LETTERS TO THE EDITOR – 8-30-12

Enlighten me
Editor: I need enlightenment.
Perhaps Vice Mayor Kyes and council member Gurney can be of assistance. I’d like to know the rationale for their negative voting record in regard to businesses and development plans that have been proposed for the City of Sebastopol. In light of the current fiscal deficits facing the City, I would assume that the encouragement of revenue producing enterprises would be of utmost importance in the minds of our city council members, who, by the way, were elected by the citizens of Sebastopol to protect our interests.
As I recall, councilmember Gurney has a longstanding record of voting negatively in regard to development plans, one of the most notable being a significant opponent of, and instrumental in the demise of the North East Area Plan, which I understand to have cost the City some $400,000 in planning funds and other expenses.
Then, of course, the most recent debacle, the CVS/Chase project, which could bring in much needed revenue. In light of the fact that there is no other plan in the offing for the Pellini property, I simply cannot understand the apparently rigid and damaging mindset of these two council members.
Time for a change?
William E. Yoes
Sebastopol
Lost the struggle
Editor: It seems to me that now is the time for all residents who love Sebastopol, to unite and work together. We have just lost the latest struggle and need to gird for the future.
John Eder and Robert Jacob will serve us well on the city council. Their two opponents have had their chance and the results have been less than satisfactory.
Join me in voting for Eder and Jacob for City Council.
Meg Brittan
Sebastopol
CVS/Chase 3, people 2
Editor: At the Aug. 21 Council Meeting the City of Sebastopol sent the message that we don’t care about the illegal and immoral business practices of Chase Bank and CVS Pharmacy. We don’t care if our citizens sit in gridlock traffic until the Chase and CVS logos become indelibly etched into our brains.
Despite a valiant effort by Councilmember Sarah Gurney and Vice Mayor Michael Kyes, there was no way to overcome the voting block of Mayor Guy Wilson and Councilmembers Kathleen Shaffer and Patrick Slayter. This trio was able to move the process forward whenever deliberations could not be resolved to the satisfaction of the entire council. For some reason (maybe they felt guilty) public comment on the project was reopened. There were a couple hours of public comment followed by several hours of council deliberation. Around 1 a.m., the punch-drunk council finally made its decision. You guessed it … a 3-2 vote was cast to uphold the CVS/Chase appeal.  
Gurney pushed hard for solar power here in Solar City, U.S.A., but even this reasonable condition of approval could not garner the necessary three votes and once again the pro business voting block ended the discussion and pushed the approval forward.
My take on the temperature of The Council: 1. Kyes does not want CVS and Chase in downtown Sebastopol. 2. Gurney may lock arms in front of the bulldozers if it comes to that. 3. Slayter liked the original design better but voted for the modified one anyway. I have no idea what or if he is thinking. 4. The mayor does not want CVS and Chase downtown, but believes his hands are tied by law. 5. Shaffer continued to be a good advocate for CVS/Chase by lobbing creampuff questions at the applicant so they had more opportunities to defend their project.
The hearing approached science fiction status at one point when Shaffer said “this is not the project I wanted to see built on this site” and then she voted for it.
I do admire her last ditch attempt to do some election year damage control.
As for the public comment portion, I found the speakers on both sides of the issue to be honest, thoughtful and much more entertaining than the rest of the proceedings. It was disappointing that the council would not discuss the issues raised by the opponents of the project concerning traffic problems and the criminal record of CVS and Chase.
This decision was a huge blow to the peaceful revolution so many people supported back when it was more fashionable to be associated with the Occupy Movement.
The fact that this happened in Sebastopol, a place that seemed to live the Occupy ideals even before there was a movement, has obliterated my hope for a peaceful revolution. Maybe it is time to head for the hills before a violent one begins.
Thomas Morabito
Sebastopol
To correct the record
Editor: The following is an open letter to the Graton Community Services District board:
Dear GCSD Board,
At some point during the meeting of the Board on Monday, Aug. 20, glancing through the minutes of the previous meeting, July 16, I noticed my own name and read that Bob Rawson, GCSD’s General Manager, had spoken with Meghan Brown from the State Revolving Fund about “continued contact” from me, and that he understood from their conversation I had hired a lawyer. I have not hired a lawyer, nor did I tell Ms. Brown that I had hired a lawyer. Where did that information come from?
I am writing to correct this very damaging falsehood. I never indicated to Meghan Brown that I had hired an attorney. To say that I have done so, or that I intend to, defeats the very thing I have sought, which is better communication with the Board and district office.
To have such a story in circulation, documented in your minutes, damages my relationship with the Board, and it damages my relationship with the community.
As far as “continued contact” with Meghan Brown, I have spoken with her twice since her first phone call to me.
Not only is it part of Ms. Brown’s job to provide information to the public upon request, it is the express will of her division manager, James Maughan, at the Funding Assistance office of the State Water Board.
Had I not asked, I would not have known that the Board and Mr. Rawson were inaccurate in stating the requirements for the State Revolving Fund application. In fact, the SRF application did not “require” a rate increase, as ratepayers were told.
What applications for SRF “principal forgiveness” loans require is that the District have a 15 percent “reserve.” This could have been budgeted for. If it had been, another rate increase would not have been necessary.
We are spending money we do not need to spend — $126,000 for part-time book keeping, large sums for engineering that never goes out to bid, field employees beyond what a district of our size should need.
I would appreciate an official correction of the minutes.
I am writing this as an open letter because the district office refused to provide your e-mail addresses and because a member of the Board told me he had never seen the letters we sent to the Board last year via the district office.
Elizabeth Herron
Graton
City limits
Editor: I have waited to respond to a letter to the editor sent from the CEO of KRCB channel 22 and president of the hospital district regarding people from outside of the city of Sebastopol having input into the CVS/Chase project in downtown Sebastopol (“Height of foolishness,” June 7). I do not agree with Nancy Dobbs at all regarding this issue. Ms. Dobbs, those of us who live within the city of Sebastopol who pay taxes to the city of Sebastopol who vote for the Council people in the city of Sebastopol who traveled daily through the city of Sebastopol should have more input than you and John Kramer who live in Occidental. Perhaps you and John should work on incorporating Occidental into a city, then you would really know what happens in the community in which you live. I also find it interesting that one of the major critics who is a member of the design and review board Lynn Deedler also lives outside the city limits, yet he wants to tell us who have lived here for many many years and actually vote here and pay taxes here what the building should look like. I also find it interesting to note that two people on the lawsuit against the city of Sebastopol, Jane Nielson and John Kramer, both live outside the boundaries.
Martin M.Webb
Sebastopol