#51. Miles Slattery’s Journey of Resilience: From surfing in Del Mar to Eureka’s Bold Urban Vision

Scott Hammond: Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages, my be- new best friend, Miles Slattery. Welcome to 100% Humboldt.

Miles Slattery: Thank you for having me. I didn't even know the name of it. I like the name.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, yeah, 100%. Um, so like to hear the Miles story. Where'd you come from? How'd you get here?

Miles Slattery: I was born and raised in Southern California, in Del Mar when it was a very small, little surf town.

Scott Hammond: Nice.

Miles Slattery: Um,

Miles Slattery: mom, single mom. Two brothers, one's a lawyer, one's a, a, a artist, a photographer. Um, was, lived there. I was born in '70, but my mom moved there in 1967. It's much different than what it is now. Now there's Legoland extending all the way

Miles Slattery: east of I-5.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Miles Slattery: When I first moved there, there was absolutely nothing. It was about a town of about 400 people. It's very small. Um, it's very affluent now, but grew up very poor.

Miles Slattery: Um-

Scott Hammond: Used to be a surf town.

Miles Slattery: Yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Little, little surf town.

Miles Slattery: And, uh, yes, it used to be tiny.

Scott Hammond: Did you go to San Dieguito High?

Miles Slattery: No, I went to Torrey Pines.

Scott Hammond: Better.

Miles Slattery: And then I became a, a delinquent and-

Scott Hammond: You did

Miles Slattery: … dropped out and ended up being in a continuation school, went to Sunset,

Miles Slattery: uh, High.

Scott Hammond: Where's that?

Miles Slattery: Graduated that. It's right next to San Dieguito.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Miles Slattery: So it was right, uh… Went there. I played sports, football and, um, basketball in high school until I got kicked off the team for nefarious activities. And then-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Miles Slattery: … I got out of, uh, high school.

Miles Slattery: So in my s- junior year, I left Torrey Pines, um, 'cause I was a little delinquent, and then went and graduated within, like, six months

Miles Slattery: and-

Scott Hammond: Oh

Miles Slattery: … graduated a little early, got a scholarship. Came up here to Humboldt State. Um, went to Humboldt State from '89 to '94, and then I was still up here until '97. I worked at, uh, old Dave Grenzel. You know Dave Grenzel?

Scott Hammond: I know that name.

Miles Slattery: Grenzel, his brother Dan is a Caltrans guy, but Dave ran the Liquor

Miles Slattery: Still for-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Miles Slattery: … decades.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Miles Slattery: Vietnam vet.

Scott Hammond: Absolutely, yeah.

Miles Slattery: Wily, wily guy. Hangs out with, was good buddies with, uh,

Miles Slattery: um, Mike Bodhi. RIP Mike, just passed away recently.

Scott Hammond: Saw that, yeah.

Miles Slattery: But, um, good buddies-

Scott Hammond: What-

Miles Slattery: … with Bodhi, Tom Benny. So I've n- I've known them, you know, from-

Scott Hammond: Liquor Still in Valley West?

Miles Slattery: Yep.

Scott Hammond: Yep.

Miles Slattery: On Giuntoli.

Scott Hammond: Yep. Famous.

Miles Slattery: Worked there from literally '89. He was pretty much a good fa- I mean, I didn't have a dad growing up, but pretty much a father figure for me when I first came into college.

Scott Hammond: Great.

Miles Slattery: Gave me a job. Worked there the whole time I was up here from '89 to '97, and then later in, like, 1990, I worked at the, at the Sea Grill, um, as chowder boy for-

Scott Hammond: Oh, is that right?

Miles Slattery: … about four years. Yeah, I worked with Holly and-

Scott Hammond: Best salad bar ever back in the day

Miles Slattery: … with Holly and Keith, yes.

Miles Slattery: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Great restaurant. So you and I have a parallel universe. I was raised by my mom in National City.

Miles Slattery: Oh, okay.

Scott Hammond: Went to Sweetwater High School.

Miles Slattery: Oh, sweet.

Scott Hammond: A couple years earlier, but same idea. Uh, total, little bit maybe more delinquent, if that's possible, than you.

Miles Slattery: Nah.

Scott Hammond: And, uh-

Miles Slattery: I, I, I shouldn't tell all of the stories- … but I have a hard time believing that one.

Scott Hammond: I, I'd really like to hear some of your stories. Yeah, no. Back in the day where Del Mar was small, my dad lived up in Oceanside, and we'd go up there and surf and stay, and North County was always fun. And-

Miles Slattery: Yep

Scott Hammond: … and Del Mar was that, you know, like Leucadia and Solana Beach, the little

Scott Hammond: village.

Miles Slattery: Yep.

Scott Hammond: And now I, I, I'm, I'm online, I'm looking at Encinitas, and I, there's this, this Instagram group. There's, like, crazy crime in Encinitas. It's like it, it's taken off. Like, street crime is everywhere.

Miles Slattery: Yeah. Um, drug, substance abuse is pretty big in Encinitas. Leucadia's tried to stay as small as it, as it was back in the day. I was just there, um, this past week. We went down there visiting. But it's a, it's a poop hole to me now. There's way too many damn people down there.

Scott Hammond: And that used to be the nice part.

Miles Slattery: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Miles Slattery: Yeah. It's way too many people.

Scott Hammond: You used to go to Del Mar Fair in the summers and-

Miles Slattery: Yep. It's now the state fair, but yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Miles Slattery: I saw my first, I saw, uh, uh, The Police and, uh-

Scott Hammond: Sweet

Miles Slattery: … come on. Who's the ska band? Anyway, The Police and that famous ska band, but it was my first ska show I went to.

Scott Hammond: The one ska guys. Stray Cats are not ska.

Miles Slattery: No, no. It was, uh-

Scott Hammond: Oh.

Miles Slattery: Come on.

Scott Hammond: It'll, it'll come.

Miles Slattery: Yes, it'll come.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Miles Slattery: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: We used to go to Sports Arena and see Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, and-

Miles Slattery: Yep

Scott Hammond: … The Dead and-

Miles Slattery: Yep. I was a little hesher growing up. I didn't, you know, big into Iron Maiden and Metallica and those type of groups-

Scott Hammond: Sweet

Miles Slattery: … until I got older, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. All the hardcore guys.

Miles Slattery: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Miles Slattery: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Uh, yeah, I could start talking about concerts. I don't wanna bore you or me. So what'd you study at Humboldt?

Miles Slattery: I was a fisheries biology major. Graduated in '94. Um-

Scott Hammond: Oh

Miles Slattery: … after that I graduated. I, um, stayed up here for a few more years working, and then, um, moved down to San Diego, worked for a consulting firm-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Miles Slattery: … uh, down there from, for about two to three years. And then I got a job as a, uh, chemist. I was a chemist, uh, for the city of S- San Diego's water quality monitoring program.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Miles Slattery: And then I did that for about eight years. And then 2006, they put a hiring freeze for the city of San Diego and, um-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Miles Slattery: … a salary freeze on everybody. Lasted for, like, 15, 20 years or something.

Scott Hammond: Whoa.

Miles Slattery: So I started looking for a job. At that point, my wife was making more money than me, and we looked, we just, she had just gotten pregnant, and so we looked into daycare down there, and it was, uh- I would, I would be losing money if we took our kids to daycare down there.

