Calling all bakers
EDITOR: The Healdsburg Future Farmers Country Fair is calling all armature and professional bakers. On May 26 at 6:30 p.m. we will be holding our annual cake auction at the fair. We welcome anyone and everyone to bake a cake or come down and buy one. Cakes need to be to Recreation Park by 5 p.m. on Friday. All the proceeds go to help put on the fair every year. The theme this year is The World’s Biggest Little Fair. It is always a great time, and there are always great cakes to buy and share with your family and friends. Remember May 26, 2017 at 6:30 p.m. at Rec Park. We look forward to seeing you there.
Kelly Zimmerman
Healdsburg
The elephant in the room
EDITOR: In their Tribune interviews, the city council candidates all mentioned parking as an obstacle to locals using local businesses on weekends. They ignored the fact that weekdays are just about as bad. It seems to have become seriously congested since SoFi Financial opened offices in downtown Healdsburg. The suggestion has been made to enlarge the three-hour parking area. This would discourage business employees from using spots that shoppers, restaurant patrons and moviegoers would like to use.
Jane St. Claire
Healdsburg
Let’s be fair with comments
EDITOR: I can’t believe someone would suggest additional taxes for those who purchase a house in Healdsburg simply because it may be a second residence. There’s nothing wrong about what our quaint hamlet has become, and I’ve lived here since the sixties. Just yesterday I drove my parents around town to view the older homes that have been loving restored and/or renovated.
Folks, the alternative is that our antiquated neighborhoods fall in disrepair and eventually be bulldozed to make way for new houses that may or may not have personalities. Can everyone who may want to live in Healdsburg afford to purchase a house to restore/renovate? I certainly can’t, but that’s life. Life isn’t fair, but let’s be fair about our comments. Healdsburg is a wonderful place to live and there’s a lot to be grateful for; our restored bridge, our beach, our Fourth of July, our lake, our outdoor markets, our summer concerts … the people. I don’t understand why some folks don’t want to share what we cherish with others.
Brent Mortensen
Healdsburg
Kudos to Wood
EDITOR: Kudos to Assemblyman Jim Wood, who has expressed his support for SB 54, the “California Values Act,” recently approved by the California Senate and now about to be considered by the Assembly. The measure would prohibit state and local law enforcement agencies for using resources to investigate or arrest persons for immigration purposes; would protect the civil liberties of unauthorized immigrants by directing state and local law enforcement to report to ICE only those committing violent felonies, not misdemeanors; and would prohibit them from participating in immigrant roundups not narrowly aimed at suspected criminals.
By reserving immigration law enforcement to the federal authorities, SB 54 will also have the effect of preserving the community’s confidence in local law enforcement. Wood stated, ”I believe in SB 54’s core purpose and look forward to supporting it in its final form because I absolutely cannot support President Trump’s inhumane approach.”
Healdsburg is fortunate to have a representative so committed to this important civil rights issue.
Dave Henderson
Healdsburg
Vote counts more than ever
EDITOR: Are you concerned with affordable housing, tourism, tasting rooms, parking and open space in Healdsburg? If so, then you need to vote for Leah Gold for Healdsburg City Council. We have known Leah Gold for nearly 20 years. Over those years she has been very engaged in the community; serving on the city council from 2000-2004 and mayor in 2003.
Over the past 20 years we have had many discussions with Leah about the issues Healdsburg faces. Most recently, those discussions are about tourism, tasting rooms, parking, open space and renewable energy. We may not always see eye-to-eye, however, the discussions are always positive; Leah is willing to listen and engage. Leah’s ability to listen to others enables her to formulate informed opinions and make sound decisions. Not only does she consider many points of view, but she is willing to act. Leah will be a fair and balanced leader.
Leah cares about Healdsburg, she is intelligent, informed, open to discussion and a strong leader. For these reasons she is the best choice for the Healdsburg City Council.
Ron and Debi Dobley
Healdsburg
Experience matters
EDITOR: While the expression “Experience Matters” is an obvious cliché, it is particularly relevant to Healdsburg’s June 6 special election to fill a city council seat currently held by Gary Plass on an interim basis. Based upon our Tribune’s May 11 article, it is clear that all four candidates for council are eager to become personally engaged in the public service necessary to address the key challenges facing our community. In my view, that same eagerness and dedication to public service characterizes our current council members.
