Sonoma County Bd of Supes candidates

[Dynamique]

Is anyone familiar with Sharon Wright, former mayor of Santa Rosa and current member of the Planning Commission? She has put her hat in the ring for the 3rd District supervisor seat being vacated (thank goodness) by Tim Smith.

There are 3 other candidates for the 3rd district seat, but only Sharon Wright has sent out a mailer to registered voters. It's not a mailer with the usual drivel, it's a questionnaire! My goodness, I've lived in the 3rd District for 11 years and this is the first time anyone has asked me what I think is important and what I would like to see in the district and the county.

Does anyone have credible info and/or experience with Ms. Wright? Is she another one of these candidates that puts on the populist/progressive mask but is really a building industry operative? Any idea who is funding her and has paid for this questionnaire mailer? I'm planning on asking her directly, but would like to get a wider source of information.

Perhaps we could use this thread to share information about all of the candidates for all three seats up for election in June 2008. It's quite a crowd and this is an important election.

Toward a true progressive majority on the Board of Supervisors,
Kirsten

[Zeno Swijtink]

Is anyone familiar with Sharon Wright, former mayor of Santa Rosa and current member of the Planning Commission? She has put her hat in the ring for the 3rd District supervisor seat being vacated (thank goodness) by Tim Smith.

There are 3 other candidates for the 3rd district seat, but only Sharon Wright has sent out a mailer to registered voters. It's not a mailer with the usual drivel, it's a questionnaire! My goodness, I've lived in the 3rd District for 11 years and this is the first time anyone has asked me what I think is important and what I would like to see in the district and the county.

Does anyone have credible info and/or experience with Ms. Wright? Is she another one of these candidates that puts on the populist/progressive mask but is really a building industry operative? Any idea who is funding her and has paid for this questionnaire mailer? I'm planning on asking her directly, but would like to get a wider source of information.

Perhaps we could use this thread to share information about all of the candidates for all three seats up for election in June 2008. It's quite a crowd and this is an important election.

Toward a true progressive majority on the Board of Supervisors,
Kirsten

Tim Smith appointed Sharon Wright to the Sonoma County Planning Commission to represent the 3rd District (Santa Rosa) last Spring. Sharon Wright stands for business interests.

I copy here a letter written by Brenda Adelman in 2004 objecting to a possible appointment by Schwartzenegger of Sharon Wright to the State Water Resources Control Board.

****

July 2, 2004
Randal Hernandez: Appointments Secretary
Office of Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger
State Capitol, First Floor
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 445-1915

Dear Mr. Hernandez:

We strongly oppose the appointment of Santa Rosa Mayor Sharon Wright
to the State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) and we
urge Governor Schwartzenegger to deny her appointment.

I am writing as Chair of the Russian River Watershed Protection
Committee (RRWPC), an nonprofit organization that has been in
existence since 1980. We are a community group from the Guerneville
area in the lower Russian River, and have worked on numerous water
quality and quantity issues since that time.

We have approximately 1400 supporters in the greater Bay Area who
have provided 95% of our support for the last 24 years; we are truly
a grass roots organization. Generally speaking, our supporters are
property and business owners, renters, and recreationists in the
lower Russian River. They have a deep love for this place and see the
river as the crown jewel of their experience here. They are also
very concerned about the quality of their drinking water.

We have been closely tracking Santa Rosa's wastewater problems since
1985, when the City illegally discharged 800 million gallons of
secondary wastewater into the lower Russian River, drinking water
source for close to 600,000 people. One month after this event, the
Regional Board held an all day meeting that was attended by over one
thousand people. At least 100 people spoke over a six hour period.
This was truly a defining moment for our community and affirmed our
commitment to protection of our incredible watershed.

Over the years, RRWPC has attended hundreds of meetings of the Santa
Rosa City Council (of which Ms. Wright has been a member for about
ten years), Santa Rosa's Board of Public Utilities, and the North
Coast Regional Board, waiting patiently for the City to get their
wastewater discharges out of our drinking water supply. We provided
extensive comments on unending documents and testimony at hearings
too numerous to mention, for four major environmental impact reports.
We have had many opportunities to experience Ms. Wright's handling of
water issues.

