Well, it looks like the North Coast Journal hit a home run in Humboldt County. They’ve coined Alan Bongio a Racist and now they’ve gone a bit farther. They’ve been doing dedicated research analyzing the articles by other local press, re-reading their own reports while capturing exclusive interviews with the Director of the Planning Commission, John Ford. In all honesty, the conclusion arrived at by the North Coast Journal, on its face, does seem incredible. 

In a recent article published in the North Coast Journal titled “It All Adds Up,” authors Jennifer Fumiko Cahill, Thadeus Greenson, and Kimberly Wear break out their woke calculator to do some Optics math. In their latest flimsy attack, they set their sites not only on Alan Bongio but now on the wives of both Alan and Travis Schnieder. However, as you probably expect, none of their woke math adds up!

[ez-toc]

STORY AT A GLANCE: 

• 7-30-2018 Alan Bongio becomes Chair of Humboldt Planning Commission
• 10-8-22 Alan Bongio uses the word “Indians” to abbreviate the names of 3 Wiyot tribes
• Tribal members, North Coast Journal + other woke press attack, Alan, claiming the use of the word “Indians” is:
  • Racist, Bias, and Insensitive
• Alan Steps down as Chair of the Planning Commission
• Planning Commission unanimously issue an apology letter to the Wiyot tribes
  • Planning Commission accepts full responsibility as a body
• Humboldt Community Service District members jump on the cancel bandwagon
  • Heidi Benzonelli and Michael Hansen motioned a second time for Bongio’s removal
  • This effort fails, and Alan Bongio remains Chair
• North Coast Journal releases a hit piece titled, “It All Adds Up,” 
  • Attacks the wives of Alan Bongio and Travis Schneider. 

*NOTE: This is Episode 2 of Alan Bongio Did Nothing Wrong

What would compel North Coast Journal and the local woke press to attack the families of their political opponents? Please refer to “Alan Bongio Did Nothing Wrong – Episode 1 to get caught up in this endless saga

Ep 1 | Alan Bongio Did Nothing Wrong

North Coast Journal – Alan Bongio Did Nothing Wrong – Episode 2

From a 30k-foot view of the Schneider project, I agree with the North Coast Journal; the permitting and overall governmental management have been a mess. However, I split away with them specifically over their thirty efforts to tie the name Alan Bongio with racism, creating a boomerang effect with political correctness to keep any detractors silent. You will see below how they seek to pin the blame on one man, painting him as a racist in the process, while simultaneously giving a complete pass to every other party equally responsible for this travesty in local governance. 

Corruption among even the local, privileged elite is something an individual with baseline situational awareness should expect in 2022. I am not naive.

However, it is a surprise to see the shirt-tag-relative association of these men used as a tool to apply political pressure on them through the mentioning of their wives. In their piece, North Coast Journal calls them racists, then applies that political pressure on their wives. They then create a predicate out of thin air based on a relationship that only exists on paper to turn around and pretend as if they’ve uncovered a crime. 

It seems as though they are desperate for a win.

Maybe this is connected to a recent failure [videos below] to get Alan Bongio canceled at the Humboldt Community Service District ( HCSD ). I had the privilege of witnessing these feckless cowards say words like “integrity,” while they tried and failed a second time to cancel Alan Bongio. However, courage is contagious, and having witnessed folks standing in support of Alan at the previous Planning Commission meeting, a couple showed up to support him at this off-the-cuff meeting for a service district I honestly never even knew about.

Mixing Fact and Fiction, “Familial Relations”

“We know, for example, that Bongio is related to Schneider through his wife’s family, and we know that relationship apparently meant enough that Bongio spent a day volunteering his time to do concrete work on the project — facts that Bongio withheld from his fellow commissioners. 

“We also know that it seems that concrete work likely occurred when Schneider was constructing his home without a final building permit — in flagrant violation of the law.” 

“..it seems a sitting commission chair actively hid his involvement in a project and his familial relationship with the applicant while doing everything he could to push permit approvals through without added scrutiny, perhaps because he knew such scrutiny would unearth the laundry list of code and permit violations that have since been laid bare.” 

