UKIAH, CA., 5/8/26 — Ukiah Natural Foods Co-op, the 50-year-old member-owned grocery at the center of Mendocino County’s organic-food economy, is without a general manager again. Robert Drake was terminated days after more than half the co-op’s staff walked off the job on April 27.
The walkout came after staff and members learned Drake had been listed on a sex offender registry — a fact the co-op’s board has since acknowledged it knew before hiring him.
In a written statement to employees that has been widely reproduced in the days since, the board of directors said Drake had been “involved in an incident more than 23 years ago that resulted in his inclusion on the sex offender registry.”
The board said he had “maintained a clean record” since, “built a long and consistent work history,” and “demonstrated the experience and leadership that qualifies him for his current role.” The board added that it “believe[s] in accountability, growth, and the possibility of personal repair.”
Within days of issuing that statement, the board reversed itself and fired him.
The fight inside the co-op now is no longer about Drake. It is about how he was hired — and why, in a 6,371-member institution that prides itself on transparency
What the court records show
The board’s “23 years ago” framing is its own. The court records, retrieved this week from primary sources, are more specific.
Drake was charged in the summer of 2003 with four felony counts of sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust, including a count alleging the victim was under 15 and three counts involving the 15-to-17-year-old age bracket. On Dec. 5, 2003, he was found guilty of one sexual assault count and was sentenced to eight years on Colorado’s Sex Offender Intensive Supervision Program, the state’s most stringent form of probation. The remaining three counts were dismissed by the district attorney the same day, a structure consistent with a plea agreement.
Drake’s public career resumé shows him beginning his food cooperative career at Hungry Hollow Co-op in New York in November 2012 — within months of when the eight-year Colorado supervision imposed at the December 2003 sentencing would have been scheduled to end.
And he has put on paper, in a letter to co-op staff distributed during the walkout week, his own dating of the underlying event: “Twenty-three years ago I made a decision that was the worst of my life. But it has also served as the greatest learning opportunity. Since that time I have committed myself to living a life of honesty and integrity.”
In that same letter, Drake writes that he “voluntarily disclosed [his] past to the Board” before being hired — the first independent confirmation, in his own words, that what is on the registry is the past he disclosed.
Asked in writing over the past two weeks for more details, the Ukiah co-op board did not respond. Drake, contacted by email, did not respond.
How the search worked
The co-op posted its general manager listing on Good Food Jobs on Dec. 9, 2024, advertising a salary of $120,000 to $140,000, with the successful hire reporting directly to the board. According to the board’s own account of the process, the search was led by an executive committee of three directors: board president Gideon Burdick, treasurer Tim Dolan, and vice president Angie McChesney.
The committee did not include the co-op’s human resources department in the hiring decision. It also did not consult Rosenberg, the outgoing manager, who had been at the store for roughly 40 years. And it passed over two internal candidates whose names have not been made public.
The contradiction at the center of the board’s response to staff is plain. In a separate letter to employees this week, signed by Burdick, the board told staff with concerns about “safety or conduct at work” to “raise them through the appropriate internal channels.” But staff already knew that the co-op’s primary internal channel — its HR department — had been excluded from the vetting of the man they’d hired to run the store.
The walkout
On the morning of April 27, more than half of the co-op’s employees walked off the job. The co-op opened that day understaffed; what shoppers found inside the South State Street store was a thinner crew, hand-lettered signs, and a board statement that hadn’t yet caught up to the news on the floor.
The walkout had been building over the prior weekend, after a post in the Facebook group Ukiah Caught on Camera identified Drake’s name on the registry. The group’s administrator, June Jackson, has since said staff did not walk because of that Facebook post — they walked because the board had been told and had hired him anyway.
By the end of the week, Drake was gone. The exact date of his termination has not been released by the co-op; staff and community sources place it between April 30 and May 2. The board has not issued a public statement explaining the reversal.
In the same window, Drake circulated his own letter to staff, signed simply “Rob.” He wrote that he was “shocked and saddened by everything that has happened this week” and that he “deeply appreciate[d] the support of our Board.”
