100% Humboldt
Humboldt County CA USA is the home of some of the most iconoclastic, genuine, and interesting folks in the world.
We are getting curious about the movers, shakers, and difference makers in Humboldt County CA-Home of the giant redwoods, 6 Rivers, and the vast Pacific Ocean.
We will discover what makes people live/evolve in the beautiful, diverse, isolated, and ever-changing Northcoast of California 100%!
Listen in and learn what it is to be 100% Humboldt!
100% Humboldt
#60. Michelle Bushnell's Resilient Path: From Southern Humboldt's Ranch Roots to Community Leadership, Economic Challenges, and Embracing Change
Michelle Bushnell, a resilient figure from Southern Humboldt, shares her remarkable life journey with us, from being raised on a cattle ranch to overcoming significant personal challenges. Her story is a testament to resilience, covering her roles at the Southern Humboldt Hospital, as a school bus driver, and a store owner in Garberville. Michelle's transition from the private sector to government service as a county supervisor showcases her commitment to her community, driven by her empathetic approach and personal experiences. Despite initial hurdles, she has successfully become a guiding force, demonstrating her dedication to her community through her various roles and recent reelection.
Our discussion highlights the unique challenges faced by rural Humboldt County, especially in the post-cannabis era. Through personal stories, we explore the intertwined lives of local figures like Sheriff Downey and Pastor Lance Anderson, and the efforts to provide essential services amid financial decline. The conversation paints a vivid picture of the dedication required to support a community in transition, emphasizing the resilience of individuals and families as they work to rebuild infrastructure and community spirit in a changing economic landscape.
The episode also delves into the broader economic impacts of cannabis legalization on Humboldt County. We discuss the economic implications of Prop 64, the burdensome state permitting process, and the push to enhance tourism to boost the local economy. We explore the county's budgetary constraints and the portrayal of "Murder Mountain," all while emphasizing the importance of community engagement and open-mindedness to embrace new initiatives. Measure O is highlighted as a promising effort to inject much-needed funds into local infrastructure, illustrating the ongoing commitment to supporting growth and improving the quality of life in Humboldt County.
About 100% Humboldt with Scott Hammond
Humboldt County CA USA is the home of some of the most iconoclastic, genuine, and interesting folks in the world.
We are getting curious about the movers, shakers, and difference makers in Humboldt County CA-Home of the giant redwoods, 6 Rivers, and the vast Pacific Ocean.
We will discover what makes people live/evolve in the beautiful, diverse, isolated, and ever-changing North Coast of California 100%!
Listen in and learn what it is to be 100% Humboldt!
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Ladies and gentlemen, friends and neighbors, welcome to 100% Humboldt with my new best friend and special guest, Michelle Bushnell. Hi, Michelle.
Speaker 2:Hi, how's it going?
Speaker 1:It's going very well, thank you. Thanks for being on the show. Yeah, thanks for asking, appreciate it yeah, so tell us the Michelle Bushnell story.
Speaker 2:Start from the beginning, um, my parents um, we were from, uh, southern Humboldt but was born in Reading came back to Southern Humboldt and um was, uh, raised down there. It actually ended up being raised by my grandparents, um my mom. My mom um kind of went off the deep end when I was about four and my dad and her got divorced and my dad went on to another marriage and other kids and his parents ended up raising me on a cattle ranch down there in Bembo and went to Redway School, went to South Fork High School, yeah, and got married right out of high school and had my first child when I was 19 by a day.
Speaker 1:Whoa.
Speaker 2:And went on to have two other children by the time I was 26 and worked at the Southern Humboldt Hospital for quite some time and then ended up being a school bus driver for 13 years.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:Yep Got divorced and got remarried and bought a store in Garberville the bootleg. It's been there since 1981.
Speaker 1:Oh right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and actually the store. It's kind of interesting, but the man that owned the store Bear Gratzel. Greg Gratzel was my grandfather's best friend and my grandfather helped him get started in that store. What's his name? My granddad.
Speaker 1:No, the guy that owns the store Bear Gratzel.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what's his name, my granddad, no, the guy that owns Red Star.
Speaker 1:Bear Gratzel yeah, I've heard he's a nice guy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he actually passed away a few years ago. He was older when I was younger, yeah, and so I still have that store down there and got involved with the community. You know the South Fork Boosters. My kids played sports and so I ended up being the booster president for seven years and and organizing that and then chamber president and on the school board and just really really love the Southern Humboldt community where I was raised, although it's went through lots of transitions but really, you know, felt very committed to making that community better.
Speaker 2:And for my kids, all my kids live down there still.
Speaker 1:Are you a grandma?
Speaker 2:I am a grandma.
Speaker 1:Hard to believe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have six grandkids, Whoa. Yeah, my oldest is 11 and my youngest is six months.
Speaker 1:Rad. So they all stayed in Southern Humboldt, yep State and Southern Humboldt.
Speaker 2:Yep. So you know, I got remarried in 2009 to David, my husband currently, and we live in Bloxburg on a ranch and he is a land surveyor and we do a lot of different things besides what I currently do as a supervisor. My husband really encouraged me I've never been in government before and he really encouraged me and thought I could do a good job and I thought he was crazy. So I ended up running in 20 against an eight-year incumbent and thought, okay, well, I'll get my name out there and see how it goes, and ended up winning and then, I was like holy cow.
Speaker 2:I ran against Estelle and won by not very much, like 450 votes or something, and then I didn't know what to do because I had never been in this position and I was just telling someone earlier that the first year of being a county supervisor was probably the most depressing in my life. It's a steep climb.
Speaker 1:Why was it tough? Just the learning curve.
Speaker 2:Not so much the learning curve, because I jumped right in and was very committed. Government is not like private sector and. I've been in private sector my whole life. I'm a doer. I like to do something, get it off my plate and move on and really help people, and government stifles that.
Speaker 1:It doesn't work that way.
Speaker 2:It doesn't work that way, and so it's interesting. You know, I just got reelected and so I found my niche and found my way.
Speaker 1:Congrats, by the way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you. You know, and along the way I had, you know, my mom was. My mom died when she was 49 and she was homeless when she died she had been homeless for 10 years and as a young girl, not realizing mental illness really was what was wrong with my mom. And along with mental illness comes drug addiction and homelessness.
Speaker 2:And didn't realizing that because I just wanted a mom and was, you know, angry at her for not being that. And it wasn't until actually the year she died, in um oh two, that I had realized I had grown up enough to realize that she did have mental illness and and that's the reason she was the way she was. And and actually, you know, my grandparents were um, they're past now and they would have been um. My granddad would have just turned 100 in October.
