Five candidates are vying for a spot on the Cloverdale City Council this year. Two seats, currently held by Melanie Bagby and Mary Ann Brigham, are up for election in November. In the coming days, we’re going to feature Q&As with the council candidates — Bagby, Brigham, Jenny Candelaria-Orr, Nicole Garcia-Hinchliffe and Todd Lands.
All candidates were asked the same questions.
Responses were edited for style and in some cases, length.
Cloverdale Reveille (CR): Tell us a little bit about yourself — what should longtime and new Cloverdalians know about you? What is one thing that folks who see you around town may not know about you?
Bagby: I’m a Sonoma County native and local business owner so I appreciate our rich history and I share many of the same challenges as my fellow Cloverdale business owners. My educational and professional background help me understand the economic and social forces at the root of our most challenging issues and enable me to support policies to address systemic causes and inequities, not just symptoms.
CR: Should you be re-elected, how do you plan to stay engaged with the Cloverdale community?
Bagby: As councilmember and 2019 mayor, I regularly attend and support public meetings and events; return calls and emails promptly; make myself available to meet in-person with constituents, developers and local elected officials and staff; and maintain transparency by reporting my activities in writing and verbally at council meetings and on social media. During the pandemic, I’ve made a special effort to push out resources on resiliency and wellness on social media, have small meetings with constituents at our outdoor restaurants and attend virtual community events.
CR: City council members serve on a handful of other boards and subcommittees both across the county and in the city. Do you plan on representing the community on a similar scale as you do now? As someone who’s served on a wide variety of committees, what do you see as the value both locally with subcommittees and regionally with boards?
Bagby: I currently chair the Police, Administration and Finance subcommittee. I also represent Cloverdale on several regional boards where we are required to have a representative. As members of these Joint Powers Authorities (JPAs) and the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that governs Russian River Watershed Association, we are required to send representatives, and, our communities get out of it what our board members put into it. If a representative from Cloverdale is not there speaking up for our community and making vital connections between agency goals and local efforts, we simply won’t get our fair share of resources nor create the relationships and accountability that make local government work. Regional boards are also where our most complex challenges get addressed that small cities like Cloverdale simply can’t take on without our regional partners, e.g. wildfire, transportation, homelessness, climate resiliency and emergency preparedness.
Next year, I will seek appointment by Sonoma County Mayors & Councilmembers to the SMART Board of Directors so Cloverdale will once again have a strong voice advocating for SMART and the accompanying broadband fiber connection to Cloverdale. The value of having strong representation on regional boards means that we have a voice in solving our most daunting regional challenges and giving our legislators the political support and real-world examples they need to represent us and our interests effectively.
CR: As cities, counties and states are wrestling with the current and future impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, what do you see as the city’s role in helping combat the impact of the pandemic and resulting shelter-in-place orders?
Bagby: During the pandemic, our immediate role as a small city is to implement and enforce policies from the County Health Department to ensure public health and safety. For our short-term economic recovery, we need to be laser-focused on infrastructure and development projects that will keep the local economy working. Our long-term economic plan needs to include expanding our tax base so we can spread the growing costs of infrastructure and city services over more residences and businesses and really understand how the work-from-home movement is impacting our jobs/housing ratio and how that should influence long-term planning.
CR: What are the top three issues you see the city having to address in the next year? In the next four years?
Bagby: In the next year: addressing our vulnerability to wildfires, floods, PSPSs, pandemics and other potential disasters; budget shortfalls, especially if Measure R and Measure DD don’t pass; and moving our focus from solving the emergencies of the past year to our long-term goals. In the next four years: apply long-term strategic planning in our zoning and development goals to reflect changing economic conditions; work with the county and at the regional level to ensure Cloverdale gets our fair share of homelessness and mental health care resources, parks and open space planning, and resiliency and disaster preparedness dollars; and foster a culture of cooperation and a shared vision between city government, the school district, our major employers and Chamber of Commerce, community organizations, service groups and residents for a sustainable and vibrant Cloverdale.
CR: What do you think makes you a good fit for re-election on the Cloverdale City Council?
Bagby: In the past four years, my voting record and how I’ve conducted myself reflect the respect I have for the voters and that I take the responsibility of being your representative very seriously. We may not always agree or come to the same conclusions, but I have been transparent, straight forward and responsive and have always acted with the best interests of the entire community in mind. I believe this is the kind of leadership Cloverdale needs going forward.
CR: Is there anything else you believe readers should know about you or your platform?
Bagby: My level of experience, record of service to Cloverdale and breadth of knowledge set me apart. Before elected in 2016, I served seven years on the Cloverdale Planning Commission (five as Chair), five years on the Sonoma County Economic Development Board, was one of Cloverdale’s appointees to RCPA’s Climate Action 2020 working group, am a 2009 Fellow of the Leadership Institute for a Sustainable Future and hold a BA in Political Science from Pepperdine University. I am a technology professional and small business owner and bring these skills to improving operations at city hall, being responsive to community priorities and needs, and balancing our budget. This breadth of experience means that I’m equipped to work on the wide array of challenges Cloverdale faces today. I work hard on issues important to individual residents; work well with employers, developers, and regional partners; and effectively lobby for our interests with county, state and federal representatives. Your vote will keep me working for you. More information about me, my endorsements, my accomplishment, goals and platform at www.melaniebagby.com.
