MENDOCINO CO., 6/24/26 — Mendocino County is offering its workers a 1% raise. Two years ago, the county’s supervisors voted themselves a 16% raise. With the union’s contract set to run out June 30, that gap is what packed the board chambers Tuesday morning.
One after another, members of SEIU Local 1021 stepped to the microphone during public comment and told the supervisors the math doesn’t work — not for the workers, and not for the county’s own story about being broke.
The union and the county have been bargaining for weeks without a deal. The county says there’s no money for raises. In July 2024, over loud public opposition and a lone no vote from Supervisor Ted Williams, the board raised its own base pay from $95,302 to $110,715 — a package that climbs to $160,715 by 2026.
To justify that raise, the supervisors compared their salaries to three counties, including higher-paid Sonoma. To set the workers’ wages, the county measured them against eight counties, including cheaper Lake.
“The raise they gave themselves was 16%,” one worker said Tuesday during public comment. “They gave us 1%. That to me is insulting.”
The speakers went down the list of where they say the money already went — and most of the claims hold up.
The state auditor reported in December that Mendocino had failed to collect $30.6 million in property taxes, penalties and interest, owed on about 4,200 properties. The county hasn’t held a tax-defaulted property auction since 2019 — one of the longest dry spells of any county in California — and is only now aiming to restart auctions by this October.
“This is not a true budget shortfall, but it’s a management failure,” said Betsy Mercer, a program specialist in the public health department, “and the county workers strongly urge you to stop asking us to pay for your failures.”
The accounting problem is real too. Mendocino hasn’t filed its required annual financial report on time since 2018, and the state controller has warned the county that the delays could bring fines and drag down its bond rating. “A state fiscal officer in Sacramento had to publicly announce that Mendocino County cannot get its own books filed on time,” said Amber Allison, a county worker. “That is not a budget problem. That is a credibility problem, and it happened on this board’s watch.”
And then there’s the Cubbison bill. The county paid $1.5 million in February to settle the civil case brought by former Auditor-Controller Chamise Cubbison, whose criminal prosecution collapsed, and then spent several hundred thousand more defending itself from a civil suit, with much of that money going to an outside law firm.
“That money will not be going back into our county,” said Peter Klotter, who works for the information technology department on the help desk. “Our wages will.”
And in May, the board wrote off years of unpaid cannabis taxes that the county’s own finance office said could top $2 million.
The impact is real
The cost shows up at home. A county program specialist who works in social services and couldn’t attend had her statement read aloud by union vice president and chief steward Jeff Weston: she earns $68,931, can’t afford to rent or buy in Ukiah, and at age 44 is putting her belongings in storage and moving back into her childhood bedroom.
The union says 455 of its members can’t reliably afford both healthcare and medication — a number it drew from the West Health-Gallup affordability index, which this year found fewer than half of all Americans can comfortably cover their healthcare.
“You interviewed for our support from SEIU 1021,” Klotter reminded the board. “We scratched your backs during the election season. I believe it is time for you to scratch ours.”
What the workers kept circling back to was a choice they say the county keeps making. Leave jobs unfilled. Forgive cannabis taxes. To the union, those and others are decisions to spend the county’s money on something other than the people doing the work.
“This is your bed, and you’re making us lie in it,” one worker said. “Be done with divestment. It’s time for investment, and investment begins and ends with the people doing the work, and that’s us.”
The contract expires June 30. As of Tuesday afternoon, no deal was struck.
Funny how if I don’t get my finances in order every year, the Fed/State come after me. If the County decides to not do their due diligence, it’s apparently acceptable to wait almost TEN YEARS before you get a strongly worded letter. Seems illegal to me that a county could just refuse to do that, but I guess we have yet another example of “rules for thee, but not for me”. I think it’s time we let the workers decide how much admin get paid, be it the CEO of a private company or a member of the county admin. Time to EARN the wages in the eyes of the people doing your job for you while you sit around and micromanage us into one disaster after another.
Government does what it wants, because the People stopped putting it in its place.
Their “laws” are for us, not for them, as we’ve seen so many times.
every supervisor gave themselves a massive raise
except Ted Williams
he said no, not while the rest of us get left behind, it was entirely self serving of the
other 4 supervisors
if you live in the other 4 districts
your reps have a clear message:
you are a sucker you gave me a masive raise im living comfortably and youre gonna continue to get taxed
get fewer if no services at all
keep voting for the scum
Cline is the worst, miss piggy in a MAGA hat
To all County employees: JOIN THE UNION! It’s literally a couple of dollars out of your paycheck. The only way you employees can demand better working conditions and a living wage, is to stand together. Right now, union membership is down. Yes, the union represents all staff, whether members or not. But when the rubber hits the road, and it’s time for negotiating your future you better be on board.
Don’t be a dummy. Join the union, or you will get what you deserve: low wages, unaffordable health care, a toxic work environment, no training, increased work loads and no representation for problems that arise. It’s the only way your have to fight back. There is power in numbers. JOIN THE UNION!