Scott Hammond: Go backwards, yeah.

Miles Slattery: So then we've- That's when I started looking up here, and then I got a job at the city of Eureka, the, uh, project manager r- running the stormwater program, and then moved up-

Scott Hammond: Oh, wow

Miles Slattery: … moved up from there.

Scott Hammond: So how many years ago was that?

Miles Slattery: 2006.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Miles Slattery: So I've been here for, what's that, 18 years?

Scott Hammond: Funny how many people return back to Humboldt.

Miles Slattery: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: You know, whether they're local-

Miles Slattery: It wasn't planned.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Miles Slattery: That's for sure.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, w- whether they're local or they're transplants, they come back sometimes.

Miles Slattery: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. What do you like about living here?

Miles Slattery: I just thought it was very similar to like when I grew up in Del Mar. You know, you had mountains to the we- east and, uh-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Miles Slattery: … the surf. I never will live away from the surf. I've surfed all my life. Um-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Miles Slattery: … and the ocean is big for me, so.

Scott Hammond: Surf guy, cool.

Miles Slattery: Um, it's very much, uh, similar up here. I mean, the weather's, you know, a little more-Wet and damp, but other than that, it's very

Miles Slattery: similar.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Miles Slattery: Um, and there's really good surf up here. There's better surf up here than it is in SoCal.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, my buddy G- Justin that works at the Black Book, he, uh, he's got all these secret spots up the coast 'cause they, they… He calls up people all the way to Gold Beach.

Miles Slattery: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And there's all these cool spots that he, he won't tell anybody.

Miles Slattery: Yeah, it was in college when, um… I mean, it's changed a lot up here. You used to go out to line up, and there was nobody, and there's… It's packed. It's, uh, comparatively to what it used to be.

Scott Hammond: Where do you surf now, like Camel or…?

Miles Slattery: Well, I, I keel with my kids, and so I'll go with Camel, but, you know, I, I'll surf anywhere. My favorite spot is, uh, Canes Road, um, up by the

Miles Slattery: lagoons.

Scott Hammond: Oh, right, right, yeah. That's way up there.

Miles Slattery: Yeah, and it's a really good beach break. A lot of the beach breaks up there are really good. That's where a lot of those se- secret spots I'm sure your buddy goes to.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Miles Slattery: There's some really good beach breaks around there.

Scott Hammond: He's got several, yeah. So our, our secret spot is, uh, right above anywhere on Scenic Drive with, uh, my wife and I in the van and a picnic and a bottle of wine, some Dick Taylor chocolate.

Miles Slattery: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Oh, wait. Hey, there's, there's the Dick Taylor bag.

Miles Slattery: I need my sponsor.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, I wish

Miles Slattery: Andy, sponsors?

Scott Hammond: I, I need some sponsors. Yeah, I should probably do that. So yeah, no, thanks for being here.

Miles Slattery: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Appreciate it. So what's a city manager do?

Miles Slattery: If you talk to Rob Barclay, I don't do anything. I get paid too much.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. I have Rob… I gotta get Rob on the show. I was telling Nick, I go, "Let's get Rob here." He goes, "Yeah, why wouldn't you?"

Miles Slattery: Oh, yeah. No, no.

Scott Hammond: I go, "Hey, hey."

Miles Slattery: It's a great idea.

Scott Hammond: Nick, Nick entertains everyone.

Miles Slattery: Yeah. Um, I work at the, um, direction of council, and, um, they set policy. I direct staff to implement that policy, so through programs and services to implement the policies that they come up with. And so it's a, it's a very interesting job. It's similar to my… You know, I was a community services director before that, ran Parks and Rec and the zoo and-

Scott Hammond: Up here?

Miles Slattery: All of the… Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Oh, wow.

Miles Slattery: So that's what… I started project manager in Public Works. Public Works was a much bigger department back then. It incorporated all of community services as well as what's in Public Works now.

Scott Hammond: Is that Park-

Miles Slattery: And-

Scott Hammond: Parks and Rec, too?

Miles Slattery: Yeah, it had Parks and Rec, Harbor, Zoo, everything.

Scott Hammond: Rec manager Humboldt State.

Miles Slattery: Oh, nice.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, back in the day.

Miles Slattery: Um, and so yeah, we bas- basically implement policy. Um, much to people's chagrin, I'm, I'm not political at all. Um, I could work for anybody, and I take direction very

Miles Slattery: well.

Scott Hammond: That's great.

Miles Slattery: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: That's good. I like, I like the write-up on, on the website. It has, you know, always encourage feedback, listen to concerns and needs, creating a space, conversations.

Scott Hammond: I mean, what… I guess, what else is there if you can't listen to concerns and, you know, get involved?

Miles Slattery: Yeah, uh, my coworkers think I'm crazy because I, I actually enjoy the, the grief sometimes.

Scott Hammond: The grief.

Miles Slattery: The grief happens often, and, uh-

Scott Hammond: It's called feedback

Miles Slattery: … both sides have a problem if… And it's my opinion that you're never gonna make everybody

Miles Slattery: happy. So as long as you're open and honest about it, you got nothing to worry about.

Scott Hammond: There you go. I like that, that transparency. I don't have answers, and that's transparent.

Miles Slattery: Yes. I've said that before, yes.

Scott Hammond: I don't have all the answers.

Miles Slattery: I can't tell you why that is happening. I've said that often.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Yeah, well, that's… Hey, you didn't create it. You can't fix it. Maybe, you know? That's a legit, a legit deal. So what are, what, uh, um, what do you see are challenges? I mean, we'll, we'll get to the parking and housing thing here. We'll cycle to that, I'm sure. But what, what general… You know, I've sat with a lot of people that said, you know, healthcare, housing, homelessness. I mean, is… What's your, what, what, what's your perspective? What, what do we, what do we have to address sooner than later?

Miles Slattery: Well, I mean, priority-wise, I mean, obviously homelessness is a huge issue, and that correlates with housing, and that also correlates with health, um, the healthcare. You know, the lot of the problems that we have with healthcare is that people, we don't have the housing stock for folks that are in that field, whether they're on the low level or on the high level.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Miles Slattery: So I think all of that is associated, um, together. I do think that, um, you know, economic development can, can cure a lot of those woes.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Miles Slattery: And I think that we've done really well with that, um, in the recent history.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Miles Slattery: Um, we've had more development in our Old Town and waterfront area than they've had in the past 30 years at least-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Miles Slattery: … um, from private development. Um, we've got well over $100 million in projects going on-

Scott Hammond: Sweet

Miles Slattery: … um, currently. And so I think those are good things. I'm getting a lot of, um, requests and discussions about properties and interested developers from hotels to other things like that, and it's, um, it's good to see, and, um, a lot of the, the revamping. We're not there. I'm not, you know, an idiot.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Miles Slattery: I know that there's still a lot more to do and-

Scott Hammond: Takes time

Miles Slattery: … there's a lot more.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Miles Slattery: But I think that that's a big part of it, and that'll help cure a lot of those other issues. But, um-

Scott Hammond: What's the big pa- patch right below, between Adorni, uh, below the,

Scott Hammond: the Ingomar? That they, they were gonna bui- build a Marriott there 30 years ago and never did. Where they do the whole-

Miles Slattery: So you're talking about, uh, basically Halverson Park.

