Wednesday’s Letters to the Editor

Cannabis and homes

EDITOR: As relative newcomers to Sonoma County — only owning property here for 11 years — we do not understand the county supervisors’ attitude toward promoting cannabis growing in this county.

Striving toward being the marijuana capital of California does not improve the reputation of the county as a good place to live or even visit for most people. Further, the notion that cannabis grow sites should be at least 1,000 feet from public parks, trails and schools but can be as close as 300 feet to houses where people and their children live does not make sense. There should be at least a 1,000-foot setback between cannabis grow sites and residences to help resolve environmental problems.

JOHN and SUSAN DEAN

Sebastopol

Recall risks

EDITOR: Those who support the recall of Gov. Gavin Newsom do so at their own peril if the effort is unsuccessful. In San Francisco in 1983, a group opposed to then-Mayor Dianne Feinstein’s gun control efforts, labeling them a “tyrannical attack” on their constitutional rights to bear arms, organized a recall effort against her. They were successful in gathering enough signatures for a recall election, which was held in 1984. Feinstein easily defeated the recall, with over 80% of the votes cast and never looked back. She went on to finish her term as mayor and has been a U.S. senator since 1992.

PATRICK MURRAY

Santa Rosa

The Foppoli debacle

EDITOR: There seems to be a number of people who are culpable in the Dominic Foppoli debacle. First, Town Council members who chose to confront Foppoli in 2017, behind closed doors, and there it ended.

Second, in 2020, the town received a second email complaint, the chief of Windsor Police and an investigator with the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office reviewed both emails, determining no criminal investigation was warranted.

No wonder women are reluctant to report sexual assault when they are met with indifference by those who are in positions of power.

The Press Democrat chose not to pursue the allegations, and except for the former Press Democrat reporter going to the San Francisco Chronicle and pursuing the story none of this would have been brought to the attention of Windsor residents.

In 2021, after this was brought out into the open and the residents of Windsor were informed, suddenly these charges seem to be worthy of an investigation. What changed except for the exposure of backroom politics?

MARYL LINDAHL

Windsor

Bring troops home now

EDITOR: Why do American troops in Afghanistan have to stay an extra four months till September? There is an existing agreement with the Taliban that says the troops will come home in early May. A soldier might die during the extra four months. Honor the agreement, and bring our soldiers home May 11.

ROGER DELGADO

Sebastopol

Foppoli shows his colors

EDITOR: A public servant’s first duty is to serve the public. In the case of the current mayor of Windsor, that duty can no longer be accomplished. The current and past accusations against this mayor make getting any business done now impossible.

Whether or not any of the accusations are true, if Dominic Foppoli actually cared about the community of Windsor and serving this community, he would have resigned immediately. By not doing so, he has shown who he really is at heart. He is a self-serving politician who only cares about himself, his career and preserving his power at any cost.

Funny how that also sounds like the profile of a sexual predator willing to demonize the very women that he abused.

LYNDA WILLIAMS

Windsor

Looming water conflicts

EDITOR: Nearly every day I read another article about the severity of California’s drought crisis and how climate change compounds the impacts of drought. Many wells around Sonoma County are already critically low. Yet the public is receiving mixed messages from county leaders.

Residents will need to conserve 30%-50% of water usage, Supervisor Linda Hopkins recently advised. “In my opinion, if it’s not something you’re going to eat, maybe you shouldn’t be watering it,” Hopkins said (“Bracing for water cuts as reservoirs get lower,” April 3).

Yet the county appears to be charging ahead with rule changes that would permit cannabis grows on potentially tens of thousands of acres, without adequate water use studies. Napa County studied cannabis water use and decided against cannabis grows due to data that indicate grows will use six times or more water than vineyards.

Required grow setbacks from neighboring properties of only 100 feet, or 300 feet from neighboring residences, are completely inadequate to protect neighbor wells and shared aquifers.

With no neighborhood input required for permits to be issued, the county is teeing up perpetual conflicts and likely lawsuits between cannabis growers and neighborhoods when our wells run dry and our groundwater disappears.

BRENNA SHELDON

Sebastopol

You can send letters to the editor to letters@pressdemocrat.com.