other's in the CAL FIRE. You know the fuel and fire.
Speaker 1:He's going away right.
Speaker 2:He's going away and some talk is that McGuire, according to his website, said that he might be considering an insurance commissioner. That's kind of a step sideways, or I don't know what you would call that he's got enough energy man. He's got enough energy to handle anything. Pretty much Maybe he'll actually. Then he could go to be in the healthcare guy and then he could get Recycling. No, mcguire's amazing. I mean, you see him at a town hall and he's a spark plug. Mr Auction he covers a lot of ground.
Speaker 1:What espresso, is that man drinking? He's a dynamo. He is like Mr Energy A dude works out, or something.
Speaker 2:Well, you can tell he's younger than us, right Way younger, younger than me.
Speaker 1:Well, you're the one with advanced maturity. Yeah, so 3H homeless health. What was the third one? Housing, Housing. What are you thinking on that?
Speaker 2:Well, there's several things. Again, you know, every issue you can point to has its details. With housing, we've added a lot of costs to it, like sprinklers. That's good for fire protection right, Saves the home, Maybe causes some sheetrock damage but hey, you still got a home, but it's expensive. It's expensive Solar Parking requirements or like a big subdivision, like the McKay track, being required to do all kinds of bike lanes and electrification of everything and a transit stop or two and this and that.
Speaker 1:Do they have to do a park?
Speaker 2:Offsite stuff.
Speaker 1:Do they have to?
Speaker 2:do, park, green space, all kinds of extra requirements that we as a society would like to see happen, and they may be worthwhile pieces. The question for me has been who?
Speaker 1:pays for that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and if we you know so, a big 300 home, whatever that is size, development has been delayed for decades because of those added costs. We have friends in the lot there. Yeah, the person who is the developer feeling like it just doesn't quite pencil out at the level he feels the need to to take those risks and make that investment.
Speaker 1:Sure.
Speaker 2:Because it is a risk. It's still an investment. Yeah, there's a housing demand, but still, will they sell at the price you need to sell them at in order to recoup your costs? Right, and that's the penciling out that they do. It's a dice throw, it is a total dice throw. And so there's getting to be less and less contractors willing to build housing. You know, just looking at it locally, right, and I'm sure this is compounded statewide because of those things. So shouldn't we maybe have public programs that help provide those additional things? Like, for a long time we had solar tax credits that paid 35 to 50% of the effort. Love that. But a lot of that went away, or has been declined.
Speaker 1:Went bye-bye right, yeah.
Speaker 2:And then not only that, but then they said anybody new coming on solar won't get to spin the wheel backwards, which was always you know, is always the cost of installation minus a tax credit, minus the money you'd save every month because you're turning the wheel back during the high sun months.
Speaker 1:Right, so it's less attractive.
Speaker 2:But now PG&E won't even buy that power. So there's some serious complications to the housing issue, including that, including land use planning, and when I work with developers, I always try to help them embrace the wetlands or the other unique characters of the property. So often those things are seen as just problems. They're going to be associated with various costs to deal with mitigate for the wetland, filling or whatever it might be, and I never see it that way. But again, I'm trained in natural resources and land use planning and so for me, I see those as assets. Everybody loves to have a restaurant with a veranda overlooking duck ponds, you know. And, and guess what? The ducks don't care that you're sitting there watching them, you know they don't care. You know frogs don't care. A lot of wetland qualities are actually replicable, even in urban environments, you know, and stuff. So what I try to do is help developers embrace those qualities of the property they're living on and turn them into assets in their design that help them with stormwater retention, runoff stormwater filtering, as well as creating wetlands and benefits.
Speaker 1:Kind of like we Are Up. Did with Mary Keene in the project. That's exactly right. She did a really good job.
Speaker 2:The neighbors there should really recognize the incredible luck they have in having somebody like her coming in Unstoppable with their complaints. I understand their complaints, but at some point I think it becomes somewhat unreasonable given what the other options are, such as HSU, cal Poly could come in and buy it and build whatever they wanted, with no say on anybody's part whatsoever.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Come on guys, let's get reasonable quick Again. There's no perfect.
Speaker 2:And she has bent over backwards with her team of people to create an amazing development and it's going to cost money to sustain it. So they're trying to create an event center within reasonable bounds of parking. Hours of operation. Noise control. Reasonable bounds of parking. Hours of operation, noise control.
Speaker 1:So there's a limit in which the public can complain, and then, at a certain point, they've been heard, mitigations have been approved.
