Page 987 | Bohemian | Sonoma & Napa Counties

Where’s the Money?

News

Juliane Poirier

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Jan 9, 2013

Outraged citizens are protesting that millions of dollars of Napa County treasury funds are in the hands of banks whose unethical business practices contributed to the 2008 financial meltdown: Bank of America and Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo is being sued by the U.S. government for fraudulent mortgage-issuing practices, and both banks are part of last week’s $8.5 billion settlement with federal regulators for foreclosure violations.

Move Our Money is a citizens’ group that, since January of last year, has been investigating county treasury practices and seeking policies for different management of public money. The group wants public funds to be held instead by institutions that are socially responsible.

Paul Moser, 63, is a Move Our Money member who lost much of his retirement in the 2008 meltdown. Moser says this is the first time in his life that he’s participated in activism of any kind. “At my age, it’s kind of difficult to make it all back,” said Moser, who, after the banking failure, spent eight months picketing in front of Wells Fargo and Bank of America in Napa.

“People want Wells Fargo to be about the Old West stagecoach and for Bank of America to be the same institution that granted loans after the earthquake of 1906,” said Moser. “But things are desperately different now. The financial sector is no longer a responsible partner in our society. It’s the kind of shock that is way too disturbing for us to handle.”

The pending federal lawsuit against Wells Fargo is an attempt by the U.S. government to gain compensation for money the bank wrongfully obtained as a result of “breach of fiduciary duty, gross negligence and . . . [mortgages] wrongfully certified.” The Los Angeles Times on Dec. 10 reported another lawsuit by defrauded homeowners accusing “Wells Fargo & Co. of reneging on a sweeping mortgage-modification deal” established in a San Jose case in 2010.

The county of Napa uses Wells Fargo and Bank of America for checking accounts. Treasurer Tamie Frasier says the treasury amount in investments can fluctuate daily, but on Dec. 7 was over $465 million invested in bonds and treasuries held for safekeeping with Bank of New York. The remaining millions circulate as part of the cash flow. “The amount in checking accounts at Wells Fargo and Bank of America,” Frasier told the Bohemian last month, “is about $8 million in outstanding checks.” (Between July 1, 2011, and June 30, 2012, the county paid $99,000 to Wells Fargo and $3,500 to Bank of America for checking services.)

During tax time, incoming tax payments can reach between $15 million and $20 million per day. The Napa County “Monthly Investment Report” from Dec. 2011 shows that on Dec. 15, checking account funds totaling $72,028,011 were used for overnight investment. On Dec. 20, the same investment was made using $56,580,408 in checking account funds. Figures for March 1 shows that $17,525,578 of checking account funds were used.

According to Move Our Money co-organizer Gary Orton, the Wells Fargo checking funds were applied to an investment practice known as overnight sweep repo, in which checking deposits are used as overnight investments by Wells Fargo and returned the next morning with interest. After the group began investigating in January—including letters to and meetings with the treasurer, the Treasury Oversight Committee and the board of supervisors—the treasurer’s office discontinued these investments with Wells Fargo.

“There is a depositary function and an investment function of the treasurer’s office. When you do the overnight sweep repo, that’s investment,” says Orton. “The county stopped them. But they could turn around tomorrow and start them up again because there is no policy to stop them; they have no written internal control policy.”

Frasier explains that the sweeps were stopped because the interest income was not sufficient, and that the funds were not at risk because they were over-collateralized. Frasier adds that the county has been working with Wells Fargo and Bank of America since 2003.

The county is now planning to put out a bid so that banks can be chosen according to policy. “We’re going to put out an RFP [request for proposal], so any bank in the area can respond,” says Frasier, who explains that it might be difficult for a small institution to put up the collateral required by state code and supply services required by the county.

Orton fears that when the banking services contract goes out to bid, Wells Fargo and Bank of America may underbid smaller institutions. “We shouldn’t be rewarding the unethical banks,” says Orton.

Down to the Bone

Dining

Ari LeVaux

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Jan 9, 2013

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The expression “stocking up” refers to the many acts of gathering and processing food, usually in preparation for winter. Chopping chutney, canning pickles, freezer-bagging meat and simmering a pot of sauce are at the core of a lifestyle that a friend calls “Third World, first-class.” And stock, the noun, is an essential ingredient in my Third World, first-class kitchen.

