“I know I’m not objective about the whole thing,” he said. “But I read the news media every day. Animal agriculture is under attack. And then I read about . . . 70 turkeys selling for $7.50 a pound and in other parts of the country people are going hungry.”

Arnie Riebli of Sunrise Farms in Petaluma

His question: Are we being realistic about our expectations of food production and what people can afford?

It’s a fair concern. At $7.50 a pound, a 15-pound turkey is going to cost $112.50. Who has that kind of money? A Safeway ad this week was offering turkeys for 88 cents a pound.

Riebli doesn’t raise turkeys, and he said he has nothing against a family that wants to raise heritage turkeys as a hobby. He just gets concerned when people see stories like this as a solution to society’s food needs.

“As a farmer, I have a moral and ethical responsibility to supply food at a reasonable cost to the average consumer. But that’s not the average consumer,” he said. “I think we are starting to have delusions of grandeur of that things really are.”

Arnie told me that Sunrise Farms, which produces a million eggs a day, seven days a week, is working with David Goodman of the Redwood Empire Food Bank to provide food banks all over the state with low-cost eggs.

 “We truly understand the need that his out there,” said Riebli. “But then I get beat over the head because there is a vocal minority out that believes that I’m just Simon Legree who doesn’t care about the welfare of his animals.” That’s just not true, he said.

“I’m having a hard time trying to understand what society really wants.” 
I  don’t blame him.

I can appreciate someone who raises heritage turkeys. But I’m more thankful for those who produce the food I can afford each day – especially those here in Sonoma County - and are willing to put up with verbal abuse and occasional attacks by vandals to do it.

- Paul Gullixson

In his concession speech made last night, ousted Cotati City Councilman George Barich said that he is “anxiously looking forward to the 2010 election in Cotati.”

Barich was recalled by nearly a 2-1 margin, but he claimed he was pleased because his “support base” doubled in less than a year from 16 percent of the vote to 35 percent. But that’s fuzzy math and heavy spin at best.

In terms of real numbers, Barich received 1,296 votes a year ago but, according to the tentative count, only 571 no-on-recall votes. That shows a 55 percent decline in support.

The fact is if Barich had been able to get the same people who voted for him a year ago, when there were six names on the ballot, to do the same on Tuesday he would have survived the recall easily. But it wasn’t close.

In any event, here’s the text of Barich’s concession speech:

“This is a great night for Cotati.  I am extremely happy to see my support base double in less than a year, from 16 percent of the popular vote in 2008, to 35 percent tonight.  Openness and honesty in government is something that has been embraced by the community and will not be forgotten.   I am anxiously looking forward to the 2010 election in Cotati.

I want to thank all those who gave me their love and support every step of the way during this contentious recall.  Together, we will meet the challenges that lie ahead to take back our town from politics as usual, complacency, and fiscal irresponsibility.”

- Paul Gullixson

She touched on most of the lows facing the city (which we covered in our  editorial today.) And she did her best in pointing out some highs, including some that weren’t particularly lofty. (I.e. Santa Rosa is using less energy – because, among other things, it has turned off 33 percent of its streetlights.)

Some news that came out of her talk at the “Good Morning, Santa Rosa” gathering of about 100 people at the Hilton Hotel:

• Faced with having to trim another $10 million from its general fund budget, the City Council is looking to cut $2.4 million at the start of the year with the expectation of making another $6 million to $7 million in the spring to take effect on July 1. “We are focused. We are going to make cuts. But it is not going to be easy,” she said.
•  The mayor will be appointing a Climate Change and Sustainability Task Force at the start of 2010. “We already have the staff identified,” she said. She didn’t go into detail about what this task force was going to do other than, apparently, advise the City Council on policy directions.
• The city has received five responses from its recent call for proposals on what to do with the former AT&T building near Courthouse Square. She said she will be among those reviewing the applications for a joint public-private partnership to convert the eyesore it is today. The city bought the 99,800-square-foot building in 2007 for $3 million using redevelopment money. “Hopefully that will be one of the bright lights next year,” she said.

 Gorin had time to take just one question at the end of her talk, which came from Gary Lentz of InfoStor who asked whether the city’s focus was too much on being “green” and not enough on attracting new businesses and stores, such as Lowe’s and Wal-Mart, to the area.

Gorin responded with a defense of the City Council’s recent rejection of a new Lowe’s (“Our community was simply split on this issue,” she said.) She also said she is “all about growing new businesses in Santa Rosa. We have tried to attract (businesses from other areas) for a very long time and have not been very successful.”
It seems to me she didn’t really answer the question.

 - Paul Gullixson

With both precincts reporting, about two-thirds of Cotati voters are supporting the recall. It’s beyond unlikely that any remaining absentee ballots will change the outcome.

I couldn’t immediately find a record of a previously successful city council recall in Sonoma County, but three recalls have failed since 1973, including another one in Cotati.

In 2004, two Rohnert Park council members survived a recall effort that grew out of a revenue-sharing deal with the Graton Rancheria, which is still pursuing plans for a casino just outside Rohnert Park.In 1998, three Windsor council members survived a recall driven by the city’s growth wars. And so did three Cotati council members in 1973.