Scott Hammond: Halverson.

Miles Slattery: To the east.

Scott Hammond: Thank you.

Miles Slattery: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Miles Slattery: So we just went… Not just. We put out a, a RFP for that property about, shoot, six years ago now, um, and got the RFP back, awarded it, excuse me, to Travis and, uh, Bode, Travis Snyder and, uh, Stephanie Bode. And so they just recently got through the permitting for that-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Miles Slattery: … uh, property there. So the east side of Samoa Bridge is gonna be a kinda upscale RV park.

Scott Hammond: Oh, wow.

Miles Slattery: And then the other part is eventually gonna be a mixed-use development.

Scott Hammond: East side meaning the side toward Arcata?

Miles Slattery: Yes.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Miles Slattery: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: And mixed use-

Miles Slattery: That mixed use

Scott Hammond: … meaning housing and hotels or…?

Miles Slattery: It could be housing. It could be hotels.

Scott Hammond: Oh.

Miles Slattery: Um, visitors serving will have to be on the first floor, which is kind of a wider range of different options. But that just… We did that in 2018 or '19.

Scott Hammond: Oh.

Miles Slattery: And then it's just taken a long time to get all the, the permitting done, but that's happening, and that'll transfer ownership hopefully in the near future.

Scott Hammond: And then they can develop something.

Miles Slattery: Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Or begin to look at.

Miles Slattery: Yeah, or begin to look at it. I mean, that's the thing is, you know, we've… C to F is another property that's, you know, high on people's lists and priorities and stuff like that, and-You know, when we've done it in the past, um, we haven't been successful because, well, A, they turn into lawsuits, but B,

Miles Slattery: um, it's difficult as a public entity in telling developers on what they want to do.

Scott Hammond: When you say C to F, meaning down, um-

Miles Slattery: The gravel lot, um, next to Madaca Plaza.

Scott Hammond: Of course, yeah.

Miles Slattery: Yeah. So that, um, you know, it's been through two different RFPs, gotten pretty far on both of them, had a, you know, disposition and development agreement and was moving forward with a couple of projects there. Both of those ended up in lawsuits.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Miles Slattery: Um,

Miles Slattery: and it's, it's, it's difficult. Um, I think now there's a lot more prospects and a lot more interest in this area, which

Miles Slattery: is good.

Scott Hammond: That's good. Yeah. That– Right now it's dirt parking.

Miles Slattery: Yes. Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: For events.

Miles Slattery: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Dusty and dirty. So the balloon track, that's all Rob Arkley's deal with Security Pacific, right?

Miles Slattery: Security National.

Scott Hammond: Security National.

Miles Slattery: Yep, and they're, they're moving on that. I mean, they've been doing a lot of progress on it. They recently just got a coastal development permit to do some preliminary cleanup of the property-

Scott Hammond: Okay

Miles Slattery: … basically to remove some of the debris so that they can do some, some testing.

Miles Slattery: Um-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Miles Slattery: … but yeah, we've, we've been in discussions with, uh, Tim and, uh, Kenny about, you know, getting that done. They just got the, that coastal development permit to do that cleanup, and

Miles Slattery: then-

Scott Hammond: Ah

Miles Slattery: … I'm sure they have intentions on doing something-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Miles Slattery: … in the future.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Miles Slattery: It's got a long way to go, though. The zoning's still an issue.

Miles Slattery: They n- the application to rezone it after that ballot measure was not successful and didn't go through.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Miles Slattery: And so now the project is– the, the property is in limbo as far as zoning.

Scott Hammond: That's been limboed for, I mean, nothing happening to the property for a long time, huh?

Miles Slattery: Oh, at least 15, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Crazy. Yeah. Remember they were, they were getting closer years ago. They were just-

Miles Slattery: Yeah, that's when that ballot-

Scott Hammond: … receiving

Miles Slattery: … measure happened.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Miles Slattery: About 10 years ago.

Scott Hammond: They voted it down.

Miles Slattery: No, they voted for it.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Miles Slattery: It was approved, but, uh, once you get that approved, you have to get a local coastal pra- program amendment, and so you basically have to apply to the Coastal Commission, tell them what you plan on doing there, do some environmental studies. They submitted an application. Application wasn't adequate-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Miles Slattery: … and then it never got followed up on.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Miles Slattery: So that-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Miles Slattery: … rezoning never occurred and is never official. And as a matter of fact, right now the Coastal Commission's about to deny that permit. It's gonna go back to zone being, being public, so-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Miles Slattery: … they'll have to address that if they plan on using that for, um, any

Miles Slattery: other uses.

Scott Hammond: Hey, how about those trails coming in from Arcata?

Miles Slattery: It's huge. It's really big. Yeah, that was one of my biggest projects was building the waterfront trail for Eureka, and that was, uh… It's good to finally see that Hank's getting that done.

Scott Hammond: That's your baby, though. Or-

Miles Slattery: I don't know about that

Scott Hammond: … at least you're a part of it.

Miles Slattery: Pretty much did it from beginning to end. Yeah, we got all the grant funding for it, and that's when I kinda transitioned from doing stormwater to environmental programs, and that fell under my purview. And so we first got the grant from-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Miles Slattery: … um, California River Parkways for the Hickshari Trail.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Miles Slattery: That was the first part of it. And then we went out and got all the funding from Caltrans and, like, six other granting agencies. I think it was a total of 15 million to finish it from Truesdale all the way up to, um, Tidstreet there.

Scott Hammond: That's a great legacy.

Miles Slattery: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, that's a great, great spot.

Miles Slattery: That's just a job, not a legacy.

Scott Hammond: Yes. Legacy's something else. So, so when this trail comes in from Arcata, I was– I've been watching every day on the way in from McKinleyville. I look at it and go, "Okay, so how, how does it– When it comes to the bridge to Target, how does it… Are they gonna build their own, like, bike bridge or…"

Miles Slattery: They're putting, um– And I think this was the final design, but they put, um, a treatment on it that will allow for people to ride bikes and everything like that, but also still, um, have a flange that will go down so that you can still put, um, whether the, the, the petty, the petty, uh, rail cars that the, um-

Scott Hammond: Oh, yeah

Miles Slattery: … Driscoll has.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Miles Slattery: And the, um, speeder trains.

Scott Hammond: The speeders.

Miles Slattery: So they'll still be able to do that. They're just putting a treatment over the top of it.

Scott Hammond: Okay. So there's a speeder bridge that I'm, I'm, I'm thinking of the 101 bridge that cars cross.

Miles Slattery: Oh, no, no, no.

Scott Hammond: There's a separate unit.

Miles Slattery: They're just, they're gonna– There's the, there's the railroad bridge. That's where the trail's going.

Scott Hammond: Gotcha.

Miles Slattery: The trail's gonna go. There was a discussion about cantilevering off of the, the, the, the vehicle bridge on-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Miles Slattery: … the Eureka Slough, but that didn't work out.

Scott Hammond: So where is that bridge? Is it– It must be east. It must be toward the-

Miles Slattery: It's toward the bay. It's west.

Scott Hammond: Toward the– Oh, it's, oh, it's west.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Miles Slattery: You've seen it. It's got all the graffiti on it.

Miles Slattery: Come on.

