Secret Elections, Secret Terms, and Secret Agendas/Books under the Tallest U.S. Flagpole West of the Great Plains

The U.S. Supreme Court shined the spotlight on Northern California’s Butte Valley momentarily on June 23, 2021, when it decided Cedar Point Nursery et al. v. Hassid et al. However, like so many others before its examination of the case and since, it was “done” according attention to the Butte Valley and its incorporated City of Dorris. In fact, contacted on July 12, 2022 where he taught, about a minority voting-rights compliance violation in the California gateway city of Dorris, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas did not respond to an E-mail the Continental News Service—publisher of the community newspaper in the city—had sent him, detailing voting-rights abuses more egregious than poll taxes, literacy tests, and white Democrat primaries [The letter could have mentioned “grandfather clauses,” too]—the outright cancellation of municipal elections. The letter pointed out that the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice numbered among a long list of regulatory watchdogs that have failed to take action on this denial of U.S. Constitutional rights, and, preliminary to requesting ex parte relief from the U.S. Supreme Court or to adopting an alternative effective course, the letter, in essence, sought to learn what Justice Thomas would advise a law student.

Did political candidates who secured election campaigning for minority votes confirm their commitment to minority rights by acting on this denial of U.S. Constitutional rights—including absence of representation for the sizeable local Hispanic population—in the California gateway city on U.S. Highway 97? Xavier Becerra, previously California Attorney-General, left office without dealing with the reported minority voting-rights compliance issue and accepted the position of U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Biden-Harris Administration. Next, on May 8, 2021, the Continental News Service wrote to Becerra’s successor, California Attorney-General Rob Bonta, who had also depended on minority-citizen votes during his political career, which included election to the Alameda City Council and the California State Assembly. Besides, he had chaired the California Asian & Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus. The referenced letter summarized the issues: the City Administrator and Council Members discouraging citizens from running for City Council; shutting down the candidate write-in period; moving to consolidate municipal balloting with county and state-wide and/or national balloting, then cancelling municipal elections; successive willful violations of California Government Code Section 36512 prohibiting appointment in-lieu-of-election; inaction by the Siskiyou County Civil Grand Jury and by the County District Attorney; conflict of interest and refusal to recuse; and usurpation of authority. At the September 3, 2024 City Council Meeting, Mayor Abner Weed, responding to two legal-advisory notices the Dorris News Edition had sent the City Administrator, said that he would direct that the City Attorney be contacted to address the statutory citations made, and he said that previously Council Members had been told that they weren’t doing anything illegal. However, neither the City Attorney nor the unelected, self-appointed City Council ever got back to the Dorris community newspaper verbally or in writing on the legal challenge. Instead, on November 18, 2024, the City swore in, as new City Council Members, Stan Beck and Barry Barkman, who had never been elected by the Hispanic-American, Native-American, African-American or other registered voters of the City of Dorris.

To the point, by-then-unelected and self-appointed Council Members exercised the power to hire and fire employees, forgive loans, award contracts, and spend taxpayer money—all without the express consent of the voters to the Council Members holding their official positions. Later, the City Administrator hired back an Animal Control/Code Enforcement Officer that community members in a City Council public meeting had sought to have dismissed for misconduct, and on another occasion the unelected, self-appointed City Council fired a City Administrator that civic organizations and members of the business community pressed the City to retain. Furthermore, the unelected City Council has okayed annual modifications to the terms of the contract with a garbage-collection company that have not been in the financial interest of resident-ratepayers. Now, the Website, leavingthebayarea.com helps residents of the San Francisco Bay Area relocate away from the poor quality of life and high cost of living there. But the garbage-collection company arbitrarily pegs its yearly adjustments for inflation to the Consumer Price Index in that very San Francisco/Oakland/Hayward region, more than 350 miles from the City of Dorris, when the CPI for the West Region and the CPI for the Pacific Region can be less. Plus, the garbage-collection company inflates its annual-rate change not only by the cost of delivering garbage-collection services in the San Francisco/Oakland/Hayward region, but by the cost of delivering water and sewer services that it does not provide—all in a lower-socio-economic-level city that the datausa.io Website finds has a median household income of only $35,313 (2022). Neither will the garbage-collection company nor the unelected City Council consider negotiation of a proportional amount of inflation in water, sewer and garbage services, such as one-third, if garbage services cannot be separated from the Consumer Price Index. Then, on June 24, 2024, a representative from Waste Management appeared before the Council and defended the company’s garbage-collection rate increase, based upon inflation in water, sewer and garbage-collection services combined, although the City already bills resident-ratepayers annually for inflation in its delivery of water and sewer services, and the Council, on behalf of the City, which receives a “garbage [sales] commission” ranging between $ 20,680 and $22,811 from Waste Management, approved what was a five-year extension to the garbage-collection contract. When the community has expressed the will of the people, the unelected and self-appointed City Council and the former, then interim, City Administrator have

[Continued on page 4] CONTINENTAL NEWSTIME • DECEMBER 31, 2024 3

frustrated the will of the people.

What was the result on November 27, 2024, when this reporter met, as a constituent, with a Council Member who had collected nomination-petition signatures from voters and was willing to run for election, but was appointed in-lieu-of election? His spouse, a former Mayor and City Council Member, was reminded that she had expressed concern that the long-term City Attorney had advised that it was all right for two members of the same household to be on the City Council. Asked whether the County Registrar of Voters, Laura Bynum, had ever gotten back to him about his concern that he could be fined $5,000 in connection with a Quo Warranto proceeding, the current Council Member stated that no one ever got back to him. Asked whether the contract City Attorney had ever gotten back to the City Council concerning the two legal notices, including Quo Warranto, that had been brought to the attention of the City Council, he responded not that he knew of. This reporter, expressing neighborly concern, referenced yet another U.S. Code provision that the City risked violating and suggested that the contract City Attorney could get Council Members in legal trouble for failure to provide sound legal advice. With a second legal opinion from candidates for the contract City Attorney position, the Council had the option of hiring a new City Attorney or retaining the current City Attorney if the Council was not satisfied with any of the applicants. This reporter emphasized that the United States is a country based upon elections by the registered voters and that cities that dispense with elections “run a gauntlet” of the federal Voting Rights Act, the California Voting Rights Act, California Government Code Section 36512, the California Political Reform Act, and 18 U.S.C. § 242—which pertains to misconduct by government actors. Taken from the U.S. Justice Department Website, the latter reads in part: “This provision makes it a crime for someone acting under color of law to willfully deprive a person of a right or privilege protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States. It is not necessary that the offense be motivated by racial bias or by any other animus.” In fact, the test is met when a self-appointed, unelected City Council says that the County Registrar of Voters or its City Attorney says it is legal to dispense with popular elections, refuses to address legal provisions that prohibit cancellation of elections, and acts to dispense with elections; in short, the Council is willfully operating under color of law to deprive persons of such protected rights and privileges.

On the same date, the former Mayor-City Council Member said that it was her understanding, in effect, that, if a City does not budget for municipal elections, it is not required to hold those elections. This reporter pointed out that the law does not grant any exemption to cities based upon cost. Anyway, a City of Dorris voter volunteered to cover the cost of municipal elections, and the long-term City Administrator, who had mentioned cost as an excuse for dispensing with elections, refused to accept the offer and insisted both that the voter would not be considered an alternate candidate for the Council vacancy and that the Council would proceed to appoint another individual in-lieu-of-election. The current City Council Member was apparently unaware of this fact because he asserted that the City could never find enough candidates to run for City Council. However, there was at least a second example of there being two candidates for a single vacancy and the City Council appointing in-lieu-of-election nonetheless. After all, Stann Cortez and Abner Weed declared their candidacy for an open City Council seat. Did that mean that the registered voters in the City of Dorris would finally have opportunity to select their preferred candidate? No, Abner Weed and Stann Cortez worked out a deal in which Abner Weed would withdraw for the time being, so Stann Cortez could be appointed in-lieu-of-election and Mr. Weed could be appointed later when a vacancy occurred. It was pointed out to the current City Council Member that by waiting until there were three seats on the City Council to fill, the Council had violated California Government Code Section 36512, which sets a deadline for holding an immediate election to fill the first vacancy, and, if the Council had complied, it would be easier for two candidates to come forward than to expect four candidates to vie for three empty seats. Anyway, the Council cannot make the excuse anytime, anymore, that it may appoint in-lieu-of-election because, since quite some time ago, all Council Members have been appointed in-lieu-of-election, and California Government Code Section 36512 specifically calls for an election when a majority or more of Council Members have been appointed. Hand-picked and sworn in by the unelected, self-appointed City Council? The current City Council Member added that Barry Barkman, the next-door neighbor of City Council Member Rob Baldwin, had to be prodded to take a seat on the Dorris City Council. The meeting concluded with the current City Council Member saying that he would talk with Mr. Weed, the “Mayor,” and with both the former Mayor-Council Member and the current City Council Member promising, once again, to do some legal research. They had not treated any of the legal and statutory requirements cited as requiring special study or compliance, though.

