Affordable housing, water conservation, and a parks and recreation department – those were among the priorities suggested by City Council members last week as part of a goal-setting workshop.
The “special” council meeting on March 25 was held to establish a guideline of priorities for the council to consider when conducting city business throughout the year.
The workshop took place at the Emergency Operations Center on First Street West and was facilitated by City Manager Carol Giovanatto. The meeting offered each council member an opportunity to voice their personal goals in regards to a set of seven separate categories: Balancing city character; public service; policy and leadership; infrastructure; fiscal management; recreation and community resources; and water.
As the council members took turns presenting their goals to the other council members, a few recurring themes emerged, including one cited by almost all the council – the need to better promote water conservation.
Councilmember Rachel Hundley said city officials need to approach water policy from a long-term perspective.
“We need to look further ahead to see what big steps we can take to make Sonoma more water secure,” said Hundley, who suggested drafting a strategic planning document outlining strategies for improving the city’s water security. She listed “infrastructure, conservation efforts and community awareness programs” as the places to start.
Mayor David Cook also had water on the brain, as it were, and offered a couple of specific ideas. “A well on the Plaza for irrigation,” said Cook, and setting up “a different infrastructure for drinking water and landscape water.”
Cook added “looking into desalination” to his list of drought-proofing solutions.
Councilmember Laurie Gallian suggested a better partnering with the Sonoma County Water Agency was in order; while Councilmember Madolyn Agrimonti floated the idea of consolidating some services with the Valley of the Moon Water District.
The topic of community services was also a common refrain as goals were shared, with council members conceding that the Valley’s many nonprofits carry a heavy burden for services that in other areas are typically provided by a municipality. Specifically, on multiple members’ agendas was the possibility of the City establishing its own Parks and Recreation Department.
In the words of Agrimonti, “We need to fish or cut bait” on whether the City should provide recreation services to Sonoma.
Gallian concurred, saying “We need to have a decision that actually moves forward on (establishing a recreation department).”
Gallian and Cook both said a recreation department would best be established through a partnership with the county to create a Valley-wide program.
Agrimonti and Hundley also named affordable housing among their priorities, with Hundley pointing out that not only are lower-income earners often priced out of living within the city proper, but they’re also then unable to vote in the city elections. Agrimonti said providing more housing for the homeless should be among the city’s goals.
“We should establish a consortium toward housing and feeding the homeless,” said Agrimonti.
The five councilmembers each offered several more goals, which may or may not ultimately find consensus within the group to become part of the eventual 2015-16 list of goals. For each councilmember, those include:
• Gary Edwards: Take a leadership role in a service organization; work for the community, not the next election; set a good example at all times
• Gallian: Build on the past climate action plan; assess services for the aging; consider renewal of Measure J sales tax; establish a blueprint for Sonoma being “a safe, healthy, vibrant community”
• Agrimonti: Dedicate a yearly commitment to the community (i.e. “the years of the children”; “the year of the neighborhoods”); better conformity for striping of crosswalks; create a pet cemetery
• Hundley: adopt a customer-service policy; support creation of diversity of businesses; establish a community services fund within the general fund
• Cook: Sell unused real estate; road and sidewalk upkeep; create taxi and motorcycle parking on the Plaza; educate tourists about good behavior via marketing pamphlets.
In addition to the councilmembers’ individual goals, Giovanatto also shared suggestions submitted by the public. Some of those include:
• Address the proliferation of tasting rooms on the Plaza
• Conduct town hall meetings in Spanish
• Ban leaf blowers
• Allow leashed dogs on Overlook Trail or Montini
• Establish a large dog park
• Make Sonoma the most solarized city in California
After all the goals were suggested, councilmembers and City Manager Carol Giovanatto fine-tuned some of the nuance and language of the categories and shared goals, and will work toward a consensus on what will become the set 2015-16 goals for the council in each of the categories.
Next up, says Giovanatto, is to take the council’s direction and create a “final ?consolidated draft” of their goals, which the city manager will present at an upcoming council meeting, possibly April 20 or May 4.
Following the meeting, Cook expressed his pleasure at how the goal-setting workshop went.
Cook said that because of the Ralph M. Brown Act – state rules about open meetings, which strictly limit elected officials’ ability to discuss policy in private – it’s often difficult to know the broader agendas of his fellow councilmembers.
“This was a great way to just listen and find out where everybody stands on things,” said Cook.
Summaries of each council member’s proposed goals can be found at sonomacity.org.
‘We need to have a decision that actually moves forward on (establishing a recreation department).’
- Laurie Gallian
UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy: