Support of Measure T (formerly Measure V)
EDITOR: I support passage of Measure T to help maintain essential services in Healdsburg. Measure T is an extension of the former Measure V. It is not a new tax but rather an extension of an existing ½ cent sales tax measure that already exists. Measure V is set to expire in 2023. Measure T would continue until the voters chose to discontinue it.
Our major sources of revenue for Healdsburg are property taxes, hotel bed taxes and sales taxes. Of every $50 paid in property taxes, the city gets about $10. Similarly, a $50 purchase at a local retailer sends 75 cents to the city. Without Measure T/V the city would only collect 50 cents, cutting available funding from this source by one third.
So what does the city do with that extra 25 cents on a $50 purchase? A lot. This tax, paid for by visitors and locals alike, provides about $2 million a year to the city’s general fund. Measure T/V dollars have gone towards:
• Pavement surfacing and overlays across the city, as well as sidewalks (the sidewalk along South Fitch Mountain near Riverside and River’s Bend is a Measure T/V project)
• A COVID-19 emergency business loan program that went to 75 local small businesses, many of which were ineligible for federal PPP funding
• Three public safety positions (dispatch, police officer, fire fighter)
• Fire equipment, fire radios and fire station improvements
• Police body cameras, radio replacements and station improvements
• Economic development, including rent stabilization funds via COTS (a shelter and housing non-profit), Latinx outreach and support and utility bill assistance for persons of low income
Extending Measure V by passing Measure T two years before it ends will not increase your taxes — the taxes stay the same. The city is asking for this extension early to allow for long-term planning to help ensure the future of Healdsburg.
This has been every tough year on all of us, including city revenues. By passing Measure T now we will be providing stability for our future.
Please join me and votes yes on Measure T.
Alan Baker
Healdsburg
Roundabout couplet
EDITOR: What doth I see in burg of Healds?
Tis road of round in verdant fields.
Oh my! I fear their minds are lost,
for much was spent at mighty cost.
Afore was simple sign of stop,
that neither needed light or cop.
Before that was no sign at all,
whence I did spend much time at stall.
So mercy please to Healdsburg folk,
pray don’t make a traffic joke,
as was created on street of Grove,
around which yesterday I drove.
The monies will be better spent
on potholes, or maybe pay the rent,
of therapist for the crew of planning.
This couplet is now ripe for banning.
Paul Bernier
Healdsburg
Voting for Duffy
EDITOR: With six candidates vying for three seats on the Healdsburg City Council, the potential exists for a council that will focus on a long view of the city’s future. The absence of long-term planning, with all the significant changes in our world (fire, flood, pestilence), has been disappointing. A pattern of short-sighted decision making predates the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Sustainable Design Assessment Team (SDAT) Report. The planning function has repeatedly responded to developers with one-off negotiations. The Central Healdsburg Avenue Plan, which did engage the community, has not been replicated since 2013. Responding to a developer’s site-specific project is not planning. The city urgently needs an updated General Plan, Master Planning for specific neighborhoods and a Form Based Code. These three planning tools can help the city resolve long standing problems, from needed housing, to economic diversity, to enlivened and active neighborhoods.
Charlie Duffy, a Healdsburg resident for over two decades, will bring a thoughtful, cautious and reflective voice to the city council. He has been working with Healdsburg 2040, hoping the city would examine and commit to the recommendations the AIA offered in August of 2018.
Charlie and his wife Joan built a home here after years of being visitors. They chose Healdsburg as the place where they wanted to retire. Charlie brings a depth of pertinent experience to the role. In academic institutions, both large and small, he has been responsible for strategic planning, finance, evaluation and budgeting. These skills belong on the dais, supported by our competent city staff. With an understanding of the city as integrated system of many parts, the council can begin to make decisions that connect the parts. Charlie Duffy will bring that understanding to the city council.
Check out Charlie’s website (duffyforcouncil.com), for a detailed look at his background and his specific thinking about the issues which face our city. We need experience and vision on our Council. Charlie brings both, tempered by practicality and fiscal responsibility.
Please join me in voting for Charlie Duffy for city council.
Richard Burg
Healdsburg
Impressed with Jones
EDITOR: My husband and I are very impressed with Healdsburg City Council candidate, David Jones.
His goals of a balanced city budget and fire prevention on Fitch Mountain are high priorities for us. We feel he brings the capabilities and leadership to bring the community together to accomplish these and other important initiatives.
Anita Kratka
Healdsburg
Charlie Duffy for city council
EDITOR: Charlie Duffy is the best choice to vote for to become a member of the Healdsburg City Council. I have known Charlie for over 20 years, 17 of them as his neighbor when I lived in Healdsburg. He knowns Healdsburg and the needs of the community. He will bring his analytical and strategic planning skills, as well as fiscal knowledge, to develop an effective plan to improve the lives of all the citizens of Healdsburg. Once the master plan is developed, he will work tirelessly to have it implemented. In order to this he will need to bring together the members of the Healdsburg community and the city council. His planning and leadership skills make him an outstanding candidate to accomplish this plan. Voting for Charlie is a vote for both improvement of the economic and community vitality for the city of Healdsburg.
Herb Liberman
Former resident of Healdsburg
Measure BB
EDITOR: Measure BB privatizes our publicly-owned, community hospital. Yet, it will continue to be publicly funded by our annual $150 property tax far into the future. All together that comes to $3.5 million annually that St. Joseph, a Catholic, for-profit corporation will receive from our public property taxes.
By law, St. Joseph has to pay fair market value. The fair market value which was determined by a third-party to be $15 million is going to be paid $5 million to the hospital district which no longer has a hospital to run and $10 million as a kick back to St. Joseph to keep up and improve their new asset, the hospital. So, actually they are paying $5 million for it and before six months passes they will be reimbursed $3.5 million of that by way of our 2020-21 property tax. That leaves St. Joseph paying $1.5 million for a $15 million hospital, which includes the land, building and equipment. No wonder I keep getting endless flyers in support of Measure BB paid for by St. Joseph.
Measure BB is a rushed, bad deal put together by a financially inept hospital district and an opportunist St. Joseph. Certainly we can and should do better than this; even if it is true that the hospital district can’t seem to keep the finances afloat even with a $3.5 million annual infusion from the public. Perhaps, we should be looking for a different board of directors instead of selling off our hospital for pennies and continuing with a $3.5 million annual public infusion into a Catholic for-profit corporation.
Stephen Martin
Healdsburg
Adding value to city council
EDITOR: I greatly appreciate that in the city of Healdsburg our public discourse is civil, and for the upcoming council election we have a strong slate of candidates. My support and vote go to Charlie Duffy, who has been a very good neighbor over the years. Charlie is bright and articulate, with the ability to generate, from his own experience, workable ideas and solutions. His commitment to the greater good is evidenced throughout his career and in his involvement with Healdsburg issues. He knows how to be a contributing member of a team. His positions on the matters facing us are thoughtful. I believe Charlie would add a great deal of value to the Healdsburg City Council, and I encourage you to take a good look at his candidacy.
Doug Pepe
Healdsburg
Creative combination?
EDITOR: How about a creative combination to make (almost) everyone happy with the outdoor dining set-up downtown? I love enjoying the areas the city has created, and I also see the point of the non-dining businesses that are affected.
Why not close Plaza Street between Healdsburg Avenue and Center Street only on the Plaza side? (I think this was considered at the beginning of this process?) Outdoor dining could still be accommodated on the north side of the street, similar to what’s being done with the super spaces at KINsmoke and Valette.
Jane St. Claire
Healdsburg
