FINAL VOTE BUT NOT THE FINAL ACT

FINAL VOTE 3 -2 in favor of Dutra.
Kelley, Kerns and Carrillo vote YES to amend the General Plan and rezone the Dutra parcels to light industrial. Supervisors Zane and Brown vote NO.

Yesterday the county counsel and planning staff made a mockery of CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act), which was created to protect the environment and the citizen’s right to participate in the CEQA process. Yesterday morning at 9 AM 180+ pages of information were released by county planning staff to our attorneys and limited distribution, with only 4 hours until the hearing. The new information was not distributed to the list of interested citizen parties and no one was allowed speak at the hearing.

Sonoma County Legal Counsel advised the Board to prohibit public comment on the Dutra agenda item. Even Mayor Torliatt, Vice Mayor Glass, Council members Rene and Barrett were not allowed to speak.

What exactly did the Supervisors NOT want to hear?

NO information on the environmental impact of building a conveyor belt across Shamrock’s mitigated wetlands.

NO questioning of why there is no Health Risk Analysis for Revision I, the third version of the Dutra project.

NO pointing out that there is no written agreement with Shamrock, indicating Shamrock’s willingness to supply Dutra with aggregate for the next 50 years.

Supervisor Zane did point out that the project cannot operate without SMART approval of the conveyor crossing its tracks. It cannot go forward without Shamrock’s agreement, so she asked why vote to approve a General Plan amendment, with no assurance these pieces will come together? She voted NO.

Supervisor Brown was still concerned with Dutra’s record and voted NO.

Supervisors Kerns, Kelley and Carrillo, willing to sacrifice our public park and fresh air for Dutra’s private profits and 7-10 jobs ,voted YES. Kerns, Kelley and Carrillo continued to ignore the unanimous opposition of the City Council of Petaluma, Mayor Torliatt, and to ignore District 2 Supervisor-Elect David Rabbit’s public statement of opposition.

NEXT STEPS:

LEGAL DEFENSE FUND NOW OPEN!

Friends of Shollenberger announce the Legal Defense Fund Campaign to challenge the County’s woefully confused, incomplete, and illegal process.

DONATE TODAY TO SAVE THE PARK
STOP DUTRA FROM DEGRADING OUR TOWN
(donations are tax -deductible)

CLICK DONATE (top-right corner of website)
or Send Checks to:
O.W.L. Foundation
c/o Friends of Shollenberger Park
PO BOX 2114
Petaluma 94953

ATTEND THE PETALUMA CITY COUNCIL MEETING!

Monday, December 20th
6:00pm
City Hall

SHOW YOUR SUPPORT FOR OUR COUNCIL’S OPPOSITION TO THE DUTRA ASPHALT FACTORY AT OUR GATEWAY

Public's right to speak at Dutra Hearing: Brown Act requirements

Always more Dutra Drama, just when you thought we'd had enough.

The County says that the Dutra hearing is "closed to public comment".

Do not allow the Press Democrat or Argus, City councils, County supervisors or any other public boards tell you that you can be prohibited from speaking at a public meeting to any item either on or off the agenda. The Press Democrat has erroneously repeated county counsel's seriously flawed assertion that the hearing for voting on tomorrow's Dutra Asphalt Plant project is "closed to public comment."

Brett Wilkison double checked this afternoon with County Counsel Steve Woodside and assistant County Counsel Dave Hurst, who both repeated that they are acting in accordance with the Brown Act and can forbid public comment on Dutra.

However, the Brown Act requires that you will be allowed to speak. Generally, the public can speak to any agendized item at the time it is being heard. The public can speak to any item not on the agenda during the general public comment periods of a meeting, as set by the public agency or board.

Come on up, and express yourself for your allotted 3 minutes. Dutra will start sometime around 3pm tomorrow, Tuesday 12/14.

As of 4:30pm today, our attorney is also drafting a letter on this for tomorrow, citing also the Bakersfield Citizens case, which clearly holds that public comment must be accepted up to and including the final hearing. The PD is now going to do a story on this for tomorrow, quoting Terry Franke, www.calaware.org, who has litigated successfully a number of times on this area.

FINAL VOTE on DUTRA ASPHALT FACTORY

Let's show them, they can't wear us out or down - we will never give up fighting for Shollenberger Park and the health of our community.

ATTEND THE HEARING

Drop everything, bring the kids, and show up! They count heads, so hold yours up high! Stay for a while, even if you can’t stay for the whole hearing.

If you come at the beginning you can help hold up our sign
“NO ASPHALT PLANT NEAR OUR PARK”

If you’re there by 3 PM you’ll have an opportunity to speak to the Supervisors and put it on the record.

THE LAST SUPERVISORS HEARING ON DUTRA
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2010
1:30 – 5:00 PM
Agenda Item 5 – Dutra Asphalt Plant
Supervisors' Chambers
575 Administration Drive
Santa Rosa, CA

Friends of Shollenberger Park Needs Your Participation to Save the Park!