Jonathan Greenberg's Concession Statement:
I congratulate the three incumbents on winning re-election. I applaud their dedication and commitment to our wonderful city. I feel as though our community was the winner in this election, because public awareness has been expanded on important issues, such as transparency in budgeting, what active role the City should play in helping Palm Drive hospital reopen, and whether or not Sebastopol will purchase electric vehicles and budget bike lanes.
I want to thank the 36% of the 2,354 Sebastopol citizens whose votes have been counted thus far . Their independent support contradicted a last minute smear mailer sent by a Committee established by Helen Shane, and Craig Litwin, and opposition from every member of our City's political establishment.
Far more important to me than our City Council race was the election of a new Palm Drive District Health Board majority, in Dr. Richard Powers and Dennis Colthurst, that is committed to reopening a hospital with an emergency room. The hospital closing, and the City Council's willingness to respond to it, was the issue that inspired me to run. And this is the issue that my campaign, and Progressive Sebastopol, the local grassroots group that I founded, focused most of our energy on. I want to thank our volunteers for their courage and hard work, donors for their generous support, and voters for their confidence in my candidacy, and the Progressive Sebastopol Voter Guide.
I am proud to have played a part in what I think has been a populist uprising to elect representatives committed to reopening our hospital, despite the endorsement of Jim Horn by all five of the City Council Members, as well as many self-proclaimed political leaders in Sebastopol.
The hospital reopening effort still has a long way to go, but the largest stumbling block to its success was removed by West County voters this evening.
This is good news for West County, and Sebastopol.