But, then, Gavin Newsom had also relied on political appeal to minority-citizen voters for election to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, and for election and re-election as Mayor of San Francisco, for election and re-election as Lieutenant-Governor of California, and for election and re-election as Governor of California. Summarizing the complaint about conflict-of-interest and voter suppression in the City of Dorris that was sent to the Governor’s Communications Director on September 1, 2020 and shared with another gubernatorial candidate on August 17, 2021, the Continental News Service emphasized that a solitary City Council Member—who subsequently served as City Clerk—confided the need for an independent financial audit of the City; revealed the excuses the City Administrator and other City Council Members gave for dispensing with municipal elections and the Council picking its own replacements; detailed how cancellation of the candidate write-in period and municipal elections altogether

4 CONTINENTAL NEWSTIME • DECEMBER 31, 2024 [Continued on page 6]

deprived the voters of the ability to remove from office an appointed Council Member accused of embezzling money from the Butte

Valley Unified School District and who had directed the Butte Valley (First 5) Community Resource Center until its collapse and left the landlord with rotting, mice-infested food stocks; applied the Disqualification Provisions of the Political Reform Act to that Council Member and the Mayor (who insisted it was his Council meeting to control); describes the Council’s obstinate refusal to hold municipal elections; and reports the angry reaction of one former City Clerk to potential candidates visiting City Hall to request filing papers. Still, the Governor has not initiated an independent investigation of voting-rights and administrative irregularities in the City of Dorris, and the gubernatorial candidate mentioned did not raise the Governor’s abandonment of minority-citizen voters to the level of a campaign issue.

About 62 miles from the County Seat, the City of Dorris is at once isolated and neglected. The credit union in Yreka is yet to provide financial services in the City of Dorris since an Oregon credit union shut down its operations in Dorris. The City no longer has a hardware store, either, and, despite the fact that many residents are without personal transportation to make doctor and dental appointments, to go shopping, and to run other errands, the County of Siskiyou has not prioritized extending its Siskiyou Transit and General Express (STAGE) bus service to the City even for senior citizens and persons with disabilities. Plus, Greyhound Bus Lines cancelled its route through the City years ago, and private bus lines have not acted to fill the void. Now, since the regulatory watchdogs entirely overlook compliance problems in the City of Dorris, too, might members of the Governing Board of the Butte Valley Unified School District assume the same lack of official oversight? Are secret elections, secret terms of office, and secret agendas/books out of the question? A former School Superintendent and other local citizens have recounted, to the Dorris community newspaper (the Continental News Service publishes), such lack of oversight and blatant code violations in the construction of a new elementary school that the structure had to be torn down and replaced.

But to the point of “secret elections, secret terms of office, and secret agendas/books,” though not necessarily in that order? Secret agendas/books? Month after month, many of the vendors the school cafeterias use document their particular charges with no greater specificity than “for cafeteria food.” Because legal and other public notices must be published in a so-called “newspaper of general circulation,” as determined by a California Superior Court, which is an exercise that does not necessarily certify “newspapers of general circulation” since newspaper readership has declined substantially, legal and other public notices can be published not only in out-of-area newspapers, but in newspapers residents of Dorris do not even see, much less read. Researching the school district’s on-line Business Services payment records, the Continental News Service found that the Butte Valley Unified School District had paid an out-of-state newspaper $477.08 without stating why. Phoning the Oregon newspaper involved, which was the Herald and News in Klamath Falls, Oregon, the Continental News Service learned that the newspaper had received an order to advertise sale of surplus property. In addition, summarizing the Dorris News Edition’s coverage of the Butte Valley Unified School District Governing Board meeting on April 17, 2024, given that the Agenda shows that the District Superintendent and the Business Manager requested a change in the regularly-scheduled Board Meetings from the third Wednesday of every month to the third Thursday of every month, to allow an extra work day to incorporate last-minute, priority items into the Agenda, Board Members who expressed personal preferences sought a change to the second Monday of each month instead. Since the Dorris City Council recently had met on the second Monday of the month, when it could arrange a quorum, the Continental News Service reporter asked whether the Board cared that it would be preventing people from attending both the Council meeting and its Board meeting and potentially interfering with the public’s right to know decisions made at both, whereas the original motion favoring Thursday would not. The response, in part, was that athletic and other activities are scheduled on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Then, the Principal vehemently asserted that the City Council’s problems reaching a quorum should not affect the District; the City Council should stick to its published schedule of meetings on the first and third Mondays of each month. However, E-mail correspondence to the Board President and the District Superintendent points out that the Board did not allow more time to include last-minute, priority-agenda items, but less time, by more than a week, and that the Board’s earlier deadline would either result in the postponement of agenda items until the following month or necessitate the scheduling of Special Meetings to address pressing matters that could not wait.

Secret terms of office? The Continental News Service noticed, in covering Governing Board proceedings, that meeting packets, with agenda materials, were no longer notifying the public when the terms of Governing Board Members are expiring and Members are subject to re-election challenge. In one case, after the Board’s Meeting on June 27, 2024 had adjourned, two Members were privately discussing filing for election and possibly receiving appointment in-lieu of election for lack of opposition to their candidacies. Since the Siskiyou County Registrar of Voters had defended appointment in-lieu of election and did not feel bound by California Government Code Section 36512, the Continental News Service checked the ballotpedia.org Website for information on expiring terms. Although the Governing Board Members, in their private conversation, were overheard in the public-meeting room referencing three Members subject to re-election challenge, that Website showed only that the term of Heather Criss was expiring in 2024. At 3:58 PM on July 22, 2024, the Continental News Service E-mailed the Media Desk at ballotpedia.org requesting “term-ends information” for other Butte Valley Unified School District (Dorris, CA) Governing Board Members beside Heather Criss and, if not on file there, whether they have been unable to obtain that information. The following day, at 7:02 AM, Carley Allensworth, Public and Media Relations Manager at ballotpedia.org, replied: “We have been unable to

6 CONTINENTAL NEWSTIME • DECEMBER 31, 2024 [Continued on page 8]

obtain that information.”

Secret elections? On October 19, 2022, the President of the Butte Valley Unified School District Governing Board (Shannon Struble) and the Vice-President (Chet Porterfield), following at least a 10-month District news black-out that their terms were even ending in 2022 and that they were subject to re-election challenge, were poised to receive appointment in-lieu of election to new terms ending on December 11, 2026. The reason given was an insufficient number of candidates to warrant an election. However, there had been no community and public notice in any of the Board’s published agendas on January 19, February 16, March 16, April 20, May 18, June 15, July 20, August 17 or September 21 of that year that members of the community could run for a seat on the Governing Board. Next, the Continental News Service checked both the California Public Notices Website administered by the California News Publishers Association and the Oregon Public Notices Website administered by the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association for any legal and public notices from the Butte Valley Unified School District announcing the Governing Board positions subject to election in 2024. Researching the period January 1, 2024-July 25, 2024, newspapers for the surrounding areas, specifically the Redding Record-Searchlight and the Siskiyou Daily News, showed no legal or public notices pertaining to elections, and the Herald and News in Klamath Falls, Oregon informed the Continental News Service that the Butte Valley Unified School District had not posted such a notice there, either. Consequently, the Governing Board of the Butte Valley Unified School District verges on self-perpetuating and disenfranchising registered voters, just as the Dorris City Council has been self-perpetuating and disenfranchising registered voters. Under the tallest U.S. Flagpole west of the Great Plains, who would suspect officials giving short shrift to U.S. Constitutional rights and suppressing voters’ voices?

**Supporting documentation follows.

Minority Voting-Rights Compliance Problem

Gary Salamone <info@continentalnewsservice.com>	Jul 12, 2022, 3:52 PM
to cthomas@law.gwu.edu, me

July 12, 2022

Continental Features/

Continental News Service

501 W. Broadway

Plaza A, PMB # 265

San Diego, CA 92101

(858) 492-8696 [The return address will be omitted until the final E-mail correspondence.]

The Honorable Clarence Thomas/Professorial Lecturer in Law

George Washington University

2000 H Street, NW

Washington, District of Columbia 20052

Dear Mr. Thomas:

Having contacted regularity [regulatory] officials far and wide, in vain, concerning voting-rights abuses in the small Northern California city of Dorris that are more egregious than poll taxes, literacy tests, and white Democrat primaries–the outright cancellation of municipal elections–I write preliminary to requesting ex parte relief from the U.S. Supreme Court or to adopting an alternative, effective course that you advise. The Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Justice Department numbers among a long list

of regulatory watchdogs that have taken no action on this denial of U.S. constitutional rights. Please find below an example of the many contacts CF/CNS has made for restoration of local voting rights.