One of the more noteworthy nonsoupy applications of stock is in the making of espagnole sauce, one of the five “mother sauces” of classic French cooking. Espagnole sauce can be mixed with yet more stock and reduced by half to make demi-glace, a rich, flavorful and altogether labor-intensive sauce that is itself the base for many other sauces. Demi-glace is the most valued ingredient in many a chef’s kitchen, and is frequently compared to gold.

For all the prestigious places it goes, a good stock can be made from ingredients that a wino could find in a dumpster, like bones, fish heads, chicken backs and vegetable scraps. Made from mammal bones, it’s called “brown stock,” which is what goes into demi-glace.

Long bones, i.e., the animal’s front and rear leg bones, work best, as that’s where the most marrow is. To allow the marrow to melt into the stock, the bones need to be opened. Purchased bones usually come pre-cut. If you’re processing meat at home, a bone saw really helps. Or do like me: wrap bones in a towel and smash them with a cast-iron skillet on the sidewalk. But that comes later.

I begin by placing the bones on a pan in the oven at 350 degrees for about an hour, stirring occasionally so they’re golden brown all the way around but not burned. Twenty minutes before you’re done browning the bones, remove them from the oven and allow them to cool to the point where you can comfortably rub the bones with tomato paste (I use homemade ketchup). Roast for another 20 minutes, checking often to make sure the tomato paste doesn’t burn.

Remove the bones from the roasting pan. Now is the time to smash them with that frying pan or hammer. Place the broken, browned bones in a large empty pot along with the roasting pan drippings. Put the pan on the stove over medium heat and deglaze with wine or water, gently scraping the bits of goodness stuck to the bottom of the pan—assuming said fond is not burned. Pour the deglazed pan contents into the stock pot.

Add a bay leaf and a few peppercorns, and cover everything with water. Cook very slowly, at your stovetop’s lowest setting, for 12 to 24 hours, maintaining full coverage of water over the bones. You don’t want the stock to boil; try to keep the pot at the “lazy bubble” stage.

Let the stock cool to room temperature and then put it in the fridge overnight. By morning, the fat will be floating on top in a solid raft that you can easily remove.

Reheat the stock back to the lazy bubble. While it’s heating, prepare a mixture of equal parts celery, carrot and onion. Add this mirepoix to the stock and cook for three more hours of lazy bubble. Strain the bones and mirepoix, and freeze or refrigerate your stock.

And as the mercury drops, your stock’s value will go through the roof. In the Third World, first-class lifestyle, bone stock is a valuable asset, already liquid.

Happy Returns

Theater

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Jan 9, 2013

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“Each time I revisit her,” remarks actress Mary Gannon Graham, “I discover something wonderful and new. You can’t play a character two or three times, in two or three different productions, without discovering lots of new things.”

Graham (Always, Patsy Cline, Souvenir) is describing the character of Shirley Valentine, the primary character in Willy Russell’s enduring one-woman show of the same name. Graham first played Shirley—whom she describes as “a frumpy English housewife who goes to Greece and changes her whole life”—in 2008, in a production directed by John Shillington. They reprised the show in 2011, playing to sold-out crowds. Later this month, they’ll be bringing Shirley back one more time, with a four-weekend run at Main Stage West.

“I’m not the same person I was when I first played this character,” Graham says. “Some of those life changes will probably appear in Shirley, one way or another. It’s just what happens when you play a character honestly, in the moment. Who that character is becomes fused with who you are, right then and there.”

For Taylor Bartolucci, it’s more or less the same. “I’m just excited to be playing a stripper again,” she laughs.

It’s only been a few months since Bartolucci first played Pippi, the broken-hearted stripper in the delightfully trashy Great American Trailer Park Musical, which enjoyed a sold-out run at Sixth Street Playhouse last September. The hit show begins an encore run later this month at the Napa Valley Playhouse, and Bartolucci is thrilled for a second chance to slip into Pippi’s skimpy stripper’s outfit.

