Sebastopol City Council Candidates Forum Recap, Part 1

Have you watched the Sebastopol City Council candidate forum yet? You should. Here's the recap.

NOTE OF CONFLICT OF INTEREST: The author of this article is a paid contractor with the city of Sebastopol, who is aware that any of the candidates discussed below could become her employers in a few months’ time.

NOTE: Due to its length, this article has been divided into two parts. The second part will be published tomorrow.

On Wednesday, September 21, the Sonoma County League of Women Voters sponsored a candidate forum featuring five candidates for the three open seats on the Sebastopol City Council. It’s well worth watching. (You can find the video on the League’s Facebook page: https://fb.watch/fU0lOVQqtD/)

Here’s a brief recap of the action.

The forum began with quick 1-minute statements.

Oliver Dick, a former corporate executive and business consultant, described his platform as “Back to Basics,” and said “I’ll work to make sure our city budget supports our public works, resources and our hardworking city firefighters and police officers.” He said he will use his “business collaboration skills and experience to help run our community.”

Sandra Maurer, director of the EMF Safety Network and co-owner with her husband of a small business here in town, promised to be a staunch advocate for health and environmental justice, noting that “I value a range of people’s viewpoints and believe inclusivity of public opinion is essential to solving community challenges.”

Dennis Colthurst, a former Sebastopol police officer (34 years on the force) and former director of the Palm Drive Hospital Board, called himself “a listener” and said “I am here carrying no flag. I simply want to support my community.”

Stephen Zollman, a former public defender for the city of San Francisco, said he is running to “increase our partnerships with the county, state and federal entities.” He managed to cram several issues into his introduction, including supporting downtown businesses, including mental health providers as a part of law enforcement and youth mentoring.

Jill McLewis, owner of Eye Candy chocolatiers, listed the long list of local organizations she had either worked for – director of the Sebastopol Chamber of Commerce – or volunteered for – president of the board of directors of the Sebastopol Community Cultural Center, board member of the Sebastopol Downtown Association, and many more. “I'm very passionate about serving our community and preserving its unique character,” she said.

QUESTION #1: Affordable housing and homelessness continue to be a county-wide problem. What are your ideas for increasing housing and providing assistance for the homeless?

Both Maurer, Colthurst and Lewis mentioned Burbank Heights and Orchards, a private non-profit, as a model for affordable housing in Sebastopol. The large Woodmark development on Bodega, despite its unpopularity with some of its neighbors, also got the nod from the candidates.

Maurer seemed up to date on the housing issue, mentioning the ongoing update of the housing element of the general plan and the fact that the city had meet its state housing allocation for the past eight-year period.

Zollman endorsed a “housing first” philosophy – the idea that you house someone first and then deal with any issues, such as mental illness or addiction. He commended the current city council for their work on affordable housing, including their efforts at housing the homeless.  He suggested that the city could build more affordable housing on the city-owned property near the library and city hall.  And again he emphasized “collaboration with the state and federal government to secure the funds necessary to bring more affordable housing in our community.”

While acknowledging its importance, McLewis noted that Sebastopol actually had a fair amount of affordable housing – not only Burbank Heights and Orchards but also Petaluma Avenue Homes and the new Habitat for Humanity fourplex that the council just approved. (No one, oddly, mentioned the very large Burbank Housing affordable housing complex across from the Redwood Marketplace.) In discussing workforce housing, she mentioned the idea of providing affordable housing for fire department volunteers, suggesting that it would be good to provide “housing for those that are actually serving our community.”

Oliver Dick took that theme a step further, suggesting that perhaps Sebastopol was doing more than its share when it came to providing affordable housing. After noting that affordable housing and homelessness were problems not just in Sonoma County, but internationally, he said, “I have issues around shoehorning more and more property into and overburdening the infrastructure of a tiny place like Sebastopol with a tiny $10 million budget.”  But, like McLewis, he endorsed the idea of providing affordable housing for local fire fighters.

Regarding housing the homeless, which he described as “a vast Western world problem,” he said “It’s easy to talk about and very hard to achieve in the current economic climate and with the lack of land to build on within the city of Sebastopol.”

QUESTION #2: What is your opinion on updating the pedestrian bicycle master plan?

All the candidates endorsed the idea of updating the plan. In general their ire was reserved for (surprise, surprise) the bicycle lanes leading into and in downtown.  Everyone had a problem with them. Maurer expressed a desire for separate multi-use trails, Zollman asked for raised barriers at the very least, and McLewis said she didn’t feel good about her son riding his bike in the existing bike lanes.

