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LAKE COUNTY – With the union representing them saying it's launching an effort to recall four county supervisors, In-Home Supportive Services providers and clients around the county may soon find themselves at the heart of a very political season.
California United Homecare Workers (CUHW) represents the more than 1,300 local IHSS providers in Lake County. Earlier this year, IHSS workers voted to make CUHW their primary union, according to Tyrone Freeman, CUHW's president.
In an interview with Lake County News, Freeman said the union is launching a recall of Supervisors Anthony Farrington, Rob Brown, Ed Robey and Jeff Smith, claiming the four incumbent supervisors have failed to respond to the needs of IHSS workers and clients.
On June 5, the board forwarded a proposal to the state that would give IHSS workers $1 an hour raise if they underwent drug testing and were trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation and first aid. Meeting those requirements would make them eligible for inclusion in the IHSS Public Authority registry and, therefore, the raise.
Freeman and the union were angered that the board took up the issues without bringing them first to the negotiation table. In a June 29 letter, County Counsel Anita Grant told Freeman that the county fully intended to meet and confer with the union if the state was willing to help support the proposal financially.
Nevertheless, the recall was announced and is going forward, said Freeman. Of the 1,379 IHSS workers recently counted, 584 voted on the recall, with 540 voting to support it and 44 voting against.
So, how do IHSS workers feel about the recall? Lake County News spoke to one on each side of the issue to offer two of many opinions.
A pro-recall viewpoint
Laurel Elliott of Nice has spent the last three and a half years providing home-based care. She first worked in Nevada, then came to Lake County and began providing IHSS care to her mother, beginning in December 2004. Elliott works full-time as her mother's caregiver.
IHSS care has made it possible for her mother to live at home and have a greater quality of life than if she was in a care facility, said Elliott.
Care facilities are also extremely expensive. About 10 years ago, Elliott said she worked as a supervisor of housekeeping services in a nursing home, where monthly care costs for patients ran between $3,600 to $4,200 a month.
“I really don't think the prices have gone down any,” she said.
It's because of such issues that Elliott feels strongly that IHSS workers need better pay, greater respect and more support. She said it's her opinion that the county hasn't offered any of those resource to IHSS workers.
As she's watched negotiations between the county and the union, Elliott said, “I got the impression that the county doesn't want to negotiate, they like things the way they are.”
Elliott said she supports the recall effort, and so when Freeman sent out a letter to union members early in June asking for them to vote on support for the recall, she said she sent back the voting card with the ballot marked “yes.”
She added that she thinks the entire board should go, even District 3 Supervisor Denise Rushing – who Freeman said will not be a target – because she voted for the June 5 proposal. Elliott said IHSS workers helped get Rushing into office, but by accepting the proposal she didn't return that support.
Elliott said she thinks the recall as a “50-50” chance of succeeding. She said she's not sure yet if she'll actually work on the union's recall effort at the local effort, which Freeman said will include a community group to screen potential replacement candidates.
She said she feels the union has supported workers “by not letting us be railroaded into something that won't benefit us,” which for her applies to the proposal the board considered June 5. “I don't agree with it,” she said.
On the drug testing issue, Elliott said if IHSS care recipients request it, “then I think it's valid.”
However, for IHSS workers like herself who are working for family members, drug testing might not make sense.
In her mother's case, “It's not like she's getting someone she doesn't know.”
Said Elliott, “One of the reasons that I support the recall election is because I don't like being labeled a criminal or an addict. I'm neither one.”
That, she said, is how the drug testing proposal makes IHSS workers feel. “That to me shows a distinct lack of respect for the IHSS workers.
When she worked as a home care provider in Nevada, Elliott said she was required to undergo a drug test and a background check because the parents of the man who was her care client required those steps. Her client's parents paid for the test, Elliott said. She said she understood that request, since she was a stranger to her client's family.
Elliott said she feels it would be more fair if all IHSS workers were required to undergo background checks and drug testing as a condition of employment when they are first hired. Still, she questioned the necessity of it when working for a family member.
“She knows my history, she knows my background,” Elliott said of her mother and added that she does not use drugs.
Elliott said IHSS workers are needed now and likely will be even more needed in the future.
“The people who are against us now, in 20 or 30 years, they may need us,” she said.
