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March 21, 2002
Lettergate
at HSU?
Did outgoing Humboldt State
University President Alistair McCrone deliberately delay informing
rank-and-file employees that they had the right to comment on
how they were affected by the embezzlement scandal that rocked
the university last year -- or was it simply an oversight?
Either way, McCrone is declining
to comment.
The Humboldt County Probation
Department had been ordered by Judge John Feeney to prepare a
pre-sentencing report for a March 12 court date. Usually such
a report is ordered by the court after a person is convicted
or pleads guilty in order to assist the court in how severe the
punishment should be. In this case the judge ordered the report
early because there are indications that the defendant, former
top administrator John Sterns, is willing to change his plea
to guilty and make full restitution to HSU. With the report in
hand, the judge could immediately impose a sentence.
In order to prepare the report,
deputy probation officer Angie Circe sent a form and letter
to the university asking for input "from anyone who was
administratively, professionally, financially, psychologically
or otherwise personally affected by Sterns' activities."
She said such a letter was standard in cases like this one.
"The input has been characterized
as `What would you tell a judge if you had five minutes to speak,'"
said HSU spokesperson Sean Kearns. The information becomes part
of the public record and is viewable for 60 days after sentencing.
Circe said she called McCrone's
office and his secretary told her to send the letter and form
first to the university police. Police Chief Bob Forster said
the request was presented to the president's office for an official
university response, according to Kearns.
University officials declined
to confirm the date the president's office received the request,
citing the confidentiality of probation documents. However on
March 4 Circe apparently became concerned and called Sgt. Tom
Dewey of the university police department, who was in charge
of the investigation, to ask why she had not received a single
letter from anyone at HSU regarding how they were affected by
the actions of Sterns. Sterns, who was director of university
advancement, allegedly embezzled $48,000 and caused another $80,000
in direct damages to the university, according to the latest
figures.
"[Circe] said in a case
this large, surely she would have heard from some people,"
Dewey said.
Her call prompted Dewey to contact
HSU employees directly whom he thought might want to comment
-- the only problem was that by that time they had less than
two days to do so.
Pamela Allen, director of alumni
relations from 1987 until she resigned last month, wrote to the
court that, "John Sterns' actions shattered my 14-year career
at Humboldt State University and severely disrupted my personal
life."
Allen is one of several whistleblowers
who worked behind the scenes to unmask Sterns' activities.
Allen said in a telephone interview
last week from her new job at Cal Poly Pomona that punishment
for her whistleblowing continued after Sterns' departure in March
of last year. She was one of three finalists for a position last
year, but she was passed over by her supervisor, Vice President
Don Christensen, in favor of someone less qualified.
Christensen, who retired March
1, was criticized for his lack of oversight of Sterns in the
CSU Chancellor Office's special audit last year. (See "The
case against John Sterns and HSU," Aug. 16,)
Like Allen, other HSU employees
wrote letters to the court at the 11th hour.
While declining to comment on
exactly how long the request was on McCrone's desk, spokesman
Kearns said, "We are duty-bound to allow the process to
be handled in the courts. We are taking the process very seriously
and contributing where appropriate. ... The university has responded."
On a separate front, HSU administrators
forwarded to the Chancellor's Office last month a "Final
Report on the Implementation and Recommendations" of the
CSU audit that is "not quite final," according to Kearns.
The university has reinstituted
many of the basic accounting controls dismantled by Sterns during
his three-year tenure, including requiring two signatures to
transfer funds from one trust account to another and having all
expense reports approved by an employee's supervisor.
Still needing more work are
the university's proposals regarding the reporting of fund-raising
efforts, and oversight and control of the university advancement
funds.
The audit also directs HSU to
have an operating agreement through the university or the HSU
Foundation with the campus radio station, KHSU. University athletics
donations will now be required to be channeled through the university
as well. And HSU officials are proposing the establishment of
a "gift processing center" to track all university
donations and pledges.
According to the 2001 CSU audit,
Sterns was reimbursed for phony travel and entertainment costs,
charged personal items to a credit card, falsified records of
$15 million in gifts, pledges and bequests to the university,
drained and closed trusts accounts, and prepared fraudulent financial
statements for KHSU.
His next court appearance is
April 4.
-- reported by Judy Hodgson
Nurses
vote to unionize
Nurses at St. Joseph Hospital
in Eureka voted resoundingly for union representation at their
March 15 election.
The vote -- 86 percent in favor
of unionization with a turnout of more than 90 percent -- means
that the hospital's registered nurses will be represented by
the California Nurses Association, the largest nurses' union
in the state.