“Trailer Park,” she says, “was the most fun I’ve had in any show I’ve ever done in my life. But it was a challenge for me. I don’t usually show off that much, um, skin. Still, it’s fun to play somebody who you’re totally not.”

Directed by Barry Martin, the show has kept its entire cast, with the exception of Daniela Innocenti Beam, whose back surgery forced her to drop out. Her character, trailer park manager Betty, will be played this time by Sarah Lundstrom.

“A lot of people saw this show as just fluff,” Bartolucci says, “but we saw these characters as real people, with real problems and real emotions. We hope people will see it a second or third time—and maybe see it in a whole new way.”

Ending the Cycle

Open Mic

Margaret Koren

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Jan 9, 2013

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It takes a village to raise a child, and it will take dedicated, creative people from a variety of fields working together to end the cycle of violence so our children can grow up in safety. Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. said, “We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers.”

Everybody appears to be talking about gun control, an important consideration, but there is little mention of adopting programs available to us today, utilizing the latest research and successful, cost-saving approaches to reduce crime and violence with a particular focus on our youth at risk.

We are lucky to have many pioneers and visionaries in Sonoma County. Public officials are increasingly connecting with community-based organizations, businesses and nonprofits to solve these problems. Violence has its beginnings with innocuous teasing and insensitive remarks, advancing to name calling, racial slurs and bullying, which sadly escalates to many forms of violence, including suicide.

It’s therefore increasingly obvious that if we want to prevent violence at its root cause, we have to institute and fund restorative programs in our grade schools where we can begin to treat and dismantle gang psychology and that of the socially maladaptive child. I believe that our security and prosperity is dependent upon it.

It takes a village, a county, a community of caring, thoughtful people from all walks of life to communicate, collaborate and cooperate with each other to become a strong voice and ignite positive action to curb the violence. It is time to get more involved and help our leaders “shift away from a more punitive and militaristic mindset towards a more restorative and preventive one,” in the words of the Peace Alliance’s Bob Baskin. We hope that you shall join others who have already begun the work by attending “Walking the Talk: Effective Solutions for Violence Prevention in Sonoma County,” a forum moderated by Supervisor Mike McGuire, on Thursday, Jan. 31, at the Veterans Memorial Building (1351 Maple Ave., Santa Rosa), from 7pm to 9pm.

Margaret Koren is an RN and a volunteer for the Peace Alliance.Open Mic is a weekly op/ed feature in the Bohemian. We welcome your contribution. To have your topical essay of 350 words considered for publication, write op*****@******an.com.

Porchetta? You Betta!

Dining

Nicolas Grizzle

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Jan 9, 2013

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Take a giant pork roast and flay it out flat. Cover it with goodies and roll it up like a big doobie. Bake it, slice it into pinwheels and then get high on pig juice. That’s called porchetta, and it will be a main attraction at John Lyle’s three-course dinner at Epicurean Connection in Sonoma.

The Hardcore Farm to Face chef prepares chicken and dumplings to open the dinner, and finishes with a fig tart with caramel sauce. (Personally, I’d have just poured the pig juice on everything, but I have a disgusting fascination with pig that borders on the mentally unhealthy. Lyle’s version is probably better. Probably.)

Butcher and farmer Adam Parks of Victorian Farmstead Meats is on hand to answer any questions about the pork’s background, diet, name and other oddly specific questions that might arise. And instead of the traditional pig and Pinot pairing, a 2007 Korbin Kameron Cabernet is served with the pork, with a 2010 Idell Chardonnay accompanying the chicken and 2006 Parmelee Hill Syrah with dessert. Chalk up these interesting pairings to the Epicurean Connection, a place known for its superb taste in wine and cheese.

The Victorian Farmstead dinner is Wednesday, Jan. 16, at the Epicurean Connection. 122 West St., Sonoma. 6:30pm. Dinner is $75, including wine, tax and gratuity. RSVP at 707.935.7960.

Jersey Shores

Columns & Opinion

Juliane Poirier

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Jan 9, 2013

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As the climate continues to redefine normal, Good Samaritans will continue to redefine kindness to strangers.