Two Legal Advisory Notices

8 CONTINENTAL NEWSTIME • DECEMBER 31, 2024 [Continued on page 13]

Gary Salamone <continentalnewstime@gmail.com>	Fri, Aug 30, 1:36 PM
to citystaff@cot.net Stephanie.Grimes@doj.ca.govbcc: Marc.Nolan@doj.ca.gov

To: Joanna Wynant/City Administrator

City of Dorris

From: Gary Salamone/Editor

Dorris News Edition of Continental Newstime

Continental Features/Continental News Service

The City of Dorris has been violating California Law each time a vacancy has occurred on the City Council, for the last 12 years, by depriving minority and other citizens of their right to vote into office candidates of their choice. A Special Election is required each time to fill a vacancy. When Stann Cortez resigned from the City Council, California Law required the City to hold a Special Election. However, none was held. When Dawn Wallace resigned from the City Council, California Law required the City to hold a Special Election, but the City did not satisfy the legal requirement to hold a Special Election. If the City now has three interested candidates, those candidates must compete for the vacancy created when the first of the two individuals mentioned—either Stann Cortez or Mayor

Dawn Wallace—resigned. Plus, the California Government Code Section referenced below prohibits appointment in-lieu of election when a majority or more of Council Members have already been appointed. By now all Council Members have been appointed. Therefore, the City is required to hold a municipal election to fill current vacancy/vacancies on the Dorris City Council.

California Code
Government Code
TITLE 4. GOVERNMENT OF CITIES [34000 – 45345]
PART 1. GENERAL
Section 36512

Universal Citation: CA Govt Code § 36512 (through 2012 Leg Sess)

(3) Provides that a person appointed to fill a vacancy on the city council holds office only until the date of a special election which shall immediately be called to fill the remainder of the term. The special election may be held on the date of the next regularly established election or regularly scheduled municipal election to be held throughout the city not less than 114 days from the call of the special election.

(d) (1) Notwithstanding subdivision (b) and Section 34902, an appointment shall not be made to fill a vacancy on a city council if the appointment would result in a majority of the members serving on the council having been appointed. The vacancy shall be filled in the manner provided by this subdivision.

(2) The city council may call an election to fill the vacancy, to be held on the next regularly established election date not less than 114 days after the call.

(3) If the city council does not call an election pursuant to paragraph (2), the vacancy shall be filled at the next regularly established election date.

[Continued on page 15] CONTINENTAL NEWSTIME • DECEMBER 31, 2024 13

What is the potential financial penalty for holding office without authority under the law?

Legal Opinions of the Attorney General – Quo Warranto – Right to Public Office

What Is Quo Warranto?

Quo warranto is a special form of legal action used to resolve a dispute over whether a specific person has the legal right to hold the public office that he or she occupies.

Quo warranto is used to test a person’s legal right to hold an office, not to evaluate the person’s performance in the office.

The term “quo warranto” (pronounced both kwoh wuh-rahn-toh, and kwoh wahr-un-toh) is Latin for “by what authority”—as in, “by what authority does this person hold this office?”

The statutes relating to quo warranto are in the California Code of Civil Procedure, starting at section 803.

…

If the court decides that the defendant unlawfully usurped the office, the court will exclude the defendant from the office and assess costs. The court may also, at its discretion, impose a fine on the defendant of up to $5,000.

*By the City Council meeting on October 8, 2024, there had still been no announcement of City Attorney John Kenny’s response to this E-mail to the City Administrator or any evidence that he had been contacted at all. However, the City Administrator was directed by the Council to ask “City Council Members” Stan Beck and Barry Barkman, who were not part of the Council quorum and who had not attended any City Council meetings since their appointment in-lieu-of-election which of the two would agree to serve on the Board of Directors of the Siskiyou Transportation Agency. Do voters have a right to decide whether persons who had not attended a single City Council meeting should sit on the City Council and represent them?

CONTINENTAL NEWSTIME • DECEMBER 31, 2024 15

May 8, 2021

Rob Bonta/Attorney-General

Attorney-General’s Office

California Department of Justice

Attn: Public Inquiry Unit

P.O. Box 944255

Sacramento, CA 94244-2550

Dear Mr. Bonta:

This references a matter neglected by your predecessor: the cancellation of elections in the California gateway City of Dorris on U.S. Highway 97 and the violation of the voting rights of Hispanic and other citizens.

The City Administrator and Council Members have created distrust among Dorris residents about how City officials have kept financial accounts by discouraging citizens from running for City Council and by Council Members cancelling municipal elections, shutting down the candidate write-in period, and re-appointing themselves to new terms on the Council. The violations of California Government Code Section 36512 have been willful because this legal provision has repeatedly been brought to their attention and, yet, although the law specifically says that when a majority or more of Council Members have been appointed, there must be a municipal election, Council Members ignore this requirement. By now, all Council Members have been appointed. As the publisher of the Dorris community newspaper, CF/CNS does not necessarily share the local belief that City officials have “cooked the books” and does not favor the imposition of Quo Warranto fines on Council Members for their usurpation of authority; rather, CF/CNS just seeks the scheduling of elections and does not want the consent of the voters assumed anymore when none of the Council Members have a fresh grant of authority to govern from the voters.

The man who took the Sheriff’s Department to task on response time, the “Mayor,” did not disqualify himself from the Council decision to appoint in lieu of election or absent himself from Council Chambers during decision-making. (Neither did the other Council Member whose re-appointment was imminent.) With Council membership involving in-kind compensation valued at up to $4,000 during a four-term term, he also compounded this conflict of interest by actively participating in the Council discussion to appoint in lieu of election! Since both have recused or disqualified themselves in the past from decision-making when conflict-of-interest was an issue, they cannot claim that they were unaware of the legal obligation to do so. City officials have inconvenienced the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors more than once by requesting consolidation of municipal elections with state-wide and national elections, only to take up more Board time later by cancelling municipal elections and appointing in lieu of election. Council Members’ claim of authority under the present circumstances would not stand up in a Quo Warranto proceeding, but

the poor citizens of Dorris cannot even afford to hire an attorney and incur the expenses of pursuing this matter in court.

The Civil Grand Jury has been contacted about these voting-rights and other irregularities, and the County District Attorney, too, but citizens have not received any resolution.

One would think, under the tallest U.S. Flagpole west of the Great Plains, that the Hispanic and other registered voters in Dorris might finally, once again, be allowed to vote for the local public officials of their choice.

Thank you for your kind attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Gary P. Salamone/Editor

Dorris News Edition

of Continental Newstime

16 CONTINENTAL NEWSTIME • DECEMBER 31, 2024

From: Gary Salamone <info@continentalnewsservice.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 17, 2021 3:49 PM
To: info@electelder.com <info@electelder.com>
Subject: Governor Newsom and his last two Attorneys-General posturing on minority rights and voter suppression. This same information was provided to both Attorneys-General Becerra and Bonta. Still no acknowledgment has been received.

September 1, 2020

Attn.:

Governor Gavin Newsom

1303 10th Street, Suite 1173

Sacramento, CA 95814

Phone: (916) 445-2841

Fax: (916) 558-3160

From: Gary Salamone <info@continentalnewsservice.com>

Sent: Thursday, August 20, 2020 6:35 PM

To: agpressoffice@doj.ca.gov <agpressoffice@doj.ca.gov>

Subject: Complaint of Official Conflict-of-Interest and Voter Suppression

Attn. Bethany Lesser/Communications Director

California Attorney-General’s Office

(916) 210-6000

A petition and more than one complaint have been filed with the County Civil Grand Jury, and the County District Attorney has been contacted, as well as the California Republican Party–all to no avail. A solitary City Council Member has expressed to the local newspaper that there needs to be an independent audit conducted of the Siskiyou County City of Dorris, but that, of course, won’t happen as long as the Mayor and City Council Members are allowed to keep cancelling elections, picking their own replacements, and appointing in lieu of election in violation of Government Code Section 36512 and its prohibition against appointment when a majority or more of Council Members have been appointed. Cancelling the Candidate Write-In period and the election deprived the voters of the ability to remove from office an appointed Council Member accused of embezzling money from the Butte Valley Unified School District and who had directed the Butte Valley (First 5) Community Resource Center until its collapse and left the landlord with rotting, mice-infested food stocks.

Noting the Disqualification Provisions in the Political Reform Act, there are two public officials involved, neither left Council Chambers, one official actively participated in discussion affecting their economic interests, both officials used their official positions to influence the making of a governmental decision affecting their personal financial interests, one official also has investments in a business entity possibly indirectly affected by his participation in decision-making, both officials have economic interests directly involved in governmental decision-making, the governmental decision made has a material financial effect on both public officials’ economic interests, the effect of the governmental decision on the officials’ economic interests is both distinguishable from the effect on the general public and at odds with the public interest, the public officials’ participation was prohibited by law, and contrary to public law both officials were counted toward meeting the Council quorum for decision-making.