If IHSS workers aren't given fair treatment, said Elliott, home care may not be available in the years ahead.
Counterpoint: Against the recall
Lynne Quartarolo of Kelseyville is on the other side of the recall effort. She said she abstained from the vote – not even returning her ballot – because she's unhappy with the union and its attempt to unseat area supervisors.
“If I sent the card in, I was voting for it,” she said.
And that meant allowing the union to take money from her paycheck to support the recall, and Quartarolo said she doesn't have any budget room when it comes to her wages.
The 62-year-old caregiver works more than full-time – 200 hours a month, seven days a week. She has no benefits such as sick leave – “if you don't work, you don't get paid” – and no health benefits, because she's too young for Medicare.
For the last three years she worked as an IHSS care provider in Lake County. She's also been a home care worker in New Hampshire and even England.
She said she doesn't consider herself a union member – “because I refuse” – and believes the union's approach to drug testing requirements “is totally wrong.”
Quartarolo said the union wants everybody to get the raise offered by the county even if they don't go through background checks and drug testing.
“I'm more than wiling to go for a drug test,” said Quartarolo, and said that those who don't shouldn't get the raise.
She also questioned why IHSS workers locally aren't annually testing for tuberculosis, which has been required in other places she's worked.
In negotiations, Quartarolo said the union has come away asking for less for workers, not more. “We've got to have some benefits.”
In June 2006, said Quartarolo, the “perfect solution” was on the table between the county and the union, which included benefits and a provision keeping IHSS workers' wages $2 an hour above minimum wage. That proposal also included stipulations for background checks, training and drug testing.
Quartarolo said she was watching the meeting on television – her work keeps her from attending board meetings – and saw the union representative turn the proposal down because it wasn't offered to all workers, notably those who wouldn't submit to the necessary testing.
“I wanted to come through the TV set,” she said.
She added, “This is why I'm not a member of the union.”
Turning down that raise proposal, said Quartarolo, to her mind demonstrated that the union was not “speaking for all of us,” but only for those can't – or won't – undergo testing to be entered into the IHSS registry.
Next, a look at the recall process and when it might take place.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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LAKE COUNTY – As we sweat through another warm summer month, the California Highway Patrol would like to warn the public of the dangers of leaving a child unattended inside a scorching hot vehicle.
Seven years ago, 6 month old Kaitlyn Russell’s babysitter decided to go shopping while leaving Kaitlyn in the car. The babysitter lost track of time, and by the time she returned to the car, the baby had died.
“The temperature within a car can climb higher than 20 degrees over the outside temperature in less than 15 minutes,” said Officer Adam Garcia of the Clear Lake CHP office.
“Kaitlyn’s Law,” also known as the “Unattended Child in a Motor Vehicle Act,” was passed by the Legislature in 2001 and went into effect on January 1, 2002.
The law states in part that anyone responsible for a child 6 years old or younger may not leave that child inside a vehicle without supervision of someone at least 12 years old, under the following conditions:
– Where there is a risk to the child’s health or safety.
– When the vehicle’s key is in the ignition or when the engine is running.
“Please do not leave your child unattended, even if it’s only to run inside the store or your house for a minute,” said Garcia. “A violator of this law could be fined $380.”
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LAKE COUNTY – It's very unusual for July in Northern California, but officials are reporting that rain and thunderstorms may develop later today over a dry Lake County, which may be a recipe for wildfires.
According to the National Weather Service (NWS) in Sacramento, a very unusual weather pattern for July is developing.
An upper-level low pressure system off the California coast will draw subtropical moisture into Northern California today and into tonight, bringing a threat of thunderstorms over coastal and Lake County mountains, NWS reported.
Combined with the very dry conditions, the potential for fires from lightning is possible and a fire weather watch is in effect, according to NWS.
This weather pattern and chance of thunderstorms and rain will remain in effect through Monday, with Wednesday predicted to have the highest possibility for thunderstorms.
E-mail Terre Logsdon at
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HIDDEN VALLEY – A Yuba City man is in jail on more than $1 million bond for an early morning incident Saturday during which he allegedly tried to kill two sheriff's deputies with his truck.
Zachary James Eads, 33, was arrested for a laundry list of charges stemming from his confrontation with Sgt. Brian Martin and Sgt. Jim Samples of the Lake County Sheriff's Office, according to a Monday report from Sheriff Rod Mitchell.