He described his entry into food cooperatives 15 years ago as having given him “a passion for service to community which has driven me ever since, and eventually brought me and my family here to Ukiah.”
He pushed back on what he called “false rumors” without specifying which, and he closed by inviting any community member to “sit down with me … over coffee” to talk.
“Fear hides in the shadows while open communication brings us into the light,” he wrote, “and that is where I invite us to go now together.”
What we know about Drake’s working life
Drake is a 14-year veteran of the U.S. food-cooperative industry. According to his public LinkedIn profile, he started at Hungry Hollow Co-op in New York in November 2012 as a produce clerk and rose through the store, serving as co-general manager during a 2016–2017 board search. He moved to BriarPatch Food Co-op in Grass Valley in 2019 as pricing and category manager, then was hired in September 2023 as general manager of Urban Greens Co-op Market in Providence, Rhode Island. He left Urban Greens in April 2025.
Whether any of those three prior employers was contacted as a reference by the Ukiah board, and what was said if they were, has not been disclosed.
Where it goes from here
A petition is circulating in the Ukiah Caught on Camera group calling for the seated board to be replaced. Mentioned in the petition thread are Burdick, Dolan, and McChesney — the executive committee that ran the search. The board’s three other publicly named directors — secretary Christine Rodrigues, Stephen Turner, and Kyle Mayers — have not, as of this writing, said publicly whether they had a vote on Drake’s hire.
The board’s next regular meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on May 18 at the co-op. By long-standing Co-op practice, the meeting is open to member-owners. It will be the first time the co-op’s 6,371 member-owners can put questions to the executive committee directly: who made the decision to hire Drake, what they relied on, and what the board is doing to bring its staff back.
Rosenberg, who built this store across four decades, has not yet spoken publicly. The board has not yet answered a written request for the dates of Drake’s hire and termination, the basis for the “clean record” assertion, or the executive committee’s authority to act without full-board concurrence.
This story will be updated.
An earlier version of this story stated that Robert Drake was hired this spring to replace longtime general manager Lori Rosenberg. An interim general manager served between Rosenberg’s departure and Drake’s hire. The story described two internal candidates passed over; their identities are disputed, and that passage has been removed. The membership figure has been changed to the most current May figure of 6,371 member-owners. The story has been updated to reflect these changes.
I absolutely love that this article has based almost all of it’s reporting on a facebook post which appears to be run by a bunch of accounts that use pseudonyms on facebook instead of real names.
Indeed, as a coop member this article shows that pretty much no actual reporting was done. Mr. Drake didn’t replace Lori, didn’t start in the spring, and also claims to know details of the hiring process, but the Board didn’t respond to comments?
This is bad reporting – how did the reporter find out any details of the hiring process if he didn’t talk to anybody involved in th hiring process?
Perhaps the accused can explain exactly what he was charged and convicted of, if not the “rumor” of “Sexual Assault with a Child under 15 in a Position of Trust.”
The Rocky Mountain News of July 23, 2003, provides some “disturbing” details.
23 years ago????!!! The man served his time and paid his debt to society. And that’s even if the allegations are even true!
Let’s hear from the victim if he’s paid his debt to HER.
Most sexual abuse victims have a “life-sentence.”
We should all suspect anyone displaying your “sentiments” should be evaluated for being a similar threat.
Someone who starts a “relationship” with a student, who was apparently 13 when it began, has permanently impugned his own judgment and character.
No. This is a stain on their character that doesn’t go away and should not be hidden. My step-father has a similar past and I don’t trust him as far as I can throw him. I grew up in the area and my mother was involved with the co-op in its early years.
People can change. Idk if this guy has but all of you are showing more about who you are and I hope when your past comes out you get mercy rather than buckets of spicy hate.
Once a predator always a predator. He was a teacher who groomed and assaulted a child. There are girls as young as 16 working at the co-op. Would you want him to be your daughter’s boss. Or are you apathetic to child sex abuse predators because….
This isn’t news.
CANCEL CULTURE AT ITS WORST. As a member I’m disappointed, that we aren’t giving this “good” human a chance at redemption a quarter CENTURY after a crime. OMG. What have we become. Salem witch trials.