Speaker 2:And they were amazing people and she probably did the best thing she ever could have done for me was give me to them and let them raise me and I feel, you know, I'm not so ancient but I feel sometimes an old soul just because I was raised in that older mentality with my grandparents and, you know, got into my first marriage, which was a domestic violence relationship and I was in that relationship for 16 years and it taught me a lot and I don't have lots of I don't have any anger for either situation. I think that it gave me a lot of life lessons and a lot of life lessons that I can really relate to anger for either situation.
Speaker 1:I think that it gave me a lot of life lessons.
Speaker 2:Right and a lot of life lessons that I can really relate to now in my job.
Speaker 1:I love it, yeah. So yeah, I always kind of regret being a hippie child in San Diego. Somebody said that's kind of part of who you are, man. Yeah. Yeah, you can own that ground and be okay with that, yeah.
Speaker 2:I lived with my grandma for a while. She raised us for a little while and sent us back off to California. It was great. Yeah, you know my. My grandparents were my dad's parents and they were just just amazing people and they, they didn't hesitate when my mom said here they are, take them my brother and I and I, you know, think I thank God every day for them. For them, because they really gave me a foundation and they gave me my morals, they gave me my work ethic. That's so cool.
Speaker 2:It is really cool. Where did they live? So my granddad was from Harris originally, that's way out there, right it is.
Speaker 1:Is that on my map?
Speaker 2:It is on your map, probably yes.
Speaker 1:That's my map. Yes, so Bloxburg is down that way.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:And Harris. So Bloxburg is down that way and Harris is like way the heck over Yep.
Speaker 2:So from Bloxburg it would be southeast of Bloxburg and that's my family's ranch currently.
Speaker 1:Still Humboldt County.
Speaker 2:Yep, humboldt County. He was born and raised there and his dad was the postmaster and his mom was the stagekeeper no-transcript. And so my grandfather went to that little school up there and then kind of lied to get into the war when he was 17,. Went off to war and came back, met my grandma who was from over off of I-5 Willows area, chrome actually. She was raised in Chrome and they moved back to Humboldt County and raised their kids.
Speaker 1:Cool story. Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Those grandparents. So a stage I can't even. Yeah, there was no 101.
Speaker 2:No. No there was no 101. And it was no pavement, of course back then and it was my granite used to tell me lots of stories and they have lots of pictures, of course, which is really awesome. So I'm a fourth generation Southern Humboldt resident.
Speaker 1:And Bell Springs Road. What a road that is in the rain.
Speaker 2:It's a nightmare. Now I can't imagine what it was then.
Speaker 1:We did that years ago. We got stuck in a rainstorm and Joni and I and this other college guy are in her Volkswagen and they diverted us around Garberville or wherever we were, and it dropped in and I'm going. What did we just do? We, like, burned an hour plus in a muddy mess.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's all dirt still and it's quite rutted and just a very slow go road, very rural, as they say.
Speaker 1:Thank you for a good backstory. That's so cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, when I got divorced the first time, and well, the only time, and it will be the only time, I was a little leery telling people, because you don't want that to define who you are and it doesn't define me, and but I also know that it makes up who I am. And so as I've, you know, grown as we mature.
Speaker 1:I realized.
Speaker 2:You know that's part of my life and it's part of my story and I'm I didn't create that situation, so there's not a reason to be embarrassed about it.
Speaker 1:Amen, that's part of your narrative. Yeah, yeah, and you're right about the past not defining us. I like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like that a lot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was elected in 20. My grandfather had already passed, but politics were important to him and he was quiet about his politics and his beliefs. Quiet, you know, about his politics and his beliefs. But I guess if I had one wish about this, current job is and I somewhere, wherever he is, he knows. But I wish I could have talked to him about things because he really was a guiding force for me and really just was really good at getting me to see both sides and narratives and so he was really just really patient, like that.
Speaker 1:Imagine doing that. I know Doing that well, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's cool, I love that. Yeah, great story hey segue into. So you went to Humboldt.
Speaker 2:I did not. I did not go to college, okay.
Speaker 1:Yep Gotcha.
Speaker 2:Nope. So I had a baby at 19 and went right to work Okay, and I worked lots of you know several jobs and then became a single mom and had three jobs to support my kids Wow yeah. And I drove school bus and I ran a bar and restaurant.
Speaker 1:Where's that?
Speaker 2:Brass Rail in Redway.
Speaker 1:Oh right, yeah, that's famous.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I did the books during the day in between my bus driving, and then would go back to driving bus and then at night I would bartend and waitress.
Speaker 1:So you knew Sheriff Downey back then.
Speaker 2:Very well, actually, he went to my church. Yeah, great guy yeah yep, he lived in Miranda and went to the Weak Christian Church. Lance Anderson was the pastor there.
Speaker 1:Did I read that Lance died he?
Speaker 2:just did. Yeah, he was 83.
Speaker 1:I yeah, he was 83. I saw that on.
Speaker 2:Facebook. He was a neat guy yeah.
Speaker 1:He had a coffee shop down in Fortuna.
Speaker 2:Shots, shots, shots. He started the original Shots.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was reading that. I think I definitely have met him.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, Well, for me he was a staple. He was not only our pastor, a person in Garberville, he owned Williams Chevrolet.
Speaker 1:He was a Chevy dealer. Yep, lance was a car guy too, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, he was. He got that from his father-in-law and he also, you know, just was just a remarkable man around town, really cared about Garberville and you know we would. I would see him and LaDonna walk in all the time and yeah, they were just really great people.
Speaker 1:So Kars was his tent making job and then because we had church as a ministry miracle right, it was really happening in church for decades right.
Speaker 2:It was a 300 plus congregation when I was a young girl and going there.
Speaker 1:In a place that churches have 20. Yes, yeah.
Speaker 2:They have 15 now, I think. So, yeah, and then he went from there to the Church of Rainier in Fortuna and he was the pastor there for 18 years and actually was still the pastor up until three weeks before he passed. How about that? Yeah, he had gotten cancer and so he, you know, he lived his life until he just couldn't anymore from the pain and then was still, you know, doing postings and prayers and stuff on Facebook and just was just a really positive person.
Speaker 1:Loving God, loving people. Yeah, who's the other pastor that retired, the guy that always looks young from Hinesville Church? He's been gone for a while.
