Letters to the Editor 9-25-14

How About Laws For Bikes
Editor: I’ll go along with the 3-feet law for bikes, but how about a law for bikes to not ride on the outside white line? Stay in the bike path, do not ride side-by-side. I see it all the time.
Lorraine Montalva
Windsor
Political Mud
Editor: Well, I just got my first nice, slimy ball of political mud in my mailbox, “James Gore’s Inconvenient Truth,” from Debra Fudge… I mean from the sleazy organizations that are hoping to benefit from her win in the November supervisorial race.
What a vicious, distorted hit piece! It bears all of the now-standard slight-of-hand language classic to the political-carnage media experts, starting with the newly-minted name for the hit organization, “Working Families and Environmentalists for A Better Sonoma County.” I especially like that “Working Families” thing. If this is how they’re going to better our county, we’ve got a rough road ahead, folks.
A high-school freshman could have fun with the whoppers that these working families invent. As just one example, the mailer claims that “Gore’s graduate degree is from a Washington DC school for political consultants,” conjuring up images of a quickie certificate from the Jack Abramoff School of Flacks, Pols and Lobbyists, but no, it turns out to be, courtesy of the resume of Gore’s website, a Master’s degree in Political Management, from George Washington University, a fine degree from a world-respected institution.
That cute little smear is typical of the entire mailer, once you actually access the documents they footnote “Oh honey, it’s got footnote numbers, it must be correct.”
Our campaign laws, and freedom of speech, allow the SEIU, Electrical Workers Union, North Bay Labor Council—the “Working Families”—to issue such shameful garbage, and yes, I’m sure that Deb Fudge didn’t know a blessed thing about it (wink wink, nudge nudge), but she does now, and if she’s not big enough and principled enough to immediately, publically and specifically dissociate herself from these political low-lifes, then she’s right in the mud-hole with those good working families. Welcome to Sonoma County dirty politics.
Dave Henderson
Healdsburg
Crystal Ball Editorial – Board Reply
Editor: As the Board of Directors of North Sonoma County Healthcare District and Chief Executive Officer we thank The Healdsburg Tribune publisher, Rollie Atkinson, for his recent timely editorial (“Our hospital’s crystal ball,” September 11, 2014). The editorial does a very good job of describing many of the obstacles facing small community hospitals in Sonoma County, such as our own Healdsburg District Hospital, as they struggle to adapt to these conditions and overcome their detrimental effect. Some hospitals will not make it: witness the recent closure of Palm Drive Hospital in Sebastopol. But we believe it can be done and we are committed to that outcome in our community.
We don’t have any crystal balls, but we do have a plan and we are executing it. As we write, our hospital is showing positive operating results for the first time in several years. Other measures to put the hospital on a solid financial footing for the future while maintaining and improving its well-deserved reputation for very high quality locally provided healthcare services are being implemented. To do that we are leveraging our strengths: an executive team that knows how to lead and is not afraid to make changes in operations, whether or not popular, but vital to success; a committed and highly capable cadre of employees who do the heavy lifting every day; a superbly talented medical staff strongly devoted to our community; and most importantly, a community and the Healthcare Foundation Northern Sonoma County that has for years supported quality healthcare in our District.
Success will not come easily; however, we are making progress piece-by-piece, day-by-day, year-by-year, and according to a plan because we do not have a crystal ball.
Mr. Atkinson’s editorial has reminded us that just overcoming the obstacles is not enough. We need to do a better job of telling our story. Not just a one-sided exposition, but rather in the context of a conversation with the community we serve. We believe that is what Mr. Atkinson was suggesting, that we have a discussion about the challenges of healthcare. We also look forward to a robust conversation with all of you.
The Board of Directors, North Sonoma County Healthcare District Bill Esselstein, Bill Hawn, Gary Anderson, Sue Campbell, EJ Neil
Chief Executive Officer, Healdsburg District Hospital, Nancy Schmid