Scott Hammond: Oh, that one.

Miles Slattery: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yes. It's very colorful.

Miles Slattery: Yes.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Miles Slattery: There's some good artwork on it.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. We just got back from Europe where there's a lot of graffiti.

Miles Slattery: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Belgium's, like, famous for it. It's just crazy. It's everywhere.

Miles Slattery: Tell Patty Carlson there's also a lot of weeds in the gutter there too.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Yeah. Well, there's that. There's always that. So, so this is gonna get done. Ghirardelli's getting that, that project finished. Uh, is it Ghirardelli Engineering, the, the guys that the contractors?

Miles Slattery: Oh, oh, yes. I awarded it.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Miles Slattery: And I believe they subbed with, uh, McCullough, but I'm not sure.

Scott Hammond: I think they're there, yeah.

Miles Slattery: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Miles Slattery: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: I was giving him a hard time. Ghir– Isn't that a chocolate company?

Miles Slattery: Yeah. It's odd because, uh, we– when we did our– We had, we had basically three different bid processes for our trail, and it's about seven miles.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Miles Slattery: And then we just extended to south another mile, so it's a little bit over seven miles. But, um, uh, not, not much interest from outside the area. It was almost all-

Scott Hammond: Oh

Miles Slattery: … local contractors that bidding.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Miles Slattery: Mercer Frazier got the majority of those bids, but, um, Alves even got

Miles Slattery: one of them.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Miles Slattery: Um, you know, and we had most– I, I forget, but there was all local contractors that had done that, so-

Scott Hammond: Oh

Miles Slattery: … it was odd that we didn't get anybody from out of the area.

Scott Hammond: Interesting. Is that unusual? So usually they come, they bid stuff and come bring their teams and-

Miles Slattery: For projects that big, it typically is, um-You'll get people from out of the area. Ours was broken up. I think our biggest section was the section from, uh, uh, Del Norte up to Tiden, and that was, um, about seven million or something like

Miles Slattery: that.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Miles Slattery: This project I believe is 15, somewhere around there.

Scott Hammond: So now I get on a bike at Clam Beach and go all the way to the nuclear p- plant to Spruce.

Miles Slattery: Yep. There's a little bit of voids in there, but yeah. It'd be nice to get across the little river and get up into Trinidad there.

Scott Hammond: That would be nice, yeah. Yeah, they… That'd be a lot of permitting.

Miles Slattery: Yeah. RCA has done some preliminary stuff to go south though, to get to CR. I think that's-

Scott Hammond: Oh, that'd be cool

Miles Slattery: … that's probably a, a bigger priority-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Miles Slattery: … for most folks right now is to get down to CR so you can sort of-

Scott Hammond: So go around Fields Landing and King Salmon.

Miles Slattery: Yep. Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: That's great. What a great legacy. Yeah, we talked about Redwood, great Redwood Trail and, and you know, maybe some of us could see that in our lifetime or part of it.

Miles Slattery: Yeah. The, the, the Eureka Waterfront Trail, there was a Eureka Waterfront Trail and Promenade recommendations that was done in, God, was it '98 or something like that? Jen Rice and a bunch of folks put it together. So this has been on the books as a, as a, a vision for a very long time for the city of Eureka, and so it was good to get it done. I mean, we started in 2008, and it was complete by

Miles Slattery: 2013, so.

Scott Hammond: Crazy how it goes so slow.

Miles Slattery: Yeah, to get to that point.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Miles Slattery: Yeah. It's Gary Bird's fault. That's the reason why it didn't get done.

Scott Hammond: Gary Bird?

Miles Slattery: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Doc, Doc Bird?

Miles Slattery: Yes.

Scott Hammond: I like Gary. He's a great guy. So what's your average day look like? You, you roll in at the crack of 10:30 and just-

Scott Hammond: … light up a smoke and-

Miles Slattery: That-

Scott Hammond: … a cigar on the roof and-

Miles Slattery: It de- it depends. I mean, it fluctuates. I mean, it's, uh… You know, obviously with council meetings and stuff like that, you can have some really long days. You know, I usually get in around 9:00. You know, I work from home sometimes, but usually get in around 9:00. Um, you know, I have many, many weekly meetings that are, you know, Wednesdays, and then council meetings have agenda reviews.

Scott Hammond: Yep.

Miles Slattery: But typically get up, get into work, um, typically a lot of meetings.

Miles Slattery: Um-

Scott Hammond: That's right, you're on TV a lot with the council meetings.

Miles Slattery: Oh, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Miles Slattery: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: You get a lot of TV time.

Miles Slattery: So that's every Tuesday. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: So a lot of-

Miles Slattery: The first and third

Scott Hammond: … the same people talk at those meetings.

Miles Slattery: They do. They definitely do.

Scott Hammond: It's like, "Wait, I've heard this guy and he said the, something similar last time."

Miles Slattery: Yes, yes. They're, they're, they're pretty persistent.

Scott Hammond: And then the attack backs people, and then there's the other guy and it's like-

Miles Slattery: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … oh. What Jody and I d- very rarely get out of McKinleyville, but we actually went to the, uh, We Are Up, uh, planning-

Miles Slattery: Oh

Scott Hammond: … it was county planning commission. And it was cool. We got to testify and hang out and listen to folks-

Miles Slattery: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … uh, rattle and prattle and tell their two cents and pretty good to participate.

Miles Slattery: Yeah. No, it is good. And we, I think we do a pretty good job of that as far as, you know, access both through Zoom and, you know, we, we, we stuck to the Zoom and doing the hybrid meetings where-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Miles Slattery: … we can have both people in person as well as participating by Zoom. And, uh, I think it works out well. Um, the more the merrier, you know? Some of the s- opinions are different than others, but-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Miles Slattery: … still good to allow people to voice their opinions.

Scott Hammond: Absolutely. Let's talk about that. Here comes my big zinger question.

Scott Hammond: You ready?

Miles Slattery: Mm-hmm. Yes.

Scott Hammond: This is like a softball. Here it comes.

Scott Hammond: Um, so after it's all said and done and everybody had their two cents and somebody's still not happy and they're being an, a obstructionist A-hole, what, what do you do as a, as an institution, as a, as the city manager, as a team to go, "You had your shot. You struck out. We're moving on and gonna do the project. Love you, I mean it. Now go sit down."

Miles Slattery: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Is there… Does that, does that happen?

Miles Slattery: Oh, yeah.

Scott Hammond: It seems like everybody-

Miles Slattery: And it happens both ways. It, you know-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Miles Slattery: … um, a perfect example is, uh, um, Nick's favorite Dolbeer W one-way, uh, debacle that, that happened. And I wouldn't call it a debacle. I shouldn't say that, but it was, it was a lot of public participation.

Miles Slattery: Um-

Scott Hammond: Is that a street that-

Miles Slattery: Yeah, we were looking at putting-

Scott Hammond: This, this Nick?

Miles Slattery: Yeah. We were looking at putting, uh, W in front of the zoo and Dolbeer on the front of Washington to be one way.

