Sonoma County Farm Bureau letter reveals political divide over worker safety

It is just a two-page letter, but it represents a divide in Sonoma County politics.

On one side is the Sonoma County Farm Bureau, one of the most powerful institutions in a region known for its agriculture industry, and an organization that is not afraid to flex its political muscle.

On the other side are three of the five members of the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, along with Mike McGuire, one of the North Bay’s two state senators, all of whom object to the way the Farm Bureau tried to flex that muscle earlier this spring.

At issue is the March 2 letter Farm Bureau board president Jennifer Beretta wrote to state senators asking them to reject Gov. Gavin Newsom’s nomination of Alegría De La Cruz, the county’s chief equity officer, to the state Seismic Safety Commission.

McGuire and the supervisors, Lynda Hopkins, Chris Coursey and James Gore, all say having De La Cruz at the table will provide the region with much needed representation on a key state commission.

De La Cruz, an accomplished lawyer experienced in working with farmworkers and other marginalized communities, has no professional experience in the technical aspects of seismic safety.

But she did play a pivotal role in disseminating emergency information to Spanish-speaking residents during the 2017 North Bay fires while an attorney at the Sonoma County Counsel’s Office.

“My role is to bring … an understanding of what people need during a disaster,” she said. “I have experience representing and serving populations that in many places have gone underserved.”

At odds with the Farm Bureau

Created two years ago, the county’s Office of Equity is responsible for identifying county polices that lead to systemic inequalities, recommending adjustments to how government services are delivered to prevent disparate outcomes, and boosting community input in county governance.

However she has found herself at odds with the Farm Bureau over her role as one of six county employees assigned to an ad hoc committee on farmworker safety led by the Sonoma County Department of Emergency Management.

The committee is tasked with developing a policy that would establish when farmers and their employees, among other types of workers, can enter evacuated areas.

Farmworkers, led by the labor rights advocacy group North Bay Jobs With Justice, have been pushing for the Board of Supervisors to require employers to provide protections such as hazard pay and disaster insurance when workers require access to agricultural land during emergencies.

The group cites statements from farmworkers who say they feared for their safety as they picked grapes in areas that had been evacuated because of wildfires in recent years.

Beretta did not mention the issue in her letter, but in an interview with The Press Democrat she said De La Cruz’s seat on the ad hoc committee was ill-suited and was one of the reasons the bureau opposed her appointment to the Seismic Commission.

Her group, which represents more than 3,000 farmers and landowners in Sonoma County, would rather have the issue of access during evacuations be handled by the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office and Agricultural Commissioner's office, she said.

“We felt there was some overstepping,” Beretta said. “We were told her job was looking at the county internally, not externally … her job is to work internally in the county of Sonoma County and not on our farms.”

Gore, chair of the county board, said De La Cruz was placed on the ad hoc committee because equity issues are at play when discussing worker safety. It was De La Cruz’s role to bring in community voices to help shape the county policy, he added.

“Any issue that deals with equity, Alegría definitely has a place,” Gore said.

The worker safety issue is not mentioned in the letter, which instead questions De La Cruz’s motivations for wanting to be on the commission, and whether she’ll have enough time to serve on it.

The letter also calls De La Cruz’s office a “failure,” citing the resignation of former Economic Development Board Executive Director Sheba Person-Whitley.

Person-Whitley, a Black woman who said a pattern of racial bias and microaggressions made working for the county untenable for people of color, resigned last October, about two years after De La Cruz was appointed to lead the county’s Office of Equity.

“Again, this is the very job that our local tax dollars are paying Ms. De La Cruz to uphold,” Beretta wrote. “Given the alleged racial bias and microaggressions within the Sonoma County government, the last thing Ms. De La Cruz should be doing is taking on more responsibility with a statewide board position.”

“We deserve a board that provides expertise and insight to benefit all Californians rather than politicize the commission,” the letter’s final sentence says.

Sonoma County Farm Bureau letter of opposition

No prior complaints

De La Cruz said she contacted Beretta soon after receiving a copy of the letter in early March. She said she felt it was an opportunity to help Beretta better understand her role, as well as to engage with a group that she had not met with before or heard prior complaints from.

“I understood it as a misunderstanding in my role in the Office of Equity,” De La Cruz said.

De La Cruz was not Person-Whitley’s supervisor nor does she handle personnel complaints, she added.

After answering several questions from Beretta, De La Cruz asked her to rescind the letter, both women said. Beretta said she took De La Cruz’s request to the organization’s executive committee, the group that initially voted to oppose the appointment, but they declined.

The letter was sent to the Senate Rules Committee before an April 6 hearing that included a vote over De La Cruz’s appointment.

