Longtime council member reelected, looks to work on COVID recovery, town unity
Debora Fudge’s swearing in on Dec. 3 ushered in her seventh term as a member of the Windsor Town Council. Despite that long history, the election of 2020 was a first for her in many ways. For the first time, she was being elected as a district representative, not an at-large council member. And, for the first time, a local election reflected some of the vitriol seen on the national stage.
Fudge, 64, who owns local small business Wine Country Preserves, won with 1,860 (53.87%) of the votes over challenger Jeffrey Leasure with 1,593 votes (46.13%).
“I feel very grateful to District 3, as well as the Windsor community, for entrusting me to another term on council. I’m very proud of what I’ve accomplished for Windsor since I began as a volunteer on the Planning Commission in 1994,” she said. “I moved to Windsor 30 years ago this week and I’m so glad I did. The accomplishments I’m most proud of in my life were not in my paid career at PG&E, they were what I’ve been able to contribute to our great quality of life in Windsor.”
Among those accomplishments, Fudge cited her part in the creation of the Town Green and downtown, the planning and design of the Vintana, Vintage Greens and Shiloh Greens subdivisions, bringing Russian River Brewing company to Windsor and the recently-installed 5,000 floating solar panels on wastewater pond.
And, it was those accomplishments that were the highlight of Fudge’s campaign.
“My campaign strategy focused at first on what I’ve accomplished,” she said “I’ve been involved here for 26 years, and people who have moved here after 2002 may not have really known my part the creation of the downtown and Town Green. So, my first flyer described that history.
“Then, I focused on what I’d like to accomplish in the next four years. My main goal is to complete the Town Green which includes a hotel and a new civic center, tax-free for Windsor residents,” she continued. “I’m very proud that we’ve never put a sales tax measure on the ballot — we are the only city in Sonoma County without a city sales tax. We also have not put a parcel tax on the ballot as a town either. My goal is to keep it that way.”
Fudge’s support for the so-called Town Green Civic Center project has been a source of contention. In fact, many of her most vicious critics cited her support for the project as a reason for their vitriol. But, Fudge remains steadfast in her reasons for exploring the proposed project.
“We need a new town hall, new library and new police station, and the hotel development through a ground lease of the land the town owns can pay for those new buildings,” she said. “It’s important to keep the Civic Center project moving forward, and I will work to gather more community input on the second iteration of the project in the first quarter of 2021. It’s looking better but needs more community input.”
Windsor has been known as a town with strong sense of community, but this election seemed to put a strain on the reputation. Attacks online against Fudge and other candidates were vicious, and even included photoshopped images and memes.
“I’m still disturbed by the vitriol and lies and personal slander that occurred in this past election,” Fudge said. “It was so uncalled for, and it was upsetting to see our town go through such ugliness. That is not the town we’ve built.
“It came mainly through one campaign and by a few people who wanted one particular candidate to win the mayor’s seat,” she continued. “I hope there isn’t long lasting damage to Windsor because of it. Some of it continues — it needs to stop. Because of what we went through, there are some changes I plan to bring forward to the council to consider for future elections.”
Despite the pain of the experience, Fudge remains committed to serving the entire community.
“My biggest hope for Windsor is that we all, and I mean all, really appreciate how much we have in our sweet little town. We are lucky and fortunate to live where we do, and have what we have here. We are the jewel on the necklace of Sonoma County, and I think sometimes that is forgotten,” she said. “The election is over. The people have spoken, and now we need to move forward. I want the talk of ‘majority’ to end even though the majority did make their wishes known through their votes. We are all in this together.”
But in this year like no other, overarching everything is the COVID-19 pandemic.
“My first priority is to help get us through COVID. This pandemic has harmed so many Windsor businesses and the livelihoods of people who live here,” she said. “We should change our habits — myself included — and order take-out food a few times every week if we are able, to keep our restaurants afloat during this latest shutdown.”
And despite the seeming deep divisions, Fudge hopes that the town can come together, given the scope of the difficulties it is now facing.
“The biggest challenges we are facing are budget cuts we may need to make due to COVID, and moving Windsor forward past this recent election,” she said. “We’ve always been very fiscally responsible in Windsor, that’s why we have the most reserves of any other city in the county. But, we’ve all been hit hard with less municipal income because of COVID, and so we will yet again have to be creative as we build our next budget in June. We are good about thinking outside of the box, and have excellent staff to suggest ways we can move into 2021 and 2022 while still providing the great services that Windsor has come to expect.”
There are other projects too that Fudge wants to keep working on. “We’ve got some affordable housing projects that are moving forward, and they need the council’s help to get to construction,” she said. “And, we have approved housing units near the SMART train station that need a new developer to build them. I am also working on new ways to communicate with Windsor residents in a two way discussion, so that people know what we are working on, and can more easily participate and provide their input.”
“COVID has separated us, and we haven’t been able to meet in person at concerts or events in the downtown, or anywhere really,” she concluded. “I look forward to the summer of 2021 when we can be together again, break bread, maybe drink some wine, and move on together as the people of one, really special little town.”
