Four candidates vying for two seats on Healdsburg council

The candidates running for Healdsburg City Council agree on some basics: there needs to be more affordable housing, and maintaining small-town character is important.

But the difference is stark between the backgrounds, experience level and support for the four candidates.

One one hand are two seasoned public servants, Eric Ziedrich and Jeff Civian, who enjoy the backing of real estate and development groups and the Healdsburg Chamber of Commerce.

On the other are political newcomers Tim Meinken and Brigette Mansell, endorsed by the union-led North Bay Labor Council and the environmental group Sonoma County Conservation Action.

They are all vying for two openings on the City Council created when incumbents Jim Wood and Susan Jones decided not to seek re-election. Wood is running instead for a state Assembly seat.

Ziedrich, a former City Council member who served twice as mayor, said he decided to throw his hat in the ring when he saw the lack of government experience among the contenders.

“It seemed like a time when the city would be vulnerable if there wasn’t someone with a greater level of experience to step up,” he said.

Civian, current chairman of the Healdsburg Planning Commission, agreed. “It’s not an entry-level position. There’s a lot going on in Healdsburg. I just feel like I offer a huge advantage to hit the ground running and understand how the city works,” said Civian, also a former Windsor and Sonoma County planning commissioner.

Ziedrich and Civian have endorsed each other.

Mansell, a high school teacher, said her lack of government experience isn’t critical.

“I’m not attached to what’s already happened,” she said. “We need to have emergent, not traditional leaders. We need to have people open to new ideas.”

“We need a City Council that represents working-class people,” she added, “less focused on moneymaking and profit. We want people to be able to live in Healdsburg and have a community in Healdsburg that isn’t just oriented around tourism.”

Mansell said her background as a high school speech and debate coach will serve her well if she gets elected.

“I bring to the table not only language art skills, but I can facilitate an atmosphere that will promote civil public discourse, where people can be heard, where people are invited and where people can engage in local government,” she said.

Meinken, a small-winery owner, casts himself as the independent choice “asking the right questions,” although he said he and Mansell have “an alliance of conscience” by making workforce housing development and open government a priority.

Meinken, who lost a bid for City Council in 2012, said he has attended nearly every council meeting for two years. He said he would use his experience as a former pension and benefits consultant to help solve the city’s “massively underfunded pension and benefit costs,” something that fell off the radar after the City Council instituted less-generous retirement packages for new employees and got current workers to pay more toward their pension programs.

Meinken said he would consider using some of the growing annual revenue from the voter-approved sales tax increase “Measure V” to close the gap on unfunded pension liabilities.

But most of the discussion leading to the Nov. 4 election has been about other topics.

In Healdsburg, with some of the highest housing prices in Sonoma County and where many homes are snatched up by out-of-town buyers, the candidates agree on the need for more affordable housing, especially for young and middle-class families that have a tough time finding a place to live.

“There are creative ways to do it, without creating rampant geographic expansion, which is most people’s concern,” said Ziedrich, who is making a comeback bid after serving two previous non-consecutive, four-year terms on the City Council.

Meinken said one thing he has heard loud and clear knocking on almost 1,000 doors in Healdsburg is “people want to slow the pace of development.”

He asserts that as far as Civian and Ziedrich go, “all the development-real estate interests have the backs of the two of them … their inclination is to develop first and ask questions later.”

Not so fast, says Civian. “I’m tuned into the issues of the town. I don’t want to see a bunch of over-development,” he said, particularly when it comes to the controversial issue of how many new hotel rooms are appropriate for the tourist-oriented town.

“I will take it site by site, project by project, get input from the community and come up with a well-crafted decision,” said Civian, who also has made more downtown parking, fixing streets and a strong public safety presence his priorities.

Ziedrich said a recent study documented the need for more hotel rooms and Healdsburg needs to be careful not to lose its ability to accommodate visitors, or it could lose them to surrounding communities.

“It isn’t selling our soul to the tourist dollar,” he said of the ability to build more hotel rooms, while at the same time looking out for the interests of local residents.

Meinken said some of the identified prime downtown parcels for future hotel sites should be considered for middle-class worker housing, something that could be realized through rezoning, or reducing fees for housing as an inducement for developers.

At the center of the question over the future pace of development in Healdsburg is a growth cap that was approved by voters in 2000. The growth management ordinance restricts the number of new market-rate housing units to an average of 30 per year.

Planning consultants and a committee that studied the issue agreed the ordinance needs to be relaxed because it constrains the construction of apartments and multifamily housing, which are difficult to build in small increments.

Much of the future growth in Healdsburg is anticipated to come in an area rife for redevelopment centered around NuForest Products and the train station.

The City Council in August jettisoned a proposed ballot measure that would have amended the growth ordinance.

Essentially, a majority of the council didn’t think it went far enough to provide more housing in Healdsburg.

Mansell said she is not in favor of changing the growth ordinance, unless it benefits middle-class families and residents.

Meinken said any change in the growth ordinance should have a requirement that new building in key areas include middle-class housing.

Ziedrich said the current growth ordinance needs to be modified because it helped lead to a lack of living space and overinflated housing values.

But he said any modification should not just emanate from the council. “It has to be more inclusive,” he said, and have support from the entire community.

Civian agreed that more public input is needed on the topic and the growth ordinance needs to be revised with a well-publicized, transparent process.

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