Most likely Hotel Sebastopol will not open as the developers do not see the area as financially viable due to the fact the Council has not kept up public spaces and Sebastopol has the highest number of homeless people per capita in Sonoma County. They said as much when they attended a recent Council meeting. For instance, Windsor has 26 unhoused while Sebastopol has 87. This makes Sebastopol unattractive for people to finance and build a $60,000,000 hotel.
It remains unclear if it is to citizens benefit to remain incorporated. The majority of tax revenue goes toward sustaining City administration yet the County dumps all of its homeless housing in Sebastopol without reimbursing citizens for lost revenues and increased service costs. For instance, Hopkins pushed both Homekey Projects and the SAVS RV Village on Sebastopol while she has zero homeless services in Forestville and will have a lower sales tax rate in Forestville. Sebastopol has many organizations which service West County such as the senior Center, Ives Pool, the Community Cultural Center and there is no reason why the City should not get reimbursed by the County for these organizations. If the City were unincorporated, the County might reimburse as they are used by West County residents. If the City can't afford the fully fund the police department, then maybe it is better to work with the County. The fire department is already in consolidation talks. As past Council's have not advocated for citizens and business owners, which is the duty of the Council, why pay all this money to sustain a City administration? Has Sebastopol improved over the last 10 years or declined? Are the parks nicer? Are the roads better? Are businesses thriving? Was the fire department fully funded? Was the police department fully funded?
One main problem is that Council is a full time job and only pays $300 per month. This means that only a few people can actually afford to be on Council. These people might be motivated by personal, political interests rather than the general well-being of the community. It is fairly clear that is what has happened and why Sebastopol is in such terrible shape. At least the Supervisor makes over $200K per year and has a staff.
This article misses a crucial fact: sales tax depends on sales. Sales tax in Sebastopol has declined over the last 3 years thus Measure U won't work unless sales at minimum remain steady or ideally increase. This sales tax would make Sebastopol the only city in Sonoma County with 10.25%, which is the legal limit in California. It might actually reduce sales which would defeat the whole intent to raise revenue.
In addition, we just passed Measure H, which will bring over $1,000,000 to the fire department and also if the consolidation passes, residents will see a $200+ parcel tax on their property tax bill.
Gurney, Rich, Glass (the same people who support U) ran the town into a huge deficit which won't be fixed by a sales tax increase. First and foremost, they allowed the only downtown hotel to be converted by the County to homeless housing which permanently removed TOT, sales tax, property tax and other tourist revenue. That single decision created $400K per year loss of revenue for citizens. Thus 4 years into that decision, citizens lost $1,600,000 which more than covers the deficit.
Maybe Council should stop paying for free stuff for homeless people before they ask residents to hike the sales tax? Or maybe they should shut down the needle exchange on Petaluma Avenue to reduce the amount of drug addicts that are a drain on City resources?
Council recently approved a new Homekey project in an area that should have been developed to generate revenue. This new project will be a further drain on resources.
Gurney, Glass and Rich all pushed the failed Horizon Shine RV village on Sebastopol despite citizen protest and everyone is still living with that disaster on 116.
This sales tax misses the mark and is being supported by the very people who caused the disaster. The only way Sebastopol will be financially viable is if a new hotel comes is built and Council finally supports local businesses to bring in more sales. It does not make sense to increase sales tax until you know how to support local business and how to make financially prudent decisions. At the end of the day, Council's first responsibility is to its citizens and local businesses. Glass, Gurney and Rich all prioritized niche communities run by out of town advocates and are asking citizens to pay the price.
How perfect that the City manager used health club memberships as an analogy! Our mostly wonderful city employees have treated themselves to upgraded health care and retirement plans since 2020, when our city budgets were building up to this “critical” moment. Lots of other discretionary spending over the last four to 8 years that did not result in additional services to city residence. The city went from resisting PG&E smart meters to spending hundreds of thousands on their own “smart” water meters. Lots and lots of unnecessary “upgrades” have been made. Measure U will, in the long term, lead to more and more of these less than necessary expenditures of this additional tax money.
I’m glad to see the city manager does have plans to consolidate and make other improvements on the expenditure side. I expect measure U will pass and I appreciate this article looking at the what if if it doesn’t.
You might note that 20K from the Yes on U campaign comes from the employee union. The big signs are signs of big money. Not necessarily the best interest for citizens.
If you want to see more grassroots protest sign, check out this local board which has a lot of great comments.
https://sebcofo.org/viewtopic.php?t=102
Sign up to get a variety of local opinions and perspectives, especially public comment from Council meetings.
Most likely Hotel Sebastopol will not open as the developers do not see the area as financially viable due to the fact the Council has not kept up public spaces and Sebastopol has the highest number of homeless people per capita in Sonoma County. They said as much when they attended a recent Council meeting. For instance, Windsor has 26 unhoused while Sebastopol has 87. This makes Sebastopol unattractive for people to finance and build a $60,000,000 hotel.