It was 39 degrees in late December and close to midnight. Shivering in my winter coat on the last train to Princeton Junction, I watched the townships of New Jersey fly past in the frozen night that would turn bright with snow the next morning. To an outsider, it all seemed peaceful.

But during my visit, I listened to stories of Hurricane Sandy—its gales that blew all night, knocking down power poles and tearing roofs off houses. My friends who live near Princeton were stranded for six days without electricity or heat during bitter cold weather. For those living on the coast, it was far worse.

Before hearing stories from those affected personally, I’d thought Sandy was over and that life had returned to normal. But many low-income easterners are still stranded. Sandy left millions of people without power in an area of over 900 square miles—that’s 200 plus miles larger than all the nine counties of the Bay Area combined.

New Jersey is served by a number of utilities; the company serving the northern region where I was staying had to fix or replace 2,400 power poles and trim or remove 48,000 damaged trees. The power transfer stations along the rivers—previously untouched by storms for 50 to 75 years—were struck with walls of water four feet to eight feet high. By early November, over 4,000 out-of-state workers had been brought in to help repair the damages and get power turned back on for residents. A report from one utility states, “Hurricane Sandy and the increased frequency of storms like this have now defined a new normal.”

If weather disasters are the new normal, then planning our service to others must also become a new normal, as it has for one New Jersey woman who’s considering a very expensive in-house generator—costing over $10,000 installed—as part of her bigger plan to provide a warm storm shelter for her neighbors when the next “normal” hurricane hits.

Then there’s the one man whom I’ll call “the Samaritan” (he refuses publicity). He knew that on the coast, where Sandy ripped homes away entirely, those still living in hotel rooms include the elderly who can’t afford to rebuild or even repair. The Samaritan organized a band of workers and started making weekend trips to the coast where they got to work restoring homes.

All trips to Home Depot have been funded by his personal credit card. And he is still at it.

Foreign Embassy

Movies

Richard von Busack

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Jan 9, 2013

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Let’s hear it for foreign filmmakers, and the way they craze the gossamer surface of the Oscars broadcast by proclaiming some political opinion or artistic taste that the Academy forbids. (Moreover, the Best Foreign Film award can lure a subtitle-leery audience to take risks.) Over 70 films from as many nations qualify for the award this year, and the Rafael’s 10th annual “For Your Consideration” series is a welcome mini-festival of 14 contenders.

Among them is what I’d expect is this year’s shoe-in at the Oscars, ‘The Intouchables’ (Jan 14). Not without its faults, this nonetheless pleasing film explores the odd-couple friendship of a street-smart Franco-African from the banlieues (played by the exuberantly handsome Omar Sy) and an upper class Parisian paralytic (Francoise Cluzet).

The amazing Gudlaugur Fridthórsson’s history of survival in the waters off Iceland in 1984 surpasses any issue of Aquaman comics. Look for a strong challenge to The Intouchable‘s likely victory from Fridthórsson’s biopic ‘The Deep’ (Jan 16.) Another strong candidate is ‘War Witch’ (Rebelle) (Jan. 13), Canada’s entry. Montréal filmmaker Kim Nguyen films it as a letter from a tormented former child soldier in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to her unborn child.

Georgia—like neighboring Armenia—could boast a couple of millennia of storytelling. ‘Keep Smiling’ (Jan. 11 and 12) is female director Rusudan Chkonia’s comedy of a calamitous beauty contest which attracts (and ends up attacking) 10 housewives.

Kim Ki-duk’s Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter . . . and Spring is nearly the best Buddhist film I’ve seen, and his Isle is a memorably harrowing portrait of the way the rich treat the poor in Korea. So Kim’s ‘Pieta’ (Jan. 12) is bound to be superlative, even if just superlatively bizarre: a portrait of mother love affecting a seriously violent man. Rodrigo Plá’s ‘Delay’ (Jan. 13) is a more common maternal love story: a factory worker in Uruguay sandwiched between her three children and the senile father she can’t place in a home.

More details on the series at www.cafilm.org.

