Sonoma West Times and News from Sebastopol, California • 9

SONOMA WEST Times News, February 4, 1998 A9 Sheriff Continued from front page development of a Peer Support Program, "to provide a safe setting to air concerns, experiences and questions faced by employees in a law enforcement workplace." Initially, the target of this peer support program and counseling would be new employees, later expanding to include all interested department personnel. Second, he reiterated the dictates of his recently adopted policy, that it is mandatory to report any unlawful harassment, and that the reportage is not restricted to the victim but also can be made by an observer of the incident. Also, the victim can sidestep the "chain of command" and report the incident to any department manager. 'The majority of our employ- ees respect one another, however, these steps are being taken to enhance the working environment for all employees and to remove this department from the cycle of litigation we have seen recently," said Piccinini, an Analy High School graduate and Hessel native. To ensure compliance with his fiats, Piccinini will continue to meet occasionally with small groups of employees to elicit their concerns and ideas about conditions in the workplace.

Also, department managers are to be more available to and observant of their staff To increase the recruitment of women and minorities as patrol deputies, Piccinini is forming an advisory committee, a collaborative venture with the private sector and other public agencies. Committee members would include specialists in personnel recruitment, human resource management, equal employment opportunity and in issues of unlawful harassment. "I am confident an effective outreach program to female and minority law enforcement officers both locally and in areas like Southern California will result in experience, qualified applicants for our department," said Piccinini, who has stated his intention to run for sheriff this November. About 43 percent of the Sheriff's Department's 626 employees and 35 managers are women and minorities. There are 214 women on staff, 15 in managerial positions, and 57 minority employees.

The percentage is far lower for women working as patrol deputies. According to information released by the Sheriff's Department at its first Citizens Academy, of the 105 patrol deputies, only four are women (four percent). And on the management level, only one of the 14 patrol sergeants is female. Trail Continued from front page Department, Ferguson has witnessed the county's societal transformation from primarily a white-male dominated, agrarian-based economy to an ethnically diverse, high-tech region. These changes, he said, must be recognized by the Sheriff's Department.

"Law enforcement management has to leave their egos at the door, and stop being so bull-headed sometimes about other groups, organizations, and individuals that have good ideas. And, I think, those same groups and organizations and individuals, perhaps, have to be less bullheaded, and base their input less on emotion and personal experience and more on studied thought," said Ferguson. Ferguson's interest in law enforcement germinated when he returned to Southern California in 1968 after serving a tour of duty in Vietnam, with Navy Squadron 3. Student turmoil and confrontations with "the establishment" had begun to occur on university and college campuses across the country in opposition to the war. Down south, to bolster its riot control unit, the West County schools, helped create the contract-city program whereby the Sheriff's Department handles Windsor's law enforcement duties, and has been a two-time recipient of the Distinguished Service Award from the county's Board of Supervisors.

As well, he has been or is a member of civic and service organizations. He belongs to the Sebastopol Rotary Club (15, years of perfect attendance). "When I was a supervisor or manager, I always recommended this, and I kept preaching this, that the deputies become involved with local groups or their church or whatever, where they get outside the influence of the department," he said. "I think that is especially true for law enforcement managers, that they be involved in the community just as much as possible and look at things from many different perspectives as possible." Ferguson believes it is important to the success of law enforcement that there be "more interactive exchange of ideas and information with the citizens we serve and, most importantly perhaps, in hiring those people that otherwise would not be associated with law enforcement when I first came to work." Ferguson and his wife, Carlene have been married for four years. She has two adult children by a previous marriage, Scott and Robin, a grandson, Blake, and a stepson, Matt Cale.

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department trained military personnel to be reserve deputies. Ferguson was one of those volunteers. Like many of his generation, Ferguson was influenced heavily by the events and social turmoil of the 1960s. But further influenced to a different direction. The behavior, attitude and values of the protesters convinced Ferguson he wanted nothing to do with the counterculture.

"I didn't want to be part of that society. The people were fractious, they had no direction. I was never absorbed with the Tune In, Turn On, Drop Ouf attitude of that time," he told the Times News last week. Instead, he identified with the deputies, their personal goals and objectives similar to his. He also found them to be compassionate and family oriented.

"It looked like an interesting career choice," said Ferguson, whose only law enforcement training to that time consisted of a few mail-order courses in which he enrolled while enlisted in the Coast Guard. With the deputies' encouragement, he tested for a job with the Los Angeles department. For his family's sake (a wife and infant son), he also tested in Contra Costa County. Because of his fond memories of living periodically in the Occidental area as a youngster, he considered the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department. But he settled on Contra Costa, being hired in January, 1969.

