KRCB News Feed

Live Radio

Get our free mobile app

Feed from KRCB News

: Written by: Noah Abrams; Published: 21 November 2022

Police surveillance tech has been met with push back around the Bay Area - this week Sebastopol added itself to the list of cities putting greater scrutiny on the controversial technology.

A 2020 audit of Sebastopol’s police department raised the question of whether the city’s values were reflected in its policing policies. Two years on the city has moved to insure greater transparency and public oversight of any potential use of surveillance technology.

Sebastopol’s new police chief Ron Nelson addressed the aim of the new city policy.

"It's to essentially prevent and protect our citizens from government intrusion and government overreach," Nelson said.

California currently bans biometric - a.k.a. facial recognition - surveillance by police departments, but that law will expire starting next year.

Nelson detailed what tech Sebastopol’s new ordinance covers.

"Surveillance that government entities use, including biometric surveillance, facial recognition technology, and predictive policing, as well as others, seemingly innocuous as license plate readers or video surveillance cameras that are mounted," Nelson said.

He noted what oversight the ordinance enacts.

"Various reporting requirements," Nelson said. "It would require the city department, which primarily would be the police to author an annual report for each type of technology we're utilizing. It would require council prior to authorizing any use of expenditures or use of technologies to weigh the cost versus the benefit, and also what the public impacts are."

Local lawyer Omar Figueroa noted the precedence.

"Ordinances of this type have already passed in cities as different as Palo Alto, San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, Davis, and even a whole county, Santa Clara County," Figueroa said. "So this would be a first for Sonoma County, but not a first for California."

While the new restrictions do require increased reporting and public input, the ordinance does allow for emergency use of surveillance technology during “exigent circumstances." That's defined as presenting an immediate threat to life and safety.

: Written by: Marc Albert; Published: 21 November 2022

Hoping to speed construction of more affordable housing, Petaluma officials this evening will consider waiving a host of development fees usually tacked on to new construction.

The proposal would waive impact fees for traffic, open space and park acquisition, park development and city facilities development for affordable housing projects.

Only developments owned and operated by nonprofits that are also deed restricted as affordable for at least 55 years after opening ... or that offer supportive services would qualify.

Aly Gaylord is director of housing development at MidPen Housing, an affordable housing developer which supports the move. She said fees can make or break a project.

"The impacts are huge. When you are looking for a million dollars or more, depending on the size of the project, that is a real feasibility issue to getting affordable housing developed."

Gaylord says developers typically turn to cities, counties, other agencies or even state and federal grant programs for subsidies---a process that can cause considerable delay.

According to a city analysis, without changes, a $13.5 million renewal of a rundown 60-unit motel---part of the state's Project Homekey---would be assessed $1.5 million in impact fees.

Gaylord said a 44-unit affordable project Midpen is building in Petaluma has been assessed $1 million worth of fees. That works out to nearly 23,000 dollars per apartment.

"Development impact fees are really, really constraining to affordable housing development. As we are keeping our rents low and the housing is deed restricted for 55 years, we don't have that kind of extra cash."

Developments that include both affordable and market rate housing on a single site, would not qualify.

The city did not forecast how much money it would forego should the proposal be approved, or how it would be replaced.

The meeting is scheduled to get underway at 6 p.m.

: Written by: Marc Albert; Published: 18 November 2022

After decades of growing demand, drought and a far-away war are laying low local organic dairy farmers and processors.

Without cash soon, it's feared several local dairy operators may soon close up shop.

"We have a drought crisis that is extreme," said Albert Straus, founder and CEO of Straus Family Creamery and something of the dean of sustainable animal agriculture. "Of the one hundred and six organic dairies in California, ten have gone out of business in the last few months, and there's another ten that are expected to go out of business before the end of the year, or by spring at least," he said.

According to Straus, in recent years, prices for organic alfalfa are up between a quarter to almost a third. While cattle graze on pasture when available, the rest of the year, even local dairy cows feed on alfalfa grown elsewhere. Drought throughout the west means less alfalfa is being grown in both the southwest, and northeastern California, two prime spots.

"Water supplies in California and the western united states have been such that we're running out."

A US-India trade spat and Russia's invasion of Ukraine have created additional headwinds. With grain typically fed to commercially raised cattle either unavailable or at considerably higher prices, what's normally fed to organic cows is suddenly in high demand.

"The conventional dairy farms are now buying up the organic alfalfa and forages."

That has translated, Straus said, into organic alfalfa doubling in price. The jump in feed costs is consuming half the income organic dairies earn, Straus said. And those higher prices are atop inflation impacting fuel, labor and other costs.

