Sonoma County native Tawny Tesconi takes interim helm of Napa County Farm Bureau amid turbulence

Tawny Tesconi, a Sonoma County native who has worked in agriculture much of her life, recently assumed the role of Napa County Farm Bureau’s interim director amid a turbulent period in the organization’s nearly 111-year history.

The death of CEO Ryan Klobas — an apparent suicide, according to officials — on Jan. 16 left the trade organization without a central leader as federal investigators sought information about its political action committee, the Fund to Protect Napa Valley Agriculture.

Tesconi told The Press Democrat last week that the organization had received a subpoena from the U.S. Department of Justice. She declined to comment further on the subpoena Wednesday.

But Tesconi said she’s excited to steer the Napa County bureau and has the experience to do so.

Though, it won’t be permanent.

“I’m trying to slow my life down a bit and travel,” Tesconi said. “It’s the third time I’ve failed at retirement. I’m just there helping them until they’re able to get a new CEO, what I’m calling the ‘forever CEO,’ in place.”

Tesconi was hired as interim executive director of the Sonoma County Farm Bureau in 2017, and was made permanent after three months. She held that role for almost five years before retiring in 2022, a term that overlapped with Klobas’ time at the Napa bureau.

Indeed, Tesconi noted that she worked closely with Klobas and Napa Farm Bureau staff on several projects. That included work to develop the Region 2 water board vineyard permit program, in which the two bureaus coordinate a group effort to satisfy fee and water monitoring required by the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board for vineyard properties.

The two nonprofits essentially work to collect the permit fees and transmit them to the state, as well as prepare and submit a group water quality monitoring plan to satisfy permit requirements.

“The biggest value to members is that they’re not having to do an individual monitoring program,” Tesconi said. “They would have to monitor any sort of connection between their farms and one of the water supplies. We’re able to say yes, we’re monitoring for everybody, there’s no reason that 500 farmers should do monitoring and come up with the same results for the most part.”

Tesconi also worked alongside her Napa County counterpart and the statewide Farm Bureau to craft Senate Bill 11, which extended the state’s Fair Access to Insurance Requirements Plan — a last-resort insurance plan — to cover farm buildings. It was signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom in July 2021.

So, Tesconi said, the transition over to Napa County has been fairly smooth. That’s partly because the board leadership and some staff members have been there for a long time, and have a wealth of knowledge about the organization.

In addition to her prior leadership, she said her experience running events also was likely a reason she was tapped for the interim role. She has long run, and continues to run, an event consulting business.

Tesconi was raised on a west Sonoma County farm with five siblings, getting a start in agriculture at an early age. She took part in 4-H and Future Farmers of America activities in school and went on to earn a managerial economics degree from UC Davis.

Before leading the Sonoma County Farm Bureau, Tesconi spent 29 years working in fair management, including eight years as manager of the Sonoma County Fair, held in Santa Rosa. She stepped down as director of the Sonoma County general services department in 2015 and started her fair services company.

She came out of retirement for a stint in 2022 leading the 4th District Agricultural Association, which operates the Sonoma-Marin Fair in Petaluma.

Tesconi said the Napa County executive director position would be a wonderful opportunity for someone and the Napa bureau’s board is great to work for. She said she’ll likely serve as a mentor to the eventual permanent director — assuming that help would benefit them.

“I’ll be there, depending on who they hire as a CEO,” Tesconi said. “If that person needs help understanding how to put on events, or if that person needs help understanding the Farm Bureau and how it works, things like that.”

You can reach Staff Writer Edward Booth at 707-521-5281 or edward.booth@pressdemocrat.com.