Sonoma City Council hopefuls sound off at candidates forum

Five residents vying for election to the Sonoma City Council responded to questions on a variety of local topics at a candidates forum Oct. 10 at the Sonoma Community Center, addressing everything from homelessness and housing to economics and what TV shows they’re binge-watching.

The forum, hosted by the Sonoma Index-Tribune, the Sonoma Valley Chamber of Commerce and SonomaTV/KSVY radio, was an opportunity for the candidates to publicly pitch voters on why they deserve one of the three council seats up for grabs on the Nov. 8 ballot.

Taking part were candidates Thomas Deegan, a leadership consultant; Mike Nugent, former longtime member of the Sonoma Valley Healthcare District board of directors; Patricia Farrar-Rivas, a newly retired financial management expert; John Gurney, former Sonoma police chief and Sonoma Community Center director; and Ron Wellander, a landscape architect and current chair of the Sonoma Planning Commission.

The candidates responded to a litany of questions from Index-Tribune Editor and Publisher Emily Charrier, who moderated the 90-minute event. The forum can be viewed at youtube.com/sonomatv.

City Manager

Among the first orders of business new council members will face is hiring a new city manager, a position that hasn’t had a long-term permanent occupant since Cathy Capriola retired at the end of 2020.

All five candidates agreed any city manager should be an active member of the community, living in or nearby the city. “(We need) someone with proven community experience where they’ve shown they can go out and work with the community,” said Deegan.

Nugent said that Sonoma has developed a “pretty bad reputation among the fraternity” of city managers in the state, and the city may need to look beyond the traditional pool of candidates. “Does it have to be a city manager, or can it be a manager we can teach city,” said Nugent. “I’m open to a new process for how we do this; the old way hasn’t worked.”

Farrar-Rivas and Wellander mentioned the importance of finding a strong leader with the ability to listen. “The city manager is the choke point of an hourglass,” Wellander said, adding that the new hire would need to delegate tasks, set priorities and hold people accountable.

Affordable housing

In response to a question about where to build appropriate forms of affordable housing, the candidates generally supported ideas around public-private partnerships, with Wellander urging the council not to overlook “missing middle (class)” housing. “It’s in some ways a more difficult equation than affordable (housing) which gets funding from the state and other resources,” he said.

Gurney said the city should continue to build up its Housing Trust Fund for the purchase of available property, then “down the road develop these properties with private builders and contractors.”

Farrar-Rivas envisioned “a more European-style village” in Sonoma’s future, with moderate build-up, “maybe two or three stories.”

Nugent floated the idea of bank office space becoming more available as financial institutions scale back in-person services. “Maybe we as a community can incentivize a tax holiday or something of that kind,” for building owners to convert such commercial space to residential.

Homelessness and the Safe Parking Program

The City of Sonoma and homeless services nonprofit Sonoma Overnight Support have been seeking a new location for SOS’s Safe Parking Program, which in the past has allowed people living in vehicles to park safely at night in the city parking lot at 175 First St. W. But sharing that lot with the Field of Dreams youth sports fields is seen by some community members as an incompatible mix.

The candidates agreed the program should find a new home, but none had a firm suggestion as to where that would be. “It’s hard to find a place to locate it,” said Deegan, pointing out that city staff had identified a dozen potential locations for the program, but none of the property owners were interested in hosting the vehicularly housed. “I’m not sure where we’re going to go with it,” said Deegan, echoing similar sentiments from Wellander and Gurney.

Nugent said homelessness “is not a housing problem – homelessness is a problem of mental health.”

“Anybody that expects you can take a person from that environment and fix them up by giving them a little place to sleep is fooling themselves,” said Nugent. “It’s like taking a drowning person and teaching them how to swim.”

Farrar-Rivas, on the other hand, said homelessness is sometimes a mental health problem, but also often a housing problem – a result of a change in life circumstance such as a loss of job or a health crisis. “There’s a growing number of families that are unhoused, children that are showering at school because they don’t have a home to go to.” She said the city should partner with SOS and the nonprofit Homeless Action Sonoma to provide more “integrated services that includes both permanent and temporary housing, mental health care, a system to provide ongoing food for people and a place for people to go attached to the services they need.”

All candidates urged the city to work closer with the County of Sonoma to better serve unhoused residents.

Recent council decisions

The candidates were asked to name a recent council decision they agreed with, and one in which they didn’t.

Deegan supported the council’s decision to end Al Fresco Sonoma, aka the restaurant parklets program. The decision he disagreed with was last year’s restriping of the north end of Broadway from a four-lane thoroughfare down to two lanes in order to make room for safer bike and pedestrian space.

“Someone’s going to die at Andrieux and Broadway if we don’t do something about that intersection,” he said, receiving a smattering of applause from forum attendees.

Gurney wasn’t prepared to judge the Broadway project yet. “We need to give it an opportunity to see if it performs.” However, he was disappointed the council didn’t consider findings in traffic studies he’d taken part of in years past.

Gurney said he’s excited by the council’s decision to create a Master Plan for the long-term health of the Sonoma Plaza. “It’s long overdue,” he said. “The Plaza should be the jewel of the community.”

Wellander also likes the decision to craft a Plaza Master Plan, adding that it will allow the city to properly create opportunities for al fresco dining. He said he disagreed with the council’s “third time” extending the parklet program, which he said created confusion and unnecessary controversy.

Farrar-Rivas, meanwhile, lamented the council’s decision to end the parklet program, saying restaurants should have been given a chance to “transition” to better design and safety standards.

A decision she supported was the council’s allowing more Sonoma Valley residents outside the city limits to serve on city commissions.

Nugent joined Deegan in his distaste for the new Broadway configuration, describing it as taking “a beautiful boulevard and turn(ing) it into a two-lane street.” The decision he most appreciated was the council’s appointments of Bob Felder and Kelso Barnett to two open council seats in 2020 – seats for which Nugent himself applied. Applauding the work done by Felder and Barnett, Nugent said, “I’d like to congratulate the council for not selecting me.”

Then he quipped to the audience: “You’ll have an opportunity to correct that.”

In a different round of questioning, the candidates were asked to simply respond “yes” or “no” to a handful of issues.

Parking meters on the Plaza? All candidates opposed.

Regarding the return of parklets with minor aesthetic and safety improvements, Nugent, Farrar-Rivas and Gurney said “yes.”

Is the city Housing Element a viable roadmap for future housing needs? Deegan was the lone “no.”

Does Sonoma need a second cannabis dispensary? All candidates supported this concept.

Is the city meeting its climate goals? Deegan was the lone “yes.”

Best binge-watch during the pandemic?

“Ted Lasso” (Farrar-Rivas); “30 Rock” (Gurney), Golden State Warriors championship drive (Wellander); “Better Call Saul” (Nugent); and “Stranger Things” (Deegan).

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