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Sonoma County, a dynamic county combining agriculture and industry, City and country, creating unique and varied challenges for its citizens join us as we present some of the information and services provided by the county of Sonoma to help us as we move into the 21st century. Welcome

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to Sonoma County in the 90s with your host Dana Jericho and Dina Lash. Welcome to Sonoma County in the nineties. I'm Gina Lash and we're going to be learning about what's going on in Sonoma County and we're fortunate to have with us today, supervisor tim smith

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welcome. I know that many changes are occurring as we speak and so I think our viewers would be very interested on your perspective of what they can expect as we progress toward the year 2000 one of the biggest issues and I'm sure you're involved with this

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is how we're gonna fix this transportation problem in the county. So go with it. Well, hopefully we'll be able to take care of it. And as you all know, Dina being a resident of Sonoma County, that probably the most frustrating thing that people confront every day

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is the difficulty of getting from Point A to Point B and for many years since 1949 in fact when we have the four lane configuration that we currently do on highway one oh one, there are about 20 to 25,000 cars in Sonoma County in total and

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today here in 1997 we probably got about 100 and 50 to 175,000 cars and certainly it doesn't take any genius to realize that the carrying capacity, the highway has been overwhelmed. We have a system of interchanges that are very old and antiquated and they need to

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be brought up to modern day transportation levels. And I think that we've been seeing poll after poll. The press democrat recently ran a poll and I know the business community hired a polling firm to go out and ask residents of Sonoma County, what is it that

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we need to take care of? Are you willing to step up to the plate with a half cent sales tax or maybe even a one cent sales tax to find that needed revenue to make some transportation improvements. And certainly I think one thing I've heard over

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and over. First of all that people recognize that the main corridor here in the county, which is 101 is being used as a local road. Uh, there's about 100 and 18,000 trips per day right at, at, at the intersection. You're cutting town in 101 and it's

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just simply overwhelming. Uh, and I think that what's really interesting is when you get into the data and look at, why are people using one oh one? What struck me is that only 18% of those trips are job related? And that tells me that that Highway

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101 is being used as a local road. People conducting commerce each and every day taking their kids to school, going shopping, getting goods and services up and down the corridor for seven cities by the way are all connected to 101 or one on one certainly is

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the main feeder road to their community. And so I think it needs without a doubt to be the number one priority. Interestingly enough, all the city general plans and the county general plan had been predicated on a six lane highway. We have basically told people that

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are land use configurations were built around having that sixth lane configuration and it simply hasn't been delivered. And my hope is that although the federal government doesn't seem too fond recognized now that this is their road, it's been very difficult to get improvements made. And, uh,

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I hope that we can help match a local effort with whatever effort we can get started with the state and the Fed to come up with a solution of 101. It is in dire need, It's unsafe that uses a lot of fuel. People are wasting enormous

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amount of time, uh, sitting in highway traffic jams and it's flat out dangerous. And so it's high time that we get moving on it. As you're well aware, a group of in fact about 22 different people from various interests got together in 99 1990 to draft

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a measure measure B which was a measure that went down it lost about by 4% points. And I think that the point has been made in the intervening seven years. Traffic certainly hasn't gotten any better, it's gotten a lot worse. And my hope is that people

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will step up to the plate and say, look, we don't like this, nobody likes tax increases. But for the good of this community, we need to do it and it can't stop there. I think we need to recognize that paving our way out of a problem

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isn't gonna be possible, but it's a necessary fixed to at least accommodate what we've got here today in the next 10 to 15 years. And interestingly, there are other options, transit and rail also need to be a part of that package. I think we need to

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look beyond the simple types of pick and shovel solutions. We've got to get education with people to try to encourage them to get out of single occupied vehicles and at the same time recognize that we've got some real land use, things that we need to deal

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with. Be realistic about it. We do luckily have the Northwest pacific rail right away now in public ownership under proposition 1 16, there are funds available. If we can prove a case of the California Transportation Commission That we can get a viable rail plan, there's about

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$24 million dollars at that level. So my hope is that that all of us will look and maybe grumble a little bit in the process that no, we don't like this, but we've got to do it. I mean, certainly for our kids and, and everybody else.

