Meet the candidates for Petaluma City Council

Attitudes toward growth used to be a clear dividing line when choosing Petaluma City Council candidates.

But with two shopping centers and a mixed-use hotel project recently approved and few large-scale development possibilities left within the growth boundary, distinctions have become more nuanced.

Still, two main issues of divergence - a possible sales tax increase and the Rainier Avenue crosstown connector - may help voters decide among the five candidates seeking three City Council seats in the Nov. 4 general election.

Two other candidates, David Glass and Mike Harris, are running for mayor, which is elected separately in Petaluma but holds the same voting powers as council members. Harris isn’t seeking re-election to his council seat in his bid for mayor.

Two council candidates are incumbents and known quantities: Chris Albertson, the former fire chief, and community volunteer Teresa Barrett. They come from nearly opposite sides of the political spectrum, with Barrett, 66, supported by progressive groups and Albertson, 65, by business interests.

Three other candidates are seeking election: former council member Janice Cader- Thompson, 59, attorney Dave King, 57, and community volunteer Ken Quinto, 43.

King, Albertson and Quinto support Measure Q, which asks voters to increase the city sales tax to 9.25 percent, a one-cent increase. Barrett and Cader- Thompson oppose it.

Support for Rainier is trickier to quantify, since even those who criticize it recognize that a majority of Petaluma residents want the long-planned north end crosstown connector.

Albertson, Quinto and King are unequivocal in their support of the plan and of finding funding for the project, which would connect Petaluma Boulevard North to North McDowell Avenue by extending Rainier Avenue under Highway 101 and over the northern reaches of the Petaluma River.

For years, Barrett has challenged Rainier, criticizing the funding, the wisdom and the feasibility of it. Cader-Thompson, too, has long questioned the project, which has been in the city’s long-term plans since the 1960s.

Opponents argue the project won’t solve traffic problems, could cause downstream flooding and may actually cause delays at several nearby intersections. They say it is too expensive and would open several hundred acres of land to growth for the benefit of developers.

Proponents contend it’s badly needed to reduce maddening traffic congestion throughout town and give residents another route over Highway 101, which has become a time-consuming barrier drivers must plan their route around. Residents have shown their strong support for the project in multiple polls in recent years.

Focus on infrastructure

King, an attorney for more than two decades in Petaluma, said road repairs, Rainier and infrastructure will be his focus on the council.

“The key is who has the political will to try to (find funding for Rainier) and who isn’t going to try,” he said. “If Measure Q passes, I’d dedicate whatever is required to pay for Rainier.”

He said he’d like to see one-fourth of Measure Q proceeds annually go to roads to catch up on a backlog of deferred maintenance. For the first several years of the tax, he said, a portion should be set aside for Rainier to assure that it can be built.

Albertson and Quinto also support the tax increase, which is on the ballot as a general tax whose proceeds will go into the general fund. It needs a simple majority to pass.

“Asphalt, asphalt, asphalt” is what Albertson said are the funding priorities, along with Rainier and infrastructure needs including new police and fire stations that meet current seismic safety standards.

“I’m a pro-business candidate,” he said. “Always have been. Was in 2010 and continue to be - and I’m not ashamed of it. People say pro-business is anti-environment, and I don’t believe that’s the way it is.”

Critics of Measure Q

Barrett and Cader-Thompson, along with Glass and two anti- tax advocates, signed the ballot argument opposing Measure Q. They say the measure is “deceptive” and won’t go toward road repairs, but instead to employee pensions and unspecified “personnel perks.”

Quinto, who works for State Farm Insurance in claims automation and procedures, said that’s being disingenuous.

“People want the Rainier cross-town connector funded. They want the roads maintained,” he said. “If you’re scaring the public by saying that’s not what it’s going for, then frankly, you’re a bad steward of the city.”

Quinto lives in the northeast part of town, which has been historically underrepresented on the council. He noted it took him 28 minutes to drive less than 5 miles across town to City Hall one evening last week.

“I will represent a point of view that hasn’t been on the council in long time,” he said. “People who live in that part of town have to plan our days because of the traffic problems. There are thousands of us who actually have to sit down and plan how we’re going to get around town because of the way the traffic is. It’s diabolical.”

Rainier as parkway

He said Rainier should be a parkway that goes “straight to the boulevard” with no intersections.

“There’s no reason to develop all that land in between,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean you have to kill Rainier. You have to look for a solution that’s good for the town.”

Barrett said she agrees with the parkway idea, if Rainier is ever built. But she disagrees with King, Quinto and Albertson that it will resolve Petaluma’s traffic crunch.

This is Cader-Thompson’s fourth run for a seat on the council. She lost in 1994, but was elected four years later. In 2002, she lost her re-election bid as three of four incumbents on the ballot were voted out.

She has criticized large-scale development in Petaluma and, with Glass, in 2011 stood in front of a tractor disking the field where Friedman’s Home Improvement is. She accused the developer of illegally working in a creek setback; the property owner said she and Glass were trespassing, but didn’t pursue police action.

Alternate traffic fix

A fifth-generation Petaluman, Cader-Thompson said she wants to represent regular people on the council. She said a traffic solution may be a southern crosstown connector at Caulfield Lane or at Corona Road in the north.

Barrett, who served six years on the Planning Commission before her two terms on the council, says traffic and water are the most pressing issues before the council.

She said the city should consider a temporary building moratorium “until we’re out of the drought situation.”

“We really have to get serious about the drought in this city, and I am not happy that our council has passed project after project after project on the basis of ‘well, the water will be there’ - because we don’t really know that,” she said.

Economic development

Albertson said his endorsement for the East Washington Place and Deer Creek shopping centers, the Riverfront project and support of economic development policies that have encouraged new businesses to come to town or expand show what he’s about.

He said seeking a tax increase with no end date may have been too ambitious, but he said the council majority agreed to it to mollify Glass, who urged a tax for perpetuity to assure the ability to bond against the money later.

“I’m honest,” he said. “You might not like what you hear, but it’s the truth.”

Broad base of support

Of all the candidates, King boasts perhaps the broadest base of support.

In a town that has in the past been split by pro-development interests and self-proclaimed progressive groups, King has won endorsements from a spectrum of interests.

Democratic Rep. Jared Huffman, living wage and union activist Marty Bennett and Petaluma progressive café owner John Crowley support him, as do the more conservative Lace House Linen owner Dan Libarle, south county dairywoman Marilyn Herzog and Petaluma City Schools board member Mike Baddeley. He also is supported by the North Bay Labor Council and the business group Sonoma County Alliance.

You can reach Lori A. Carter at 762-7297 or lori.carter@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @loriacarter.