Opinion
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- Written by: Greg Cornish
During your first election campaign I was a Gary Lewis supporter. You were new on the scene and Gary had accomplished a few things I wanted to see happen. As I sat talking to Gary one day at his election camp, some of the things he said about you started to not add up on how I perceive you. His criticisms of you were not being based in politics and I started looking at him differently.
After you won the election I became quite pleased with the way you conducted yourself on the Board of Supervisors and with your constituency. That's why I prefer local politics not based on parties and affiliations, it makes it easier to vote for people with ideas and vote based on performance rather than platforms.
However, recently, for whatever reason, you seem to not be as interested in hearing what our constituency has to say or to be as involved in the community as you have been in the past.
When the marijuana growers from another county moved in behind my house and started putting up 8-foot fences, burying watering tanks, grading, installing solar and gas generators, and taking up residence under tents, you did not seem too concerned when I contacted you about it via an e-mail.
Now when one of your constituents gives you a long detailed letter about what's going on in their neighborhood and looks to you for help, please understand they will become quite concerned when your answer in a reply e-mail is a short, “‘Yes, these things are popping up all over.’ – Denise Rushing.’”
I stared at that short e-mail for a while and thought, “What the heck?” I really wanted an opinion from you on the subject, and even a short- and long-range plan to deal with it. I thought that was how politicians handled their constituents.
Later that day I stopped by at a neighbor’s house and was talking about your e-mail. They said they had also contacted you with little success concerning a next-door neighbor who was moving in junk cars and generally making a wreck out of the neighborhood.
They received a note from you that said, “Well, you can't tell people how to live.” We were both puzzled because this didn't sound like the Denise Rushing that we come to know. The Denise Rushing we knew wanted to clean up blight and make Lucerne and Nice look a lot better.
After the resounding defeat of Measure D the voters sent a clear message to the Board of Supervisors saying, “Deal with this.” Sixty-six percent of your voting public wants you to crush this problem and give minimal legal rights to people growing marijuana for medical purposes. The voting public wants you to greatly limit collectives growing in the area in any legal way you can.
I may be wrong, but when I see you as a part of the advisory committee and listen to your views in the Board of Supervisors meetings, it appears you are trying to take a position somewhere in the middle.
Now I know you've had a rich full life and probably met many people who grow marijuana for purposes other than medicinal. I realize you probably know that these people would love to game the medical marijuana system or do what I call piggybacking for purposes of profit. Nowhere in Proposition 215 or SB420 does it mention profit.
Please, in all your future dealings I'd love to see you toughen up and become the person you were when you are fighting for your constituents in the water problem in Lucerne at the beginning of your Lake County political career. I genuinely like you and think you are a fine person, and would love to see you return to your fighting form and fight for the majority of your constituency while protecting the rights of the medical marijuana user by pushing back hard against the criminal element wanting to join it.
You've noticed in one of the last Board of Supervisors meetings when the people showed up to testify from Middletown and Kelseyville how frightened and disappointed the real constituency of the Board of Supervisors is.
You've learned that most of the people that are growing marijuana in the neighborhoods are exceeding the amount needed to satisfy their medical requirements.
You've learned that many of these people that are growing marijuana are not being good neighbors. You saw evidence of death and destruction to animals and the potential of death and destruction to human beings because of these bad neighbors.
Now as you said, “You can't tell people how to live.” However, if you want people to listen to your suggestions and be good neighbors you can control how they live by limiting with law.
Cut down the number of plants to the bare legal minimum reducing the need for guard dogs that these people can control, the need for weaponry to protect the large amount of plants and the other suggestions that the urgency ordinance offers. Personally, I see no reason we would ever need to change the urgency ordinance. People needing medicinal marijuana never had a supply problem or demand problem previously.
There is a time to negotiate and perhaps you see your position on the advisory board that of a negotiator.
Please remember that you do not have to play the middle; your constituency would like to see you negotiate for us and we believe due to the 66 percent to 34 percent mandate that you hold all of the cards.
Greg Cornish lives in Nice, Calif.
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- Written by: Kamala D. Harris
As California Attorney General, I have traveled the state to see how the mortgage crisis continues to impact California families.
I have visited neighborhoods where empty homes are magnets for criminal activity. I have heard the stories of responsible homeowners who lost their family homes – who lost their piece of the American Dream.
For far too long, too many California homeowners have been ensnarled in a long and painful nightmare.
Here in Lake County, there were nearly 3,000 foreclosures between 2008 and 2011. That translates to 1 out of every 12 homes.
We are now at a crossroads.
According to recent estimates, there are as many as 700,000 California households in the “foreclosure pipeline” today – many of them in Lake County. What these homeowners will tell you is that they need relief now.
In particular, they need the flaws in this system to be fixed, such as dual tracking – the dysfunctional practice in which a bank forecloses while the homeowner is negotiating in good faith for a loan modification.
Struggling homeowners also describe another experience that I have heard countless times: They’ll call their banks, only to be connected to a different person each time and someone who is unfamiliar with their situation and doesn’t have their paperwork. They’re continually forced to re-explain their situation and submit, often by fax machine, the same mountain of paperwork.
The solution is the California Homeowner Bill of Rights, which will end dual tracking and give homeowners a single point of contact as they navigate the system and try to keep their homes – a person at the bank who knows the facts of their case, has their paperwork and can get them a decision about their application.
This week, we took a step in the right direction. Key elements of the California Homeowner Bill of Rights passed out of a legislative conference committee.
The next step comes on Monday, when the full Legislature is set to vote on its passage – and it is my hope we’ll do what is right.
The national mortgage settlement we achieved last fall secured a commitment of up to $18 billion for California homeowners from the nation’s five major banks. It was an important first step.
But the protections of that agreement apply only to Californians whose home loans are handled by one of those five banks.
The same common-sense protections should apply across the board, which is why we need the California Homeowner Bill of Rights.
I encourage every Californian to reach out to their legislators and urge them to make sure we pass the California Homeowner Bill of Rights.
This is not a partisan issue. This is a basic issue of fairness – and one that requires action now.
Kamala D. Harris is California’s 32nd attorney general. To see how the California Homeowner Bill of Rights would benefit families in California, visit http://oag.ca.gov/ .
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