However, given the nature of our current challenges, a significant candidate attribute which must be weighed and considered is public service experience. Two of our current council members are newly elected and are still on a learning curve. Two others have some prior service council experience but are also still on a learning curve. Of the four candidates, only Gary Plass has 12-plus years of experience and a demonstrated, in-depth, institutional knowledge of our city’s many financial, planning and administrative processes. Additionally, besides his operating experience with all of our city’s managers, directors and staff, he also has personal connections to many county, state and federal public officials.
A specific example of the relevance of experience in the solicitation of these connections to address the needs of our Healdsburg community was Gary Plass’s role in securing federal funding for the rehabilitation of our Memorial Bridge. After our city selected our community’s preferred option of rehabilitation rather than the more costly demolition and replacement of our iconic bridge, there was significant pushback from our state’s department of transportation, Caltrans, relative to funding that option.
Due to his experience and federal connections, Gary Plass recognized that the source of these funds was our federal government and that Caltrans was only the conduit for these funds. Together with Tom Chambers, he contacted the relevant federal decision maker, persuaded him to visit our bridge and ultimately to approve the necessary rehabilitation funding. After our rehabilitation project was completed, that same federal person was invited and attended our Memorial Bridge’s dedication ceremonies.
There are many other examples of Gary Plass’ demonstrated experience on numerous council committees including the multi-city, Northern California Power Agency.
In summary, I will close by again emphasizing that “experience matters.” Demonstrated results flow directly from relevant experience. Please join with me in voting to elect Gary Plass to city council on June 6.
Mel Amato
Healdsburg
Knowledgeable perspective
EDITOR: I would like to respond to Maureen Jones’ letter of May 11 regarding Leah Gold’s comments at the recent candidate’s forum at Healdsburg High School. I also attended this forum. In response to a question about the shortage of affordable housing in Healdsburg, Ms. Gold said that she was concerned about the number of Healdsburg houses that were unoccupied for large portions of the year. These may be second homes or third homes, or investment properties, but when this number of often-empty houses becomes a significant part of the otherwise available housing stock, it is not unreasonable to express concern.
In her letter, Ms. Jones stated that “Second homes … are homes that were purchased to become [their] permanent residences.” This may be the case with some of these homes, but it is inaccurate as a blanket statement about these properties. “Ghost” properties purchased strictly as speculative investments have become a problem in many of the world’s highest priced real estate markets such as San Francisco, Paris, Melbourne, London, New York and Paris.
Here in Healdsburg, we must face the fact that some of these same speculative pressures are at play in our community. Rather than “not understanding” Healdsburg’s housing situation, Leah Gold expressed a sophisticated and knowledgeable perspective on what is going on in our real estate market. And rather than insisting that we impose some draconian tax on investment properties, Ms. Gold was wisely suggesting that we examine all ways to encourage maximum occupancy of available housing in Healdsburg.
Brian Geagan
Healdsburg
Partisan politics
EDITOR: We all know that the city council race is theoretically non-partisan, but after the Trump campaign’s hysteria, there are no more non-partisan races anywhere.
I believe that the Trump regime policies are about as far opposite of the needs and wishes of most Healdsburg voters as you can possibly get; from cancelling healthcare for 24 million people to deporting millions. We are now living with a nightmare in Washington and Healdsburg residents of good faith need to vote for whomever is the most likely to resist Trump policies.
If we are looking for an experienced candidate we have Ms. Gold and Mr. Plass. I asked them whether they voted for Donald Trump. Leah Gold replied with a strong no. Mr. Plass said “I am not a Trump fan.” Leah Gold is a Liberal/Progressive Democrat and Gary Plass is a conservative Republican. Neither are Trump fans.
The choice is yours and I strongly urge everyone to vote. Leah Gold is an experienced councilmember and former mayor who worked for years on issues like the urban growth boundary and I think she is the strongest candidate on affordable housing.
Michael Miller
Healdsburg
Reflects our values
EDITOR: I am writing to urge my fellow Healdsburg residents to vote for Leah Gold as the newest city council member at the June 6 special election. Leah is extremely qualified, having previously served on the council for four years and as mayor for one.
Beyond her experience, Ms. Gold has a true vision of what makes Healdsburg special and how we can balance the needs of residents, businesses and tourists. She understands the realities of the housing market here, and is willing to look at outside-of-the-box solutions that will bring both affordable housing and housing that is affordable (for those who make too much to qualify and yet too little to afford market rate) to our city. It is critical that our teachers, our first responders, our restaurant employees and young adults who grew up here are able to live and thrive here. But, they can’t. In the last two weeks alone, I’ve spoken with a local teacher who said she’s not sure that her family can afford to stay here, and a park ranger who is moving because of the cost of housing here. They are the future of our city, and they are being pushed out. Something’s got to give, and Ms. Gold is the only candidate talking about policies, such as a tax on second home purchases, that could make a real impact.
