Sonoma County 1st District Supervisor Janet Nicholas

in Omagh County, chosen spot of all the earth as far as nature is concerned, According to the famed plant wizard Luther Burbank Diverse County, with 1,010,000 acres of land on 1574 miles of scenic roadways, Cinema County is rightfully famed for its agriculture did a culture, industry

and recreation as well as for the amazingly successful ethnic and economic mixture of its more than 340,000 residents on for the forward looking philosophy of its local governing bodies. Now we invite you to take a closer look at Sonoma County in the eighties with your host,

Rich McGlinchy. Welcome to another edition of the account. In the eighties investigation of my program. We're going to talk to an old friend, a woman who is the chair of the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors for 1989 and in case you hadn't already guessed, recognized Eric.

Janet, Nicholas. Hello, rich way. We visited with a couple times before, but it's always fun. And now is the chair. Uh, you have a lot more to do, don't you? Yes, indeed, that I work with a fine group. Yeah. Um, Janet you are in your 50

year, right? Yes. They were elected and four years ago anyway, and then re elected last year. In fact, we're really in June, I think. Right. Spiritual that extra time? Uh, Janet, a lot of the people probably recognize you by by sight or by having seen your

picture and as the chair of the Board of Supervisors. But perhaps a few of those people really know much about Janet. Nicholas, what would you want to tell us about General before you became chair of the board of God? I think I want to tell him

that before that I was an economist and a grape grower. I was. And am a parent of two girls I'm very proud of and someone who loves this community dearly. You were living. You and Bob live in sin away. Yes. Right. OK. And your two daughters

air who? Well, this won't be an ad, It's low and Kimberly and little has just had some big happened or she's accepted for college. Yes, indeed. Big change. That's terrific. Uh, I guess rent of the thing people were thinking about right now, Jenna, is What's the

possibility of a sales tax initiative. Well, I think other in November. Excuse me in November of this year, hopefully possibly in June, that we'll see a sales tax proposal on the ballot for transportation that will be up to the good voters of this county Teoh. Look

at, see if it makes sense to them. And if we can become partners in truth, improving are terrible traffic congestion. Highway 101 from from forever. It starts, Let's say from the bridge up has really become a trying experience. And how far are we going up? I

guess in the past, that rose anyway. Just a bit past the actual city limits of Santa Rosa to the River Road area. To those familiar driving out on 1 16 towards the coast to that area has become a parking lot of times, particularly if you have

a commute in the early morning or late afternoon. I'm sure I recognize that I have had to go to San Francisco on many occasions and try to leave at different hours, and there is no time early that you, if you don't not go after the clock

flow, you just don't seem to get their hours Janet. How does that highway one of one traffic effect the area in which you lived? Mr. Norman area. Have you got Highway 37 going? I guess that's getting loaded up. Pretty it is. It's changed over the certainly

the 18 19 years I've lived there. All our highways have changed for just a variety of reasons. It's not only population growth, we have many more trucks, and we used tohave as we've had economic growth in this community. And frankly, job centers have become in Marin

rather than San Francisco, So our population does not cross the Golden Gate Bridge. By and large, we are really Sonoma County job centres and Marin County job centres. You've been very involved for the jails industry programs. Now that's fairly new, and I'm sure many of our

audience are not familiar with what that's all about. Would you explain that I'd love to that program near and dear to my heart, it's a very old, very simple concept that looks at prisons in a little bit different way. Rather than just incarcerating people and letting

them sit idle in the institutions, it takes the premise that people gain by productive work and they gain self respect. They gain skills. Certainly they're able to pay victims restitution monies, and they're able to help offset the cost of incarceration, which is what you and I

pay in our taxes. So Sonoma County has been very strong in these programs. Were leader in the state, I'm proud to say both for youthful offenders and adult offenders. And over the past two years, 2.5 years we have any number of programs going in our jail

and then are what we call probation camp. Chances are, if you go to a county regional park, enjoy those facilities. You will be seeing the results of inmate labor equally. We just started what's called an auto detail ING facility for government cars to be cleaned and

upgraded and maintained at what we call the North County detention facility, which is quite successfully moving along. We're working any number of areas to help defray those enormous costs as well as has provide the inmate, hopefully with an option after he leaves one, typically one year

with us. Our inmates tend to be young, 18 to 25 years old and they have productive careers. Hopefully which aren't criminal, productive careers, but part of society for the remainder of those 30 or so years, they go back to the community. Is the jail of industry

program just in Sonoma County or is it throughout California? No. At this point, it is just to California counties, Contra Costa and Sonoma County. We aggressively sought special legislation about three years ago from the California Legislature, and they were gracious enough to provide us with that.