Miles Slattery: Um-

Scott Hammond: Oh, okay

Miles Slattery: … in front of the zoo was gonna be southbound and then front of Dolbeer, Dolbeer

Miles Slattery: was-

Scott Hammond: Gotcha

Miles Slattery: … gonna be northbound. And so it was a part of a com- a policy that council adopted that we were implementing. So every time that we do a road project, we try to incorporate all modes of transportation. It's a complete streets policy. Every time we do this, we-

Scott Hammond: Like bicycles

Miles Slattery: … look at the options-

Scott Hammond: Yep

Miles Slattery: … and either find options for bicyclists, pedestrians, whatever it may be.

Scott Hammond: Yep.

Miles Slattery: So this was a part of that. And we had made announcements to the superintendent at the time, Fred Van Vleck.

Miles Slattery: Um, that communication didn't go much further than that for some reason.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Miles Slattery: And so by the time we were doing a demonstration and by the time that we were considering it at council, it came as a big shock to a lot of people.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Miles Slattery: And so we had, shit, at least four or five meetings. Um-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Miles Slattery: … hours and hours of participation. Had did special meetings just for that. But, you know, um, typically our council would lean going that way-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Miles Slattery: … and they chose not to, and so they, they went against it and went against them.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. They listened to the feedback.

Miles Slattery: Yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Miles Slattery: And it's, you know… It was on both sides. People sit there, Nick will say that there's nobody who liked that project, but that's definitely not the case. There, there was-

Scott Hammond: Sure, there had to be somebody.

Miles Slattery: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: There was somebody, Nick. Come on, man. It's like Central Avenue going to one lane and being part… It's just like, it, it's… Unless you live in McKinleyville,

Scott Hammond: it's, it, it might sound okay, but it's pretty much lunacy. And I, I don't know about Dolbeer and that, but it… McKinley, you know, McKinleyville's t- you know, two lane, four lanes right now and

Scott Hammond: it, it's unimaginable at one lane. It would just be backed up all the way out to Valley West and-

Miles Slattery: Especially with the number of lights that are on there.

Scott Hammond: Correct.

Miles Slattery: I lived in McKinleyville for a long time, so.

Scott Hammond: So you know. Yeah.

Miles Slattery: Yeah. But yeah, um, this was a little bit different. It's not so much the volume on it, it's just the, the, the school and the concerns.From the school. It would've made it extremely- Mm-hmm … inconvenient for folks as far as travel time Also, you're the bike guy. Are you- I'm not. See, I walk everywhere, and I do own a bike, but I do walk everywhere. Um- Did you walk, did you walk here? I kinda- That's, that's our policy, um, that our council has. And so our council has a certain direction. Yeah. I could have five Robin Arkleys on there, and I would do just as good a job for him as I do for them, so it's not- Amen … it has nothing to do with any of my opinions. Yeah. While I do hold some opinions, um, whether people ride or, or a bike or drive a car, I could really give two cents about. That's how, that's how Amsterdam got to bicycles and all of Netherlands and lots of Europe. It's took years of planning and meetings and- Yeah … now it's amazing. Everybody's on a bike or a train. It's, it's so cool to go over there and, uh, a car is just lunacy. Why would you have a car? Yeah. It's similar. My brother went to, uh, law school out in Washington, DC, and it's very similar there. You own a car there, it's pretty much worthless. Yeah. Have an e-bike, just ride around. Yeah. So were you part of the, the I, uh, the, the J and, and I Street, uh, s- s- H and I? H and I, sorry. Yeah, so that was another one that was- Oh … I mean, it was a super long process. We had a grant, um, with RCAA to evaluate that property, that, those, um, two main thoroughfares, and went through many meetings with Eureka City Schools, many meetings with the public, um, went through all that and then went out and got grant funding, and then that happened. Um, I live right there. I walk that street every single day- Mm-hmm … both of them, and in my opinion, it's been successful. I think the aesthetics of it are better as well. Fine. Yeah. And, um, it's- Drive right through. It's not crowded … it's no different than, you know, we got Harris, um, Henderson, other main thoroughfares, Myrtle. Mm. They're all one lane. Mm-hmm. You know, and having that was- Mm-hmm … and you know, as much as Nick may deny this, everybody on H and I love what has happened there. Mm-hmm. Um, I haven't heard a negative comment- Yeah … from any of the neighbors that have- Would you deny that, Nick? Nick's like the f- the fifth wall. Yeah. He's like…

Miles Slattery: So, uh, let's talk about, uh, let's talk about Arkley and the, and the downtown development a- around housing and stuff. I'd love to hear the history. You guys are, are mandated to create some housing. There, there's some stuff I, I don't fully understand it, but you can explain that. And, uh, and then we're gonna talk, we're, we'll do the, uh, the super fun part. Okay. Yeah. So, uh- All right. I'm not gonna make it … I usually save the fun part for last. Why would I do that? So- … here, here it is. You ready? We'll do the fun part now. So, uh, you and your sweetheart get to, uh, go anywhere to dinner in the county, and it's on, it's on Nick 'cause he's, he's loaded. Uh, where, where do you guys go to dinner? Where would you choose to eat? Oh, I can't answer that. Uh, there's so many of them. Um- Yeah, top five … you know, if, if the owner of the Double A didn't hate me so much, I'd probably go get a steak. Nice. No, I'm just joking. Ah. I still go there. I love you, Mike. I always have. Um- Mike's cool. Mike's cool.

Miles Slattery: So I, I, all, all of them. I mean, I mean, there's really good restaurants. My, my kids really love The Diver, so we go to The Diver often. Yeah. Good, good food. Um- Good burger … yeah, they love to grab there.

Miles Slattery: Um, you know, there's many of them. Marcella's, I mean, I brought Marcella into the golf course, and so, um, Cocina Mariposa, um- Oh, she's great … the golf course is killing it. Yeah, they used to have a- They always have good food. They were at Beau Pre. She was there. She started Taco Friday. Yeah, that's how I stole her, so I was, uh- Oh, that was you … I used to play in the league night. Yeah, I stole her from- Oh, crap. Yeah … and started a business for her and her mom. I used to go up there every Friday, man, and that was you? Yes, it was. See, Mike? So we got that. Um- Oh, she's a really sweet girl … a lot of them. 511 has epic food. We have some pretty good restaurants, you know. We really do. Yeah. We have good food. All right. Question number two. Mm-hmm. You get to hike for the day. Where do you go hiking? Uh, I'd probably say on the beach. Mm-hmm. Most likely. Mm-hmm. Or, you know, Strawberry Rock or something like that, but likely the beach. Okay. Um, I used to run on the beach all the time, and now I just walk, but, um, take my dog there, dogs, and the beach is my go-to spot. Gotcha. Hey, surfer question. Mm. Mm. Perfect conditions, nobody's out. Where are you gonna surf? What- Cane's Road. Cane's Road, that's your favorite. That's your go-to. I like a, a, a steep beach break, yes. So Cane's, uh, does it actually go east as well up into the hills, or is it just- I believe it does. If you come to, you can only get on it, um, on the southbound. I don't think you can get it on it from the- But that's on the other side of Big Lagoon. Yes. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Between Big and whatever Dry or whatever the next one is. It's Dry, but yeah. Yeah. I think my wife has hiked out that way. Yeah. There's some- And then I've surfed the end of, um, Freshwater Lagoon at the very far north end and had some really good… So my first time I've, uh, that I know of that I was swimming with, uh, a shark, and I've- Wow … seen a shark out there. That's pretty- But it was a really, really good surf. Is Big- And then the mouth of the Klamath was- Oh … I've surfed that really good as well- Huh … which is a scary place to surf, but it's good. I bet there's a lot going on in that. I'm sure there is. I just- Sharks and salmon and stuff … don't wanna know. It's weird, though. We just got back from SoCal and surfed, you know, Scripps and Del Mar Beach Break. Um- Yep … and it, way more sharks. They do drone footage, and there's a boatload of sharks. There's been two swimmers nipped in Del Mar Beach Break in the last- Right in Del Mar … maybe three months. Yeah. You used to go to Black's Beach? Oh, yeah. Yeah, that was fun. Got some really good footage of Black's, yeah. Yeah. It was- I bet you did.

