Today, I feel lucky because our fine former Mayor Dave is giving up his fun KSRO radio show while he runs for Petaluma City Council! It's official! Mayor Dave has come out of retirement as a Political Animal (though he's been a steady political pundit onair). He's joining Tiffany Renee, Karen Nau, Samantha Freitas and Mike Healy and Spence Burton in a race for just the THREE council seats open in November. Mike O'Brien seems to have left the hassle behind and stayed out of the race. It's an over crowded field...and I'll readily admit to having a coupla favorites!
Those two would be our former Mayor Dave (more on that below) and the hardest working non-elected I've about ever met, Tiffany Renee, who's never missed a council meeting since 2006! Has done remarkably many things last few years including Chairing the Sonoma Cty. Commission on the Status of Women, Chair of Petaluma's Technology Advisory Committee, serving on city's Development Code Advisory Committee, Co-Founder of Petaluma Community Coalition working toward bringing new developments in compliance with our new General Plan...and then there's Tiff as a NERT leader (Neighborhood Emergency Response Team), serving on the Tree Committee (no; she's not up one), part of the Coalition to Prevent Underage & High Risk Drinking. AND she's a fellow (strange idea, but stay with me) of the Leadership Institute for Ecology and the Economy, a founder of Petaluma Independent Business Alliance, a leading member of American Association of University Women, Petaluma and State, Board of Directors of PCA. You need more? I'll give you more - participant in the Green Coalition for Responsible Waste/Resource Management, Friends of the Petaluma River, McKinley Elementary PTA, Petaluma Junior High School PTSA, Petaluma High School Music Boosters (just was chaperon as they traveled to Washington D.C. for a concert!)...and then there's Sustainable Petaluma and Petaluma Tomorrow. Makes a mere mortal dizzy! Even more at VoteforTiff.com

Remarkable this election season is David Glass leaving his afternoon job - KSRO host of the David Glass Show - which he loves a lot - because he feels it's just too important for him to be on Council - too many urgent issues for Petaluma. I, for one, am delighted! Mayor Dave was always the one to get to agreement whenever possible; to speak clearly about the essentials and make sure we didn't get sidetracked away from protection of our Urban Growth Boundary, developing SMART codes for the Central Specific Plan, getting fair development fees for the city - for just making sense of the wildly detailed policies we have to follow to get anything done.

So glad Dave is ready and willing to take on the business of the city. Let's see - I've been trying to write about those urgent issues - but sometimes they seem like morphing, running targets - getting worse or different or in a different order of importance. Let's just say WE'VE GOT ISSUES, FOLKS!
OK, I feel a short list coming on -

Water Rate initiative - VOTE NO ON RATE ROLLBACK What? Water Wars may be down the road (we're in year 2 of drought and will need the equivalent of 6x normal rain water to get to normal with more of the same drought coming). We've got a state-of-the-art system 90%+ ready to go and the rates we'll have to pay match what other cities in our county pay - but Bryant Moynihan says stop - roll back the rates? Might make sense if it didn't cause Petaluma to go bankrupt or ruin the city's credit rating by not paying back loans (received at a rate of something like 2.4% interest - impossible to get ever again!) This issue is crazymaking all by itself!
There's a new group, Petalumans for Clean Water & Fiscal Responsibility (PCWFR) and their site says: A small group of naysayers has launched an initiative to roll back the City approved water rates necessary to pay for our new water treatment & recycling plant and updated water system. Without these infrastructure improvements, Petaluma will be threatened with fines for Clean Water Act violations, will lack recycled water to extend our water supply and would default on our low interest State loan; costing the people of Petaluma up to $60 million in additional interest while permanently damaging the City's credit rating.

Sounds about right to me...and then there's that statement flung about that we could also go bankrupt or lose our credit rating or both. Yucky...don't go there - note NO!

Development of our last big swaths of land in a net positive manner. Land use policy seems in great shape. We just passed a General Plan, 7 years in the making, which includes Goal 9-G-1 "focus(ed) on attaining a diverse and sustainable local economy, including Policy 9-P-2 concerning ensuring that new commercial development will have a net positive impact on the community" - and THAT'S all good - but getting to how this translates into how the land is actually used is like chewing leather - thick and tough. But we'll get there.

Traffic - Well, we gotta use cars less, I say. The air needs a good vacuuming and we ain't got a sky vacuum so we're just gonna have to take the bus - and less often according to me. But with our Attorney General, Jerry Brown, suing the city of San Bernardino for failing to live up to its committment to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG), we're looking at breaking our own committment to reduce GHG - from the 20% promised to way down there at 8%. Somebody bring out the scientists - or is it the strong father discipline we need here? We simply have to change HOW we live not just our cars.

And where traffic and GHG are concerned, aren't you wanting the SMART Train to take some of the cars off the road and make sure something is running when it starts to get way expensive to repair roads? Well, thay may only be science fiction - except in Wisconsin where some cities are deciding not to fix roads - too pricey.

The future of the Fairgrounds - a Fair Hearing, please! When a few people from the Fairboard met with just two of the subcommittee from the Council to make decisions for the town lately - to the tune of an extension of the $1 per year lease for FIFTY TWO more years without reviewing the lease (?) Another crasy night at council, folks! Mayor Dave left work early to get to the afternoon meeting (sneaky kind of way to pass along decisions that need public noticing!) and pointed out it wasn't a personal attack, but it would have been fine to put the Fairgrounds lease on the agenda as a topic for discussion - but not for action - since neither Mayor Torliatt, the City Manager or City Attorney had a chance to consider the issue, being as how Mayor Pam was not informed of the meeting she should have been invited to and both City Manager and City Attorney were on vacation at the time! Bet a lot of the sweet 4-H people in support of the Fair were surprized to hear how shabbily the Mayor, City Manager and Attorney were treated at this pass.

So probably you reading this have begun the inevitable switch from newsprint to internet - and I'm a tad in your process? Way more to come, baby! Where's your rainwater catchment system so you can water your victory garden during the drought of 2012? Did you commit to an exercise routine so you will avoid early heart attack and cancer - and be one of those "lucky" 80-year-olds going on 60"? It's up to you - and a lot of pills. Take the right ones.

I'd recommend DrWeil.com and walking Shollenberger Park 2x fast - but not when I'm there. Crowded enough already - and did I mention Dutra plans a tar pit across the River from our regional bird preserve? Good way to kill the fledglings - and my appetite for walking Shollenberger!

Thanks, Mayor Dave, Tiffany and others for your willingness to serve. I'll be voting for these two...any other seeking my vote will have to show me their plans for "helping" the city move toward a healthy local economy and community...I'm not from Missouri, but people from Chicago are skeptical about politicians, too.