–North Coast Journal, “It All Adds Up” –LINK

The problem with what they claim to know is that the mere knowledge of something one has been told most definitely does not make it true. In reality, Alan loaned Travis’ team his concrete stamps. That’s it. Alan says he showed up at the site, dropped off his concrete stamps, then went on his way. Someone from the site returned the stamps to Alan’s driveway a day or so thereafter. The folks at North Coast Journal are completely aware of this.

They are just so deeply invested in their “Destroy Alan Bongio” crusade they’d rather sacrifice their integrity making a mountain out of a molehill than have to pivot this late in the game toward any semblance of truth. Let’s be honest with ourselves here folks, they made a choice to frame it this way because the entire premise of their conspiracy is predicated squarely on the idea Alan and Travis are uber-tight, concrete volunteer blood relatives.

Blood is Thicker Than Water

“Familial relationship means a person who is a spouse, domestic partner or civil union partner of a County employee or State, County or municipal official, or any person who is related to such an employee or official, whether by blood, marriage or adoption, as a: Parent, Child, Brother, Sister, Aunt, Uncle, Niece, Nephew, Grandparent, Grandchild, Father-in-law, Mother-in-law, Son-in-law, Daughter-in-law, Brother-in-law, Sister-in-law, Stepfather, Stepmother, Stepson, Stepdaughter, Stepbrother, Stepsister, Half-brother, Half-sister.” 

lawinsider.com

This conclusion ought to be obvious to any honest observer. Nevertheless, North Coast Journal chose to sacrifice any remaining journalistic integrity they once had chosen to invest themselves in this “Familial Relation” absurdity, regardless of how easily the entire premise crumbles under the weight of a moment’s scrutiny.

The North Coast Journal claims Schneider and Bongio are related. They Claim this connection is via Alan Bongio’s Wife. They also claim this relationship compelled Alan Bongio to “do concrete work” on Travis Schnieder’s project “without informing the Planning Commission.”

When Folks only read the Headlines

The above claims are crafted together to influence Humboldt into believing Bongio was working clandestinely on Travis Schnieder’s behalf from the point he became chair on July 30th, 2018, up until the August 18, 2022 meeting. They prop up this flimsy conspiracy by twisting the fact these two fellas are barely related on paper by saying their “relationship apparently meant enough” for Alan to do concrete work on the Schneider Project. Obviously, their familial relations are a strong enough bond for Alan to conspire for the family, right? 

There must be undisclosed smoking gun evidence from the North Coast Journal’s investigative reporting. There must be holiday photos floating around somewhere with Alan Bongio and Travis Schneider, lovely Wives and children about them, together at Alan Bongio’s home opening Christmas presents by the firelight. 

Facts are Stubborn Things

• Alan Bongio’s sister is the aunt of Stephanie Bode. 
• Stephanie is married to Travis Schneider. 

“Mary and Stephanie wouldn’t know each other if they walked past each other on the street.” Said Alan Bongio when we reached out for a comment. 

So where are we now?

• We know North Coast Journal either constructed outright fabrications or is fed the same. 
• We know Alan Bongio and Travis Schneider are barely “related” to each other
  • Related through Alans’ Sister’s Husband’s Brother’s Daughter. 
• We also know Alan Bongio didn’t physically work on the Schneider Project
  • Simply loaned Travis’ crew some equipment. 
• Alan Bongio was not conspiring on behalf of Travis Schneider due to familial relations

The image is starting to be very clear, and it looks hideous. 

Mention their wives and hope the edge of racial division politics you’ve fashioned into a sword pierces through your target and also cuts their family in the process. While I expect nothing less than ruthless, blood-sport politics from the left, this is a new low for Humboldt County, California. 

There is a grand canyon delta between saying or using the N-word in any public setting and the use of “Indian” or “Indians” to abbreviate the names of three Local tribes. Do not think too much about the fact Alan Bongio himself voted for, and signed the recent letter apologizing to local tribes he has allegedly offended. 

Don’t think too much about the Apology Letter, discussed and approved unanimously as a body, is quoted as saying “We as the Humboldt County Planning Commission recognize we did not do enough to address the problem, and so are all responsible.” Do not think about the fact he stepped down as chair at that same meeting. It is absolutely forbidden to mention how United Indian Health Services chose to brand its own organization with the word INDIAN! Their domain name is unitedINDIANhealthservices.org – where is the coequal outrage? Where are the calls to remove whoever made this racist decision?  Don’t think too much about that. 