Speaker 2:I don't know that, I know him.
Speaker 1:You would know his name if I thought of it Anyway. So I'm not thinking of it, but yeah, I wondered about that. So Lance was. I remember William Chevrolet and all that. So the Downies, we know, because we know their son, nate, who turns out to be a pastor. There's another pastor. Yes and we know his wife Dallas.
Speaker 2:My wife knows her yeah.
Speaker 1:It's a small world. We live in Humboldt County, so everybody knows somebody that knows somebody.
Speaker 2:Yes, for sure, or related to somebody that knows somebody, or you are related to them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's true. So let's go back to the board real quick. So first year was pretty depressing because it was just slow motion ride which I really I've just jumped in both feet knew that I owed my constituents that I didn't want to have a lag time from, you know, estelle, who had been an eight-year incumbent.
Speaker 2:and then here I come and I just didn't want my constituents to suffer and not have the representation that they needed. So I jumped right in and, just you know, lived it 24-7 so that I could really catch up. And you know my husband, I couldn't do any of this without my husband's support.
Speaker 1:It's just support.
Speaker 2:Total support and our children are grown and out of the house and so that allowed you know me to really just focus on that. But even doing that, you just don't. Things are difficult to move forward in government and you can see what people need or what communities need and it takes a lifetime to get it for them and it's just really hard and when you really know like Southern Humboldt, garberville especially, is really transitioning, is really going through a hard time financially.
Speaker 1:Kind of post-cannabis.
Speaker 2:It is all post-cannabis. Yeah, and so you know.
Speaker 1:The boom and the bust.
Speaker 2:And we're on the bust.
Speaker 1:On the bust side of the boom, yeah, and every other week there's a business closing down there. Oh boy.
Speaker 2:It's really looks like a ghost town right now, and so that's my community that I grew up in, also the community that was begging for help. And, first of all, government can't help private sector that much, but what you can do is you know, because it is unincorporated, you know you can help the streets look better. You can help, like the veterans. Building down there has been a nightmare for 10 years. It's been molded, condemned. Now we yeah, we finally got it tore down and we are getting it rebuilt. That was one of my main goals when I got elected in 21, when I took office in 21. Here we are almost 25 and it's not even going to start being built until next year. So that's what I'm talking about. It took me four years, with my board's help, to even move that project forward. We got it for the veterans down there that deserve it, that have no home right now, at all Nothing. They meet in someone's living room every month.
Speaker 1:So they'll have full-on services.
Speaker 2:They'll have, yeah, a full-on building. It'll be really nice. And they had it before and the county deferred maintenance and it created a mold problem. Wow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so Garberville's unincorporated.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:So it's like McKinleyville.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Where we live. Yep, Actually I claim Dow's Prairie.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, we're up on the upper McKinleyville. Yeah, McKinleyville is the biggest city in the unincorporated area.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, it's really really big and it's getting bigger.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:If.
Speaker 2:Wait, this is El Dorado Hills. This was just for building and it's around services and it's around busing and there's schools there. And so for an unincorporated area that has potential for growth? Mckinleyville really is it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, we love it. It's been great, great, great lot of nice local business people and folks that participate in government. Yeah, mcsd, you probably know Scott Bender.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I do. Yeah, government MCSD you probably know Scott Bender. Yeah, I do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what a great guy. Yeah, yep, shout out to Scott Hi, scott, the unofficial mayor. Yeah, all those guys, they do a great job. Yeah, they do. So what are your issues? I know what the issues are in Humboldt. We'll talk about that. Are they different from what SOHOM issues are in terms of housing, homelessness, healthcare?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so my district is probably besides District 5, which is very large landmass-wise but is a lot of federal and public lands, mostly all federal and public lands. My district is District 2, is the biggest for landmass and the biggest that's privately owned, but it is also the farthest removed from services and so you know Eureka is the counties for DHHS and all kinds of services are in Eureka and central out of Eureka.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:So Garberville, especially Garberville-Redway area, there used to be a housing crisis down there with cultivation, when cultivation illegal cultivation and legal cultivation created a lot of job opportunities for people, and so there were what they called the termigrants came in and would rent you know one house and have 10 people in there. And then legalization came and still, you know people were still coming in. What they called the green rushers were coming in and there were no homes to rent.
Speaker 2:You couldn't find a house down there and the prices were astronomical for rents, you know $1,600 for just $1,600, $2,000 just for a mediocre anything, and current day there are a dime a dozen. You can find any rental down there you want and we have so many vacant lands, so many vacant houses.
Speaker 1:I remember property was going for crazy money down there. Yeah, a million dollars an acre for something you couldn't even cultivate.
Speaker 2:Yes, and so with that also, your comparables when people were buying lands were just outrageous. Your comparables when people were buying lands were just outrageous. And so now there's all these lands out there that are either foreclosed on trying to be sold and completely vacant and they're not selling. And now people are starting to reassess their properties because they're way over-assessed. But also, people bought houses for two times the value to have a house and those are not rentable. Now there's no industry down there.
Speaker 1:Wow, so foreclosures probably left it right.
Speaker 2:So Garberville is probably, from what I understand, highest on the list for foreclosures right now in Northern California. Wow, so Garberville surrounding area, so the rural areas as well, yeah, so it's a lot different. There's about a business every third week that's closing. We have very little for restaurants down there. You know we have very little for retail stores any longer. There's a lot of empty storefronts.
Speaker 1:Still a raise at a ShopSmart.
Speaker 2:Yep, there is those, although you know they are sister stores one in Redway, one in Garberville and without the people there and the prices are, you know, high because you got to truck that stuff in. A lot of people come to Eureka to shop for their essentials, so I'm not sure what that looks like in the future.
Speaker 1:So those are the results. What were the causes of the boom and bust of the cannabis world?
Speaker 2:Well, the boom was really the illegal illicit market. That was really when that area really was thriving.
Speaker 1:Supply and demand was yeah.
Speaker 2:And there was just a lot of money in that area and it's a perfect weather area for growing outdoor cultivation. It's a perfect weather area period.
Speaker 1:It is, I love it, you guys a perfect weather area period. It is, I love it. You guys have great weather yeah.
Speaker 2:I love that we have four seasons.
Speaker 1:Well, it's not. It doesn't get overly hot, and then it cools off at night.
Speaker 2:It's a little bit like Medford.
Speaker 1:Yeah, not like Redding.