It's an experimental program, one that I think could succeed throughout all of California are states a bit behind the rest of the United States, unfortunately, didn't require reading recently from Sheriff Dick Michaelson that perhaps these figures may be wrong, but not sure. But it seems like

in the last year there were many, many thousands of hours involved in this and a savings actually to the county of about $1.2 million. They would otherwise had to say that they think through this and at the same time as you say, the inmates who performed

some of these services remotely services were gaining self respect and in some cases skills on a different attitude, which is all important before they come out of the slammer ability. That's correct. That's actually an understatement of the economic value. That's one component if you add them

all up. The most recent estimates range from 3 to $4 million a year. Plus, we offer at the Drehle itself a high school diplomacy, which is basic reading and mathematics, and drug and alcohol abuse prevention programs. Because so many of our inmates, it's have serious addiction

problems. Janet. A few moments ago, we talked briefly about transportation in Cinema County and the fact that has become very, very difficult in your opinion, what has caused this? I mean, sure, you can say people, but one has cost this and what could be done about

it. And when you're a big question transpired, what caused it? Some of the things that air, probably nearest and dearest to us all that our standard of living has increased remarkably over the past two decades. Equally, I used as 1970 is kind of a base year

for my thinking. In 1971 3rd of the women in this county worked outside their home full time at the last available data in 85 51% of the room and worked outside their home full time. There are lots of meanings to that. But one of them is

We joined all of you gentlemen on the freeways and highways, a peak hour driving toe work. So that's a very significant game. Were more affluent. We have more disposable income. And frankly, our growth in car ownership is greater than in some years over the past three

years than our growth in population were a very affluent population by and large and freedom of choice. Greater job opportunities, which are all very good, produced, negative aspect of clogged roadways. You know, we all now and we've certainly read and heard often enough that the American

has 11 fairways car and there's so many one and I've been killed. You driving the same way just every system, one person in automobile and it It is an extremely difficult thing to gently in some way people out of those cars. We know we have pretty

good public transportation. I think we do by and large, and you're right. It is very difficult. We live complicated lives by in large people generally don't just drive, toe work and drive home parents have to pick up Children along the way. They have social events they

may need to go. The great dry cleaners grocery. None of our lives seem to be very simple today, so it does make it extremely difficult to have Ah, use of mass transit when you don't have, I believe, want high density development. We're not like Chicago or

New York with tall, high rise is barely see the sky. I hope we never become that way. It's a personal observation. Um, yes, Amy and I sincerely hope what we don't Janet, look, go. Aside from the questions jot down here, how has being the supervisor for

the first District change your life? Personally? It's certainly made me probably use my time a bit better, and it's complicated to some extent. But the biggest realization for me was truly how special community we have. I don't mean the physical beauty of Sonoma County. We can

all recognize that, but I never cease to be amazed by the volunteers in this community, and the community projects. The caring for people in need is just extraordinary, really made me more aware of those many efforts and honestly gave me a bragger outlook on my fellow

citizens. That's been the somewhat surprising bonus to me, which I guess we only need to be restored periodically in our belief of good, basic good people because it is exhibited there practically every day. We tend to see all of the and certainly our media dwells on

everything that bad that happens. Bad news, I guess, sells more newspapers. But in general, we keep hearing and I know what We're gonna stay with you over there watching the boot. The we hear of the good we hear of the young men that another way to

risk their lives to help law enforcement somebody else that risked their life to save a rescue. A tanker of some kind of mean do that could have been a disaster. And these things, I don't know, make me feel good. And I'm sure you mean the same

thing that people still have value, still have compassion and care for each other, and a willingness in the sense that wouldn't look out absent it. It's good. Kind of make you feel good. You've you were the, uh you know, the third woman. I guess that served

in the past Rudy, Putnam and Nicolas. But you're the only one serving at the president. What do you do with those four males on that? But what do you find? It is a region of Requip. They are indeed. And I think it's a very good working

group. And I very much enjoy working with the board. I think I think sincerely they are that considerate. They, uh, the 89 90 county budget. Um, another tough time coming up. As as the years have been in the past, was it looked like to you? I

wish I could say something optimistic and positive. I'm afraid I can't. It looks like a very, very poor year. A difficult year with serious issues. The main reason being much of the money for serious issues such as mental health, drug abuse, prevention, critical issues to communities,

comes from the state of California. And as it looks today, and I would love to be wrong, the Legislature and the governor are both looking at major cuts in those areas that will truly harm people in this county. The mental health cuts Oh, are the proposed

ones About what? We don't know for sure that happen way all beer. They will. And we hope they won't look like they were really kind of crucify. The camera devastating there, truly devastating. There is no frill in those cuts. They were talking about battered and abused

