news story / By Japhet Weeks

Ferndale’s Id

Cream City leaders rise up to deny gay therapist an office

(Nov. 22, 2007)  Stuart Altschuler, a psychotherapist who moved to Ferndale from West Hollywood last May, recently found out the hard way that in this small town, being a gay man who’s spent the greater part of his life counseling others about AIDS/HIV and issues of sexuality isn’t something to boast about. It’s reason for your neighbors to be concerned.

Altschuler hoped to run a part-time marriage and family counseling office out of his house in a sleepy neighborhood on A Street. His real estate agent assured him that obtaining a home occupation permit would be a piece of cake. After all, there was another psychotherapist’s office in a residential zone on Main Street, and there’s a seamstress and an architect who both work from their homes within walking distance of Altschuler’s residence. As far as Ferndale City Planner Nancy Kaytis-Slocum knows, Ferndale’s Planning Commission hasn’t denied a home occupation permit since she computerized the city’s records in 2003.

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In other words, there was no way for Altschuler — a quiet, well-kempt New Yorker who works part time as a counselor at College of the Redwoods and serves on the Humboldt County Human Rights Commission — to guess that his application, for what he thought was an uncontroversial permit, would eventually be denied. Nor that his case would tear the fabric of this Victorian town of 1,400 in two.

In September, as expected, Ferndale’s Planning Commission voted 2-1 in favor of granting Altschuler his home occupation permit. But the next day, Altschuler’s neighbor, Shannon Leonardo, appealed the commission’s decision. Leonardo said he believed that allowing offices in Ferndale’s residential neighborhoods will have a disruptive effect.

On Oct. 8, Altschuler and some concerned citizens, including Shannon Leonardo and his uncle Rich Leonardo, at the time Ferndale’s fire chief, showed up at the City Council’s meeting. When the council opened the floor to public comment, the situation quickly turned from cordial to surreal: In subsequent letters to the editor of The Ferndale Enterprise, one resident described what happened that night as “defamation by innuendo.” Another called it a “verbal mob lynching.” Still, others insist that nothing at all offensive was said.

As for Altschuler, he later described it as “the worst experience of my life.”

At that meeting Rich Leonardo, a stout, jocular man, stood up and asked Altschuler a few questions. (Leonardo has since resigned as Ferndale’s fire chief amid controversy over the comments he made that night.)

In his hands, Leonardo held a sheaf of papers he consulted while he spoke. At first, his questions seemed germane enough. He asked Altschuler if he was able to prescribe medication to his patients. Altschuler, who is not a psychiatrist, said no. Leonardo then asked him about the amount of traffic that his practice would cause. Altschuler had already been through all of this with the planning commission. His practice, the commission determined, was part-time, and would not adversely affect the neighborhood.

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