Speaker 2:No, yeah, no, I mean it's, it's in, yeah, so you had that, um, that perfect, you know, weather climate for the illicit market and people just really grew down there a lot, and so it brought a lot of money into the town and people spent it and and really did um support their community there. Legalization in 16, um, we saw a fall off like a, like a it was almost like um a panic, like oh, my gosh, you know, and then the market leveled back out and we were OK for a couple of years. And now with legalization you know it's the Prop 64 didn't, didn't follow through with the one acre cap in California, as I had intended, and so now there's just a huge overproduction of product and with no federal legalization, there's no out for it besides California, right, so you have a ton of product and Nowhere to go, nowhere to go, not a lot of brand new users every day?
Speaker 1:Yeah, probably, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So the prices are very bad, yeah, very bad.
Speaker 1:Well, we start losing money by producing a crop. That's not a good business, prop.
Speaker 2:Well, there's different things too with cannabis that are it's an agricultural commodity, they, you know, it's grown in the dirt and so forth and so on, but it's not federally legal, so there's no lending, so you can't. If you need startup money, there's not an opportunity for that. There's no crop insurance, so if your crop molds dies, gets eaten by the cow, whatever, there's no crop insurance. And so you either go to your local farm store and get credit and say, hey, can you carry me for six months until my product comes off, and then, if your product doesn't come off, it's this vicious cycle, and so it's not like a tomato crop where you can insure that, or you can lend on that and you can say look at my books, it's proven. Can I? You know I need some collateral, and so that really has hindered that market. And also the permitting process is pretty hard and expensive. Right, and it's something you know. You can grow acres and acres and acres of grapes and not have to go through the permitting that.
Speaker 1:And you guys are bringing that back a little bit right as a board.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the board just did away with the Measure S tax, which is the cultivation tax, for one year, suspended that, and so I actually recuse on that, because I have a farm myself and so I don't participate in that. That's one thing I can't participate in, and so they just chose to let the farmers opt out for one more year with a zero cultivation tax, but you still have the state. The state licensing is expensive.
Speaker 1:Yeah, remember, upon legalization, just the taxation became crazy yeah, yeah, yeah and everybody's got you know opinions around that. So, um, yeah, what it's sad for me is when I hear um my friend from the chamber. They, they went down and they they discovered families are affected, their kids there's there's also some downline sadness for a family.
Speaker 2:You know my grandfather was a rancher and we raised beef cows and he wasn't a cultivator at all, didn't believe in cannabis. You know it was a drug, like a lot of the older population, and so I was not part of that culture when I was. I'm probably one of very few in Southern Humboldt that didn't have that. You know, pot culture. Growing up I was very shielded from that and then to get into cultivation later in my life and have a farm. Now there are stories with people and some people think they've got that Murder Mountain version that came out, which is not true of Southern Humble, and not even true of Rancho.
Speaker 2:It was a very hyped up here, watch me type thing. That was not actually— Docudrama. Docudrama. That was not really real and, despite what people think, cultivators are just normal people like you and I and they have families and they're just raising their families Going to.
Speaker 1:Costco and buying stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, stuff and taking care of their community. That's how the South Fork High School Booster Club ran forever. You know we were. So the Booster Club was solely responsible for funding every bit of sports down there and at that time, you know, we had a bigger school, more people there, and they fundraised and those cultivators paid for their kids to play. They were very generous.
Speaker 1:Mateel Center, probably Mateel.
Speaker 2:Center. I mean, I can reference my store. I bought my store in 2011, and it was a booming store and I should be closing my doors right now. And so I look at my books every month and I'm like, oh my goodness, what am I going to do? I want to keep that service for the community, but financially it's not making it Right, and that store has been there since 1981. Wow, so long time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, hard decisions right, very hard, yeah, very hard, yeah, so you know then.
Speaker 2:Um, so, as my job as a supervisor, you know I get a lot of you know how can you help us? And you really can't help private business, but you can, like I said earlier, you know, if we could get maybe the streets redone down there and that kind of thing, the roads in a better condition. So we're kind of transitioning back to the 70s, when tourism was really popular and really looking for that as an avenue in Humboldt County. Right now, Humboldt County has everything. We have the cities up here tons of culture in Eureka and Old Town, and Arcata has tons of culture. Then you have the outdoors anything you want to do outdoors, and the most vibrant coasts and then the beautiful redwoods, and so if we as a county can learn to market that well, that'll bring people. People come here. They just don't stay here. Humboldt's special and it's worth staying for and it's worth working hard for.
Speaker 1:Love it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we just have to get something, some kind of economy, coming here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Great Redwood Trail would be fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That'll come right through your district.
Speaker 2:It will, it's not.
Speaker 1:In a couple of generations.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So the Ill River Canyon. It's pretty controversial right now, the ranchers out there having a little bit of a fit about it and they're scared. You know it's fear based, they just don't know what it entails and they've worked hard to keep their lands intact and safe and so we'll see. But I think it could bring great economic opportunity.
Speaker 1:I understand that hikers are mostly not gangsters, and bike riders would probably be pretty mellow, wouldn't it?
Speaker 2:It's not the hikers that will utilize that trail that they're fearful of. It's more the local population that will utilize it for access.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you know like for break burglaries or they do it now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they do it now. So it's, you know you. And also, if you've got, you know a bunch of rambunctious kids out there, they're going to use that trail with four wheelers. I would.
Speaker 1:Or something yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, get you from point A to point B, look they built us a new trail.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh cool, these are hill kids man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, these are mountain boys and girls. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I hear a whole different mindset. Willow Creek same thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, willow Creek the same thing. And they're largely very dependent on cannabis for a lot of years, and so they're in a downward turn as well. And when I got elected, you know, I got on the board and you have four board members you have to get along with and whether you like them or you don't like them or believe in what their beliefs are and our district, humboldt, is so vast really are the districts are really different, with constituent bases and political beliefs, and this is a nonpartisan job, and so we're all supposed to be working towards the greater good. But it gets. I don't know if you've ever watched one of our meetings, but at times that AI can be, it's difficult.
Speaker 1:You guys are on TV.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're on TV, yeah, I know I've seen it go.
Speaker 1:did Rex say that?
Speaker 2:I know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, of course he did.
Speaker 2:I remember my first year. I'm like do not cuss on TV. I had to remind myself that, oh yeah, are there people that swear in the meetings. Oh, Rex does.
Speaker 1:Does he? Yeah, A little bit. Oh yeah, he does A little potty mouth there, yeah he does have a potty mouth.
Speaker 2:Oh, come on.
