Stealth Campaign

Quiet challenge in 3rd District race

By Bruce Robinson

“What contest?” replies one local political observer when asked about the 3rd District supervisorial race pitting two-term incumbent Tim Smith against former Santa Rosa City Council member Maureen Casey. With just six weeks left before the March election, the low-key campaign has not generated much heat. Neither candidate has many signs out yet, there have been only a handful of campaign events, and the usually prolific stream of promotional publicity materials has yet to swell to a full trickle.

In a campaign short on heated debate, Casey has introduced the most lively issue, proposing that the county adopt a business license fee, “based upon the net income of a business,” with revenues used “not to backfill the general fund,” but to support the county’s business community, she says.

Both candidates report they are walking precincts and meeting with voters in small groups, but so far this could be characterized as the county’s “stealth campaign.”

Smith, who ran unopposed in 1992 after winning a campaign slugfest with Eric Anderson four years earlier, is asking for voters’ support based on “how they perceive the job I’ve done.” The core question, he says, is “who can do this job and do it most effectively.”

Smith, a former aide to Rep. Doug Bosco, points to his involvement in the county Open Space District, the internal reorganization of county government, his advocacy for widening Highway 101, and his effort to find management at county-run Community Hospital as some of his visible accomplishments during his eight years on the job.

But for most of his tenure, the 45-year-old Smith has been one of the less vocal members of the board. “He’s pretty quiet,” agrees his outspoken colleague, Supervisor Ernie Carpenter. “I wish Supervisor Smith was more critical of government and a little bit more into cracking the whip. But beyond that, he’s been a good supervisor.”

Because most of the 3rd District lies within the cities of Santa Rosa and Rohnert Park, “the district does not have a lot of fire in it,” Carpenter observes. “It’s mainly all incorporated, so you don’t get a lot of land-use issues,” which are often the most contentious matters that come before the board. “It lends itself to general government, and Tim is, frankly, quite good at general government.”

Not everyone agrees, of course. Casey, 40, obliquely disparages Smith as a low-profile slacker. “I believe that elected officials have a duty to be visible and accessible and to lead the community by example,” she says. “There is a great difference between showing up to be introduced and showing up to work.” Casey describes her non-political occupation as “community volunteer.”

In his eight years on the board, Smith has won few supporters among Sonoma County environmentalists. One exception is Joan Vilms, whom Smith reappointed to the county Fish and Wildlife Advisory Board even though she campaigned on behalf of Anderson in 1988. “I’m hoping that support from people like me will make him stronger in his support of the Russian River watershed and other environmental protections,” Vilms says.

The Sonoma County Conservation Action is not convinced. When the activist group announced its endorsements for the March election last week, they pointedly offered none for 3rd District candidates. “Each has strengths and weaknesses, but mostly weaknesses,” explains SCCA Executive Director Mark Green. “In either case, it’s pretty easy to point at serious problems in their track record.”

Smith has been “really terrible on Russian River gravel-mining issues,” Green says, “and has consistently carried water for the Chamber of Commerce with regard to the widening of Highway 101. He has always talked about rail as something that will happen way off in the future, while pouring every available dollar into the freeway.”

As for Casey, “She has had some really good positions in the past,” says Green. However, “once she became mayor [of Santa Rosa], she really appeared to collapse to the agenda of city staff.” Most prominently, Casey became a champion of the huge new Santa Rosa Marketplace shopping center and the $3 million in city subsidies that eased the project’s path. And she angered and alienated many former allies and supporters when she lobbied to muzzle Marketplace critic Rick Theis. “He was the only person on the Planning Commission who was asking the tough questions,” Green notes, charging that Casey was “bitterly and stridently active in arranging that Rick Theis not be reappointed to the commission.”

Nor does he see that as an isolated instance. “She has lambasted the activist community on many occasions on many issues, and really dropped the ball when she was in a position of power,” Green says.

