Candidate for
Assessor-Clerk Recorder; County of Mendocino

I was born in New York City, a second generation American. My parents lived through the depression in an odyssey of jobs that culminated in the American Dream. They went from poverty and struggle to a split level house in the burbs where I grew up.

My parents lived through the Holocaust, so I was reared on the memory of the 6 million Jews that died. Then we had the Cuban Missile Crisis, and all students learned to cower under our desks in case of a nuclear bomb. Later I learned that 5 million others also died in the Holocaust, and there have been too many holocausts. In light of the untold destruction that could occur, I volunteered with the American Red Cross. I have been a Red Cross Disaster Nurse almost 35 years, first with the Golden Gate Chapter, and now with the Sonoma, Mendocino, Lake Chapter. I received a lifetime commendation for the nursing service I did in Napa during the flood of 1986.

As a teen, I read the book "Siddhartha" by Herman Hesse. I identified with the main character, which led me to spending 5 years in India, where I learned how to live simply, and appreciate my blessings.

I volunteered at a Gandhi Ashram where I helped turn the grindstone in the kitchen to make flour for chapatis. The Ashram sent me to 3 months at their school for Untouchable children. Every Wednesday, the district doctor would arrive in a Land Rover and open up for business in a separate clinic building. Villagers would come in droves with their ailing kin to see the MD. I was recruited to help in the clinic. This was my first experience of nursing. It impressed me so much that when I returned to the States, I set out to become a nurse. I received a BSN from San Francisco State University and passed the CA RN exam in 1980.

My family settled in Vallejo for 12 years, where I co-founded a public charter middle & high school. I served for several years as the Secretary of the Board. Once the naval base closed, Mare Island Technology Academy put Vallejo back on the map for young families. I had my first taste of school nursing there. I also commuted from Vallejo to UCSF where I received an MSN in International/Cross Cultural Community Health in 1993.

We left Vallejo looking for a place with more community to raise our children. We settled in Ukiah in 2002 because of its clean air, low crime, and vibrant overlapping communities. I immediately began fundraising for our children's school and our faith community. These many years of fundraising led me to become the Treasurer of the River Oak Charter School Education Foundation for 5 years.

For the last 10 years, I have had the privilege and delight to have served as the School Nurse for River Oak Public Charter School, one of the best schools I could imagine. All the research into ideal teaching conditions sounds just like what we already do at ROCS. And it is the only charter school in the area with a school nurse. I have given notice so they'll have ample time to replace me.

School nurses have to be case managers for any student with a chronic health problem. Case management uses the Nursing Process to analyze the situation, prioritize a problem list, and create solutions with measurable results and a follow-up process. Together with the Administration minor I took during my Master's education, I have been prepared to be a skillful manager. My Master's Thesis was a business plan for a rural nurse-run clinic that was displayed in the university library for its excellence.

My mother often warned me not to stick my neck out and make waves politically at peril of my life. She pleaded with me that my children were young and need a mother. But when my youngest son turned 18, I began to attend meetings. We were concerned with corporate overreach into the government, and myself with a few other locals founded Move to Amend - Ukiah, which joined with Alliance for Democracy on the coast, and formed the Move to Amend Coalition of Mendocino County. In November, 2012, we succeeded in garnering nearly 75% of the vote on advisory Measure F for a constitutional amendment declaring that Rights are only for natural persons and not for fictional persons; and money is NOT Free Speech.

I had heard again and again about how the Wall Street banks were using fraud to foreclose on record numbers of people. I immediately closed my account at CHASE and moved my money to a local credit union. Several years later, I joined a large march on Move Your Money Day to encourage others to do the same. The Presidents of SBMC and MLCU both mentioned a significant increase in their institutional assets following that day.

Then I realized that the largest depositor in Wall Street banks in this county is the county government itself! Why do governments store public funds in private, for-profit banks? That's when I heard about the Bank of North Dakota, a public bank established in 1919, which gives ND sovereignty over their state's own money. 40% of all the banks in the world are public banks, but we only have 1 here in the USA, BND.

When I heard that Governor Brown vetoed the bill to investigate a state public bank, it became apparent that the only way to rescue the County's finances from the greedy booms and busts manipulated by the large private banks, would be to create a county public bank. Our County certainly has enough money to store in our own bank! And our county certainly could not afford to forfeit any of our funds to recapitalize a bank that gambles with their depositor's money in the derivatives market. Derivatives have "super priority status" over all other creditors, including Mendocino County.

The big banks are playing a risky game with fraud, derivatives, and manipulation of the money supply. When the derivatives bubble bursts, the banks too big to fail will go belly up. Denied government bailouts, they will seize the assets of the depositors above the federally insured limit to recapitalize after their bad bets went sour. It will be another massive transfer of wealth toward the 1%. I want to get the County's money out of Wall Street banks before that day comes.

So myself and a group of concerned citizens from around the County formed the Mendocino County Public Banking Coalition. The MCPBC hopes to get a county charter on the November 2014 ballot which will authorize a public bank. Sonoma and Lake Counties are also looking into creating county public banks. A tri-county consortium of public banks will amplify deal flow and strengthen each other.

The frauds of the big banks are unconscionable. They have ridden roughshod over countless individuals who lost everything. It was a massive transfer of wealth from the declining middle-class to the 1%. I discovered that the banks foreclose with careless, mass-processed documents, which are all recorded in the County Recorder's Office.

We became very concerned that property titles transferred with incomplete or otherwise fraudulent documents threatens the integrity of the property records. Using clouded property titles as evidence in court makes justice ludicrous. So the MCPBC spent 2 1/2 years demanding an independent audit of the public property records in order to see exactly the extent of bank fraud in our County. We collected 500 signatures demanding an audit and presented it to our current Recorder, to no avail. We felt stonewalled.

If we can't get our public servants to comply with the will of the People, then we can run a candidate of our own in the election. That's when I decided to step up to Democracy and run for office.

In addition to working as a school nurse, I also own and, with my 2 sons, manage rental units, which are our main source of income. In preparation for the next disaster, we have an ongoing food farm which provides enough for our family and local tenants.

The world is shrinking and we all need to work together for the Common Good. A world without Justice can't have Peace. I want to do what I can to increase social justice for the residents of Mendocino County.