LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Water plan update
Editor: As your recent article noted, the Sonoma County Water
Agency last week released its draft Urban Water Management Plan
(UWMP). This state-required document, updated every five years,
compares projected future water demands developed by the Water
Agency’s retail customers (representing approximately 600,000
people) relative to the Water Agency’s supplies to the year
2035.
The 111-page draft 2010 document reveals good news about our
community and the commitment of residents to conservation and
long-term sustainability. The prior 2005 UWMP estimated that by
2030, demand for Water Agency water would be 104,869 acre-feet
annually — requiring extensive new infrastructure and additional
water rights. The new water demand projections by the cities and
water districts that are incorporated into the 2010 draft UWMP,
estimate a need for only 81,719 acre-feet of water annually by
2035, a reduction in demand of over 23,000 acre-feet per year.
This decline in projected water use will allow local communities
to make it through near-term dry years, delaying and reducing the
number of costly infrastructure projects, and reducing the
additional water rights needed. Pumping less water than projected
will also save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
A public hearing on the draft 2010 UWMP will be held by the
Sonoma County Water Agency Board of Directors on Tuesday, May 24 at
2:10 p.m. in the Board of Supervisors Chambers at the County
Administration Building, 575 Administration Drive, Santa Rosa,
California. To read the draft document, go to www.sonomacountywater.org/uwmp.
Jay Jasperse
Chief Engineer
Sonoma County Water Agency
Smoked out
Editor: Agreed. Tobacco smoke is both annoying and a health
hazard. But, do I correctly understand Sebastopol’s new “Smoking
Control” Ordinance? First, smoking cigarettes in apartments is now
“illegal,” but smoking marijuana is permissible? Second, I must
tell apartment renters they no longer have the right to smoke
tobacco in the privacy of their homes? Third, even though we have
never had a problem or complaint for 39 years of renting, I must
evict all smokers? Fourth, I must inform my good and decent
apartment renters (who happen to smoke) that they are no longer
welcome to rent anywhere in Sebastopol? Do I understand the new
“Smoking Control” Ordinance correctly?
Greg Dabel
Sebastopol
Helping the homeless
Editor: For over 20 years winter homeless shelters have been
operated at various locations in our community, including most
recently out of the Veteran’s Building in downtown Guerneville, and
in various churches throughout the community. These arrangements
have not been a satisfactory or workable solution for the residents
of our community, our local businesses or those homeless
individuals living here and in need of services.
In July 2010 County officials asked their staff to find a
permanent solution, which addresses the needs of homeless people in
the lower Russian River area. In response to this call to action
the Sonoma County Community Development Commission established the
River Area Shelter and Downtown (RASAD) Task Group. This group has
been asked to come to consensus on recommendations that address
this problem which will be presented to the County in the fall. The
Task Group has been meeting regularly over the past few months.
The RASAD Task Group is made up of local residents and
representatives from downtown businesses, social service agencies
and County government. We are a diverse group of people with
differing points of view on the issues under consideration and have
been working hard since March to identify and research topics that
will lead to a workable solution to address community needs around
homelessness.
We have been educating ourselves about homelessness in our
County and in Guerneville specifically. We are looking at what has
worked here in Guerneville, what has worked in other communities
that are similar to ours, what kinds of services have been offered
and what approaches have worked best. We are committed to gathering
as much information as possible before presenting any proposed
recommendations for the consideration of the community-at-large. We
are committed to working through our differences to find a mutually
agreeable approach to these issues for Guerneville and the lower
Russian River area. In order to accomplish our work in a timely,
safe and productive manner we decided to limit our regular meetings
to those people appointed to the Task Group who were able to make
the time commitment to participate fully in the entire process and
share information with their constituents. This allows us to share
information with the public in a way that supports the process and
our goals.
We will be hosting a community meeting in July, on a date still
to be determined, in which we will present our preliminary ideas on
possible options for homeless services, possible shelter sites, and
suggested standards for downtown behavior … and we will ask you for
your feedback.
If you have any comments or questions, please don’t hesitate to
contact us.  You can also track our progress on our website at
sonoma-county.org/cdc/rd_rr_tg_rasad.htm.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Michael deProto, Jan DeWald, Margaret Kennett, Michael
Nicholls, Jake Schwartz, Katrina Thurman,
Amber Twitchell, Michael Volplatt, Lenny Weinstein
Support H.R. 870
Editor: Members of Progressive Democrats of America have been
petitioning congressional members to enact a jobs bill that will
help the millions of unemployed workers across the country.
Progressive Democrats, Sonoma County chapter is pleased to see
Representative Lynn Woolsey’s announcement that she is cosponsoring
H.R. 870, the Humphrey-Hawkins 21st Century Full Employment and
Training Act, introduced by Representative John Conyers, Jr., D
(MI-14) in the House of Representatives on March 2, 2011. As of
today, there are a total of 15 cosponsors, all Democratic Congress
members.
