It’s not usual for the Healdsburg City Council to have two meetings in December, one of them just a week before Christmas. But a technological breakdown at the Nov. 21 meeting meant there remained a lot of year-end work to do, so the council met on Dec. 19 to attend to this.
One problem, Healdsburg’s new mayor, Ariel Kelley, was out of town, having planned “some family holiday travel, assuming the meeting would be canceled,” as she told the Tribune. But thanks to the pandemic-adjusted rules for civic meetings, she was able to chair the meeting remotely and called it to order at 6pm on the dot.
The meeting needed to happen in order for the council “to conduct some routine business items, like adopting the fire and building codes, which were set to expire at the first of the year,” said Kelley. It was also a good time to schedule two personnel issues that can affect the city’s business for the coming year: appointing councilmembers to various local and regional committees, and vetting the four candidates to replace Jerry Eddinger on the city’s Planning Commission.
Eddinger resigned from the commission at the end of October, bringing to an end 48 years with the city in various roles, including council members and mayor. He was given an emotional send-off by the council at their Dec. 5 meeting, complete with an ovation from many community members who had worked with him or used his general contractor business over the years.
But his departure was not without a shadow. As general contractor overseeing the significant remodel of the former Honor Mansion on Grove Street, and its transformation into the luxury Ruse resort, he had to recuse himself when the permit approval for the project came before the Planning Commission on Oct. 25. The reason: Community Development Director Scott Duiven had rejected the project’s use permit in September, prompting an appeal to the Planning Commission.
But that commission voted unanimously to support Duiven’s decision, and denied the appeal. Not unexpectedly, that vote was appealed to the next body up the power structure—the city council—which has yet to hear the appeal.
But now the city council has two new members, Ron Edwards and Chris Herrod. If there were any predictability on how the former council would have ruled on the Ruse’s appeal, all bets are off with the newly filled seats. One more thing: Kelley, as an immediate neighbor of the Ruse, must be recused, so a four-member council will decide on the forthcoming appeal.
The other side of Eddinger’s resignation is that it opens up a seat on the Planning Commission itself, the seven-member body that holds public hearings on proposed development plans, conditional use permits and other land use matters. The open commission seat was posted in November and drew four applicants, who were introduced to the city council at Monday’s meeting.
The four applicants are Jerry Haag, Alex Wood, Todd Gale and Stephen Barber. A five-year resident of Healdsburg, Barber is a loan officer. A relative newcomer to Healdsburg, at two years of residence, Gale is a facilities engineer.
Haag is a retired former city planner and planning consultant who has lived in town for 15 years (and lists Eddinger among his three references), with multiple projects in Sonoma and Napa counties listed on his CV. The final candidate is Woods, who graduated from Healdsburg High eight years ago (2014), and is a regional supervisor at California Climate Action Corp.
Kelley proposed not one but two subcommittees, of two council members each, to interview the four applicants. A new and veteran council member were paired off for the interviews, and based on their seating at the meeting, Kelley suggested that David Hagele pair off with Ron Edwards, and Evelyn Mitchell and Chris Herrod comprising the other pair.
The two-member organization is necessary because the Brown Act forbids more than two sitting council members communicating about city business outside of a formal meeting. “You can talk to the other person on your subcommittee, but you should not speak to any other member on the council until you arrive back at the dais,” said the city’s attorney, Samantha Zutler.
Hagele outlined four questions used in previous Planning Commission interviews, dating from 2019. Kelley noted some of the questions were already on the applications the candidates had filled out and offered her own version of the questions, which required more specificity from the applicants. After some discussion, the council agreed to apply Kelley’s more specific list of questions, and decided to “convene at a future meeting to deliberate and appoint a new planning commissioner.” That discussion and appointment is tentatively scheduled for the second meeting of the year, on Feb. 6, 2023.
The meeting concluded with the appointment of all council members to a large number of local and regional advisory boards, usually one each with an alternate. That process went quickly, and the appointments will soon be available on the city website at healdsburg.gov.
“I think my first meeting went relatively smoothly, all things considered,” said Kelley afterwards. “I am looking forward to the year ahead with a solid five-member council, including our two newest members, who both seem eager to participate and weigh in on Monday night. A very good sign for the years ahead!”
The Healdsburg City Council meets on alternate Mondays throughout the year, although their calendar is dark for July, and changes their meeting dates to the Tuesday following any Monday holiday. The council meets at City Council Chambers, 401 Grove St.; next meeting is Jan. 17.