De La Cruz was required to appear before the Senate Rules Committee at the hearing because of the letter, she said. Prospective appointees with no opposition are not required to attend.

The Seismic Safety Commission investigates earthquakes, recommends policies to reduce earthquake risk and monitors state-funded seismic activities, among other tasks. It consists of 15 gubernatorial seats representing a variety of topics related to seismic safety, such as fire protection, insurance and social services, the seat to which De La Cruz was appointed.

Nomination narrowly approved

The Farm Bureau’s letter was the only one opposing De La Cruz’s appointment. Nine others supported her nomination, records released by the Senate Rules Committee show.

Among those writing in favor were McGuire, D-Healdsburg, Gore, Hopkins, and California Coastal Commission Vice Chair Caryl Hart.

The Senate Rules Committee voted 3-2 in favor of De La Cruz’s appointment after an hour-long discussion. Sen. Patricia Bates, R-Laguna Niguel, and Sen. Shannon Grove, R- Bakersfield, cast the dissenting votes. State senators confirmed her appointment on April 21 in a 31-8 party-line vote.

In interviews, Hopkins, Coursey and Gore described the letter as a misinformed attack on a dedicated public servant who has excelled in her capacity as the founding director of Sonoma County’s Office of Equity.

All agreed Person-Whitley’s departure did not fall under De La Cruz’s purview. Person-Whitley did not respond to several phone and email messages seeking comment.

Each said they were surprised the Farm Bureau would weigh in on such appointment in the first place because they did not see a clear nexus between the issue of seismic safety and the organization’s interests.

McGuire agreed.

“Not once have I ever had a conversation about seismic safety with any of the Farm Bureau’s between the Golden Gate Bridge and the Oregon border,” he said.

Accusations of microaggressions

In her letter of support, Hopkins addressed the Farm Bureau’s letter directly, calling it “microaggressions against an eminently qualified woman of color,” in part through the questions it raises about whether De La Cruz has the time to serve on the commission.

Microaggressions, also known as subtle acts of exclusion are statements or actions that discriminate against marginalized groups, including racial, ethnic or gender minorities. They are often subtle and unintentional.

Hopkins said those questions reminded her of her initial campaign for the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors seat, in which she had a baby and a child.

“The No. 1 most common question that I was asked is ‘How are you going to balance your job, your children,’” Hopkins said, adding that Gore, who was also campaigning for a seat on the board and whose wife was pregnant at the time, was not asked the same question. “It is just the type of thing that is frequently brought up in the context of female leaders.”

Hopkins also took issue with the Farm Bureau assertion that Person-Whitley’s resignation represented a failure within the county’s equity office.

“I find it odd that a white woman is blaming a woman of color for failing to single-handedly dissolve systemic, endemic anti-Black racism within 24 months,” Hopkins wrote in her letter of support.

Coursey said he was impressed with De La Cruz’s connections at the state Capitol, which he witnessed firsthand years ago while on a trip there with De La Cruz. She was working in the County Counsel’s Office and he was serving as Santa Rosa’s mayor at the time.

“She has connections up in the legislature both on the legislative side and the staff side,” Coursey said. “She knows how things work and … I just can’t think of anyone better to receive an appointment like this.”

‘Bright and accomplished’

In her interview with The Press Democrat, Beretta defended the letter, saying the Farm Bureau advocates for the interests of farmers and ranchers in the county and had valid reasons for its opposition to De La Cruz’s nomination to the state’s Seismic Safety Commission. Among them were concerns over De La Cruz’s lack of experience with the technical aspects of seismic safety.

“It was hard to understand why she wanted to do that with no understanding of seismic safety,” Beretta said. “We didn’t understand what her motive was to be on such committee without very little background in those areas.”

In her letter, Beretta said that while De La Cruz is a “very bright and accomplished individual,” the bureau was “puzzled how she could find the time to appropriately serve the Commission given her many other responsibilities.”

She goes on to list De La Cruz’s job with the county and her seat on the Santa Rosa City Schools Board of Trustees. The third and last bullet point reads “involved in many local organizations and causes” but does not elaborate further.

When asked if the organization had voiced any concerns about Sonoma County Supervisor David Rabbitt’s ability to serve on the Seismic Safety Commission, to which he’s been appointed three times, Beretta said they had not because of his experience as an architect.

Rabbitt is a member of 20 local, regional and statewide committees, according to Sonoma County’s website.

“For us, he’s had a considerable time in the county … and with his background, we wouldn’t have said anything,” Beretta said.

She disputed the idea that the Farm Bureau made prejudicial comments about De La Cruz, underscoring that the letter did not mention De La Cruz’s gender or her being a mother.

You can reach Staff Writer Nashelly Chavez at 707-521-5203 or nashelly.chavez@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @nashellytweets.