We have NEVER heard Ms. Wright express concern or knowledge about
water quality and/or quantity problems, other than making vague
assertions supporting clean water and low costs. She is a proponent
of issues that serve the interests of the Santa Rosa Chamber of
Commerce, the Sonoma County Alliance (an association for the
development industry), and the Northcoast Builders Exchange. For
years she has been a paid employee and/or contractor for all of these
organizations. As mayor, I believe she receives about $900 a month.

In addition, a few years ago. she was fined $14,500 by the Fair
Political Practices Commission (FPPC) for ten violations of their
conflict of interest rules. She did not contest the decision and paid
the fine. A Press Democrat article of June 5, 2004, stated, "Wright
was cited for 10 violations and fined $14,500 while Condron was cited
twice and fined $3,000. Both at the time had financial ties with the
Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce and had failed to abstain from votes
that helped fund chamber programs." Ms. Wright is a staunch supporter
of her friends and has never displayed an open mind for views of
those outside her inner circle, especially where water is involved.

Santa Rosa has discharged wastewater into the Laguna de Santa Rosa,
largest tributary of the Russian River, since 1985, even while
promising to minimize discharges. Most of their project proposals
have called for substantive increases, including two major EIR review
processes occurring since Ms. Wright has been in office.

While many improvements have been made to Santa Rosa's system over
the years, they have also continued to violate their permit with
excessive discharges, numerous sanitary sewer overflows, report
violations, system upsets and bypasses, etc. Regional board staff
have identified about 400 violations since 1986; our group has
identified even more. Board Staff is currently preparing Santa Rosa's
ninth Administrative Civil Liability (ACL) action since 1985.

In spite of the many issues the City has had before the Regional
Board, I am not aware that Mayor Wright has ever attended a meeting
of our local water regulator. While she has overseen (as mayor) many
public hearings on water and wastewater issues over the years, I do
not recall her ever raising concerns about pollution, habitat
degradation, aquatic life, or protection of endangered species.

We were greatly relieved a few years ago during the first of those
two EIR processes when the City selected a Geyser's discharge option,
which was supposed to minimize most wastewater discharges into the
river. This decision came after several years of serious debate about
whether to increase river discharge from 5% to 20%. Geyser companies
offered the City a deal they could not refuse and the river got a
last minute reprieve. Of course the costs of the project more than
doubled the original offer and Calpine is now backing off on some of
their original promises.

Only this year, under Ms. Wright's leadership as mayor, the City
selected and moved forward on a new river discharge project that
would allow discharges as high as 4.5 billion gallons a year and
would possibly be moved to an area in direct proximity to Santa
Rosa's own drinking water supply. This selection was preferred over
stronger conservation programs, infiltration and inflow (I&I)
programs (They currently replace less than 2% of their deteriorating
collection system per year.) extensive urban irrigation programs, and
advanced wastewater treatment options.

What is worse, to counter the impacts of new regulations, the City
has hired, under Mayor Wright's oversight, two highly paid lobbying
firms to influence legislation at the State and Federal levels. The
State lobbyist has been on the job for almost two years. He operates
mainly in secret and for as long as seven months gave no public
reports. The two lobbying contracts cost the City approximately
$200,000 a year, at a time when many police and fire fighting
positions are being cut due to budget deficiencies.

City officials, and their consultants and lobbyists continually
pressure State and Federal regulators for favorable rulings on issues
that impact the operation of their wastewater treatment system. One
particular situation involved the listing of the Laguna as impaired
for phosphorus. There had been a scientific report that clearly
identified the City's effluent as contributing significant amounts of
phosphorus to that water body. An exotic plant called Ludwigia, fed
by these nutrients, is currently choking the waterway in summer. The
threat of West Nile virus is a strong concern, and in fact, spraying
to control that vector will begin this week.

Since high temperatures and low dissolved oxygen prevailed (and were
included as impairments on the 303(d) list), Regional Board staff
recommended listing the Laguna as impaired for nutrients. The
Regional Board agreed. Then the State Board reversed that ruling and
put the Laguna on the "watch" list, a new designation that carried no
standing. In the end EPA reversed the State Board's decision. One
reason given for that reversal was that City representatives had
asserted that local citizens were NOT concerned, when the EPA staff
had clear evidence to the contrary. It is important to add that the
Laguna de Santa Rosa is one of the most impaired water bodies in
District I and Santa Rosa's wastewater is a significant contributor
to that impairment.

