LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Correcting misrepresentations
(the title of this letter has been changed to reflect its
content)
Editor: This letter is being sent to correct misrepresentations
contained in DA Stephan Passalacqua’s mailers stating that his
opponent, Jill Ravitch, quit because Passalacqua would not allow
her to plea bargain a murder case. I am the defense attorney who
represented one of the three defendants, Ivan Gonzalez, in  the
trial, People v. Gonzalez, Tamez, and Bray. The trial  started
after settlement discussions ordered by the presiding judge failed
to produce a settlement. Ms. Ravitch personally opposed the offers
by the defense, and so advised the judge. Jill was ordered by the
settlement conference judge to discuss with her office the 
proposals offered by the defendants.  After a lengthy trial,
involving complex legal issues, Jill convicted all three
defendants of first degree murder, and they are serving
sentences of 25 years to life.
Jill had announced, prior to the settlement discussions and
trial, that she was leaving the District Attorney’s Office and the
trial would be her last for that office. It is appalling that a
candidate, whose platform is based upon his integrity, would
repeatedly make false statements to the voters. Is this the kind of
person we want to be the chief law enforcement officer of our
county?
Andrew Martinez
Santa Rosa
Ravitch misrepresented
Editor: I was disappointed to read Thursdays article and
editorial regarding the D.A.’s race which will be decided on June
8. My disappointment comes from the author’s statement that “both
parties have engaged in ‘personal-attack tirades.’” In attending
all but one of the debates between the candidates I have a
different point of view.
In those debates Mr. Passalacqua, rather than defending his
record as D.A., has instead consistently attacked Ms. Ravitch using
alleged “facts” which have been found to be false and
misrepresenting her statements, e.g., her criticism of his
leadership within the D.A.’s office is countered by him saying she
is “maligning” his prosecutors. In the second debate sponsored by
the Women In Law forum Mr Passalacqua alleged that Ms. Ravitch had
“cut a deal with gang members” and the room erupted in boos from
the audience which consisted primarily of attorneys, judges, and
law enforcement representatives many of whom knew this statement to
be inflammatory and untrue. In that same debate Passalacqua
continued to harass Ms. Ravitch on a personal level and accused her
of being a “quitter”. Ms. Ravitch responded that she left the
D.A.’s office under Passalacqua’s leadership “after personally
witnessing you (Passalacqua) fire a person with a complete lack of
humanity.” This comment by Ms. Ravitch was, in my opinion, one of
the clearest statements made by Ravitch about the difference in how
they view the office of the D.A. and it is a shame that nobody
followed up on it.
Ms. Ravitch has indicated that she is running a “clean campaign”
but she has had to defend herself against continued false
allegations by Passalacqua — this calls into question his judgment
and his integrity. The fact that he continued, in three debates to
attack her on an issue that had clearly been proven to be false is
very disturbing. It indicates a lack of character on his part. I
have not seen Ms. Ravitch engage in the same behavior, on the
contrary, I see her trying to examine the issues that led her to
run against him: the low morale in the D.A.’s office which affects
performance, the lack of leadership from an incumbent who has never
prosecuted a murder case, the cost to the taxpayers of bad
decisions made by him regarding case management, the low conviction
rate, etcetera.
Both the article and the editorial would have benefited from
some investigative reporting, regarding why Passalacqua continued
to make false allegations against Ms. Ravitch, one reason why
Supervisor Efren Carrillo chose to support Ravitch rather than
Passalacqua. Questioning current prosecutors as to why they failed
to endorse Passalacqua (who hired many of them) would have also
been interesting and made for a more balanced article.
I know Ms. Ravitch personally and I am a strong supporter of her
candidacy for D.A. based on her qualities of integrity and ethics.
I think she will bring a level of respect to the office that is
currently lacking. I am sorry to see her misrepresented in this
article but those of us who have attended the debates and spent
time with her know her to be the best candidate for the job.
Connie Kellogg and JP Furch
Sebastopol
Humpty Dumpty and seals
Editor: Here we go again, folks. What I’m learning to call the
Humpty Dumpty School of Resource Management is in full spate; in
order to save three endangered salmonid runs, agencies — federal,
state and county — appear willing to overlook the totality of the
ecology found at the mouth of the Russian: the harbor seal haulout,
a resting and foraging site for migratory birds and a fishery that
includes Dungeness crabs, amongst other species.
I do not understand this almost willful failure of agencies to
carry forward an ecological perspective as called for, one would
assume, in the enabling language for the Endangered Species Act. If
such a vision is not part of the ESA, I submit that we need a
Department of the Ecology, capable of seeing the forest and the
trees, the ocean and the river, the seals and the salmon and lest
any of my two-legged comrades despair of me completely, the people
who reside and recreate at the coast, river and ocean.
A holistic perspective would consider the human impact on our
planet’s natural systems of primary concern. In the present case,
Warm Springs Dam had a huge impact on the native fishery,
essentially destroying it and replacing it with a mechanistic
model. The dam allowed enormous population growth in Sonoma County
and the resulting inputs from agriculture, forestry, gravel mining
and residential and commercial development further decimated the
salmon. Native American gathering lands and a way of life that was
sustainable fell to the dam’s construction.
I say it’s time we start demanding that agencies responsible for
policy decisions make them based on a holistic understanding of
what an ecosystem is. I remember one winter when a series of storms
washed out the road to Goat Rock and the hundreds and hundreds of
birds and seals who gathered there for weeks, unmolested by even
our curiosity, benevolent though it may be.
Let your county supervisors, SCWA, Fish and Game and your
federal representatives know your concerns that a new perspective
is needed.
Dian Hardy
Founder, Sealwatch Program