Page 274 – Bohemian | Sonoma & Napa Counties

County to Open Covid Vaccination Clinic in Roseland

Bay City News Service

Mar 24, 2021

Sonoma County and Santa Rosa Community Health are partnering to open a Covid-19 vaccination clinic soon in Roseland in southwest Santa Rosa.

A joint news release does not identify an opening date, only that the center will open “in the coming days” at Santa Rosa Community Health Center’s Lombardi Campus in Santa Rosa and focus on Santa Rosa Community Health patients who live in the 95407 ZIP code.

The vaccination center will move to a permanent location soon after and be open to other eligible individuals.

Vaccinations will be by appointment only for residents of the Roseland 95407 ZIP code and members of the Hispanic/Latinx community. For information, people can call (707) 347-0553 for English and (707) 336-8491 for Spanish.

The objective is to better serve the community’s Latinx population, which officials said has been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. Latinos make up 27% of the county’s population, but have experienced two-thirds of all of Covid-19 cases the county has recorded during the pandemic.

For a complete list of vaccination sites in Sonoma County as well as the latest vaccine numbers, who is eligible for a vaccine and how to receive a vaccine, people are encouraged to visit SoCoEmergency.org/vaccine or call 211.

Best Heroes in a Crisis: H-PEACE

Will Carruthers

Mar 24, 2021

2020 being the dumpster fire it was, there are more healthcare heroes than we could name in this section if we tried. Across the country, health professionals and everyday do-gooders stepped up as Covid-19 ravaged a country with an ill-adapted private healthcare system, highlighting the countless injustices of the pandemic along the way.

In the North Bay, a variety of volunteer groups organized to fill the void of need by providing aid. Whether that meant delivering food and necessities to families in need, providing face masks to activists supporting a nationwide racial justice campaign and people living in vulnerable conditions on the streets, or supporting people during wildfires, countless volunteers demonstrated compassion throughout the pandemic. If there’s anything that will get us through, it’s that beautiful spark of human compassion.

The situation came to a historic head last summer when local law enforcement locked up over 100 protesters for staying on the streets during a short-lived curfew order. Despite the fact that 8.1% of the Santa Rosa police officers had recently tested positive for Covid-19, a rate much higher than the .12% of the county’s total population, many law enforcement officers went maskless during the mass-arrest.

The event seemed to typify a lack of caution by the authorities within the county during the pandemic.

The day after the arrest, H-PEACE (Health Professional for Equality and Community Empowerment) and Mask Sonoma distributed a press release outlining their concerns about the mass-arrest.

The groups described the shocking conditions detainees were held in, including packed cells, a lack of response from jail officials to complaints and plenty more.

“We call on law enforcement and the public health department to initiate outreach for COVID-19 testing, contract tracing, and assessment for isolation and quarantine in individuals who have been exposed to unsafe law enforcement practices, including follow up mental health support,” the release stated in part.

The campaign did not result in all of the changes H-PEACE wanted, but it did draw attention from the North Bay Bohemian and the Sonoma County Commission on Human Rights.

Consultants hired by the city of Santa Rosa are still reviewing the events of this summer. The consultants and police officials are expected to present the report publicly—at a date which has been pushed back more times than we care to count.

In this case and many others, it is very unclear if justice will ever come. But, thanks to the volunteers, we can reckon with the truth of these injustices while working towards a better future. These days, that seems like the most one can hope for.—WC

www.hpeacesonomacounty.wordpress.com

Best Steak That’s Delivered to Your Door

Charlie Swanson

Mar 24, 2021

Constante and Margaret Panizzera, Italian immigrants from the Lake Como region of Italy, settled in Occidental and opened Panizzera Meat Company in 1914. For 100 years, the Panizzera family butchered and processed high-quality meats for the local community, even delivering the meat door-to-door back in the days before refrigeration.

In 2014, when Bob Panizzera retired from the family business, he gave the reigns and recipes over to his apprentices, Ryan Taylor and Josh Cerda. At that time, Panizzera was making sausage one day a week and servicing five wholesale customers. Now, the company is a full-time operation. Panizzera meats are sold in over 50 stores, and the company has two retail butcher shops, one at its location in Occidental and one within Andy’s Produce in Sebastopol.

The company also still delivers door-to-door, though they don’t use a pickup truck like they did 100 years ago.

