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UKIAH – At their May meeting, the Board of Trustees of the Mendocino-Lake Community College District awarded the first contract for facilities renovation under Measure W, the $67.5 million construction bond passed by voters in November.
The $967,476 contract for the re-roof of seven buildings at the Mendocino College Ukiah campus was awarded to Solano County Roofing Inc., the successful bidder out of five companies.
“We are very excited about beginning our first and much needed construction project under Measure W,” said Superintendent/President Kathy Lehner. “We are very busy in the planning and selection phase for several other projects, but this is the first construction project released.”
Re-roofing work will begin in June. The buildings to be re-roofed include the Child Care Center, Vocational Technical building, Physical Education complex and gymnasium, Fine Arts building, Agricultural Headhouse and Potting Shed.
For several years the current cement tile roofs have been leaking when it rains. The new roofs will be standing seam metal roofs that are expected to last 50 years.
“We are scheduling these projects to cause the least disruption to students and classes,” said Mike Adams, director of Facilities Planning. “However, several of these projects are large and will be in progress while summer classes are in session. For safety reasons, several areas will be fenced off. We ask that students and the public respect these boundaries.”
Other bond projects in the planning or selection phase include a new Integrated Information System (computer software), new Library/Learning Resource Center on the Ukiah campus, site selection for permanent centers in Willits and Lakeport, and a new Maintenance/Warehouse on the Ukiah campus.
In April, the College issued the first $30 million in bonds to fund projects and established the Bond Citizens’ Oversight Committee.
Additional information on Measure W activities is available online at www.mendocino.edu/bond.
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KELSEYVILLE – The US Department of Labor has settled a two-and-a-half-year old civil suit against the owners of Konocti Harbor Resort & Spa.
According to court documents obtained by Lake County News, the suit – which was filed in November 2004 – was resolved in a May 15 settlement conference presided over by Magistrate Judge Bernard Zimmerman.
As Lake County News previously reported, the U.S. Department of Labor sued current and former trustees, the plan administrator and Local 38 of the United Association of Plumbers, Pipefitters and Journeymen for diverting more than $36 million in assets of five employee benefit plans to renovate and operate Konocti Harbor Resort and Spa.
The employee benefit plans in question were UA Local 38's Pension Trust Fund, Scholarship Trust Fund, Health & Welfare Trust Fund, Apprentice & Journeyman Training Trust Fund and Vacation & Holiday Trust Fund.
Local 38 controls the UA Local Convalescent Fund, which has owned Konocti Harbor since 1959, according to court records.
The lawsuit alleged that the fund's trustees, including Lawrence J. Mazzola Sr., business manager and financial secretary-treasurer of Local 38, violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) by diverting the funds.
ERISA is a 1974 federal law that establishes protection to individuals covered by private industry health and pension plans.
Mazzola, son of labor leader Joe Mazzola – and namesake of Konocti Harbor's resort's indoor showroom – was named personally in the suit, as was his son, Lawrence Mazzola Jr.
In addition to the Mazzolas, about one dozen other men – who had fiduciary responsibility as members of the joint board of trustees that governed Local 38's ERISA plans – were named in the lawsuit.
James Baker, attorney for Mazzola and Local 38 in the case, confirmed this week that the case had been settled.
However, Baker declined to discuss the tentative settlement, preferring to wait until the details are finalized next month.
As part of the agreement, the Department of Labor will receive a $3.5 million payment, which will be covered by Local 38's insurance company, ULICO Casualty Co.
Judge Zimmerman noted in the settlement conference that a sale of Konocti Harbor is expected to be completed soon, with the funds from that sale going to reimburse Local 38 and the pension fund. (For the full story of the Konocti Harbor sale, see the related story, “Konocti Harbor sale in the works.”)
Other terms of the settlement include the Mazzola and the other named defendants' resignation from the joint board of trustees and installation of new trustees by Dec. 31, according to court documents.
Two of the named defendants, Lawrence Mazzola Jr. and Robert Buckley Jr., were not required to resign, court documents state; however, they have “agreed to complete a course of training in fiduciary duties as a condition of remaining on the board,” Zimmerman stated.
Mazzola Sr. also has agreed to resign from his position with the Plumbers Union's International Training Fund within the next two years, court documents reported.
The Department of Labor stipulated that those defendants who were required to resign from the joint board “be permanently barred from again being fiduciaries of any ERISA-covered plans or service providers.”
Other settlement terms include appointing an independent plan administrator to develop a system of controls over the ERISA plan's cash flows for a term of six years.
“This is an important moment for you,” Zimmerman told the defendants. “You will be closing, hopefully, a chapter, a long chapter in your life.”
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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LAKEPORT – A Clearlake Oaks man accused of criminal threats, battery and elder abuse was acquitted of all charges this week.
On Wednesday, a Lakeport Superior Court jury returned not guilty verdicts on the charges against Joel Paulle, according to his defense attorney, Doug Rhoades of Lakeport.
Deputy District Attorney Rachel Abelson prosecuted Paulle's case. Abelson did not return a call seeking comment on the case.
Paulle was accused of a felony criminal threat against his neighbors, a charge of battery against a neighbor’s son, and two counts of elder abuse against his 82-year-old mother as a result of an April 2006 incident.
The neighbor and her son both testified against Paulle, but no charges were sustained, Rhoades reported.
Paulle’s mother had passed away while the trial was pending, which Rhoades said was due to health problems not related to the charges in the case.
The trial lasted only two days, Rhoades reported. After deliberating less than one hour, the jury returned not guilty verdicts on all charges against Paulle.
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WASHINGTON, D.C. – An emergency supplemental spending bill which will put another $120 billion toward the Iraq war is on the way to the president for his signature.
The bill split the state's Democratic senators, and drew a no vote from North Coast Congressman Mike Thompson.
The U.S. Senate on Thursday night approved HR 2206 in an 80-14 vote, according to GovTrack.
The Senate vote came the same day as the House voted 280-142 to approve the bill.
HR 2206 did not contain a timeline for withdrawal from Iraq, as did HR 1591, an emergency supplemental that Congress approved last month but which President Bush vetoed on May 2.
Sen. Barbara Boxer voted against the bill. She cited her concerns that the supplemental maintains the “status quo,” which so far this year has meant higher casualties amongst US troops. Boxer reminded fellow senators of the more than 3,400 US troops killed and more than 25,000 wounded.
At the same time, Sen. Dianne Feinstein voted for the supplemental.
On the House side, Thompson, who has been a consistent critic of the war in Iraq, voted against HR 2206 on Thursday, saying he did so because it lacked the timeline or benchmarks needed to end the war.
“I voted against the Iraq supplemental because it only furthers the president's open-ended war in Iraq,” Thompson said in a statement.
Thompson had previously supported HR 1591, but has maintained that war funding should go through the regular budgeting process. “If the administration doesn't know after four years how to fund the war, we're in more trouble than we may think.”
He stated his belief that the Iraqi government “needs to take responsibility for securing their country so we can bring our troops home as safely and quickly as possible.” Benchmarks are needed, he said, to know whether or not the Iraqi government is making progress.
The supplemental only continues what Thompson said has been a lack of accountability in the war spending, said Thompson, with $400 billion spent so far.
“I can't support a war funding bill that doesn't make our troops and veterans the top priority,” Thompson said.
President Bush is expected to sign the bill over the Memorial Day weekend.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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