the town dandy / By Hank Sims

Hard Rain

(Aug. 23, 2007)  We sit at our desk, pushing around the scraps of paper that have accumulated here. We read them like tea leaves. And we have no way of saying for certain, but the strongest theory that arises is that the Houston-based Maxxam Corp., whose local affiliate, the once-proud Pacific Lumber Co., which has been in bankruptcy court since January, is preparing to go nuclear.

If we’re correct, all the mill closures and layoffs and shutdowns Humboldt County has suffered through over the past couple of years are going to seem like a sunny day at the park. Indeed, this is the very thing that everyone — enviros and timber workers alike — have feared from the first.

The scantiness of the information makes it too early to call the play. Hear us out, though.

One. A few weeks from now, on Sept. 18, Pacific Lumber and its sister companies are due to file a reorganization plan with the Corpus Christi-based judge who presides over the omnibus bankruptcy case, which comprises Pacific Lumber and its local sister companies, Scotia Pacific and Britt Lumber. The reorganization plan will outline Pacific Lumber’s proposal to pay off its debt and become a solvent company once more.

Two. As Daniel Mintz reported on the KMUD News Monday, Tom Hofweber, a supervising planner with the county’s Community Development Services Department, last week delivered a report to the Humboldt County Planning Commission. Hofweber told the commission that his office had received visits from appraisers connected with Pacific Lumber and the bankruptcy case, and that the direction of their conversation was eye-opening.

“The questions we have gotten from appraisers for the Palco lands — they weren’t asking us much about how good the timber was on those properties, they were asking how many residential lots can we subdivide those lots into,” Hofweber said. In his report, Mintz went on to note that Elk River resident Kristi Wrigley, who has opposed Pacific Lumber logging practices in her neighborhood, had challenged Planning Commission Chair Tom Herman to refrain from participating in the discussion, as he is a former Pacific Lumber employee who has since done legal work for the company. Mintz reported that Herman declined to respond.

Three. However, Herman’s relationship with Pacific Lumber was closer than Wrigley knew. One week earlier, on Aug. 9, the company petitioned the bankruptcy court to allow it to re-retain Herman and his firm, Barnum & Herman, which specializes in real estate law. (In passing, we’ll note that in his sworn statement to the bankruptcy court, Herman wrote that “Neither I, the Firm, nor any partner … holds any interest adverse to the Debtors [Pacific Lumber] or their estates in matters upon which the Firm is to be engaged.‚Äù And we will reiterate that he is chair of the Humboldt County Planning Commission.)

At the same time, Pacific Lumber petitioned the court to allow it to re-retain the services of Eureka firm Mitchell, Brisso, Delaney & Vrieze — the outside firm that Humboldt County government often hires to fight its legal battles. True, Mitchell, Brisso has also done plenty of work for Pacific Lumber in the past, but one wonders what uses it has for the firm in the future. The bankruptcy court allowed Pacific Lumber to retain both the local firms.

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