Taylor and Cerda are taking Panizzera Meat Company into the 21st century with innovative techniques and a new monthly Meat Box Subscription service that delivers to the entire West Coast, Arizona and Nevada.

With subscriptions starting at $109 a month, Panizzera offers several packages boasting eight to 10 pounds of largely locally-sourced grain- or grass-finished beef, pastured pork and pastured chicken.

“We buy everything intact and break it all down here,” Taylor says. “Everything that’s in a bag in our stores or shipped to you; we have touched, cut, trimmed, portioned everything right here in Occidental.”

Panizzera is able to sell its meat in stores because the company has a full-time USDA inspector on sight every day they process. In addition to the standard butchering techniques, Panizzera recently took their meat to the next level by installing a Himalayan salt wall in a room designated for dry aging.

“We imported this salt from Pakistan,” Taylor says. “The Himalayan salt puts minerals into the air and reduces humidity in the room. We’re dry-aging things for a minimum of 28 days. We sell dry-aged steaks and we cut them up every Friday and we’re sold out by Monday.”

Visit Panizzera Meat Company at 3905 Main St. in Occidental and at Andy’s Produce at 1691 Gravenstein Highway North in Sebastopol; or get your meat delivered to your door by signing up for a Panizzera Monthly Meat Box Subscription at panizzerameatco.com.

Best Way to Stand Out in a Ukulele Crowd

Charlie Swanson

Mar 24, 2021

Best Way to Stand Out in a Ukulele Crowd

A frontrunner in the ukulele industry for more than 15 years, Petaluma-based instrument manufacturer Kala Brand Music has released untold numbers of ukuleles and other music makers, but none look like the forthcoming Signature Concert Ukulele designed by Bay Area artist mxmtoon.

Born and raised in Oakland, self-made singer-songwriter mxmtoon—who also goes by Maia—catapulted to the forefront of the indie-pop sphere with her 2018 self-recorded and self-released EP plum blossom.

An artist who specializes in the ukulele, mxmtoon teamed with Kala and created a celestially inspired, hand-drawn design that is etched into the instrument’s wood body.

“The cornerstone of what an artist collaboration is for us as a ukulele manufacturer is identifying with the artist what they would like to see out there in the world,” says Joe DeMars, artist relations coordinator at Kala.

While Kala works closely with the artists to achieve their vision for these collaborations, DeMars notes that mxmtoon approached the project with a specific creative drive.

“She had such a clear view right away of what she wanted this instrument to look like,” DeMars says. “It blew us away, the design she came up with. We don’t have anything like that.”

On the instrument construction side, Kala designed the model based on one of its flagship designs that mxmtoon regularly plays.

“We had that opportunity to combine a sound and a feel that we knew that she liked with a design that was very new and personal to her,” DeMars says.

Now reaching an audience of over 6 million monthly Spotify listeners, mxmtoon’s lo-fi pop music features candid and witty lyrics set over ukulele chords.

“One thing that I’ve continuously tried to remind myself of as I’ve gotten older is the importance of a cycle,” mxmtoon writes in a statement. “I designed this ukulele in hopes of reminding people that even if one day is difficult, there is always the next.”

The mxmtoon Signature Concert Ukulele is listed at $99.99 and available for pre-order at Kalabrand.com.

Best Pandemic Silver Lining: Learning How to Support One Another Online

Chelsea Kurnick

Mar 24, 2021

Best Pandemic Silver Lining: Learning How to Support One Another Online

For the past three years, I’ve spent Friday evenings co-facilitating Positive Images’ peer support group for queer and transgender adults—most of us in our 20s and 30s.

We last met in-person on March 13, 2020. Since then, our group—like so many others—has moved online. No, we each hop online from our respective bubbles. Most of us from home, but some folks share cramped spaces, so they take a walk, or call from their car for privacy. While it’s difficult to recreate the feeling of in-person connection remotely, no one is phoning it in.

Gary “Buz” Hermes is a gay elder who offers weekly “Aging Gayfully!” classes for LGBTQ+ seniors through Santa Rosa Junior College’s Older Adults Program. He also co-facilitates group discussions for seniors in Sonoma Valley. Like Positive Images’ groups, they also meet online these days.

For LGBTQ+ people—especially those of us living semi-rurally—feeling disconnected from the community is a common challenge.

