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Opinion
I couldn't wait to cast my first ballot when I turned 18. And, I've always voted in midterm elections. However, I am one of those people who won't vote for certain races if I don't know anything about them. And, for most of my life that has been true when it comes to the school board race. In fact, the very first time I ever voted in a school board election was only about 4 years ago.
I only knew one of the three or four people who were running at that time. I attended a candidate forum and I talked to other parents who were involved. And, I voted.
Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would be here just three and a half short years later running for the same school board.
But, as I've taken the time to get to know the members of my district, I realize how many people are just like me and don't plan to vote on any race they haven't researched. There are also a lot of people who either don't think they need to vote if they don't have a child in school or that they no longer need to pay attention now that their kids are grown.
I've been doing my best to educate people on the issues. And, also to let them know why it very much does matter that they weigh in on the school board race.
School board issues affect the community at large. According to the California School Board Association, "The role of the school board is to ensure that school districts are responsive to the values, beliefs and priorities of their communities."
That means everyone. Not just parents. Not even just parents and grandparents. Everyone. Future generations who will have a say and who will vote on matters that affect the rest of us are being educated right now. How many of us have said, "Well back in my day we …"
Here is our opportunity to have a say. Here is our opportunity to make a difference in our community.
One of the things I will take away from this whole experience is that going forward I will be researching everything. No longer will I be content to sit on the sidelines for ANY race in which I have the legal right and obligation in which to have a say.
Please, make a difference and vote for me, Charise Reynolds, on June 7.
Charise Reynolds is a candidate for the Middletown Unified School Board. She lives in Middletown, California.
I only knew one of the three or four people who were running at that time. I attended a candidate forum and I talked to other parents who were involved. And, I voted.
Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would be here just three and a half short years later running for the same school board.
But, as I've taken the time to get to know the members of my district, I realize how many people are just like me and don't plan to vote on any race they haven't researched. There are also a lot of people who either don't think they need to vote if they don't have a child in school or that they no longer need to pay attention now that their kids are grown.
I've been doing my best to educate people on the issues. And, also to let them know why it very much does matter that they weigh in on the school board race.
School board issues affect the community at large. According to the California School Board Association, "The role of the school board is to ensure that school districts are responsive to the values, beliefs and priorities of their communities."
That means everyone. Not just parents. Not even just parents and grandparents. Everyone. Future generations who will have a say and who will vote on matters that affect the rest of us are being educated right now. How many of us have said, "Well back in my day we …"
Here is our opportunity to have a say. Here is our opportunity to make a difference in our community.
One of the things I will take away from this whole experience is that going forward I will be researching everything. No longer will I be content to sit on the sidelines for ANY race in which I have the legal right and obligation in which to have a say.
Please, make a difference and vote for me, Charise Reynolds, on June 7.
Charise Reynolds is a candidate for the Middletown Unified School Board. She lives in Middletown, California.
- Details
- Written by: Charise Reynolds
To all fellow Lake County residents, I feel it is my responsibility to inform you of some things I have learned and things that happened to me when I encountered Anthony Farrington. I will give you the short version for now.
A problem developed between myself and an old friend that I was helping care for and taking care of what he needed done while he was in a care home in Lakeport for just under a year.
When my friend's ex-wife found out he was getting close to the end of life she showed up one day and started right away to manipulate my friend just like when they were married. But this time it was to get all my friend’s money and assets before he died, including three trucks and several guns my friend had given me a year or so earlier.
So they hired Farrington, the only shady lawyer that would take them.
Farrington wrote me a letter and in this letter Farrington formally demanded bring all the unregistered guns that were given to me a year or so earlier and $60,000 to his office and hand over these unregistered guns and money directly to him so he could bypass the gun registration and background checks laws and hand over unregistered guns to a sick and unstable convicted felon.
Not only is this highly illegal but extremely dangerous to public safety. This is how mass shootings happen. I did not appreciate being threatened so I sent Farrington a reply letter and refused his demands. I had to educate him on federal and California gun laws.
Farrington got so upset I refused the almighty Farrington that he filed a lawsuit in my friend's name (encouraged by the ex-wife) on me not only for the guns and money but added on a few claims of elder abuse.
I have found out that this practice of adding on elder abuse claims is a fairly common practice on many of Farrington’s lawsuits. Just trying to gain sympathy from the judge and jury.
In my case Farrington just stroked my attorney and I along for about a year until the pressure of my evidence got to him.
Farrington pleaded to the court to be released from the case because he did not want another loss on his record.
The whole law enforcement and justice system needs to be overhauled. From bad cops and profiling sheriff deputies to biased judges and no good lying lawyers.
We need someone in the District Attorney’s Office that has zero tolerance on all crimes and goes for maximum prison time.
The District Attorney’s Office is no place for an unqualified and dangerous person like Farrington.
