Letters to the Editor 6-2-16

Evaluating candidates
EDITOR: Western Sonoma County faces some difficult issues. To name only three, there is the high cost of housing, the crumbling condition of our roads and the protection of our coast. 

Each of these problems will be difficult to solve, because each has its unique set of complexities. For example, housing affordability is effected by the relatively low level of wages in the county. Road maintenance is affected by the out-of-date way that the state allocates gasoline tax money, and coastal protection is affected by the quality of the Governors appointments to the Coastal Commission, as we have recently seen.
When I evaluate a candidate for public office, I look for the ability and know-how that leads to these kinds of insights.

 In the current race for Fifth District Supervisor, only one candidate has the background the experience to make a difference on these and other problems we face—Noreen Evans. Noreen has represented all or part of the District for most of the past 20 years and she understands its needs and its unique characteristics. Experience matters; the job of Supervisor is no job for an intern. On June 7, I am voting for Noreen Evans.
Alta Kavanaugh
Sebastopol
Innuendos
EDITOR: I am writing this letter in support of Sonoma County Supervisor candidate Lynda Hopkins. 

I have followed county supervisorial races with interest for many years, beginning the year I assisted a previous candidate with his campaign accounting. Each cycle, as I witness the lies and character assassinations that get played out in the months before the elections, I wonder how long it will be before qualified, civic-minded people simply refuse to subject themselves to the aggravation of running for office and leave these positions to venal special interests. I’m sickened to see this happen again in this election cycle.


Innuendo and misinformation are obscuring Lynda Hopkins qualifications as a candidate for Sonoma County Supervisor. Lynda’s family has deep roots in Sonoma County’s farming community, going back generations. She is an environmental scientist who trained at Stanford University. Lynda has proven her ability to cooperate and compromise with opposing points of view through her work with Sonoma County Farm Trails, Farm to Pantry and Community Alliance with Family Farmers. 

Voters who want sustainable agriculture, affordable housing, and creative solutions to the problems we’re facing as a county have a hard-working, qualified advocate in Lynda Hopkins. She deserves our support.

Elizabeth Holmes
Healdsburg
Birdhouse blues
EDITOR: Some heartless individual destroyed two birdhouses with a total of six baby birds in them in downtown Guerneville at Riverkeeper Stewardship Park last week May 11 or 12.
If you enjoy walking through the park when in town or on a work break like so many do, please contact Russian Riverkeeper or the Sheriff’s dispatch if you see anyone engaged in vandalism or injuring wildlife or plants.
Over 2,500 community members have volunteered their time to create an oasis for wildlife in Guerneville that people can enjoy. Two dozen Boy Scouts from Santa Rosa’s Troop 32 spent weeks building and installing all the bird houses.
Then some cruel individual destroyed the houses and killed baby birds. Please help us catch this person and keep this community Park and its wildlife safe again, I am personally offering a $500 reward to anyone helping us identify the person responsible.
Don McEnhill
Russian Riverkeeper
Clear choice
EDITOR: We have a clear choice in our vote for Fifth District Supervisor June 7.  One candidate is heavily backed by real estate, development, gravel mining money, big wine and the Farm Bureau, who are opposed to banning GMO’s. She may not have started out to seek this support, but she is clearly the chosen one of the interests that want to develop our county, our coast, our community separators and mine the River. She claims she can be independent from these forces, but as a young farmer with two small children and no political experience and apparent aversion to conflict, do we really think she can stand up to the pressures that will come to bear from these forces when she is the swing vote on a project they want? Especially when her family is very involved in the wine industry in the Fourth District.
Noreen Evans has fought for many years for the causes that are important to our district—preserving the coast, saving our parks, writing a homeowners bill of rights to protect families facing foreclosure and standing up for working people. She knows how to stand up to these forces as she has done for years.  If you compare the endorsements of the two candidates, you will see the progressives and environmentalists support Evans while big wine and big development support Hopkins. Noreen’s endorsers have watched her and worked with her for years and know she has a proven track record. That’s why I am voting Evans without hesitation on June 7.
Marty Roberts
Sebastopol
Enter Lynda Hopkins
EDITOR: Dr. John Ikerd, renowned agricultural economist, told us to be on the lookout for a new breed, a new generation of young farmer acquiring small acreages, farming organically, selling at farmers markets directly to consumers, totally committed and passionate and able to usher in a new era.