“Even before the pandemic, many of us who are LGBT elders live alone and are experiencing isolation,” Hermes says. “Taking the time to share our life journeys and our aging challenges with one another builds connection and community.”

Hermes and I talked about some of the learnings and silver linings that have arisen as we round the corner on a year of leading online groups.

One recurring activity in my Positive Images group is “Queer Show & Tell.” Just as we did in childhood, it’s a space to share meaningful objects and stories. This activity, in particular, adapts so well to an online environment. During the first week of sheltering-in-place, I created a list of scavenger hunt prompts: Show us your favorite cooking utensil, something hanging on your wall, your favorite article of clothing, etc.

What people share in these groups is confidential. But I can share that as I scrambled through my small apartment grabbing my best spatula and a pair of iridescent sunglasses, I realized it was the first time I had gotten out of bed that day, and the first time I had laughed.

Of his class, Hermes told me, “Participants certainly miss our greeting hugs and the synergy of an in-person group, but attendance is much more regular because of the convenience of Zoom. I sense a willingness to share at a more personal level when talking in the safety and comfort of one’s home.”

Hermes and I are both thrilled that meeting online has created accessibility for some people who couldn’t join us in-person.

“I am now able to reach those who live too far away to attend in-person classes, as well as those who have mobility and transportation challenges. As a result, the class is more richly diverse,” Hermes says.

Rohnert Park Quiet on Police Auditor’s Work as Former Officers Face Federal Charges

Will Carruthers

Mar 24, 2021

Rohnert Park Quiet on Police Auditor’s Work as Former Officers Face Federal Charges

On Friday, March 12, the Northern California U.S. Attorney’s Office unsealed criminal charges against two former police officers with the Rohnert Park Department of Public Safety in connection with the department’s headline-grabbing drug seizure program.

The U.S. Attorney’s charges join previous civil lawsuits against the city and numerous news articles alleging that former Rohnert Park officers Jacy Tatum and Joseph Huffaker illegally confiscated hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of cannabis and cash from drivers on Highway 101 while working as part of the city’s interdiction team. These programs, under which law enforcement officers can seize criminally-acquired cash and drugs under certain circumstances, are relatively common in California. The alleged problem with Rohnert Park’s program was that the two officers went far outside the city’s rules.

For instance, while the officers reported some of the drugs and cash they seized to the department, the federal charges allege that Tatum deposited at least $443,000 in several bank accounts during his time running the interdiction team. The officers also filed false reports to cover their tracks, the U.S. Attorney’s complaint alleges.

While the U.S. Attorney’s complaint adds more details about the officers’ alleged scheme, the scope of the problem within the department and the details of the city’s full response to the allegations about Tatum and Hufaker remain unclear.

In 2019 and early 2020, the city settled several civil cases before they reached trial, limiting the amount of information which has come forth about the scope of the problem in the department.

Izaak Schwaiger, an attorney who represented clients in numerous cases against Rohnert Park Department of Public Safety, including in civil cases related to the interdiction program, says that the U.S. Attorney’s charges shed some additional light on the scope of the program, but did not change his overall understanding of the officers’ actions.

“The US Attorney’s office was able to make the allegations [we made in our civil case] more thoroughly because of their access to search warrants and law enforcement investigative techniques… they’re able to track down the money and see where it went,” Schweiger said in an interview.

One thing that still remains unclear is whether the city investigated the entire Public Safety Department in the wake of the allegations about the interdiction team.

In late 2018, multiple Bay Area news outlets reported that Rohnert Park had hired Howard Jordan, a former Oakland Police Chief-turned-police auditor. At the time, the city’s drug seizure program was drawing plenty of negative attention, with the media accusing the officers of committing “highway robbery.”

For instance, KQED reported in December 2018 that Jordan was hired to “investigate the department’s drug and cash seizure practices and policies” and indicated that Jordan was expected to make a presentation to the Rohnert Park City Council at an unspecified date.

But, nearly two-and-a-half years later, none of the information that Jordan dug up while auditing the department has become public—and the city seems to want to keep it that way.

In late January, the Bohemian filed a public records request that the city release Jordan’s auditing contract and invoices describing his work for the city since Jan. 1, 2018.

