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CALIFORNIA TO STIFFEN DRUG, THEFT PENALTIES IN 2025
Healdsburg, California Healdsburg, California
January 9, 2025 Date, Date, 20202020
PROP. 36, LEGISLATIVE POLICIES BRING CHANGES TO CRIMINAL LAW By Cayla Mihalovich
➝ Legislative Policies, 2
1) Photo by Chiristian Kallen
Voters this November overwhelmingly approved Prop. 36, which both modifies and adds key changes to California law. That includes prosecutors being able to charge people convicted of various third-time drug offenses with a so-called treatmentmandated felony, which would direct them to substance use disorder or mental health treatment in lieu of up to three years in jail or prison. Under the new law, courts are also obligated to warn people convicted of selling or providing certain drugs, such as fentanyl, that they could face murder charges for later distributing illegal drugs that kill someone. And heavier consequences may also extend to petty theft and shoplifting offenses, including the possibility of up to three years in jail or prison if a person has already been twice convicted for certain theft offenses. Several district attorneys and police departments announced arrests this month that they planned to charge under the new law, including in San Francisco, Solano and Shasta counties. The measure partially reversed a different initiative voters approved a decade ago, which reduced penalties for certain lowerlevel drug and petty theft offenses from felonies to misdemeanors. The initiative, Prop. 47, was intended to develop new public safety strategies and reduce incarceration after the state’s prison population exploded due to tough-on-crime policies dating back to the 1980s.
WORLD WINNER The award for World Gym of the Year sits on the front counter of the Healdsburg fitness gym, where Massimo Tuscany helps check in members.
‘Fit and Over 50’ at Local Health Clubs FORGET MICHELIN STARS, GO WITH JOE GOLD AND JIMMY PAYNE Staff Report
Much has been written about the awarding of culinary stars, ratings of 90-point wines and the ascendancy of the milliondollar, two-bedroom home. But one award made to a Healdsburg business should not slip through the cracks—the naming of the Healdsburg’s location as North America’s “World Gym of the Year.” “I couldn’t believe my ears,” said Joe Talmadge, 65, manager of the World Gym Healdsburg location since it opened eight years ago. The award was announced to a packed hall at October’s international convention of World Gym operators in Las Vegas. “Healdsburg?”
When the Healdsburg Avenue location became available, he leapt at the chance. “When I first came and saw the space, I fell in love with it immediately,” he said. “I felt the space had good bones, but it was pretty long in the tooth. It was very dated.” Then known as Healdsburg Community Health and Fitness, the gym had lost a bit of its luster since being founded by the late Jimmy Payne, a Sonoma County competitive weightlifter and trainer who Talmadge called “our local Jack LaLanne.” Payne died in 2012, at 85. Talmadge took out the racquetball and basketball courts, and added more weightlifting and other fitness equipment, which enabled the gym to serve more customers at any given time. “It’s very simple math,” he said. “You want to be as efficient as possible with the space, where you can get enough people in there to
There are currently more than 225 World Gyms, most of them in North America. The business has modest roots: Joe Gold founded it in Santa Monica seven years after he sold the first fitness business he created, Gold’s Gyms. So the competition was stiff. “Obviously there are other gyms that probably are a little bit bigger and more fancier and offer different amenities as well,” Talmadge said. “But World Gym looks for ‘Key Performance Indicators,’ the things that really matter to them: How good of a job we do serving our specific community, how good we are with our members and of course the cleanliness of the club, the type of equipment we have, being up to date on everything that we offer.” Talmadge himself has worked in the fitness business for decades, having opened his own gym in San Francisco some 40 years ago.
COUNCIL STICKS WITH 5-DISTRICT, ROTATING MAYOR DIRECTION Photo by Christian Kallen
LOOK TO THE FUTURE Andrew Sturmfels, right, in
his final Healdsburg City Council meeting on Jan. 6. He will begin his new job as assistant county administrator with Sonoma County on Jan. 20. At left, City Clerk Raina Allan contemplates a future without him.
LAST MEETING FOR ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER STURMFELS By Christian Kallen
The city’s second of five public hearings on the transition to district elections was held, like the first, in a City Council meeting this Monday. Unlike the first,
be able to utilize it all at the same time.” While the gym is being upgraded this month with “wellness” features such as an ice bath, infrared treatment and massage tables, Talmadge has no intention of slighting his lifelong commitment to weight training. In fact the gym is open 24/7 to make that level of commitment possible for its members. “Muscle is the fountain of youth,” he said. “A lot of people are losing weight now with Ozempic and all these different drugs, and a lot of the weight they’re losing is a lot of muscle, too, which is not good. So we are a place where people can come and get the muscle, and keep the muscle.” World Gym Healdsburg, 1500 Healdsburg Ave. Open 24/7, monthly $60 fee. (707) 385-1142. worldgym.com/healdsburg
virtually nothing else was on the agenda. Nearly everyone in the room showed up to learn more about the inevitable move toward a new model of elections in town—not at-large voting, in which all candidates are voted in (or denied) by a city-wide vote, but in which specific geographic districts will elect their own local choice for the council. But first, the public comment period heard Tyra Benoit deliver something missing from the night’s agenda: A proclamation of gratitude to Andrew Sturmfels, who is stepping down from the assistant city manager job to take a new position with the County of Sonoma as an assistant county administrator. “Whereas …” read Benoit, again and again in the manner of official proclamations, while Sturmfels squirmed uncomfortably in his seat. “WHEREAS, Andrew Sturmfels has
Cadillac of Fitness
For those who require a wider list of options than weight training, Parkpoint Health Club offers it all: aerobics and weights, and classes in a multiplicity of modalities—Pilates, yoga, barre, adult ballet and many more—most of which are free for members. It’s one of three Parkpoint clubs in the county, the others being in Sonoma and Santa Rosa. “We have our own personalities,” said Jan Blalock, the Healdsburg club’s programming and operations manager. “But the philosophy and the environment is very similar, and our classes and personal training are quite similar.” As well as the extralarge workout rooms, a mirror-lined spin studio, Pilates and massage, yoga and HIIT (high-intensity interval training), Parkpoint ➝ Health Clubs, 5
done an exemplary job of leading city staff and coordinating with the residents of Healdsburg to develop and implement a Climate Mobilization Strategy … “And WHEREAS, Andrew Sturmfels always kept channels of communication open, even when the conversations were difficult … “And WHEREAS, Andrew Sturmfels has demonstrated the ability to evaluate the need to redo an exercise that didn’t quite work the first time around,” among others.
District Discussion
That last Whereas, however, was the oft-spoken message of the Jan. 6 meeting, a follow-up to the first public hearing three weeks ago when the council decided to stick as close to the “status quo” as possible and retain five council seats and a rotating mayor. That decision, and the machinations that ➝ Mayor Direction, 7