An open letter to the city council
EDITOR: At our city council meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 4, you broke with long-standing council fair practice and the general understanding of our citizenry that the leadership positions rotate equally among all members of the Council.
By your action, you deprived me of the opportunity to take my turn in a leadership role by rotating in as vice mayor, a privilege that each of you has claimed for yourself from the authority granted by the electors of Sebastopol. I, too, was elected by these same electors and, for the sake of equality, I should be granted the same privilege that each one of you has been given.
Your actions show disrespect for the governing practices of our city and our constituents. Denying a peer equal access to a leadership role demonstrates an unfounded sense of entitlement and privilege while highlighting intolerance toward those who hold different opinions. This is undemocratic and shows the worst of our council and its practices.
Your recent action is a textbook example of what keeps qualified residents in our community from considering running for office. Obstructionist and capricious groupthink creates a narrow-minded and uncreative leadership, which is what observers of the council say they dislike most about Sebastopol City politics and the principal reason why they will not participate in the governance of Sebastopol.
It is no coincidence that city council has on many times been forced to reopen application periods for filling seats on various boards and planning commissions due to the lack of citizen participation. Currently, there are two seats open on the planning commission with just one application received from a city with over 7,000 residents.
Inequitable power-mongering turns many citizens away from actively engaging with city council and this chronic shortage of engaged citizens willing to participate in city politics is a slow-moving crisis and a sign of stagnating leadership.
Michael Carnacchi
Council member, City of Sebastopol
Another open letter to the council
EDITOR: I was saddened to see that Michael Carnacchi was passed over for the role of vice-mayor of Sebastopol.
I would like to hear your reasoning of the change of protocol. It seems that in the past, every member of the council had a chance to become first vice-mayor and then mayor. Why did you deviate from this? It definitely shows that you are not willing to work with someone who doesn’t agree with your way of running the city. Not a good decision, in my eyes.
Please reconsider this travesty of justice.
Lauralee Aho
Sebastopol
Give locally
EDITOR: Bob Jones’ December 6 column (“Inundated with Appeals”) spoke my mind. I dislike being guilt-tripped, often by blatant atrocity stories. I dislike the overload of address labels, notepads, calendars (19 so far this year), and cards. I especially dislike the waste of natural resources.
My (imperfect) solution: stop sending money to national nonprofits, even those I care deeply about and focus my giving completely on local causes. There is a wide variety to support, from food services to animal shelters and wildlife rescues, as well as the art center, senior center, fire and police, homelessness, and so many more. I think my small donations may work harder close to home — and sometimes I can even hand-deliver them.
Ann Parsons
Sebastopol
In support of IOLERO
EDITOR: We were glad to see Rollie Atkinson’s editorial last week supporting Sonoma County’s Independent Office of Law Enforcement Review and Outreach (IOLERO). The ACLU appeared at the Dec. 4 Board of Supervisors’ meeting to strongly support the mandate and scope of IOLERO and its Community Advisory Commission (CAC), especially at this critical juncture when the board will shortly select a new director and probably redefine that body’s mission. IOLERO’s mandate is broad, ambitious and fully justified (on its website: sonomacounty.ca.gov/iolero), but its efforts have fallen short because of a lack of promised staffing.
All five Supervisors supported the continuance of IOLERO, including James Gore, a strong supporter from the beginning, but only Susan Gorin voiced strong advocacy for finally giving the auditor the full funding that the BOS promised but never followed through on.
In our statement, we urged the board “not only to continue the existence of this valuable investigative and advisory body, but to further strengthen its mandate, procedures, independence, staff and funding.” We continued: “any restrictions placed on its staff or reductions in mission or budget … will inevitably compromise the transparency, integrity and correctness of critical procedures within the Sheriff’s Department, not to mention compromising the civil and legal rights of citizens subject to them. We believe that Director Threet’s recommendations will result in a more professional and effective Sheriff’s Office, as well in policies and procedures that more effectively than at the present reflect the expectations of the community in the area of protection of civil and Constitutional rights.”
We hope that local citizens will echo these sentiments to their Supervisor.
Dave Henderson and Patricia Morandi
Co-chairs, Sonoma County Chapter of the
American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California
