Gorin serious about re-election

What makes Susan Gorin run?|

It should come as no surprise, though perhaps it does, that Susan Gorin likes to cook.

'My last vestige of civilian life, I tell everybody, is in a very serious cooking group,' said the current Supervisor of the Sonoma County's 1st District, which includes the Sonoma Valley.

'We meet once a month. We will plan the menu, shop, prepare the food, serve the food and clean up for a group of 15 or 16. It's a lot of fun.' The process of organizing, preparing, executing and even clean-up is something that Gorin's friends recognize as playing to her strong suit.

Every other year, the group plans a food-and-cooking trip to a different part of the country. She's missed the past two years, however is looking forward to going to the Hudson Valley on next year's foray. 'My year as chair will be over, and I will have time to celebrate and get back to a life – a bit.'

But now, Susan Gorin's life is anything but a vacation. As chair of the county Board of Supervisors, she is automatically on a number of other county boards – including the county Water Agency, the Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District, and the Community Development Commission among others – and has taken on a few extra obligations to feed her passions for service.

For instance, she assigned herself to the Sonoma County Transportation Authority, which approves and funds bike trails, transit services, road maintenance and of course highways. Despite the failure of last spring's Measure A, she more recently led the supervisors on the effort to 'scour' over $13 million in funds from other sources to help repave several critical roads, including some money from the general fund.

'There's only a handful of counties that actually make contributions from the general fund for roads. They have other funding mechanisms,' she points out. 'Sonoma County has one of the largest number of miles of road, so our task is difficult.'

The topic of highway funds leads, inevitably, to the ongoing rejuvenation of the Springs, bisected as it is by state Highway 12 – what she calls 'my top priority.'

'Caltrans is challenging to work with,' she says dryly. 'I understand it's a state highway, but we also have a very complex community surrounding the highway.' She outlines not only the highway's upgrades in bridgework, sidewalks, bike lanes and the like, but the impact the project has had on the neighbors.

For instance, jack-hammering in the middle of the night: a necessity according to Caltrans, but an insult to the residents. Same holds true for the closure of businesses that could not remain open with bulldozers and open ditches in front. 'Jeannette Tomany of the Republic of Thrift had to shut down for six weeks,' she notes. 'I got PG&E to compensate for her lost revenue.'

At times like that, it would seem valuable to have a county supervisor who has built up 'relationships' with other governmental agencies and offices at all levels. This is a key point that Gorin argues as she launches her campaign for re-election as the 1st District Supervisor.

Susan Gorin has found her passion in politics. She grew up in Boston and 'married too early' to her high school sweetheart Joe, but they are still married now over 40 years later. They have two daughters – 'strong, independent women' – and grandson Tatum came to daughter Courtney this summer. Gorin took an unprecedented week off to attend the birth and be with the family in Colorado, which is where she and her husband had lived over 30 years ago when he took his first big job with Hewlett Packard.

'I have to admit I followed his career for a number of years, and now he's following my career,' she says. Her career in politics began when she attended Santa Rosa Junior College and took Poli-Sci 101. 'It made sense to me, and it intrigued me.'

At SSU, she switched her studies from economics to politics, and came to internalize the complex architecture of agencies, boards, councils, commissions, committees and departments that make up the landscape of politics.

Over the decades, her record in public service includes executive roles with the League of Women Voters, Bicycle and Pedestrian Advocacy, the county's Public Library Foundation and Safe Haven for Youth – even before she became a member of the Santa Rosa School Board and, eventually, member of the City Council and Mayor.

Her civic experience in the City of Santa Rosa drew some criticism when she decided to run for Supervisor in the Sonoma Valley, a ding on her reputation that was more or less erased when her opponent in the 2012 election turned out to be John Sawyer – himself also a Santa Rosa councilmember.

When Gorin first ran for county supervisor, in 2012, she promised 'constituent response, interaction, communication with the community, is a top priority for me.' Now almost four years later, that commitment to communication continues to be one of her office's strengths.

Her schedule is packed with constituent and official meetings, and it's not uncommon for her to be attending community workshops three nights a week. Whether it's the Sonoma Developmental Center's ongoing effort to wrangle a humane and healthy settlement out of the accelerated closure schedule the state is forcing on it; or leveraging her interest in water conservation into programs for integrated water use and groundwater replenishment; or trying to assure affordable housing for the workforce in an environment that, until recently, seemed tilted toward the vacation home-owner – whatever challenge the county faces, Gorin says she's ready to tackle it.

'I love to solve puzzles,' she says. 'I have patience, persistence and tenacity. I know through my long experience that solutions often don't come rapidly, or easily. It takes the long view, and the patience to move it forward.'

Yet it's an inescapable conclusion, from taking the long view to her own career, that she also has ambition. While at 64, she says she has accomplished much at the county level, she's not thinking of leaving the job anytime soon to return to 'civilian life.'

'I would have liked it to be an uncontested election, but that didn't happen,' Gorin admits. Last month Springs activist and county school board member Gina Cuclis, who also ran for the 1st District seat in 2012 but failed to make the run-off, announced her own candidacy.

Was there any doubt that Gorin would run again? 'No,' she says firmly. 'I would not have put that much effort into the first campaign if I had any doubt about running again.'

While confident of re-election, Gorin takes nothing for granted, and plans to rely on a robust campaign between now and the June 2016 election. 'I take every election very seriously,' she said. 'Like I do everything.'

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