Council candidate Patricia Farrar-Rivas wants long-term vision for Sonoma

It’s Patricia Farrar-Rivas’s first time running for elected office, but she’s counting on her experience outside of politics to catch the attention of voters in the Nov. 8 race for Sonoma City Council.

Farrar-Rivas is a founding partner of Veris Wealth Partners, a San Francisco-based financial management company that specializes in “impact investing” – financial portfolios focused on sustainability, the environment, equity and community wealth building. Farrar-Rivas, 68, has stepped back this year in a non-practicing partner role for the firm, freeing her up to steer her energies toward solving problems at the local level.

She believes her longtime work in finance, with nonprofits and around diversity, equity and inclusion will make her an effective member of the council.

“I’ve successfully worked across the table with folks whom I haven’t started at the table with the same vision, but have been able to move things forward,” Farrar-Rivas said. “Experience really helps you become better equipped to work and communicate and collaborate.”

Farrar-Rivas is one of five candidates vying for three open seats on the council and she’s finding her foray into politics “exciting.”

“There’s a lot of work, but also a lot of interest,” said Farrar-Rivas. “I’m really enjoying talking to people, meeting with them and hearing what their primary concerns (about the city) are.”

Many of those concerns are issues already at the top of her priority list: housing access and affordability, public safety and preparedness, and taking steps at the local level to mitigate climate change.

“Mother nature is letting us know: It’s imminent and we need to pay attention to it now,” she said about climate change. As a wealth manager, Farrar-Rivas focused on investing in positive environmental and climate solution companies, and she believes there’s a lot of innovation Sonoma could tap into. “We are in an adaptation stage,” she said. “How do we adapt?”

She said it ultimately comes down to a long-term vision for the city that addresses a fundamental question many Sonomans share: “How do you maintain the beautiful community we have, while at the same time addressing the 21st century needs we have?”

Farrar-Rivas has the unique perspective of knowing Sonoma for many years – but in two very distinct time frames. She lived in town from 1974 to 1986, before career moved her to other area codes around the Bay – with a brief stint in New York – until finally a hybrid work schedule allowed her to return to Sonoma for good in 2018. “My sights were always coming back and living in Sonoma,” she said.

The Sonoma of today is a far cry from the Sonoma of the 1970s – and it’s from that perspective that the community should approach how it grows into the Sonoma of tomorrow, she said.

She believes the key question residents should ask, is: “What is our long-term vision of Sonoma?”

“How do we create that balance of Sonoma being a city that serves the people who live and work here, and support local businesses, while understating that our visitors coming for the wine industry are also important to the economy?” she said.

These are the sort of big-picture issues Farrar-Rivas believes city leaders need to be setting policy goals for now, not later.

“You need strong leadership and you need to make decisions,” she said. “You can’t carry on the conversation forever.”

If Farrar-Rivas wins a seat this November, she’s confident she and her council colleagues will “work together to find solutions” to a variety of issues.

“I believe in the intersectionality of these issues,” she said. “It’s important for us to not just be focused on one thing at a time - we have to focus on all the issues and how they intersect.”

Email Jason Walsh at Jason.walsh@sonomanews.com.