He says some processors, including Straus have raised retail prices to funnel money back to the struggling dairies. But, he says as prices have risen, sales have plateaued, or even declined as consumers look to economize.

"People that are very committed to organic food are still buying it, but we've done three price increases this year as a brand and a creamery, we've increased the prices to our farms, but it's not enough," he said.

Conscious of the threats, Straus has been organizing. He describes conversations with elected leaders and officials with the US Department of Agriculture as productive and has a petition live on the website change dot org.

Last week, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors approved a letter of support.

: Written by: Katy St. Clair/Bay City News; Published: 17 November 2022

Health experts in Sonoma County gave an update this week about the surge of respiratory illnesses plaguing the county and filling hospital beds.

Influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) cases are clogging hospitals across the state, especially children's hospitals, according to the California Department of Public Health.

In Sonoma County the problem is growing, experts said at the community briefing. Add in COVID numbers that are staying about the same and residents face a trifecta of viral pathogens-- some of which can infect a person at the same time.

Dr. Gary Green, infectious disease specialist for Sutter Health, provided some sobering information about what he described as an "extraordinary" amount of viruses moving through Sonoma County, with influenza making "footprints" everywhere, especially in Santa Rosa.

"Right now, out of hundreds and hundreds of flu swabs we've sent in, 43 percent are positive for influenza," he said. "That's an extraordinary number."

Dr. Green said the baseline for the advent of flu season is usually around 10 percent positive swabs.

The numbers for RSV were even greater, he said.

"For the hundreds of swabs we've sent in for respiratory syncytial virus or RSV, [we've seen] 60 percent positive swabs, which is really an extraordinary number."

Both Dr. Green and Dr. Jennifer Fish, a family medicine specialist at Santa Rosa Community Health, said that hospitals are near capacity but not being overwhelmed at this point, though when children are in need of hospitalization they are generally transferred to facilities out of county.

Manager of Communications for Sonoma County Paul Gullixson asked Dr. Green why flu season is so bad this year. Green pointed to COVID response fatigue combined with a contagious strain the previously wracked Australia's winter this year. He also drew a comparison to the Influenza outbreak of 1918, which he said has a parallel to the COVID pandemic in that after the third year of dealing with the virus, people began taking less precautions.

"That's what's happening right now," he said. "Kids are back at school. We're all traveling for the holidays. People are mixing in their bubbles. And I think we can all expect viruses to bump this year and it's going to be a rocky respiratory season this year-- and it's not due to one virus, its due to multiple."

Dr. Fish said she's experiencing a lot of fear and concern from the community because there are so many illnesses and so many people are sick, "especially children."

"We've had multiple children from Sonoma County get hospitalized," said Fish, adding that the strains that are circulating are stronger and circulating earlier in the season.

A Sonoma County resident who identified herself as Elizabeth F said she runs two large preschools in Santa Rosa and is concerned about the level of illness she's seeing.

"I care for about 200 of our county's 2 to 5 year olds," she said. "These last few weeks have been the worst I've seen in about 30 years."

Though many are sick, Dr. Fish advised residents to avoid taking at-risk adults or children to the ER simply to get diagnosed if their symptoms aren't severe. Things to look for in children especially are difficulty breathing, a fever at 104 or higher that doesn't respond to medication, and lethargy or having difficulty waking up. Dehydration is also something to closely monitor.

The current surge of RSV and the flu has created a situation in hospitals similar to that of COVID at its peak, the health experts said.

"I spoke with a physician who is working in Chico and the Childrens Hospital in Oakland," said Dr. Fish. "They have nowhere to transfer kids and their beds are totally full. And so they're basically running inpatient pediatric units in the ER, kids that need to be admitted, but they don't have a place to send them to."

Dr. Green said that the Sutter hospital in Santa Rosa has doubled its ER space, which has helped them remain within capacity, though a tent outside is also being used. Kaiser Permanente Santa Rosa has also erected a tent for overflow, according to County Health Officer Dr. Sundari Mase.

"With doubling our ER capacity, we're able to see twice as many patients," said Green. "What I really notice is, in addition to our ER being busier, but not over capacity, just the number of calls coming into primary care and pediatric offices has been really overwhelming."

Vaccination is the single greatest predictor of a good outcome from catching the flu, said Dr. Green, adding that it makes him "a little bit sad" when patients refuse to get one. There is currently no vaccine available for RSV, but masking up and washing hands regularly are all strongly encouraged as the county fights the viruses.

To view the community update, go to the county's Facebook page at www.facebook.com/CountyofSonoma