The Community and Local Law Enforcement Task Force

The work of the county’s Community and Local Law Enforcement Task Force seems to be even more critical now that Sonoma County District Attorney Jill Ravitch has announced her office won’t file criminal charges against the Sheriff’s deputy who shot and killed 13-year-old Andy Lopez outside Santa Rosa city limits.

Ravitch said, at a news conference earlier this month, that her office found Deputy Erick Gelhaus acted within the law when he shot Lopez, who was walking down the street carrying an airsoft BB gun the deputy mistook for an AK-47 rifle.

In the aftermath of this tragedy, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors in December, 2013 convened a 21-member task force to facilitate community healing.

One of the members of this task force, and the only member from the Springs or City of Sonoma, is El Verano School principal and La Luz Center board member Maite Iturri. Principal Iturri told me she was recruited for the volunteer position and has been learning a lot.

The five county supervisors each appointed three task force members. The two other task force members appointed by First District Supervisor Susan Gorin are City of Santa Rosa residents: Brien Farrell, a retired Santa Rosa city attorney, and Caroline Banuelos, a former Santa Rosa planning commissioner and three-time candidate for city council. Among the six other task force members, three were appointed by Sonoma County Sheriff Steve Freitas, two were appointed by Santa Rosa mayor Scott Bartley, and one was appointed by the district attorney

We can thank Sheriff Freitas for providing Sonoma Valley with the proper level of representation on the task force. One of his appointees is Kenwood resident and Sonoma Valley High School graduate Omar Paz, Jr., who is the student trustee on the Santa Rosa Junior College board.

The task force is researching and will be making recommendations to the Board of Supervisors on the following:

a model for an independent citizen review body to review officer involved shootings.

options for community policing. The supervisors already allocated $1.5 million in the county’s 2014/15 budget for community policing. The sheriff’s department used to have a community policing program, which was eliminated during budget cuts.

whether the Office of Coroner should be separately elected from the Office of Sheriff. Currently, the sheriff is also the coroner.

any other additional feedback from the community on these issues that merits County attention.

The task force does much of its work via three subcommittees: Community Engagement and Healing; Community Policing; and Law Enforcement Accountability. Both Iturri and Paz serve on the Community Engagement and Healing subcommittee. For more information about the Community and Local Law Enforcement Task Force, visit sonoma-county.org/communitylocallawtaskforce.

Why we need the Sonoma Springs affordable housing project

In last month’s “Springs Eternal” I reported on a county study that shows the median household income in the Fetters Hot Springs/Agua Caliente area west of Highway 12 has a median household income of only $19,444, making it one of the poorest neighborhoods in Sonoma County. That neighborhood is where Mid-Pen Housing and the Vailetti Family Trust are developing a 100-unit affordable housing project on Highway 12 by the Sonoma Charter School.

Sixty units are for families with incomes between $16,000 and $54,000. Forty units are for seniors’ aged 55+ with incomes between $16,000 and $40,000. Project manager Scott Johnson expects to begin construction on the family housing in March, 2015.

I’ve heard people ask how can 100 units of new housing be built with Sonoma Valley’s water issues? Water is not a major issue with this project because the housing is being built for people who already live here. Low-income people in Sonoma Valley tend to live either in cramped quarters with multiple families sharing a small house, or they spend too much of their incomes on housing leaving them without enough money for food, medicines and other essentials.

Providing quality, affordable housing for people who already live and work here is the right thing to do.