Former Cloverdale mayor enters council race

After a two-year hiatus from politics, former three-time Cloverdale Mayor Gus Wolter has decided to run again for City Council.

Wolter said his time away from the council gave him some new perspective on Sonoma County’s northernmost city, including its challenges and strengths.

“I really feel Cloverdale is right on the cusp of taking off, both with its economic development and becoming a tourist destination,” he said Friday. “We have a lot of things going for us in town. I see a bright future on the horizon.”

Wolter lost his bid for a fourth, four-year term in 2012, the year that returning Councilwoman Mary Ann Brigham had a commanding win in the three-person field going for two seats.

Wolter at the time said he may have been hurt because he was the only candidate advocating reinstatement of a utility tax to help bolster the city’s finances.

But he also joked that if he ever ran for council again, he would buy a brew pub - like the one Brigham owns - to make him more popular with voters.

“I still don’t own a pub. But I will give it another shot. I own a B&B,” he said Friday.

Wolter and his wife, Cindy, have owned the English Tea Garden Inn in Cloverdale for 18 years.

Other candidates in the race include incumbents Carol Russell and Joe Palla. The third incumbent, Michael Maacks, took out papers, but has not confirmed he will run.

“I’m kicking it around,” he said Thursday.

Wolter, 68, retired a year ago as a vice president with Exchange Bank, where he worked for 16 years. He had a career in banking that stretched back to 1972, interrupted by a 10-year stint as a regional manager for a chain of food stores on the East Coast.

Now that he is retired from Exchange Bank, Wolter said, he can talk to businesses about moving to town without any potential conflicts. Economic development has been somewhat of a mantra in the town of?8,600 people, a largely bedroom community with comparatively little retail base.

Wolter said Cloverdale is suited for “anything to do with tourism - vacation rentals, restaurants, gift shops, wineries, tasting rooms. That’s what Cloverdale needs.”

He noted that the town is strategically located at the head of scenic Alexander Valley, close to Dry Creek Valley and on the way to Mendocino.

“It’s a nice little hub for people to come and enjoy all the different wineries in the area,” he said. He said Cloverdale is coming alive with more businesses, including shops, a new restaurant and bakery.

Wolter said the finances of the city will always be a challenge and it was shortsighted for the city to have eliminated the city’s tax on utility services in 2006. He supports reinstatement of the tax, which is up for voter approval on the November ballot .

This time around, he’s not the only candidate who supports the tax. Russell and Palla favor it, too. Maacks was the only council member to vote against placing it on the ballot.

“It’s something that has to be done. It should have been done a few years ago,” Wolter said of the tax. “The longer we wait, the bigger the hole we dig.”

You can reach Staff Writer Clark Mason at 521-5214 ?or clark.mason?@pressdemocrat.com.