Eric Anderson, who has worked as a campaign consultant in other recent elections but is sitting this one out, views Casey as “a hard campaigner,” but does not think that will be enough. “It’s going to be different than the City Council race she ran. I think she’s going to need to raise significantly more money than she has.” As of early February, Smith had raised approximately $50,000 for his re-election campaign, a total that dwarfs Casey’s $6,000 in campaign funds.

However, Anderson says the recent wave of anti-incumbent sentiments could work to Casey’s advantage. “That’s one of the wild cards in that race, how strongly people feel about term limits,” he says. “It certainly could be a factor.”

Another possible consideration is gender, adds Carpenter, as Casey could return a female presence to what is now an all-male board. But overall, he’s not sure Casey’s track record as a one-term council member is enough. “Leaving after one term probably didn’t give her the best springboard for being a candidate for supervisor,” Carpenter says. “She should have stayed in there and rolled up her sleeves and been able to show some accomplishments.”

As for Casey’s current candidacy, “I haven’t seen her raise money or be aggressive,” Carpenter says. “It is a quiet campaign, and that obviously favors a popular incumbent.”

From the Feb. 8-14, 1996 issue of the Sonoma Independent

This page was designed and created by the Boulevards team.
&copy 1996 Metro Publishing and Virtual Valley, Inc.

Kiss, Kiss!

America’s chocolate obsession

By Gretchen Giles

Montezuma may be wreaking his revenge on more than just hapless gringo tourists who end up spending their fabulous Mexican vacations squatting in el baño. The Aztec ruler–who reportedly drank up to 50 cups of hot chocolate a day, believing that the elixir contained powerful aphrodisiacal qualities–began a North American craze for chocolate that just won’t go away.

Even if you don’t have a vast harem of mistresses and a panoply of hungry sun gods to appease, you may have to admit to yourself that you’re an addict, helplessly carrying a sweet brown monkey on your back.

Be brave, friend, because you are not alone. Estimates are that every red-blooded American man, woman, and child consumes upwards of 11 pounds of chocolate each year. Be very afraid: they are counting babies. Just what is it about the stuff? Friends who disdain it are treated with the same wordless reserve as are vegetarians at a weenie roast. Just what do they eat, then? Candy corn? Harrumph.

Expensive, difficult to attain, and grown in high, hot, wet places that wilt even the most dashing khaki ensemble, cocoa beans have long been revered as pod-encased gold. The Aztecs discovered it, the decadent French courts of yore had to devise circular felt-pimple covers to disguise its dermatological effects, the Dutch powdered it, and the British felt the need to shape it into very correct little bars. Americans?

Heck, as George Washington himself might have said: “We eat it.”

Is it the caffeine? Perhaps. Regular chocolate packs a bit of a wide-awake wallop. But white chocolate, which contains very little “cocoa mass” (such an ugly term for such a beautiful thing), has no caffeine and still finds plenty of takers. Is it possible that Montezuma was right, and that chocolate screams “love-potion-number-MINE” into your adrenal system? Well, sorry, that’s just the sugar, and marshmallows can do the trick just as well, although they lack a considerable je ne sais quoi. And yes, chocolate does contain that naturally induced little number phenylethylamine, an endorphin that tricks your brain into those giddy first feelings of love. But, as researchers have pointed out, so do cheese and salami.

No wonder so many people fall in love on picnics.

Medical science has let us down. There are no high-falutin’ reasons why the creaky, cranky turn of the menstrual cycle sends so many women into a high bloat that is most nicely fixed with a coy dark wafer of bittersweet wonder.

If your mother is out of the room, it is our duty to remind you that a banana is much better for you and works just as well. OK, maybe not as well, because researchers report that it is your very own mind that is in control here, the mind that so enjoyed the special treats of your childhood and now associates them with the needs of adulthood. It’s taste and melt and substance. Try those with a banana.

Condra Easley, chef and co-owner with her sister Deborah Morris of Santa Rosa’s Renaissance Pastry–where chocolate pastries are a specialty–knows all about it. “I’m an addict,” she admits with an easy grin.

But Easley’s worse than a junkie. She’s a pusher, hanging out in the school yard of your psyche creating cocoa-based marvels that fall upon the eyes and hips with the easy come-on of that first high. You can kick anytime, man.