Specifically, when the matter came up of Council Members’ declared intention of re-appointing themselves to new terms, Mr. Steve France, asking to speak, indicated that he was interested in filing for City Council during the scheduled September-October Candidate Write-In period. However, City Administrator Carol McKay responded that “it is too late,” because the Council was poised to appoint in-lieu-of election. Mr. France asked why the City was dispensing with an election. He was told that the reason was expense; it would cost about $1,200. Despite the fact that the City has a budget approaching multi-million-dollar proportions, Mr. France, rejoining the discussion later, asked, “What if someone gave the City the $1,200?” He didn’t receive an answer. Other comments from the audience were: “Some people think the City wastes more than that amount of money each year.” “Doesn’t the Council think that, under the tallest U.S. Flagpole west of the Rockies, cancelling democratic elections is a little hypocritical?” “Don’t Council Members want the satisfaction of knowing exactly how much voter support and how much of a public

CONTINENTAL NEWSTIME • DECEMBER 31, 2024 17

mandate they have?” Council Member Rob Baldwin answered, “I don’t serve to receive thanks. I don’t need a pat on the back.” [A little presumptuous on his part?] After the Council was asked to let the September-October Candidate Write-In period run its course, Mayor Mike Craddock, who was seeking a new term after 8 years in office, said, “What if no one files to be a write-in candidate?” A second interested candidate, though, had gotten enough signatures for nomination, but got sick and could not complete the process for inclusion of her name on the ballot by the August 7th deadline for inclusion. The Mayor, still present and participating in discussion without disqualifying himself–just as the other Council Member seeking a new term was present to vote–later said that people should consider his position: that he had gone to the trouble of driving down to Yreka to submit candidate-filing papers, so others should have by August 7. However, some people argued that the City had only posted notification on the door of City Hall. And the City had gotten angry when people were advised to visit City Hall for candidate-filing papers.

Council Member Kim Homburger, one of the few Council Members who voices constituents’ interests and conscientiously represents their concerns, pointed out to Council colleagues that, if they permit the election process to advance, the election-year to election-year controversy of appointing in-lieu-of election “will go away.” In support, a member of the audience commented: “The Council really does not have a choice because Government Code Section 36512 specifically says that if a majority or more of Council Members have been appointed, an election must be held.” At one point in the meeting, Mayor Craddock insisted, “This is my Meeting! Zip it!” City Administrator McKay alleged that Elections Code Section 10229 (a) takes precedence over Government Code Section 36512, but a reading of both Code Sections does not support that opinion.

Although Mr. Craddock and Council Member Karen McMillan each had disqualified himself or herself from decision-making in the past on other matters of self-interest, it was not clear why they failed to do so on this particular matter affecting continuance of their official compensation. Instead, Mayor Craddock quickly proposed appointment of himself and Ms. McMillan to shut off further public comment, Council Member Richard Anderson seconded the motion, and by Council vote the motion passed, neither Mr. Craddock nor Ms. McMillan having disqualified themselves due to conflict-of-interest. Rather than those Council Members accepting that they should not have a say in decision-making affecting their personal financial interests, they interjected themselves into the process, thereby ensuring that the voters would not have a say at the ballot box in their choice of Council Members and ensuring that the two Council Members would remain in their positions for another four years. Other implications of their failure to declare conflict-of-interest? Other Dorris residents were denied a chance to receive the four-year financial benefit of Council membership that is worth upward to $4,000, because their household utility service is provided free of charge, hardly an insignificant financial benefit to Dorris residents, including the sizeable Hispanic community not represented on the Council, people having difficulty meeting expenses and living paycheck to paycheck.

City of Dorris residents require and would appreciate your assistance in these matters.

Gary P. Salamone/Editor

Dorris News Edition of Continental Newstime

Continental Features/

Continental News Service

Please forward to Presiding Judge. Thank you.

Gary Salamone <continentalnewstime@gmail.com>	Mar 21, 2023, 10:12 PM
to Personnel, bcc: Gary

March 21, 2023

18 CONTINENTAL NEWSTIME • DECEMBER 31, 2024

The Hon. Karen L. Dixon/Presiding Judge

Superior Court of California

411 Fourth Street

Yreka, California 96097

Dear Presiding Judge:

On this anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Voting-Rights March from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, this letter calls attention to Voting-Rights Violations and Conflict-of-Interest worse than poll taxes, grandfather clauses, literacy tests, and white primaries. For years now, the registered voters in Dorris, California, under the tallest U.S. Flagpole west of the Great Plains, have been denied voter choice in the selection of City Council Members and other City Officials by their outright cancellation of municipal elections. The unelected and self-appointed City Council here refuses to hold local elections, making all manner of excuses for their refusal. The California Voting Rights Act, the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and California Government Code Section 36512 mean nothing to them. One Council Member collected some citizen nomination petitions, but the self-appointed City Council took it upon themselves to appoint him, too. All Council Members have been appointed by now. With a resignation from the five-member Council recently, a Court Order would be appreciated mandating an election, requiring all four remaining appointed Members to stand for election, and giving the registered voters a choice of five of six, or whatever candidates on the ballot, so Council Members would actually have a mandate from the voters to spend taxpayer money, award contracts, write off debts, be accountable for self-serving conduct and preferential treatment, and hire or dismiss City employees. The unelected, self-appointed and unrepresentative City Council recently ignored the wishes of community-organization leaders and local business owners in a public meeting and fired the City Administrator they pointed out had the best interests of the City in view.

May 12, 2022

Kristen Clarke/Assistant Attorney-General

U.S. Department of Justice

Civil Rights Division

950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, D.C. 20530-0001

(202) 514-3847

Dear Ms. Clarke:

This references a matter of voter suppression that the Justice Department Civil Rights Division during the Trump Administration ignored and failed to remedy: the cancellation of elections in the California gateway City of Dorris on U.S. Highway 97 and the violation of the voting rights of Hispanic, African-American and other citizens. The ethnic composition of the City was previously estimated as 5.53% Native American, 0.11% Asian, 0.11% Pacific Islander, 8.13% from other races, and 3.50% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 16.37%. The City Council and the former City Administrator have made a variety of excuses for suppressing citizens’ voting rights. They have said that elections cost too much; although a citizen volunteered to pay the City’s election costs, they refused the offer. When citizens have expressed an interest in running for the City Council, the City Council and former City Administrator have discouraged their candidacy, saying they were ready to appoint instead and that it was too late. Two members of the City Council promised to resign if other citizens came forward to seek Council membership, but those Council members later reneged on that pledge and remained on the Council. More appointments to the City Council have been made since then.

The former City Administrator and Council Members have created distrust among Dorris residents about how City officials have kept financial accounts by discouraging citizens from running for City Council and by Council Members cancelling municipal elections, shutting down the candidate write-in period, and re-appointing themselves to new terms on the Council. The violations of California Government Code Section 36512 have been willful because this legal provision has repeatedly been brought to their attention and, yet, although the law specifically says that when a majority or more of Council Members have been appointed, there must be a municipal election, Council Members ignore this requirement. By now, all Council Members have been appointed. As the publisher of the Dorris community newspaper, CF/CNS does not necessarily share the local belief that City officials have

[Continued on page 21] CONTINENTAL NEWSTIME • DECEMBER 31, 2024 19

“cooked the books” and does not favor the imposition of Quo Warranto fines on Council Members for their usurpation of authority; rather, CF/CNS just seeks the scheduling of elections and does not want the consent of the voters assumed anymore when none of the Council Members have a fresh grant of authority to govern from the voters.

The County Civil Grand Jury has been contacted about these voting-rights and other irregularities, and the District Attorney, too, but citizens have not received any resolution or satisfaction.

Thank you for your kind attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Gary P. Salamone/Editor

Dorris News Edition

of Continental Newstime

ReplyForwardAdd reaction

CF/CNS May 9, 2019

Kirk Andrus/District Attorney

County of Siskiyou

Siskiyou County Courthouse

311 Fourth Street, First Floor

Yreka, CA 96097

E-mail: da@siskiyouda.org

Dear Mr. Andrus:

Your participation in the Town Hall meeting held in Dorris was much-appreciated. However, another aspect of citizen participation in our democratic process, respect for the voting rights of those in whose name City business is conducted, has been frustrated by city officials. I am writing at this time, and timely, in the hope that your office will intervene to restore the principle of government by the consent of the governed to the City of Dorris, so our Independence Day celebration in July, with its ceremonial flag-raising and prospective fly-over, is not tainted by hypocrisy; that is, those patriotic symbols being used to distract attention from, and provide cover for, the local unelected government, whose members circumvent the write-in-candidate period and refuse to hold municipal elections under any circumstances, considering it an unnecessary expense. And, yet, residents notice they are poised to sell public property for a commercial cannabis-cultivation operation without a public referendum, and one member of the City Council, whose non-performance is blamed for closure of the Butte Valley Community Resource Center, is reputed to be a serial embezzler, starting during employment by the school district, apparently revealed through a leaked non-disclosure agreement.

Listening in on a National Day of Prayer meeting in San Diego this year, I heard that in the U.S. “we get to choose our leaders.” However, I had to set my seat neighbors straight when we circled up for a discussion, saying, “But not in Dorris. City officials do not allow us to vote them into office or to vote them out. They are all self-appointed.”

CONTINENTAL NEWSTIME • DECEMBER 31, 2024 21

Also, members of the Butte Valley Unified School District Governing Board were, in the absence of balloting, re-appointed without advance notice given to the public through an item on any prior Board Agenda. However, there is a difference, because Dorris city officials have violated Government Code Section 36512 (d)(1) by appointing in-lieu of election, although the prohibited result was that a majority or more of Council Members were appointed. In fact, all have been appointed. The irony is that the only individual in the entire City with any popular mandate whatsoever is the student member of the Governing Board, who was elected by her peers! District officials were particular about the students observing democratic principles, while they ignored those principles themselves. What does that teach young people about adults’ standards, though?

