Sunday's Letters to the Editor

<p class="bold allcaps">Paving creek trail<EL-2></p> <p><MC>EDITOR: Kudos to the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors for unanimously passing the $650,000 proposal to pave a 2.1-mile trail between Willowside and Fulton roads. There was a clamoring from all the supervisors that they had a moral obligation to provide access to this trail even for one handicapped person. </p><p>Yet, there is no parking on Fulton Road and no handicap parking on the dangerous shoulders on Willowside Road and no money was provided in this project for handicap parking or access to the trail.</p><p>Incredibly, just a few miles up the road at Foothill Regional Park in Windsor, there is a special area for handicap parking, but it is impossible for anyone in a wheelchair or similar device to access the trail.</p><p>Where is the moral and ethical outcry by the Board of Supervisors to pave this trail for bicycle and handicap access?</p><p>Incidentally, the habitat of thousands of animals that eat, live, breed, burrow in, under and alongside the trail will be destroyed by the big yellow “Watership Down” grinding machines. Was there not a moral obligation to protect these living creatures as well? </p><p>Nope. They were expendable, as usual.</p><p>ARTHUR WEBB<QR></p><p><MC>Santa Rosa<QR></p><p><EL6><IP0><HRCUTOFF,72,0.3,0,0><EL-4><IP9><QC></p><h3>Ill-served students<EL-2></h3> <p><MC>EDITOR: Sharla Smith of the state Department of Education makes a point about state requirements for abstinence-only education <MC>(“State laws apply,” Letters, Thursday)[/LETTERS_00]. By attempting to explain the law, she explains the problem with our education system in general. Everything is regulated and/or defined to such a degree that little or nothing can be taught that doesn’t “comply.” I believe that this, along with teaching to a required test (the SAT, for example), does little to reveal anything about what’s been learned and is doing a great disservice to our students.</p><p>DON WALTENSPIEL<QR></p><p><MC>Santa Rosa<QR></p><p><EL6><IP0><HRCUTOFF,72,0.3,0,0><EL-4><IP9><QC></p><h3>Time for a change<EL-2></h3> <p><MC>EDITOR: After reading your June 18 editorial “Losing Deis” and several letters, I feel compelled to respond. Bob Deis’ sole role as county administrator was to consolidate his authority at the expense of other department leaders, and his management style did not play well in the culture that is Sonoma County.</p><p>I have served Sonoma County under four administrators, each with very different personalities and management styles. The Deis administration was by far the most dictatorial. That management style does not work well in Sonoma County, which had been known for forward-thinking and inclusionary government. After many decades of collaboration and cooperation, the past few years have been marked with distrust and apprehension.</p><p>I believe Deis’ departure is in his best interest and also that of Sonoma County. The Board of Supervisors now has an opportunity to select a leader who can motivate and inspire the confidence necessary to move our county forward. We have faced the many hard issues in the past, and we were able to accomplish fair and equitable solutions through partnerships, respect and cooperation.</p><p>I would recommend that the board look locally and select a leader who knows Sonoma County and can rebuild the trust and relationships needed to accomplish the county’s goals.</p><p>TOM FORD<QA0></p><p><MC>Former Sonoma County treasurer/tax collector<QA0></p><p>Santa Rosa<QR></p><p><EL6><IP0><HRCUTOFF,72,0.3,0,0><EL-4><IP9><QC></p><h3>A public scold<EL-2></h3> <p><MC>EDITOR: Pete Golis’ June 21 column (“Surviving the politics of us-and-them”) apparently attempts to bait those opposing the Dutra asphalt plant proposal. As a genuine opinion piece, it was woefully lacking in substance. His public scold may well aggravate people, producing more consternation, but it avoids the real and significant issues in play for our county and hometown. </p><p>Golis intimates that those opposing the asphalt plant should be focusing on “the real problems of our world,” just not this one. The irony is that because many of us who oppose the project are professional people who are heavily involved in rethinking the way we do business and the standards by which we live (as opposed to scolding from the sidelines), we have the experience and knowledge to see through the thin and misleading claims of Dutra’s proposal.</p><p>Last time I checked, this was called democracy in action, something Golis should be actively supporting.</p><p>The three county supervisors who declared that they will not approve the asphalt plant are to be commended for examining all the issues related to it and reaching a conclusion that is in the best and highest public interest. Dutra’s proposed asphalt factory is the wrong plant in the wrong place.</p><p>MARJORIE M. HELM<QR></p><p><MC>Petaluma<QR></p><p><EL6><IP0><HRCUTOFF,72,0.3,0,0><EL-4><IP9><QC></p><h3>U.S. arrogance<EL-2></h3> <p><MC>EDITOR: How can we criticize Iran for lack of respect for civilians, as I heard both President Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain do Wednesday, on the same day as U.S. drones killed at least 60 people in Pakistan? Nobody believes this toddle except some of the press and a few crackpots. For the rest of the world, this arrogance disqualifies us from any position from which to persuade.</p><p>MIKE ROSEN<QR></p><p><MC>Healdsburg<QR></p><p><EL6><IP0><HRCUTOFF,72,0.3,0,0><EL-4><IP9><QC></p><h3>Siren’s value<EL-2></h3> <p><MC>EDITOR: I was shocked and appalled by comments in a recent article regarding the Graton Fire Department siren. Do people who want this “annoyance” quieted not understand the seriousness of their request? Maybe they aren’t aware of how this siren could mean the difference between life and death. I was raised in upstate New York in a town with a volunteer fire department, a siren and a dedicated group of men. With no regard to the time of day or where they are when the siren sounds, they respond. It takes a special breed to be a volunteer firefighter, and I’m proud to say that my father was one.</p><p>God forbid that any one of the residents who vote and win in turning down the volume of this siren ever has a house fire. If only it had been a bit louder and alerted just a few more volunteers, their house may have been saved. Any group of people can make a town, but it takes neighbors to make a community. Neighbors who are there to lend a hand to one another just because that’s what people should do. </p><p>PENNY VANGELLOW<QR></p><p><MC>Sebastopol<QR></p><p><EL6><IP0><HRCUTOFF,72,0.3,0,0><EL-4><IP9><QC></p><h3>Public pensions<EL-2></h3> <p><MC>EDITOR: This is in response to Ray H. Olmstead’s letter (“End public pensions,” Thursday). It is obvious that he and many others opposed to public employee pensions do not know how they work.</p><p>One can always cite extreme cases, such as Bob Deis’ departure package, which most certainly was designed after the private sector’s lavish treatment of executives. However, the average public employee does not get such treatment.</p><p>Some points to consider:</p><p>• Most public employees put substantial sums of their own money into their pensions.</p><p>• With CalPERS, which most California public employees belong to, in times when CalPERS is doing well, the state does not contribute to the pension, although the employee continues to do so.</p><p>• CalPERS has been effective at managing its assets over the long term, which has resulted in good income, which is another significant funding source for pensions.</p><p>• Regarding public safety personnel’s relatively early retirement ages, I can speak from experience that for the most part, these are not careers for older people.</p><p>The implication that public employees are feeding at the trough is not accurate. In many cases public employees make considerably less than their private counterparts, so good benefits are one of the compensations that entice such employees to forgo higher salaries.</p><p>JOE LIEBER<QR></p><p><MC>Sonoma<QR></p>