Right.

Discriminating and French-trained at La Maison du Chocolat, Easley doesn’t waste any calories on American chocolate. However much we may adore it, we just don’t know how to make it. “American chocolates are almost like a bogus wine,” she shrugs. “You pick it, you press it, and you bottle it.”

Easley, who shudders comically at the Hersey treats of her childhood, has made a mastery of chocolate her trademark. She warms it gently, babies it in her hands, wraps it lovingly around lemon-poppyseed cakes, and adds nothing more to it than first-rate cream. Easley uses primarily the Callobut brand, imported from Belgium.

Gesturing to industrial-sized boxes of Callobut in her immaculate stainless kitchen, Easley says, “There’s almost a love and a tenderness that goes into this chocolate. American chocolates are conched [a mixing process] for something like six hours, but you can go eight to 12 hours with European chocolates. It refines and advances the flavor.”

And, she adds dramatically, “I found that a lot of American chocolates use wax.”

Wax is for the bees, as discriminating palates are discovering. Easley likens our current cocoa craze to that which has happened with coffee. European blenders simply “use the best beans,” she reports. “It’s very similar to the coffee scene, where they buy and select beans and roast them.”

No matter who wins the cocoa wars, it’s the consumer who comes out ahead–all fat jokes aside. “It’s quite pleasurable for us to see someone sit down and to see their eyes roll back in their head,” Easley smiles wickedly. “This is a place where people want to come and be naughty.”

Laughing, she adds, “We’re one of the deadly sins.”

Renaissance Pastry is at 525 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa.

From the Feb. 8-14, 1996 issue of the Sonoma Independent

This page was designed and created by the Boulevards team.
&copy 1996 Metro Publishing and Virtual Valley, Inc.

Hot Licks

Doc Watson may find easy pickin’ at last

By Greg Cahill

“To me, music is life set to lyrics and melody–that’s what it is,” says Doc Watson, his soft Southern drawl and rich baritone drifting over the phone line as smooth as the piney wood smoke that fills the hills around his Carolina home. “And I will not play a song that I don’t like. If I can’t feel the lyrics or the melody or both, I won’t play it.

“I can’t put my heart into it.”

For 35 years, guitarist Arthel “Doc” Watson has put heart and soul into his music, earning five Grammy Awards and a reputation as a flat-picker extraordinaire and one of America’s premier acoustic guitarists. In that time, Watson–struck blind in infancy–has recorded more than 40 albums and played with everyone from Bill Monroe to Michelle Shocked. He is the subject of a new four-CD career retrospective, Doc Watson: The Vanguard Years (Vanguard), that includes an entire disc of previously unreleased concert material.

His most recent album, Docabilly (Sugar Hill), is a tribute to the country, blues, and rockabilly that first allowed him to support his family as a professional musician before being “discovered” in 1960 in the heat of the folk revival by a pair of big-city musicologists scouring the Appalachian backwoods for authentic bluegrass and country pickers who could whet the appetites of college kids weaned on such white-bread acts as the Kingston Trio and the Brothers Four. It features an all-star line-up of players that includes bluegrass picker-turned-country idol Marty Stuart, rockabilly legend Duane Eddy, Texas guit-steel phenom Junior Brown, and dobro master Mike Auldridge, among others.

“You talk about some fun,” enthuses Watson, adding that most of the album was recorded on first takes. Those boys can play!”

But now this mountain maestro–who makes a rare North Bay appearance next week at the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts–is planning to put the road behind him and retire to his patch of Deep Gap, N.C., on land homesteaded by his great-great grandfather. “I’m doing about a tenth of what I was doing before I decided I wanted Uncle Sam to give me back some of that Social Security money,” he adds. “I’ll be 73 in March and I don’t like the road. I love the music and I love a good audience as much as anyone alive. But I don’t like the road. I don’t like being away from home.

“I’m kinda like an old dog–I’m hard to run off from home anymore.”