In a Feb. 8 response, deputy city clerk Elizabeth Machado told the Bohemian that the city did not have any contracts with Jordan or any company employing him for law enforcement auditing work. Curiously, the city did release heavily redacted invoices for payments the city made to Jordan between Feb. 2019 and March 2020, totalling just over $56,000.

While the invoices amount to an acknowledgment that Jordan has done some kind of work for the city in recent years, the documents are so heavily redacted that it is impossible to tell what exactly Jordan did.

Without the documents, two troubling possibilities come to mind. It seems that the city either decided to pay Jordan to complete confidential auditing work without a contract of any kind; or the city does have a contract with Jordan and is now attempting to hide its existence from public view.

On Thursday, March 18, deputy city manager Don Schwartz told the Bohemian that the city had “no comment at this time” about Jordan’s work for the city. Rohnert Park Mayor Gerard Giudice, Vice Mayor Jackie Elward and Jordan did not respond to requests for comment.

Despite several attention-grabbing news reports and civil cases outlining Tatum and Hufaker’s involvement in Rohnert Park’s “highway robbery” case, District Attorney Jill Ravitch declined to press charges against anyone involved in the case. Schweiger says that he offered to give Ravitch’s office information about the case, but that Ravitch’s office declined to accept it and never pressed charges.

Brian Staebell, the chief deputy district attorney who serves as Ravitch’s spokesperson, did not respond to a request for comment on Schweiger’s allegation or Ravitch’s decision not to pursue a case against any of the officers involved in the alleged drug seizure scheme.

But, with the possibility of more federal investigations looming over the city, North Bay residents may soon learn more about the Rohnert Park Department of Public Safety.

1...273274275...1,000 Page 274 of 1,000

LATEST ARTICLES

Museum Matters: Carnegie’s Gift...

Trump vs. Higher Ed,...

LATEST ARTICLES

That Was the Year...

Still ‘Making Sense,’ Talking...

LATEST ARTICLES

Your Letters, Dec. 24

Free Will Astrology, Dec....

Best of the North Bay 2021: Everyday

Best Accounting Firm

Patricia Walker, CPA, Blyth Warner & Associates Llp

Goranson and Associates, Inc

Best Ad Agency

Designthis!

West County Net

Best Antique Shop

Whistlestop Antiques

Best Art Supply Store

Napa Valley Art Supplies

Rileystreet Art Supply

Best Attorney, Bankruptcy

Ellyn Lazar

Ryan Henderson of Welty, Weaver & Currie

Best Attorney, Business

Matt Eisenberg, Attorney at Law

Valorie Bader of Welty, Weaver & Currie

Best Attorney, Civil

Peter Simon, Beyers Costin Simon

Best Attorney, Criminal

Michael F. Kelly

Izaak Schwaiger, Attorney at Law

Best Attorney, Divorce

Carolyn Vandyk, The Law Office of Carolyn Vandyk

Best Attorney, Family Law

Vanessa Wills, Vance & Wills, P.C.

Jarin Beck of Welty, Weaver & Currie

Best Attorney, Intellectual Property

Barbara Gallagher of Spaulding, McCullough & Tansil LLP

Best Attorney, Labor & Employment

Jan Tansil of Spaulding, McCullough & Tansil LLP

Best Attorney, Real Estate

David G. Ramos

Kevin McCullough of Spaulding, McCullough & Tansil LLP

Best Attorney, Trusts and Estates

Laura Brooks, Attorney at Law, Morse & Brooks

Birnie Law Office

Best Auto Dealer

Kastner Honda

Hansel Auto Group

Best Auto Detailing

Auto Sport Detailing

Best Auto Glass Repair

Advanced Auto Glass

Best Auto Repair

Napa Collision Center, Inc

Green Tech Automotive

Best Bank, Business

Bank of Marin / Bank of Napa

Exchange Bank

Best Bank, Consumer

Bank of Marin / Bank of Napa

Exchange Bank

Best Body Art/Piercing Place

The Golden Owl

Glass Beetle Tattoo

Best Bookstore, New

Copperfield’s Books

Copperfield’s Books

Best Bookstore, Used

Napa Bookmine

Copperfield’s Books Underground in Petaluma

Best Car Audio

Audio House

Cartrontics Santa Rosa

Best Career/Life Coach

Evonne Stevens

Best Casino

Graton Resort & Casino

Best Chamber of Commerce