So because he had some kind of sexual interaction with a 16 year old when he was in his early 20’s he should never have a job again? If thats the standard, every former pop-punk musician in this town would be unemployed forever
“Some kind of sexual interaction”?! In addition to sexual abuse, it’s also called abuse of authority. The victim was apparently 13 when the “relationship” began, and the convicted was an instructor.
There are plenty of “employment opportunities” for sex offenders, but none with high-pay and prestige. The latter is a privilege for folks who never made “errors in judgment” (sic) along these lines.
He sexually assaulted a kid under 15, and got busted for it four times wtf is wrong with you
Seems Mr Sakowicz has had a change of heart. The following is what he posted in the Anderson Valley Advertiser’s Off the Record on May 2. Pay particular attention to the last paragraph.
JOHN SAKOWICZ: ‘You Must Read This’
The workers at Ukiah Natural Foods Co-op need our help! More than half of the Co-op’s employees participated in a walkout on Monday, April 27.
Why? Because these amazing workers will not stand for the current injustice and scandal involving the hiring of the Co-op’s new General Manager, Robert Drake.
The Board of Directors of the Ukiah Natural Foods Co-op hired Robert Drake as the new GM despite knowing about his felony record and status as a registered sex offender. They proceeded, nonetheless.
An executive committee—comprised of Gideon Burdick, Tim Dolan, and Angela McChesney—led the interview and selection process. In doing so, they passed over two long-standing, highly qualified internal candidates who had served the Co-op for years in key leadership roles, including Grocery Manager and Head of HR.
Notably, the Human Resources department was not involved in the hiring process, and the former General Manager, Lori, was neither consulted nor asked to provide input regarding her successor.
Following the public disclosure of Mr. Drake’s background, significant concern arose among staff. In response, both the Board and Mr. Drake issued statements; however, these communications intensified concern rather than alleviating it. As a result, more than half of the Co-op’s employees participated in a walkout on Monday, April 27.
If you share the concerns expressed by Co-op staff, you are encouraged to contact the Board directly and make your voice heard. Community members have the right to transparency and accountability. Please consider requesting a meeting open to all members so that the Board can address these concerns directly.
In prison, a “chomo” like Robert C. Drake can expect jailhouse justice, meaning, a shank to his neck. (I kinda like the idea.)
How do we convince people it’s wrong if there are no ramifications?
I wouldn’t want my kid working there knowing there’s a sex offender running things. And why would they pass over an internal hire for that? That’s what the employees are pissed about, and they have every right to be. And yes John, you’re correct: every Tom Dick and Harry needs to knock it off. This is how you do that; you frown upon it. The employees are saying no when society won’t.
EXACTLY
Sounds like everyone wants this guy to just slit his wrist and be done with him. Sick world when no matter what one does, they cannot live it down. Perhaps caught on camera’s “June King” aka Gregory Todd Hubbs, who is an old wife beater and a deadbeat dad, is just looking for the next homeless person to harass on camera. Make him jobless, make him homeless, make a video, repeat.
Best response ever! If the COOP employees & larger community aren’t willing to allow 2nd chances to people who’ve paid their dues, made obvious efforts to resurrect themselves and were transparent & forthcoming with their past than I want no part of being a supporting member. That’s not how we heal our community. I will no be spending my money there
In a healthy society, child-abusing perverts would be executed. Yes, I’m absolutely serious. The well-being of children is more important than any “interests” or “rights” of the perpetrators.
This guy is fortunate to live in a “tolerant” society where he can even have continued life and a “career.” He has PLENTY of “job opportunities” in environments that: 1) don’t have authority over others; 2) don’t work directly with the public, including kids.
You people are insane. A mistake is a car accident, sending an angry email at work, a ball breaking a window… This person is a predator. A teacher who groomed children and then sexually assaulted them. Do you know there are children as young as 16 working at the co-op? Would you want him to be your daughter’s boss? Shame.
If you won’t give second chances to drug addicts, why give them to pedos? These comments are crazy! No wonder kids don’t come forward! Good on you co’op peeps!
