Letters to the Editor
UGB petition drive headed for success
Editor: This letter corrects the inaccuracy of statements that cast doubt on the success of the UGB petition drive. Nothing could be further from the truth. In less than 30 days, we obtained the required amount of signatures (600) for the next City of Sonoma General Election. The UGB petition drive collected over 800 signatures in favor of the ballot initiative. Virtually all of these signatures were collected through the mail. We held off on our door-to-door campaign, out of deference to and support of the parcel tax campaign and its respected leaders. We did not want to confuse the voters. In addition, we supported the Measure B campaign both with volunteers and financial contributions. According to our survey completed by the same pollsters used for the Measure B campaign, well over 50 percent of City of Sonoma voters supported a UGB change for the Eighth Street hospital and emergency room. The survey also indicated that Sonoma voters would NOT pass a $130 million hospital bond initiative.
We are confident we can obtain the few remaining signatures should it be necessary. We are only one weekend away from obtaining the balance needed for a special election. The petition drive deadline is in July. It was our intent to continue the drive once a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Hospital District was in place. The MOU was denied. Clearly our petition response does not constitute a “petition drive in trouble.” The strong response and survey results indicated that city of Sonoma voters well understood the trade-offs necessary between land use and health care.
Lynn Wirick Ross
Pleased with pending pasture purchase
Editor: I am so shocked with the action of the Sonoma City Council and the unanimous April 18 vote to help purchase a conservation easement in order to preserve the beautiful draft-horse pasture and historic farm at 154 E. Spain Street that I have had to read the article appearing in the Sun newspaper three times! The Sonoma City Council has not been known to be cognizant of Sonoma, its history and/or residents: this action has pleased me, therefore, this note of appreciation. (Editor’s note: This letter was first sent to the city council.)
The $2 million from the city coffers is a drop in the bucket compared to the historical, environmental and heart-warming effect this acquisition will insure.
Retention and continued use of this property by the Castagnasso family and their beautiful Clydesdale horses are a plus for the historical city of Sonoma and its residents.
Along with many other native-born and adopted residents, I thank you.
Linda L. McGarr
School taxes shouldn’t fund PR campaign
Editor: Regarding the Sun article of April 26 about the school board deciding to pay Whitehurst Campaigns $10,000 for two months to assess a parcel tax ballot measure plus a fee of $25,000 to conduct a poll. This is taxpayer`s money and should not be spent for a public relations campaign to convince us to vote for a parcel tax. The school district`s administrative salaries should be made public, plus their efforts past and present of controlling and reducing expenses within the district.
Hugo Romani
Another reason to love Sonoma Valley!
Editor: Last weekend in my quest to purchase enough bread for a spaghetti fundraiser for Sonoma Charter School, I visited several Sonoma bakeries, some of which take cash only. I was buying large quantities from each location, and at my last stop found myself completely cashless. As I stood in line, I said to myself out loud, “Oh no, they don’t take credit cards here!” The wonderful woman behind me said immediately, “I’ll give you some money”! I thanked her profusely and responded, “No, thank you because I’m buying lots of bread”! After telling her why I was buying so much bread, I told her that I’d be back after going to the ATM machine. She immediately said “I’ll buy this bread as my donation to your school!” So a big thank you to Nina Gorbach, director of The Willmar Center, for buying quite a few loaves of bread for our spaghetti feed, and even more thanks for all she does to make life better for the children of this valley. It doesn’t get any better than that!
Lynn Curry
One mishap in Arnold history
Editor: I enjoyed reading Gerald Hill’s lively and entertaining recent two-part series about my grandfather, General Hap Arnold.
However, for the record, aircraft designer and builder Donald Douglas Sr., mentioned in the article, was not Hap’s son-in-law.
He was General Arnold’s longtime friend and in June of 1944, Hap’s son, Bruce Arnold, married Donald Douglas’s daughter, Barbara.
How do I know? They were my parents.
Other than that, a great read and thanks for publishing it.
Robert Arnold
‘Sucking sound’ of $100 million leaving
Editor: The Hospital Board solution will be just that, Good money after bad! Thanks to Mike Nugent and Arnold Reibli for creating that “sucking sound” of $100 million leaving Sonoma Valley, not to mention the sound of the doctors and their moving vans leaving the Valley. You are taking money out of the valley’s cash flow and have “pickpocketed” the children, teachers and the entire community. Since when is it not good business to talk to people with a different approach? Toyota tried a new approach and they are now the number one car company in America. The valley economy needs capital and proven business practices coming in to be re-circulated. For the board to come back for $130 million+ won’t fly for this taxpayer! And Carl Gerlach’s talk of recruiting doctors to invest in a “public” hospital that is losing money is nonsense. Isn’t Carl’s former employer a creditor for the bankrupt Palm Drive Hospital to the tune of $100,000? Where do we draw the line? I cannot RECALL when I have been more disappointed in public officials, except when former councilman Larry Barnett and most of the council tried to expand the UGB and steal Joe Leveroni’s property by inflicting eminent domain. Cirrus was serious – now they are gone. Thanks.
Gary Edwards
Hospital board’s decision ‘huge loss for community’
Editor: Last Wednesday, the health district board took one small step for victory and one huge loss for the community. They kicked Cirrus right out of town. The district board pulled the plug on Cirrus. The decision not to engage Cirrus in a public/private partnership discussion was incompetent, irresponsible and just plain petulant. This decision will go down as a catastrophe for the entire community.
When Cirrus promised to pay $100 million for an emergency room and hospital they were maligned and abused. Apparently, the District board was threatened by competence and responded with defensiveness and overt anger. The board has operated a continuously bankrupt facility for the past 10 years with projections to continue to operate in a state of insolvency for at least another five years. This board is simply not qualified to oversee the operation of a $40 million highly technical business – a business which is the third largest employer in the valley and constantly subject to government regulatory changes.