women, uh, sexually and emotionally abused Children, people with depression, which makes them dangerous to themselves and others. Very, very serious mental health issues. And they're looking at eliminating funding for basic programs. A lot of trouble of people walking are gonna pause for just a moment that

the station bring the residents of public service announcement. We come back. We have a lot more questions for you, ladies and gentlemen. Janet Nicholas, Chair. There's no County Board of Supervisors. All right, we'll be back for these messages. When this country was first settled, there were

more than 200 million acres of wetlands. Many of the characters in my books have drawn their food and resource is from them. But more important, so have many thousands of their real life counterparts. Now our wetlands are disappearing. In fact, fewer than half of them remain,

and that's deplorable. Our marshes and swamps provide us with many real benefits. For example, they helped purify our waters are wetlands. Aren't wastelands there? Wonderlands? There are hundreds of good reasons to protect our farm lands, and you could eat them all. Chicken and eggs, honey and

land. We got strawberries, raspberries, jellies, jail lettuce and chard, mushrooms, peas, radishes, carrots, milk and cheese. There's lemons, apples, avocados and oranges, asparagus and broccoli, and nothing rhymes with orange is farmlands don't have a political lobby, and farmers don't work hard for a hobby. So please

enjoy our local bounty and God bless Sonoma County. Protect the heart and soul of the mobile county. Ask your grocer or local farm products. Welcome back to this edition of To Know McCann in the eighties and sort of a special edition because of special Friend is

a guest tonight. Janet Nicholas Get out of the Snowmen County Board of Supervisors, who represents the first district in Sonoma County, eyes sending, serving her second term. And as I said earlier, the third woman who has served on the Afghani border supervisors following the rate Howard

Putnam and Hello, Rudy. Uh, I'm doing a splendid job of it, too. Thank you. Always good to hear that chair listening. Let's go back to the budget for a moment. I used to have it Doesn't look very good on the counties in general have been really

suffering over the past several years because they are enormous state government, a sense of the word and secondarily state. Keep telling us to have that you're gonna have these programs. But sorry we don't have any money to give you. Ah, state mandated programs without funding is

a real bugaboo, isn't it? It surely is. And it leads throughout the state, not just Sonoma County foursome, penny wise and very pound foolish decisions. One example. You can look at the amount of money we spend incarcerating people with drug addictions and the amount of money

were not able to spend reaching our Children when they still are willing hopefully to listen to adult input about drug abuse. Those programs of the prevention and early intervention programs are the first to just go off the cutting board from the state budget. And I think

most people would recognize those of most critical if you care about our society in our future. So it's not something that I think any member of the Board of Supervisors likes to see you are any citizen in California. You know, it's sad thing, and I reserved

over the 20 years of work public information in the county is that the public's bless their hearts, but nonetheless that a lack of understanding many cases that they want certain things that done and for us to do them. But they are reluctant of many times. Teoh

host find some way of getting of income to do it. So it gets to be kind of a Catch 22 situation. The services and you as a member of Borders, supervised. I know a constant getting calls for people. I want something restored that was done before

something like that. But then when we occasionally asked him, Okay, we can do that. If you will agree that we can do this for revenue source, they're reluctant to do that. Now. What you folks do in that situation, it's tough. I know. Well, I think that

we do the best we can. We hopefully I may be viewed the public a teeny bit different on that. I think the public wants to be asked specifically how their money will be used and that there is an acknowledgement that there has been deterioration. For example,

in infrastructure throughout California, uh, Rose, roads, bridges, sewers, water services, those types of things are important, and they're frankly falling apart throughout the state. We're way behind in terms of other states. But I'm hopeful that in that area of infrastructure that when we come together and

have a ballot proposition for the voters of this county to look at, they will approve that because they'll see it's a sensible plan on some of the social issues. It becomes more difficult, uh, looking, whether it's a drug abuse, mental health. Typically, those have been state

responsibilities, and the California Legislature has responded to constituencies statewide with very good and laudable programs, but no money to do them some day in the near future. I suspect Californians, whoever intelligent people, will acknowledge that fact, and hopefully we'll get to a more realistic basis where

we set our goals within our financial means. Janet. How will the state's budget and it will? I know in some ways how, but how will it affect us? Rebecca affects us directly in that certain programs a county administers for the state like mental help and I'll

use as an example because it is so severe in the area of mental health. By law, the state is supposed to provide 90% of the money for those services in the county. 10%. Last year, because the state had cut down many years in a row, we

provided 25 cents to every 75 cents estate provided. Uh, this year, as one of my colleagues is fond of saying, the shoe leather has hit the floor, the county simply doesn't have money to make up what the state is cutting. And you will see if the

