on the cover / By Ryan Burns

Fifth and Goals

Four men have taken the field, looking to become northern Humboldt’s Supervisor. Let’s do this.

(April 29, 2010)  If Humboldt County’s Fifth District were a state all its own — and some residents might like that just fine — its reputation would certainly be robust. At 1,556 square miles, covering the county’s vast rural north from McKinleyville to the Del Norte County line, from craggy coastline to foothills of the Trinity Alps, the Fifth is slightly larger than Rhode Island. Its land incorporates Redwood National Park, Six Rivers National Forest, Prairie Creek, Patrick’s Point, Trinidad…we could go on, but you get the idea: This is easily one of the most beautiful regions in the world.

And it can be a bear to govern. The Klamath Settlement, a landmark agreement to remove four dams and restore salmon fisheries along the Klamath River, serves as merely the most recent illustration of the many groups with a stake in this land, from its six (!) tribal entities to the state and national governments, private and corporate land interests, farmers, fishermen and, last if not least, a precarious natural ecosystem. Superimposed on this web are economic and social issues including poverty and under-performing schools in rural areas like Hoopa and Orleans; infrastructure needs in towns like Blue Lake and Willow Creek; marijuana grow houses and growing pains in McKinleyville; and the entire region connected to the outside world by hairpin freeways and a tenuous fiber optic filament.

Ryan Sundberg

GALLERY >

Politically the Fifth cants warily left, as if to counterbalance those plywood cowboys leaning in repose against many a Mack-town garage. Forty-five percent of the District’s 16,139 voters are registered Democrats while 25 percent are Republicans. A full 21 percent decline to state an affiliation, which makes their attitudes and votes difficult to predict. The political dividing lines for county supervisor — theoretically a nonpartisan office — are splitting along rifts surrounding the county’s languishing General Plan Update. Now in its 13th year, the re-write of the county’s constitution has largely degenerated into a propaganda melee between “progressives,” who are pushing for slow growth with more infill development, and “conservatives,” who advocate fewer land use restrictions.

Factor in a recession that’s rapidly draining government coffers and it’s somewhat surprising that anyone in his right mind would seek the reins from departing Supervisor Jill Duffy ($79,200 annual salary aside).

“The fact of the matter,” Duffy said over coffee last week, “is you’ll work harder, you’ll travel more and you will juggle more challenges than almost anybody will ever experience.” That juggling act, which includes simultaneous service on 20-odd boards and committees, makes 50- to 60-hour work weeks pretty standard, Duffy said. Yet four brave souls are responding to the call of public service:

Pat Higgins, 59 — brash, passionate fisheries biologist, former stereo salesman and first-term Harbor Commissioner.

Patrick Cleary, 52 — affable CEO of Lost Coast Communications, ex-chair of the Headwaters Fund board and folk music-loving Wall Street refugee.

Ryan Sundberg, 35 — soft-spoken insurance agent, member of the Trinidad Rancheria Tribal Council and McKinleyville man to his bones.

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