The power struggle in Napa Valley pits Supervisor Belia Ramos against wine executives

It caused a controversy.

Ramos was accused of overstepping her place in line for the coveted vaccine. Soon, Napa County residents began receiving robocalls urging her resignation and promoting a recall campaign.

Ramos’ fellow supervisors voted to launch a third-party investigation into her vaccination on March 4, 2021. She in turn reported Minh Tran, then Napa County CEO, to the State Bar of California, alleging that he had withheld information favorable to her. when he urged regulators to investigate.

Eight months later, Ramos learned that Tran had alerted the other supervisors to a child welfare investigation into Ramos’ ongoing custody case, she said. Tran advised them not to make her board chair even though she was next in line for the role.

Ramos has filed a complaint with the Napa County HR office. The office ruled that Tran had committed no violations. The supervisors elected Ryan Gregory, not Ramos, chairman.

Public debate, private texts

Ramos had prepared herself for political arguments when she decided to run for office in 2016. But her break with the Farm Bureau also had a private element.

It involved Klobas, the agency’s gregarious executive director.

When Ramos clashed with the organization, she said, Klobas began smothering her with text and phone messages. Sometimes he sounded indignant. Other times he begged her to be nicer. Ramos sometimes wanted to block Klobas’ number, she said, but wasn’t sure if, as an elected official, she could legally block a voter’s number.

Throughout, Klobas blurred the lines between business and socializing, Ramos said. She would encourage business meetings. He forced her to talk things out over margaritas.

“Every time it was a rejection on my part,” Ramos said. “It was business, and then ‘let’s go out.’ Then business. Then ‘let’s go outside.’”

In 2018, while everyone was still trying to resolve the disagreement over Measure C, Ramos received a call from a well-connected wine industry representative. “Did we do something to piss you off?” he asked her, Ramos recalled. “Because Klobas just told everyone at a committee meeting, ‘We pissed her off. Everything has to go through me. ”

It may sound like a small detail, but Ramos’ eyes filled with tears as she told The Press Democrat about Klobas’ attempt to gain control of her. “I started having trouble breathing,” she remembers. “Because it was such a reminder of my ex. And like a typical vulnerable woman, I thought, ‘What have I done? It must be my fault. ”

Ramos and her ex-husband Brian Bennett divorced in 2013 and are still embroiled in a bitter custody battle.

The Press Democrat was unable to reach Bennett. His lawyer did not respond to messages.

Ramos said Klobas’ attention peaked on June 5, 2018, the night before the Measure C elections. She attended a San Francisco Giants game with her father, Salvador, her mentor and role model. Klobas called her 11 times during the game, she said.

Fed up with the barrage, she forwarded screenshots to the Napa County Counsel’s office and to Michelle Benvenuto, executive director of the Wine Growers of Napa Valley trade association.

Klobas apologized, Ramos said. And now that the election was over, she thought the drama was over.

But a little more than a month later, in July 2018, Ramos said, she returned to her small cul-de-sac in American Canyon — where she lived with her two younger children — and passed Klobas as he drove away. She immediately received a text from him: a photo of dipped chocolates decorated with the message “No on C.”

“The creepiness,” Ramos reflected. “I started to realize I had a problem.”

She consulted an American Canyon police officer who she knew would be working at the time, but did not call dispatch, a decision she now regrets.

There were other incidents involving Ramos. She was driving past the Canyon 4-H American farm with her younger children on July 11, 2019, when she received a text from Klobas: “I’m in the black car behind you.”

Later that year, Ramos attended a multi-day conference in Sacramento for the California State Association of Counties. She was stunned to see Klobas, who held no official provincial position. And she was stunned to find herself sitting next to him in a crowded car, and later at the same table for dinner.

“What kind of world am I in where my coworkers invite my bully to my dinner table?” Ramos commented.

The car on the dead end road

She began sharing her concerns privately. And the word came out.

In March 2022, a lawyer representing Klobas sent Ramos a cease-and-desist letter, blaming her for rampant rumors “that Mr. Klobas had ‘sexually harassed’ you, that he was responsible for the vote of the Farm Bureau Board of Directors to oppose the law. you, that he was responsible for the negative mail items distributed about your candidacy. … None of this was or is true.”