City schedules town halls, a survey, and a poll to get feedback on budget crises
Share your opinion and ideas about the city's budget crises at two town halls: On Zoom on Monday, July 8, and in person on Wednesday, July 10
This week, the city of Sebastopol announced that it would be holding two town halls to discuss the financial challenges facing the city. The town halls are scheduled for Monday, July 8, at 6 pm on Zoom and on Wednesday, July 10, at 6 pm in person at the Sebastopol Community Cultural Center.
The city also put out a short community priorities survey, seeking public input about which local issues residents care most about.
In addition, the city has enlisted the help of a pollster to suss out what residents are feeling about the various challenges facing the city. According to the city website, “The City has hired Probolsky Research to conduct a 10-minute poll of randomly selected residents starting June 27. If you receive a call, text or email from Probolsky, please respond.”
This attempt to reach out to residents comes at a time when many citizens are expressing their worry and anger at city council meetings—and on social media—about the city’s budget crisis and the recent rise in water and sewer rates.
City Manager Don Schwartz said the town hall meetings and survey had less to do with public discontent than with the city’s ongoing commitment to keeping citizens informed—and to gather their input—on the city’s recent challenges.
“We’re trying to wrestle with our fiscal challenges, and we want the community to be aware of what they are, what we’re doing about them, and what we are thinking about doing about them?” said Schwartz. “The Town Hall is a way to engage residents in those efforts, to let them know what’s happening and get their thoughts about how we might address it, and understanding what’s important to them. That’s a really important part of what government’s about, right?”
Schwartz said the town hall will include a presentation followed by a Q & A.
Vice Mayor Stephen Zollman said the town halls were probably overdue.
“It’s an opportunity that we quite honestly haven’t had in a while because of COVID,” he said. “It’s a good thing to be in community to figure out ways we can move forward.”
“As far as the town hall, it’s just another way to get as much community input as we can about everything that’s going on because it’s going to take a community to figure out what we do with the deficit and how to make movement and how to figure out the best way to move forward,” Zollman said.
“There are many ways to correct the deficit and to make our community more resilient and focus more on preventative type things,” he said.
Like Schwartz, Zollman didn’t think the city was merely reacting to public anger about the situation.
“I wouldn’t say it was anger. I think it was just a lot to take in,” he said.
“When things come in threes, it’s just a lot,” he said, referring to the rise in water and sewer rates, a potential parcel tax that’s a part of the fire department consolidation, and the possibility of rising garbage rates.
“So those are the three that I always talk about,” Zollman said. “For those that are on a fixed income, what’s going to happen? I think this is a way for us to just sort of take stock and say, ‘Well, what can we do? What can we do to eliminate that pressure families feel following those kind of things’…We really need to take stock of where people are.”
See more about the city of Sebastopol’s efforts to collect residents’ opinions on these topics here.
Again , thank you for informing we citizens