the town dandy / By Hank Sims

Full Disclosure

(March 20, 2008)  It was an exciting Wednesday afternoon last week, as the crowd of people considering running for supervisor in the Arcata-centered Third District winnowed itself down to just three right at the deadline. The two last-minute candidates we wrote about last week, Lee Ulansey and Chris Lehman, de-candidated themselves right after we went to press. So did Bay District Commissioner Mike Wilson, who at several points during the last few weeks of bumping and jostling looked like the favorite.

Meanwhile, Arcata financial planner Bryan Plumley dove into the fray, brandishing a platform of sound technocratic management and economic development. Summing up, that means that it will be Plumley v. Arcata City Councilmember Paul Pitino v. land use activist Mark Lovelace on the Third District’s June 3 ballot.

There’s three seats on the Board of Supervisors — a majority — up for grabs this time around. All are being contested. We expect that all of them will be contested hard, since this is sort of an epoch-changing moment for county government. The new general plan — the document that will serve as the county’s “constitution” for the next 20 years or so, especially on matters pertaining to development — has been delayed again and again, but it can’t be delayed much longer. Whoever has a majority on the board in the next two years will have great influence in shaping the course of the county for a long time.

Over the next couple of issues we’ll be taking this space on the road. We’ll be profiling each of the districts up for election and taking a snapshot of the state of the campaign. For now, though, we’re going to focus on one particular issue — or non-issue, if you like — at home, here in the Third.

Here in Humboldt County, bringing up the question of someone’s personal finances is always awkward. But that shouldn’t be the case when it comes to elected officials, or those who otherwise serve or seek to serve the public as policymakers. There are laws on the books — most notably, the California Political Reform Act — that require a degree of openness. These are good laws. Locally, no one has taken more notice of them than Mark Lovelace, who as head of the Humboldt Watershed Council has filed complaints against two Humboldt County officials relating to their business interests with the Pacific Lumber Co.: Planning Commission Chair Tom Herman and Fortuna Mayor John Campbell. The Fair Political Practices Commission has agreed to investigate both cases.

But what of Lovelace himself? How does he make a living? Now that he’s standing for office the question is fair. For years there have been rumors that the nonprofit organization for which he works is funded wholly or in large part by a single, wealthy individual who is associated with any number of left-wing causes in Humboldt County. Shouldn’t Lovelace have to disclose that?

We won’t name the individual, because it turns out that the rumors in question are demonstrably false. The Humboldt Watershed Council files tax returns every year. Because it is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation, those returns are public. Here’s what they show.

The organization took in little money between 2000 and 2004. Donations ranged between $10,000 and $50,000 annually, with most years at the lower end of the scale. Then, in 2005, it took in a massive donation, relatively speaking: $121,000. The large surplus of funds allowed the council to spend a great deal the next year, while the fight over the county general plan was raging particularly hot. The money was directed to the “Healthy Humboldt Coalition,” a joint project of the Watershed Council, the Northcoast Environmental Center and the Sierra Club that advocates for “smart growth”-style land use planning.

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