JENKEL property: PD Editorial: [finally, some voices saying this is wrong!]

PD Editorial: The unsavory lightness of Jenkel's undoing
https://www.pressdemocrat.com/articl...p=all&tc=pgall

https://www.pressdemocrat.com/apps/p...W=600&border=0
CHRISTOPHER CHUNG / The Press Democrat
John Jenkel walks across a field he lost in a civil dispute. The new landowner, Paul Hobbs, had the
redwood and oak trees on the property clear cut.


Published: Thursday, June 2, 2011 at 7:00 p.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, June 2, 2011 at 12:58 p.m.

There once was a man with a horse ranch who lost a civil dispute with a neighbor concerning the fate of a grove of fir trees. A judge ordered the rancher to pay his neighbor $350,000 for damaging the trees.

The man either didn’t have it or just refused to pay.

So his property was seized and auctioned off for a fraction of its value. Two houses the man had on the property were burned to the ground. And a grove of redwoods along the main road was cut down to make way for a vineyard to be planted by the new owner of the property — which, lo and behold, just happened to be the neighbor.

And when all was said, auctioned, burned and clear-cut, the man still owed the neighbor more than $300,000.

The beginning of some horrific tale from feudal 15th century Europe? No. It’s the modern story of 72-year-old John Jenkel of Graton and his neighbor Paul Hobbs, a Sebastopol-area winemaker.

What makes the tale all the more disturbing is that it is all entirely legal. Hobbs won his lawsuit fair and square in a Sonoma County courtroom. The house was sold at auction by the Sheriff’s Office. The houses were burned by the firefighters from Occidental, Forestville, Gold Ridge and Graton in a training exercise. And the redwood trees were all mowed down and plowed over, and the vines will be planted with all the proper permits.

There is no question that Jenkel is his own worst enemy. His style and his constant conspiracy theories make him someone who is hard to like and even harder to help. He is eccentric. He has been a thorn in the side of city and county government officials for a long time. He believes Willie Brown had some connection with 9/11. He believes one of the levees in New Orleans was intentionally blown up “to drive out the underprivileged.” He once hired protesters to picket the funeral procession for a Sonoma County man killed in combat. He collected abandoned cars on his property that were unsightly and rusty.

But Jenkel is still a human being. And one wonders whether the general dislike for his antics was allowed to cloud judgment.

The Board of Supervisors should investigate the facts surrounding the dispute and the sale of Jenkel’s land. We’re left with many questions and fear the same thing could happen to anyone, particularly seniors and others who may be incapable of making good choices on their own behalf.

For starters: Why was there no minimum bid established at the time Jenkel’s property was auctioned? The last parcel — some three acres — was sold at the absurd price of $1,000. The only bidder was Hobbs.

Did Hobbs simply make out the check to himself? According to county records, since 2009, Hobbs has acquired more than half of Jenkel’s 16 acres for the cumulative price of $61,000. This is outrageous.

Furthermore, could anything have been done to save at least some of the redwoods lining the property, and were neighbors and other local residents given sufficient time to give their input on the conversion of the land to vineyards? Locals are understandably frustrated about the whole situation.

This is just a chilling reminder that not all that is legal is fair, right or morally defensible.


******************************************
2B note: so happy to hear Mr. Jenkel say definitively, unequivocally, "I want my land back."
i'm hoping to speak for all concerned citizens when i say, we want to help. personally, i'm not so sure these actions against Mr. Jenkel were "legal" harruumph!