Page 4 - Sonoma County Gazette April 2017

LETTERS cont’d from page 3
Having sat in that court room and listened to testimony from witnesses, it’s difficult to read this slanted opinion. I understand that businesses need to get up to code...But Skaff seems in the business of suing. Period. This is what I ascertained after hearing the testimony from people who swore on the Bible that they had been pressured or threatened by Mr.Skaff. I think the article in the Press Democrat hit the nail on the head....
Robbi Bryant
entities that administer the systems cannot continue for long like this long without consequences for their own rights and freedom. Our communities, us, we, have a long memory and will always remember all our fallen, all our jailed, deported and disappeared, the injustices and police abuse committed against our persons where we live, work, worship, study and play.
Arnoldo Garcia
Defensible Space - NOT my property...HOW?
disabilities to help achieve compliance with Federal and state laws requiring access.
Thank you, Vesta, for providing this opportunity to respond to the inaccurate and negative comments about Richard and me, and for providing a platform to speak out about the rights of people with disabilities.
HolLynn D’Lil, author
Becoming Real in 24 Days
I have to respectfully disagree with your opinion. (OPINION: Villainizing the Victims 3-17 Gazette) On the subject of (to quote your article), “The reporter faulted Mr. Skaff for never going inside the Roadhouse”. Hmm, what’s he been doing for the last year plus that the wheelchair accessible ramp has been in place?
I am a Sebastopol resident and a public school teacher who is very concerned about the impact of the SF ICE Field Office on our community. Would you please consider signing this petition calling on the Sonoma Board of Supervisors to create an SF ICE Oversight Board to help protect our children, families and our community values?
I really appreciate your article in the Gazette for the month of March and will be implementing the many suggestions you (CalFiire Battalion Chief Marshall Turbeville) made on what to do to insure a “defensible space” from wildfires.
On the subject of (to again quote your article), “The reporter, Paul Payne, doesn’t state that the ramp was installed 43 years after CA Health and Safety Code 19955 was passed, requiring access be provided WHEN businesses remodel. Well, not to single out any other businesses, but I worked for a lodging facility who took that long to provide ADA compliant access to two of its 46 rooms.
The news about ICE actions and ICE’s institutional culture continues to be troubling. Claims that there won’t be mass deportations should not soothe us as the legal authority and the institutional will for mass deportations clearly exists. However, even if a single non-violent undocumented parent of one of our Sonoma County schoolchildren gets deported it will be a tragedy, but an entirely preventable and unnecessary tragedy---a tragedy planned, paid for, and imposed by armed agents of our federal government.
One subject that needs to be address by Cal Fire, local Fire Departments, Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department and the Sonoma County Supervisors would be the homeless encampments that seem to have been left out of the equation. You stated in the beginning of that article:
I know someone who used to make money at doing the very thing which Mr. Skaff does. She would attempt to access facilities in Southern California, then threaten to sue if they were not ADA compliant. (Yes, she is confined to a wheelchair). She’d get a cut of the settlement money, and the lawyers would get rich. Seems as though Mr. Skaff is doing the very same thing, given that he has no inclination to visit/patronize the business that he’s busy suing.
“ Sonoma County “dodged a bullet” during the last couple years of dry weather regarding wildland fire. Wildland Fires started throughout the region, yet they were extinguished early by local fire fighters.”
How many businesses has he sued? How many businesses would actually get his business if they were compliant? Having my life experience and personally knowing how that game is played, perhaps that makes me jaded, but in this case, I think Paul Payne is right on point.
Sincerely, Park Guthrie
SheriffCollaborationwithI.C.E.
This could have been a disaster. Some encampments are visible and most are hidden behind heavy foliage during the Summer months yet we have been told that “homelessness is not a crime” and the authorities that be say their hands are tied.
- Gregory Smith
Immigration police collaboration is deadly for all our communities. This policing coalition makes our communities vulnerable to more abuse, exploitation and crime. Demanding separation of enforcement powers and accountability to the communities they serve is reasonable and doable. The more they continue on this path, the more they are destroying their own future and the capacity for a political solution to this. The police, ICE and other security forces and political
On average 13% of all California schoolchildren have at least one undocumented parent. A significant percentage of Sonoma County’s students or their families are now directly targeted by the federal government. This harms all of us.
One of those fires “extinguished early”was near our home, in Monte Rio’s heavily forested area between Northwood and the town of Monte Rio and was started by a homeless couple. We lucked out because someone saw the smoke from across the River and the Monte Rio Fire Department and Cal Fire got on it right away.
Of course, opinions differ, and everyone has different life experiences by which to measure and judge a story.
Sonoma County’s IOLERO (Community Advisory Council) is Unanimous: Sheriff Must Pull Back on I.C.E. Deportations of Immigrants
My question: does Cal Fire have any authority to go into these encampments, being it on private property, county property, state property or federal property and serve some kind of “cease and desist” order. Fining the homeless would be futile but these people are putting all of us in real danger. How do we protect ourselves against the mounting possibility that these fires get started by the homeless?
Ms. d’Lil was a board member on Skaff’s organization. She and Skaff sued many businesses together.
www.plainsite.org/dockets/ i7ue36h0/california-northern-district- court/dlil-v-speedway-motorsports- inc-et-al/
Sincerely, Doreen Atkinson
LETTERS cont’d on page 5
Karen Cox
4 - www.sonomacountygazette.com - 4/17