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The Healdsburg Tribune Enterprise & Scimitar
Visit www.healdsburgtribune.com for daily updates on local news and views Healdsburg, California
Our 157th year, Number 15©
April 14, 2022
Tribune to end print run after 157 years The Healdsburg Tribune, which traces its lineage back to 1865, will print its last newsprint edition on April 28, 2022. This decision came after much research, thought and deliberation into the sustainability of a locally owned small town newspaper. We don’t make this decision lightly. The legacy of the Healdsburg Tribune is deeply entwined with the history of the community, and we honor that heritage. We’ve chronicled much of the community’s life. From its founding families to its current leaders, from buggy rides to bitcoin, we’ve been there.
While the newspaper will no longer arrive in your mailbox each week, the nonprofit Sonoma County Local News Initiative will carry on, and we invite you to join us. We know there is a need for quality local reporting, from youth sports, to investigative journalism, to in-depth features on your friends, family and neighbors, to deep dives into local government. As a current subscriber, please consider converting the remainder of your subscription to a taxdeductible donation. If you are a recurring donor, please continue your support as we move forward,
together, into the future. This will allow us to meet our obligations to our employees and to our vendors, which are all locally owned businesses. As we end our last print run and wind down the operations of the print newspaper, we are closing our office in a historic Healdsburg building, and beginning our transition into a new, nimble, digital form. Our nonprofit vision states: Our journalism provides local citizens the information they need to make the best possible decisions about their lives, their communities, their
governments and their shared civic and cultural life. We believe in that vision more than ever, and without the unsustainable cost of printing and mailing, we will devote ourselves to reporting on the issues you care about most, and finding innovative ways to provide you that news. In the past five years, this local news organization has raised funds through a direct public offering, donations, subscriptions and advertising. That generous support allowed us to keep printing long after others would have quit the effort.
Former Police Chief Kevin Burke dies at 55 By Katherine Minkiewicz-Martine Staff Writer katherine@soconews.org Former Healdsburg Police Chief Kevin Burke has died, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office confirmed on April 6. “The loss of Kevin Burke, our former Police Chief, will be felt by countless members of our community,” Healdsburg Mayor Ozzy Jimenez said in a written statement. “His light and kind heart will be missed by so many. Our Healdsburg Police Department has lost a great leader and friend.” Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Sgt. Juan Valencia said sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to Burke's residence on the 800 block of Josephine Lane in Healdsburg on April 5 at 6:15 p.m. to take over the investigation after the Healdsburg Police Department arrived on scene. The Healdsburg Police Department responded to Burke’s residence to conduct a welfare check after a friend of Burke could not get a hold of him. Valencia confirmed with SoCoNews that the death was an apparent suicide from a selfinflicted gunshot wound. The sheriff’s office will be leading the investigation into Burke’s death. Valencia said the sheriff’s office is taking on the investigation in order to be transparent about the investigation since the incident involves a retired Healdsburg police chief. “The biggest factor also is that they worked for Chief Burke and just the stress and the mental toll it
Editor’s note: Over the next few issues, The Healdsburg Tribune will be publishing articles written between January and February as part of a special series on mental health in Sonoma County. Plenty of roads lead to a therapist’s office, and in Sonoma County, there are nonprofits offering mental health care that won’t cost an arm and a leg for people looking to relieve their mental and emotional pain. SoCoNews reached out to SOS Community Counseling and Humanidad Therapy & Education Services to learn more about offering mental health services for low to no cost in Sonoma County. Among the resources offered at SOS are counseling clinics in Rohnert Park, Santa Rosa and Cloverdale for individuals, couples, families and children, in-person and through telehealth. The
The Sonoma County Local News Initiative Board of Directors
Healdsburg police looking into reports of drugging at downtown bar By Katherine Minkiewicz-Martine and Elsa Cavazos Staff Writers katherine@soconews.org elsa@soconews.org
Photo Elsa Cavazos
REMEMBRANCE — Tables were set up in the Plaza on April 7 to provide community members with a place to leave flowers and notes in memory of former police chief Kevin Burke. Flags at city facilities were also flown at half-staff in honor of Burke. would take on a person to see the chief in that position and under these circumstances is a lot,” Valencia said. Valencia said it will take a couple of weeks to determine the exact time
of death and the official cause. In an investigation such as this, Valencia said deputies make sure there were no signs of foul play, forced entry or trauma to the body. Jimenez told SoCoNews that
Burke’s death pains and saddens him and everyone on the city staff. “I think it is really important to highlight that mental health is
See Burke page 7
Affordable mental health and the cost of doing business By Camille Escovedo Special to the Tribune
We appreciate you for standing by us as we navigated a shrinking news landscape, and we ask that you continue to stand with us as we work to transition into a new, sustainable future for local news. We have been candid about our struggles and triumphs, and that transparency will continue. Watch your email inbox for updates and opportunities to get involved as we reinvent ourselves. Questions? Reach out to us via future@soconews.org.
