Letters to the Editor

Helping the Sonoma Developmental Center

Editor: We’re having our annual fundraiser at the end of this month. It’s a vital event for us so we’re concerned that everyone understands our mission. 
Sonoma Developmental Center provides comprehensive residential, vocational, educational, clinical, medical, recreational and other services for people with developmental disabilities.  Many of the individuals living there have profound disabilities with serious medical and/or behavioral issues. 
As in the past, proceeds from the Parents’ Hospital Association fundraising event will be used to support special projects, specialized equipment, client events, entertainment and other activities of direct benefit to the nearly 700 residents of Sonoma Developmental Center.  Your support of this event assists us in all these efforts. Thank you.
Mary O’Riordan
Sonoma

Editor: Thanks for this update on our local radio station. Sometimes people seem to be confused or misinformed about who we are. The article reminds everyone we are the community in a broad sense. In the worlds of brandedness and crafted corporate identities we of KSVY are often the “farmers market” rather than the chain grocery kind of neighbors. Fortunately we still live amidst an agricultural environment that values the living actualities more than the smooth cleverness of the packaging. Our programs are so mixed in purpose, audience and sound that some listeners find they choose not to leave us on all day. Ours isn’t an easy-listening format. We are about multilevel purposeful Sonoma Valley everydayness is my way of seeing it. Some of us are learning the craft of broadcast communication, one mistake at a time. You can criticize us for not being one thing or another but if you take a little time to find a program or two or three that does speak to your interests, I think you’ll soon find yourself looking forward to those programs and you’ll dare to call in, or simply enjoy the local fellowship we strive to provide each day. I’m writing for myself here, not as an agent of the management. I’m interested in your thoughts
Ned Hoke
Sonoma

Editor: With the closing of the in-patient psychiatric units at Memorial and Sutter Hospitals, with the tedious and expensive court processes involved with involuntary treatment and forced medication for serious major mental illnesses, and with the State’s subtly progressive but antediluvian attitudes about funding preventive medical care conveniently hamstrung by perpetual budgetary shortfalls, I have a swift but modest proposal for all these ills.
To wit, make having a major mental illness a felonious criminal offense. Not only will the under-regulated, over-staffed and over-paid correctional deputies have something to do besides tending to the minimal needs of an under-utilized jail full of docile, compliant, non-demanding and non-violent inmates, but the newly-minted felons will not have to deal with any Byzantine criminal proceedings because they will all be guilty by reason of insanity. This proposal saves both time and money. The new felons will go directly to Jail, not have to Pass Go, and the county might save $200.
Michael F. Heiman, M.D.
Sonoma

Editor: Thank you, Cam Hawing, and the other board members for listening to the community on this one. I don’t think it could have been an easy decision to support Micaela’s resignation, but after the show of community support, I hope it was an easy decision to ask her to stay.
After many strides the School Board has made in the past couple years, the Micaela decision could have undone all your hard work in gaining community trust and support.
I respect and appreciate the job you do for the schools. Thank you.
Shirley Licari-Daher
Sonoma

Editor: Vote NO on Sonoma Valley Health Care District Measure F. On April 8 voters will be asked to vote yes or no on a $45 million bond issue to renovate the old hospital in Sonoma and buy land to build a new one. The bonds will be paid for by a new tax on property owners.
This tax is unfair. Specifically, why are property owners being asked to pay for a hospital that will be used not only by property owners but by non property owner residents and seasonal residents as well? Why isn’t everyone who would benefit from this hospital asked to pay for it? Wouldn’t it be fairer to propose a sales tax, for instance so everyone, property owner, non-property owner and seasonal resident would be paying for the hospital every time they bought a 12 ounce rib-eye or a 12-pack of Budweiser?
And why keep sticking it to property owners, for crying out loud? I’m sitting here looking at my tax bill and see I’m already paying for the Russian River Dam Project, Sonoma Valley Unified School bonds, Sonoma County Junior College bonds, Valley of the Moon Fire Protection, Sonoma Valley Sanitation-Sewers, Sonoma Mosquito abatement and a previous Sonoma Valley Health Care assessment. Property owners aren’t the only ones who live in this community and they aren’t the only ones who benefit from these services and projects. And to do this at a time when some property owners are struggling to keep their homes and others are struggling to sell them is, well thoughtless. Not only that but because the tax bite is based on assessed value, two home owners living in identical houses in the same neighborhood could have vastly different tax bills.
Now since I asked the question, I’m going to make a guess here as to why these folks came up with this scheme to tax only property owners instead of everyone. I’m going to guess it’s because it’ll give them a better chance to get the measure passed. New taxes are only popular when the other fella has to pay them. By proposing a property tax, it’s pretty likely that the voting, non property owners will vote yes since they could get a brand new hospital, at least a better one, without it costing them a darn thing.
If this hospital is for everyone and if it can’t be managed well enough that it will break even, then let everyone who will enjoy its benefits decide if it’s important enough to them to pay for it out of their own pockets. VOTE NO on Measure F.
Craig Buckhout
Sonoma