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It's just a critical component piece for I think the economic health of the county and I'm confident that people will do that. I do know that there's been some cynicism out there for a period of time about government's ability to be able to actually do the

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right thing. And I'd like an opportunity if we can get revenue, uh, to uh, certainly show people that yes, we can put your dollars to work and let us get started and we'll show you that we can finish the job. And just one little byline to

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this, that one of the frustrations I know many people have is that here in California we pay a lot of gasoline tax and for years administrations since jimmy carter have used a lot of the highway trust funds that have been developed from the gasoline tax as

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balanced budget kind of mumbo jumbo that they don't release all those funds to the states and they use them to balance the budget. And I hope that your listeners today, if they get fired up enough, will write a letter to certainly Congress, the Senate and the

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president, please release the federal highway dollars to get them back to the states that we can make some of the needed improvements. What are some of the remedies for this? Some of that is widening definitely the corridor and then you mentioned the real transportation. What does

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marin county play in this? Well, they play importantly, I think it's it's you divide it into two categories. Clearly, marin County has been in a better position simply that they don't have the amount of road that we do here in in Sonoma County. And for those

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of us who remember back to the dales of the Cloverdale bypass, the Metropolitan Transportation Transportation Commission, which divides up money in the bay area, always points back to the cloverdale bypasses being our big road improvement. If we would have realized at that time that it would

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have taken 30 years to get the improvement, I dare say we would have would have would have made other choices about where to widen first, but marines in a unique position, marin has actually Sonoma County is a very good jobs housing balance relationship, but only about

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less than 20% of our workforce leaves the county to go to work when that's not true of marin, our workers are taking advantage of the higher wages in marin County coming back here where the county or the city is responsible for all the, you know, the

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ancillary services that people require mental health, police protection and things of that nature. But marin has shown a reluctance really to get into the rail. It's interesting the environmental community in, in marin County shows a great deal of reluctance about getting involved with rail and our

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environmental community is very strongly in favor of it. And the business community down in marin likes rail and our business community is somewhat skeptical about it. So it's a very interesting meeting of the minds and rail certainly needs to get worked out. Obviously it's not going

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to make a whole lot of sense just to have a rail running from Healdsburg to Petaluma where you know, to take advantage of of that kind of a commute. But the highway is a different kettle of fish in my mind that as I said for, I'm

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not really interested in spending millions of dollars of taxpayers money helping commuters. I do understand that they play an important role. They're taking advantage of, of, of whatever is made available to them in the way of transportation improvements. But we've got a center on making our

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county commerce friendly and people friendly and I'm much more interested in focusing on Sonoma County in particular. And I think to that end that widening the highway as a centerpiece for Sonoma county and it really doesn't affect marin, whereas certainly the rail would. So I'm hopeful

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that we'll be able to take care of our six lanes, put some acceleration lanes, get rid of these old interchanges and bring them up to date and make them safer and make them more more driver friendly is someone who uses the highway. I couldn't agree with

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you more because it's really getting more difficult, especially when the highway bottlenecks in specific areas and as you said, people use it more as a highway but not necessarily to get from point a Healdsburg to Petaluma, but maybe just a few miles. Exactly because as, as

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all cities have grown and the county certainly has that it's, you jump off and jump on all the time. And I think when you get down to like Todd road and Hearne Avenue and some of the notorious the highway 12 interchange, it's just, it's just a

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nightmare and it's not just at peak periods, you go down there at two o'clock on saturday afternoon, you're gonna run into traffic and I think we need to recognize it and fix it. It's in fairness people, well in your perspective has a tie changed in terms

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of the initiative last lost last time. And do you see a change in people's thinking? I think people are much more adamant about it and I think the rule of thumb is that most people view tax increases with a great deal of skepticism and appropriately so

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I think they need to know that what they're gonna get if they make contributions through their tax dollar, what am I going to get back from it? I think people recognize that it's a dangerous situation. It's a waste of fuel. It's a waste of time. It's

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a waste of energy and we need to and I think people are now more adamant than they ever have been before and keep in mind even seven years ago, we came within 4% points of getting it passed and I'd like to point to maybe not as

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strong campaign as it should have been. And now I think we're going to get some real professionals to really make the case and really to make a double effort to inform people how we want to use that tax money. And I think if they get that

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they'll support it. Well, I think more and more people are working inside the county because we have a low unemployment rate. Our economy is really good and I think people are becoming more aware of what it takes just to get around the economy and then the

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business community has to deal with moving goods in and out of this county and that's a critical piece and I think people often overlook that, that, you know, we're relying on this system to get product in here from Oakland, from san Francisco and even from the

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north and I think it's the best interests of everybody to do it. I know there are concerns about what are the growth impacts of transportation improvements and I would only say to those people that are skeptical that we've got a very, very strong county general plan,