Speaker 1:Rex.
Speaker 2:Come on now, he doesn't care.
Speaker 1:Now he's a free spirit.
Speaker 2:He is a free spirit.
Speaker 1:He's a very free, humbled spirit. So what do you see? The issues that you guys face are coming into immediately in terms of the board of soups our budget so yeah low, low budget.
Speaker 2:So we're definite spending right now. We were definite deficit spending last year, 18 million. This year we're at 15 million. The year before that I can't remember the number, it was my first year but so, like last year, I know that 10 million of that deficit was measure S taxes not being paid. We didn't budget that in this year and still came. You know, funding a department that needs $47 million. It's not nickel and dime stuff, right far as government goes, and it's affecting every department we have and also affects the services that are given out to the communities. And you know we're on a hiring freeze right now. We're. Almost. All departments are closed on Fridays, you know. Just, it goes on and on.
Speaker 1:Does that freeze include law enforcement? Sheriff's department.
Speaker 2:So it does. But there are exceptions that they can bring to the board for public safety and so if Sheriff Hansel needs a position, he brings that to the board and requests that and that comes on consent. But if one of the supervisors doesn't like it, then they can pull it.
Speaker 1:Tell us everything you think about Billy Hansel.
Speaker 2:Everything I think about Billy Hansel.
Speaker 1:Sure.
Speaker 2:So I get along well with Sheriff Hansel.
Speaker 1:I don't think anybody I've met ever said oh, he's just terrible, it's just like everybody seems to like Billy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean him and I. You know we have different ideas about law enforcement in my community and I want more law enforcement down in Southern Humboldt and he doesn't have the budget to give it to me. And I, down in Southern Humboldt, and he doesn't have the budget to give it to me, and I control his money and he controls my deputies, so yeah, so it's this give and take with him and I um.
Speaker 2:I respect law enforcement large and, uh, he has a difficult job and especially being under budgeted and having such a large County. Um, I think he does it really well and you know if the pollsters are right. And you know, if the pollsters are right, he's loved 63 percent and the supervisors are like at 39 percent. So he's he's loved well beyond us.
Speaker 1:He's a rock star status. Yeah, I was going to say when you mentioned Murder Mountain. Billy was on the show and he said hey, you're all over this, this docu drama. Yeah, he goes. I don't know, I've never watched it.
Speaker 2:Well, and he didn't. He didn't know that they were going to spin it the way they did, yeah, and you know, law enforcement actually helped them. And then it got spun. It should have been like Meth Mountain instead of about cannabis, but yeah, it just was. I've never watched it. I won't, I won't give it the time of day. It's pretty spun it's not what we are.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's not. Yes, there's some crime here and yes, there are some bad things that happen in Humboldt County. Of course it's not like you know. It's in every county. Every county in California is all over the world and to me that did not help our county. Nobody wants to come to murder mountain area Right. You know, it scares them and that's not the truth of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I can see that, scaring tourists away.
Speaker 2:That's what it did. Yeah, it was terrible in my book. Yeah, so, and I have a piece of property on Rancho Sequoia. That's what that is, and it's not. It's a great community. There has been some bad things that have happened in that area. It's just like you say Alder Point and people are like, oh my gosh but, I go through Alder Point I, you know that's my kids were raised there and it's a great town Did you call it Rancho Sequoia. Rancho yeah.
Speaker 1:Is that? Is that an area around Alder Point?
Speaker 2:That's Murder Mountain.
Speaker 1:That is the mountain.
Speaker 2:That's the Murder Mountain. It's called Rancho. Okay, okay, it's a subdivision. Rancho sequoia subdivision okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, beautiful area it's totally gorgeous, yeah, really nice area, so so so back to humboldt county like so our budget definitely. Um, we don't advertise our county very well, we don't have a budget to advertise our county, and so that that's harmful for bringing tourists here when you don't sell your county well. I'll reference to Mendocino County that uses their. They spent $1.5 million on advertisement, you know, to sell their wineries to sell Fort Bragg, their coast, to get people there, because that generates money.
Speaker 2:It's a good budget, that is a really healthy budget and, unlike us, that spent, you know, $300,000, which you can't get anything with $300,000. So we need to do that better, but with our budget being so lean, we're working on it, we're trying to find a way to do that, because our county is very dependent on tax dollars and so, and I think you know, you could come to Humboldt County and spend seven days and not see everything.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:And so that's the story we need to tell.
Speaker 1:I like it.
Speaker 2:And then the other issues. You know, even though we don't have the largest homeless population, I think we see them more because we're not as populated as like LA or San Francisco, Sacramento area. And so 10 homeless folks in Garberville streets you see them every single day and so it's just more in your face than it would be, say, down in the cities, Even though they have more homeless than us. It seems more acute here and we don't have as many services, we don't have as large a budget to help those folks and you can't make them. That's another issue. You can't relocate them. You can't say you can't be in Southern Humboldt, where there are no services. Go to Eureka, where you can get services. You can't force people. It's not illegal to be homeless. And then for the, you know, housing has always been a crisis in the more rural areas. Right now, Like I said, you can find a house to time a dozen. But in the areas where there are jobs Eureka, McKinleyville, Arcata there are still those housing issues. And affordable housing Is Rio.
Speaker 1:Del affordable.
Speaker 2:It is affordable and.
Speaker 1:Scotia's yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they are affordable, yeah, and they're close enough to work areas that people can. You know that's not too far of a drive. I think that we don't. We concentrate on low income housing so much that we don't build very many medium houses. You know, medium income houses? Sure, well, I can't find a house that you know they want, not the lowest, not the richest, somewhere in the middle, and they can't find it and they end up not staying. And that brings health care too. Health care in Humboldt County is difficult and if you are in a health crisis, it's forever to get diagnosed, it's forever to get treatment, and people don't like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah no-transcript.
Speaker 2:They are wonderful and I thank God every day for them, especially even the small, like in Southern Humboldt the emergency room. People say it's a Band-Aid station, but when you need a Band-Aid you better count your blessings for having them there. They can package you up and ship you out.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Hey time of the show to Nick.
Speaker 1:It's that time where we do the Humboldt County quiz. Are you ready? Sure, so what's online today? Let's see. Oh, turns out it's your lucky day. It's a Belize bar from our friends at Dick Taylor Chocolate. I've never given them a full commercial. Dick Taylor Chocolate, located in Old Town, eureka, features the highest end of dark chocolate. You probably already know.
