Challenger lays into incumbents at Sebastopol council forum

Sebastopol City Council candidate Jonathan Greenberg firmly established himself as an election outsider at a Wednesday night campaign forum, chastising sitting council members for what he said were lapses in leadership and transparency, and denouncing a council-supported utility tax measure on the Nov. 4 ballot.

Three incumbent candidates sharing the dais with him - Una Glass, Sarah Glade Gurney and Patrick Slayter - appeared mostly unruffled by Greenberg’s self-proclaimed role as populist challenger, however. Each of them touted recent council work as reason for them to win re-election and laid claim to popular priorities such as addressing traffic congestion, economic sustainability and neighborly communities.

But there were glimpses of frustration with Greenberg’s insistence that the council should play a larger role in efforts to reopen Palm Drive Hospital, which was closed last spring by the Palm Drive Health Care District, the independent entity that operated it.

“Repeating the same thing does not make it true,” Vice Mayor Slayter said in clear reference to Greenberg’s attachment to the idea that the council could take a leadership role in the hospital’s future. “The (health care) district is different than the city. The hospital is run by its own governing board ... and the idea that the city council, holds any sway at all is like asking the state of California to make a law that the state of South Dakota would need to enforce.”

The three incumbents have all backed one another, and have received endorsements from Mayor Robert Jacob and Councilman John Eder.

The incumbents, notably Slayter, an architect whom Greenberg has specially targeted in his council run, also corrected what they said were misrepresentations about the cost of a general plan consultant, the council’s interest in aiding efforts to restore emergency room service to town and various decisions related to a controversial CVS store proposed for downtown. Greenberg, a journalist and Internet entrepreneur, said the CVS decision was based on a faulty traffic study the council majority let pass.

Three council seats are open for election next month, including those held by Gurney, a 10-year council veteran, and Glass, who was appointed four months ago to complete the term of her husband, Councilman Michael Kyes, who died in May.

Glass, executive director of Coastwalk California, a statewide agency working to improve access to and stewardship of the California Coast, said her husband urged her before his death to apply to continue his work for a sustainable city. But she said she also was qualified in her own right to help govern Sebastopol.

As a longtime business owner, chief financial officer and aide to former Sonoma County Supervisor Mike Reilly, Glass said she had the financial management, analytical and political skills necessary for the job.

“I know how government works, and I know who to call and I know how to make things happen,” she said.

Gurney, an attorney and the top vote-getter by a large margin when she last won re-election, said she vowed to “put aside personal agendas and focus on the community good.”

“I’d like put my significant and substantial experience to work for our community,” Gurney said.

Wednesday’s election forum, sponsored by the Sonoma County League of Women Voters and the Sebastopol Chamber of Commerce & Visitor Center, may be the only public event featuring all four candidates together before the ballots close Nov. 4.

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com.