Speaker 2:In terms of the legal process yes, but you know, one can cause by appealing and threatening to sue and doing different things. And certain lawyers are pretty gnarly at this. They're kind of known as the person you want to hire for a project like this, to go after Obstructionist mofos. Yeah, I mean, they're on all sides right. Can I cuss?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I have no room for that it's like it's up on both sides that way and, frankly, all that does is raises the cost for everybody and lawyers make more money and they win in the end. And in the end and you delay this Both sides have lost. A world-class project gets delayed for a year With high need Seniors, with disabled youth I mean, hello, seniors. I mean it's always been the thing, right, that young little kids have a ton of energy but no wisdom yet, although I will say I think when they're born they're given all the wisdom of the world, and then our job as parents is to minimize the loss along the way, right, don't leak too much out, yeah, at any rate. Then you got the middle folks that are working, you know to make ends meet, and then you got the old folks that have a lot of wisdom but not a lot of energy. So it's always been a thing where you take the old folks and put them with the little young folks.
Speaker 1:It's going to be cool and combine those things together Cal Poly students, it's going to be a great project, absolutely. So real quick back to housing. And then I want to talk about fifth district projects. Like we are up and then we'll wrap the the parking situation down in old town and downtown is, I realize you're you're not city council but probably have some opinions on that what's? How would you weigh in on on what's what they're proposing, where that's going?
Speaker 2:Oh, with the conversion of parking lots into houses, correct?
Speaker 2:Well, I believe they've done studies in regards to the use of those lots and seen what capacity they're at over time, and I've seen that they're rarely at full capacity or even half capacity, and it depends on which parking lot you're talking about.
Speaker 2:Some of them are down in Old Town, but one of them is right at the Eureka City Hall, right Right there on Fifth Street, which is downtown, not Old Town. Yeah, so I think it varies quite a bit. I mean, I think often there is a push on the part of certain individuals that really want to see us get to more transit, more electric vehicles, more issues that will help us with our climate issues and stuff like that, and that's where this stuff comes from. But sometimes that push to do that is out in front of us actually transitioning to something different. So it becomes very painful for people to lose parking and be able to stop and park right next to where they're at. And yet in a tourist economy, you might note that the downtowns and old towns that have been restored with the greatest economic positive effect are the ones where you park outside of the district and you walk in.
Speaker 2:Right, or they have high rise underground and they might have some little trolleys that run around to be able to move people around. They're a little less mobile and things like that, but people flock to those kinds of places, those pedestrian friendly environments, and nobody would argue that we have a great transit system, we have a great set of staff and board members running a transit system, but it still isn't meeting the needs of the community as a whole. I mean, I wish we could find a way for the county just to pay for the fair, so it was free and we'd have increased ridership dramatically, you know. And there needs to be more runs on the weekends and the evenings. The Willow Creek run is the one that has the greatest use of any of them in the whole county. Pretty big deal, right, because those students are coming into high school, you know, in the morning to Arcata or McKinleyville and that bus is a huge connection for all those families.
Speaker 2:I love it. And that bus is a huge connection for all those families, I love it. Plus, it's now working with the Yurok tribe going all the way. Hupa Yurok tribes going all the way up to Wichipec, Wow. And a little bus comes in from Pequan that brings them to Wichipec. It's way up there and then Orleans is a feeder, and so yeah, I'll show you where that is.
Speaker 1:Again, there's Siskiyou, yeah, it's there's Orleans, and Trinity yeah, yeah, that's the map, yeah.
Speaker 2:It is. Most people don't realize Orleans is in Humboldt County. Oh yeah, the great northeast of Reed. Is Pequon in Pequon's in Humboldt downriver to Johnson's Right and then from there down the boundary just north of the boundary.
Speaker 1:It's in Del Norte.
Speaker 2:Yeah, huh, yeah, big district, lots going on. Eight out of nine of the recognized tribes are in that district.
Speaker 1:So tell us what's happening in the district real quick.
Speaker 2:Obviously.
Speaker 1:We Are Up, and then Life Plan Humboldt is going to be built in McKinleyville.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so there's a lot going on. It is useful to talk about it by area. So McKinleyville is the most populated area in the 5th District and is the second largest non-city city.
Speaker 2:Right In the world city right in the world and there's a lot of momentum going on working with cal poly, humboldt and a committee of the mckinneyville municipal advisory committee, or mcmac, that is working on incorporation, exploration and gathering data, because the thing that's never happened around that discussion of should we incorporate or not is well, what are the total revenues, what are the total expenses on?
Speaker 1:the part of the county Never ran the numbers.
Speaker 2:The numbers aren't collected that way, Like, for instance, the sheriff is the whole northern area command, including Orleans and Oreck, not just McKinleyville. So I was able to get the board to direct department heads to start tracking the money differently so we could get the numbers for McKinleyville in particular. But all these districts'd like to know how much are you collecting from us, how much are we getting back? You know that kind of thing Funny, that's not been done. Isn't that an interesting concept, you know, of accountability, because numbers are pretty important.
Speaker 1:They tell stories.
