Sonoma's Ting Memorial is on hold until city decides ‘donor bricks' issue

Everywhere around Sonoma and especially in the Plaza, memorial plaques and statues note historic events and organizations, donors and their causes. And a number of benches – especially along the bike path – recognize parents, spouses, friends and even pets.

But at the Aug. 5 meeting of the Sonoma City Council, the issue arose over just how much latitude an organization has when installing donor-sponsored features. Specifically, in this case, council members are eyeing the 'donor bricks' promised as part of the fundraising for the proposed Ting memorial, a Chinese-style pavilion which has been planned for a Depot Park location since 2014.

The Sonoma-Penglai Sister Cities Committee – which first proposed the building of a 'ting' in 2014 to honor the legacy of 19th century Chinese laborers in wine country – felt they were being stymied in their efforts to recognize their donors when earlier this year the city building department put the brakes on plans to construct a brick-lined path – with names of donors of $1,000 or more inscribed in the bricks – leading to the octagonal memorial building. So committee members recently asked Councilmember David Cook to introduce the topic for discussion at an upcoming City Council meeting. That discussion will take place at the council meeting on Monday, Aug. 19.

'There is no issue with the Ting Memorial at all,' City Manager Cathy Capriola told the Index-Tribune. 'The City has been very supportive of this project and is helping to sponsor the project by welcoming it to Depot Park.'

The memorial was introduced and approved as giving recognition to the role of the Chinese workforce in agriculture, especially the development of the Sonoma Valley wine industry.

But members of the Sonoma-Penglai committee, a subset of the Sonoma Sister Cities Association, have been feeling frustrated by an unexpected change of course in the city's policies. 'Donor bricks comprise the Ting's largest source of fundraising revenue,' Peggy Phelan, chair of the Penglai committee wrote to the Index-Tribune, calling them 'an integral aspect of our project for several years.'

But whether or not the inclusion of donor bricks – and the names of donors on public property – was ever approved by city officials is under contention. When the monument was first presented to the City on Sept. 3, 2014, the Depot Park location was proposed, but design of the monument was left open.

The estimated budget was at that time put at $25,000, projected to come in from local grants, corporate contributions, fundraisers and a Kickstarter campaign. Individual donations were not foreseen as necessary, and no city funds were projected.

Neither were donor bricks, sometimes referred to as 'recognition bricks,' symbolic construction material purchased by donors whose name would be inscribed on what was proposed as a paver.

Two years later, on March 3, 2016, the Sonoma-Penglai Sister Cities Committee came back to the council for 'conceptual approval' of the monument. Once again the city was assured that it would not 'incur any financial impacts as a result of the installation of the monument,' and the Committee would 'enter into a long-term maintenance agreement and meet all permitting and insurance requirements of the City.'

The memorial was sketched out as octagonal structure measuring 14 feet across at the base, with a 20-foot upturned roof extending beyond the building itself. Overall height was 21 feet. The design was said to be a slightly smaller scale of a similar ting in Penglai, China, one of seven Sonoma 'sister cities' around the world. But no design for donor bricks had yet been introduced.

'There are two conversations the council wants to have,' Capriola told the Index-Tribune, referring to the Aug. 19 council meeting. 'One is the question of recognition bricks in the ting; the other is a broader policy question about recognition of individual names on public property.'

David Katz, a member of the Penglai committee, told the City Council at its Aug. 5 meeting that the five-year effort to see the ting come to fruition at Depot Park had been 'a labor of love.'

'We need to go forward if we're going to put up the ting,' said Katz, adding that 'bricks have always been part of this project.' He said in March of 2017, the city planning department asked for information on the donor bricks. Two years later, however, he said he was told it was 'a political issue' and they may not be allowed to have donor bricks without specific city council approval.

Both Mayor Amy Harrington and Capriola stressed at the Aug. 5 meeting that the question over the donor bricks was not a political issue, but a policy one.

Harrington summarized it as a question of 'Do we want to sell off public spaces to private individuals that taxpayers have paid for?'

In particular she expressed distaste for the idea of lining the bike path with donor bricks, although although there are recognition benches roughly every 30 yards along the path already.

The bricks, or pavers, have been openly part of the committee's fundraising for years, said Phelan. She said that at a celebration in 2017, the bricks were publically sold, and then-Councilmember Gary Edwards bought one.

Phelan submitted a letter to Harrington in April itemizing 26 donors of $1,000 or more who expect a 4-inch by 8-inch inscribed brick paver; a larger 8-square-inch paver has been sold to 10 donors of $2,500 or more. That amount – at least $51,000 – would exceed the $25,000 cost projected in 2014, although the price tag for the ting and its ongoing maintenance, according to a project update published in the Index-Tribune in 2018, moved the fundraising goal to $125,000. (Phelan said a final cost was not available until the architect knew for certain where recognition bricks would be allowed, if at all.)

From the city staff's point of view, the Penglai committee never obtained approval for installing the bricks, either inside or outside the ting itself. Whether or not the committee is allowed to install recognition bricks at the Memorial Ting, both staff and council think it's high time to establish city policy on such donor recognition on public property.

'While it's been done before it's maybe not the best policy, and I think we should ask that question,' said Councilmember Logan Harvey at the Aug. 5 meeting.

The Sonoma-Penglai Committee is notably frustrated over this late roadblock to its already-long-delayed recognition of Chinese contribution to the local economy and Sonoma's history.

Said Phelan, 'Applying a non-existent policy retroactively is not just an impediment to our project, it is unjust.'

The City Council will meet to discuss this and other issues on Monday, Aug. 19, at 6 p.m. in City Council Chambers, 177 First St. W., Sonoma.

The print version of this story mischaracterized Mayor Harrington's opinion of recognition benches, it has been corrected above.

Contact Christian at christian.kallen@sonomanews.com.