Election 2016: Four vie for two City Council seats

Incumbents Cook and Gallian face staunch challenges from Harrington, Wagner|

The Sonoma City Council is the subject of one of the Nov. 8 ballot’s most anticipated local races – with a pair of seasoned incumbents hopeful to retain their council seats in the face of two energetic challengers.

Mayor Laurie Gallian has served on the council since 2008, when she was appointed by the council after she and one other candidate were the only residents to file for two opens seats. Gallian won re-election in 2012.

Councilmember David Cook is seeking his second term since winning a seat in 2012.

Also throwing their hats in the ring are family law attorney Amy Harrington, who currently serves on the Community Services and Environment Commission, and community organizer Jack Wagner, who ran for council previously in 2014.

Whomever wins the two seats in the election will likely spend the coming term facing issues around housing, rents, tourism, historic preservation and mitigating concerns over the increasing amount of public and private events being held in the city, among other hot-button community issues.

Laurie Gallian, who is serving as mayor this year, counts her work for environmental issues and as a “leader for women’s rights” – as a member of the Soroptimists International Sonoma Valley – as important parts of her legacy thus far as a council member.

Through her support of the county and city’s partnership in the Climate Action 2020 plan to mitigate greenhouse gases, she says, she, “felt like I could be a guardian for the environment.” Gallian is also the council member who in late 2014 re-agendized the controversial move to ban leaf blowers, after an earlier consideration of a ban had been narrowly defeated by the previous council.

If given another four years on the council, Gallian says she’d like to see the Transient Occupancy Tax raised to 14 percent and find ways to promote alternative transportation – such as promoting car-share programs or connecting commuters to the SMART train by means of public transportation.

David Cook describes himself as a “negotiator” on the council, being able to find compromise with other members and mitigate what he calls “the fever,” when the rest of the council is throwing out a lot of ideas about a proposed ordinance in quick succession.

He lists housing and water as primary issues he’ll deal with on the council if given a second term. As to the former, Cook told the Index-Tribune that the council needs to “crack down on vacation rentals” and that we need “more live-work spaces in Sonoma.”

Among his accomplishments in his first term, Cook cites protecting city character, working toward a balanced budget – which, he says, has allowed the city to put money back into roads and infrastructure – and passing a vacation-rental ordinance. He’ll be facing the latter issue again soon, as the council next month is expected to consider tightening the vacation rental ordinance.

Cook says his proudest moment on the council was, as mayor, flying the gay pride flag above City Hall, when the Supreme Court struck down state bans on gay marriage. It showed “we’re a haven for diversity,” he said.

Jack Wagner is a Sonoma native and 1998 graduate of Sonoma Valley High School. After graduating from Sonoma State University in 2005 with an English degree, and minor in political science, Wagner traveled extensively and worked in the video game industry in San Francisco. He’s been active in local politics since moving back to Sonoma in 2012, and currently works at the Swiss Hotel.

Wagner says if elected he’ll make the “housing crisis” his first priority.

“Access to housing is essential to maintain our local quality of life,” says Wagner. In addition to affordable housing for lower-income earners, Wagner emphasizes the importance of market-rate housing. Wagner has called for a moratorium on new vacation rental applications in the city.

Wagner also supports raising the TOT by 2 percent, saying that additional tourism-driven revenue could be used for non-motorized transportation projects, as well as workforce rent subsidies and public housing. He’d also like to see the new half-time local code-enforcement officer position be full time, “to better address vacation rentals and other local issues.”

Wagner supports limiting Sonoma City Council members to two terms in office.

Amy Harrington moved with her husband and two kids to Sonoma six years ago from San Francisco. She’s a probate attorney specializing in elder law and conservatorships for adults. She currently serves on the CSEC, but says she got her political feet wet working as a volunteer coordinator for former 3rd District Congressman Vic Fazio and serving on the Democratic Central Committee.

Harrington says Sonoma needs to have a long-view plan for dealing with tourism.

“I don’t want to live in a community that’s all professionals and weekend homes,” says Harrington. “We can’t have an enclave in town and everyone else is serving them.”

She’d like to increase both the viability of home ownership as well as rental opportunities. But for that to happen, she says, the city council needs to establish a clear direction and take leadership. She’d like to see “concrete plans and timelines.”

She describes a pattern of the current council as “meeting about things and seeing what will happen – and that leads to nothing happening.”

Harrington says her incumbent opponents in the race too often straddle the line. “We can’t constantly say yes to both sides (of an issue) all the time,” she says. Harrington points to the ongoing leaf-blower debate the council has engaged in for years.

“We have serious issues about water, sewage, housing, income inequality,” says Harrington. “It is (the city council’s) job to say (to leaf-blower opponents), ‘We understand it’s important to you… but these are the real issues.’”

As for Harrington’s view of important issues, she says she hears from residents that traffic tops the current list of Sonoma concerns. She also wants to “develop a sustainable water infrastructure,” ensure fiscal responsibility and preserve Sonoma’s community character.

Email Jason at jason.walsh@sonomanews.com.

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