"As a rookie with no training, I wanted to go with a department with a good reputation," he explained. Ferguson remained with the Contra Costa department for three and a half years, dividing his assignments among North-Richmond, West Pittsburgh and AlamoDanville. Ferguson described that latter assignment in the county's more affluent communities his toughest. "I was dealing with parents who were in denial that their children could be in trouble and they had connections. I learned early, people try to use their political influence," he remarked.

Observing that Contra Costa County's population was growing rapidly, reminding him of Los Angeles, he decided that was not an environment in which he wanted to raise his family, so he tested with the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department in 1973. Fearing that he flunked the test, he also obtained a job application from the Sebastopol Police Department. Despite his premonition, Ferguson passed the test, and was offered a job by the late Sheriff Don Striepeke before he even had resigned from Contra Costa. "His focus," said Ferguson of Striepeke's hiring preferences, "was to hire experienced law enforcement personnel from other departments to build an experienced deputy force." "1 took a $400 a month pay cut, but it was well worth it," he added. At that time, the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department had no field training officers, or, for that matter, a lot of extra uniforms.

Ferguson recollects wearing for a while his Contra Costa deputy uniform with a Sonoma County deputy emblem over his former patch. His first patrol deputy assignment was to the River Substation, working the graveyard shift. And from 3 a.m. to 7 a.m., he was the only deputy on duty, patrolling an area much larger than it is now. The patrol district extended from the River north to the Mendocino County border and south to Valley Ford and east to GratonForestville.

"Deputy sheriffs had a lot more latitude back then, which was true for all law enforcement," said Ferguson. "We had the responsibility, the authority, but we were also given the trust, the faith to do the right thing and to make decisions on our own, and that was for a couple of reasons. That was the culture at the time, but it was also because there wasn't the spread of supervision that there is now. The feeling was you hired the best people possible, you trained them the best way you knew how, for the times, and then you allowed them to do the responsible, correct, legal things when they were out there, representing the citizens of Sonoma County." Ferguson said he learned many lessons while assigned to the River substation that he continued to espouse as he climbed up the supervisory chain of command. "Community policing," he said, "is the buzzword now and has been for a few years (but) community policing was something that just naturally evolved at the Guerneville substation.

"We had a feeling of responsibility toward the citizens that we were serving and doing the best job for them that we could, and keeping tabs on the criminal element and taking action against the criminal element, as necessary." For his career advancement, Ferguson requested, reluctantly, a transfer to the main office in Santa Rosa in 1981. He was assigned to be the department's first Crime Prevention Officer, and later was promoted to sergeant. He returned to patrol duty, supervising the graveyard deputies. Like most of the department's sworn personnel, Ferguson has assumed many different roles and accepted a variety of responsibilities. He has been a member of the department's Mounted Color Guard, canine unit, county's Gang Task Force, bicycle patrol, Search Rescue and Dive teams, was appointed to the Juvenile Delinquency Commission, helped organize and write the protocols and policy for the Roseland Substation, co-authored a grant for the "Drugs in School Program" for Reilly Continued from front page major city projects such as the new Giants downtown baseball stadium.

Nothenberg, now semi--retired, said he volunteered to serve on the Redevelopment Committee as a way to help the area. "I told the supervisors if there's any way I can be helpful I'll do anything I can," said Nothenberg. Nothenberg will be joined on the committee by residents representing each River special district and school district, plus month voted to spend $25,000 on a Russian River-area redevelopment feasibility study to determine whether a River 'Redevelopment area would make economic sense. The study, expected to take a year to complete, will also recommend project area boundaries, determine the eligibility of the area for redevelopment, identify appropriate project activities, and determine the "financial feasibility" of carrying out the projects. The study would also look at the potential impact on other county services when property taxes are diverted to the redevelopment area.

River Redevelopment supporters say a redevelopment area could help revitalize the River's struggling tourist economy, rehabilitate low-income housing, and improve or replace substandard infrastructure such as roads and sewage disposal systems. For instance, "I really had some concerns that public works has neglected this area as far as the streets and the roads," said Guerneville School Superintendent Sam Pullaro. With a redevelopment area in place, "I'm hoping that more dollars would be coming back to us to get those kinds of things addressed." i Who will be Sebastopol's Service Person of the Year for 1998? Tape Continued from front page slated to receive more than $10 million in grant money to raise flood-prone homes above the River's 100-year floodplain. So far grant money has been approved to help pay for elevating 242 houses that flooded in one or both floods of 1995 or in the deluge that occurred in January of last year. The elevation project has drawn criticism for the drawn-out application process, which has yet to fund a single house-raising.