Never mind that Prop 27, currently on the ballot, says in the title that it “Allows Online And Mobile Sports Wagering Outside Tribal Lands..” The first three words of the description for Prop 27, supplied by the tribes themselves say, “Allows Indian tribes..” None of that matters in the Twilight Zone of Humboldt County where Alan Bongio has white skin and said the word “Indians,” North Coast Journal and the local woke press CALLED him a racist so clearly he is a racist.

John Ford and North Coast Journal, Rules for Thee, but NOT for WE

“Had he asked those “hard” questions, he would have found out that yes, Schneider had begun construction on the project at least eight months before receiving a building permit, that he continued construction for 50 days after receiving the stop work order in open defiance of Planning Department instructions, according to Director John Ford, and that his other permits were not, in fact, in line.” –NJC

In the above quote, the information is provided by John Ford, Director of the Planning Commission. The Authors turn around and blame the Chair for not knowing about something the acting Director supplied to them and having confident knowledge of himself, clearly withheld from Alan. 

Why didn’t John Ford, the director who originally approved Travis Schnieder’s permit in the first place, act on his knowledge and do something if he was aware of this coming into these meetings? 

It seems incredibly convenient for John Ford to share his inside knowledge of this situation with North Coast Journal and other local press after the fact, and the North Coast Journal spun this as something Alan Bongio ought to have known in advance. 

None of this is adding up at all, how does this woke calculator work?

Well, troops, we’ve successfully discovered the “errors” in the North Coast Journal article we’ve been analyzing. We’ve reauthored the most specific points from their article below to remove the bias and replace it with the real brass tax. We hope this helps Humboldt County better understand the reality of this situation and help aid them as they divorce themselves from the emotional clickbait bullshit they’ve been fed so far.

John Ford, and every member of the Planning Commission, 

“could have directed hard questions to county staff, asking why plans and permits were approved out of step with the governing coastal development permit, or why staff failed to incorporate specific Blue Lake Rancheria requests made in 2017 regarding Schneider’s permit conditions — requests that might have prevented his subsequent violations. 

John Ford, and every member of the Planning Commission, 

“could have asked about the apparent disconnect between the Blue Lake Rancheria’s assertions that a tribal historic preservation officer and a county planner met Schneider at the property in 2017 (after he’d reportedly graded a driveway without a permit) to show him the cultural site location and discuss its significance, and Schneider’s assertions he had no idea where it was.

But John Ford and the Planning Commission et. al. “didn’t ask any of those hard questions. That’s only part of the reason..” their collective conduct to date simply doesn’t add up. John Ford is clearly a Saint in this entire situation. Indeed there is not a shred of responsibility in the scenario that rests upon the Director of the Planning Commission. You know, the one with a paid staff who issues reports under his direction. No, it is the Chair of the all-volunteer Planning Commission, he is to blame. 

We reached out to Travis Schnieder who only said, “I have no comment,” and then ended the phone call. 

Is this an isolated incident, we doubt it

Stay tuned for Alan Bongio Did Nothing Wrong Ep.3 – coming very soon!

Apology Letter from Humboldt County Planning Commission:

The intent of this letter is to express our sincere apology to the Wiyot People. At the Planning Commission meeting of August 18, 2022, comments were made that were inappropriate and traumatic. First, we as a body unequivocally recognize that these were insensitive, racist, inconsistent with the values of the county of Humboldt, biased, and understandably may have shaken your faith in the impartiality of this Commission.

We further recognize that the comments added to past injuries and injustices resulting from governmental actions. We as the Humboldt County Planning Commission recognize we did not do enough to address the problem and so are all responsible. We understand this has damaged the relationship between the Planning Commission and the Wiyot people and that cultivating a positive relationship with the Wiyot people will require time and commitment.

We apologize for each of our roles in this event and ask for your forgiveness. If you would be willing, we would like to schedule a luncheon outside the Board of Supervisors Chambers to hear from you, grow in our understanding and seek restoration.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

The Humboldt County Planning Commission