SodaCanyonRoad | Mr. Pedroza's town hall meeting at Vichy

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Mr. Pedroza's town hall meeting at Vichy
Gordon Evans | Feb 19, 2016 on: Campaign 2016

I haven’t seen any reporting on this event in the Napa Valley Register, so I thought I’d share a couple of my takeaways from Alfredo Pedroza's town fall meeting at Vichy Elementary on Feb. 10.

The meeting was well-attended, overwhelmingly so by opponents of the proposed Palmaz heliport, including myself. They were quite vociferous. To his credit, Mr. Pedroza remained tolerant, cool and calm, ever the politician. He endeavored to cover a variety of subjects concerning the county and its citizenry, and did so despite frequent interruptions. His main response mantra for the evening was, “I hear you.”

Notably, there was one gentleman who repeatedly interjected himself into the dialogue to defend and/or clarify Pedroza’s position as a "sitting supervisor,” This spokesperson’s condescending manner, being counter to Mr. Pedroza’s more folksy manner, left me wondering whose town meeting it really was. Although he was not introduced, I learned that he was Jim Jones, local attorney and former Napa City Councilman.

Of particular concern to me is the list of Pedroza’s campaign donors, information easily accessible at the County Clerk-Recorder’s Office. While it’s perfectly understandable that a majority of Pedroza’s donors represent the wine and tourism industries, my focus was on environmental issues he pointedly did not address. So, I asked him the following question:

“We all know that money is the mother’s milk of politics, and according to documents filed by you with the California Fair Political Practices Commission, in 2015, you received almost $20,000 from Hall (Walt Ranch), Syar (expansion) and the Palmazs - all entities that have environmentally-sensitive projects pending with the County. If they come before you to vote on, are you prepared to recuse yourself?”

Pedroza’s partial answer was basically that he was very grateful to all his donors, and he would never consider returning any money, as he saw no conflict of interest. Before he directly answered the question, he handed the microphone to Mr. Jones, who stated, “that’s not a legal issue, but a moral one.” Pedroza then moved on to other questions without giving a definitive answer. Maybe.

On second thought, perhaps that response was the answer.

NVR version 2/18/16: Maybe he did answer after all