Hello West County - From Tim Sergent, Candidate for 5th District Supervisor
Hello West County! My name is Tim Sergent and I am working hard to be your next 5th District Supervisor. Let me begin by answering the question, “Why have you decided to run?” First and foremost, let me say I want to make a difference in the community I live in and love. I believe in action oriented, consensus building, common sense politics. Personally, as I drive along our crumbling roads, I sense a fundamental problem in our local governments’ ability to delivery this most basic public service. In the community at large, the failure of the Measure A general tax last year, demonstrates a lack of faith that new tax dollars would have been spent as promised, and overall frustration with the status quo. I am running to realign the priorities of our county government with those of the voters.
My understanding of the priorities of the 5th District are: repairing our crumbling roads, increasing access to affordable housing, growing the economy while protecting the environment, and providing our children with the skills, knowledge and hands on learning they need to actively participate in our ever changing local economy. In addition, if elected I will do everything in my power to keep the promise made to Roseland residents to complete the annexation process and make them a part of the City of Santa Rosa in 2017. We must also keep our beaches free and look for creative solutions to homelessness, especially regarding our at risk veterans who make up 25% of the homeless population.
I am under no illusion as to the hard work and dedication involved in serving as your 5th District supervisor. As the youngest of seven children growing up on a small ranch in Southern Oregon, I learned first hand about the values of hard work and pulling together as a team. I first moved to Sonoma County in 1988 after serving in the U.S. Army Infantry in Panama. I studied at Santa Rosa Junior College before transferring to U.C. Berkeley where I earned a degree in Social Science with a focus in social and economic development. Upon graduation, I moved to Washington D.C. where I worked as a staff assistant on the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee, and as a Congressional Liaison to the House of Representatives for the Secretary of Defense, during the Clinton Administration. This experience left an indelible impression and an unshakeable belief that anything is possible when people put aside personal interests in pursuit of the common good.
After Washington, I returned to Sonoma County and moved to Forestville where I have lived for the past 17 years. In 2003, I became a founding member of the Forestville Planning Association (FPA), an organization based on the principle that citizens in unincorporated areas should have a voice regarding developments affecting their communities. The FPA has grown to become an integral part of the community and played a key role in creating a downtown Forestville park.
For the past ten years I have been serving high needs children as an elementary and high school teacher. I earned an Education Specialist Credential from Dominican University at night, while teaching during the day. For six years I served in one of the most high need schools in West Santa Rosa. I saw first hand the struggles our low social economic status families face in their day-to-day lives. Yet despite these challenges, I used my fluency in Spanish, along with high expectations, a rigorous engaging curriculum and strong family engagement to create one of the highest performing Special Education classes in the Santa Rosa City Schools District.
In 2012, I was selected as one of only 2 teachers in all of Sonoma County for full time release from the classroom to work on the Proposition 30 campaign. Along with dedicated staff, I worked tirelessly to help achieve the passage of Prop 30 by some of the highest margins in all of California - the success of which has been crucial in returning desperately needed funding to our classrooms, and financial stability to our state. I support Career Technical Education in collaboration with local agriculture and businesses.
In everything I’ve done, I have sought to be a moderating voice that brings people together for the common good, because the future belongs to everyone!
https://www.sergentforsupervisor.com/home
Re: Hello West County - From Tim Sergent, Candidate for 5th District Supervisor
I moved to here in 1999 and became friends with Tim Sergent. I moved north from the Peninsula to attend graduate school at Sonoma State. I was a Cossack then a Seawolf. Tim was this great friend to play guitar with and who I would see at shows and parties...back then we were all finding ourselves. We went to school, loved live music, got jobs, paid the rent, and enjoyed each other's company. I always knew that Tim had a longer view. In my memories, he was often the grown up amongst us. (No offense Tim).
He has always been himself, and that self is thoughtful, engaged, and reserved. Never judging, a great listener, and always ready to jam with us with a guitar, or any percussion thing at my house, he made community.
I was never aware of his accomplishments (which are, turns out, are really impressive, at least to me), until he decided to run for office. I knew he went to junior college like me, some people knew he was a veteran. I didn't know he was a graduate of UC Berkeley, a congressional liaison in Washington for some years, and then came home and became a public school teacher. To me, for the last almost twenty years, he has been my neighbor and a kind person that this introvert was always happy and relieved to run into. He has always been forthright, interested, and kind...fully living in this place and aware of how lucky we are to do that.
I don't have a lot of money to promote political people. I keep to myself mostly. But I always root for the strong, the ethical, and most of all, the honest.
I wrote this because I want our home to be ours, and I want all candidates who try to have a chance, not just those with lots of money. My two cent only goes this far.
Thanks for listening.
