Yes, there are still votes to be counted, and the Sonoma County Registrar of Voters has until Dec. 3 to certify the election, but it is highly unlikely that those votes will change the outcome of the Sebastopol City Council race.
As it now stands, it looks like incumbent Sandra Maurer has been re-elected and newcomers James Woodruff and Ian Hoff have been elected to Sebastopol’s City Council.
According to city manager Mary Gourley, “The county has 30 days to certify the election, so they have until Dec. 3 to send out the results to all the cities.”
Gourley said that if the county certifies the election before the next Sebastopol City Council meeting on Dec. 1, these three candidates could be sworn in at that meeting. “If not, the installation of the new council members would be on Dec. 15,” she said.
In the wee hours of Nov. 4, the numbers for the Sebastopol City Council election were as follows:
SEBASTOPOL CITY COUNCIL
4,990 votes counted. (100% precincts reporting) — Top three win.
Sandra Maurer . . . 20.84% (1040 votes) *
James Woodruff . . . 19.60 % (978 votes) *
Ian Hoff . . . 19.28% (962 votes) *
Kyreen Jorgensen . . . 13.45% (671 votes)
Jill McLewis. . . 11.62% (580 votes)
Brandie L. Solovay . . . 7.35% (367 votes)
Erin Mitchell . . . 7.86% (392 votes)
It was an extremely close race. The top two vote-getters—Sandra Maurer and James Woodruff—both consider themselves progressives, but they offer different visions of what progressivism means. Both were endorsed by Sebastopol Tomorrow, which has been shaping Sebastopol elections for 40 years, and the “Underground Progressive Ballot Guide,” a creation of two local “Bernie” Democrats, which gets emailed around before every election and passed hand-to-hand like some kind of Soviet-era samizdat. Maurer was also endorsed by the Democratic Party, while Woodruff was endorsed by the Green Party and the North Bay Labor Council.
Just an eyelash behind was Ian Hoff, who is a little more of a political puzzle. His campaign was managed by Rob Meulwrath Research, a well-connected political consulting firm that progressives love to hate. During the campaign, he was endorsed by Water and Sewer crusader Kate Haug, former Sebastopol Fire Chief Jack Piccinini, and business owner and Sebastopol’s Citizen of the Year Craig Boblitt. On the other hand, he was also endorsed by reliably progressive Sonoma County Supervisor Lynda Hopkins, who said of Hoff: “He is authentic, intelligent, and committed. Ian will be an asset on the council as an engineer who devises solutions.”
Sebastopol gets its first DSA councilmember: James Woodruff
Woodruff, a welder by trade and a longtime activist with training in water and wastewater management, is a Democratic Socialist. He is a member of the DSA (Democratic Socialists of America), which makes him part of the, traditionally speaking, red edge of the deep blue wave that swept the country last night.
On his candidate website, he says. “I am a strong advocate for working-class people and the labor community…My priority concerns also include economic justice, affordability, inclusion, protection from ICE and surveillance, community resilience, pro-choice advocacy, and the climate crisis.”
We reached out to Woodruff this morning, asking for his thoughts on the election and what he’d like to tackle first as a new council member.
“I would like to thank the voters for their civic engagement,” he wrote. “I am hearing estimates that as much as 80% of registered voters came out to vote, and that is awesome. The preliminary results look good for my race, and so I would also thank the public for their support. I would want them to know that I will be listening to their concerns and respecting their budgets when making decisions that impact the city budget.”
In terms of the projects he is itching to tackle, Woodruff chose an interesting one: “I would like to work on the electrification of the city vehicle fleet and improving the bus line,” he said. “The fleet should be electrified as we replace vehicles that are aging out. I am not talking about a large new spending measure.” He also said, “I want to look into grants and partnerships with the county and surrounding cities to improve our bus service and increase both the frequency and routes so people can get to more places with less hassle. How close to budget-neutral can these changes be made is a big question and will be determinative.”
He also realizes he’s new at this game. “I have a lot of learning to do about the inner workings of the city, but that is exciting, and I’m looking forward to it.”
Woodruff also mentioned the graffiti incident that marred election day in Sebastopol—as well as several buildings. “I did read about the graffiti rampage that happened the other night, and it is unacceptable. We don’t have a suspect identified yet that I am aware of, but it seems like the rantings of a racist coward who knows their views have no place in the public dialogue and so resorts to vandalism,” he said. “I don’t have a policy idea for fixing racism and extremism, but I stand with my community in calling it out.”
What Sandra Maurer learned on the campaign trail this year
Because of the way the mayor is chosen in Sebastopol, Maurer, the current vice mayor, will become the mayor of Sebastopol when the three candidates are sworn in in December. Councilmember Neysa Hinton will become the vice mayor.
Like Woodruff, Maurer considers herself a progressive, but as a politician, she has proved to be less ideological and more of a bridge builder and peacemaker—though she’s perfectly capable of putting up a fight when needs be. Before she joined the council, she was an environmental activist and, as the director of a national anti-EMF nonprofit, she helped win the right for utility customers to opt out of smart meters.
