Menke, who was appointed by the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors as an alternate to the committee, allegedly threatened committee member Tom Jopson with physical violence during the meeting.
Several members of the groundwater committee who were present at the meeting – including Menke, Jopson and Scott Valley rancher Mark Baird – have acknowledged that Menke directed a verbal threat of physical violence at Jopson.
According to those in attendance, the committee was discussing questions regarding the use of ditch water to maintain coho salmon habitat when Menke was given the floor to speak about the issue. A committee member, on condition of anonymity, told the Daily News that during Menke’s monologue, Jopson asked committee chairman Preston Harris to bring the discussion back on topic. Menke reacted to the perceived interruption by insulting Jopson and Jopson’s wife Sari Sommarstrom, the member stated. Sommerstrom, the executive director of the Scott River Water Trust, was not present at the meeting.
Meeting attendees told the Daily News that Harris diffused Menke’s initial outburst, but shortly after the original incident, Menke had the floor again. Again, Jopson asked Harris to have the discussion brought back to the intended topic. At this point, attendees reported, Menke threatened to drag Jopson outside and beat him. Again, Harris was able to diffuse the conflict before it could result in a physical encounter.
Menke’s position
In the days following the incident, Menke told the Daily News he feels that Jopson has a habit of breaking with proper meeting procedure, which he said dictates that the speaker with the floor is not to be interrupted. He said his comments were sparked by not only procedural issues, but also a long history of idealogical differences between himself and Jopson and Sommarstrom.
At the conclusion of the phone interview with Menke, he stated that he would be resigning from the committee.
Jopson responds
Jopson said his interruptions were not intended to be personal and he was concerned with keeping the conversation on topic. He said he has reminded Menke to stay on topic in the past without eliciting a violent response.
“Would he really have come around the table and physically assaulted me? Who knows. But probably not,” Jopson said. “But I think there has to be a standard of behavior at these meetings. If we’re going to try to solve problems, there has to be a degree of civil discourse. That’s the real issue here.”
Scott Valley Protect Our Water Vice President Mark Baird acknowledged that Menke did threaten physical violence against Jopson.
“I don’t blame him,” Baird said. “Jopson was extremely rude and kept interrupting John.”
Baird said he thinks the whole situation has been “overblown.”
“People say things they don’t mean all the time. If I had a nickel for every time I heard a guy threaten to knock someone’s block off, I’d be a rich man,” Baird said.
Siskiyou County Natural Resource Policy Specialist Ric Costales doesn’t agree.
“The county is deeply concerned about this,” Costales said. “If we can’t have citizens talk in a civil forum in these meetings the process is ruined.”
Costales said he feels this kind of disruption is counter-productive and prevents county appointed committees from being able to discuss issues openly and without the fear of intimidation.
District Attorney Kirk Andrus said that verbally threatening violence against an individual in some cases can be a crime known as a criminal threat under section 422 of the California penal code. He said the crime is known as a “wobbler,” meaning it can be a misdemeanor or a felony. Andrus said the criminality of the threat depends on several conditions, the most important of which is that the threat “is so unequivocal, unconditional, immediate and specific as to convey to the person threatened a gravity of purpose and an immediate prospect of execution of the threat, and thereby causes that person reasonably to be in sustained fear for his or her own safety.”
Marcia Armstrong, county supervisor for district 5 in which Scott Valley is located, said she is also concerned about committee members issuing threats.
“People want to see change and when they don’t, sometimes they get very upset,” she said.
District 1 Supervisor Jim Cook weighed in on the issue as well.
“I am concerned with the credibility of anyone on a committee who threatens other members with violence,” he said. “I want [the committee] to be able to complete their task and anything that detracts from getting the job done is unacceptable.”