Op-ed in Petaluma Argus-Courier, October 11, 2006
Short Memories, Long Consequences
by David Keller
What kind of City Council will we get in November? What’s the legacy of past councils?
Don Bennett rewrites the history of his favorite city council, the “Balshaw Council” (really Mayor Hilligoss’), while damning the “Open Government Council” I served on from 1996-2000 as a mistaken interlude on the way to the current Council majority, whom he applauds.
While I am proud to see some of our ‘96-‘00 Council’s works come alive, others are being abandoned. Petaluma deserves better.
In 1999, we turned down privatization of the city’s wastewater treatment plant, after the 1990 Council tried to award a secret no-bid contract. Their deal was so bad for ratepayers that California PUC rejected it unanimously. We’re now building a state-of-the-art, publicly-owned plant, saving ratepayers millions of dollars.
After over 25 years of no-bid garbage contracts, in 1998 we started the open bidding process. Unfortunately, in 2005 the Council majority, led by Mike Harris, Mike O’Brien and Karen Nau, tried to sign a garbage contract with the highest bidder, until the public told them, “No!” The Council must be loyal to ratepayers, not huge businesses with big campaign donations.
We started Campaign Finance Reform in 2000, limiting donations and providing public financing. The new majority, led by Bryant Moynihan, Mike Harris and Mike O’Brien, gutted that law. In 2004, voters took control and reinstated lower campaign limits by citizen-initiated ordinance. However, huge amounts of development money infects Petaluma elections.
In 1998, we placed a 20-year Urban Growth Boundary measure for voters to decide; they approved it by 79% (candidates Mike Harris and John Mills opposed it), ending developers’ habit of sprawling over farmlands. Now we see industry efforts to build out Petaluma quickly rather than over 20 years, while complaining about supposed land shortages. We’ve had major housing and commercial developments approved over objections of staff, Planning Commission and neighbors. Favors for developers accumulate for the Dutra Quarry site, Riverfront, Magnolia and others. The result is too much development, too fast, with unmitigated traffic congestion, potholes, and not enough parks and playfields. This developer-friendly Council majority has not refused any significant developments in 6 years.
We pioneered the Central Petaluma Specific Plan with community and business support. Now adopted, this enables renewal of Petaluma’s heart. We balanced business and residential center-city land use and transportation systems – cars, freeway, trains, buses, bikes, pedestrians - to serve us all. We reorganized the Redevelopment Agency’s finances to support this. We insisted on a cinema downtown, not in freeway-frontage malls. But our downtown renaissance and city’s existing stores can be killed by massive overbuilding and traffic if the Council isn’t smart.
After Feb. 1998’s floods, we wanted to stop floodplain development, including Outlet Mall expansion, which threatened people’s lives, businesses and public money. But an emergency moratorium failed, when neither Mike Healy nor Clark Thompson voted for it. Following Dec. 2005’s floods, we have the majority’s so-called floodplain “building moratorium”, which allows projects in the pipeline to continue. Mayor Glass’ and Pam Torliatt’s proposed crosstown connector would deny new buildings in the floodplain. The floodplain should be left as parks and ballfields.
In 2000, we demanded ratepayer protection and disclosure of real costs of new water supplies and Sonoma County Water Agency contracts. We insisted on strong conservation and reuse programs, or we’d have water shortages and major environmental damages. We wanted answers, but got shouted down instead. In 2001, the new majority signed the contracts anyway. When SCWA told us in 2006 there wasn’t enough water, this Council finally directed staff to implement the kinds of water and energy savings we wanted years ago.
Will the new Council’s legacy be good for us all, or for special interests? We can choose a smart, responsive, honest and publicly-run Council instead of the developer-friendly majority we have now. We deserve better. Please join me in supporting Pam Torliatt, Teresa Barrett, Spence Burton and David Rabbitt.
David Keller is a former Petaluma City Council member, and is a manufacturer of specialized woodworking tools.
###