In addition, City officials and consultants, with Sharon's full
support,, have very actively pursued challenges to those parts of
legislation such as the California Toxics Rule, the Endangered
Species Act, Byron Sher's SB 1477, the Clean Water Act, etc., that
have an impact on the operation of their system. They have commented
on NPDES permits of other entities in order to set precedents for
their own benefit. They have actively attempted to influence State
Board appointments who would be amenable to their activities. They
have consistently applied great pressure to weaken the interpretation
of clean water regulations, couching their comments in
proenvironmental lexicon.

In a few months, Santa Rosa will be renewing a critical NPDES permit
before the North Coast Board. Santa Rosa is pushing for a whole
series of regulatory changes and interpretations that would minimize
the impact of new regulations on their permit. They are interested
in forcing interpretations that can have statewide implications. One
is the desire to implement allowances for incidental runoff during
summer irrigation in spite of our summer discharge prohibition. It
would help their efforts enormously to have Ms. Wright on that Board.

Mr. Hernandez, there have been less than a handful of occasions over
the last 25 years when RRWPC has requested the denial of an
appointment. Obviously, this is a example of one of those times. In
the coming years, the State Board will have many critical policy
decisions concerning clean water, endangered species and water
supply. We urge you to appoint someone who can provide a balanced
view on these issues.

Many people feel as we do. If Governor Scwarzenegger appoints Sharon
Wright to the North Coast Regional Board, it would be highly
controversial and you can anticipate a great deal of opposition. I
know that there are many fine applicants who could serve the Governor
well, unencumbered with such controversy.

I urge Governor Schwartzenegger to NOT appoint Sharon Wright to the
State Water Resources Control Board.

Sincerely,



Brenda Adelman: Chair of RRWPC

[lifequest]

I agree with Zeno... she was pro developer/business interests while on the Santa Rosa City council. I remember she did go door to door in my neighborhood while campaigning and was very personable.

Santa Rosa's sprawl and quality of life issues are a result of the council majority listening only to power and vested interests. Its a nice touch to frame a campaign around voter questionnaire's, but will the results be cast aside when it comes to making important political decisions?

[Dynamique]

It sounds like with this candidate as with so many others, the results will almost certainly be disregarded unless they support more building and more freeways as a transportation "solution."

Thanks to the responses posted here, my conclusion is that having Sharon Wright on the Board of Supes would be a disaster for the county. We've already endured 20 years of the ultimate Democrat in Name Only (DINO), Tim Smith. That's 19.9 years too many. Enough of the DINOs!

Santa Rosa's sprawl and quality of life issues are a result of the council majority listening only to power and vested interests. Its a nice touch to frame a campaign around voter questionnaire's, but will the results be cast aside when it comes to making important political decisions?

[thewholetruth]

I'm not sure what happened to the SCBSupes, but two things are very clear: 1) They're paying themselves WAAAAAAAY more than they're worth (Public Service my ass!) and 2) While they keep on paying themselves too much, they're threatening to close the only County run affordable drug/alcohol treatment program at The Orenda Center. The Supes say that they'll contract out folks who need treatment to the other recovery centers in the county, but I have news for you: the Faith-based programs are not only already full, but have long waiting lists, as well. There IS nowhere to refer people. How can we allow overpaid Supervisors to be paid too much, then let them close the only secular affordable treatment center in Sonoma County?

It sounds like with this candidate as with so many others, the results will almost certainly be disregarded unless they support more building and more freeways as a transportation "solution."

Thanks to the responses posted here, my conclusion is that having Sharon Wright on the Board of Supes would be a disaster for the county. We've already endured 20 years of the ultimate Democrat in Name Only (DINO), Tim Smith. That's 19.9 years too many. Enough of the DINOs!

[danmonte]

Sharon is often referred to as Sharon Wrong for her anti-environmental positions and ACTIONS as Mayor of Santa Rosa. My favorite statement from her is that she doesn't understand those crazy liberals on the Santa Rosa City Council. They are always talking about bicycles. This was her response when the City Council passed a petition to Congress to investigate the crimes of Bush and Cheney
I personally am working hard to get Veronica Jacobi elected as a supervisor for all of the residents of Sonoma County.