Sonoma County voters also opposed California’s best known recent recall – the 1993 vote that removed Gov. Gray Davis from office.

In 1976, however, voters recalled county Supervisors Bill Kortum and Chuck Hinkle. Ostensibly, the recall was based on the supervisors’ vote to increase property taxes. But it targeted a board majority that was seen as unfriendly to developers. That probably wouldn’t fly these days.

If there’s a silver lining for Barich – and it’s tough to find one – it’s this: There were a little more than 1,000 votes cast to recall him, but he got almost 1,300 in the general election 54 weeks ago.

Barich was a regular at Cotati City Council meetings when I covered them in the 1990s, and I’m guessing he’ll be right back in the audience when the new council convenes. Its upcoming tasks include picking a successor for John Guardino, who quit the council a few weeks ago.

– Jim Sweeney

In our lead editorial on Wednesday, we offer our own assessment of the state of things in Santa Rosa, including:

•  The fact that the City Council faces having to cut another $8 million from its general fund budget.
• During the first nine months of the year, residential and commercial development in Santa Rosa were at their lowest points in nearly 40 years.
• Unemployment in Sonoma County still hovers around 10 percent and foreclosures are still soaring.

Meanwhile, Santa Rosa will be starting the new year without a city manager as Jeff Kolin has accepted a job as the top administrator for Beverly Hills.

Is the “city designed for living” destined to be known as “the city that’s always cutting?” We hope not. We offer a couple of suggestions on what the city needs.

Send me your thoughts on the state of Santa Rosa. In the meantime, I plan to be there at the breakfast meeting and will offer my thoughts on what Gorin has to say.

- Paul Gullixson

Quandary resolved? Not necessarily.

Along with billions for dams and reservoirs, about $2 billion in the bond is earmarked for the Delta, where levees are in trouble and the natural balance of freshwater and saltwater has been altered at the expense of natural ecosystems.

Huffman, who represented environmental interests in the water talks, fought to keep the bond out of the water package but ultimately voted to put it on the ballot. For now, however, he isn’t committing himself to campaigning for it, or even voting for it next year. With ag interests voting for his Delta bill, Huffman said it would have been bad form to oppose a vote on their top priority, additional water storage.

Honor in politics? Who’d of thought?

What may determine whether the bond is worth voting for next year is if Huffman, D-San Rafael, succeeds in buttressing Delta restoration and water conservation programs when the Legislature reconvenes its regular session in January.

He plans to introduce legislation allowing the new Delta Stewardship Council to assess fees from water exporters (read big ag and Southern California cities) to pay for a restoration plan that’s supposed to be finished by 2012. Huffman also wants to beef up groundwater monitoring and water theft rules that were scaled back in the bond talks. Because they can be passed by a majority vote, instead of the two-thirds required for the bond package, he thinks he’s got a better chance.

If it all comes together, Huffman says there’s “a fighting chance” to save the Central Valley salmon runs.

– Jim Sweeney

It’s bad enough that Santa Rosa school officials face the daunting task of cutting $5.65 million from the district’s already lean budget this year – with the prospect of having to cut another $4.7 million cut next year. Now the district may also have to take a financial hit from the swine flu as well.

During a visit this week with The Press Democrat Editorial Board, school officials told us that anecdotal evidence suggests there have been widespread absences in classrooms around Santa Rosa due to H1N1 flu – or parents being cautious about exposing their children to others with the flu. We’ve heard reports of some classrooms being half full.

What’s not clear is whether these absences are greater than in previous years. If so, it will cost the district – due to the fact that California schools are funded based on attendance.

For example, just a 1 percent decrease in average daily attendance in Santa Rosa, means local schools would lose about $1 million for the year. To put this in perspective, that’s equal to half the savings of trimming the school year by five days.

 “The level of impact on the budget is truly significant,” said Associate Superintendent Doug Bower. “That’s why it’s so concerning.” Bower plans to address this issue as part of a mid-year report to the board on Dec. 9.

By the way, who benefits when Santa Rosa schools loses funding due to sick children? Answer: Sacramento. That money disappears somewhere in the coffers of the state of California.

 Kind of sickening.

-    Paul Gullixson

If this job change goes through, Kolin will be taking over the helm of a city that just cut 46 positions and decided to close city libraries three nights a week to balance its budget.

But before you feel sorry for this community of 90210 fame, Beverly Hills has an annual budget of nearly $400 million serving a community of about 35,000 residents.

By comparison, Santa Rosa has a budget of about $300 million serving a community of 150,000 residents.

To see the flyer promoting the job that Kolin is on the verge of accepting, click here.

-  Paul Gullixson

President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize for … well, um … 2009.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger collects an award from a national parks foundation after trying to close hundreds of parks (and settling for slashing hours, raising fees and generally making them less attractive).

Do you suppose Caltrans has created enough havoc on the Bay Bridge this fall to win some national engineering award?

– Jim Sweeney