Do not be fooled by Farrington and his B.S. Do a little research yourself. Look in the shadows. Talk to people in and around the courthouse. Talk to local attorneys. Dig up the facts before you vote.
Farrington is a bad apple for Lake County. Beware of his slick B.S.
Farrington is bad for the justice system and bad for Lake County residents.
Joe Schuster lives in Upper Lake, California.
A problem developed between myself and an old friend that I was helping care for and taking care of what he needed done while he was in a care home in Lakeport for just under a year.
When my friend's ex-wife found out he was getting close to the end of life she showed up one day and started right away to manipulate my friend just like when they were married. But this time it was to get all my friend’s money and assets before he died, including three trucks and several guns my friend had given me a year or so earlier.
So they hired Farrington, the only shady lawyer that would take them.
Farrington wrote me a letter and in this letter Farrington formally demanded bring all the unregistered guns that were given to me a year or so earlier and $60,000 to his office and hand over these unregistered guns and money directly to him so he could bypass the gun registration and background checks laws and hand over unregistered guns to a sick and unstable convicted felon.
Not only is this highly illegal but extremely dangerous to public safety. This is how mass shootings happen. I did not appreciate being threatened so I sent Farrington a reply letter and refused his demands. I had to educate him on federal and California gun laws.
Farrington got so upset I refused the almighty Farrington that he filed a lawsuit in my friend's name (encouraged by the ex-wife) on me not only for the guns and money but added on a few claims of elder abuse.
I have found out that this practice of adding on elder abuse claims is a fairly common practice on many of Farrington’s lawsuits. Just trying to gain sympathy from the judge and jury.
In my case Farrington just stroked my attorney and I along for about a year until the pressure of my evidence got to him.
Farrington pleaded to the court to be released from the case because he did not want another loss on his record.
The whole law enforcement and justice system needs to be overhauled. From bad cops and profiling sheriff deputies to biased judges and no good lying lawyers.
We need someone in the District Attorney’s Office that has zero tolerance on all crimes and goes for maximum prison time.
The District Attorney’s Office is no place for an unqualified and dangerous person like Farrington.
Do not be fooled by Farrington and his B.S. Do a little research yourself. Look in the shadows. Talk to people in and around the courthouse. Talk to local attorneys. Dig up the facts before you vote.
Farrington is a bad apple for Lake County. Beware of his slick B.S.
Farrington is bad for the justice system and bad for Lake County residents.
Joe Schuster lives in Upper Lake, California.
- Details
- Written by: Joe Schuster
I read with great interest Lake County News’ article on Friday about the race for assessor-recorder. I must respond to two points raised by the incumbent, Richard Ford.
He stated in the interview that he sent out a "white paper" to local real estate agents to dispel a notion that his office remained closed on Fridays, and that he opened up the Assessor-Recorder's Office for twice a day recordings "as soon as the COVID restrictions were lifted.” He did not.
I received a memo from Mr. Ford's office circulated by our local escrow companies containing a few sentences that he had restored the twice a day recordings [for escrow companies to close real estate transactions], but this was not a white paper. It was just a few sentences and was only sent to the title companies, not to all of the agents or even the brokerages.
Please note that he took this action on March 25, 2022, a full four months after the county had lifted the COVID restrictions. For him to imply that he took immediate action is simply not true.
There was no misunderstanding by the real estate community that his office remained closed on Fridays after that practice was halted. But there was vigorous objection by the real estate community that he refused to allow escrow companies to record real estate closings on Fridays when the county opted to shut down.
Environmental Health opened up for half days on Fridays; our assessor-recorder certainly could have done that but chose not to.
The Friday closures have affected hundreds of people in our community. I personally have had to help my clients find somewhere to stay until Monday for the closing/recording of their new home, all the while paying interest on a loan for a home they are not able to move into because the office was closed to the "public" for recordings.
I understand the need to be closed to the "public" in order to catch up, but when our courier at the title companies (there are only two title companies) arrives with that day's recordings it's simply one person and they wait for them to be recorded then they go back to each title company to confirm.
It was argued by many of us agents, brokers and the title companies that we wouldn't slow the staff down by allowing us to keep recording on Fridays and not to mention the revenue from supplemental taxes that would have added up over time.
Mr. Ford is attempting to rewrite history after the fact. His long record of poor public service is why I am voting for Hannah Lee on June 7 to be the next Lake County assessor-recorder.
Jessica F. Spencer lives in Kelseyville, California.
He stated in the interview that he sent out a "white paper" to local real estate agents to dispel a notion that his office remained closed on Fridays, and that he opened up the Assessor-Recorder's Office for twice a day recordings "as soon as the COVID restrictions were lifted.” He did not.