Speaker 2:So anyway, once we have all that data, we can get past these arguments one side or the other, or fear factors like, oh my taxes will go up, well, only if you vote to raise your taxes. Nobody does that to you, right? That's something you vote for, right. And if you're going to have better roads or better sheriff, more deputy service or whatever it might be, you might vote for it. You know, like measure Z or measure O, the past was 70 some percent of the vote, right, so that's a big thing. In McKinleyville and, like you said, senior housing, life Plan Humboldt has got a lot of momentum, big deal Working with the Pearson family, ann Pearson in particular, great South of Hiller Road and west of Central, back in there where all the eucalyptus trees are. Thank you, pearsons.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, shout out.
Speaker 2:That family has been amazing to this county and community and Ann has this vision of creating a town center for McKinneyville. Imagine that, so it wouldn't just continue to be this strip mall along Central Avenue anywhere, usa. So you were here when it was open sewers right Open sewers with brown trout floating in the creek.
Speaker 1:Really gross and our guy going, oh no.
Speaker 2:Oh no, oh no, and it was also a much smaller town. There was all the Cypresses lining the road down by the Mill Creek Marketplace and all that stuff. But she has a vision and we've now completed, with the MCMAC and the community's engagement, county planning department staff dedicating a lot of time for three years to put together a town center draft ordinance Wow, and that's now got an EIR being completed on that. That's cool. When that's now got an EIR being completed on that, that's cool. When that's done, it'll come back before the board for approval.
Speaker 1:Where would that be Behind?
Speaker 2:Safeway Behind Safeway, everything from Safeway, that big field, that whole massive big field, one of the last big areas in McKinleyville With the homeless. There are not that many camps in that particular area. Because there's cows in there, yeah, because there's cows in there, yeah, they don't want to camp with the cows, yeah, somehow that's a deterrent, I guess Smells bad, yeah, but anyway, great vision on her part. Good work by the MCMAC and the community service district, you know, scott.
Speaker 1:Bender.
Speaker 2:It's one of the best I do. Scott's the current president of the board. Great guy, he's on the show. Yeah, he's done the trash bashes forever with Pack Out Green.
Speaker 1:Scott Bender shout out.
Speaker 2:He's been there forever and ever on all kinds of things. He's you know the face on Facebook. Yeah, so many informational. He's kind of an unofficial mayor, right? He?
Speaker 1:is, in a way he is yeah, absolutely First mayor. Yeah, what a neat guy.
Speaker 2:And he's the senior resource center director. Correct, correct, yeah, and so they're so grateful to have him as well.
Speaker 1:It is a great job.
Speaker 2:And there's other housing projects happening. Mckinneyville is a place that is still growing, and thankfully so. More and more of those projects are becoming multi-storied rather than just single-story homes, for a good reason, because we do need more housing. So a lot of growing pains there. Roads are a mess because it's unincorporated. Half the roads are private and gravel and a mess.
Speaker 1:Hey, help me with this North Central down by the Clam Beach Inn. Yeah, yeah. That's scheduled for paving, yeah so from Grange Road all the way down to the beach.
Speaker 2:There's going to be overlays happening and repaving on that.
Speaker 1:So it'll happen.
Speaker 2:It will happen. It's in the budget. It was budgeted by HVOG. Gosh, that's a key mix and we're going to improve all the shoulders because people bicycle and walk down to the beach that direction. Yeah, the shoulder's this big, it's pitted. It used to be Highway 1, and it actually had a big set of shoulders, but they're all grown in or pitted or whatever.
Speaker 1:You ever see the old photos with the Cloud Beach Inn and the dance hall?
Speaker 2:It was a happening place down there in the day.
Speaker 2:You know, down by the beach, all these cottages everywhere and all that and all that. So you know, hammond Trail, we did all the projects we did, as you know. Now there's the Great Redwood Trail which I sit on the board of, but that's south, you know, that's Eureka, south Sure, that's happening this summer, to be completed all the way around the bay. Yeah, but on the Hammond, you know, we've been looking for 25 years to build a connection north to Little over Little River to Scenic Drive, north to Little over Little River to Scenic Drive. That'll be great and make that connection. And then, of course, scenic Drive's a huge issue, but that's outside of McKinleyville but in my district Scenic Drive's kind of like our Pebble Beach, north Pebble Beach Drive, without toll stations, thank goodness, and falling in the ocean. But it's falling in the ocean and the good news is it's actually very repairable but very expensive. So, repairable but very expensive, yeah. So we had a tour with Congressman Huffman and the Rancheria and the city and Land Trust and all these people to talk about.
Speaker 2:How are we going to start bringing scenic drive back?
Speaker 1:Because it's a coastal trail. Dude, it's a treasure as well as a treasure access to all these beaches and the trail down to Blue Lake right.