Speaker 2:I do know actually they're great guys. They are no-transcript. Well.
Speaker 1:I like Dream day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like the coast, so I would land probably in Shelter Cove. Oh, and that beach down there is amazing.
Speaker 1:And they have a brewery down there right.
Speaker 2:They have a brewery and they have a Venezuelan restaurant and they have a bistro and they have a bar, and so it's kind of its own community. But I also really love Trinidad and Trinidad has a lot of really cool things. But I really love Trinidad and Trinidad has a lot of really cool things, but I would probably end up in Shelter Cove.
Speaker 1:Shelter Cove. Let's see it on the map Ready.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, nick, where's my pointer? Oh, here it is. Shelter Cove's way down at the bottom there, yep, and Trinidad's up toward the top Yep. But both magical harbors, just gorgeous. Yeah. Yeah, we spent a lot of time because we live close to Trinidad.
Speaker 2:Oh nice, we love it up there. Yeah, I grew up going to. Shelter Cove and you know they used to have the Mosquito Fleet out there and the Maquis family and it just, it was and still is just a magical place.
Speaker 1:It's really fun. It is. How far is that from 101? Is it 45 minutes?
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, 45 minutes, about 24 miles.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Pretty windy curvy.
Speaker 1:But also pretty if you want to take your time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's, it's beautiful. You have you go through the the town, the post office box of White Thorn and the post office box of. Bryceland. And then, you know, wind your way out to Shelter Cove.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:So they do have a gas station, they do.
Speaker 1:There's a gas station. They do. I remember, yeah just, the cliffs above Black Sands, looking out over the ocean and seeing ships and the whole nine. It's just. It is a magical little place.
Speaker 2:It is, it's a population Is it 1,000? I think it's around 1,200.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a lot of retirement community out there and they have one of the best fire departments in my district as far as volunteer fire departments. They do a lot of water rescues.
Speaker 1:Speaking of Black Sands, you know Black Sands is known in Humboldt County for its large undertow and people that come into Humboldt County and don't know that area tend to want to get into that beach because it's beautiful but it is just so treacherous oh it's dangerous.
Speaker 2:Yeah, hey, we're from Iowa, we don't know how to swim and the water's 48 degrees, but we're going to go for it. Yeah, and it goes straight downhill there and there's no undertow where you know you go over to the marina and you can walk out. It's all flat. You can walk out and only be in five feet of water.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're up by Big Lagoon. We're the same thing it just you know it's taken people over the years sad.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's signs everywhere.
Speaker 2:And there is out there too, people just don't you know, and then you can hike the Lost Coast. So not only would I you know Shelter Cove, but hiking the Lost Coast is pretty magical.
Speaker 1:Okay, since we have our Southern Humboldt concierge. Question two when do you go? These are hard. Where do you go to eat? Because I guess A it's limited, b they're all constituents. So if you could go top three or four places, where would you take people?
Speaker 2:So I would go to Miranda and they have the I'm going to lose the name. Well, they have the Miranda Cafe for breakfast and lunch, which is just amazing. And then the best steak in or, you know, one of the best foods around is the Miranda Palace and Never heard of it. That's funny, it's amazing and actually got voted for one of the best steaks.
Speaker 1:Is it grass-fed beef from Sohum?
Speaker 2:It's grass-fed, it's aged, great atmosphere, amazing wine, really. And then there's always the Bembo Inn, sure, so the Bembo Inn is just classic, so fun, yeah, and it just changed hands from John and Teresa Porter.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Just sold it to the McDonald's sisters, which their father had owned a portion of it anyways, and so they just are running with that and doing an amazing job. So those are the two. You know, if I was going to take someone, I would. You know, bembo is just really classy, and then the Palace in Miranda is just super easy, you could go in your sweats and it's just. It just has great food, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I like Ben Bowen a lot. We got to stay for a night and it's classy casual right, yeah, yeah, I love Ben Bowen. Yeah, yeah, and people from all over the world come.
Speaker 2:You know it's weird. I grew up in Ben Bowen. That's where my grandparents' ranch was, and when the lake was still there, I used to swim in the lake.
Speaker 1:Oh, the lake was amazing.
Speaker 2:It was amazing, never went to Bembo Inn until I was over 35.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's funny yeah.
Speaker 2:Never had visited there, never stayed, never had eaten there.
Speaker 1:It was too bougie. It was like up there somewhere.
Speaker 2:I was poor. Yeah, I was poor, raising three kids.
Speaker 1:It costs money to do a dinner, it does. So we have several kids and I remember In-N-Out Burger used to just kill us, oh yeah. Or McDonald's. Oh, can we just do peanut butter sandwiches please?
Speaker 2:Yeah. No, I was a single mom with three kids and I didn't have money to eat out with my kids and I barely had money to buy milk, so I paid my bills. I owned a house, but that took care of my kids. But I owned a house but that took care of my kids, but I didn't have money for extras.
Speaker 1:Another defining thing of the past which is good. It's like now we can make money, budget a little bit. Yeah, yeah, no, it's true, it's very true. Okay, question three when do you, when you're at a Port of Soups meeting downtown Eureka, where would you go for coffee?
Speaker 2:The Grind across the street.
Speaker 1:Is that open? It's closed now. It's open again.
Speaker 2:So it's actually taken over the Courthouse Cafe and so it's upstairs Okay.
Speaker 1:In the Courthouse. Yeah, I heard it's good.
Speaker 2:It's really good. Wow, yep, they have like breakfast burritos and really good coffee, super yeah. So that's where I would go.
Speaker 1:So speaking of Burbank airport, where you're flying soon, when? We just came back, joni. My wife came back. She came back. We were waiting on the flight. She's. She's holding a Starbucks.
Speaker 2:And I go.
Speaker 1:What do you got? I go, what about me? She goes guess how much this costs and I go. I don't know five bucks she goes higher, oh wow. I don't know, maybe seven. She goes. It's a mocha and it's delicious.
Speaker 2:And you're in the airport. Right, we're in the airport, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:And she goes 12 bucks 12.80. And I go, what are you? Shut the front door. Good night, nurse. I go. This is crazy. My dad used to exaggerate. When I was a younger man I got like a $4 mocha at Starbucks in Seattle. He called it $5. And every time he told the story it went up to maybe it started at four and it rounded at six or but 1280, you gotta be kidding me.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm a. I'm a pretty boring coffee drinker black. My husband drinks at black, and so even in the airports, black is five bucks you know, black coffee is five bucks and just kind of ridiculous Just deal with it.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, you did really good, so let's see if we can hear you.
