By Kerry Fugett, Executive Director

Stepping into Dennis Rosatti’s role as Executive Director can certainly be described as “big shoes to fill”. But I am ready for this challenge and am extremely honored and excited for the opportunity to take those shoes and stretch them out. To keep those shoes knocking on 50,000+ doors a year, educating and building our community to achieve a healthy quality of life and ecologically thriving environment in Sonoma County.

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The environmental movement is shifting, as we stand on the shoulders of those before us, we must open our arms and acknowledge the impacts of social pressures affecting our environment. Longstanding, unsolved problems are festering: affordability of housing, stagnant wages, crumbling infrastructure, the impacts of climate change, and a generation who wants to call Sonoma County home but struggles to find a salaried job locally. This all affects our environment: carbon emissions from long commutes and increasing traffic, development pressures on open spaces, our local coastal access being used as a quick fix to state level funding problems.    While there is no shortage of problems, there is equally no shortage of solutions. Our community is filled with brilliant minds, passionate groups of millennials thinking outside the box, and advocates for our environment. The crucial piece is that we build the right alliances and push to have our values and voices represented in local government.

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The Proposal

• California State Parks has proposed a plan to create Fee Collection locations along the Sonoma County Coastline.

• The proposal would allow for $8 day passes for entrance into some locations, while having $3 hourly parking fees in others. There would be a low income pass, and a credit system, but none of these elements have been concretely laid out.

• The plan has been re-submitted to the Coastal Commission for approval after the County unanimously rejected it.

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Dear Friends, Members and Supporters,

I am writing to announce my departure from Sonoma County Conservation Action. We are looking for someone great to take my place! The Executive Director job posting is found on our website

I feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to be involved in the leadership of Conservation Action the past 13 years. When I discovered Sonoma County, I was awestruck with the biological diversity, the coast, the redwood forests, and the amazing community of people. The working agricultural landscape, vineyards, parks and open spaces coexisting with urban areas and little towns, all within an hour or so of the great City of San Francisco, almost seemed too good to be true.

Conservation Action offered me the job as a canvasser that turned into a career as not only a non-profit program manager and eventually executive director, but as a full-time environmental activist. I was given the chance to use my education, my skills and my passion, putting it into action on a local level where we were able to realize results. I learned about electoral politics, relationship building, coalition building with like minded organizations and people, and the nurturing of ideas in the political sphere of local and regional government.

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Key areas of concern

1. Budgetary Ambiguity Over

   • Projected revenue from the proposal,
   • Insight into use patterns and the feasibility of raising the projected revenues,
   • Costs associated with the proposed pay stations,
   • System maintenance costs,
   • How money will be used, and if there will be additional services for the community.

2. Equity Barriers

   • Could create 2-tier access, with low income members of the community having to look for beaches with free access.
   • Sonoma County, compared to Southern California, has significantly less public transportation options to the coast.
   • Adding additional shuttles to the coast could cost more than $300,000 per year. If this option were to be explored, who would pay for it, and how would that factor into the proposal’s revenue goals?
   • Will this fee plan unduly penalize the transportation needs of the disabled?

3. Incongruent Values: Demand Pricing Model

   • It is unnacceptable to charge people more on sunny days, holidays, and other designated peak use periods.
   • Variable charges may have negative effects on tourism, hurting the local economy as a consequence.

4. Environmental Impacts

   • The proposal has not addressed the possibility of direct or indirect environmental impacts.
   • Two different pay station types have already been proposed. What type of pay station is being proposed now? What are the power, size, and maintenance requirements? What will the overall environmental footprint look like?
   • If the proposal increases roadside parking, what will the affect be from environmental erosion and subsequent habitat displacement?

5. Public Safety

   • Does the proposal take into account any possible changes in traffic patterns as a result of people searching for free parking?
   • Does the proposal take into account the increased likelihood of fires from cars parked on the side of the road?
   • Does the proposal consider the possibility of increased accidents between cyclists and motorists search for roadside parking?

 Pro-development Coastal Commission appointees maneuver to terminate Dr. Charles Lester, undermining the power behind what has become a model for other states working to preserve natural beauty. There will be a public hearing in Morro Bay on February 10th.

Please sign this MoveOn petition to express concern about the damage this could have on protecting our California coastline and preserving public access.

Please share this information with your friends and family using social media, to help build public awareness. And remember to include the hashtag #SaveOurCoast

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