I received a memo from Mr. Ford's office circulated by our local escrow companies containing a few sentences that he had restored the twice a day recordings [for escrow companies to close real estate transactions], but this was not a white paper. It was just a few sentences and was only sent to the title companies, not to all of the agents or even the brokerages.
Please note that he took this action on March 25, 2022, a full four months after the county had lifted the COVID restrictions. For him to imply that he took immediate action is simply not true.
There was no misunderstanding by the real estate community that his office remained closed on Fridays after that practice was halted. But there was vigorous objection by the real estate community that he refused to allow escrow companies to record real estate closings on Fridays when the county opted to shut down.
Environmental Health opened up for half days on Fridays; our assessor-recorder certainly could have done that but chose not to.
The Friday closures have affected hundreds of people in our community. I personally have had to help my clients find somewhere to stay until Monday for the closing/recording of their new home, all the while paying interest on a loan for a home they are not able to move into because the office was closed to the "public" for recordings.
I understand the need to be closed to the "public" in order to catch up, but when our courier at the title companies (there are only two title companies) arrives with that day's recordings it's simply one person and they wait for them to be recorded then they go back to each title company to confirm.
It was argued by many of us agents, brokers and the title companies that we wouldn't slow the staff down by allowing us to keep recording on Fridays and not to mention the revenue from supplemental taxes that would have added up over time.
Mr. Ford is attempting to rewrite history after the fact. His long record of poor public service is why I am voting for Hannah Lee on June 7 to be the next Lake County assessor-recorder.
Jessica F. Spencer lives in Kelseyville, California.
- Details
- Written by: Jessica F. Spencer
In early April I submitted a Public Records Act request to the clerk to the Board of Supervisors asking for information relating to the backlogs at the Assessor-Recorder's Office.
Among the information I requested was a copy of annual reports required by the Board of Equalization (BOE) that were to be submitted to the BOE and the Board of Supervisors until the 11 items identified on their 2014 audit were all addressed.
The BOE had told me they had no record of these reports, and the Board of Supervisors responded that they also had no reports.
The incumbent indicated in his response to my request that he had submitted no further reports on those audit issues, though in a recent public forum in Clearlake he mentioned discovering that reports were not done and he had immediately submitted a report to the Board of Supervisors, but I never did receive that report despite requesting it.
I also asked for progress reports relating to the pending number of property tax appeals, the current backlog in reassessments to improved property, the number of months of delay in mailing out recorded documents, the number of pending property tax appeals, and information regarding staffing vacancies.
The Board of Supervisors responded that they had no data at all on any of these issues, and the incumbent’s response to the request neither provided the data nor specified that he had no data.
Because Richard Ford did not respond to those parts of my Public Records Act request, I concluded that he must not have any data tracking these backlogs. I expected more from an accountant, but was willing to accept his lack of data at face value.
I was astonished to read Elizabeth Larson’s interview with Richard Ford in Friday’s LakeCoNews.com in which he quoted very detailed statistics on the very items I had asked about.
It is apparent that either he did have these statistics and deliberately ignored those parts of my Public Records Act request, or he did not have these statistics and has scrambled to put them together now. Neither of these explanations speaks well of the incumbent.
Please join me in voting for Hannah Lee for assessor-recorder on June 7.
Mary Benson lives in Lower Lake, California.
Among the information I requested was a copy of annual reports required by the Board of Equalization (BOE) that were to be submitted to the BOE and the Board of Supervisors until the 11 items identified on their 2014 audit were all addressed.
The BOE had told me they had no record of these reports, and the Board of Supervisors responded that they also had no reports.
The incumbent indicated in his response to my request that he had submitted no further reports on those audit issues, though in a recent public forum in Clearlake he mentioned discovering that reports were not done and he had immediately submitted a report to the Board of Supervisors, but I never did receive that report despite requesting it.
I also asked for progress reports relating to the pending number of property tax appeals, the current backlog in reassessments to improved property, the number of months of delay in mailing out recorded documents, the number of pending property tax appeals, and information regarding staffing vacancies.
The Board of Supervisors responded that they had no data at all on any of these issues, and the incumbent’s response to the request neither provided the data nor specified that he had no data.
Because Richard Ford did not respond to those parts of my Public Records Act request, I concluded that he must not have any data tracking these backlogs. I expected more from an accountant, but was willing to accept his lack of data at face value.
I was astonished to read Elizabeth Larson’s interview with Richard Ford in Friday’s LakeCoNews.com in which he quoted very detailed statistics on the very items I had asked about.
It is apparent that either he did have these statistics and deliberately ignored those parts of my Public Records Act request, or he did not have these statistics and has scrambled to put them together now. Neither of these explanations speaks well of the incumbent.
Please join me in voting for Hannah Lee for assessor-recorder on June 7.
Mary Benson lives in Lower Lake, California.
- Details
- Written by: Mary Benson