Shuttlecock season Healdsburg’s badminton team poised for pennant 6
Pre-SMART era 125 years ago, rural Healdsburg was only 3 hours from the City 4
‘… would smell as sweet’ ‘Snapshot’ is all about Shakespeare this week 5
HEALDSBURGTRIBUNE.COM
OUR 161ST YEAR
NO 18
APRIL 30, 2026
Eyes on the cameras watching us ● Flock Safety system failures scrutinized Photo by Christian Kallen
Ready for when the time comes? The City of Healdsburg has launched a new program that may be the first of its kind—a resource center on the end of life, with all its physical, emotional and spiritual aspects. Co-founders Taya Levine and Anna Grant sit in the new Compassion Corner, with a quilt made by Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, author of ‘On Death — MORE PAGEand 12 Dying.’
Resource for life’s last questions ● ‘When the Time Comes’ opens Staff Report Over 100 people showed up for an open house at the Healdsburg Senior Center this Mon-
day afternoon. The topic was one close to us all, at one time or another: The end of life, with all its physical, emotional and spiritual aspects. The pilot program, launched with development funding from the Community Foundation Sonoma County and hosted by the City of Healdsburg, is the first of its kind, according to Senior Center Supervisor Anna Grant. At the end of 2025, the Healdsburg City Council voted to approve When the Time
Comes (WTTC), a new program designed to help residents navigate end-of-life planning and support. Taya Levine and Grant made the pitch for a resource center offering free resources on handling questions, concerns and complexities related to the final decisions an individual or a family must make. “When the Time Comes helps people face death with clarity, plan with care and be supported by others—reclaiming death as a — More on page 7
By Christian Kallen Police Chief Matt Jenkins returned to the City Council last week to clarify his March presentation on the use of surveillance cameras, or “public safety camera systems” in Healdsburg. Jenkins acknowledged in March that “there are some community concerns that were surfacing” regarding recent news reports of cities and other jurisdictions having their data harvested by immigration control or other federal agencies. Some have begun calling such comprehensive traffic data collection technology a “surveillance network” whose potential for abuse is significant. In February a class-action suit was filed in California by the Oakland-based firm, Gibbs Mura. It alleges Flock Safety violates California laws and privacy
rights by sharing data on California drivers with law enforcement agencies outside the state, including federal agencies. The lawsuit was widely reported, and other lawsuits and reports surfaced. Flock Safety of Atlanta, Georgia, was by far the most prevalent such data-collection company. Its nationwide network of nearly 100,000 Automated License Plate Recognition (ALPR) cameras is found in some 6,000 communities and their law enforcement agencies—including the Healdsburg Police Department. The local Flock system is connected to a regional information network, the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), which compares license plate and other vehicle information to see if it produces a “hit” — More on page 3