We promised ourselves we wouldn’t cry–with update!

The Community Development Disservices Director is no more. But be proud, Kirk Girard! Not everyone can fuck up a job so badly that your employer has to eliminate the position when you’re done with it. From the February 28 Board of Supervisors agenda: Job Descriptions for Director of Planning & Building and Director of Economic [...]

Community development director packs his bags

Kirk Girard, the controversial director of the county’s Community Development Disservices Department, has accepted a similar appointment in Bell, California. Girard told the Mirror that he will always love Humboldt County, but his beliefs and values were more consistent with those demonstrated by Bell’s leadership. “We just think alike,” he said. “In many ways, it’s [...]

Kirk Girard’s ‘most accurate’ housing element rejected due to inaccuracies–with fascinating update!!

Alas and to no one’s surprise, the state of California has declined to certify Humboldt County’s housing element because of its inclusion of thousands of supposedly buildable lots the state determined no one would ever be able to build on. These include lots in environmentally sensitive areas, lots zoned exclusively for agriculture and lots that [...]

Will the record be unbroken?

An ambitious project, a big pile of dough and Kirk Girard: Never a good combination.

Misty water-colored memories

AEDC…. AEDC…. We wondered why that sounded so familiar–like a high school friend whose name we remember but whose face is a pimply blur. But then–aha!! That AEDC! It all came back at once–the dust-up! the excitement! the intrigue!! the whole stenchilada of controversy and scandal! All just a few years ago, but impossible to [...]

Audits and oddities

To: Humboldt County Community Development Disservices Director Kirk Girard Subject: Headwaters Revolving Loan Fund request Dear Director Girard, Thank you for your recent request for an additional $1.5 million loan to the Arcata Economic Development Corporation from the Headwaters Revolving Loan Fund account. Unfortunately, we are unable to accommodate your request for the following reasons. [...]

Bugs give themselves fat pay raises

In a 2 – 0 vote, the Humboldt Mirror bugs voted Wednesday to give themselves gazillion percent pay increases. The move came on the heels of a unanimous decision Tuesday by the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors to grant large pay raises to some of the highest paid people in the county. “It’s true that [...]

Good grief

Ah, the privileges of elected office. You can return phone calls if you feel like it, attend meetings if you want—and “work from home” for weeks at a time. Supervisor Bonnie Neely hasn’t spent a day in her office since Roger Rodoni’s untimely death almost two weeks ago. When asked for an explanation—not that she’s [...]

Humboldt Mirror reader complains about un-peed pants

The Humboldt Mirror, the county’s premier satirical blog, has not been all that funny lately, and both of its readers are demanding to know why. “I log on every morning hoping to read something that’s going to cause spontaneous urinary leakage, like before,” said longtime Mirror-reader Dennis Mayo. “But all there ever is anymore is [...]

Health Impact Assessment demonstrates Health Impact Assessment proponents are unhealthy

As expected, a grant-funded Health Impact Assessment presented Thursday to the Planning Commission demonstrates that the most restrictive development option before the commission is by far the healthiest choice for Humboldt County. The HIA, presented by Public Health Officer Dr. Ann Lindsay, shows that Alternative A, which would allow only minimal urban infill—a maximum of [...]

Kirk Girard attains enlightenment

Maybe this is one of those things like string theory or Wonkavision that makes a shit-ton more sense when you’re drinking. But we’re between cocktail hours at the Humboldt Mirror–and frankly, we’re confused. Our favorite Community Development Disservices director, Kirk Girard, provided a positively zen explanation Tuesday of that whole TPZ planning commission report dust-up [...]

Someone’s got some ‘splaining to do…

An interesting letter delivered to the Humboldt Mirror mailbox over the weekend states that the residence of a certain Community Development Disservices Director may violate the codes and ordinances he is charged with enforcing. The story goes that the unidentified appointee lives on a seven-acre parcel with an 800-foot driveway—and no secondary access road. A [...]

Proposed ordinance would require Kirk Girard to just shut the fuck up

The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors will consider a proposed ordinance that would require Community Development Disservices Director Kirk Girard to abstain from using any form of verbal communication. According to the text of the proposed ordinance, Girard would be prohibited from “the expression of any thought, idea or opinion about anything, in any medium, [...]

Neely resigns from board; names brother Raúl as successor

In a letter published overnight on the Times-Standard’s website, six-term Humboldt County Supervisor Bonnie Neely announced her immediate resignation from the county’s governing board. The letter stated that the 81-year-old Republican’s younger brother, Raúl, would assume Neely’s Fourth District seat. Specific reasons for the sudden resignation were not provided, but county staffers said advanced age [...]