Good question. They are running unopposed; either vote for them or not. We looked at this at our meeting and did not have sufficient info so just took a pass; no endorsement. If anyone has any...

Are you kidding?

My family has only needed to visit an emergency room four times in the last 10 years. The first 3 times we went to Palm Drive. The 4th, since Palm Drive closed, we chose to tough...

Regarding the last election--and this one, Richard:

Below is Progressive Sebastopol's voter guide for 2012; which focused on electing Eder and Jacob as the central local issue in that election. We...

What I do know Richard is that our community will not get an emergency room back if Horn is elected instead of Colthurst and Powers. To me, this is the most important vote in this election. I'll be...

Richard, in your zeal to elect Jim Horn to make sure that Palm Drive's emergency room remains closed, you seem to have very little regard for the facts. Or the compelling public interest of the many...

I want to commend Progressive Sebastopol for their excellent voter's guide and for their integrity and bravery to change their mind.

I think it is quite unfortunate that politicians are routinely...

<Uhm, I was actually talking about the absurdity of a candidate creating his own self-promoting voter guide, > Isn't this what many candidates do so people know exactly where they stand? If not,...

I hope that by finally providing the actual lawsuit, Helen Shane will put to rest her misleading, incorrect and mysterious attacks on my reputation and the leadership role I spent hundreds of hours...

Thanks, Kai, for making the changes.

Laying out a voter's guide is challenging, with the columns and fitting it all into a handy one page printout. In the process, we mixed up Prop 45 and Prop...

Progressive Sebastopol runs on all-electric, pure acceleration, none of the messy gear changing and pollution involved with cylinders, BUT if Progressive Sebastopol were a combustion engine it would...

You have your propositions mixed up!
Prop 45 is the insurance rates
Prop 46 is the malpractice.

I agree with No on both of them though.

Helen Shane’s post suggests that my claim to “having a leadership role in the challenge to CVS” is “simply his fiction.”

In response to Ms. Shane’s strange interest in maligning me, I will...

​Hi Wacco! I recently joined Progressive Sebastopol, a small group of Sebastopol/West Sonoma county community members who are interested in helping to create a sustainable and forward-moving future...

​Incumbent candidate Patrick Slayer has been a dedicated, hard-working and competent Council Member. I am running for office to replace him on the Council not because of any deficiencies in his...

I wonder if Helen's definition of "leadership" means being a recognized member of a declared organization? The wording of her post seems to suggest that.

I hope that we can all recognize that...

It was surprising and unsettling for me to read Helen Shane’s post above, and her identical letter in Sonoma West, challenging my leadership role in countering the CVS project.

It was my...

I was very pleased to see Council Member John Eder's response earlier today. If we are going to come together as a community to heal the personal and political divisions that have been caused by...

I have a great sense of humor and love to laugh, but perhaps you're not one of the people, as I am and many others, whose life was saved in the ER at Palm Drive. This is no laughing matter.

I do not trust the news media much these days and that is why I pointed out the headline about the judge "refusing" mediation, when in fact he recommended it.

The hidden agenda and conflict of...

There's a thoughtful opinion article in the Sonoma West from May 7th entitled "Palm Drive Foundation proposal not the answer" by Jim Horn.

It starts with:

"Three weeks ago, the Palm Drive...

Hmmm, I did NOT see any coverage that the Palm Drive Hosp. was considering closing UNTIL they had already decided it as an impossible immediate fait accompli. I didn't hear "it's coming, we're on the...

Jim,

Your post is right on. Hospitals provide a local utility purpose in the form of access to Emergency care in the same way that a fire department, school or sewer system does. Without Emergency...

No one is advocating sticking people in hospitals who don't belong there. Where "marketing" has been discussed in this thread, I think the evident intention is to maintain a care facility close at...

Jonathan,

Someone asked Joan why Wells Fargo would want to see Palm Drive Closed?

First the short answer:

Wells is protecting itself and the bond holders ability to keep collecting our tax...

I greatly appreciate Jonathan Greenberg’s investigation and Gus's commentary.

There’s one element alluded to in his analysis on which I haven’t seen any commentary. As I read it, the lawyer’s...

