Candidates for Petaluma City Council top left: District 4 candidates Jefferey "JJ" Jay, Frank Quint. Top right District 5 Candidates
Alexander DeCarli, Blake Hooper. Bottom row, from left: District 6 candidates Mike Healy, Lance Kuehne and Brian Barnacle
Images courtesy of each candidate.

Seven of eight candidates for three seats on the Petaluma City Council met online Thursday evening to introduce and distinguish themselves in a candidate forum. It was hosted by Los Cien, the local Latino-based leadership organization. 

There were few fireworks during the two-hour long session. Questions ran the gamut from diversity in city leadership....to mobile home parks....to the height of new downtown buildings.

The only universal position---no one likes the M-Group. That's the private company that's been contracted to run the city's planning department for the last decade and a half. All seven said they would move the department in-house.

Each also lamented the under-representation of Latinos and other groups on the council and city commissions. They urged increasing commitments to provide materials in languages other than English.

Councilmember Brian Barnacle said that if he were re-elected, instead of seeking a third term four years from now, he would instead recruit someone from an under-represented group to take his place.

Barnacle is seeking the District 6 seat, facing another sitting council member, Mike Healy, who did not attend, and newcomer Lance Kuehne.

"As Brian said, it's pretty tough to run for city council because it's largely an unpaid position, so that really discriminates against people who don't have funds or time to do that. So I think that changing that compensation would go a long way as far as running for city council, but that's part of the city charter, and that's another issue," Kuehne said.

The proposed EKN Appellation Hotel, and accompanying proposed changes to height limits and zoning in parts of downtown, had few boosters among the candidates.

"I don't support any iteration of the hotel that I have seen," said planning commissioner and candidate for council District 5, Blake Hooper.

Alexander DeCarli, Hooper's opponent...went further, condemning the very concept.

"The current planned hotel is not good for Petaluma, it's going to take away the charm, it's going to make downtown look bad, and I'm not sure that it's even going to be filled," DeCarli charged.

He added that if zoning changes are approved...allowing six story buildings...a recent state law creating "density bonuses" for certain types of residential construction would push that six to nine stories.

"That would absolutely destroy Petaluma, having skyscrapers like that," DeCarli argued.

When it was his turn, Barnacle responded the proposed changes are needed if the city is serious about housing construction.

"The biggest barrier to building affordable housing is the funding. While my opponents are going to oppose the overlay, they are not going to be able to bring forward a solution to actually put revenue, put money toward building affordable housing, and I am," Barnacle said.

If anything, the issue provided the clearest distinction for voters in district 6. Again, Lance Kuehne

"The overlay is just a means to create this hotel that's out of scale with our downtown. I don't think it's actually going to help the economy of the downtown or is it going to improve housing at all. I ran a business there for 15 years there in the downtown and our main problems are-have to do with getting permits from the city, a lot of those chain-link fences that you see are from businesses that they can't their permits from the city," Kuehne said.

Frank Quint, seeking the District 4 seat, said he would look for compromise on the issue.

In terms of rent control, most said they are happy with and support new city-wide protections for renters.

Barnacle said he'd like to push further.

"I'd like to add some protections for indoor air quality, to make sure gas stoves do not create toxic air. To provide some protections around mold and leaky windows, because those create health hazards and then I think that I'd like to explore making it so that you can't evict a family during the school year," Barnacle said.

Kuehne said he'd seek middle ground on the issue.

"I know that some landlords complain about any regulation and tenants, they want to stay in their home and I definitely support things like making sure that rent increases don't exceed a certain amount each year and that there's adequate notice of they are going to be asked to move and also making sure that the landlords properly take care of their properties," Kuehne said.

DeCarli, seeking the seat in District 5 however, expressed reservations.

"Rent control has some unintended consequences, I think it seems on the surface straightforward that it protects tenants, but I don't know that it really does in the long run. I think once you start to constrain people, landlords, it doesn't incentivize them as much to own anymore and it causes you to get into situations where, where they have to sell and then the tenant has to move and then rents go up after that," DeCarli said.

His opponent, in contrast, views housing affordability as an existential threat.

"Right now in Petaluma the two communities most likely to be facing shelter-less status are family aged populations and our seniors. That is the death sentence for the future of a community if you lose the future and the past," Hooper surmised.

To start turning the tide, Hooper urges changing rules to encourage a diversity of smaller dwellings that theoretically would carry more modest prices.

"Cottage units, row houses, duplexes, quad-plexes, and smaller ADUs, already pre-designed and built-out so that small scale developers can easily can come in and bring those units to some of our smaller infill zoning lots," Hooper said.

Candidate Jeffery "JJ" Jay said the city should explore raising it's inclusionary zoning requirement while encouraging lower cost construction.

The forum was recorded and is available on the Los Cien YouTube channel, here.