Speaker 2:Annie and Mary, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Annie and Mary is part of the Great Redwood Trails effort as well.
Speaker 1:So how much of say next 10, 20 years will we see you and I see, be alive to see how much of the Great Redwood Trail would be completed, say south.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we have huge momentum in Humboldt and actually the other counties are very jealous. They're like how in the hell you get all? Well, we've been working at it for 30 years, right? This isn't something we started yesterday. In fact I and my cohort, jen Rice, did the first study of seven alternative routes around Humboldt Bay back in the 90s. So, like 27, 28 years ago, we put the first study together, which was a grant from the Air Quality Board, because we knew the more we could get people out of cars, onto bikes and walking, the less emissions, right. So it was a kind of nice connection that way. And so that took 27, 28 years of momentum to now be completing the final leg of Humboldt Bay South into Eureka. And of course, eureka has embraced the waterfront trail. Oh, that's great.
Speaker 2:Arcata has embraced the trails. They're building a section from Arcata, you know, by the skate park north, all the way up to Corblex and then eventually to the first park with the Humboldt Bay Water District along the Mad River. And then Annie and Mary segments are starting to happen. There's talk about the Manila Samoa sections, the Carlotta Spur that goes all the way out to Carlotta near the Van Dusen River. So these are all going to create incredible economic vitality and they're very different than fishing and timber and other things that are more extractive, that have their boom in bicycles, including cannabis, and they're more of a long-term sustainable income is what we found across America. It's going to be great, as we've converted rails to trails or, in some cases, like around the Bay, it's rails with trails, and, of course, timber Heritage is hoping to really bring back some of the, not just the speeder rides, but eventually a train around some portions of the Bay.
Speaker 2:Wouldn't that be nice? Yeah, I think it would be. You know, trying to figure out how we can have both of those would be a great thing. Complete industry, complete industry. Yeah, we're never going to be shipping with train out of here. If we were Europe, we would have put the $5 billion or more it would have taken to keep the rail open in the canyon, because you would have had to treat every landslide like it's a river of logs, rock and mud and suspension bridged in a very isolated construction environment. Right, so big ticket items. But Europe does that with their train systems. We don't in America.
Speaker 1:Oh, Europe's amazing. We got back from Amsterdam. Train system's amazing.
Speaker 2:Oh man, I took it out of Amsterdam. Why would you own a car? Everybody starts in Amsterdam.
Speaker 1:It's all trains and bikes and mass transit and trams and buses and it's like Joni loves it and they got canals. People on little boats and canals yeah, there's canals. So, wrapping up, what do you want your legacy to be? What would you if?
Speaker 2:you could choose your legacy or tombstone. What would you, what do you want us to say at your celebration of life? Along the way? And that he used that, um, that gift of growing up and having good mentors and teachers to learn how to respect each other and, even though there are differences, figure out how to work together. You know something, like you know he he really liked working with people and trying to help us all work together.
Speaker 2:Like you know something like that would be a great moniker. I would be. I mean, that's like. You know something like that would be a great moniker I would be. I mean, that's like I said. I think that's what gets me up every morning to try, and it's good. There's plenty of stuff to work on.
Speaker 1:Gosh. It's such a rare commodity in a battle-worn world. Right now it is, oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:I think our board exemplifies this very thing right now, you very thing right now. You know many people might think that there's such huge differences between me and Rex or Michelle or Mike or Natalie or whatever, and there are, and thank goodness there are. Right, scott, I mean, what a boring world if it was all Scots and Steves. It's called democracy, right, and so really it's not a matter of trying to squash that difference of opinion. It's a matter of each of us learning to hear each other, respect each other and not feel the need to double down on saying it again to oppose the other person's point of view Put on social media, which is what makes meetings go forever, frankly, because you know, everybody's tired of it, nationally, internationally.
Speaker 2:Right. So, and you know for our staff, frankly, lately we're having like 98% 5-0 votes. Wow, Even though there are really big differences of opinion in the discussion.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 2:And I got to say for staff, having a split board fighting all the time is the worst possible thing you could have. Yeah, so when we work better together, I think the county works better together and we serve the community better.
Speaker 1:Yeah, maybe Congress could take a lesson.
Speaker 2:Well, I think we could all take lessons in that regard. Like I said, my first four years I was a little bit testy, I will say, on the board, challenging on things and stuff, and I realized I wasn't going to change other people but I could change myself and I doubled down on that and I feel grateful I've had good teachers to show me how to do that. Yeah, because it's important work. Yeah, hey, thanks for your service.
Speaker 1:Thanks for you, scott, appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Any parting shots no, I'm glad you're doing this. It's nice to get more voices out there. I like your focus and I appreciate being a guest on the show hey thanks for coming Appreciate you.
Speaker 1:Thanks, Steve you bet.