I also would like to point out that the employees of PDH did furloughs last year all summer, we gave up retirement contributions for months, we were pigeonholed into only one choice for healthcare...

I found the headline in this week's Sonoma West Times an interesting choice of perspective: "Judge Denies Mediation Request in Hospital Saga". Since many people read the headlines, and only the...

You are both right as far as the local newspaper goes, hospital utilization for INPATIENT services has dropped dramatically all over the US during the last 30 years and continues on the same trend....

I almost shared this a month ago, but it's still good. I have somewhat distant relatives living in Carmel. They sent me an email that said among other things:

"Thought you would like to know that...

There is another aspect to this situation I would like to focus on: Where was the local media during this process? Many of us, particularly after the lead-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, have...

We have been told that the ambulance costs $250/hr to be sitting at the hospital. This equates to $6,000 a day or $180,000 a month. This is far more money than the ENTIRE HOSPITAL lost in 2013, it's...

Does anyone know how much Palm Drive is paying AMR ambulance service to be on standby sitting outside the ER 24 hours a day while there is a giant closed sign outside? Is this being done under the...

(quote): "And so the Board embarked on a pattern of bad faith to their constituents while turning their judgment over to people who did not live here and had not the slightest bit of concern for...

Thursday’s gathering at the Veterans Center was remarkable in its unanimity. For the hour and a half I was there the large crowd, alerted on such short notice, opposed the Palm Drive Board’s actions,...

Thank you, Jonathan, for your comprehensive reply. We all have friends and neighbors on either or both sides of the issue. This has become more personal than it should and emotions are running very...

Peacetown Jonathan,

I would suggest that the best thing to do when you are on a board that has failed at its mission or you are not able to be effective is to resign and let someone else try a...

Scamperwillow,

First, I want to agree with you that the Palm Drive District Board members are not "self-interested, vindictive people." I have found no evidence of any corruption on the part of...

Behind Palm Drive Hospital's Closing Part II: Wells Fargo Bank & the Shutdown Playbook

How A Bondholder-Friendly Shutdown Playbook Secretly Sunk Our Hospital

By Jonathan Greenberg
For...

This is just an attempt at a little humor after observing some unnecessarily rancorous discussion about some "conspiracy theory" type issues here on Waccobb.

Here are a few more new terms for...

Harvard study shows neonicotionoids are devastating colonies by triggerring colony collapse disorder

Well folks, Harvard has the smoking gun. Neonicitinoids alter winterization behavior in apis...

I would like to echo the idea that there needs to be a new thread started - possibly in the relationships section. I have been reading most of the posts since my last post, and I have noticed that...

A few months ago I offered a term to describe an interactive dynamic I've seen during some contentious discussions about controversial issues here on Waccobb:

wac-co-ize
/wak/o/īz/
tr. v...

I am not in any sense an expert or deeply informed on Palm Drive's specifics. I attended the night time vigil because I had heard about the doctors' having come up with a plan for keeping it open...

Maybe we're talking about two different things. I have absolutely no problem with the idea of doctors running the hospital, and I support the idea of cooperatives. The problem I have -- and that's...

The issue is not managers, the issue is whether they are so special that the rest of us mortals should be subservient to them while paying them princely incomes. Managing is an important skill but...

Just wanted to point out that the doctors' proposal (YouTube: Palm Drive Hospital, A New Beginning) increases the number of managers in the hospital administration. Now, Palm Drive has a CEO and a...

Petaluma has the Alvarado Street Bakery. Been around 30 years. Bakers run it. They make about $80K a year and their CEO gets no more than 3X the lowest paid worker. They manage just fine in good...

I agree with the last two posts. Why not let them try? They have a vested interest in keeping Palm Drive gonig and healthy, and so does the community. We've done the traditional, current Board of...

I don't pretend to be an expert on Palm Drive, but I am bothered by the fact that the Board made its final decision in secret and think it likely the doctors have more knowledge than anyone else how...

I'm not arguing, but the people you mention need to stand up to the plate and run for election. What I'm trying to say is if you have publicly elected officials, you have some rights, however feeble....