The board has spent more than $200,000 of taxpayer monies supporting the Coalition, $175,000 in non-refundable options for land it has failed to secure, $240,000 in “severance” to an ex-CEO who supposedly “resigned” BUT not a nickel to determine whether the public would support a $130 million General Obligation Bond (“GO” Bond) necessary to build a new hospital. In addition, the hospital’s revenue was $240,000 less than projected for the month of March alone. The hospital continues to fail even with the parcel tax. Three doctors have left since the parcel tax passed and more have definitive plans to leave. All the while, the board and the coalition are focused on the location of the new hospital, a pursuit that is completely irrelevant to the hospital’s survival.
The board has left the community with two options that require a minimum of $130 million in general-obligation bonds to finance. A conservative estimate of the taxpayer burden associated with repayment of the bonds, including the existing parcel tax, indicates a homeowner with a home value of $500,000 will pay $500 dollars a year for 30 years. This is without the “guarantee” of a hospital or an emergency room which Mr. Riebli so adeptly insisted upon from Cirrus. If the hospital never gets built or fails, the only “guarantee” the board will give taxpayers is a stark obligation to repay the bonds for the next 30 years anyway.
It comes down to three issues: (1) Would any prudent taxpayer give $130 million to a dysfunctional district board with this history and with absolutely no experience in hospital development? (2) Why would any physician come to Sonoma to join the medical staff of a bankrupt hospital run by a dysfunctional district board that cannot “guarantee” a facility in which to practice? (3) Why would anybody believe that this board could accomplish the building of a hospital, without massive cost overruns and delays? When the bond issue comes to a vote in November it will be for significantly more than $130 million. If the bond issue does pass, I predict there will be delays and overruns requiring yet another bond issue. If the hospital is built it is likely to be operationally unsustainable and require another parcel tax, a situation the board has already acknowledged and stated publicly to be the case.
Cirrus is gone and they are truly irreplaceable. With them went the only chance for a new sustainable hospital. Mr. and Mrs. Taxpayer, under the current board administration, stand prepared for the slow and costly demise of this important health care institution.
Henry Grause, M.D.
Hospital quiz
Editor: Multiple-choice quiz
1. A good hospital design for the future should consider the health care needs of the Sonoma Valley:
For the needs of the community when the hospital is finished in a. 2012, b. 2025, c. 2045, d. All of the above.
2. A good hospital design for the future will require:
a. The ability to significantly increase the size of the emergency room, the operating rooms, the outpatient facilities, b. the ambulatory surgical center and the medical offices
will require an enormous amount of land to create the flexibility to deal with all of the unknown medical advances that will be made in the future and which will create new facilities, c.
Will need extra acres, not extra square feet for expansion, d.
All of the above
3. The following groups have sufficient knowledge and training and are qualified to assess the needs for the future expansion of the hospital:
a. The general public, b.
The Options and Steering Committees that have been working on hospital options for the past 8 months, c. The Board of Directors of the Sonoma Health Care District, d. None of the above
See the answers below. If you got one correct, you are beginning to understand the problem. If you got two correct, you realize that the issue of the expansion needs of the hospital is important. If you got three correct, you fully understand the problem and will immediately act on the recommendation below.
Recommendation: Before any decision is made as to which hospital option is best for the community, we must hire an architectural firm that has numerous planners and architects who work fulltime on hospital designing and are recognized among the architect community as experts in hospital designing.
Answers to the questions above: 1-D, 2-D, 3-D
Richard H. Senn
Valley churches hypocritical on peace
Editor: Just joan’s column about the Department of Peace was well-timed given recent events in our country and our world. It seems like ages since I organized the Sonoma County kickoff of the Department of Peace, and since then our world seems to need it now more than ever. At that time only one religious organization in all of Sonoma County, St. Leo’s Catholic Church, would put its name on the event as a sponsor, though all organizations were told it was a non-partisan legislation. Imagine, one spiritual organization courageous enough to take a stand on what it preaches in one form or another every week, to take a stand for peace publicly, above concerns about its impact on its collection basket and offending those who choose war. One spiritual organization willing to put its beliefs into action when it comes to publicly declaring their commitment to peace. Like Gandhi, they stood out like a beacon of hope amidst unconsciousness.
You should have heard the excuses I got from some organizations as to why they could not sponsor the event! It sickens me as I remember this. What saddens me more are those who hypocritically are so concerned about life when it [comes to] controlling what a woman does with her body, but turn a blind eye when it comes to the killing they are supporting through their support of war.
Perhaps, if more spiritual organizations exercised their conviction of peace publicly through their actions for it, they might not experience waning membership.
Leslie Sheridan
Film fest keeps getting better
Editor: I began my film festival journey years ago with the San Francisco International Film Festival. Little did I realize the best was yet to come! Each year I’ve lived in our beautiful valley, I have looked forward to the coming Sonoma Valley Film Festival and each year it gets better and better. The Lhormers and the staff continue to work miracles and entice the best-of-the-best to what has become one of the top 10 festivals in the country.
This year did not disappoint. As locals, we were given deep discounts on our tickets (certainly not necessary and perhaps not the best economic decision considering this event draws a large crowd from outside the area). It becomes more and more difficult deciding what films to attend and this year the choice was immense and several more venues were added. The student films were outstanding; they alone were worth the price of admission.
Exhilarating, edgy, educational, and just plain fun. Smiles, laughter, tears, food and wine. Life in Sonoma doesn’t get any better than those five days of the festival. Thank you film festival staff and all you wonderful volunteers. You’ve done it again. Can’t wait to see what next year brings.
Judith Doty