Miles Slattery: … good, yeah. So Black's is a nude beach. No, no, I wasn't referring to that. Just for, just for the record- No … Nick. No, of course not. No, that w- There's two, two of my, the biggest days I've ever surfed were Black's, and then I surfed, uh, Patrick's Point when I was in college here, and it was good- Pretty big … 20, 20, 20-plus. Pretty epic, yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Black's could break really big. These last, not this past winter, but the two previous before that, it was, uh, 20 plus. Great. And in, in good form? Perfect, yeah. Wow. Yeah. Huh. Really good. Mm-hmm. Well, I got some stories- Tough paddle, but yes.

Miles Slattery: Yeah

Scott Hammond: Yeah, Blacks is cool. That, that felt like you were away because you have to hike to get there as you-

Miles Slattery: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … I'm telling you nothing, but yeah. Huh. All right. Good surf story. So, uh, you have a mandate to g- uh, create more housing for Eureka, and it started when, and how is it funded, and how, how's it going, man? I, I know you're getting some opposition to that.

Miles Slattery: Uh, it's fine. I mean, I, I, like I said, I mean, it's something that our council's directed and the state has mandated.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Miles Slattery: Um, there were ways of doing it differently, but our council chose to do it the way that we did it, and so what it is, is we do a general plan update every 20 years, and this is a part of that general plan. It's called the housing element. Um, so back in about 2018, Rob Homeland was our community services director at the time. He's at the Harbor District now.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Miles Slattery: Um, did a really good job of getting public input, and basically for the general plan, he did a big presentation about what people in Eureka want Eureka to look like. Do they want it to look like Broadway and what we see on Broadway, or they want to look like it's an old town? And the way that he describes that is that the zoning changes that we made in the '50s and '60s resulted in development that you see along Broadway. Prior to the '50s and '60s-

Scott Hammond: Truck stop

Miles Slattery: … it resulted in the development-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Miles Slattery: … that you see in Old Town.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Miles Slattery: It's very clear that people were much more supportive of infill development. Obviously, we can't go much further. We're, we're pretty built out. So they're in favor of infill development, redevelopment of existing properties, um, lessening parking and-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Miles Slattery: … allowing property and development to go to the property

Miles Slattery: lines, um, decreasing setbacks, allowing for higher buildings-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Miles Slattery: … those type of things. So that was proposed. They did a big– About 200 people showed up to the Wharfinger to, to, um, hear that presentation. They did, you know, voting and little sticky notes on what people wanted to see. Based off of those meetings, we developed our housing element. Um, when we first did our housing element, it wasn't intended to offer up property. So what we did, as we had done in the past for the affordable component of the housing element, we said we can demonstrate we have an- the appropriate zoning to accommodate these numbers.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Miles Slattery: Um, and we wanna get through that with accessory dwelling

Miles Slattery: units.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Miles Slattery: And so we did that, submitted it to the Housing Community Development, the Department of State. Um, we got a, a bunch of people commented that that was not adequate.

Miles Slattery: Um, and so that's when we started looking at other alternatives, and one of those alter-

Scott Hammond: Adequate in terms of number of units of housing?

Miles Slattery: No, not being successful, 'cause we had done it in the past-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Miles Slattery: … and we never met the goals, and the state was very much… And what's a misnomer for a lot of people, they think that the housing element is solely related to affordable housing. It's not. There's over 900 units that we are required to build by 2027.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Miles Slattery: Of those, 300 are affordable.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Miles Slattery: Then there's about a third of it that are market rate.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Miles Slattery: And then another third of above market rate.

Miles Slattery: And so-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Miles Slattery: … we're not just doing, doing affordable houses.

Scott Hammond: '27's coming up. Yeah, that's not that far away.

Miles Slattery: It is.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Miles Slattery: It is. Now, when they say develop, it needs to be in the process. We need to have agreements. We have disposition and development agreements and be going through the process.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Miles Slattery: Um, but a lot of that's gonna be helped. Anyway, to stick to s-the subject, that happened. Um, we resubmitted our housing element. Housing element got approved.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Miles Slattery: After it got approved, we did our first set of requests for proposals of basically, here's three properties. Who wants to develop them?

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Miles Slattery: Send us your financials, send us what you can do-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Miles Slattery: … and your experience, and then we'll pick one of you.

Scott Hammond: And these are parking-

Miles Slattery: Parking lots

Scott Hammond: … parking lot centers.

Miles Slattery: The first ones that we did were 8th and G, Sunny and Myrtle, and 6th and M. Um, Link Housing was awarded that. I think we had four respondents to it. We chose Link Housing to do that. Um, didn't really hear much. You know, there was one– On 6th and M we did because they– after that was awarded to them, they did specific meetings and did outreach to all the neighbors and stuff. And so we heard from Pro Pacific about them losing their personal parking lot to put their vehicles there. Heard from some of the other people that, um, there were concerns. But it didn't really rise to the level of-

Scott Hammond: Right

Miles Slattery: … um, anything major because when those concerns were brought, Link went out and mitigated for those things. You're talking about-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Miles Slattery: … Micah Transit, all those other things. But then we were about set to set out the second RFP, which was gonna be more the three parking lots that were gonna be in Old Town. It was gonna be 2nd and E-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Miles Slattery: … um, 5th and H, and 4th and G. Um, when we noticed everybody, told everybody that was going to happen, there was significant concern. So I made the decision to stop the process, got the state super pissed off, um, and we held three meetings to discuss those properties and concerns. When we discussed those properties concerns, um, I made the offer of, "Look, if you guys think these are so valuable, we're willing to

Miles Slattery: trade-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Miles Slattery: … properties with you. Um, we don't have any money to purchase properties, but if you want to find another property that provides the same capacity for housing and allows it for, from a zoning perspective, then we'd be more than willing to trade with you." So, um, I had a discussion with John Dalby at Redwood Capital Bank.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Miles Slattery: Pearsons, Kenny, Steve, and Tim at Security National.

Miles Slattery: Um, we had many properties that were allowed and would have worked, um, with Redwood Capital Bank and Pearson. They ended up doing a third-party deal. Um, he traded, um, three of our parce– we traded three of our parcels for his property over on Fairfield between Henderson and Harris, and then after that happened, they made a deal with Redwood Capital Bank to buy, um-Those parking lots. And, um, all of them were owned by Redwood Capital Bank, and more recently, um, Security National bought the one adjacent to City Hall.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Miles Slattery: Um, but when we were dealing with Security National, we had a property, I had an MOU ready to go. We were gonna trade for fifth and D. Everything was ready to go.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Miles Slattery: Um, had that draft, was gonna take it to council. At the same time, we took the one for Pearson.