"When I see a house go up we should really have a party," said Arlene Irizary, director of Deluge Response Interfaith, the coalition of church volunteers who are helping River flood victims. "I think very highly of the Community Development staff but I'm frustrated by the process," said Irizary, who was one of several dozen residents, officials, contractors, and others attending last week's open house. Despite the red tape county officials last week were optimistic that some construction may begin possibly as early as this month. The delay so far "stems primarily from the availability of architects and designers," said Walsh. The new flood elevation office, located in the former Bank of America building, will now house the flood elevation staff of seven people working on processing the complicated grant applications that each need approval from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the state Office of Emergency Services.

The elevation project sent out another 150 application last week to the next homeowners on a priority list of more than 600 structures that are known to flood when the River reaches disaster levels. The flood elevation program hopes to have the first 90 grant-funded projects off the ground by the year 1999, said Flood Elevation Program interim manager Stephanie Rodman. And with another 100 to 150 houses in line to be elevated, the new flood program office "Will probably be here into the year 2000," said Rodman. Correction Sonoma West Times tt News reserves this space for corrections and clarifications of stories that appear in the newspaper. To request a correction, call 823-7845.

representatives from the business community and the visitor-serving industry. jt "I wanted people from those areas chamber of commerce, resort owners, business people, and special districts" to serve on the committee, said Reilly. Committee members include: Sam Pullaro, Superintendent of Guerneville School; Herman Hernandez, owner of Frank Howard Allen Hernandez Realty and a director of the Russian River Recreation Park District; Barbara Barrett, a Guerneville attorney and president of the Russian River Chamber of Commerce; Barbara Kokalis, business Pete Foster FIRCREST PRODUCE Michael Tiemann MILLER OIL Pi r-r I Hi 4 owner (Weekend Gardener and Northwood Restaurant) and a director of the Monte Rio Recreation Park District and the Monte Rio Chamber of Commerce; Steve Trippe, a trustee of the Monte Rio School District; Steve Baxman, Chief of the Monte Rio and Russian River Fire Protection Districts; Gail Lyman-Reynolds, an owner-broker at the CPS Great River Realty office, and Jim Caron, co-owner of the Applewood Inn Restaurant. Caron and Lyman-Reynolds will represent the real estate and visitor-serving communities. County supervisors last 0W Fat Busch DISCOUNT ALLEY Rosemarie Gordon LONG'S PHOTO Steve Wally' Wallace BENEDETTI TIRE Each year since 1988 the Times News has sponsored an annual readership balloting to select a worthy local service person to recognize for outstanding service to their customers.

Pictured are this year's finalists. Please review their brief profiles here and help Sonoma West Times News choose this year's "Service Person of the Year." The award will be announced and presented as part of the Sebastopol Area Chamber of Commerce's annual Community Awards ceremony, Friday, February 20 at the Sebastopol Community Center. Pat Busch works for Discount Alley on South Gravenstein Highway. "She always has a friendly smile and goes out of her way to be helpful and she calls most of her customers by their names," read one of several nomination forms. Pete Foster works in the produce department at Fircrest Market.

"Pete is always right there willing to help I i Sebastopol Area Service Person of the Year 1998 Ballot Pat Busch, Discount Alley Pete Foster, Firecrest Market Produce Rosemarie Gordon, Long's Photo Michael Tiemann, Miller Oil Steve 'Wally' Wallace, Benedetti Tire Vote for just one choice as your "Service Person" of the year. Courteous, helpful, always smiling, never grumpy that's a winner. Reward that one special time one of our nominees went "way beyond the call of duty" or job description to provide superior service. These five finalists were nominated by Sonoma West readers over recent weeks and received the most convincing testimonials. Now it's time for a final selection and one overall winner.

Complete this ballot. Cut it out of the newspaper and mail or drop it to us. Please, no photocopies or ballot box stuffing. Sign your ballot for validation. Return by: February 13, 5 p.m.

Sonoma West Times News P. O. Box 521, Sebastopol, CA. 95473 especially the elderly people, a nomination read. Rosemarie Gordon works in the Longs Drugs Photo department.

"She is kind and patient and never seems to be in a hurry. Michael Tiemann is a cashier at Miller Oil and has been nominated in previous years, too. "He's just a real nice fellow and he's courteous and always willing to help." Steve 'Wally' Wallace works for Bene-detti Tire. "Wally has a gift for making each customer feel like they are the most important person of the moment and he never makes a woman feel stupid about cars." Use the ballot form at right and return to the newspaper before February 13..