Is anyone familiar with Sharon Wright, former mayor of Santa Rosa and current member of the Planning Commission? She has put her hat in the ring for the 3rd District supervisor seat being vacated (thank goodness) by Tim Smith.

There are 3 other candidates for the 3rd district seat, but only Sharon Wright has sent out a mailer to registered voters. It's not a mailer with the usual drivel, it's a questionnaire! My goodness, I've lived in the 3rd District for 11 years and this is the first time anyone has asked me what I think is important and what I would like to see in the district and the county.

Does anyone have credible info and/or experience with Ms. Wright? Is she another one of these candidates that puts on the populist/progressive mask but is really a building industry operative? Any idea who is funding her and has paid for this questionnaire mailer? I'm planning on asking her directly, but would like to get a wider source of information.

Perhaps we could use this thread to share information about all of the candidates for all three seats up for election in June 2008. It's quite a crowd and this is an important election.

Toward a true progressive majority on the Board of Supervisors,
Kirsten

[niboroo]

Re: 3rd District Supervisor race
Shirlee Zane is most definitely a great candidate, liberal, with practical as well as far-looking vision. At present she has been heading The Council on Aging for 9 years ( with much benefit to mid-lifers and on). She has scads of good solid community / organizing experience and knows the area very well. Check her website, call her up, read her monthly column in Sonoma
Seniors. Oh yes, and my recommendation is to vote her in.
niboor

Sharon is often referred to as Sharon Wrong for her anti-environmental positions and ACTIONS as Mayor of Santa Rosa. My favorite statement from her is that she doesn't understand those crazy liberals on the Santa Rosa City Council. They are always talking about bicycles. This was her response when the City Council passed a petition to Congress to investigate the crimes of Bush and Cheney
I personally am working hard to get Veronica Jacobi elected as a supervisor for all of the residents of Sonoma County.

[riverosprey]

I have known Sharon Wright for over 20 years. I went through Leadership Santa Rosa (LSR) in the late 80's and Sharon was the coordinator for the Santa Rosa Chamber. She is a very personable friend of development interests in the Santa Rosa Plain and has not shown much leadership toward protecting the environment especially the Russian River and the Laguna.

I endorsed and donated to the "Other Tim Smith" Rohnert Park's city councilman Tim Smith. Tim is a progressive environmentalist with some good ideas on how to restore cuts to mental health services. His campaign manager is another good Sonoma County progressive, Rohnert Park councilman Jake Mackenzie.

Shirlee Zane and Veronica Jacobi are both fine candidates that would serve well the interests of Sonoma Counties environment and All the people. We must work very hard for the election of one of the three progressives over Sharon Wright. She has a well funded and managed campaign.

As the next Supervisor representing the Fifth District I certainly am hoping for one of the three progressives above ;0). For more info on our campaign go to www.TomLynch4Supervisor.com or give me a call at 827-3415.

peace out,
Tom Lynch
"Together Toward a Sustainable Future"

p.s. Donc55 is right, the Supervisors make a lot of money (salary + benefits is over $200K/year). In fact if you go to my website, look under the Google video to a link where I have presented ALL the salaries for the 4237 full time County workers from highest to lowest (obtained through Freedom of Information Act). The top 1000 County workers average salary/benefit is over $160,000/year...we need to reform and reallocate our resources...more on that later...

[Braggi]

I'm not sure what happened to the SCBSupes, but two things are very clear: 1) They're paying themselves WAAAAAAAY more than they're worth (Public Service my ass!) and 2) While they keep on paying themselves too much, they're threatening to close the only County run affordable drug/alcohol treatment program at The Orenda Center. ...

I couldn't agree more. Over the last several years they have systematically dismantled one of the best county run mental health systems in the country. Visitors from all over the country and even from other countries would come to see how the County mental hospital ran. Marty Rubin, MD put together a crack team of psychiatrists over the couple of decades he worked there. His legacy team carried on until underfunded into nothingness by a Board asleep at the switch. Now we have no County hospital and it's a disaster.