We must assume these “give him a second chance” types are birds of a feather who think his “relationship” was “love.”
It’s very clear that pedophilia is on the verge of being “accepted” – “love is love,” eh?
There was obviously a defective process implemented to hire the new manager. The board failed to utilize HR? Isn’t that their job? And the entire board was involved or just the three mentioned? I can respect the store inclined to give the new manager an opportunity, but it is a VERY touchy subject that causes most folks to say no-way. If the board was inclined to give the man a chance, they should have notified staff that they were considering giving him the job since his past is public record. Call a general meeting, let the employees question the man, give him an opportunity to talk, then make a decision. Truth is, he might have been denied anyway just because of the nature of the crime. Had the board hired from their current ranks, they would not have this problem, and it would build respect for their judgement in promoting someone already well known. Always promore in-house whenever possible. They have earned the chance.
The main character in this fiasco might be only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. What sort of malfeasance led to not including HR, not elevating two qualified internal candidates, and not consulting Ms. Rosenberg who made the store what it is over decades?
I agree with all you’ve said. Having HR, another staff rep and input from Lori with screening and interviewing applicants would likely have made a big difference in outcome.
Sometimes Boards make big mistakes…I’m so sorry that this happened.
Standards of transparency and accountability and integrity appear to have been violated, or at least side-stepped. And to every male rationalizing the hiring of an abuser — even for 23-year-old felony, I ask you this: would you want someone with that record supervising your tween? Or interacting closely with your niece?
Just because an abuser’s record since a conviction is “clean” doesn’t mean there haven’t been any other violations since: it simply means they have not been reported.
The Ukiah Food Coop, where I once served as a Board Member, is long overdue for more staff participation and oversight of decisions made by leadership. I hope this incident inspires positive change.
My step-daughter has a life-sentence; had I been involved in her life when that happened, “extralegal measures” would have occurred. I have ZERO tolerance for pedos. These pathetic creeps who say he “paid his debt to society” fail to recognize, or do not care, about the victim’s life-sentence.
There is no other store for miles that is as good as the Co Op . The Never Shop There Again Crowd will return.
Hopefully this is a positive as input and transparency go
If the Board recall effort fails, I will avoid shopping there as much as I can, and will campaign for a Whole Foods, Sprouts, or Trader Joe’s to come to Ukiah. Or, just go to Mariposa in Willits, which is smaller, but nonetheless excellent. A second Mariposa Market or Harvest Market in Ukiah would be great, as well.
Wow. Is he a rapist like our president? Hummmm. No 2nd chances in mendocino county.
No hope for humanity. Scarlett Letters all around
Takes 2 to tango
Look, ANOTHER individual who needs to be researched to determine if they have their own Megan’s Law entry.
The “relationship” in question began when the victim was 13. Trump is a pathetic creep in more ways than one, but your “hero” here is not morally-different.
Since the place is called CoOp seems a little cooperative conversations are in order . A community owned natural food store should be held to a higher standard than corporate chains who routinely hire people with criminal records
Convicted of four counts of felony sexual assault of a minor, one of which was with a child under 15.
That is not one mistake or a bad decision these comments are fucking wild.
We are moving towards the “acceptance” of pedophilia. “Love is love.”
I sure won’t sit idly by as it happens. At the very least, I’m going to be loud.
If this guy had “reformed,” he’d think about his “mistakes” each and every day, and would have never put himself in a position where he could be “compromised.” Instead, he thought “it wasn’t really a big deal.”
I’m sorry if this comment gets printed more than once. I checked it 3x and can’t find it here:
Yes, there are many “unanswered questions” in this article. For one, was the board member Mr. Coryell interviewed serving on the board at the time Mr. Drake was hired? Did they say they were speaking for the entire board? I doubt it. The entire board did not make those quoted statements, of course, and some may not even have known about them until this article.
I think I can answer the question of why the Co-op board doesn’t respond to his request for more details in this case. This is a matter of personnel confidentiality, and as such the board is legally bound to remain silent about most of the details.
