No real choice for supervisor

Editor:Like many people here in Sonoma, I feel that the valley would be better represented on the Board of Supervisors by a valley resident. Unlike many however, I don’t believe that the valley has been particularly well represented by local resident Valerie Brown. In my interactions with Ms. Brown at her local “office hours” at the El Verano Sheriff’s substation, she was haughty, condescending, and completely disinterested in my concerns as one of her constituents. This was reinforced by her comment when she was asked about the runoff against Will Pier she faced in the last election, when she termed the runoff campaign as “tedious.” Apparently having to interact with her constituency (subjects?) any more than absolutely necessary was viewed by Ms. Brown as an uncomfortable and distasteful chore. That’s what you get when a craven, opportunistic politician becomes comfortable and self-entitled. To be fair, she’s far from the only one.

And now we have Susan Gorin and John Sawyer, whose track records and political paths so far in their careers are eerily similar to Brown’s. Neither has distinguished themselves in a positive manner, or achieved anything particularly noteworthy. And Mr. Sawyer’s recent comment that he would be “exactly like Valerie Brown” if elected lets us all know that not only is he perfectly content to follow in the footsteps of a mediocre supervisor, and even go out of his way to emulate her, but that he doesn’t have the ingenuity or initiative to even attempt to strike out in a new direction or develop his own policies or establish an individual identity. So largely thanks to the late entry of one of our own Sonoma City Council members, Joanne Sanders, into the supervisorial race, who herself has shown a propensity to politically overreach (hopefully the results of the primary have finally convinced her that her political career has run it’s course) we’re left with Sawyer and Gorin, truly a sad state of affairs.

I hope that in four years the valley can unite behind a viable and earnest local candidate for supervisor, and that they can triumph over whichever candidate wins this year’s election. Here’s to the future.

Martin Laney
Sonoma