Watson’s rise to the top of the pantheon of country pickers began in earnest in 1964 when he played the Newport Folk Festival accompanied by his father-in-law, fiddler Gaither Carlton, his brother Arnold, and other members of his family. Homespun and unpretentious, and blessed with virtuoso bluegrass licks, his old-timey music was an immediate hit.

In 1964, Watson’s son, Merle, then 15, joined his father as an accompanist, becoming known for bluesy guitar and banjo exchanges. It marked the beginning of a close personal and professional relationship that ended abruptly in 1985 when Merle was crushed beneath an overturned tractor at his farm.

For Watson, the accident proved devastating. “The only time I almost really quit was when we lost Merle,” he says. “I canceled everything that was booked from there on out. And then, I had a dream–which I won’t go into detail about now–about Merle helping me out of a terrible fix that I was into in that dream. That was between the accident and the funeral. I thought, ‘He wouldn’t want me to quit.’ So I called and reinstated the last job on the tour, got out there and did it, and just kept goin’.”

What does he miss most about his late son? “Merle,” says Watson, his voice dropping off to a reverent tone, “just in general. His music, his personality, his friendship, everything about him. Without him, I might have achieved only a third of what I’ve done because Merle was with me during the hard years. And, god, the hundreds of thousands of miles we drove together.”

Still, it’s clear the stage is a special place for Watson. “It’s wonderful. But before you know it, the show is over and you’re thinking, ‘Hey, I didn’t get to play all I wanted to,'” he says. “When you walk on a stage and you’ve got an audience of fans out there and they give you that big hand, it’s like a handshake with someone who’s warm and friendly, only it’s amplified ever so many hundreds of times. It’s a wonderful experience, but it’s never put my head above the ceiling much because I don’t like the pedestal–I kinda hate it, actually.

“I love people. I love fellowship. And I love for people to appreciate what I do. But I don’t want folks to say I’m great or that I’m a legend. That’s bull. Just tell what I did and leave it at that.”

Doc Watson performs Sunday, Feb. 11, at 8 p.m. at the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts, 50 Mark West Springs Road, Santa Rosa. Tickets are $21.50. 546-3600.

From the Feb. 8-14, 1996 issue of the Sonoma Independent

This page was designed and created by the Boulevards team.
&copy 1996 Metro Publishing and Virtual Valley, Inc.

News Briefs

Davis Trial Starts

SAN JOSE A Santa Clara County Superior Court judge banned TV cameras from the courtroom on Monday as the long-awaited trial of state parolee Richard Allen Davis finally got under way. Davis, accused of murdering Petaluma schoolgirl Polly Klaas in 1993 and hiding her body beneath debris near an old saw mill near Cloverdale, sat just a few feet from Klaas family members who held a color photo of the slain 12-year-old. Superior Court Judge Thomas C. Hastings refused to unseal sensitive transcripts and files from the pretrial hearing, which is thought to include a complete copy of Davis’ videotaped confession. He also took under consideration a defense motion to move the trial to Los Angeles. The trial was moved in December to Santa Clara County after Davis’ lawyers argued that their defendant couldn’t receive a fair trial in Sonoma County. The trial is expected to last at least six months.

Nuclear Boycott

WASHINGTON D.C. Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, joined in a boycott of French President Jacques Chirac’s address to Congress last week, to protest the nuclear tests on a French Polynesian atoll. Chirac said before the talk that he had canceled the two remaining blasts, but Woolsey responded that the testing was “irresponsible” and “undermines our move toward a nuclear-free world.” Rep. Frank Riggs, R-Windsor, attended the speech.

ESL School Thrashed

SONOMA A plan by a Sonoma Valley school trustee to segregate non-English-speaking students on a separate campus outraged the education community, where more than 40 percent of students at some schools would meet the criteria for the proposed “magnet” school. Dorene Musilli made the suggestion last week at a school board meeting. Critics point out that the proposal runs counter to recent trends to “mainstream” non-English-speaking students into regular classrooms and is just one more sign of the insensitivity of some local school officials. Last year, the district came under statewide scrutiny when school board president Jason Breaw gave a classroom reading of “The Story of Ping,” dressed as an ancient Chinese storyteller named Who Flung Pooh.

