Volunteering to serve the community as a Councilmember, let alone Mayor, is truly a four year gift of great generosity. The council sets the policies and priorities for the essential work that has to be accomplished in order to keep our town running: law enforcement, firefighting, public works infrastructure like street maintenance, water delivery and wastewater management, seeing to the needs of those of us experiencing homelessness.
Most of that work isn’t glamorous. And none of it is easy. They keep things running in spite of ephemeral funding, pilot programs that take us taxing down runways without ever getting airborne long enough to reach a destination. They do all this work and receive much too little appreciation for the work they put in and much too much criticism from people who don’t get it that the city simply cannot afford to accomplish everything we all can agree should have been done yesterday.
Perhaps people imagine all this volunteering to work on the city council comes with compensations, let’s see…..a nice city-provided office, at least a modest a salary, a city car to tool around town in. You know, the kind of perks that come to a soldier in our volunteer armed forces.
They’d be surprised at how small the stipend for their community service actually is. There is no office space for the Mayor of Sebastopol. No desk even. No veterans benefits, no sir. No car, either.
Thank you for these two articles about Mayor Zollman. Laura, you ask good questions that help us deeply understand the people you interview and what makes them tick. He’s clearly a very compassionate human being who is serving our community with a set of values that will help guide the council to make their often very difficult decisions.
Thank you for very insightful interview with Mayor Zollman , both in questions asked and answered. It is also revealing in the circular and frustrating actions of government at higher levels, such as State Senator McGuire flatly stating there will not be continuing revenue streams for mental health but McGuire's willingness to commit to pilot programs. What the heck is the point of a "pilot program" if it is not followed up by more committed programs? What is being
piloted? It is akin to funding kindergartens as "educational pilot programs," with no continuing educational services for the next twelve grades thereafter. This is why our big problems, as with homelessness, don't get "solved." We "pilot," but don't followup. You read it straight from Sen. McGuire mimself. But thanks to Stephen for engaging in the process(es).
He sounds like a great guy. Like most people in public service, it sounds like a lot of talking about stuff. Maybe just do stuff? Prioritize what the residents of Sebastopol want and go down the list. Just do it.
What an insightful story of a multi-talented man. The questions asked were direct and produced an array of future possibilities. Great journalism!
Volunteering to serve the community as a Councilmember, let alone Mayor, is truly a four year gift of great generosity. The council sets the policies and priorities for the essential work that has to be accomplished in order to keep our town running: law enforcement, firefighting, public works infrastructure like street maintenance, water delivery and wastewater management, seeing to the needs of those of us experiencing homelessness.
Most of that work isn’t glamorous. And none of it is easy. They keep things running in spite of ephemeral funding, pilot programs that take us taxing down runways without ever getting airborne long enough to reach a destination. They do all this work and receive much too little appreciation for the work they put in and much too much criticism from people who don’t get it that the city simply cannot afford to accomplish everything we all can agree should have been done yesterday.
Perhaps people imagine all this volunteering to work on the city council comes with compensations, let’s see…..a nice city-provided office, at least a modest a salary, a city car to tool around town in. You know, the kind of perks that come to a soldier in our volunteer armed forces.
They’d be surprised at how small the stipend for their community service actually is. There is no office space for the Mayor of Sebastopol. No desk even. No veterans benefits, no sir. No car, either.
Thank you for these two articles about Mayor Zollman. Laura, you ask good questions that help us deeply understand the people you interview and what makes them tick. He’s clearly a very compassionate human being who is serving our community with a set of values that will help guide the council to make their often very difficult decisions.
Thank you for this extended interview. Mr Zollman's community participation is inspiring.
Thank you for very insightful interview with Mayor Zollman , both in questions asked and answered. It is also revealing in the circular and frustrating actions of government at higher levels, such as State Senator McGuire flatly stating there will not be continuing revenue streams for mental health but McGuire's willingness to commit to pilot programs. What the heck is the point of a "pilot program" if it is not followed up by more committed programs? What is being
piloted? It is akin to funding kindergartens as "educational pilot programs," with no continuing educational services for the next twelve grades thereafter. This is why our big problems, as with homelessness, don't get "solved." We "pilot," but don't followup. You read it straight from Sen. McGuire mimself. But thanks to Stephen for engaging in the process(es).
He sounds like a great guy. Like most people in public service, it sounds like a lot of talking about stuff. Maybe just do stuff? Prioritize what the residents of Sebastopol want and go down the list. Just do it.