PD Editorial: Losing Kolin

A year ago, the American public voted for change. For Sonoma County, that change is still occurring.

On Tuesday, Santa Rosa City Manager Jeff Kolin surprised many by announcing that he’s on the verge of taking a new job as the chief administrator for the city of Beverly Hills.

If he goes, it would mark the third major change in government administrators in Sonoma County in the past five months.

County administrator Bob Deis resigned in June amid growing differences with a Board of Supervisors that had added two new members in the November 2008 election. Two months later, Rohnert Park City Manager Steve Donley resigned to remain in the U.S. Coast Guard. Last year, the Rohnert Park City Council also had seen the addition of two new City Council members.

The Santa Rosa City Council experienced a major power shift a year ago with the election of four new members. Kolin contends that the disagreements he has had with City Council decisions in recent months had nothing to do with his decision to seek this position. After all, few in his profession would pass on such an opportunity to work for Beverly Hills no matter how happy they are in their current position.

Nevertheless, it’s no secret that Kolin has had his differences with the current council majority, particularly on the issue of economic development.

Most notably, he appeared frustrated in February with the council’s tinkering with city-private developer agreements over the future of the land at Third and E streets, the former White House Department Store property. Kolin also differed with the council majority in September when it rejected a bid by Lowe’s to build new store on Santa Rosa Avenue about a half-mile south of Costco. He has encouraged the council to take a hard look at the long-term financial challenges facing the city.

Santa Rosa has been fortunate to have Kolin at the helm for these past nine years, and we congratulate him on this coming change, which appears to be a certainty. But the timing of it couldn’t be worse for Santa Rosa. It comes as the city faces a $8 million-to-$10 million budget deficit next year and a lack of clear vision at the top about how to develop the local economy.

This is change the city of Santa Rosa didn’t need.