Not at all interested in my neighbors getting in trouble, may I request that you take action so the Superior Court simply voids those City Council appointments made illegitimately in November, 2018 and in defiance of Government Code Section 36512 (d)(1) and so the Court orders the City of Dorris to call a special election to fill those positions and the upcoming vacancy in Council membership. This will help put the City of Dorris on the same page with Yreka,

McCloud and the other jurisdictions in the County and across the nation that abide by the Voting Rights Act and associated Constitutional guaranties.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Gary P. Salamone/Editor

Dorris News Edition of Continental Newstime

Dorris News Edition of Continental Newstime (May 11, 2024)

… Subsequently, the Council examined the Franchise Agreement that Waste Management proposed for the five-year term spanning the dates July 1, 2024 and June 30, 2029…. The Dorris News Edition noticed in reading the Agreement that the Consumer Price Index for rate increases was not specified and that Waste Management had consistently used that for the San Francisco Bay area, which tended to record inflation higher than the CPI for the West Region and the CPI for the Pacific Region, and, besides, the Bay Area is more than 300 miles from Dorris. Plus, Council Member Clontz saw no sense in Waste Management increasing rates based on inflation in water and sewer services, in combination with inflation in trash-collection services, when it only provides trash collection. It was pointed out that if trash services could not be separated from inflation in the other two

services, the City could suggest rate increases limited to one-third (33 percent) of the total. Council Member Baldwin thought the company would not make an adjustment, and Mayor Weed remarked that the company wanted the City to sign the Agreement before revealing what it planned to increase rates to. Ultimately, Mr. Clontz and Mr. Baldwin teamed on a successful motion to table the matter, pending discussion with Waste Management….

Dorris News Edition of Continental Newstime (June 29. 2024)

… Afterward, a representative of Waste Management defended the company’s garbage-collection rate increase, based upon inflation in water, sewer and garbage-collection services, and the Council approved a Clontz-Baldwin motion to accept the proposed Franchise Agreement between Waste Management and the City….

Butte Valley Unified School District Governing Board Agenda (October 19, 2022)

5. CERTIFICATION OF APPOINTMENTS:

In lieu of elections, we will appoint the following board members. They will be seated and sworn in at the December Board Meeting after their term begins on December 9. 2022.

[Insufficient number of candidates? No public notice given.]

a. Shannon Struble – Area 1 – Term December 9, 2022 – December 11, 2026

b. Chet Porterfield – Area 2 – Term December 9, 2022 – December 11, 2026

Gary Salamone <continentalnewstime@gmail.com>	Jul 25, 2024, 12:23 AM (10 days ago)
to Gary

22 CONTINENTAL NEWSTIME • DECEMBER 31, 2024

Search Elections

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07 4920 / 00 HERALD 6. NEWS
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School board

https://ballotpedia.org/Butte_Valley_Unified_School_District,_California,_elections

media@ballotpedia.org

The Butte Valley Unified School District consists of five members serving four-year terms. To find information about school board meetings, click here.

List of school board members

NAME YEAR ASSUMED OFFICE YEAR TERM ENDS

Shannon Struble

Chet Porterfield

Emanuel Mendoza

Jeffrey Heil

Heather Criss 2024

CONTINENTAL NEWSTIME • DECEMBER 31, 2024 23

media@ballotpedia.org

Jul 22, 2024, 3:58 PM

Dear Ballotpedia.org

Do you have Term-Ends information for other Butte Valley Unified School District (Dorris, CA) Governing Board Members beside Heather Criss? Or have you been unable to obtain that information? Thank you.

Gary P. Salamone/Editor-in-Chief

Continental Features/

Continental News Service

Carley Allensworth <carley.allensworth@ballotpedia.org>	Jul 23, 2024, 7:02 AM (12 days ago)
to me

Hi Gary,

Thanks for reaching out. We have been unable to obtain that information.

Please let me know if you have any further questions.

Best,

24 CONTINENTAL NEWSTIME • DECEMBER 31, 2024

Carley

Carley Allensworth

Public and Media Relations Manager

Mobile: 618-553-1830

BALLOTPEDIA Be an informed voter

Butte Valley Unified School District Governing Board Agenda for April 17, 2024 …

8.2 Consider/Approve Changing the Dav of the Regular Board Meetings:

The District would like to change the regularly scheduled Board Meeting to fall on the 3rd Thursday instead of the 3rd Wednesday of every month. Doing this would allow that extra work day to get the last minute agenda items in the board packet.

Observation: Board did not allow extra time to add last-minute agenda items; it reduced the time by more than a week…

Shannon Struble, Board President, Jared Pierce, District Superintendent

Gary Salamone <continentalnewstime@gmail.com>	Thu, Apr 18, 2:37 PM
to sstruble, Jared

The Governing Board did not accommodate the Superintendent and the Business Manager’s request to allow an extra day to incorporate last-minute, priority agenda items into the Board Packet. In the process of changing regular-meeting dates, instead the Board allowed less time, by more than a week, meaning that priority agenda items requiring immediate attention would miss the new, earlier deadline and be postponed until the following month, necessitating adding a Special Meeting to address any pressing matters that cannot wait until the following month.

Gary Salamone/Editor

Dorris News Edition of Continental Newstime

Continental Features/Continental News Service

*In fact, the Principal, who was at the school-board meeting, gave short shrift to the public’s right to know, saying that, if the scheduling change coincided with City Council meeting dates and prevented this reporter and the public from attending both meetings, that was the quorum-challenged City Council’s fault for not sticking to its original schedule. But the Governing Board as a whole did not care, either, and had pressed for the schedule change, not only quite oblivious to the Superintendent’s request, but based on their own, not at all the public’s, personal convenience.

October 17, 2024

Continental Features/

Continental News Service

Pacific Northwest Office

P.O. Box 546

Dorris, CA 96023

(858) 492-8696

Community Development Block Grant Program

California Department of Housing and Community Development

P.O. Box 278180

Sacramento, CA 95827-8180

Media@hcd.ca.gov

agpressoffice@doj.ca.gov

CONTINENTAL NEWSTIME • DECEMBER 31, 2024 25

Redlining in Birmingham and Violation of CDBG Non-discrimination Provisions in Northern California

Can scofflaw “politicians” hide under the reputed largest U.S. flag west of the Great Plains? The U.S. Justice Department and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau report that a mortgage lender could not get away with violations of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the Consumer Financial Protection Act, and the Fair Housing Act. Which laws have been violated in the Northern California city referenced? Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the California Voting Rights Act, California Government Code Section 36512, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the conflict-of-interest provisions of the California Political Reform Act. The unelected and self-appointed City Council in Dorris, California, together with the long-term, and now interim-outgoing, City Administrator, have willfully refused to hold municipal elections for the last 12 years. In particular, these persons have engaged in three different discriminatory actions prohibited by Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. First, they have subjected citizens in the Hispanic/minority community and other U.S. citizens to separate treatment related to facilities, services and other benefits by denying them the opportunity to provide the public input associated with local elections. There are no Hispanic or other minority citizens on the City Council. Second, they have denied the minority and other citizens mentioned the opportunity, through popular

elections, to become members of the planning or advisory body for spending Community Development Block Grant funds; namely, the City Council. Third, they have denied the minority and other citizens mentioned the opportunity to participate in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) expenditure planning by excluding citizens from the process for re-naming the City’s Westside Park. The unelected, self-appointed City Council, which is years late in holding the required elections to fill two vacant Council positions, not only chose not to consult members of the community in the re-naming process, but failed to announce that they were undertaking a re-naming process and they proceeded to name the Park after the most intransigent opponent of City Council elections, the City Administrator, one who has discouraged persons from running for City Council, ruled out citizen contributions to cover election costs, insisted the candidate write-in period would be shut down, declared that there will be no elections, refused to divulge how much the City Attorney was paid for a specific service, and dictated that the Council would appoint new members in-lieu of election, in direction violation of the laws mentioned above that were brought to both the attention of the City Administrator and the City Council.

