Clear lines drawn in race for Petaluma mayor

Petaluma voters have very clear distinctions between the two candidates for mayor on Nov. 4.

One candidate is campaigning against the sales tax measure on the ballot; the other supports it.

Business interests back one candidate, environmental groups the other.

Although the race is nonpartisan, one candidate is a Democrat and one is a Republican.

One is supported by public safety unions and city employees, the other by the North Bay Labor Council and a state transit union.

One has the support of the Democratic political establishment and the other is backed by a majority of the sitting City Council and the Planning Commission.

One has always supported the Rainier Avenue crosstown connector, while the other says he now supports the current version of the project.

Both have served a decade or more on the City Council: David Glass has two non-consecutive terms as mayor and a partial term on the council, while Councilman Mike Harris, who has been elected three times to his seat, gathered the most votes of any candidate in both of his last two campaigns.

The Petaluma mayor is elected separately from the city’s council members, although the position carries the same voting powers. The mayor runs the meetings, wrangles in off-topic discussions and serves a figurehead for the city at official functions.

Both men are longtime Petalumans and generally are on opposite ends of the political spectrum.

Glass, 67, is a retired municipal securities professional and a former radio announcer. Harris, who turns 44 on Election Day, is a senior vice president of a financial services company in Petaluma.

The pair couldn’t be more different in style or political viewpoints.

Harris is supported by business, building, public safety and city workers, and eastside interests.

Glass has backing from Democratic politicians, self-described progressive and environmental groups and has strong westside support.

Glass argues that he helped guide Petaluma through the worst recession in generations, when revenues fell by about 30  percent. About 70 city jobs were eliminated and employees agreed to accept 3 percent pay cuts, which have since been restored.

Glass is against Measure Q, the 1-cent sales tax increase on the same ballot, saying it is a “blank check” that’s backed by empty promises.He argues that a chunk of the proceeds, which will go into the general fund, will be used to fund police and firefighter jobs - and therefore their pension obligations - which he calls fiscally irresponsible.

“Measure Q opens the spigot, more taxes without getting a corresponding return,” he said.

The council has supported a laundry list of projects it says it would fund with the proceeds of Measure Q, which could raise $10 million a year. The council’s $466 million, 30-year list of Measure Q priorities includes Rainier, city street and sidewalk fixes, new earthquake-safe police and fire buildings and restoring a dozen police department jobs, among others.

Harris supports the tax increase, from 8.25 percent to 9.25 percent, pledging that the money will go toward fixing Petaluma’s pock-marked roads and the long-planned Rainier Avenue crosstown connector. He said the city’s polls show residents support Rainier and are willing to tax themselves to make it a reality after years of politicians batting the ball back and forth.

Rainier has been a political argument for years in the city of 60,000. Proponents argue it will ease clogged city streets in Petaluma, where crosstown drivers are squeezed into only three Highway 101 interchanges and two other overpasses.

The current plan calls for a three-quarter-mile extension of Rainier from North McDowell Boulevard to Petaluma Boulevard, under the widened 101.

Harris says he has always supported Rainier and “remains steadfast in his commitment to it,” while he accuses Glass of only recently supporting the plan, which has been in the city’s long-term planning blueprints for 50 years.

“It’s always been a key component for traffic relief, and I will continue to be a supporter of Rainier,” Harris said. “Someone who has been an ardent supporter will find ways to say ‘yes.’ (Glass) hasn’t always been a supporter of Rainier, and I have. It will be key to have a mayor who will fight for it.”

Glass said he will only support a version of Rainier that he believes is “achievable,” which he said the pared-down current version is, although he doubts funding will materialize anytime soon.

David McCuan, a Sonoma State University political science professor, said the mayor’s race sets up two very distinct choices for voters.

He suspects voters’ feelings on Measure  Q also will decide the mayor’s race.

“If Q loses, and I think it will, one of the key questions is, is the Q loss the mayor’s re-election win? I think his fate is tied to that,” McCuan said.

He said Glass’s use of the phrase “forever tax” for Measure Q, which has no sunset date, resonates with what he called “angry, surly” anti-tax voters.

But, he said, the entire election may be confusing for ideological voters.

“It’s hard to have a progressive who is allied against a tax,” he said of Glass. “Nominally, you’d think the progressive would be for a tax. Then you have the business guy (Harris) who is for a tax.

“What you have is candidates asking voters to make a split decision.”

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