Maureen Shea's answers to WaccoBB Sebastopol City Council Questionnaire

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Please tell us a little about your background and why you want to run for the Sebastopol City Council.

I’m a 59 year old wife (Dan Friedman) , mother, step mother, and grandmother. All of our children have attended schools in Sebastopol and are Analy HS graduates. Our 2 grandchildren are currently at Pinecrest and Brookhaven schools. I grew up in Fort Bragg and Ukiah and I’m part of the 5th generation of my family who have lived in Mendocino County. My father was a logging truck driver and my mother was a homemaker. I’ve worked in mental health, in a women’s shelter, hospital and ER admissions. I went back to school in my 40’s as a re-entry student and finished a BA in Anthropology and then went on the graduate school, earning a MA in Organization Development. Since then I’ve been a project coordinator for Shelter Solutions; the consultant hired to direct the 2001 Homeless Count for Sonoma County, and a business partner in Xolar Corparation, dba The Hot Tub Store in Santa Rosa and the Sacramento area. I’m now partly retired, working 2 days a week in our Vacaville store as a sales consultant.

A couple of years ago, I volunteered as a Deputy Field Organizer in New Mexico for the Obama campaign. I felt hopeful and positive and I saw what was possible when we engage in our civic duty to pay attention to politics. I continued on for 10 months after the election as a community organizer to help bring forth the programs that mattered to me: Health Care Reform and Financial Reform. My role was to engage and empower others in the process in a respectful and inclusive atmosphere. I made hundreds of phone calls to local voters asking them to participate by calling on their representatives, even if they had a different point of view. I feel a strong sense of civic duty and responsibility. At the time I decided to run there were only 3 people who had stepped up for the 3 open seats. I believe that a healthy democracy depends on local involvement and I’m at a time in my life where I have the time, education, experience, and energy to serve on the city council if I’m elected.

When and why did you move to Sonoma County?

I moved to Sonoma County in 1972 because of friends, work, and school. I first moved to Sebastopol in 1973.

How have you have been involved in the Sebastopol community?

I volunteered from 1991-1998 in the local schools. I volunteered with Organizing for America and MoveOn since 2008 helping to organize rallies, phone banks, and tabling around issues of health care, climate change, and financial reform.

What experience and values do you bring to the table?

I have skills (as a facilitator, trainer, and team builder), education (BA Anthropology and MA Organization Development), and experience (consultant for government homeless count, retail and service business management, and Board President of The Children’s Village) that I think will make me an effective council member.

Values: Respect for the environment. I’m a humanist who believes we need to deeply listen to each other, speak our truths, and work for the greater good. Peace starts locally and attacking another person’s point of view is an act of war.

What important decisions of the Sebastopol City Council from the last 4 years, including the Northeast Plan, do you particularly agree or disagree with?

Rather than looking backwards, I would prefer to look forward. My experiences from walking the neighborhoods, and talking with people in town is that most people are have gotten past the Northeast Plan controversy. I don’t know if a city council can take on the kind of long term process like the NEAP, when we have a 2 year cycle of elections.

I disagreed with the decision to not accept free wi-fi from Sonic. However, I understand the privacy concerns. I think the smoking ordinance went too far, there could have been provisions for exceptions, i.e. set aside units with full disclosure, like smoking rooms in hotels.

Would you vote to spend $20,000 for a study of the feasibility of eliminating one or more city parking lots?

No

Would you support a free wi-fi system for Downtown Sebastopol at no cost to the city?

Yes

How would you support our local economy?
First, I would listen to local business owners. I think it’s crucial to maintain our infrastructure, and create the infrastructure needed for the future. I will work on developing EV charging stations, improving parking opportunities, and helping to make Sebastopol a tourist destination to patronize our local businesses.

What do you see as the most pressing current problems in Sebastopol, and what would you do about them?

I think there could be ways to improve traffic in the downtown area. I would like to see Park and Rides at all ends of town to encourage carpooling and hopefully reduce car traffic downtown. For visitors I'd like to see easy parking on the edges of downtown with a free shopping/tourist jitney. For big event weekends (Apple Blossom/Gravenstein Fair/Art Trails/Farm Trails...) I'd like us to ask the promoters to arrange parking away from the event with free shuttle transportation. I'm sure there are other ideas out there and I hope we can continue to seriously work towards reducing the traffic congestion downtown.

