It feels like just yesterday that the Board of Supervisors adopted the budget for the 2020/2021 Fiscal Year. Budget hearings were one of many things delayed last year amid the challenges and uncertainty as Sonoma County grappled with the impacts of COVID-19. This year was... Continue
Board Walk
It will come as no surprise that one of the top issues for residents of the First District is – of course – roads! The last year of shelter-in-place may have meant that we traveled less around the county, but it also caused us to... Continue
"Undoubtedly, cannabis is a divisive issue in our community." After more than a year of critical focus on the COVID-19 pandemic, I am happy to see county staff hard at work on other mission-critical areas of focus. We opened the window for vegetation management grant... Continue
As I write this column, it is an unusually warm spring day, and red flag alerts have been issued for Solano County and other east bay communities. There is a sense of optimism in the air as we emerge from our pandemic fog after more... Continue
There’s a sense of optimism in the air as we emerge from our pandemic fog after more than a year of a challenging, transformed existence of sacrifice and loss. But even as we let ourselves experience the joy and gratitude of lowering case numbers and... Continue
It feels like a lifetime ago, but as Chair of the Board of Supervisors in 2020, I focused my State of the County address on the urgency of climate change. Unfortunately, COVID-19 drove that issue to the back burner last year, but the urgency for... Continue
Sonoma County reached a long-awaited milestone, entering the Red Tier of the Governor’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy plan. On March 14 we saw hungry diners returning to indoor restaurants and fitness buffs hitting the gym indoors for the first time in months. I am... Continue
I am hearing from hundreds of people about the issues with the vaccine rollout, and trust me, I am frustrated too. The good news is that 11% of the county’s population of 411,096 residents aged 16+ have received at least one dose of vaccine; 3%... Continue
What a year it has been. Chairing the Board of Supervisors this year has been an honor, and an incredible challenge. For the past few months, I counted the days until the position of the Chair of the Board of Supervisors rotated to Vice Chair... Continue
I am not going to sugar coat it -- this year has been incredibly rough on all of us. At its core, the theme has been isolation – we cannot gather together as we have in years past, and at no time is that more... Continue