continued from previous page Shane Brinton described the group as “an unholy alliance” of pot growers and developers. “The linkage there, really, is buyers and sellers of property,” said former supervisor Clendenen. “Both stand to gain.” Kemp believes that most of Fennell’s supporters cared less about her tenure as executive director of HumCPR than they did about the years she spent as KMUD radio’s news director, when she often gave listeners the heads-up about impending drug raids and forest fires. “She was a friend, a voice in their living room who could be trusted to tell them the truth,” Kemp said. Like Ulansey, Fennell was reluctant to grant an interview request. Ultimately she agreed to answer questions only if they were submitted via email. The response she sent several days later left most of the questions unanswered. She wrote, “I reject the manufactured concerns of my political foes” and added that she has full confidence that Ulansey and Morris “will carry out their duties in a professional and ethical way.” It certainly didn’t hurt Fennell’s campaign to have the financial backing of a long list of donors from the business community, many of whom also made big contributions to Supervisors Bass, Sundberg and Rex Bohn. As the Journal reported previously (see “Interested Parties,” Oct. 14, 2010, and “District Soup,” May 10, 2012) these donors have deep pockets and remarkably lockstep patterns to their contributions. Prevailing wisdom holds that this coordination was not coincidence but rather
the result of careful planning and executheir opponents in the supervisor races. tion by Ulansey and McBeth. The latter And with the exception of Karen Brooks, chairs a political action committee called who failed to unseat Lovelace in the Third the Humboldt Builders Exchange. District, they all won. In all, more than 30 donors contributed $1,000 or more to two, three or all four of public, the above-mentioned supervisors (that is, HumCPR’s most visible presence has been everyone but Mark Lovelace). The effort the full-color newsletters that have blanwas especially coordinated in 2010, when keted the county. The company published at least two dozen donors gave exactly more than 60,000 copies of its latest edi$1,500 to both Sundberg and Bass. McBeth tion, distributing them inside local pubwas among them, and his PAC gave even lications (including more — $4,500 to this one) at public Sundberg and $2,500 meetings and on to Bass. Two years distribution racks at later McBeth gave local businesses. $1,000 to Fennell. Filled with opinMorris, HumCPR’s ion pieces, candidate former secretary, questionnaires and now a planning coma certain amount missioner, gave $1,500 of name calling, the to Bass, $500 to Sunnewsletters have dberg and $250 to consistently critiFennell. Ulansey and/ cized county staff, or his wife gave more called for reversing than $2,000 to Sundor dramatically alterberg, another $2,000 ing the general plan to Fennell, $1,500 to update process and Bass and more than sounded alarm bells $500 to Bohn. about the environThe vast majormental extremists ity of the other big — Lee Ulansey who have allegedly donors came from hijacked the general the development plan and infiltrated crowd: Kramer Investthe county planning ment Corp., C & K department. Johnson Industries, Barnum Timber Co., The other new HumCPR planning Eureka Readymix and many more. All of commissioner, Bob Morris, lamented in the candidates favored by Ulansey, Morris, HumCPR’s summer 2009 edition that the McBeth and these mega-donors outspent
For the general
“The people of Humboldt, not a few bureaucrats, should have the absolute choice over where and how we live our lives.”
continued from previous page
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county has set aside only 158,000 acres for rural homesteads. “This seems like a large number, but let’s analyze it in a little more detail,” Morris wrote. “The County is comprised of approximately 2,300,000 acres, so it is apparent that 93.2% of the County is OFF LIMITS for ‘rural homesteads.’” These limits have financial significance for Morris, whose extensive land holdings exceed even Ulansey’s. He personally owns hundreds of acres of TPZ land and has invested in another 1,000-plus acres through investment groups, limited liability companies and land holding entities. Morris did not respond to half a dozen messages left on his voicemail over a period of two weeks. After years of loud and public calls to action, HumCPR is coming under increasing scrutiny of critics who say it doesn’t walk its own talk. For example: • When HumCPR took on the Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, Ulansey called it a “shadowy” group. And yet, like all nonprofits, the foundation must report its finances annually to the IRS and they’re readily available online. HumCPR, on the other hand, is a private corporation, classified by the state as a “business entity.” As such, its finances are kept hidden from public view. The company is answerable only to its secret financiers. HumCPR does not disclose salaries, its meetings are not open to the public, and its membership is a closely guarded secret. (A list of members used to be listed on HumCPR’s website, but it was removed years ago.) If the nonprofit Resources