Message from Sheriff Oscar Ortiz

Message from Napa County Sheriff Oscar Ortiz

Our county made it through 2021 without major wildland fires and we hope to see things return to some form of normalcy as we come out of the COVID pandemic and head into 2022. I want to assure our community, however, that your Sheriff’s department and your hard working Deputy Sheriffs remain prepared, trained, and vigilant for fires, storms, earthquakes, or any other disaster. We appreciate the strong partnership we enjoy with various community members and industry groups. To that end, we have worked closely with the office of the Napa County Agriculture Commissioner, the County Fire Department, and the County Office of Emergency Services, to review and modify the Ag-Pass program.

We have taken several lessons learned from past fires and modified the program to make it a Year-Around Ag Pass. That is to say, as we head into 2022, we want to encourage growers, farmers, and ranchers to apply for their 2022 Ag-Pass early and not wait for a disaster to strike. Our hope, of course, is that it will not be needed in 2022. If we are faced with large fires or disaster triggering road closures however, the holder of a Year-Around 2022 Ag Pass will be able continue their farming or ranching operations without having to wait in line for a new Ag Pass issuance since the pass is good for the entire year. There will still need to be a check-in at the road closure point and if conditions beyond the road closure are such that any passage is unsafe ( i.e. active fire in the area, downed power lines, severely damaged roadways), the access may still get denied.

We encourage everyone to communicate with the Ag Commissioners office if there are questions about certain regions during these disasters. Additionally, we ask all those utilizing Ag Passes to both carpool and caravan, which will limit the amount of vehicle traffic going into an evacuated zone. Ag Commissioner Tracy Cleveland and I recently sat down with a County media team member to discuss the evolution to Year Around Ag Passes and you can view this video by going to www.napafarmbureau.org/latest-news.

On behalf of the men and women of the Sheriff’s Office, I want to wish you all a successful (and disaster free) 2022.

Sheriff Oscar Ortiz
Napa County