Additional detail:

The unelected and self-appointed Council Members have exercised the power to hire and fire employees, forgive loans, award contracts, and spend taxpayer money—all without the express consent of the voters to the Council Members holding their official positions. Later, the City Administrator hired back an Animal Control/Code Enforcement Officer that community members in a City Council public meeting had sought to have dismissed for misconduct, and on another occasion the unelected, self-appointed City Council fired a City Administrator that civic organizations and members of the business community pressed the City to retain. Furthermore, the unelected City Council has okayed annual modifications to the terms of the contract with a garbage-collection company that have not been in the financial interest of resident-ratepayers. Now, the Website, leavingthebayarea.com helps residents of the San Francisco Bay Area relocate away from the poor quality of life and high cost of living there. But the garbage-collection company arbitrarily pegs its yearly adjustments for inflation to the Consumer Price Index in that very San Francisco/Oakland/Hayward region, more than 350 miles from the City of Dorris, when the CPI for the West Region and the CPI for the Pacific Region can be less. Plus, the garbage-collection company inflates its annual-rate change not only by the cost of delivering garbage-collection services in the San Francisco/Oakland/Hayward region, but by the cost of delivering water and sewer services that it does not provide—all in a lower-socio-economic-level city that the datausa.io Website finds has a median household income of only $35,313 (2022). Neither will the garbage-collection company nor the unelected City Council consider negotiation of a proportional amount of inflation in water, sewer and garbage services, such as one-third, if garbage services cannot be separated from the Consumer Price Index. Then, on June 24, 2024, a representative from Waste Management appeared before the Council and defended the company’s garbage-collection rate increase, based upon inflation in water, sewer and garbage-collection services combined, although the City already bills resident-ratepayers annually for inflation in its delivery of water and sewer services, and the Council, on behalf of the City, which receives a “garbage [sales] commission” ranging between $ 20,680 and $22,811 from Waste Management, approved what was a five-year extension to the garbage-collection contract. Also, City Hall previously announced, by E-mail and notices posted on public bulletin boards around the City, that a City Council meeting was scheduled for 6 PM on June 3, 2024. When the meeting was subsequently cancelled, City Hall notified residents on its E-mail distribution list, but not all residents on its E-mail distribution list. Other residents who had not been informed of the cancellation appeared at City Hall for the publicized meeting, and the notice announcing a meeting on June 3, 2024 remained on the door at City Hall at least until June 8, 2024! When the community has expressed the will of the people, the unelected and

26 CONTINENTAL NEWSTIME • DECEMBER 31, 2024

self-appointed City Council and the former, then interim, City Administrator frustrated the will of the people. Advised, out of neighborly concern, of the Quo Warranto risks and potential penalties, they proceeded to appoint two new Council Members in-lieu-of election, regardless of the warning. The incoming City Administrator joked, “Nobody has been fined yet!”

Contact:

Gary P. Salamone/Editor-in-Chief

Continental Features/

Continental News Service

Pacific Northwest Office

P.O. Box 546

Dorris, CA 96023

(858) 492-8696

P.S. Continental Features/Continental News Service regularly publishes the general-interest newsmagazine, Continental Newstime and publishes, on a monthly rotational basis, special, complimentary on-line newspapers: Washington DC News Edition, Chicago News Edition, Honolulu News Edition, Atlanta News Edition, Anchorage News Edition, Boston News Edition, Seattle News Edition, Miami News Edition, San Diego News Edition, Rochester (N.Y.) News Edition, Minneapolis News Edition, and Houston News Edition. [http://continentalnewsservice.com]

On November 25, 2024, this Editor interviewed a local election worker, who spoke without attribution, about observations that were made at the polling station in the City of Dorris, on Election Day. The local election worker was not asked to supply names of those Dorris residents who are registered to vote and who appeared at the polls. Instead, the local election worker was asked whether Hispanic-Americans, Native-Americans, African-Americans or other ethnic-group members registered to vote numbered among the Dorris residents who cast ballots at the polls on Election Day, rather than mail in completed ballots. The local election worker stated that this Election Day more Hispanic-American residents of the City of Dorris voted than on an earlier Election Day, that some Native-American City residents and one Asian City resident cast ballots this Election Day. In other words, these individuals, beside other registered voters in the City of Dorris, were allowed to vote in the Presidential election and state-wide elections, but they were deprived of the right to choose Dorris City Council Members, because the Council cancelled elections. Ironically, too, Dorris City Hall is the polling station for City of Dorris registered voters; however, it is not a venue where City of Dorris registered voters are allowed to elect Dorris City Hall Council Members.

Despite the presentation of additional evidence documenting the disenfranchisement of registered voters, those occupying a position of regulatory authority who had secured, it develops, undeserved reputations for continuing and committed minority advocacy and enlightenment blocked the sender’s correspondence, effectively frustrating exercise of the Constitutional right to petition the government for redress of grievances.

Four National Editorial Cartoons: Secret Elections/Secret Terms/Secret Books under Tallest U.S. Flagpole West of Great Plains

Gary Salamone		Sat, Nov 16, 6:50 PM
Courtesy of: Gary P. Salamone/Editor-in-Chief Continental Features/ Continental News Service P.S. Continental Features/Continental News Service publishes the ge

Mail Delivery Subsystem		Sat, Nov 16, 6:50 PM
Message blocked Your message to daniel.lopez@gov.ca.gov has been blocked. See technical details below for more information. The response from the remote server *CONTINENTAL NEWSTIME • DECEMBER 31, 2024 27*

Gary Salamone		Sat, Nov 16, 7:01 PM
To: Jim DeBoo/Executive Secretary Office of Governor Gavin Newsom

Mail Delivery Subsystem		Sat, Nov 16, 7:01 PM
Message blocked Your message to Jim.Deboo@gov.ca.gov has been blocked. See technical details below for more information. 550 Rule imposed mailbox access for Jim

While a complaint filed with the California Fair Political Practices Commission is still pending, one outcome of the impact of this investigative reporting was that one City Clerk responded angrily when a prospective candidate for City Council requested nomination forms. Others at the local level who were exposed for discouraging opposition candidacies and engaging in practices more egregious than poll taxes, literacy tests, white primaries, and grandfather clauses—the outright cancellation of elections—also responded in anger, one lamenting privately during a past City Council meeting, through veiled references to the reporter, that the reporter was doing nothing illegal and hoping the reporter would go away to Southern California for the winter months. Speaking of obstinacy, this same Council Member asked whether the election-cancellation controversy “would go away” if municipal elections were finally held. Assured that would end the complaints and controversy, he voted to appoint-in-lieu-of-election notwithstanding. Another outcome was continued lack of follow-up on public concerns. The unelected, self-appointed City Council not only fails to represent the wishes of registered voters, but they fail to circulate among registered voters and other residents to ascertain the public’s expectations. Members of the community have told this reporter that they will not attend a City Council meeting to dignify that “corrupt” bunch. Yet another outcome was that one individual recently appointed to the City Council appeared for only one meeting and, since receiving copies of the legal-advisory notices referenced, did not appear for two subsequent meetings, those on November 22, 2024 and December 2, 2024. A real-estate professional, he is not unacquainted with statutory law. He told this reporter after the City Council meeting he had attended that he was advised to beware of this reporter. Evidently not satisfied limiting his information sources to City Hall gossip, he read the two legal-advisory notices provided his wife and committed to doing his own research independent of what other City Council Members say. Plus, his wife told this reporter that she was not impressed with how City Hall operates; they were not familiar with Robert’s Rules of Order and Council Members mumbled and carried on private conversations in conducting public business. She expressed shock that the reason the Council does not install a microphone is “sheer stubbornness.”

**The irony is that the only individual in the entire City with any popular mandate whatsoever at one time was the Student Member of the Governing Board, who was elected by her peers! District officials were particular about the students observing democratic principles, while they ignored those principles themselves. What does that teach young people about adults’ standards, though?

Final Note: On December 9, before the scheduled 7 PM start of its Open or Public Session, the Governing Board of the Butte Valley Unified School District had already reported swearing-in Heather Criss, Emanuel Mendoza and Jeffrey Heil, in-lieu-of-election, to four-year terms stretching to December 8, 2028. The Public Session began in the Elementary School Cafeteria competing with the sounds next door in the Gymnasium of basketballs being bounced and students shouting their excitement as they played.

28 CONTINENTAL NEWSTIME • DECEMBER 31, 2024

A Look at the California Gateway City of Dorris Municipal Code on Elections +

At its meeting on December 16, 2024, the Dorris City Council glanced at Siskiyou County Clerk Laura Bynum’s and City Attorney John Kenny’s responses to the two Legal Advisory Notices on Elections E-mailed to the City on August 30, 2024. City documentation does not indicate when the first-mentioned individual was asked to respond, but Mr. Kenny was asked promptly to respond on September 3, 2024. However, more than 3 months later and after the November, 2024 General Election, he had still not responded and the City had to follow-up on December 3, 2024, and did so twice that day. Meantime, months ago, having cancelled municipal elections and shut down the candidate write-in period even before it could start, the unelected, self-appointed City Council appointed two new members and re-appointed, to a new four-year full term, an existing member, all in-lieu-of-election. Finally, Mr. Kenny E-mailed a response that he had written on December 5, but his response and Ms. Bynum’s response, also of December 5, 2024, were not available for public examination even by the afternoon of December 16, because, City Staff explained, both wanted to make corrections, so the public would find their responses “understandable.” The Dorris News Edition [of Continental Features/Continental News Service] waited patiently while they made their “first corrections” or their “corrections first.” But neither reply addressed the potential Quo Warranto fines of $5,000 that individuals on the unelected, unrepresentative and self-appointed City Council risked, trying to prove they have authority to hold official positions and to hire and fire City employees, collect taxes and fees, award contracts, spend taxpayer money, write off debts owed to the City, and receive compensation for being on the Council. What is more, Ms. Bynum’s reply suggested that she had not bothered to consult Siskiyou County Counsel Natalie Reed about the law; she did not indicate familiarity as to how the California Voting Rights Act, the federal Voting Rights Act, California Government Code Section 36512, the California Political Reform Act, and 18 U.S.C. § 242 all impact her assertion that the City of Dorris can dispense with the election of City Council Members; and the one provision she cited in support of her view dates back to January 1, 2010, whereas the statutory provision the Dorris News Edition of Continental Newstime [general-interest newsmagazine] cited as determining the matter became effective January 1, 2016!