Guess what? A great many of the former patients of the County hospital now call County jail home. Surprise, surprise. Guess which costs the taxpayers more? (This is a complex discussion I'm greatly simplifying here. Over time, I believe the short-sightedness of closing down our County mental health system will be apparent and costs will mushroom as a result.)

Out with the old, in with new, progressive people. Hopefully, people who can make some decent decisions.

-Jeff

[Dynamique]

And another bunch of former mental hospital patients call our creeks "home" -- not to mention using them as toilets.

You can pay now, or you can pay later... and later always costs a whole lot more. This county does seem to be operating on the "kick it down the line for someone else to take care of later" basis. I have yet to hear any of the supe candidates talk about this issue. Maybe some of them have figured it out, but I've not heard about it, which says something about the effectiveness of their campaign outreach.

- Kirsten

Guess what? A great many of the former patients of the County hospital now call County jail home. Surprise, surprise. Guess which costs the taxpayers more? (This is a complex discussion I'm greatly simplifying here. Over time, I believe the short-sightedness of closing down our County mental health system will be apparent and costs will mushroom as a result.)

Out with the old, in with new, progressive people. Hopefully, people who can make some decent decisions.

-Jeff

[riverosprey]

Hi Kirsten...

Well said, I think a lot of us Supervisorial candidates aren't getting our message out there, I am going to utilize the marvelous resource of WaccoBB more. You can hear me on radio, and see me on Google video on our website at www.TomLynch4Supervisor.com addressing cuts in mental health services. I am deeply concerned about the demise of our County's Mental Health programs and I am offering some bold solutions.

You can also go to our Blog, I've just posted my latest collumn for Vesta Copestakes' West County Gazette.

"Our campaign flyer says, "We must freeze County salaries and benefits and restore funds to our non-profit and volunteer organizations. To avoid the loss of hundreds of County jobs from Human Services, Public Safety, and Mental Health along with more cuts in essential services, we must reallocate our resources to serve the greatest needs in Sonoma County." This is the heart and soul of our campaign...."

check out the full piece at (https://tomlynchforsupervisor.blogspot.com/)

L.

Tom Lynch
www.TomLynch4Supervisor.com
"Together Toward A Sustainable Future"

[Braggi]

... This is the heart and soul of our campaign...."

check out the full piece at (https://tomlynchforsupervisor.blogspot.com/)

Wow, Tom. Sounds pretty good. I'll look over your site. Thanks for posting on Waccobb.

-Jeff

[Sciguy]

One more try to add a flyer image for candidates' night in Graton

[scamperwillow]

The third district supervisor candidates are debating this coming Wed, April 23 at the Demo Club dinner. You need to reserve, but get dinner for $10 followed by the program.

I am supporting Shirlee Zane who was just endorsed by the progressive environmental elected officials including Noreen Evans, Pat Wiggins and Deb Fudge. https://www.zaneforsupervisor.com/index.html

Democratic 1st & 3rd District Supervisor Candidates


1st District Candidates:

Valerie Brown
District One Supervisor - Incumbent

William Pier
Ecologist
Fisheries specialist, Sonoma Ecology Center


3rd District Candidates:

Veronica Jacobi
Member, Santa Rosa City Council
Mechanical Engineer

Tim Smith
Member & 2006 Mayor, Rohnert Park City Council
Santa Rosa attorney

Sharon Wright
Wright Consulting- public & governmental affairs

Shirlee Zane
CEO, Sonoma County Council on Aging


Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Santa Rosa Veterans Memorial Bldg
1351 Maple Avenue (MAP)

6:00 PM Mix & Mingle: No Host Bar, Free Appetizers
7:00 PM Dinner $10 (RSVP by MONDAY, April 21, at 10PM - [email protected])
7:30 PM Program

This event is free to all, but we hope you will take advantage of the full dinner. RSVP for dinner is required! Join us for our superb chefs Lori Kunkle and Liz Pinto's Rites of Spring offering:

Hors d'oeuvres
Dinner:
Chili (turkey & veggie varieties)
Chili toppings (cheese, onions, etc.)
Green salad
Cornbread with honeybutter
Dessert: Ice cream sundae bar
Only $10! Such a deal!

RSVP NO LATER THAN MONDAY 4/21 10PM!