Homeless Services OK’d

PETALUMA Despite some protest by neighbors, the City Council Monday gave thumbs up for a temporary homeless service center to be located at Payran and East D streets. The facility will provide bathroom, shower, laundry and some office services to the homeless. The council approval is based on several conditions, including an increase in area police presence and that the city modify its lease agreements with the Petaluma Library and the Petaluma Kitchen governing conduct around these facilities. The council will receive monthly reports on the homeless center’s operation and there will be a six-month review of the facility to see whether the center increases the number of transients in the vicinity.

Oil Kills Birds

BODEGA BAY Globs of thick, sticky, tarlike oil washed up along the North Coast last week, killing scattered birds and threatening other sea life. The goop, in pieces as large as a football and as small as a quarter, was discovered at locations ranging from Point Reyes to remote beaches in Humboldt County. It is suspected to have come from tankers flushing their holds offshore, but tests are under way to confirm the source.

Crime Rises

SONOMA In a trend that mirrors statistics countywide, newly released 1995 figures show that violent crime is on the rise in the unincorporated part of this southeast county community. While there were no homicides in 1995, there were six rapes (up from five in 1994); 273 assaults (up from 237); 75 domestic violence reports (up from 61); 263 burglaries (up from 221); and 658 thefts (up from 585).

Rapes Admitted

SEBASTOPOL Lonnie Victory, a former roadie for Guns n’ Roses, pled no contest to charges that he drugged and sexually assaulted five women at his home, and videotaped the episodes. The 31-year-old man could spend his next 31 years in state prison if the maximum sentence is handed down.

Oak Protection Advances

SANTA ROSA The county Planning Commission has endorsed a tree protection ordinance that would restrict the cutting of valley oaks nine inches in diameter or larger. The measure, which applies to those specific parts of the county in which the oaks once flourished, will now be subject to public hearings before the Board of Supervisors. It is opposed by the Sonoma County Farm Bureau, which contends that it places too many restrictions on agricultural landowners.

Sewer Capacity Shared

ROHNERT PARK A looming crisis in sewage capacity has been averted, thanks to Santa Rosa city officials. The Board of Public Utilities grudgingly agreed to “loan” Rohnert Park 127,000 gallons of unused capacity at the regional treatment plant, until the long-term wastewater disposal system is ready for use. Several BPU members were critical of Rohnert Park’s poor management of their waste flow and of the city’s reluctance to install water meters, but when the vote came, board member Richard Dowd was the lone objector, saying the loan was a case of “rewarding deviant behavior.” The BPU action prevented a potential building moratorium in Rohnert Park, which was down to its last 100,000 gallons, barely enough for two more years of new growth.

Short Take
The county Board of Supervisors agreed Tuesday to create an ad hoc committee to help draft a ballot measure curbing urban growth.

From the Feb. 8-14, 1996 issue of the Sonoma Independent

This page was designed and created by the Boulevards team.
&copy 1996 Metro Publishing and Virtual Valley, Inc.

Usual Suspects

Dirty Tricks Alleged

They call it The Friendly City, but a whole lotta Rohnert Park residents are unamused by the latest shenanigans taking place at City Hall. First, City Council members and staff faced mounting pressure from homeowners to do something about negligent Building Department officials who failed to adequately inspect individual construction sites during the city’s go-go building years–a situation that has led to a rash of costly building defects. Now Building Department staff are working overtime to doctor building permits to make it appear that more items were checked than on the original forms, according to informed sources. “It wouldn’t surprise me,” says Dawna Gallagher of the alleged coverup, the maverick councilwoman who has championed the fight to remedy the fiasco. Indeed, copies of building permits acquired by the Independent show numerous inconsistencies and imply that public records have been altered to indicate that inspections were made on houses for which the original building permits were left blank and unsigned. Some feel that the city may be bracing itself for a class-action lawsuit. City Manager Joe Netter could not be reached for comment. . . . Meanwhile, angry homeowners met last week with Sonoma County District Attorney Mike Mullins, who promised to determine whether there is evidence of criminal activity relating to the earlier charges of gross negligence. And now the Sonoma County grand jury–which last month blasted the city for failing to detect numerous faulty firewalls in local homes that are creating a public safety hazard–is investigating. A building-gate in the making?

