How Petaluma became a city

In 1858, Petaluma was a bustling, fast-growing community that was clearly looking for permanence on the banks of its commercial river. The area had grown along with the booming city on the other side of the Golden Gate, but for very different reasons. Southern Sonoma County was the larder from which the tens of thousands of gold seekers were fed on their way through to the fabulous treasuries buried in the eastern mountains.

The city’s first form of organization was basic incorporation. Reported details of the beginning are a bit murky: A Board of Trustees was elected on April 12, 1858, but the news wasn’t published until April 23 in the Journal, the town’s paper of record. And just who voted isn’t very clear, although it would likely have been all males over the age of 21 owning property in the city limits.

Five trustees were elected along with a recorder, a treasurer, a marshal and an assessor. They rented the top floor of the Post Office at $20 a month and the city was in business. The first order of business was picking John Brown as top policeman at $60 a month. The next order of business was building a street and appointing a committee of two to propose an ordinance setting up licenses for business and transportation.

The city’s very first ordinance set quarterly fees for doing business in town: bankers and brokers ($5), merchants and storekeepers ($2.50-$6, depending on sales), barrooms ($7), and more, covering everything from the Chinese wash house to visiting circuses. You paid to do business, every quarter.

Every form of transportation required a license, too. “Sec. 17: The owner or owners of every stage coach, hack, carriage, cab, dray, cart, car, wagon, or other vehicle used for hire, or for vending merchandise, with the limits of the City of Petaluma, shall pay for a license to use the same, per quarter…” and set rates based on number of horses and type of vehicle. Horses and bicycles were licensed, too.

A speed limit was added soon after: “No person shall ride or drive any horse or other animal through the streets … at a faster gait than a common trot.”

In 1911, citizens voted to operate the city under a freeholder’s charter, a move that gave Petalumans much greater control over how they govern themselves. Called the “home rule” provision of the state constitution, the charter was based on the idea that a city is better able to govern itself than the state. While it doesn’t spell out all the rights and privileges that are purely municipal, under a charter a city can regulate its own police force, set up subgovernments (like planning, public works, etc.), conduct city elections, and decide how municipal officers are elected. The state now trumps in matters of traffic and vehicle registration, tort claims against a government agency, and school regulation.

Today, there are 478 cities in California, 108 of them are chartered.

Petaluma’s original charter calls for an elected mayor and six elected councilmen serving staggered four-year terms, with the mayor and three councilmen elected at one time and the other three council members elected two years later. From the start, these jobs have been paid minimum stipends: the mayor gets $10 a meeting and the council members $5. Every attempt to increase payments has been defeated at the polls.

In 1947, the charter was amended to provide for a city manager-type of government, with a well-paid executive officer hired by the City Council to run the growing city. The manager runs the city, oversees all aspects of administration and budgeting and is answerable only to the council. Until 2001, it took a vote of five council members to remove a city manager, but voters amended the charter to allow a simple majority of four to do that, somewhat weakening the city manager’s position.

While the city used to set its own property taxes, 1976’s Proposition 13 put a cap on them and moved administration to the state. Property taxes — 1 percent of assessed value — are collected by the county and then redistributed by the state. The rates haven’t changed, but property values have. The costs of bonds is added to the tax bill and is separate from property taxes.

(Contact Jay Gamel at argus@arguscourier.com)