Supervisor Hopkins Gifted West County Grants to Her Field Director's 'Nonprofit', Equitable Access California
Sonoma County Supervisor Lynda Hopkins utilized Field Director Elise Weiland to develop grants for community resilience - Hopkins later awarded EAC the grants for 'equitable' rural broadband access
Per their website, from February to November 2022, Equitable Access California (EAC) was awarded $450k in grant funding to expand rural broadband across West County.
In February 2022, a District 5 Tourist Impact Fund (TIF) Grant of $30k was awarded to the nonprofit.
The Sonoma County Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) is a tax on accommodations at lodging and camping facilities in the unincorporated areas of the county. From this fund, each Supervisorial District in the county receives a percentage for discretionary projects within each District from the Tourism Impact Fund.
These funds are then awarded in small grants to not for profit organizations to create improvement projects in their community. Awards are based upon the TIF funding area and criteria as listed in below. For geographical areas covered by Municipal Advisory Councils (MAC), the TIF policy has been determined by the MAC with input from the community. For those geographical areas not covered by a MAC, the application will go to District 5 staff and similar policy and procedures will be followed.
Being that Equitable Access California did not legally incorporate with the California Secretary of State or IRS until July 28, 2022, I am unsure as to why Sonoma County Supervisor Lynda Hopkins’ Office awarded a legally non-existent nonprofit with these funds as of February 2022.
In May 2022, EAC received a $30k grant for operational support but it does not appear within the County of Sonoma’s Board Meeting archives.
In November 2022, EAC received $390k in ARPA funds, but this funding approval does not appear within the County’s archives either.
According to EAC’s website, the organization was co-founded by Ms. Elise Weiland.
Per her LinkedIn profile, Ms. Weiland served as the Field Director for Sonoma County Supervisor Lynda Hopkins from July 2019 - June 2023 and as the Program Manager for Supervisor Hopkins from July 2019 - October 2023.
Transparent California further confirmed Ms. Weiland’s salary while employed by Supervisor Hopkins’ Office.
While serving on the Board for EAC, Ms. Weiland is also responsible for community outreach and policy strategy.
Within EAC’s founding documents, Ms. Weiland was indicated as a Board Director/Secretary.
According to an article published in The Press Democrat from May 26 2022, the Russian River Alliance was granted $390,000 to build a public Wi-Fi mesh network in the rural communities of Jenner, Bodega Bay, Bodega, Forestville and Cazadero in west Sonoma County for five years."
Previously, Mr. Bryan Hughes, CFO of Russian River Alliance, shared the following on his LinkedIn profile: "We were awarded $390,000 in ARPA funds to duplicate this model in Bodega, Bodega Bay, Jenner, Cazadero, Forestville, and Monte Rio."
On his profile, Mr. Hughes shows that the $390k was transferred to a different nonprofit he founded, EAC. I took a screenshot of this last year which has since been removed from his profile. I am not sure why he chose to remove this critical detail.
At the June 16, 2022 Lower Russian River Municipal Advisory Council Meeting, Ms. Weiland was present as Clerk and gave a presentation regarding the launch of Russian River’s Confluence Program.
Per her LinkedIn profile, Ms., Weiland is currently a paid consultant for The Russian River Confluence, a coalition in partnership with Conservation Works.
At the same meeting, Mr. Bryan Hughes of the Russian River Alliance gave a presentation on the ‘free’ Wi-Fi program rollout.
The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Community Resilience Programs Funding Plan was approved by the Board of Supervisors on May 24, 2022.
The funding recommendations included a $390k disbursement to Russian River Alliance for a free public Wi-Fi community-based mesh network installation in disadvantaged unincorporated communities in the 5th District that have been impacted by COVID-19 resulting in: the lack of access to the Internet for education; and family, health, and job resources. This also includes resilient and redundant disaster preparedness and communication.
The funding recommendation indicated that there were no identified partners or subcontractors being utilized for the project.
On July 5, 2022, Supervisor Hopkins distributed a newsletter to her constituents.
One newsletter segment stated:
We are excited to announce free public WiFi in Downtown Guerneville. To access, just select "Guerneville Public" in your WiFi settings and join the network. The splash page for the free WiFi also provides some great information including emergency services, an event calendar, rural living and history, along with some business information.
Active as of June 30th, this project came about as a collaboration between the Russian River Alliance and a grant from District 5's Supervisor Hopkins. Once the project vision and funding were in place, Bryan Hughes of the Russian River Alliance researched and found a model for a similar project working well for the past 10 years in rural Vermont. Hughes and this technical team installed 10 access points throughout the downtown to create a mesh network. Five of the access points are gateways with Comcast backhauls and the other five are repeaters. The network extends from Fife Creek Commons, Timberline, West Sonoma Inn, and R3, down to the Bank of America Building and West County Health Centers, down Main Street to Coffee Bazaar and the Hernandez Realty and the Plaza, and across Johnson’s Beach. The free WiFi will provide equal access to workers, businesses, residents and visitors to downtown Guerneville. Businesses will be able to provide online information and services to downtown patrons now that there is public WiFi available.
This project is not only about equitable access, it is also about disaster preparedness. During the 2019 wildfires we had no power and our communities were evacuated. The cell towers and broadband were all down, leaving fire fighters and residents without information or communications access. With $390,000 of additional funding from ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) for Stage Two of this project, the Alliance will be adding Starlink Satellite hook ups powered by solar and with battery backup which allow the network to operate when there is no power, no Comcast, and no cellular network.
"Never again will we be without any digital communications during disasters,” said Supervisor Hopkins. "It's wonderful to see our tax dollars providing equitable access, disaster preparedness, and support for downtown business and visitors."
"This additional round of ARPA funding means rolling out this project next to Cazadero, Jenner, Bodega Bay, Bodega, and Forestville. Every one of these communities will have this free service fully paid for 5 years!" Explained Bryan Hughes of the Russian River Alliance.
At $7 per resident a year, this project shows how well placed public investment paired with local expertise can make a big impact in rural communities.
On November 18, 2022, Mr. Hughes, EAC, sent the following email to Mr. Leo Chyi, former District Director for Supervisor Lynda Hopkins. He mentioned that Ms. Elise Weiland told him to reach out to Mr. Chyi for assistance because he was struggling to understand a contractual item with the county over his ARPA award.
It appears that EAC has no direct contract with the County of Sonoma to install rural broadband services, nor did they appear as an identified subcontractor before receiving federal funds. Is Supervisor Hopkins possibly middlemanning dealings with NGOs’ to push through her political agendas while receiving financial kickbacks? If not, why was the rural broadband project initiated in such a non-transparent fashion? Was there ‘equitable access’ to ARPA funds, or did the BOS and County Staff cherry pick their friends and family members as grant recipients to do their bidding?
“The Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in people who are trustworthy.”
They are just making up these guidelines, creating worthless nonprofit organizations so they pass out taxpayer money. Skimming off the top
Please post excerpts from the above portion to the ND post featuring article on Lynda Hopkins being named the clean air officiate