Speaker 2:I'll reach across the table.
Speaker 1:Thank, you, can I get some chocolate? Let's see if we can hear you, I'll reach across the table.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:So how could we, as citizenry, support y'all on the board? What can we do to replenish the coffers, to encourage you guys to run your race and do your darndest?
Speaker 2:So I'm going to be pretty frank. Sure, we and Humboldt County don't get out of our way very easy when it comes to process or trying to bring new economy base in. We and I'm going to lump most everybody into that same boat like to think that we don't want Humboldt County to change. And so we get a lot of people when projects come forward, they don't want it, they don't want Humboldt County to change. And so we get a lot of people when projects come forward, they don't want it, they don't want that change and they especially don't want something that's going to make their life a little different. And I think for myself on the board, it's frustrating for me when I see an opportunity that comes to Humboldt County, first of all to bring jobs, second of all to bring economy into Humboldt County, and we not protest it, but we complain about it and we don't want to see it and we don't want to see that change.
Speaker 2:And so if people want Humboldt County to be vibrant, with good doctors, new doctors, vibrant with good doctors, new doctors, new young families. We have to have something here for them and we can't keep saying no to everything that crosses our board's path.
Speaker 2:Now, with that being said, it is also very important that we hear your voices, that we know where do you draw the line, what would be okay and how, if a project comes forward, can we modify it, instead of just saying no. So think about okay. Well, I don't necessarily like that, but maybe if it was just this way a little bit, it would be okay for me. So try to. You know, I think we have to try to adapt a little bit. Yeah, and it's super important. I like that.
Speaker 1:I like adapt versus bit. Yeah, and it's super important. I like that. I like adapt versus compromise yeah. But compromise is good too. That's how we got here.
Speaker 2:Compromise is good. It's true, compromise is okay, and if we can still get a viable product and then the constituent base can be happy, that's a great compromise.
Speaker 1:And a tax base and a tax base, so we can. And a tax base and a tax base, so Measure O passed. Is that correct? Yeah, Measure O is passing. That's going to be helping especially your district.
Speaker 2:It's going to be helping my district a lot. My household was split on that my husband. He was helping me fill my ballot out while I was doing dishes and he was asking me the questions and he got to Measure O and he asked me and I said that's a yes for me.
Speaker 1:And he said nope, I can't do it, I'm going to leave it blank. You're going to have to do it yourself. The protest assistant.
Speaker 2:So it did pass and it's going to add its maturity, which will be, you know, after one year. It'll bring $24 million into the county for roads and a little bit for public transit, and so I'm looking forward to we'll see our first monies in April. Bit for public transit, and so I'm looking forward to we'll see our first monies in April, and I'm really looking forward to getting some better county roads, especially in our rural areas, say to Shelter Cove or to Honeydew or to Willow Creek, out in those areas where travelers when they come to Southern Humboldt that's what I hear oh my gosh, these roads. And so I think if we have a better, I know it will help keep and attract people.
Speaker 1:One of my favorite memes on Facebook is a car. Have you seen this one, Nick? It's a car. It's a washed out road and it's a car revving in the air. Go for it, you can make it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and lands in the middle no.
Speaker 1:Jodi, and I laugh at that one all the time. So what about participation in government? But what about not being an obstructionist either to government and assisting by staying out of the way?
Speaker 2:That's that compromise as well, yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm hearing being a little bit more curious, a little bit more open-minded about hey, a fish farm, a wind farm, a Hershey's factory, I mean that's not coming but.
Speaker 2:Yeah, or you know, even you know Fortuna has a lot of area for growth. They have the mill site down there that is got bought and is they're going to be developing that. And so I have heard you know things we don't have in Humboldt County. We don't have Trader Joe's, we don't have I always call it the orange store, but the building store.
Speaker 1:Home.
Speaker 2:Depot, home Depot. But the problem with that is that then you're competing with mom and pops that have been here for a long time and that's hard too. You know you don't want to. We're already struggling financially. Businesses are already being crippled by the inflation and the markets. That interest rates are killing the construction business right now, and so when you think about bringing in those stores that really could bring a lot of revenue to Humboldt County, it's also a competition to local folks.
Speaker 1:How do you bring in something, Brad do, that no one has seen here? I don't know what industry or business that would be it isn't anything, and that's where you have to think for the greater good.
Speaker 2:Trader Joe's is a specialty store Most of what you can get at Safeway which is not really local but some of the other smaller stores in Fortuna are owned by local folks and so it's a competition for them and so they don't want it Spent a bunch of money at Trader's yesterday at Redding on the way home.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's the thing.
Speaker 2:Everybody in Humboldt County at one time. If we go to Santa Rosa we stop at Trader Joe's or we stop at Home Depot or we go to Ukiah just to go to Home Depot. So those areas are getting our money and we're taking our money out of Humboldt County and we need people to spend their money here to be healthy.
Speaker 1:Somebody who's really weird friend of ours went down to Ukiah to In-N-Out Burger before we had one. Just to get burgers and come back. I'm going.
Speaker 2:No, I know someone, actually someone that I grew up with really well. He lives in Fortuna now. I went to church with him for all my life as a young girl and he just loves In-N-Out Burger and he wouldn't drive specifically because that's wasting gas, but it's the first place he goes. When he would go down that way?
Speaker 1:Sure, I used to be there twice a week. It's the only In-N-Out Burger with no lines and great service and former mayor of Arcata, Victor Green, who was really high-level service and he would really chase away the folks that were just not customers.
Speaker 2:Well, they have great food.
Speaker 1:And their food is delicious.
Speaker 2:You can get a protein, the double-double protein, which is no bun, and not get those carbs Love it. Yeah, and it's just easy. You get a potato and meat. What do you want?
Speaker 1:It's there yeah.
Speaker 2:And a water or Coke or whatever. So it's simple.
Speaker 1:I get the iced tea because there's nothing in it.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's true.
Speaker 1:I'm going I'm really eating healthy here, as my burgers dripping everywhere, I'm going yeah, this is me on a diet.
Speaker 2:Yeah, board. Um, back to, you know, trying to be helpful for humboldt county. Um, yeah, our board goes through compromises every board meeting. We don't all think alike, we don't all have the same constituent base, and so compromise is something we have to do, amen, and. And so I, you know, oftentimes vote on things that I don't.