The campaign was marked by accusations
that management had violated the National Labor Relations Act,
first by removing pro-union campaign literature from bulletin
boards and then by asking nurses how they planned to vote. Neither
alleged violation was reported to the National Labor Relations
Board as a formal complaint.
The animosity did not stop after
the election. In a press release, St. Joseph Humboldt County
CEO MIke Purvis said that "having a third party that doesn't
share our vision and values" would make running the hospital
more difficult.
Sister Ann McGuinn of the Sisters
of Orange, which owns the hospital, said that the CNA's campaign
had been "extremely divisive and negative."
For its part, the CNA rebuked
St. Joseph for hiring the Burke Group, a management consulting
firm, to help run the anti-union campaign. The union estimated
in a press release that the hospital had paid the group $1.2
million.
The next step will be for management
and the union to meet to discuss a contract. Liz Jacobs, spokesperson
for the CNA, said that would happen within the next month.
Tree-sitting
season begins
With the buzz of chainsaws likely
still months away, Earth First! environmental activists have
already taken to the trees to protest planned logging operations
on Pacific Lumber Co. land.
"We have six (trees) occupied
24 hours a day right now," said an Earth First! activist
who called himself Shunka. "There are nine or 10 people
up right now."
The tree-sitters are attempting
to stop three state-approved timber harvest plans -- two near
Grizzly Creek State Park, along Highway 36, and one in the Freshwater
watershed. Harvesting has yet to begin on any of the three.
Shunka said he believed his
Earth First! comrades may have had something to do with that.
"We've been holding them off," he said. "Technically
they could start any time they wanted."
But the logging company tells
a different story.
"We're not operating in
there because of seasonal roads" that cannot legally be
used during the wet winter, spokeswoman Mary Bullwinkel said.
She said harvesting isn't likely to start for until the summer.
Launching tree-sits months in
advance of logging marks a change in strategy for Earth First!
Last summer, activists tried to stop the harvest of old-growth
Douglas fir in the Mattole watershed primarily by blockading
access roads (See "Standoff
in the Mattole," May 31 2001).
"There were zero trees
saved during that campaign," said an Earth First! activist
calling herself Remedy. "We've learned from our mistakes."
Bullwinkel said the company
was aware of the tree-sitters but had not yet made contact with
them.
"At this point, it's not
a problem," she said. "We're not active there."
In the meantime, the company
is weighing its options. "We're looking at ways to get the
folks out of the trees and off our property," she said.
She declined to specify what sort of methods are being considered.
Infected
wood quarantine
Seeking to slow the spread of
a fungus that threatens many of California's oaks, the federal
government has announced it will impose a quarantine on certain
wood products believed to carry the disease.
Sudden Oak Death -- or Phytophthora
ramorum -- kills oaks by destroying the trees' cambium, the
layer of living tissue just under the bark. While it kills mostly
oaks, it can be carried by a wide variety of plants, including
rhododendrons, bay laurels, madrone and big-leaf maples.
The most frightening aspect
of the disease for this area is new research showing that it
may be carried by redwoods. Scientists have stressed that it
is too soon to draw any definite conclusions about redwood's
susceptibility, but the fungus has been found in redwood sprouts.
Even so, the initial effect
of the quarantine on Humboldt County is likely to be slight.
The new restriction prohibits the export of possibly infected
plant material from affected counties, and the disease has yet
to be found here.
But it has spread as far North
as Mendocino County and may well cross over into Humboldt, said
Bill Jones, silviculturist for Six River National Forest. The
impacts could be significant.
"If we get the disease
in the county, some material would not be transportable without
going through certain steps; firewood would probably have to
have its bark removed, for instance," Jones said. He said
the specific restrictions and start time for the quarantine have
yet to be hammered out.
The silver lining for Humboldt's
timber industry is that milled lumber would not be affected.
The fungus does not infect wood, just the soft outer layers of
trees, so the finished product would present no danger.
There's just one hitch, Jones
said: transporting the logs from forest to sawmill. "Lumber
would not be an issue. It's getting the trees to the mill that
might be a problem."
New
HSU president promises better communication
Rollin Richmond, named last
week to the presidency at Humboldt State University, is promising
to build on the university's academic and social strengths while
opening the door to better communication with faculty, students
and the community.
In a telephone interview Tuesday,
Richmond said he would keep an open mind about the controversial
Behavioral and Social Sciences building project in Arcata.
"I would like to review
all the options and I would not exclude any possibility in the
future for dealing with that building," he said. This is
a departure from previous pronouncements by university officials,
who have vigorously defended the project.
The city of Arcata -- which
has filed a lawsuit against the university over the building
-- maintains that it would be a blight on the landscape and is
being constructed with outdated environmental review documents.
