Letters to the Index-Tribune editor, Oct. 7, 2022

Fire trust financials

EDITOR: The Fire Victims’ Trust could vastly increase its transparency by releasing audited financial statements. The trust owes an accounting to survivors of the fires. I recommend that William Abrams, who has successfully litigated for more financial information, go back and ask for release of the audited financial statements. This document will shed a lot of light on the spending.

Any entity in charge of $13.5 billion must have financial statements. The Fire Victims Trust should do the right thing and release its financial statements.

My family is a victim of the 2017 Nuns Canyon Fire. Our house and all our belongings burned to the ground. We moved back into our house three months ago, almost five years after the fire. We have received a pittance from the trust so far. The hardship has been great.

I find it disgusting that we, like everybody I know whose home burned, have received so little while the administrators of the trust seemingly feed at the trough. Transparency would go a long way.

Gary McClernan

Kenwood

Vote for Celeste

EDITOR: After sending a questionnaire to all three school board candidates, based on her answers, the Sonoma Valley Housing Group has voted to endorse Celeste Winders as Sonoma Valley Unified School District's Area Two trustee.

Area Two contains a big piece of Springs Census Tract 1503.05, a primarily Hispanic area with many indicators of poverty, much like the Roseland area in Santa Rosa.

It was an SVHG letter to SVUSD that precipitated the creation of area elections in 2020. We also lobbied for the current map that made Area Two a slight majority Latinx. The whole idea of having separate elections for each of five areas was to foster working-class Latinx self-determination, to have the voice of the people more accurately represented.

Celeste is Latina and a founding member of Comida Para Todos/ Food For All, which has been providing critical services to the Springs community in collaboration with the county and local philanthropists and includes many Latinx women leaders.

As the recent Index-Tribune article on Celeste’s candidacy shows, she is a deeply experienced, thoughtful, and well-educated voice on school issues for the people in Area Two, in particular those of the under-represented.

She represents an excellent opportunity to give a voice to the 65% Hispanic student population of SVUSD and their parents. Celeste is "one of their own" for the students and parents of Area Two. She represents the exact kind of collaboration and cooperation that’s needed at SVUSD.

We believe, as we did when we called for area elections, that Area Two indeed deserves to have one of their own speak for them as trustee. If they live in SVUSD Area Two, readers should please consider casting their vote for Celeste.

Jim McFadden, Sonoma Valley Housing Group

Boyes Hot Springs

For Connolly

EDITOR: I’m an environmentalist and I'm supporting Damon Connolly for Assembly in Sonoma and Marin (12th District). That’s because I know him and have worked with him as Marin County supervisor. He stood up for salmon protection in Lagunitas Creek, helped found Marin Clean Energy and Sonoma Clean Power and consistently voted for city-centered growth.

He is an environmental and climate champion who gets things done; and he knows how to reach out and build coalitions. He is grassroots all the way. Damon is well versed on housing, transportation, wildfire protection and a spectrum of land-use issues.

Best of all, when you email or phone him, Damon actually responds!

Damon will be the voice of the community at the Sonoma Developmental Center and won’t cave into developers.

Before you vote, come meet Damon in Sonoma on Thursday, Oct. 13, at the Community Center Garden Park from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Or just give him a call. Search for Damon Connolly for Assembly.

Once you do, and see his record and accomplishments, I think you’ll join the vote for Damon.

Teri Shore

Sonoma