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several cities and I'm sure there will be more of adopted urban growth boundaries were very mindful here. We have a right to farm ordinance. Uh, we understand the value of agricultural land and open space and I don't share that fear frankly about fixing the road is

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away is somehow going to create, uh, an urbanized area that people don't want to live with. I think we're all mindful that what people want here and why they're here and we'll respect that. Well, if this is, if this does pass, what can we look for

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in terms of timeline to see some kind of improvement. Very good question. And one of the difficulties is any time that you deal with the federal government and partners always what are the incumbent strings that go along with it? And I think we need to be

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mindful that the public projects like private projects need to meet clearance with the California Environmental Quality act, Sequa. And then there's the National Environmental Protection Act, Nipah and I think that it's very important that we go first. I believe Hearne Avenue has Nipah clearance the interchange

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and I would like to see a bulldozer the day after this thing passes to get out there and start putting money, people's money to work and not get tied up in studies and just a zillion years of all kinds of documentation. People won't improve. They want

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them now and it's going to be our job to make sure that we're in a position to make them happen when it's past. Are you aware of any committee or group that if people want to get involved with the help pass this that they could get

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involved with right now is actually a very formative stage? And I think is, and I don't know when this will be shown to your viewers, but I think it'll be pretty easily access The citizens for whatever measure the thing will be designated. What when the Board

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of Supervisors puts a board of supervisors puts it on and my guess it would be November of 1998. So basically for our viewers, even though we're dealing with federal money as well, do you see some relief to three? Yeah, I do. And I think that especially

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when we it's interesting because most folks are focused on lane, the widening itself and I'm of the mind that if you can actually get some acceleration lanes and improve interchanges, you're gonna see a lot of, a lot of improvement right away. And obviously for folks like

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in Windsor North County, if we can help relieve the bottleneck from, you know, bicentennial down to highway 12 and down to Wilford, it's going to make an enormous difference. And I hope that we can get on that right away. I hope that our viewers are hearing

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this and agreeing with you because we really need to make some kind of change. Absolutely. We're gonna talk a little bit about domestic water supply. We do need to stop in a few minutes for a station break. So why don't we start with domestic water and

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then we'll stop and then come back because it's a really big issue. What is the situation with domestic water? If you could summarize in one sentence and then we'll come back and elaborate. I think we have been very fortunate for a number of years to have

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a plentiful clean water supply. Things are in the works that could change that. We're going to stop now for a public service announcement. We're going back with this real important topic. Thank you. Mhm. Surprisingly over a lifetime your child is in less danger being out in

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the water than out in the sun. One out of five Americans develop skin cancer. Don't let your child be the one. Welcome back to Sonoma County. In the nineties. We have county supervisor tim smith with us who's talking about a variety of issues that will affect

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all of us. Welcome back, we're going to talk a little bit about the domestic water supply and how the endangered species act will impact that. So why don't you give us some information on that? I really think, you know, and we spent the first part of

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the segment talking about transportation, which is obviously very, very important to people and I like to think that the water supply, domestic water supply for people here in the county is the sleeping giant for the next 2030 maybe 40 or 50 years. And what's happened Dina

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and has been actually not really slow in its evolution. But I think public awareness has been slow to realize the impact that the endangered species act and the listing of the Coho salmon and steelhead could mean to their future water supply for those people who don't

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recognize how water actually makes its way into their tap. Let's use santa rosa example. The county water agency acts as the wholesaler of water for our nine prime contractors santa rosa being one of those in Rohnert Park, Northman Water District and and the other six. And

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what kind of intriguing about it is that most people don't recognize that the minimum flow in the Russian River, which is about 100 and 20 cubic feet per second, actually comes from the ill river. It's pumped through the potter valley hydroelectric plant about 100 and 60,000

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ft a year. And it makes its way down the lake. Mendocino ultimately goes to the city of UK as hydro plant where it then goes into the Russian River and makes its way down. And obviously the significance of that minimum flow in the river is for

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recreational values. I think we have a lot of people don't want to see canoes on roller skates and obviously we all realize the, the economic value of a healthy river, the recreation that it brings in and a Russian river is world famous and I think that

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it's a centerpiece of the county's particularly recreational values and the important role it plays is a water purveyor for not only domestic water consumers, but farmers and others other uses. So it's, it's uh, that right now PG and E had made it known that they were

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interested in selling the potter valley hydroelectric plant. And the significance of that is that the water that we get from the eel is really a byproduct of the hydroelectric plant generation that PG and E uses. And so if something should happen to curtail that water supply