The differences between the
university and the city over the project "should have been
solved a long time ago in conversations," Richmond said
at a question-and-answer session at the university last month
prior to being named president.
"You should never get to
the point where the city is suing the university over placement
of a facility on campus," he added.
Richmond promised to be much
more involved in the details of fundraising and administration.
Last year it came to light that a high-ranking administrator,
John Sterns, had allegedly committed embezzlement and misrepresented
fund-raising monies.
"The president has to pay
pretty close attention to what's happening in development and
fundraising. I want to make sure everything is aboveboard,"
Richmond said.
While working for more openness,
Richmond said he would also try and keep the qualities that make
Humboldt State unique -- in particular, the school's emphasis
on social and environmental justice.
During last month's question-and-answer
session, Richmond said he was attracted to the "community
of faculty, students and staff who are engaged in the issues
of our time.
"You are having important
conversations, both within the university and within the community,
about where you are going and what you are doing, what the role
and significance of government is, what the role of the university
is. All of those things appeal to me.
"As an individual, I'm
very much interested in the world of ideas. I like to grow personally
and I think I would grow here."
Female
Elk takes charge
Women may make up less than
5 percent of the membership of Eureka Elk Lodge 652, but that
didn't stop one female member from rising to the top.
"Well, first I was nominated
as a Loyal Knight. Then last year I became a Leading Knight,"
said Mary Lou Riley, a 67-year-old retired credit manager. In
February Riley received an honor from her fellow Eureka Elks
that no woman in the lodge had ever received before: she was
elected Exalted Ruler.
Riley's election means she will
serve the organization's 600-plus members as president for the
next year. She said she initially met some resistance from the
old-timers in the predominately male organization. "There
were the usual two or three, but eventually they accepted me
and encouraged me," she said.
Perhaps it helps that her husband,
Bud Riley, has been an Elk for 50 years. Or maybe they were impressed
by her goal for the next year: "I'm going to try for a 50
percent increase in membership," she said.
The charitable group gives scholarships
to prospective college students, sponsors a Boy Scout troop and
a Little League team and provides an opportunity to socialize
with other civic-minded individuals.
Attn: prospective
homebuyers
People living in unincorporated
areas of Humboldt County who haven't been able to afford a down
payment for a home now have an opportunity to help themselves.
The Humboldt County Economic
Development Division is collecting names of would-be homeowners
to demonstrate to the state the need for a down payment assistance
program.
"Many of the cities in
Humboldt County have homebuyer assistance programs but the county
does not," said Paula Mushrush, Humboldt County's rural
development coordinator. "We need to demonstrate that we
have people (who are) interested."
The goal is to attract funding
from the state-administered Community Development Block Grant
program to establish a revolving low-interest loan program.
New manager
for Ferndale
When Michael Bommer took over
as city manager in Ferndale March 1, he came into a new position
-- Ferndale had been getting along without a city manager.
Bommer, who comes from a position
as the general manager for the Shelter Cove Resort Improvement
District, said he was attracted to the city by its physical beauty.
"I love the Victorian theme
of this city and all I want to do is enhance it," he said.
He has his share of challenges
ahead. Ferndale was served with a notice of intent to sue by
the environmental group Riverwatch Jan 10. Riverwatch has taken
several North Coast cities to court over wastewater violations.
Bommer said that his goals for
the city include establishing better financial control and having
city staff rather than outside civic engineers complete minor
engineering projects.
Sunbridge
to offer classes
Sunbridge Healthcare, which
has been cited for multiple violations connected to understaffing
at its Eureka nursing homes, is working with Humboldt County
to train certified nurse assistants for employment.
Sunbridge owns all four skilled
nursing facilities in Eureka: Pacific, Grenada, Seaview and Sunbridge
Care and Rehabilitation. All four have come under fire from state
regulators for the low-quality care they provide to seniors (see
"Nursing home neglect,"
Nov. 9, 2000).
The New Mexico-based company,
which grew to become California's largest provider of nursing
home care in the 1990s, has complained that a shortage of skilled
nursing staff is to blame for low staff-to-patient ratios.
The new program, funded through
a state grant and administered as a joint effort with the Humboldt
County Office of Education, provides a salary and uniform to
students as they work they way through the curriculum. According
to a Sunbridge press release, 45 certified nurse assistants have
already graduated from the program.
Call 444-9640 for more information.
Senior
directory available
The Area Agency on Aging has
published a Senior Information Directory listing programs and
services that help seniors with financial matters, nursing care,
fitness and volunteer opportunities. Also listed are senior-friendly
businesses and tips on navigating tasks like hiring a caretaker.
To pick up a copy of the free
directory, drop by your nearest senior center or call 442-9591.
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