Mitchell reported that deputies responded at 3:30 a.m. Saturday to Hidden Valley Lake, where Eads had reportedly been threatening someone.
Before deputies arrived on scene, Hidden Valley security personnel saw Eads fleeing the area on Hartmann Road, according to Mitchell.
Eads reportedly crossed Highway 29 where his Ford F-250 pickup collided with a power pole and started a small vegetation fire along the highway, Mitchell reported.
He again took off, with Hidden Valley security spotting him as he tried to escape. Mitchell said Sgt. Martin intercepted the truck and activated his overhead emergency lights. Eads, however, didn't stop, and attempted to evade the enforcement stop by driving at high speeds through residential neighborhoods in Hidden Valley.
At this point, said Mitchell, Sgt. Samples joined Martin in attempt to stop Eads, who drove onto Spyglass Road which ends in a closed cul-de-sac.
Martin exercised a “pit maneuver” in the cul-de-sac, said Mitchell, which uses the front bumper of a patrol car pushing against the rear corner of the pursued vehicle. That causes the pursued vehicle to lose rear-wheel traction and traps its front end using the front of a second deputy’s vehicle.
Martin successfully managed the maneuver, trapping Eads' truck with his patrol car blocking the rear and Samples' patrol car blocking the front of Eads’ Ford truck, said Mitchell.
But Eads apparently wasn't ready to give up. The sheriff reported that Eads drove his truck forward into the front end of Sgt. Samples’ patrol car causing the patrol car air-bags to deploy. A civilian who was in Samples' care for a ride-a-long was able to escape and get to safety.
Martin commanded Eads several times to stop and get out of the truck but Eads refused to comply, said Mitchell. Instead, Eads reportedly alternated between forward and reverse gears to gain traction to begin climbing the driver’s side of Samples’ patrol car while he was still seated behind the wheel.
Eads managed to get his pickup to climb onto the hood of Samples' patrol car, bending the hood in half and forcing it up in front of the windshield, Mitchell explained. Martin’s driver’s door was damaged when Eads reversed into it and significant damage was done to the front end and engine compartment of Samples’ car.
When Eads didn't stop, Martin fired his duty weapon into Eads' truck, which finally caused Eads to stop, said Mitchell. However, Eads – who had only minor injuries and sustained no gunshot wounds -- continued to fight and physically resist arrest. He threatened the transporting deputy and hospital staff where he was taken for medical clearance before being booked in the jail.
With Eads in custody, Mitchell said Samples and Martin checked with residents of the neighborhood to make sure that no one was injured.
Eads was booked into the Lake County Jail on charges of attempted murder of a peace officer, assault with a deadly weapon, resisting/obstructing a peace officer, felony evasion, terrorist threats and unlawfully causing a fire. His bail is listed as $1,065,000.
In the case of officer-involved shootings such as this, Mitchell said, “Standard protocol would normally involve our department inviting the District Attorney’s Office investigators to conduct an investigation into the incident.”
However, Martin – who is the son of Judge Richard Martin – also has relatives employed by the District Attorney's Office, and Mitchell was concerned that could lead to the appearance of a conflict of interest.
The sheriff said he consequently contacted the California Highway Patrol and requested their specialized critical incident team from Redding to conduct the investigation into this incident.
Mitchell said he was indebted to the local CHP office for their assistance and for their willingness to call on their Northern Divisions’ special incident team. “In addition to the significant training and expertise of CHP’s investigators, their home office being located in Redding helps us to assure a completely independent investigation,” he said.
In addition, Mitchell thanked the residents of the Hidden Valley neighborhood for their support for the deputies and patience while the cul-de-sac was shut down much of Saturday as investigators processed the scene. He said Hidden Valley Security personnel were also generous with their time and assistance before, during, and after the incident.
Most of all, Mitchell added, “We are very pleased that neither our deputies nor any other innocent civilians were injured during this incident.”
Because of the potential for conflict of interest, Mitchell said he believes it's likely the case will be forwarded to the state Attorney General’s Office for review. That determination, he added, will be made by the District Attorney’s Office after they receive and review all of the relevant reports.
Until the District Attorney's Office reviews the investigation, said Mitchell, no other details will be released.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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