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would put obviously a larger demand on either tributaries or warm springs water. Now, because of the endangered species act and the, and the listing of both fish going over to warm springs for a moment, we will be entering into what's called a section seven consultation with

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National Marine Fisheries and the Corps of Engineers to re examine the flow regime out of warm springs where we are authorized to take up to 75,000 ft of water per year. Now, what we don't know is one will continue to be able to take that 75,000

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acre feet. Will that be curtailed or moreover, will, will we be able to go back to the state water board to get an additional 25,000 ft which we will need to fulfill our contracts And the interesting part of all of this is that all of its

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coming together at one time, we have players in this discussion namely the National Marine Fishery Service that hasn't really been involved before. So what we're going to see for the first time I think is a general discussion about all interest groups all at one time trying

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to decide how we best use the water supply, how we best benefit and utilize the Russian river and what are all the interests that are gonna, could potentially be impacted by it. And I think this is such a long and lengthy process that we may not,

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we may not know the answer to the question for three up to five years. I think that those of us who realized, you know, as I said earlier about the recreational values of the Russian river, Interestingly enough, if you let the river dry up as it

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once did every 8 to 10 years, you would be taking care of. One of the major problems that the unanimous fishery has the steelhead and salmon, which is the population of rough fish like squaw fish and bass that enjoy this false war water flow all year.

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And what they do naturally is once the small, I should say the young fish come come down out of the tributaries, they feed on them and out compete them for forage. So we're actually artificially breeding fish that actually impact the endangered species. So there are things

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like that that need to really get examined and what I think will be proved interesting is how are we going to balance the recreational needs vis a vis, the real biological needs of the fish and to what extent can we do that? And one of the

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things that concerns me is that for those people who are into to biology, one of the things that isn't even on the table for discussion is how does the ocean impact the fishery and when you look at the ocean conditions and the el ninos that we're

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going through now that have a huge effect on anchovies and sardines and the bait fish that normally anonymous fish would go feed on. That's probably half the problem with, with ocean pollution and discharges and and everything else. And then you look at the two dams that

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are on the Russian River namely Warm springs and and and coyote dam at Lake Mendocino, that those are two water impoundments that aren't likely to go away. And then you look at things like the core had had developed for mitigation. When warm springs was built, it

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was felt that we needed to build a fish hatchery. One of the ironies in that I think the intent was right. But the biology wasn't that in effect that we're breeding non native fish that when they're released back into the system out compete the native fish

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that we're trying to save and in some instances they they they they act as predators to the natural fish. So when you look at all that it might be 80% of the problem yet it will be the municipal water supply recreational values and other things. Is

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getting the focus of what the regulatory agencies want to focus on. And what concerns me is that we might be able to do everything possible to fix our 20% of the problem and it may not be enough to bring the fishery back to where I think

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a lot of people would like to see it. So I guess the bottom line of the story is out there. Uh Yes, we have water today and yes, we have it probably for 5 to 10 years. But depending upon these negotiations and and our ability to

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show regulatory agencies are activity and trying to resolve fish related issues and a whole host of other things, future water supply might not be something that we can count on as reliably as we once had. And I think it's, if you've been around in an area

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that's had to go through water problems, it's not really pleasant. So we're gonna try to do all we can obviously and get ahead of the curve and work with these agencies to make sure that we can ensure a long term viable water supply for people. Are

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you specifically involved with any group that's dealing with this issue? Yes, as I said, as a member of the county Water board of directors of the county water agency and have been involved in an untold number of discussions with a whole host of different players and

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I hope to be part of our Section seven consultation at such time that we can get a memorandum of understanding signed with the core National Fisheries to carry on those discussions and hopefully to call back the number of choices. Like do we all agree we're not

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going to go blow up two dams, we need to pare this down so that we can understand, you know, how to best to try to do what I think the public wants to do. Certainly what uh the Environmental Act people who are concerned in the environmental

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community about fisheries as I am and as I think all people are, but try to make some sense out of it and come up with a solution that will benefit everybody well, since we're speaking about water and I know there's a problem in this county. Do

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you want to talk talk about the solution to the county's wastewater problem? Yes. And it's in fact, it's actually, I think we're gonna we're gonna live to see it where we're not going to be even discussing in terms of wastewater any longer. I think we're gonna

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be talking about water in general, both domestic potable supplies as well as so called wastewater and where this fits in. And I think neatly that for years, agricultural interests primarily have been allowed either through a pair and water right, or just simply over over time prescriptive

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rights to pump water out of tributaries for frost protection and irrigation. And it's been a practice that's been around for many, many years. And we recognize agriculturalists value to the county not only economically, but aesthetically, I think it adds a whole lot to what people here