Leah Gold is the candidate who best reflects our city’s values. I recently attended a city council meeting, during which the council discussed how to allocate Measure V funding this year. The city staff presented the results of surveys sent out to Healdsburg residents. We, the people, had requested that 10 percent (or around $200,000) be allocated to affordable housing. The staff recommended that only $50,000 be allocated, and then changed that recommendation to $0 so that the $50,000 could be repurposed to outreach to the Latino community.
Despite comments from the community that both Latino outreach and affordable housing were high priorities, and should both be funded, the council voted 3-2 to pass the recommendations as is. Instead of $200,000 to affordable housing as recommended by the people of Healdsburg, the current council voted to allocate $0. (For comparison, $1.2 million was allocated to street repair.) If Leah Gold had been on the council, I believe the result would have been different, and would have better reflected our community’s vision of who we are and who we want to be.
Leah Gold is calm, smart, analytical and progressive. I hope that you will join me in supporting her on June 6.
Jenny Levine-Smith
Healdsburg
Need more women in government
EDITOR: I am writing to voice my support for Leah Gold for city council. I was very pleased with how she represented us during her first term on the council and I’m happy that she would consider returning. I feel that we need to encourage more women to participate in city government and that Leah is the most qualified woman. Also, as a Latina I feel confident that Leah would be a receptive ear to our community due to her personal and professional background in working with Spanish-speaking communities. Please join me in voting for Leah Gold on June 6.
Ana Zavala
Healdsburg
Voters have spoken
EDITOR: My vote is for Gary Plass for Healdsburg City Council. Gary is an experienced city council member. The Healdsburg community is important to Gary. He has always been available to look into and take action on things that are important to Healdsburg residents. He is a knowledgeable representative of our city on several county and state governing committees and boards. We need his continued expertise and interest on our council. We should have avoided the costs of this special election and appointed Gary for this seat. The voters spoke then and the council should have supported those results. Join me in voting for Gary Plass for City Council.
Mary Lou Eddinger
Healdsburg
Moderate housing needs
EDITOR: As longtime Healdsburg residents, we welcome both tourists and second home owners – but both have changed our town and stressed our infrastructure. Their influx has certainly also decreased housing availability and increased its cost, especially for young families and local workers.
Thanks to past city councils lead by Mike McGuire, Jim Wood, Leah Gold and others, Healdsburg has a great record on providing low cost and affordable housing. Now that local citizens bear the cost (with the loss of state redevelopment funds), Healdsburg citizens have already increased hotel taxes for affordable housing (Measure S, passing overwhelmingly in November of last year). Measure R (which would have removed the cap on housing construction), failed by a similar overwhelming margin. It failed because Healdsburg voters know that even if every available lot in Healdsburg was developed with market rate housing, this would hardly dent the demand on expensive housing, yet leave housing for the majority unaffordable.
Leah Gold is very forward thinking to propose a tax on second home owners to be used for moderate and inclusionary housing (that is housing reserved for, for example, local workers, teachers, or public safety employees). In her letter to the Healdsburg Tribune, Maureen Jones is right to suggest that, in order to maximize housing stock, homes that are being used as long term (but not vacation) rentals for locals should be exempted. This restriction would certainly fit with the intention of the tax to increase housing opportunities. Maureen is wrong in suggesting that this tax would make renting more difficult — just the opposite.
According to Healdsburg’s 2017 “City Profile,” our median housing prices are the highest in the county, yet our median per household income is actually less than the county average. To quote the report: “Healdsburg’s residential housing vacancy rate, for both available rental and homeowner inventory, is incredibly tight and getting tighter.”
Now that Healdsburg voters have spoken, the time for action and working together for innovative solutions is right now.
Brad, Pamela, Nicolas and Genevieve Drexler
Healdsburg
Tireless public servant
EDITOR: We are fortunate to have four excellent candidates in the upcoming special election for one city council slot. Consequently, the choice is difficult. However, I urge you to vote for Gary Plass. He has been a dedicated, tireless public servant. He has a great deal of council experience and is a veteran on the Northern California Power Agency, diligently looking out for Healdsburg’s electrical utility interests. He has the experience and the judgment at a time when that is needed. Gary has always had the best interests of Healdsburg foremost in his decisions and will continue to do so. Vote Plass on June 6.
Tom Chambers
Healdsburg