Her EMF sentiments have played almost no role in her council tenure thus far, though with the end of the lease of the large cell tower behind city hall coming up in 2031, that might change. She has already suggested this city-owned property might be used instead as part of an expanded downtown library.
Maurer has also been on the city’s Budget Committee for the last two years, and she’s known as a bit of a budget hawk.
We talked with Maurer early this morning. She was, of course, “excited and thrilled” to have won re-election. But she was also somewhat troubled by her experience going door-to-door during the campaign this year.
When Maurer’s 11-year-old granddaughter asked her, ‘What is the first thing you’re going to do as mayor?’ Maurer’s answer was both so Sebastopol and so her: “I think I’m going to call for a moment of peace at the beginning of the meeting,” she said.
Why a moment of peace?
“There’s just been so much animosity and heat, starting at the federal level and trickling down,” Maurer said. “There’s been so much animosity in the town for like two years—pretty much when Trump was reelected, right? And I think it’s definitely contributing to the upset. I mean, I went door to door. I talked to a lot of people—and the tone! There is so much heat, so much anger … There’s so much edge … It wasn’t this way in 2022. This is different.”
“So people would be ranting, right? Really mad, and then they’d say, ‘But I love Sebastopol!’ I think that’s kind of a snapshot of what’s going on.”
“When I look at what’s going on in the other countries—France and Germany and Italy—the riots and stuff that are happening, it’s scary knowing that that anger is right here in our town as well.”
“The first place I want to start is to have peace within ourselves because that’s where it starts, right?”
“My hope is that this blue wave that we voted in last night is going to help bring down the heat,” she said.
In terms of what her political goals are for next year, Maurer named three: “I want to be a watchdog on the budget for sure, and the infrastructure repair is really important.” She’s also looking forward to the return of the Commons Ad Hoc committee in December or January. “I’m looking forward to that—to see what we can do with the library,” she said. Reflecting what a lot of constituents have told her, Maurer has expressed a desire to keep the library downtown and expand it.
Maurer said she hoped to help unify the council, which has been pretty fractious of late. She was also looking forward to bringing back the monthly “Coffee with the Mayor” meetings with the public.
Finally, she wanted to say “a big thank you to the Sebastopol voters for reelecting me, and I’m grateful for this opportunity to serve on council again. I want to thank my husband, my family, and friends, and donors, endorsers, and the yard sign hosts. And I want to congratulate James and Ian too. I understand the votes still need to be counted, but I’m looking forward to the next four years,” she said. “I’m excited.”
Ian Hoff respects the learning curve
In this election, the same group of city council critics that had supported Mayor Jill McLewis in her first campaign in 2022 threw their money behind Ian Hoff, one of the race’s three winners.
With their help, Hoff raised more than $24,000 for his campaign, though half of that came from his wife’s family. He raised more money than all the other candidates put together.
Hoff, a civil engineer and former volunteer firefighter, is new to politics. He said several of his colleagues helped him campaign, including going door-to-door in their own neighborhoods.
He is understandably thrilled by the results.
I’m very excited,” he said. “I’m immensely humbled and flattered by just the response and the support I got from people during the campaign. I met so many wonderful, hardworking, caring people, and to know they chose to support and vote for me is just so nice. It’s very touching.”
“I found that “community” was the big word for me moving forward. You know, we live in a wonderful one, and I’m just looking forward to being able to work and to continue to foster that sense of community.”
During the campaign, Hoff emphasized concerns about the budget and the city’s water and sewer infrastructure, but when asked what he planned to tackle on the council, he demurred.
“Right now I really just need to get up to speed with being a councilman … what are the little nitty-gritties, the rules, how do things work at the city level? So I’m looking forward to spending more time at City Hall and getting access to these things. The city did a kind of orientation for all the candidates a while ago, and there was a lot of information at that time where it’s like, ‘Okay, I’m going to review this in November.’”
And now it’s November.
Engineers can be a skeptical lot, but they’re also problem solvers. Hoff said that running his campaign made him realize that, “There are so many different people involved in so many different corners of our community. The challenge for any politician is to be able to represent all of them well and fairly. Sometimes if you have people that feel that they’re one way and someone else is the other, to be like, ‘You know, you’re really not that far apart. You know, we can move these policies forward, and it’s going to be for both your benefit.’ I think that was my main takeaway.”
Plus ça change…
The old French saying, “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose,” translates idiomatically to “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
The same might be said for the outcome of this election. DSA member James Woodruff will be taking over hyper-progressive Stephen Zollman’s place on the council, while Hoff—if you look at his list of donors and supporters—may be taking over Mayor Jill McLewis’s role as a critical, contrarian voice, with a slight, dare-we-say conservative edge. Sandra Maurer will remain Sandra Maurer, even as mayor.
And the Sebastopol Times will be there to cover it all.
SEE THE UPDATE: We have updated the numbers on all of the races in yesterday’s election article, based on the last report from the Sonoma County Registrar of Voters and the California Secretary of State’s Office.
Soviet-era samizdat:Love it!
The link to the county records doesn’t work. Last time I looked there were lots of uncounted ballots