 Enter Lynda Hopkins. You are brilliant and impressive, worth every letter of your Stanford Masters in land use and just the kind of excellence Dr. Ikerd said was coming! I’ve watched you brainstorm creatively and step fearlessly into controversy. Your enthusiasm and candor will certainly enliven Board discussions.

 We need your youth and energy. You shine brightest when you open the discussion to your audience and invite any and all questions on anything under the sun. Your replies reveal the depth of your understanding of the wide range of Fifth District issues, from our poorly maintained roads, to conflicts between agriculture and rural residents, groundwater management, coastal protection, affordable housing and education.
We need innovation and alternative technology. We need to think outside the box. You’ve clearly got what it takes and will be a refreshing addition to the Board of Supervisors. You have my vote.


Ann Maurice
Occidental
Critical
EDITOR: The county is currently rewriting our Local Coastal Plan. Although many residents may be unaware, new rules will be adopted, potentially loosening development restrictions, diminishing coastal protections and access. So it’s critical that we choose environment conscious leaders and legislators, with hands on experience in coastal conservation, but without ties to development interests, to represent us and protect our fragile, beautiful coast. 

We are voting for Noreen Evans for Fifth District Supervisor, based on her long term, solid record of coastal protection and advocacy as local and state Assembly-Senate representative – including blocking proposed offshore oil drilling, state park closures and beach access fees. She also opposed Russian River gravel mining, helped save Spud Point Marina, funded portions of the California Coastal Trail and worked with the Coastal Conservancy to purchase Preservation Ranch, preventing forest to vineyard conversions.


Substantial PAC and big business funding is flowing to the Lynda Hopkins campaign from interests and industries that would benefit from modification and dilution of the Costal Plan— commercial, developer, real estate associations; construction, gravel mining companies and big agriculture/wine. In contrast, Sierra Club, Sonoma Conservation Action and Sebastopol Tomorrow support Noreen Evans.

 The coast is the jewel of the Fifth District and one of the greatest assets of Sonoma County and North Bay. Noreen has been a caring, effective protector and advocate of our coast for 20 years. With so much at stake in this election, Noreen Evans is the best choice for our next supervisor.
Bob English and Linda Hewitt

Bodega Bay
Lynda shows up
EDITOR: Is it fair to call Noreen Evans a carpetbagger for moving into the Fifth District to run for supervisor? Fair or not, a lot of people call her that. It seems inevitable because Noreen only left public office when her self-confessed burn-out had her looking for a softer seat. So the value proposition Noreen places before us is that her record in office makes her a bargain, since her broad experience means she can slide right into the Fifth District seat to conduct business as usual.


However, the definition of business as usual has tended to remain static in the minds of public officials while the burden of Sonoma County retirement pensions and other fixed county expenditures has rapidly ballooned. Consequently the supes now have discretionary power over a mere nine percent of incoming Sonoma County revenue. The rest has to cover existing programs, salaries, pensions and mandatory funding. Obviously a host of problems and crying needs homelessness, affordable housing, road repairs and infrastructure improvements among them can’t be addressed with the shrunken funding available. What that 9 percent figure might tell us is that nine out of 10 dollars needed to address emerging issues in our Fifth District, or 90 percent of the energy and resourcefulness to deal with a problem, will have to come from public-sector private-sector cooperation that has never been leveraged before. When they don˙t have the power to fund, the most important power supes have, is the power to permit. That, as it happens, is the direction of Lynda Hopkins’ proposals for community-improvement districts. Lynda also advocates dedicating more land to low-income affordable housing, reducing fees, and increasing densities for small units. She talks about creating an ordinance permitting second units to maximize use of existing housing stock. If Noreen wants to help, Lynda would have Noreen push for a reduction in state-imposed building-code costs for affordable housing.

 We out here in the Fifth District have had multiple opportunities to ask Lynda about her proposals because she has shown up for a lot more events than candidate nights. In that regard, she has been like Efren at his very best. 


Scott Kersnar

Guerneville