What is your vision of Sebastopol in 2030?

And what's the most pressing long term issue? We’ve moved beyond being a culture that is completely dependent on the individual need to own a car to a culture that has embraced regional, energy efficient transportation systems. We are careful stewards of our water. We have a vibrant diverse community with room for all economic groups. We have day lighted our streams and we have left room for the wildlife of this area to co exist with us. I think we are in a time that might be best compared to the United States in 1900. Imagine asking a city council person in San Francisco what the biggest issues were then. Most likely they would have been worried about the horse population in the city and how to clean up manure on city streets. Within the next 20 years everything changed and whole vibrant economies became almost extinct and new ones emerged. I have a hunch that we will look back in 20 years and be amazed by what we didn’t see coming. However we can build on our culture of tolerance and acceptance and keep our community vibrant and strong through music, the arts, and civil public discourse.

Water supply will be our most pressing long term issue. Even if our wells can continue to access water for local residents, we are completely intertwined with the region around us and any water scarcity in the area will be a challenge. We may have to make decisions to protect our water that might include rationing, outlawing lawns and certain agricultural practices. We may also have to ban the use of products that in large-scale use contaminate our water system. This is also an opportunity for innovation that will create new types of jobs and products and we should be actively encouraging and supporting the development of these new industries.

What does "sustainability" mean to you?

Not living beyond our carrying capacity for water, traffic, food production and not allowing practices that will impact our grandchildren’s grandchildren ability to have access to clean air, clean water, and healthy soil. For me it means not using toxic cleaning products, buying organic as much as possible, and careful water and energy use in our household. I try to think about the impacts of buying products that use materials that create social and environmental injustices in other parts of our world. These are complicated and complex issues to work through and I certainly have my areas of rationalization, or ignorance, to confront.

What will you do to preserve, protect and enhance the environment? I think we have to be prepared to make difficult decisions that could impact an individuals sense of rights. I will work for us to be less dependent on petroleum. We have to be prepared to think about where we will get the materials to maintain our roads and/or give up our entitlement to solo transportation; most of us never use public transportation.

Do you feel you have any inadequacies as a potential Council member? How would you address them?

Other than being human and not perfect? I think in some ways being a council member is like being on a spiritual path and having to constantly encounter one’s weaknesses honestly. I will always ask myself, was I effective and what did I learn that will help me in the future. I will surround myself with a “kitchen cabinet.” I will strive to reach out to all stakeholders.

Who has endorsed you?

Sonoma County Democratic Party, Progressive Democrats of Sonoma County, Sierra Club, Sonoma Group, Sonoma County Conservation Action, current city council members Larry Robinson, Kathleen Shaffer, Vice-Mayor Guy Wilson, former member Howard Levy, David Walls, Jim Corbett (Mr. Music). More supporters can be found on my website: www.voteformaureen.org

Do you think it is appropriate for the city to take official stands on national issues, and if so, what stands would you like to see taken?

Yes, if we are representing the majority of our citizens. I was pleased when the city supported health care reform, and objected to the invasion of Iraq. I would like us to take stands on opposing DADT, supporting gay marriage rights, and ending the war in Afghanistan.

Do you support CA Proposition 19 to legalize marijuana? And if it passes, what taxes or regulations would you want to see applied?

Yes, prohibition does not work and is too costly. I want to study the issue more before I talk about specific taxes. I do support a sales tax on commercial sales. I have concerns about outdoor growing because of air quality/odor issues. I was visiting my aunt in Ukiah recently and the odor of marijuana growing in a nearby area was thick in the air and overpowering. I know people who have asthma who are impacted by the particulates in the air that are given off by a maturing plant. I’d like a permit process for growing, and I would prefer all growing be done in greenhouses for security and air quality protection. I would encourage the federal government to legalize and relinquish regulations to the states.

Please visit Maureen's website: www.voteformaureen.org for more information.