organization also works with law enforcement and youth at risk of slipping into the juvenile justice system, providing counseling sessions and restorative community service opportunities for young people. At SOS, Executive Director Becky Ennis looks to “redefine” the sliding scale method of payment away from the stereotype and stigma that low cost means low quality care. There’s a perception that pay-what-you-can therapy won’t be as good as what a private practice therapist could offer, she said, charging anywhere from $130 to $200 an hour. “For effective therapy, you want to see your therapist weekly, at least to start before you start tapering or going biweekly,” she said. “So, within a month, you could easily spend $800 to see a therapist four times. That is really costly and cost prohibitive to many, many people in the county to be able to seek out therapy.” SOS Community Counseling staff
encourage people who can afford a full fee of about $120 an hour to do so with the understanding that it will pay for their therapy and help someone else who cannot afford the same, Ennis said. The organization works off money set aside and calculates what percentage of their clients they could serve pro bono if they’re facing intense circumstances, she said, “and then we kind of go back and we reverse-engineer the math on how to make that work.” For instance, if SOS offers practically free counseling to 10% of its clients, the organization must then figure out what percentage of other clients would be paying how much in order to budget its services. SOS writes grants and seeks donations to help expand the percentage of clients it can serve pro bono and to cover its bases and funders are aware that the nonprofit serves populations that may not always be able to pay for a therapist’s work. SOS provides
counseling for youth, monolingual Spanish speakers and homeless people in the local community who often cannot afford a full-fee session, Ennis said. Sometimes, grant funds are stipulated to completely cover services for, say, victims of the 2017 Tubbs Fire, but otherwise the organization does not offer 100% free sessions except in unique circumstances. Insurance is tricky. According to Ennis, SOS works only with contracted partners through the county for third party billing so far. The organization is working on an application to bill Beacon Health Options for the mild to moderate mental health services, she said. Beacon is a program through Medi-Cal’s Partnership HealthPlan of California, which the organization accepts as insurance, according to the SOS website. Affordability “in the therapy
See Mental Health Page 8
The Healdsburg Police Department is investigating around seven reports — two of which were received on April 7 — of alleged drugging incidents in Healdsburg, some of which may go back to November 2021. In each case, the reporting party reported that they believed their drink was spiked with drugs while at Duke’s Spirited Cocktails. As of April 11, Healdsburg Police Sgt. John Haviland said that there is currently no proof that any of the reported incidents have taken place at Duke’s. In an interview on April 7, Haviland said it appears that the reported incidents of drugging did not result in subsequent sexual assault. A report that was submitted to police on April 4 was of a drugging that allegedly occurred at Duke’s the prior weekend. Haviland said the reporting party’s inclination is that it happened at Duke’s, however, after an officer review of surveillance footage, Haviland said “it was clear” that the person’s drink couldn’t have been tampered with. Police are still actively investigating each report and Duke’s is cooperating with the investigation. “We're the ones who called them and delivered the video, as soon as we saw this Facebook post, and they're conducting their investigation, and we think that'll be wrapped up really soon,” said David “Duke” Ducommun, owner of Duke’s Spirited Cocktails. Haviland said he couldn’t comment on any details of the report since it is an ongoing investigation. Healdsburg officer Nick Doherty is leading the investigation and Haviland said the preliminary investigative work has started on the report received on April 4. News of an alleged drugging that was reported on April 4 first came out as a social media post that was made on April 3 on Facebook that read: “I have contemplated all day posting this. Last night around 9 p.m. I was roofied at Duke’s. I have
See Dukes Page 8