Roundup: Adding up Measures I and U
Is there a 10.5% solution for the city's sales tax? High school trustee Julie Aiello honored; a crowd shows up for downtown "reimagining," and more
The Measure I/Measure U Dilemma
Both Measure U, Sebastopol’s half-cent sales tax, and Measure I, the countywide childcare quarter-cent tax, received enough votes to pass last week.
According to City Manager Don Schwarz, the passing of Measure I could inhibit Sebastopol from enforcing the entire amount of the Measure U sales tax. Here’s what he said a few months ago when we were reporting on Measure I.
“There is a standard 2% cap on local sales taxes,” said Schwarz. “State law authorizes Sonoma County and the cities to enact an additional 1% in sales tax above the standard 2%. State law is ambiguous as to whether the County and each city may separately enact an additional 1% sales tax, or if that 1% applies collectively. No court has ever ruled on this issue. If it is determined that the additional authorization applies collectively, the City may have to decrease the sales tax [hike] to .25%.”
We reached out to Schwartz again this week, and he said that a resolution is still in the works with the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA). “We are having ongoing conversations with CDTFA regarding implementation,” he said. “We don’t anticipate a definitive resolution imminently. We have some time to pursue this as the sales tax increases won’t occur until April 1, 2025.”
If Sebastopol’s sales tax stays at a half-cent, Sebastopol will have the highest sales tax of any town in Sonoma County—and one of the highest anywhere in the state—at 10.5 percent.
Julie Aiello’s Last School Board Meeting
Changes are ahead for the board of West Sonoma County Union High School District. In the November 5 election, Linda Tighe Helton won the Area 2 board seat, beating incumbent Debbie Ramirez, who was previously elected to the at-large seat that ends this year. Board President Julie Aiello is stepping down from the board after four years. Her Area 4 seat will be filled by Rio Kuteira, who ran unopposed. So, two new board members will be installed at the December board meeting.
Wednesday’s board meeting was the last one for Julie Aiello as a trustee. She joined the board in 2020, just in time to be part of the decision to close El Molino and the shutdown during Covid. She served as board chair from 2022-2024, a period that saw many positive improvements on the Analy campus. Superintendent Chris Meredith thanked Julie “for all all that you have done for the District.” Her experience as a former elementary school teacher was invaluable, he said, and he appreciated her insightful advice and mentorship of him as a new superintendent.
We asked Julie to share a reflection on her term:
I feel the most difficult aspect of being on a school board is how angry and mean people can be when they don’t agree with a decision we have made. Most of the time people don’t have all the facts and, unfortunately, we can not provide them. Most decisions we make involve people and personnel issues which can not legally be discussed. There are so many confidential decisions, and we are unable to be as transparent as we would like.
I am extremely happy with the direction our school district is going. Analy is one of the only high schools in Sonoma county that have rising test scores since Covid. Laguna has become a model continuation school. Our teachers have the best contract in the county, and I feel they have a voice which helps make our school district successful. We have a lot of new administration that work very well together. I supported the formation of the DEI committee, which is helping our schools be more accepting and appreciate diversity. The bond money is being used to improve the students educational experience—especially the air conditioning in the main building!
These are some of the things I am most proud to have been a part of. I wish I could have stayed long enough to see the Community school come to fruition. I think it is just what some of our students need. It has been a difficult but rewarding four years.
Reimagining downtown event draws big crowd
On Thursday, from 3 to 7 p.m., the City of Sebastopol held a community workshop at SebArts to discuss alternatives to the current downtown structure. Around 50 people were there at the time of a 3:15 p.m. presentation which went over the CalTrans grant the city has received and what the timeline could be for restructuring Sebastopol’s downtown. Just as a consultant with the firm Fehr & Peers was set to wrap up that presentation, he was bombarded with questions from a curious, mostly elderly audience.
One of the biggest concerns raised by the audience was that the downtown is not independent of the rest of the city, and thus changes to stoplights or bike paths on Main Street and Petaluma Avenue would have ripple effects on traffic flow in the rest of the city. If there was to be a downtown promenade, for example, surely it would have an effect on people trying to get from one side of town to another.
The city and Fehr & Peers kept reiterating that this study is in its very early stages, and that this event was more for imagining the best possible Sebastopol downtown than necessarily thinking about the practicality of things. After the presentation, locals made their way around the many interactive stations across the SebArts room, which got them thinking about new ways to imagine downtown. While some expressed grave fears about potential scenarios, most in attendance were there to flirt with new ideas and understand what this whole “Reimagining the Downtown Core” thing was about.
Here are some photos from the event:
Polley Field gets a new infield
If you’re wondering what’s up with all the construction at the western end of Ives Park, Polly Field—the baseball field—is getting a new infield.
Joan Holden, who is on the Board of Sebastopol Little League, which is paying for the repairs, was watching the proceedings. “So they've had to take out all the grass, and they are scraping down about four inches, and then they're going to compact it all, and then all these bags”—she gestured at a stacked row of bags along the edge of the field— “are of special infield dirt. Did you know that it took special dirt for it?” she asked. “I didn't either, but these guys know. And then hopefully, by the time we leave today, we will have that all flattened out and be ready for sod to go over the top.”
Holden said the infield replacement project was powered 90% by volunteers.
Historical Society announces new scholarship fund
At the Western Sonoma County Historical Society gala last night, Executive Director Teresa Ramondo and her board announced a new scholarship program, The Gloria Roberts and Steve Fowler Memorial Scholarship Fund. The scholarship fund is named after two veteran volunteers: Gloria Roberts, the former longtime executive director of the historical society, and Steve Fowler, board member and longtime volunteer, who died earlier this year.
In Memoriam: Richard Pullman Bull
“In Sebastopol, Richard built a career in construction and was actively involved in community life. He volunteered as a gardener for Luther Burbank Home and Gardens, helped run La Clinica, a Spanish-language medical clinic, and tutored in Sebastopol schools. He was an active member of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church and sang in the choir for many years. He led canoe trips down the Russian River, went on mission trips, coached his daughters’ softball teams, and won the Sebastopol Christmas decorating contest the only year it happened.” Read more