Miles Slattery: Um, the person who owned the property, it was on Pine and Harris. The person that owned that property asked more than asking price-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Miles Slattery: … and Security National backed out and didn't, didn't-

Scott Hammond: Why?

Miles Slattery: So that never traded. So everybody who tells you that this just happened overnight is sniffing glue. This has been a very long process, and we've

Miles Slattery: done-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Miles Slattery: … as much as we can to get as much input as possible.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Miles Slattery: Um, but you know, some people just aren't satisfied with that, and so they're definitely, um, not happy with,

Miles Slattery: um… I mean, there's people that are very happy. And I hate to say it, but it's probably about a 50/50. Um, some people are very,

Miles Slattery: um, excited about putting housing in Old Town and allowing for that. Um, Main Street, um, overall is supportive of that.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Miles Slattery: I think some of the problems that I hear from a lot of local businesses is that for the wages for these retail and customer service type jobs, um, it's very hard for them to find housing.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Miles Slattery: And that's a good spot for them to be in 'cause it's close to their work and, um, would allow for them to have housing.

Scott Hammond: And services all down there.

Miles Slattery: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Miles Slattery: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Huh.

Miles Slattery: Yeah. So that's where we're at now, and then there's a lot of lawsuits and other things going on that kind of ancillary to that, but, um-

Scott Hammond: Isn't there a ballot measure of some sort?

Miles Slattery: Yeah. So Measure F is out there right now, and it's looking to rezone the Jacobs property that just fell out of, um, escrow, and also to

Miles Slattery: restrict and put an overlay on all of the parking lots in Eureka that would

Miles Slattery: require if any development was to happen there, they would have to maintain the number of public parking-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Miles Slattery: … but also on top of that, make sure that they don't have any variances for. So a perfect example, and this is the reason why I consider this to be very anti-development, and Rex Bohn made a comment that this is, uh, parking is the backbone of redevelopment, and I couldn't find– I, I thought he was joking when he said that because the first thing that happens in the 20 years that I've been in this type of work and dealt with development, the first people things– The first thing that developers ask is, "How do I reduce the number of parking?" Because it costs money, and it, um, makes it less feasible to develop-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Miles Slattery: … properties.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Miles Slattery: A perfect example is the beautiful development down on Second and E Street. Um, that property would have never happened if-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Miles Slattery: … this overlay was put onto that property. There's no way that that four story with the rooftop bar-

Scott Hammond: Sushi joint, yeah

Miles Slattery: … um, would've ever happened-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Miles Slattery: … um, if this was a requirement.

Scott Hammond: Interesting.

Miles Slattery: It's just cost prohibitive.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Yeah. Hmm. So what about Jacobs? What i- what happened there? What j- what just happened?

Miles Slattery: Uh, I'll tell you, it's really unfortunate, and I feel really bad for the school board 'cause they're taking the brunt of this. I think there was some very bad decisions made by, um, certain administrators and certain lawyers that were representing them, and that they didn't see this coming was very

Miles Slattery: odd to me.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Miles Slattery: Um, it was very clear to me that this was a political ploy.

Scott Hammond: Hmm. So there was a sale of the property by a secret buyer?

Miles Slattery: Well, what it was is… So we were negotiating for years, and it's funny because AMG, whoever represents them, feel free to call me by the way at AMG. I'd love to talk to somebody there. Um, he claims that-

Scott Hammond: 707-444…

Miles Slattery: No, 599-2053.

Scott Hammond: I get your cell.

Miles Slattery: You can call me.

Scott Hammond: Okay, good.

Miles Slattery: Um, so,

Miles Slattery: uh, it was– We had negotiated for years, so it was us and CHP looking for that property. We were looking to relocate our corporation yard and also partner with Eureka City Schools on a rec center and maybe some housing on top of that. So we went through a very long process. I got the property appraised. We asked way more, I mean, we offered way more than what it appraised for.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Miles Slattery: It appraised for about $800,000 as a publicly zoned property.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Miles Slattery: We had it appraised as it being, um, a multi-family zoned property, and so that allowed us to offer about 2.8 million for it.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Miles Slattery: Um, so we offered 2.8 for it. CHP was involved in the mix. Come to find out later that they were offering four million. So we dropped out of the mix probably about a year before that December meeting happened. Maybe a year and a half. So through that whole time, CHP is dealing with the school board, dealing with Fred Van Vleck.

Scott Hammond: What would they, what would they do? Would they have a yard for their cars?

Miles Slattery: They're gonna relocate for out of Arcata.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Miles Slattery: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Which is really small.

Miles Slattery: Yeah, but they're new. It's the Department of General Services that their architect, they have a, a

Miles Slattery: model-

Scott Hammond: So it'd be a bigger-

Miles Slattery: … facility. It would be a five, six acre type thing. They, they could own-

Scott Hammond: That's-

Miles Slattery: They want at least six acres.

Miles Slattery: So, um, they continued to negotiate. As a matter of fact, CHP held a public meeting, um, with the neighbors to discuss… So it was very close, obviously.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Miles Slattery: Then at the last minute, um, they put out a, an agenda summary saying that they have a new person that is thinking of buying this. Um, and it came out-

Scott Hammond: Tough

Miles Slattery: … you know, literally two days before the actual meeting was

Miles Slattery: occurring.

Scott Hammond: Wow. Huh.

Miles Slattery: And then it came to fruition that they were gonna buy the property. They promised a two-week escrow, and that'll be done. I believe I made a comment on this on, on Nick's show, but they, they promised a two-week escrow. Um, obviously, that didn't happen. Um, I think that the school board wisely wanted to make sure that they were putting up or shutting up, and they basically were re– uh, subdivided the property so that they could make it good to go. They gave them extensions all the way up to August 8th of last week. Um, and they basically-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Miles Slattery: … said, "Hey, you put up or shut up. We're ready to roll." And they came back and said, "No, we wanna hold on to…" Just imagine this, November. I wonder why they would wanna wait till November.

Scott Hammond: Huh. Is there an election?

Miles Slattery: And then there, and then there's– What's funny about it is they're sitting there and saying that, "Well, of course they would do that because who would do that if they couldn't re– If you buy that property, I'll rezone that property for you within two months."

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Miles Slattery: So knowing what-You know, these people that are saying, "Well, I would never buy a property if, you know, I, I didn't know what the zoning was gonna be." When you buy the property, especially in the inland-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Miles Slattery: … you can rezone the property, and we'd be more than happy to. Especially if it was for housing, we would rezone that property in a heartbeat.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Miles Slattery: And it would be done very quickly. So this excuse that somehow they didn't wanna do this 'cause they don't know what's gonna happen with the ballots measure is bullshit.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. So I, I, it kinda begs the question, who, who is, who is this buyer?

Miles Slattery: I think everybody can, can make… I can tell you you'll never be able to trace it to that person.

Scott Hammond: Uh-huh.

Miles Slattery: But that person is very clearly, if you read the articles in the North Coast Journal and what came out of the supposedly redacted public records-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Miles Slattery: … um, I think it's very clear when Security National is basically being discussed for three months without anybody knowing of it, and then that same deal that was negotiated by Security National on behalf of Security National-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Miles Slattery: … then they go away, but just turns out that the same exact deal-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Miles Slattery: … is there. I, I, I don't think it's too hard to put two and two

Miles Slattery: together.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Lot of politics going

Scott Hammond: down.