A hold-over from many City Administrations past, Mr. Kenny’s reply is also time-bound to the year 2010 and both misrepresents the view of the Dorris News Edition and trivializes the Editor’s defense of voting rights, Kenny writing, first, that the Editor “believes all future vacancies should be filled by special elections.” In actuality, the problem is that the City delays action on vacancies until two vacancies accumulate and then appoints, rather than hold an election among the two or three candidates available for selection by the voters, and routinely lets regular General Elections pass, so special elections become the only possibility for scheduling. By delaying and allowing vacancies to multiply, the Council makes it much more difficult to field at least one more candidate than the number of vacancies to be filled and to offer the voters choice among candidates in an election. Second, despite the opportunity to acknowledge the obligation to respect minority and other citizens’ Constitutional rights, he dismisses the concern that the City is “depriving minority and other citizens of their right to vote into office candidates of their choice.” In fact, one member on the City Council complained that, when Mr. Kenny appeared at a City Council meeting, “He acted like he was better than us.” Then, too, Kenny’s response is chockfull of his personal opinion, with very little legal analysis. For example, the law does not excuse the practice of dispensing with elections on the pretext of cost. Cities are supposed to allow, budget and plan for the replacement of incumbent officials in municipal elections. Yet, he dwells on cost, nevertheless!

But, then, he also misquotes California Government Code Section 36512 by saying, “This also carries with it a proviso that no more than two members of the City Council can be appointed in this manner.” However, the law says nothing at all about “two members.” By spreading such misinformation, he has encouraged the false belief among those on the City Council that they may appoint two Members to the Council. Instead, the law reads: “an appointment shall not be made to fill a vacancy on a city council if the appointment would result in a majority of the members serving on the council having been appointed.” [All have been appointed by now!] There are only “two” options: election or election. The law provides: “The city council may call an election to fill the vacancy, to be held on the next regularly established election date not less than 114 days after the call. If the city council does not call an election, the vacancy shall be filled at the next regularly established election date.”

For years, as City Attorney, Mr. Kenny has advised the City on the content of Council Ordinances and Resolutions. What does the Dorris Municipal Code say about elections? Section 2.20.020, on Election-Vacancies reads: “The position of city treasurer is elected. Vacancies in the elected office can be filled by the city council within thirty days of the vacancy. If not appointed within thirty days, an election is required.” Edited for codification in 1999, this Section continues: “The person appointed or elected to fill the vacancy holds office for the unexposed term of the vacating treasurer.” Unexpired term?

Section 2.16.020, on Election-Vacancies, states: “The position of city clerk is elected. Vacancies in the elected office can be filled by the city council within thirty days of the vacancy. If not appointed within thirty days, an election is required. The person appointed or elected to fill the vacancy holds office for the unexpired term of the vacating clerk.”

Yet, what does the on-line Dorris Municipal Code [www.dorrisca.us] say about City Council Members and Elections? While

CONTINENTAL NEWSTIME • DECEMBER 31, 2024 29

Section 2.04.010 discusses “Meeting place” and Section 2.04.020 discusses “Meeting time,” Section 2.04.030 only says, of Councilmembers’ compensation: “Each month each city councilmember will have eighty dollars ($80.00) credited to that member’s utility account. (Ord. 224 § 1, 2016). Elections of Council Members? The subject of elections is completely exhausted in Section 1.12.010 on Election precincts. It reads and quickly closes the subject: “For the purpose of general and special elections, the municipal election precinct, number one, is created. Such precinct shall comprise all of the city.” So, under the tallest U.S. Flagpole west of the Great Plains, there is no legal authorization for either the appointment or the popular election of Dorris City Council Members. Without that, though, is there any legal basis for the existence of the “Dorris City Council,” much less an unelected, unrepresentative, self-appointed, financially-supported, and self-perpetuating City Council, according to the Municipal Code?

30 CONTINENTAL NEWSTIME • DECEMBER 31, 2024

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Kids’ NEWSTIME —A sample of the American children’s daily newspaper that could be, first published in the early 1990’s and restarted on November 4, 1995, with some interruptions afterward! Kids, how many newspapers can you read a day? ……. This is today’s final edition:

VOLUME XXV…….NUMBER 152……..DECEMBER 9, 2024

* News … Hawaii Governor Josh Green has announced that, since the evening of December 7 through the evening of December 10, Lieutenant Governor Sylvia Luke will serve as Acting Governor during his attendance at the Western Governors’ Association Winter Meeting, where he and fellow Western Governors will discuss possible solutions to community housing needs and insurance challenges following wildfires and other natural disasters; in addition, the Governor says health-care access, emergency response in the aftermath of wildfires, insurance matters, and federal aid for state programs were due to be the subjects of his talks with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.

* Business … The National Association of Realtors, expressing support for Housing and Urban Development Department (HUD) Housing-Choice Vouchers, informs that realtors even in the wealthy Scottsdale, Arizona area are working with the Scottsdale Housing Agency, the local housing authority, based upon a Housing Partner Program, to increase landlord participation in the program for low-income families, through such incentives for landlords as $1,000 signing bonuses, security-deposit coverage, direct deposit of rent-subsidy payments, and tenant loss of Housing Voucher if rental housing is not kept in good repair.

* Sports … The National Football League (NFL) announces, as Kids’ Newstime went to press, that, in Monday Night football action, the Cincinnati Bengals (4-8) visit the Dallas Cowboys (5-7), in a battle of American Football Conference North Division against National Football Conference East Division.

* Weather… The National Weather Service forecasts that the warmest region in the Lower 48 States tomorrow afternoon is expected to be the southeastern U.S. Check the map, kids!

* Other earth news… The National Science Foundation-supported IRIS Seismological Facility for the Advancement of Geoscience (SAGE) reports that the two highest-magnitude quakes recorded in the combined region of the Northern Hemisphere and the Lower 48 States, earlier today, were of magnitude 6.3 in the Northern Hemisphere (103 kilometers from Adak, Alaska) and, outside the region of Alaska, 5.5 in the Lower 48 States (24 kilometers from Yerington, Nevada). (With an atlas or a globe of the Earth, kids, find these places as quickly as you can.)

* Today in history: 34 years ago… December 9, 1990—Lech Walesa, who had led Poland’s first independent trade union, Solidarity, wins his country’s first direct Presidential election by a landslide.

* A Quotation worth remembering … by Benjamin Franklin: “I received by Captn. Barney those relating to the Cincinnati. My opinion of the institution cannot be of much importance…. perhaps I should not myself, if my advice had been asked, have objected to their wearing their ribband and badge themselves according to their fancy, though I certainly should to the entailing it as an honour on their posterity. For, honour worthily obtained, as that for example of our officers, is in its nature a personal thing, and incommunicable to any but those who had some share in obtaining it. It would also be a kind of obedience to the fourth commandment, in which God enjoins us to honour our father and mother, but has no where directed us to honour our children. And certainly no mode of honouring those immediate authors of our being can be more effectual, than that of doing praise worthy actions, which reflect honour on those who gave us our education; or more becoming than that of manifesting by some public expression or token, that it is to their instruction and example we ascribe the merit of those actions. But the absurdity of descending honours is not a mere matter of philosophical opinion, it is capable of mathematical demonstration. A man’s son, for instance, is but half of his family, the other half belonging to the family of his wife. His son too, marrying into another family, his share in the Grand son is but a fourth; in the great grandson by the same process it is but an eighth. In the next generation a sixteenth; the next a thirty second; the next a sixty fourth; the next an hundred and twenty eighth; the next a two hundred and fifty sixth; and the next a five hundred and twelfth. Thus in nine generations which will not require more than 300 years, (no very great antiquity for a family) our present Chevalier of the Order of Cincinnatus’s share in the then existing knight will be but a 512th part; which, allowing the present certain fidelity of American wives to be insured down through all those nine generations, is so small a consideration, that methinks no reasonable man would hazard, for the sake of it, the disagreeable consequences of the jealousy, envy, and ill will of his countrymen. Let us go back with our calculation from this young noble, the 512th. part of the present Knight, through his nine generations till we return to the year of the institution.” (Benjamin Franklin’s letter of January 26, 1784 supposedly to Sarah Bache) Cincinnati=Society of the Cincinnati, Continental Army officers’ fraternity; Captn.=Captain; ribband=ribbon; posterity=descendants; honour=honor; disdaining=despising; servility=bootlicking; Noblesse=nobility; precident=precedent, or standard; effectual=effective; manifesting=showing; ascribe=explain or attribute; odious=arousing or deserving hatred; Chevalier=knighthood member.

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Klamath Falls News Edition

of Continental Newstime

VOLUME I NUMBER 1 MARCH 15, 2022 __________________________________________________________________________________________ This is not the whole newspaper, but a special complimentary, on-line edition of the general-interest, periodic newsmagazine, Continental Newstime. The rest of the newspaper includes national and world news, newsmaker profiles, commentary/analysis, periodic interviews, travel and entertainment features, an intermittent science column, humor, sports, cartoons, comic strips, and puzzles, and averages 26 pages per month. Continental Features/Continental News Service publishes, on a monthly rotational basis, special, complimentary on-line newspapers: Washington DC News Edition, Chicago News Edition, Honolulu News Edition, Atlanta News Edition, Anchorage News Edition, Boston News Edition, Seattle News Edition, Miami News Edition, San Diego News Edition, Rochester (N.Y.) News Edition, Minneapolis News Edition, and Houston News Edition.