Speaker 2:First of all, I'm not voting for ever, I'm voting for my constituent base in my district. And how I feel about my job is I have two responsibilities to my district and to the constituents in my district, and then to my county. If my county is broke, I can't do anything for my constituents. So I have to make sure our county is healthy, and you do that, you know. For one thing, the board of supervisors hires the department head.
Speaker 2:So I don't know everything about planning. I don't know anything about planning actually, nor do I know anything about laying down asphalt. So you want to put the smartest people you know in those seats, and then you trust them and you really have to, and so that's, you know, one of our responsibilities. And then compromise, especially. You know we're very diverse board and Arcata is vastly different than Fortuna, and so you know, I trust when Supervisor Wilson says the constituents of Arcata want this, then I trust that because that's his constituent base. But we are not a 5-0 board. We often end up on the opposite ends of each other. But I think we try hard to compromise for our county and our constituents in it.
Speaker 1:Someone mentioned and I don't mean to oppose that, but somebody mentioned that there's a bit more consensus on certain things of late, that it's more 5-0?. Yeah. It is getting there, there must be a lot of 5-0 issues that are easy.
Speaker 2:Well, consent, we always are five, oh, you know. Most of the time, on consent, there's a lot of five, oh, there's, you know, three to two Sometimes. Sometimes there's four to one. It just depends. I don't vote personally for myself. I have at times thought oh my goodness, this is something that I just oppose, you know, but I'm one of 28,000 in my district, so I have to really that. And that's another way people can help. Email your supervisors, tell them your feelings, don't blast them at the board. That's not helpful.
Speaker 1:It's not helpful.
Speaker 2:It's not helpful if you don't have a base prior to that or have a conversation with your supervisor. It's really important that we hear people and we hear as many diverse opinions as we can.
Speaker 1:So, Michelle, what would you like to leave us with in terms of what's your legacy? What are we saying at your funeral? What would you like folks to remember you for?
Speaker 2:That I'm a doer, that I care. I'm a little brassy sometimes, I'm not that warm and fuzzy person, but I do work really hard for the people of Humboldt County and I'm passionate about trying to complete things and do the best that I can. I love my family and I love where I live and I love Humboldt County. I love my family and I love where I live and I love Humboldt County. I believe in it.
Speaker 1:Right on. Glad you're there for us. I love it, Even though I'm on the other side of the county. I'm glad you're playing on the team down there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, rex sometimes tells me, you know he'll say be a little nicer, and I'm like the point, you know it's, it's, it is, it's who I am and people are learning it.
Speaker 1:Um, you know, I've been on the board four years now, and so I I never intend intentionally, would ever hurt somebody, but if I don't like, you, I don't talk to you. So if you're avoiding us. There's no fake here. That's good, I like it.
Speaker 2:But as constituent base. I work for anybody. They're my constituents, so it doesn't matter if I like you or I don't, but I just really love our area, really love our community. That's cool.
Speaker 1:I think of New York brash and I think of California schmooze on a spectrum and I think there's some balance. Yeah, hey, can you just cut to the chase? Yeah, what are we talking about here?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'd like to know, and that's respectful, just to go. Hey, I want to talk about whatever wrote. Yeah, I would love for a lot of real honesty on our board. Sometimes you want to hold things back because you're elected and so you're thinking, oh, if I say that, is that going to hurt me. But if it's the truth, you know, and if it's honest, then it shouldn't. And you know, I voted no on things before and people have gotten upset at me, but I always explain why.
Speaker 2:I always explain why. This is why I'm doing this, and people have said I wasn't happy about that, but I understand because you explained.
Speaker 1:And I think that's really important. And when you prove that you're on the right side of history, then, hey, you're voting your truth.
Speaker 2:Well, and people? I think they forget that supervisors are people and have feelings.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:And social media is nobody's friend.
Speaker 1:Not at all At all. And so Freaking trolls out there Don't. How dare you troll? Yeah, it's just you know. Get out of here with your trolling ways.
Speaker 2:Well, and my family reads that, my kids read that, and it is uh, social media is nobody's friend.
Speaker 1:Yeah, jodi says there's a couple of people on on the local trolling line that just hammer like pastor Bethany. She writes for Loco and and and Nick's interviewed Bethany. I have she's she's great. It's like are you kidding what? Stop it, Just get out of here.
Speaker 2:Well, I don't believe anybody on our board is out to do bad Everybody's well-intended. Very well-intended and we might not agree with that intent, but it's not ill. It's not an ill vote or it's not malicious. Excuse me. I know that they care.
Speaker 2:They're doing it for the same reasons I am, and just because we don't see eye to eye doesn't mean that they don't care. People don't remember that very well and they don't remember to be kind and I know there's not a lot of kind in government. But it can just have a real conversation, not the anger, not the his side, my side, just a real conversation and say your piece.
Speaker 1:I love it and it's important. I love it. It's true in life and true in government. Well, thanks for being here.
Speaker 2:Well, thanks for having me. Yeah, michelle, yeah, and I want to say that I really love the Humboldt Heroes.
Speaker 2:Oh thanks, yeah, it's. You know, you've honored quite a few of people from my district and I really love coming up and seeing that. I think it's so important that we remember our veterans, and we just had Veterans Day this last Monday and I went to the service that they had in Fortuna. Oh cool, it was amazing and, you know, you think about what those people went through and what they had to see, and as a young generation, we don't remember that very often. We haven't had wars like that, and so I just think it's really awesome.
Speaker 1:Thank you. Yeah, so as Humboldt heroes, we do it once a month at my state farm agency downtown Eureka, and last Friday of the month, and it's 15 minutes, somebody goes. Hey, you want to go statewide and make it big, I go why, would you no? Why would you wreck it? No, it's wonderful, it's Humble Heroes the reason that you and I are sitting here is because of this man that you can't see.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you and I can't.
Speaker 1:Nick invited me in to talk about Humble Heroes.
Speaker 2:Oh nice.
Speaker 1:And what it was and how we honor vets for eight years.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:So nominations are always welcome, well, and other things. Okay, they're not even disclaiming. First of all, thanks for watching and listening. Number two is if you want to repost or share or subscribe, please do, and you. That goes for you too.
Speaker 1:Thank you and you know we're going to be back next week with somebody super cool, another super cool guest and, without anything else, subscribe to us on podcast, YouTube access Humboldt, we're on TV, You're going to be on TV, it's going to be great. Okay, and with that I'm going to sign off and say see you next week. Scott Hammond, 100% Humboldt. Have a good day.