Going for the Gold

Money is the stuff of political life. And in this Olympic year, local political hopefuls are launching a Herculean effort to outspend their predecessors. Dark horse candidate Dennis Chuning, director of operations for Jerry Brown’s We the People organization–who is running for a chance to unseat Rep. Frank Riggs, R-Windsor, in the 1st Congressional District–may want to “put America back to work” (i.e., counter the inability of the working class to achieve a middle-class income), but he also wants to put a few campaign fundraisers out of work. At the Santa Rosa Democratic Club candidate forum on Jan. 24, Chuning challenged his four opponents–former San Francisco supe Carol Ruth Silver, Michaela Alioto, Bill Burton, and Monica Marvin–to sign a pledge limiting primary election expenses to $30,000 each, spending no more than $5,000 from personal accounts and accepting no more than $5,000 from interests outside the district. Chuning calls large campaign contributions “thinly disguised bribes.” He complains that 90 percent of races are won by the biggest spenders and has given the candidates until Feb. 17 to sign the agreement. So far, no takers. District candidates will debate, tentatively on Feb. 27, at the Senior Center in Healdsburg. Call 433-6946. . . . Meanwhile, Chuning has sued the California Democratic Party for failing to notify him about the party’s conference that resulted in an endorsement for party insider Marvin. The lawsuit, filed at U.S. Federal Court, east District of California in Sacramento, seeks to bar the party from ratifying the endorsement.

Hey, Big Spender

Big bucks are the name of the game in the 5th Supervisorial District, where west county candidates have squeezed a record amount of cash from backers. The seven hopefuls vying for the soon-to-be-vacated seat of retiring supe Ernie Carpenter have amassed over $130,000–several thousand dollars more than candidates spent in 1980, the last time the west county supervisorial seat was open–and are expected to spend a whopping $200,000. Businessman Bill Dowd is leading the pack with a hefty $58,500 war chest. Most disconcerting of all for some longtime west county residents is the growing influence of dollars from outside the district and the gush of wine industry money, especially from E. & J. Gallo. Wine money accounts for a hefty 53 percent of contributions to 5th District candidate Laurence Sterling. All this cash is contributing to fears that influence from special interests–particularly an industry often criticized for insensitive environmental policies–is growing like, well, grapes on a vine.

From the Feb. 8-14, 1996 issue of the Sonoma Independent

This page was designed and created by the Boulevards team.
&copy 1996 Metro Publishing and Virtual Valley, Inc.

News Briefs

Ihde Case Update

SANTA ROSA A Municipal Court judge on Wednesday ordered Sean Ihde, the 24-year-old son of Sheriff Mark Ihde, to surrender March 3 at the Sonoma County Main Adult Detention Facility to complete the remainder of a 90-day sentence for abusing his ex-girlfriend and using drugs. The case has become a cause célèbre among local women’s rights groups, many of which sent representatives to Wednesday’s court hearing. Ihde, a Windsor resident, served 15 days in jail and spent an additional 31 days at a residential treatment program. He was then released even though he had 44 days remaining on his mandatory sentence. No order had been issued remanding the original court order. That has led to intense criticism that Ihde has received special treatment because of his relation to the sheriff, who is responsible for keeping track of county inmates when they are sent into treatment programs. Sheriff Ihde has said that he understood the early release was allowed because his son caused problems for jail security owing to the protection he needed. “No one has accepted responsibility for releasing Sean to the street,” says Tanya Brannan of the Purple Berets. Lee Phillipson, a Napa County prosecutor assigned to the case to prevent conflict of interest on the part of the local District Attorney’s Office, was “furious” about the release and that he was not notified that Ihde had been sent back home. On Wednesday, Judge Frank Passalac-qua described Ihde as “a very successful probationer.” It is expected that Ihde, who is submitting to regular drug testing, will finish the remainder of his sentence at a local residential drug treatment center.

