Fresh faces, pay raises and, for some, farewell
Ring or vote out the old, ring in the new. The Sonoma City Council and the School Board have new members. And Sonoma has a new police chief, too. It’s Lieutenant Brandon Cutting (pictured), an 18-year veteran of the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department. He replaces Chief Orlando Rodriguez after a four-year stint. Back at City Hall, Mark Linder will soon be the newest-new city manager – the fourth person to hold that job since the end of 2022. Linder comes over from a similar gig in Windsor. His public sector career includes work for Los Gatos, San Jose, Cupertino, and Campbell, where he served as its city manager. He replaces Sue Casey, who spent about 10 months in an interim mode. Seems the outgoing council wanted the new panel (sworn in on December 7, three of them for their first term) to start fresh.
A morale boost (finally!!) for members of the Valley of the Moon Teachers Association. The District has approved a new contract that gives teachers, librarians and secondary and elementary school counselors a 14% salary increase over the next two academic years. The union wanted a three-year deal, but its leaders said overall, the deal is an improvement. School board President Cathy Coleman said the new salary structure makes the district more competitive with other districts. It calls for an 8% salary boost in 2022-23 and a 6% raise in 2023-24.
Bob Cannard hasn’t just been a superlative organic farmer, though he has been that. He has also been an advocate for regenerative agriculture, living close to the land, and banning all chemical herbicides and pesticides, like glyphosate, in California.” Jonah Raskin shares that Cannard’s flagship farm and farm stand Green String, which sits on the edge of Petaluma, will shut down on Christmas Eve. The son of a farmer, Robert Cannard, Senior, Bob grew up farming and gardening and learned from his dad that one could grow almost anything in Sonoma County including bananas. Now, he’s moving to Tehama County, where land sells for one-tenth of what it sells for in Sonoma County. At Green String, Cannard hasn’t paid himself a salary. “I love what I do,” he told me. “No matter what kind of work it is, you have to love doing it or there’s no point.” Speaking of the farm but perhaps his future as well, Cannard says, “We’re as far west as we can go; there are no more fertile soils to conquer.”
The Sonoma Valley Health Care District board officially welcomed new members Denise M. Kalos and Wendy Lee Myatt. They replace departing boardmembers, Joshua Rymer and Dr. Michael Mainardi, who have retired from the board after serving eight and four years respectively. Kalos is the CEO of AFFIRMATIVhealth and former Vice President of Cognitive Wellbeing Programs for the Buck Institute for Research on Aging. Myatt has extensive experience in information technology and digital health transformation and has worked in senior-level positions at Kaiser Permanente. Both begin four-year terms.
The ever-busy Sonoma Ecology Center runs parks and trails, too. It welcomes 165,000 people each year to the public spaces it manages. The job includes maintaining 47 family-sized campsites and 25 miles of hiking trails at Sugarloaf Ridge State Park; 6.1 acres of demonstration gardens, 40 community garden plots, and a seasonal Harvest Market at Sonoma Garden Park; 2.5 miles of looped trails in the 98 acres of the Montini Open Space Preserve; the 3-mile Sonoma Overlook Trail.
On this week’s cover: The Snow Queen, by local costume artist Margaret Hatcher from her recently self-published calendar featuring 12 unique costumes photographed as a celebration of each month. Margaret has designed costumes for dance productions, plays, a video game, fashion shows, gallery installations, parades and public events and was the creative force behind Sonoma’s Trashion Fashion Show, an event she started 12 years ago at Sonoma Community Center. After leaving SCC in 2018, she resumed costume designing for her own pleasure, winning Trashion Fashion in 2021 and creating a Trio of Lights costumes for the 2021 Tree Lighting Ceremony on Sonoma Plaza. Look for more spontaneous costume appearances in 2023! Mhatchercostumes.com.
I thought you were on a diet, she said. I am. This is an advance on next year’s broken resolution. And to all a good night!
– Val Robichaud, [email protected]