Knowing one of the board members personally, all I do know is that all the board members who hired Mr. Drake spent many hours of their personal time as volunteers to find the most qualified person for the store’s GM. They even went to great lengths to take the staff’s input into consideration before they made their decision. It took months. Very soon the two managers they ended up hiring were making steady progress while facing formidable challenges. I myself saw almost immediate improvements after they were hired, in the morale of the staff as well as in efficiency and customer service.
So here are some unanswered questions for Mr. Coryell: What are the “primary sources” that led you to the Colorado court records you refer to? Is it possible that there may have been a statute of limitations in that state on the release of those records or an appeal in progress, making the records unavailable or at least incomplete at the time of the hiring? Did any of the Co-op’s employees accept Mr. Drake’s invitation and talk about the false rumors he refers to in his letter? (Just for accuracy, three of the counts against him were dismissed, not convictions.) Exactly how was the HR department “excluded” from the hiring process? Why were the two internal candidates passed over? Had Mr. Coryell seen the General Manager job description and resumés of the applicants (if that’s legal) before accusing the hiring board of unfair hiring practices?
Before making any more insinuations about the Co-op board that cause further damage, please, let’s get all the facts
This reeks of the kind of insular, small-town, hearsay-based, dysfunctional-system patterns I experienced in Mendo County during my 3 years working in non-profit. From all sides. Blecccch.
To all the second chancers, umm child pedos rarely are rehabilitated. Once a pedo always a pedo. Sad thing is they were usually a victim and then didn’t break the cycle of abuse. Funny, not funny is that the percentage of effected children are women, and the percentage of abusers are men. Molested women usually do not become pedos, hmmmm. Grocery stores have a very high number of children running around them, have the pedo go second chance where he isn’t around them. I guarantee you his victim,even after 23 years later, hasn’t 💯 gotten over it. Being sexual abused ruins sex for you and you have to work very hard to make it beautiful again. If I were queen, well let’s just say, I wouldn’t lock them up.
To all the second chancers, umm child pedos rarely are rehabilitated. Once a pedo always a pedo. Sad thing is they were usually a victim and then didn’t break the cycle of abuse. Funny, not funny is that a high percentage of effected children are women, and a high percentage of abusers are men. Molested women usually do not become pedos, hmmmm. Grocery stores have a very high number of children running around them, have the pedo go second chance where he isn’t around them. I guarantee you his victim, even after 23 years later, hasn’t 💯 gotten over it. Being sexual abused ruins sex for you and you have to work very hard to make it beautiful again. If I were queen, well let’s just say, I wouldn’t lock them up.
Fanning the flames of discontent a bit much, maybe?
A lot of experts weighing in here with very little information and blood in their eyes.
Even the legendary Sako has apparently had a change of heart.
Yellow journalism at its finest.
Been a member since the beginning and will continue to shop there.
Crisis !?!?
Most of these comments are by shoppers who maintain a crisis lifestyle. Petitions to sprouts and Whole Foods ? I’m sure they will listen to some dude from Ukiah . Whole Foods is Amazon owned and you would rather have a giant corporation with probably many many offenders working there .
They canned the guy ASAP for goodness sake.
I now believe a bunch of whiners shop at the Co Op , kinda like Community Market in Sonoma County.
I’ll continue to shop at the CoOp now that some of the thin skinned work or shop at Grocery Outlet or Safeway thankfully.
I am a man who was harassed continually as a teenager by gay pedophiles and even fought like a honey badger at times which got me fired from my dishwashing jobs.
Living the Crisis/ Appalled lifestyle is pathetic.
And once again
They fired the guy !
Let this go !
People in AA are better at accepting reality than several of the shoppers who obviously suffer from chronic hemorrhoids
This makes me sick. As a longtime member of the Co op, this should have never happened. What is wrong with the people who hired this guy?? Every person who is hired should go through a background check period. It doesn’t matter that it happened all those years ago. What matters is the fact it happened and the victim or victims are permanently traumatized. The most disturbing thing is they knew about his past and hired him anyway? There needs to be some serious changes in leadership here to re-establish trust for the employees and its members. You don’t hire a sexual predator! This is just common sense.