Pfendler Cuts a Deal

PETALUMA Business tycoon and Moon Ranch owner Peter Pfendler, who wants to acquire “mountain jewel” and city-owned Lafferty Ranch in a controversial land swap, won an expected deal last week. The Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space Authority board voted 4-1 in favor of Pfendler’s latest proposal, which erases some earlier swap conditions (including simultaneous escrow closures for both the Moon Ranch payment and the transfer of the Lafferty title to Pfendler). Now Pfendler will get an early $1.2 million payment and remains obligated to the trade for a limited time. If the swap isn’t done in 12 months, Pfendler will get $240,000, and if the deal still isn’t done in 24 months, he stands to get another quarter million dollars plus permission do what he pleases with Moon (within certain open space restrictions). This puts deadline pressure on the City Council to get the deal done; but first it must somehow appease citizens who are substantially opposed to the trade.

Pesticide Warning

SANTA ROSA The city’s widespread use of toxic pesticides in parks, playgrounds, and other public areas is an invisible hazard, two environmental groups charged this week. Noting that 31 different compounds are used by the city’s Recreation and Parks Department, Green Corps and the Pesticide Watch Education Fund warned that “21 are suspected of causing cancer, 14 have the possible ability to cause chronic damage, and 13 have the possible ability to alter genetic material.” Giving the city a C-minus on their pesticide report card, the groups called for actions to substitute less hazardous materials and reduce overall pesticide use, and for greatly increased public notification before and after the spraying of public lands. City representatives noted that the most toxic compounds are used sparingly, and in full accordance with applicable laws and regulations.

Hospital Lease Unveiled

SANTA ROSA The terms of the county’s proposed lease with Sutter/CHS to assume operation of Community Hospital were released Jan. 26. According to the county, the new pact will continue the current level of operations for the hospital and its mental health, HIV, and family practice clinics. Indigent care will also be maintained “at . . . current levels” at no additional cost to the county, and all current employees will be offered jobs. The hearing before the county Board of Supervisors will begin at 1:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 9.

Home Depot Plans Store

SANTA ROSA Thoroughly rejected in its first bid to locate in northern Santa Rosa, Home Depot is eyeing a vacant site at the southwest corner of Mendocino Avenue and Bicentennial Boulevard. Last week, an official of the giant hardware chain store asked representatives of the Journey’s End Mobile Home Park if residents there would support the store’s new plans. The first Home Depot proposal, to displace the mobile home park and build on that site, was roundly defeated with the help of the park residents. Dolly Cress, president of the Journey’s End Homeowners Association, says the group is still unhappy with Home Depot and will oppose the company’s efforts to locate in either Santa Rosa or Windsor, but they support the plans of Petaluma-based Yardbirds to build a new 100,000-square-foot store directly across the street from the site Home Depot is now eyeing.

Tainted City Well

SEBASTOPOL One of the city’s four water-supply wells was taken off line last week, after monitors detected traces of a gasoline additive in a nearby well. Tests of the municipal water supply found no contamination from the chemical dichloroethane.

More Sewer Bonds

SANTA ROSA Another $21.9 million in municipal bonds will soon be sold to upgrade the regional sewer plant, but the additional funds will not be applied to the eventual new wastewater storage and disposal system that is still under study. A portion of the money will be used to refinance some of the $123 million in previously issued bonds that have also been allocated to improve and expand the sewer plant over the past 11 years. The new disposal system is estimated to cost between $46 million and more than $400 million, although critics say the higher range of costs has been inflated and exaggerated.

Raiders May Return

ROHNERT PARK The once-again Oakland Raiders have expressed an interest in coming back to Sonoma County for their summer training camp. The team has asked the city to participate in building playing fields and a locker room adjacent to the Red Lion Hotel, and a City Council subcommittee has been formed to examine the idea. Several other Northern California cities are also reportedly courting the team, including Fairfield, Vallejo, Alameda, and Stockton. The Raiders trained at the El Rancho Tropicana in Santa Rosa for 20 years before the team moved to Los Angeles in 1982.