MLK Day 2013

News

Leilani Clark

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Jan 9, 2013

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With the theme of “What Would Martin do NOW?,” this year’s Sonoma County Marin Luther King birthday celebration takes place one week before the actual holiday. The program features keynote speaker Vince Harper of the Community Action Partnership; other performers and speakers include soon-to-be-retired congresswoman Lynn Woolsey, Afrikan P. featuring Laydee Poetry and the Celebration Mass Choir. In addition, middle and high school students give youth oratories inspired by MLK and a children’s program is offered for kids ages four to eight. The annual Community Awareness Day led by Community Baptist Church, in which folks are encouraged to pursue the spirit of volunteerism instead of just taking a day of rest, is scheduled as normal for Monday, Jan. 21. For more information about “A Day On, Not a Day Off,” call 707.546.0744. Celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. on Sunday, Jan. 13, at the Santa Rosa High School Auditorium. 1235 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa. 4:45pm. Free. 707.795.1044.

Banking on It

On Jan. 7, Bank of America reached a $10.3 billion settlement with Fannie Mae for selling bad, mortgage-backed investments. B of A is also one of the big banks ordered to pay into an $8.5 million settlement over wrongful foreclosure practices. The ruling affects 3.8 million people. Qualified homeowners will receive $2,237 on average, though some may receive much less. Maryland congressman Elijah Cummings says that the settlement does not account for the true damage done to homeowners and allows banks to “sweep abuses under the rug.”

Stephen & Walker

Swirl

James Knight

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Jan 9, 2013

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In the first decade of this century, this column was, more often than not, a sassed-up brief following from an unannounced and incognito pop-in to this winery or that. So it was, and is, with snapshot reviews in print weeklies everywhere, from the Bohemian‘s “Small Bites” to The New Yorker‘s “Tables for Two.” Oh, the sass, to snuggle those up in the same sentence.

In the interval, social networking sites like Yelp attracted a swarm of self-styled critics like flies on something that’s delicious to flies. Perhaps these reviews are helpful, but it’s required to sift through the testimonies of many, many high-maintenance prima donnas who can’t go unacknowledged for 10 seconds post walking in the door without retaliating with a four paragraph diatribe about the rotten state of customer service, laced with personal barbs. Suffice it to say, I usually choose not to compete with that crowd.

If that doesn’t even tangentially explain why I hadn’t checked into Stephen & Walker Trust Winery Limited, until it was recommended to me just recently, there’s the logo, for one. I’m assured that the antique bank-certificate-style labels have won gold medals themselves, but it says “bank” to me, and “trust” ain’t in the same tag cloud anymore. And that sign, “Cult Wines.” If that isn’t a non sequitur, then it’s a nonstarter, at the least, like a sign pointing to “secret beach.” Fresh bait for the sort of tourists who amble in to a winetasting, trailed by their perfume. Sure enough, they join me shortly.

But as it turns out, this outfit is locally owned by husband and wife team Nancy Walker and Tony Stephen, career winemakers who have crawled up from the very trenches of the business, only for a snippy reviewer to take pot shots at their signage. Walker served at Fetzer, Clos du Bois, and was entrusted with the Cab program for Costco’s Kirkland brand, before heading up Grove Street, where these wines are made.

The bar is comfortably sized for crowds, and there’s a fun book of family relation Eric Curtis’ staged photographs of “Fallen Superheroes” to flip through while tasting through a really standout, lean and lively 2009 Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon ($65), a fine Pinot Noir triptych, a 2011 Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel ($39) that’s wanting only for cheesecake to drizzle over, and a sweetly balanced 2009 Muscat Canelli ($38).

Oh, but I had to wait, like, eight seconds before I was acknowledged, so . . . three and a half stars.

Stephen & Walker, 243 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg. Daily, 11am–7pm. Tasting fee, $10. 707.431.8749.

Giant Squid vs. Giant Douche

BohoBlog

Nicolas Grizzle

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Jan 8, 2013

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NHK/NEP/Discovery Channel/AP

A giant squid was finally captured on video in its natural habitat. Why is this news? Why should the denizens of the North Bay care? Because giant squid are incredible, that’s why.

Unfortunately, this clip is from ABC, the lowest common denominator of television news. So there’s about 20 seconds of idiotic banter in this 45-second clip. Yeah, buddy, don’t take a dip past TWO THOUSAND FEET.