A Newsletter 5-2-19
John’s Soapbox
KUDOS to the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors!
Have I gotten mellow in my view of elected officials? It is possible. This Soapbox is going to compliment the existing Supervisors in office in Sonoma County. I know-if I wanted to I could find some things to gripe about, but fair is fair-let’s honestly look at some of the accomplishments the existing five have been able to get some credit for.
I want to start with Shirlee Zane’s unabashed support of building 14 tiny homes for veterans on Russell Avenue. Look-we all know the overall homeless problem is too complex and too varied to have some easy solution. However, in Sonoma County there are several hundred homeless veterans and I personally believe this small “slice” of the big problem is solvable. In 2015 the opportunity for this project was presented and the Supervisors appointed the Community Housing Sonoma County to manage the project. Paula Cook worked tirelessly to get this project built on County owned land. Shirlee Zane supported, cajoled, spoke in favor of, and provided the impetus to get 14 tiny homes built on a small parcel of land on Russell Avenue, just north of the County jail and just south of Kaiser Hospital. To see an article on this, click here—
The location is ironic as it is entirely possible, that without these tiny homes providing safe haven for these guys, they could end up either in the jail, or in the hospital. Instead, they have a tiny home with a roof over their head, neighbors with common interest and shared history, and a door to lock that all combine to instill purpose, hope, security and pride in lives that might otherwise have none of that.
Kudos to Shirlee!
We all know what a traumatic series of events Mother Nature has dumped on our County (and others). No budget could have anticipated and had coverage for the massive commitment of resources the County of Sonoma had to put out to overcome the Tubbs and Nuns fires as well as the floods of the Russian River in 2019. The ability of the County Supervisors to get emergency funding to cover much of those costs is unprecedented. It is a tribute to their relationships with Congressmen Thompson and Huffman, as well as State Senator Mike McGuire, and State Assemblymen Jim Woods and Bill Dodd. Those relationships enabled trust and communication which led to getting emergency funding that might not have been available otherwise. It is a tribute to the character and hard work of all five of our County Supervisors that our Sonoma County budget, although stretched and frayed from the emergencies, has held up and continues to fund public safety, transportation infrastructure, and health and human services to a large extent, as it did before the emergencies.
Kudos to Susan, James, David, Shirlee, and Lynda!
Transportation infrastructure has been addressed by this group of Sonoma County Supervisors for the past 6-7 years in a healthy and productive manner. They all get the benefit of regular maintenance of our roads being good practice to safeguard the underlying structural integrity of our 1384 miles of roads in unincorporated Sonoma County. The plan that was put into action several years ago to repair our roads has so far reconstructed or resurfaced over 500 miles of our County roads. Sonoma County has been spending more General Fund dollars on roads than any other County in California for several years now. To go back to 2017 and the repaving of 170 miles in one season, click on this link from the North Bay Business Journal— link
Despite the pressure the emergencies put on the County Budget from the fires and floods, the County still intends to vote on May 21, 2019 on a planned road improvement funding that has not been reduced. The floods of 2019 caused another $23 million in damage to County roads due to washouts from high water that will get funding separate from the May 21, 2019
Supervisor vote. Emergency funding for those roads damaged in the floods is currently being sought by the Supervisors and I have no doubt they will be successful. Thanks for fixing our roads!
Kudos to David, Lynda, James, Susan and Shirlee for fixing our roads!
The 2020 elections will see Lynda Hopkins, Susan Gorin, and Shirlee Zane run as incumbents for re election to the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors. Slated for ECA Board action on May 21, 2019, will be whether to support and endorse the incumbents or not. This will be a Board decision, not a John decision. If you want to state your opinion on whether we should endorse these incumbents, please let me know and I will share your opinion at that Board meeting.
That’s All Folks!
John Bly