Oliver Dick went one step further, wondering why they’d been built there in the first place. 

“We have this strange situation within the city limits where we have all these nice quiet streets where you can ride a bicycle in a very pleasant way. Caltrans put in the bicycle lanes on 116 and … as people have previously said, it's pretty scary … I would have preferred to have seen the entirely separate bicycle path edge next to 116 which I believe was a past plan.”

QUESTION #3: The effects of climate change are everywhere. Do you feel Sebastopol should do more to mitigate its carbon footprint? If so, how?

Stephen Zollman responded to this question by referring listeners to the Climate Action Framework created by the city’s Climate Action Committee, particularly Appendix A, the “what you can do” section.

All of the candidates were quick to praise the town of Sebastopol and the current city council for the work it’s done on the climate issue.

Oliver Dick said, “Sebastopol I would say is one of the best places in California in terms of awareness within the community of these issues and people being diligent and very mindful of all the issues that the whole world is facing. So I think the council, to Stephen’s point, has done a great job in the last few years in bringing that into the local city government.”

Both Dick and Dennis Colthurst brought up Sebastopol’s free shuttle, the 28 bus, suggesting either longer hours, more pick-up points or both be added to the bus’s schedule and that this resource be publicized so more people know about it. Colthurst also recommended creating more charging stations around town for electric vehicles.

Maurer took this occasion to bring up EMFs and smart meters, cautioning against “greenwashing,” which is the attempt by corporations to say they’re being green when really they’re not. She accused Syserco, the smart meter company, of greenwashing in promoting smart meters as ecological. 

QUESTION #4: Sebastopol will be hiring a new police chief soon. What traits would you like to see in a new chief and what changes do you feel need to be made in the department?

Jill Lewis kicked off this discussion by saying “We need to make certain that whomever we hire has a deep understanding of our values here in Sebastopol.” She also said that making sure we had enough officers on duty should be a priority. (Maurer later pointed out that four out of the 11 officers on the force are on disability.) McLewis also said she hoped the new chief might be helpful in dealing with the issue of the homeless presence in downtown. 

Oliver Dick declared himself a “a huge fan of community policing rather than law enforcement” – supporting officers getting out of their cars and walking (or biking) around the community, a sentiment Dennis Colthurst echoed (and in fact practiced as a policeman in Sebastopol). Dick also brought up the problem of how a small town with a limited budget would be able to pay to keep top quality people, pointing out that Sebastopol just lost its police chief, Kevin Kilgore, to Rohnert Park, in part for this reason.

Both Maurer and Zollman brought up the recent audit of the Sebastopol Police Department done by Jerry Threet and wanted to make sure that the next chief followed up on the audit’s suggestions.  Both also spoke in favor of using mental health workers, rather than (or in addition to) police, to deal with people having mental health crises. Zollman also said he hoped the next police chief would have some interest and familiarity with restorative justice.

Colthurst referenced his 34 years as a policeman in Sebastopol. “In order to work in Sebastopol, you have to be part of the community otherwise it just doesn't work. And if we hire a new chief, I think it's very important that he or she understand that and that you need to be out with the public … I think it's important you listen to your community, and you be compassionate.” He also noted that Sebastopol was the first police department in the US to use electric bicycles.

QUESTION #5: What will you do to support small local businesses? And do you have any specific programs in mind?

Oliver Dick began by pointing out the international dimension of the problem. “This is a western world issue because the internet has absolutely decimated small business,” he said.

Both Dick, Colthurst, and McLewis pointed the finger at downtown landlords, who charge rents that most small business can’t afford to pay. Dick suggested incentivizing landlords to provide lower rents or at least allow pop-ups. “We have to be very mindful of how to really push landlords to allow businesses to open and thrive because I think that’s a real bottleneck right now,” he said.

Both Zollman and Colthurst applauded the work that the Downtown Business Association was doing to expand the business improvement district to include all businesses in Sebastopol. In addition, Zollman said he’d like to see a mentoring program connecting what he called “our diverse youth” with businesses.

Both Dick and McLewis pointed to the success of the Barlow in drawing tourists to Sebastopol. McLewis suggested that the city mimic the Barlow’s marketing techniques to market businesses citywide. (Interestingly, Maurer expressed a preference for concentrating the marketing closer to home on the 50,000 people who live in west county in an attempt to convince them to do their shopping in Sebastopol.)

In addition, McLewis said. “I think that we could incentivize people to come downtown more if we put a little more love and care into our square and our streets and tidy them up and make them look a little more neat,” she said. She also mentioned helping local businesses apply for the city’s facade improvement grants.

Read Part II here.