And let me make one more point: it’s management’s job to exploit you. To get you to work more for less money. So smarten up and join.
It is not literally “a couple dollars out of your paycheck”. It’s more like $40 a paycheck. What a lie! Can you tell me what the SEIU has done for the county employees? SEIU agreed with the last contract which was 1%. That barely covered most county employee’s union dues. SEIU 1021 gave employees false hope by saying they will get 11%. SEIU missed the mark. They don’t have the balls or talent to negotiate any contract.
SEIU 1021 is weak. Mendocino County Employees deserve better.
Go crawl back under your rock, Beardsley.
which union julie?
the prison guards union?
the cpb union ?
maybe the teamsters
they took 5 billion in free cash to cover the theft by thier “teamster leaders”
from biden on the hopes that they would endorse him
they didn’t
teamsters are trucking off the whotehouse as trash torn down by scab labor
Aceco is a scab shop tearing down the east wing and teamsters are hauling it
unionized employees are running ice and everything else you’re probably complaining about day to day
maybe it’s not as simple as just saying union yes
SEUI 1021 is a joke. A few years ago we as workers near unanimously voted to strike due to the BOS failure to budge. We did not strike though the “union” took the lousy pittance the BOS offered instead even though the workers stated otherwise.
I stopped paying dues after that because if my vote didn’t matter what am I paying for then?
I have seen other unions within the county get MANY deals and benefits yet the backbone workers continue to get screwed.
SEIU is woefully-corrupt. They act entitled to your pay, and their demands of tribute are hardly a “couple of dollars.” Are you ignorant or lying?
We’ve seen unions do little to nothing to actually make things better for the little folks, on so many occasions. Most of the time, it’s collusion with government and corporations. They’re part of the same System, which regards we little people as something to be “managed,” not treated like human beings.
https://mendovoice.com/2026/06/mendocino-supervisors-scrap-the-tax-sharing-agreement-between-cities-and-county-in-event-of-annexation/
Was the Ukiah annexation going to cut the BOS and Sheriffs wages?
Government creeps are simply not afraid of the People. This type of garbage will continue until it changes…if it changes.
Does anyone think the Founders of this nation would have tolerated all of the modern, grotesque outrages from government, local, state, or Federal? Read history from the period of 1765-1783 to find out!
What the People want no longer matters to these creeps. They just do what they want, regardless of how corrupt, unjust, or outrageous it is. “Do as we SAY, not as we do!”
Please, spare me any spew about “a free society” or “representative democracy.”
Be clear: they forgave cannabis taxes on farms that FAILED the permitting process. (Yeah, we’re pretty furious about that too!) Those of us still in the program were not forgiven back taxes and are still required to pay taxes in full to continue in the program. Mine are fully paid and I paid A LOT mostly in blood l, sweat, and tears so point your pitchfork elsewhere… like at my neighbor who has been living in an unpermitted 3 bedroom home since 1978 paying taxes on the value of raw land only, with ZERO permits on any structures and CE fees and fines and liens piling up with no actual consequence to him, just more sludge and bureaucratic bs. How many properties like that in Mendo? But yes, let’s keep hating on cannabis. Any licensed cannabis farm in Mendocino County still in business has paid their taxes or will be forced to pay if they want to stay in business. GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT. And stop scapegoating us. We hate the way things are run just as much as you do. We are all getting screwed by the same pooch… incompetent management. And Eyster/Cubbison? OMFG!!! And yet you point a finger at cannabis? C’mon… we should be joining forces against dumb and dumber.
you said it all so well
we who did it right and stuck around are getting skewered
so fucking backwards to hold responsible people accountable and irresponsible people unaccountable
fucking dipshits
how many properties and shitty neighbors like yours (and mine)
4100 properties late on taxes and abatements
most of them are such crappy properties they wont even sell at auction and if they do it will be for $1 because clean up costs more than the land is worth
and the death spiral will compound
then boomer occupied homes in the sticks become vacant and unsellable
and the death spiral compunds
wait until they close the hospital in ft bragg
it’s coming
anyone who moved to the mendocino coast to retire is a fool
you didn’t do your homework
Wow, 16% vs 1%, even worse than the COLAs the Feds screw us retirees with. The Board of Stupidvisors should immediately resign, forfeit their raises, and beg for forgiveness on their knees. How could y’all vote for these criminals?
Gross negligence. County does not give a shit about employees, residents, finances. Those with far paychecks never you worry. We will keep elevating you while the rest implode.
5 year cap, no raises after that 20, 30 year employees. Multiple employees under 40k a year.
No qualified candidates imagine that.
Ms Pierce is the perfect pearl clutcher for the job. Knew Mr Dunnicliff would not float to the top of the stack.
Union is paid for by county so not sure really how that manipulation avoids conflicts of interest.
Smile n wave nothing to see.
And the beat goes on.