I thought things were settling down.
The Rio Linda Elverta Community Water District had crossed the Rubicon and started down the path to providing us with plenty of clean and fresh water. The majority had turned the tide. Wells were being drilled, contracts being signed… hell, we even got an honest to goodness, non-interim General Manager in Mary Henrici.
So I stopped attending the monthly meetings of the Board of Directors.
Boy was I wrong. It’s not the first time. Just ask my wife.
This month’s North Country News (which you can now find on my North Country News page) and this past week’s Rio Linda News demonstrate that Vivien Spicer-Johnson and Cathy Nelson- Hood have not yet given up in their efforts to destroy our water district. In fact, Johnson and Hood have lifted their game to a new level of crazy.
I don’t know what else to call it. Vivien Johnson is batshit insane, and she’s got Cathy Nelson-Hood right in her lap, hand in her back, moving her lips to spout half-truths, outright lies and create drama where there is none.
Vivien Johnson is hell-bent to run the district the way she wants it run, or destroy it in the process. Let’s look at the evidence.
In this month’s NCN (North Country News), she details the petition for a recall election for board member Frank Caron. The RLECWD will have to foot the bill for a special election… That could cost $100,000 or more. The petition is signed by the usual suspects… Viven Spicer-Johnson, her mother Rebecca Spicer, the unqualified, unsmartified ex-GM Joe Sherrill, and his wife Alicia Sherrill, co-conspirator Cathy Nelson-Hood, her mother Mary Nelson, half-term board member Stephanie Suela, and a handful of others not smart enough to read what they were signing.
Does it sound like she’s working in the best interests of the ratepayers?
Did you know she’s walked out of meetings and has been paid for them three times in the last year? Instead of working within the structure of the BoD, she had a hissy fit, and took her ball and went home. Three times.
Now does it sound like she’s working in the best interests of the ratepayers?
Johnson’s been involved in destroying organizations for a long, long time… Reading the oldest copies of the Rio Linda News you’ll find that she was involved in the Elverta FD consolidation with the Rio Linda Volunteer Fire Dept. She was also involved in the consolidation of the RLEFD with American River Fire. Just this past year she was sticking her nose in and rabble rousing in the business of the Elverta School District. It wouldn’t surprise me to find out that she had a hand in the Twin Rivers school district consolidation as well.
So, who’s next? The Rio Linda Elverta Recreation and Park District? The Lions? The VFW? The Moose Lodge? God forbid she gets aspirations of a REAL political career and makes a run at County Supervisor. City-County consolidation would be moments away.
BTW, that’ll never happen, because she’s already created a reputation of being unreasonable, irrational, obnoxious, rude and just plain nuts with LAFCO.
The other big news is the sexual harassment lawsuit against Frank Caron from Cathy Nelson-Hood.
Are you beginning to see a pattern here?
They don’t like Frank. They don’t like Martin. They don’t like Courtney.
However, facts are facts. Since last November’s elections, there’s a hole in the ground called Well 15. Water’s going to come from that hole and be pumped up into your shower, your sink, your garden hose and your fire hydrants. How long has it been, during the CRAW/Mary Harris/Vivien Johnson era of governance, how long has it been since ANY new wells have gone in?
In fact, wells have gone out of production since the Harris/Johnson debacle began. We have less water available now.
That’s why Nelson-Hood and Spicer-Johnson don’t like the most recently added board members. They cut through the crap instead of creating more. They get things done.
They. get. things. done.
Cathy Nelson-Hood wrote a letter to the NCN (North Country News):
Editor:
On or about May 16, 2011 during a closed session Frank Caron touched my leg inappropriately. Even before this incident I have repeatedly asked that I do not have my seating arranged to be next to Frank Caron.
Since this happened I have changed my seating and name tag and when I come to each meeting it is back in the same place, next to Frank. I am asking that my seating be changed immediately and permanently to reflect my concerns. I don’t care if Vivien Johnson moves or Frank Caron moves or I move.
I am also requesting that the video tape of the closed session be secured in the district office until further determination that I may file a legal suit against Frank Caron and the District for failure to prevent me from having to endure Sexual Harassment from an elected official of the Rio Linda Elverta Community Water District.
Sincerely
Director Cathy Nelson-Hood
(This letter was read to the public and the board at the Rio Linda Elverta Community Water District board meeting on July 18th.)
Nelson-Hood is going to drag Frank Caron AND the RLECWD through the courts on a sexual harassment charge.
Let me be very clear: I wasn’t there. I don’t know what happened. Putting on my bouffant beehive Vivien-Johnson-as-Uncle-Sam-but-less-racist hat, I’ll point out that everyone is innocent until proven guilty in the court of law. Sexual harassment is a tough charge to prove. Anyone who’s been through training knows that the accuser has to prove a hostile work environment.
Nelson-Hood says Caron touched her leg inappropriately. Did he? Was it? What is inappropriate? She’s asked not to be seated next to Caron, but did she ask him not to touch her?
What’s inappropriate is trying this case in the scope of this article without all the facts. I’m not going to do that.
What I DO know is that there’s a pattern of behavior here; Vivien Spicer-Johnson and Cathy Nelson-Hood are loosing their grip on the RLECWD and how it’s managed, and now they are doing everything in their power to sink the ship.