Miles Slattery: That's what's so disturbing to me, and I had a, a, a, a political ploy is the reason why they bamboozled our community, our students, and the Eureka City School Board.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Miles Slattery: Totally based on a political ploy, and it's just… It, it really sucks that they would make it this divisive thing-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Miles Slattery: … um, that didn't need to happen, put well-intentioned people on the board in a very bad spot-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Miles Slattery: … and, uh-

Scott Hammond: And now they're taking some heat

Miles Slattery: … intentionally.

Scott Hammond: Heat for that.

Miles Slattery: Oh, they've been taking heat from the beginning.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Miles Slattery: And they're, they've been given, in my opinion, very bad direction by a s- a school administrator and a lawyer that represents them.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Miles Slattery: Extremely poor advice.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Miles Slattery: But when you're a grocery store owner, a, a, a guy that runs a mill, a, a, a, I don't know what Pardo does, and, you know, those folks and, you know,

Miles Slattery: uh, Johnson and Olivier, you know, you're not in the business of surplusing public property or doing this.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Miles Slattery: So to, to put it on them is, i- is wrong.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Miles Slattery: Um, you definitely have to put it on the people that are giving them advice.

Scott Hammond: Right. Right. The buck has to stop.

Miles Slattery: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Thanks for sharing that. That's more convoluted than I would've thought.

Miles Slattery: Yeah, it's a… And it's really disappointing, you know. I mean, to, to go through all of this, and whoever these people are that are representing AMG, it's, it's a real disservice to our community that they would do that. Um, you know, there's a lot of different things that could have happened, and, um, some of the misinformation that's being put out there is just-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Miles Slattery: … disgusting.

Scott Hammond: Hmm. It seems like that would be a chief frustration i- in any circle, all this lost time and effort and, and

Scott Hammond: energy, and we could have been so far down the road if we would've had-

Miles Slattery: Oh, 100%. You know, it's already been-

Scott Hammond: Something. Yeah

Miles Slattery: … it's been a problem for, you know, over 10 years, 15 now, or something like that. It's been… You know, and you're finally getting to the point where something's gonna happen. You have a very well-financed agency that's willing to do something to make a very blighted property no longer blighted.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Miles Slattery: And to play this game is disgusting.

Scott Hammond: So where does it stand today, then? To… The, the buyer-

Miles Slattery: It's ownership. Buyer's out.

Miles Slattery: Um-

Scott Hammond: It's for sale

Miles Slattery: … claiming that, you know, if the ballot measure passes, they're gonna buy it. And I made this comment on the thing. If the ballot measure passes and somebody buys this, and I'm not speaking to you, Robin, of course, but I would definitely quit my

Miles Slattery: job if-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Miles Slattery: … the ballot measure passes and they buy it for $6 million. That's the biggest farce I've ever heard.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Miles Slattery: And people who go out there and… I had somebody posted on social media about how they could justify the cost of 5.3 or $6 million for an eight-acre publicly zoned property. You are sniffing glue. Um, if they're sitting there saying they– What they did is they took the parcel and said, "Oh, your average lot side is, you know, a 10th of an acre, and if you'd put 10th of an acres on there, and this is the going price for a house, then it justifies for 6 million." Well,

Miles Slattery: Einstein, you need to put in all of the infrastructure. Every single one of those single-family and multifamily have to have their own wastewater fees, impact fees. It would cost you millions and millions of dollars. You have to put in roads, curb and gutter. So when you're doing your math, Einstein-

Scott Hammond: Apart

Miles Slattery: … feel free to make sure that-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Miles Slattery: … you, you know, factor in the actual cost-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Miles Slattery: … because there's no way, especially if the 40% of that needs to be affordable, you ain't making your money back for

Miles Slattery: decades.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, that is-

Miles Slattery: Actually, probably hundreds of years.

Scott Hammond: Opie used to say, "That dog don't hunt."

Miles Slattery: No.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, yeah. I understand. Well, cool. Let's talk about you for a minute.

Miles Slattery: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: I've, I've done talking about you. Let, let, let, let you talk about you. So what's your legacy? Let's, let's, let's go back to the L word. What, what do you wanna be remembered for? And I… You're– I mean, you're just getting started as far as I can see, but what's your, um… What do you wanna be– What, what's it gonna say on the tombstone? What do you wanna be th- thought about, uh, when you– the day you, you come to retirement?

Miles Slattery: I don't– You know, for me, it's like I said, it's not– It's odd. I really enjoy what I do, and I, I think I do it very well, but, um, I don't think of a work legacy or anything like that, or even a, a personal legacy. I love my kids. Um, I want my kids to be good people.

Miles Slattery: Um,

Miles Slattery: I'm,

Miles Slattery: like, overly honest, and I, I think that's a good trait, um, even though it rubs people the wrong way. Um, I try and be as honest as possible. Um, I've learned a lot over the… I was very, uh, have to be right kinda guy for a long time, and-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Miles Slattery: … being in the position that I'm in now, um, you realize to pick and choose your battles, and-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Miles Slattery: … I think I do a good job of doing that.

Miles Slattery: And I think the biggest thing to me is treat people, you know, well, regardless of who they are. Uh, I don't care if it's a custodian, a, a policeman, or a, a, a billionaire. I, I treat-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Miles Slattery: … people the same way.

Scott Hammond: That's good. Yeah. It's Humboldt, man. That's what we do.

Miles Slattery: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Well, cool. Appreciate you coming on. Um, parting shots, anything you

Scott Hammond: wanna share?

Miles Slattery: No. I love the new digs though, Nick.

Miles Slattery: It's nice.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Nick's rocking it, man.

Miles Slattery: Anybody wants to do a podcast, I'm telling you, come on in.

Scott Hammond: This is the place.

Miles Slattery: Yeah. What is it, 10 bucks an hour?

Scott Hammond: 10 bu- He– His price went up a little bit. So if we wanna get ahold of you, you got your cell phone, but you, you got– You have an email.

Miles Slattery: Email. I don't do social media at all. I think it's, uh,

Miles Slattery: um… I don't know. It's, you know– I, I think it's a, a big problem in, in our world today, the people getting their news from social media and not doing work. I mean, when we talked about the, the, um, parking study and some of the misinformation that's being on social is just mind-blowing to me, and they don't even bother. Alls you gotta do, I mean, you're on the internet.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Miles Slattery: Just Google the damn parking study and read it-

Scott Hammond: Fact, fact check it

Miles Slattery: … and don't listen to this stuff. It's not that difficult.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Miles Slattery: You know.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. No, it's far easier to get a meme.

Miles Slattery: Yes.

Scott Hammond: Here, it's a cartoon. Oh, yeah.

Miles Slattery: And, and when it's funny season like this and election season, you know, you, you wanna make up as much stuff as possible.

Scott Hammond: I see that a lot. Yeah, it's, uh, it's, it's certainly out there. Well, Miles, thanks for being on the show, man.

Miles Slattery: Of course. Thanks for having me.

Scott Hammond: All right. Have a great day.

Miles Slattery: Anytime.

Scott Hammond: Thanks.

Miles Slattery: You too.