It remains unclear if it is to citizens benefit to remain incorporated. The majority of tax revenue goes toward sustaining City administration yet the County dumps all of its homeless housing in Sebastopol without reimbursing citizens for lost revenues and increased service costs. For instance, Hopkins pushed both Homekey Projects and the SAVS RV Village on Sebastopol while she has zero homeless services in Forestville and will have a lower sales tax rate in Forestville. Sebastopol has many organizations which service West County such as the senior Center, Ives Pool, the Community Cultural Center and there is no reason why the City should not get reimbursed by the County for these organizations. If the City were unincorporated, the County might reimburse as they are used by West County residents. If the City can't afford the fully fund the police department, then maybe it is better to work with the County. The fire department is already in consolidation talks. As past Council's have not advocated for citizens and business owners, which is the duty of the Council, why pay all this money to sustain a City administration? Has Sebastopol improved over the last 10 years or declined? Are the parks nicer? Are the roads better? Are businesses thriving? Was the fire department fully funded? Was the police department fully funded?
One main problem is that Council is a full time job and only pays $300 per month. This means that only a few people can actually afford to be on Council. These people might be motivated by personal, political interests rather than the general well-being of the community. It is fairly clear that is what has happened and why Sebastopol is in such terrible shape. At least the Supervisor makes over $200K per year and has a staff.
https://sonomacounty.ca.gov/Main%20County%20Site/Health%20and%20Human%20Services/Health%20Services/Documents/Homelessness%20Services/Homeless%20Data/County%20of%20Sonoma%202023%20Point-in_Time%20Count%20Results.pdf
This article misses a crucial fact: sales tax depends on sales. Sales tax in Sebastopol has declined over the last 3 years thus Measure U won't work unless sales at minimum remain steady or ideally increase. This sales tax would make Sebastopol the only city in Sonoma County with 10.25%, which is the legal limit in California. It might actually reduce sales which would defeat the whole intent to raise revenue.
In addition, we just passed Measure H, which will bring over $1,000,000 to the fire department and also if the consolidation passes, residents will see a $200+ parcel tax on their property tax bill.
Gurney, Rich, Glass (the same people who support U) ran the town into a huge deficit which won't be fixed by a sales tax increase. First and foremost, they allowed the only downtown hotel to be converted by the County to homeless housing which permanently removed TOT, sales tax, property tax and other tourist revenue. That single decision created $400K per year loss of revenue for citizens. Thus 4 years into that decision, citizens lost $1,600,000 which more than covers the deficit.
In addition, the same folks approved a homeless outreach coordinator who costs taxpayers money and hands out free coffee and cell phone chargers. https://www.sebastopoltimes.com/p/sebastopols-homeless-outreach-coordinator
Maybe Council should stop paying for free stuff for homeless people before they ask residents to hike the sales tax? Or maybe they should shut down the needle exchange on Petaluma Avenue to reduce the amount of drug addicts that are a drain on City resources?
https://www.sebastopoltimes.com/p/keeping-track-of-the-transients?utm_source=publication-search
Council recently approved a new Homekey project in an area that should have been developed to generate revenue. This new project will be a further drain on resources.
https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/st-vincent-de-paul-sonoma-county-homeless-housing/?ref=home-A1toptextstories
Gurney, Glass and Rich all pushed the failed Horizon Shine RV village on Sebastopol despite citizen protest and everyone is still living with that disaster on 116.
This sales tax misses the mark and is being supported by the very people who caused the disaster. The only way Sebastopol will be financially viable is if a new hotel comes is built and Council finally supports local businesses to bring in more sales. It does not make sense to increase sales tax until you know how to support local business and how to make financially prudent decisions. At the end of the day, Council's first responsibility is to its citizens and local businesses. Glass, Gurney and Rich all prioritized niche communities run by out of town advocates and are asking citizens to pay the price.
How perfect that the City manager used health club memberships as an analogy! Our mostly wonderful city employees have treated themselves to upgraded health care and retirement plans since 2020, when our city budgets were building up to this “critical” moment. Lots of other discretionary spending over the last four to 8 years that did not result in additional services to city residence. The city went from resisting PG&E smart meters to spending hundreds of thousands on their own “smart” water meters. Lots and lots of unnecessary “upgrades” have been made. Measure U will, in the long term, lead to more and more of these less than necessary expenditures of this additional tax money.
I’m glad to see the city manager does have plans to consolidate and make other improvements on the expenditure side. I expect measure U will pass and I appreciate this article looking at the what if if it doesn’t.
A mostly happy Sebastopol resident,
Max
You might note that 20K from the Yes on U campaign comes from the employee union. The big signs are signs of big money. Not necessarily the best interest for citizens.