The Humphrey-Hawkins 21st Century Full Employment & Training
Act is a comprehensive and innovative federal and local government
job creation and training bill. As the bill’s author noted, “The
Act aims to provide a job to any American that seeks work and to,
ultimately, create a full employment society.”
The Act’s Full Employment Trust Fund would provide federal
funding for local community-based job creation and training
initiatives until full employment is reached in the United States.
The Act is deficit neutral and it is fully funded through a
securities transaction fee of .25 percent that is paid by the
trading facility in which the transaction occurs.
Rep. Woolsey had this to say about the bill in a letter she sent
to constituents concerned about Congress’s lack of focus on job
creation:
“In today’s turbulent economic times, people are struggling to
find and keep jobs, pay their bills, stay in their homes, and
ensure they have ample savings for their retirement. That’s why I’m
a cosponsor of H.R. 870, the Humphrey-Hawkins 21st Century Full
Employment & Training Act. This bill would establish a
comprehensive and innovative federal and local government job
creation and training program that would create millions of job
opportunities for the nation’s unemployed. Under this legislation,
the Department of Labor would work collaboratively with local and
state governments, non-profits, and the private sector to fund
community based jobs such as, renovating housing and schools,
weatherizing homes, fixing our aging infrastructure, and
neighborhood beautification projects.”
Sonoma County’s official unemployment rate is an unacceptable
10.4 percent, or 26,500 workers as of March 2011. If those 26,500
people stood in one continuous line, that line would stretch from
Santa Rosa to Rohnert Park.
The impacts of extended unemployment cannot be overstated — from
individual loss of income and health care benefits to home
foreclosures to increasing demand on our fragile social safety nets
and devastating state budgets. Now that Wall Street has recovered
with the help of Main Street, it is time for Wall Street to help
Main Street recover.
Progressive Democrats of America will continue to work with our
legislators to focus their attention on the urgent need for more
and better jobs in the U.S. and make job creation their number one
priority now.
We urge all members of Congress to quickly pass this legislation
for the benefit of the American people and our economy.
PDA also supports and advocates for The People’s Budget, written
by the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Fair Trade, fair taxation
legislation, single payer healthcare, withdrawing troops from
Afghanistan and Iraq, and protecting vital and popular Social
Security, Medicare and Medicaid programs.
H.R. 870 can be viewed and downloaded from www.gpo.gov/.
Progressive Democrats Sonoma County is the Sonoma County chapter
of Progressive Democrats of America, a grassroots PAC that works
both inside the Democratic Party and outside the party, in
movements for peace and justice. PDA’s advisory board includes
seven members of Congress and activist leaders such as Tom Hayden,
Rep Raul Grijalva, Thom Hartmann, Jim Hightower, and Rep. John
Conyers. For more information go to www.pdsonoma.org and pdamerica.org
Alice Chan
Progresssive Democrats Sonoma County
Public parks
Editor: The educational event, “Much Ado About Sebastopol”
renaissance fair held at Ives “public” Park, is a wonderful thing
for the public and should be accessed by the whole community. I was
disappointed last year to see that though the fee at the gate was
small, it prevented some of the community from attending.
I saw countless teens and young adults looming outside the gate
or outside the fenced public park peering in and unable to attend
because of lack of funds, which truly broke my heart.
Many low-income families born and raised in Sonoma County do not
leave the area even for vacation, especially with the way our
economy and gas prices are.
It is our job as a community to not only set an example for the
rest of the state and nation, but to protect the next generation of
Sonoma County from all walks of life. This means everyone has the
right to have an equal opportunity for success.
Thank you and any information or public help will be “much ado”
appreciated.
Luna Tattersfield
Santa Rosa
Close education offices
Editor: As retired teachers, my husband and I are appalled at
the way education funds in California are spent. For years
Sacramento Office of Education has given us countless new
frameworks for math, science, language arts, art, music, etc. It
seems that the main accomplishment of these curriculum rewrites is
to put money into the pockets of the big publishing companies. Each
new state mandated program required money for teacher training, new
texts and supplemental materials. In the past 35 years most of
these new programs have come and gone, but math is still math, and
reading is still reading.
Another wasted expense in education happens at the county level.
Local school districts could do most of the work handled by the
County Offices of Education.
Our solution to California’s budget crisis in education is to
get rid of the nonsense at the top of the education ladder.
Close down the Office of Education in Sacramento.
Close down all of the county offices of education.
We can do without those two offices for a few years. Give the
money saved to the individual schools so they will have the funds
needed to keep their teachers.
Laura van Gorder-Victor
Don Victor
Sebastopol