Mixed Crime News

SANTA ROSA Overall crime dropped in the city in 1995, but violent offenses surged by 12 percent, according to police statistics. The number of homicides was steady, at five on the year, but robbery and assault increased 10 and 21 percent. The biggest jump was in the number of arsons, which shot up 39 percent, from 49 in 1994 to 68 last year. Burglary, auto theft, and rape all declined, burglary by 26 percent, to account for the numerical crime reduction. Police Chief Sal Rosano says gang-related incidents are responsible for many of the violent offenses, which sometimes occur at a rate of two a day.

Cop Kills Assailant

SANTA ROSA A Windsor man was shot and killed by a Santa Rosa Police officer early Tuesday morning in the lobby of the police station. Sgt. James Carlson fired from just five feet away as Dale Robbins attacked him with a three-foot metal bar. Prior efforts to halt Robbins with pepper spray and a wooden baton were ineffective, officers said. Police Chief Sal Rosano said the incident appeared to be a case of justifiable self-defense. Robbins, 40, was the fourth person killed by a Santa Rosa police officer in the past nine years.

From the Feb. 1-7, 1996 issue of the Sonoma Independent

This page was designed and created by the Boulevards team.
&copy 1996 Metro Publishing and Virtual Valley, Inc.

Mixed Reviews

Grand Jury Report draws varying opinions on Valley of the Moon Water District performance

By Bruce Robinson

Curiously, everyone at the Valley of the Moon Water District seems to feel vindicated by the recent Sonoma County Grand Jury Report, which briefly rebuked the district for lacking written policies for accounting, planned responses to natural emergencies, and the sale or transfer of lands owned by the district.

“It basically exonerated the district of any wrongdoing,” crows VOMWD General Manager Mike Alexander. “They didn’t discover any evidence of any wrongdoing or mismanagement. The only thing they did say was that there may be a perception of mismanagement because of a perceived lack of written procedures.”

Well, that lack is more than just perception, critics charge. “That’s true,” admits district board member Roger Basset, “and that’s something that [fellow board member] Angelo [Pedron-celli] and I have been working on since March of 1994.” Two months after that, the district experienced a leak in a gas main, which resulted in the evacuation of some Sonoma Valley residents without the notification of the district’s board members, Basset recalls. As a newly elected board member, “I had assumed the district had procedures [for notification], and that was when we learned it did not,” he says.

This week, just days after the grand jury’s final report was made public, the water district approved hiring a consultant to draft a comprehensive emergency-response plan, something that was factored into the district’s capital improvements budget as of last July, Alexander notes. The new document, which should be completed within a month, will be based on the contingency plans developed by the Sonoma County Water Agency.

Having that document in place will help the district in other areas, predicts VOMWD board member Pete Sutsos. He hopes to use it in preparing grant applications to outside sources of funding to aid the small water district. “A lot of that money has dried up, but one thing that is available is hazard mitigation money,” he says. “We’ll start looking at state and federal hazard mitigation funds as soon as [the new emergency plan is] in place.”

The emergency plan is only one of three areas in which the grand jury suggested changes, however. Their call for written accounting practices has engendered confusion at the water district, which, like other agencies, had simply specified that it relied on “generally accepted accounting practices.” In addition, Alexander says, the district is audited every year, and submits a record of expenditures to the state controller annually. “I’m at a loss to know what they feel we’re missing,” he says. The district is seeking clarification from the grand jury on what other public bodies they might use as a model of a more specific set of procedures.

As for the third area, the sale of district-owned property, “that’s something that needs to be worked on, but it’s something that is very, very infrequently done,” says Sutsos.

The grand jury reported it will monitor the district’s progress in filling the gaps, and may issue a follow-up report next year.

From the Jan. 25-31, 1996 issue of the Sonoma Independent

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