budget goes through his proposed major major layoffs in the area of mental health counselors and services. And unfortunately, we will see people who are desperately in need of service going without that that was in place and not a very pleasant thought, but a realistic one. Another

subject. Curbside recycling program. What is it and what have you? Uh, the curbside recycling in the unincorporated area? Many of your viewers may live in cities that already have it in the unincorporated areas. A new program of the county where people are offered the opportunity tohave

curbside bins for paper, plastics and glass and metals. Hopefully, they'll use that option and put their trash out in that form. It's very important to us since Sonoma County in that the Board of Supervisors, for example, has a $10 million budget each year to operate the

dump, those numbers will go up in my best guest 10 to 15% each and every year. As we learn more about what happens in the environment and what we can or can't throw away as a community, we need to reduce what's called a waste stream, which

is reduced, what we throw away and enhance what we can reuse for economic reasons. Clearly, it's a viable program, but also for environmental reasons. So I'm real excited. It's a new program that my board is very committed to, You know, if you which go, we had

a program with one of our well, Mike Vinatieri, who's with our Environmental Health division and Bennett mirrors. California gave Clark and we talked about wastewater and reclamation on it's used for Crop that I think many things that was said there that might might apply drivers, and

that was that we could kind of clean up what we throw away or throw into the dreams a little bit because people tend to forget and throw, uh, caustic liquids and that sort of thing sometimes and drains. And this goes in our waste water, which tends

to really give us a big problem, because then we can use this for some of the other purpose, such as a great irrigation. So all these things tying together, don't they? Uh, a very important issue in this county to most people is open space. Let's discuss

that. What are your thoughts about it? Are you for what? Do you see that as a major project indeed. A major project in a long range commitment, really throughout the county, we just completed a general plan. Adopted it a couple of months ago. Planning looking forward

to the year 2005. And one of the most important components of that plan was a concept that we shouldn't just fill in one city to the others boundaries, like a Santa Clara Valley type of situation, but that we do want distinct identities of communities. But also

we want visual beauty in this county, and I think the people of this county strongly support that we call those spaces those important beautiful landscapes, community separators in planning terms. And the board is very committed to those. If I were to try and predict which is

always difficult a fluid environment, I would see Sonoma County looking for ways to acquire the development rights to those open areas and preserve them in perpetuity. Ease. 100 years from now, my fondest hope is that whoever lives here, then we'll still be able to enjoy some

of what we have today. You and Bob have it traveled into other lands. I know in, uh, in the past, both before and since you've been a member of the board run of the place is, for instance, I have told I have not been there personally.

Was that Germany has still called separators between the various communities and they religiously zealously protect those. It's got the sort of the idea we're talking about her. I'm not sure. A visual idea of Germany. I believe that their land ownership system is different than in the

United States. But the visual aspect of it yes, Janet, you were for many years prior to your election to the board a member of its no McCarry planning commission And you were a planner. And remember the plan. Inflation is only board of zoning adjustment on Also,

you have been very, very vitally interested in working hard for the new general plan. The revised to know what a general player, which is is Rick fruition? Finally, it took a lot of work, a lot of people, a lot of conferences, a lot of hearings to

get this general land use plan. What do you think of it? It over, in essence, in s inside. I showed this won't surprise you. I think it's a very good plan. Uh, a little bit about one of the things I'm proudest of in the plan is

something called an agricultural element. Uh, by law, you don't need that to consider. Agriculture is a special and very important resource in your community. Cinema County chose to go the course of saying agriculture is really important to our citizens for not only its economic value but

the beauty. It enables us all to enjoy so many. Many of those many pages of the General plan are devoted to agriculture. They're devoted to looking at how we can make real commitments to saying agriculture is important. We want farmers to invest in this county, and

we want a long term future. I'm very pleased with that. We've adopted any number of regulations as a result of that, including what's called a right to farm ordinance, which is really like a label on a product. You might buy the product, you might buy a

home. And before you buy that home, you need to know this next to perhaps a vineyard. And there may be tractors or there may be a bit of dust, but we feel that a fair exchange for a lovely vista. So they're consumer protection issues. We strongly

support snowmen, county product marketing. Obviously, I'm very biased. I think we have the best grapes in the world. Some of the best cheeses row crop, so unique county so was strongly in support of that, and that is all reflected in the general plan. My dearly term

has escaped. You make time fly rich. Sure, ghost nationally chat. Then you gentlemen have had the pleasure of talking with Janet Nicholas, the chair of the Snowmen County Board of Supervisors, for the 1989 and supervisor representing the first District. My name is Richman. Plenty. The program

of Sonoma County eighties. I'll be back with you next week with another member of the county government, family or related agency. We'll talk a little bit more and learn a little bit more about this county we all live in can agree on. Until then, Good night.

Good left, which would help each and every one of you.