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really value. It has an intrinsic value to it, but you can't necessarily put a dollar figure on it. And my thought and my strong feeling is that why we're in this debate, particularly on the subregional system with the city of santa rosa and its customers that

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we need to look beyond today and we need to get into agricultural re use. We need to remove to take the burden off of agricultural is from maintaining repairing water rights, which incidentally could be threatened by the endangered species Act and make sure that they've got

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a viable supply that they can can can can use in the future. And the beauty of this is one is I think it's always wise to put water to it's best use. And although the so called waste water, you can't consume it, it can be used

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for food, crops, fodder, crops and a whole host of other uses. And from that standpoint, it just makes a lot of common sense if you can apply it in a safe, meaningful way, why not save your potable water? And I think one thing that it will,

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it will do a number of things. One is, it will show the regulatory agencies, Yes, we do recognize the value of this water. We are going to do what we can to restore the level of water that was once in the tributaries, which incidentally are really

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the critical component piece of the fisheries. That's where fisher they're hatched, they spend their first year of their life there, that's where the canopy is and the cold water. And if those tributaries are pumped dry, it makes it very hard for fisheries to sustain themselves. So

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if we can find a replacement for farmers, it is critical I think in making our case, especially under the section seven consultation with the cores and nationally fisheries, that yes, we are putting our best foot forward and the water agency has a whole host of other

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things we can show that we're doing with stream restoration conservation efforts in those things. And moreover, I think long term the people in this county are gonna be a lot happier knowing that that water is being reused wisely rather than disposed of. And I think that

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here today is a great time to start that. In fact the poll are, I should say a poll conducted by the city of santa rosa said that ratepayers are willing to go halfway to say yes, we do recognize that there is a value. We're ready to

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pay a little bit more to make sure that we've got a good plan that will last a long time. And frankly dina. I think it it makes sense to get away from the river and to get away from situations where disposal system could be even more

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weather dependent than it's ever been. That why not have a dual track use the geysers use Ag but reuse this water. And I think the agricultural component piece is really, really critical not just for resolving the so called waste water problem, but understanding that it marries

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up to the possible water supply side problem as well. Now is the county working directly with the city of santa rosa. You mentioned they were to solve some of these problems definitely. And I don't and I must say that I I really respect what the cities

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had to go through trying to come up with their alternatives. We're all aware that a lot of money has been spent and lawsuits and special interests I wanted here. You want it there. And I think the city's actually made a very good effort of late of

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trying to really open up the opportunities and so my hat's off to them for for especially for the board of public utilities that is not paid and they sit through hours and hours of testimony trying to make good decisions and yes we are because I I

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I've been making the case with the cities that don't just look at this in isolation. I understand that you have a steak and water supply as well and you can't look to the agency to say please meet our contractual obligations if we're not putting our best

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foot forward on this other issue. And frankly I think that we're going to see it and certainly in our lifetime where this water is going to be seriously competed for Because I think it's unlikely that California is growing. They're talking about 45 million people in the

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state in the next 10 years. And you begin to wonder what is the carrying capacity of the state through water and air and these resource-related issues. And I think that we need to stand up, be futuristic, be proactive and really work in unison with cities and

00:27:56.530 - 00:28:08.830

the unincorporated area and do things that make sense. Long term for the future. We have a few minutes left and I don't want to open up a new topic. So maybe our viewers would like to know how long you've been a supervisor, what you, I know

00:28:08.830 - 00:28:23.940

you represent santa rosa and how much longer you have with your term and what you see as the future for yourself. I appreciate that. I was elected in 1988 and as you mentioned, I represent about 60% of the city of santa rosa and about 80% of

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the city of Rohnert Park. My district is the smallest of the five geographically, but obviously under one man, one vote. We already 85,000 people and and it's been a real interesting experience for me. I've enjoyed it thoroughly. I've been on the board now for nine years.

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I was re elected in 19 what the heck was in 1992? I was unopposed in 92 reelected 96. So I'm now in my end of my ninth year and I'll probably run for re election in the year 2000. I enjoy it a lot. It's very, I

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find it demanding rewarding and it's it's a great place to work and live certainly. And I think that our viewers appreciate having you and also the fact that Sonoma County is a great place to live and it sounds by our discussion that things are progressing in

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the direction they need to progress. I appreciate that. Thank you so much for coming. Thanks for having me and thank you for watching Sonoma County in the nineties and I invite you to join us on each and every edition of our show. Have a great week.

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Thank you