Klamath Falls News Edition of Continental Newstime

Editor-in-Chief: Gary P. Salamone

Continental Features/

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* Congressional News Briefs … Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley have announced that the 2022 fiscal-year Omnibus funding bill includes provisions that will support Oregon’s front-line educators and health-care workers, who have experienced the “strain of a global pandemic” for almost two years. The husband of a front-line nurse, Senator Merkley says that the legislation, expected to pass both chambers of Congress and be signed by the President, makes key investments in nursing, health care, research and education, while further representing Oregon communities by funding other projects they have determined to be essential beyond the pandemic. Senator Wyden similarly credited Oregonians with helping to establish legislative priorities and expressed concern about the “already-severe, youth mental-health crisis.” A member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Merkley influenced crafting of the Education, Labor, and Health and Human Services portion of the Omnibus funding package, which, among other purposes, supports services to prevent abuse and neglect, homelessness and addiction through a grant of $840,000 to Southern Oregon Success; funds research into improving respiratory-care hospitalization during wildfires, through a $1-million earmark for the Oregon Institute of Technology; furnishes $787 million for Community Service Block Grants; allocates $2.1 billion to train youth in high-demand, twenty-first-century career fields; commits $410 million to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), to arrange a free, appropriate education for these children and to furnish support services for more than 7.6 million students nation-wide; includes $96 million for migrant-student GED and higher education; expands medical-research funding to $44.9 billion; allots $280.4 million to nursing work-force development; and provides $1 billion to improve maternal and child health. Meantime, Klamath Falls’ agent in the U.S. House of Representatives, Cliff Bentz informs that he headed a list of Members of Congress who wrote Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) Administrator Deanne Criswell, and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland about their coordination in establishing the Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission, the deadline for which had passed. Congressman Bentz and his associates addressed 11 questions to the three Biden Administration officials, relating to the status of the appointment process, whether all three officials must agree on each appointment, whether the U.S. Fire Administration would be represented on the Commission, how the three officials will expedite Congressional oversight of the Commission, how the Commission would address the risks of prescribed burns, what actions would be taken to address the disproportionate number of large fires on U.S. government land, how delays in appointing Commission members are likely to affect development of the Commission’s plan to combat wildfires this summer, and whether the Department of Defense is being timely in furnishing surplus aircraft to the Commission. The Members of Congress, through other questions, indicated that the appointment process should prioritize selection of members having specific, extensive experience in forest management, aerial wildland fire-fighting, ground wildland fire-fighting, fire program management, and the use of advanced fire retardants.

* State Government News Briefs … Governor Kate Brown, citing the tourism potential of the World Athletics Championships, or Oregon 22, announces that the premier track-and-field event will be held in Oregon this Summer for the first time. Expected to draw in excess of 200,000 visitors, the event is due to be held at Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon-Eugene. Besides, the Governor paid tribute to the late, widely-traveled, former Chief of Staff to Senator Mark Hatfield, acknowledging that Gerry Frank, 98, had counseled her and other governors over the course of time. In other developments, she suggested that the crowning achievement of the 2022 legislative session was passage of her Future Ready Oregon work-force development plan,

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plus the $100-million investment in child care, the $400-million investment in housing and homelessness programs, and, among other achievements, enactment of protections for sensitive aquatic species. Southern Klamath County Representative, E. Werner Reschke, in another recap of the 2022 state-legislative session, expressed satisfaction that a proposal to impose a 3-percent Oregon sales tax was defeated, that passage of House Bill 4008 means that law enforcement can once again suppress riots by use of appropriate crowd-control measures, that a tax credit for small woodland owners passed, and that introduction of House Joint Resolution 201 communicated to the Governor that there is widespread support for ending the State of Emergency and the Governor’s mandates. While expressing disappointment that majority Democrats spent in excess of $5 billion in fewer than five weeks, that school boards lost control over curriculum through Senate Bill 1521, that police were barred by Senate Bill 1510 from enforcing certain traffic laws, and that small family farms were saddled with a mandate to pay agricultural workers overtime pay after 40 hours of work, he pointed out that he continued the fight against one-party rule in the state by giving voice to the 68 percent of Oregonians who seek the option of self-service at gas stations; by pressing for restoration of Oregon reading, writing and math standards for graduation; by advocating for a $1,000 income-tax credit for volunteer fire fighters; and by attempting to strengthen the authority of police to reduce drug dealing and criminal activity in neighborhoods. On his part, Klamath Falls’ agent in the Oregon State Senate, Dennis Linthicum not only concurred that Senate Bill 1510 was “soft on crime,” but expressed objections to Senate Bill 1568 and its attempt to install an unelected Governor-appointed board, not subject to Senate confirmation, with power to release convicts from prison for medical reasons.

* County Government News Briefs … The Board of County Commissioners announces that closure of the Rattlesnake Creek Bridge (Hildebrand Road) is anticipated through March 17 for bridge repairs. Tomorrow, County Commissioners will take up a Finance- Budget Observations Agenda beginning at 8:30 AM in Room 214 (305 Main Street). That same day, at 10 AM, the Board’s Work Session will consider a funding request from Doug Brown of the Klamath Freedom Foundation, allot time for presentations from Tax Collector/Property Manager Rick Vaughn on installation of water service at the Klamath Falls Bike Motocross Track and from Vickie Noel on Budget Committee matters, and, among other County business, open to a Livestock Hearing at 10:30 AM.

* City Government News Briefs … The Mayor and City Council will go into Executive Session at 6:30 PM on March 21 (Council Chambers, 500 Klamath Avenue), the secret session to be followed by a remote Public Session at 7 PM that will admit the public until state-mandated room-capacity and social-distancing requirements would no longer be met. The agenda for the meeting provides for a presentation on Tree City USA Recognition for the City of Klamath Falls. Thereafter, Mayor Carol Westfall and Council Members will take up a Consent Agenda incorporating authorization of a not-to-exceed $25,000 Airport Janitorial Contract with Troy’s Janitorial and a not-to-exceed $27,396 Airport Landscaping Contract with Horizon Garden & Landscape Specialties. Next, a Public Hearing is scheduled on the Liquor License Recommendation for limited off-premises sales for Love’s Travel Stop (250 Dan O’Brien Way). Subsequently, the legislative actions to be discussed include authorization of a not-to-exceed $98,615 Design Services Contract with DOWL, Inc. for the Washburn Way Pavement Preservation Project (Laverne Avenue to South 6th Street), the Second and Final Reading of an Ordinance amending the duties of the City Manager, the Second and Final Reading of an Ordinance amending regulations pertaining to social gaming, and, among other matters, a Resolution supporting a request for funding from the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department.

* School District News Briefs … Klamath Falls City Schools District Superintendent Keith Brown announces that March 16 and 30 are Professional Development Days and that Spring Break runs from March 21 through March 25. There is no school on April 8, a Grade Prep Day, and Parent-Teacher Conferences are planned for April 13 and 14. The Board of Directors, with Lori Theros the incumbent Chair, met yesterday to approve a Consent Agenda including adoption of the Minutes recorded for its meeting of February 14, to examine the District’s Monthly Financial Report, to discuss a report on the Pelican Babies/Teen Parent Program, and, among other business, to hear a report from the Board of Education Negotiation Representative.

* Weather … The National Weather Service reports that current conditions at Klamath Falls International Airport, as of 9:20 PM, are partly-cloudy, with a temperature of 39 degrees Fahrenheit, relative humidity of 69 percent, wind out of the west at 11 miles per hour, barometric pressure of 30.22 inches, a dewpoint of 30 degrees, and visibility of 10 miles. The over-night forecast calls for mostly-cloudy skies, a low temperature of about 28 degrees and west-northwest wind of about 6 miles per hour becoming calm in the evening. Tomorrow, expect partly-sunny conditions, gradually becoming sunny, with a daily high temperature near 56 degrees, and calm wind becoming northwest wind of 5 to 7 miles per hour in the afternoon. Tomorrow night increasing cloudiness is anticipated, with a low temperature of about 31 degrees, and northwest wind of 5 to 8 miles per hour becoming calm in the evening. Thursday, look for mostly-cloudy skies, with a daily high temperature of about 57 degrees, and light and variable wind becoming west-southwest wind of 5 to 8 miles per hour in the afternoon.

* Sports … The Trail Blazers (26-41 overall and 17-18 at home), not due to return home until March 23, visit the Knicks (28-40 overall and 13-19 at home) tomorrow, for a 7:30 tip-off in Madison Square Garden, with the Blazers hoping to reverse a 1-game losing streak and the Knicks hoping to end a 2-game losing streak.

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News/Features

California CodeGovernment CodeTITLE 4. GOVERNMENT OF CITIES [34000 – 45345]PART 1. GENERALSection 36512

California Code
Government Code
TITLE 4. GOVERNMENT OF CITIES [34000 – 45345]
PART 1. GENERAL
Section 36512