Chris Coursey reflects on time as Santa Rosa mayor with Tom Schwedhelm poised to take City Council's top post

When the smoke from Butte County rolled in over the hills into Santa Rosa in early November, it was déjà vu for Chris Coursey.

Coursey, the mayor of Santa Rosa, watched as the same state and federal officials who responded to the city’s distress during the October 2017 firestorm converged on Butte County last month. They provided updates from the utterly destroyed town of Paradise that were strikingly similar to the ones he heard a year ago about his own city: this many acres burned, that many houses ruined, so many people dead.

“I had that feeling,” Coursey said. He paused, then picked up again, explaining that the Camp fire response in Butte County brought back memories of Santa Rosa’s brutal fire damage. “It all just followed a pattern that felt so familiar and was happening in real-time.”

Coursey, a former Press Democrat columnist, was elected to a four-year term on the Santa Rosa City Council in 2014 and was picked by fellow council members to be mayor in 2016. During his two-year term, he emerged as the city’s most visible leader during its worst disaster since the 1906 earthquake.

Though Coursey plans to stay involved with his adopted hometown, his time in office will end todaywhen the council is reorganized to include a new member and a new mayor.

Tom Schwedhelm, a former police chief who ran unopposed for re-election this year, is favored to be Santa Rosa’s next mayor when the council picks a new one this evening.

The mayor of Santa Rosa is not directly elected. Members of the seven-person City Council select a mayor to serve a two-year term as well as a vice-mayor to serve for one year. Mayors’ votes count the same as other members, but the position brings with it the political powers of shaping City Council agendas, running meetings, and serving as the?de facto city spokesperson.

Bleak budget awaits new mayor

If elected mayor, Schwedhelm said in an interview Monday he would want to cultivate an atmosphere at council meetings so that people feel safe enough to share their opinions and confident that their representatives will listen to them. He will continue to place a high priority on homelessness, housing, rebuilding and Santa Rosa’s bleak budget outlook - the city had to dip into its reserves after the 2017 wildfires, exacerbating an existing structural deficit.

Schwedhelm emphasized nothing would be certain until after the council votes Tuesday. However, he said he could be uniquely situated to be mayor because he represents a part of the city that was burned in the fires - his district includes Coffey Park. Also, he noted that his tenure as chief of police included recession years, giving him some familiarity with balancing a budget in bearish conditions.

“I believe that the areas that I have experience in are what the city needs at this point,” Schwedhelm said.

Victoria Fleming, who was elected in the newly formed Fourth District in north-central Santa Rosa, will take her seat at the dais for the first time, while incumbent Councilman John Sawyer secured a fourth term, this time representing the Second District in southeast Santa Rosa.

Rob Muelrath, a Santa Rosa political consultant, said he didn’t believe the direction of the new council will change drastically, citing ideological similarities between Coursey and Fleming. Schwedhelm and Councilmen Ernesto Olivares and John Sawyer tend to be more conservative; Fleming and Councilmembers Julie Combs and Chris Rogers tend to be more liberal; and Councilman Jack Tibbetts could end up swinging close votes.

“I think you’re going to see a lot of the alliances play out the same,” Muelrath said.

Schwedhelm a ‘man of process’

Schwedhelm was first elected in 2014 as an at-large member, but his victory this year came in the newly formed Sixth District in northwest Santa Rosa as the city pivoted to a district-based system of elections. This means Schwedhelm would be the first council member to represent a specific district while also being “head umpire” for the entire city, said Brian Sobel, a Petaluma political consultant, who voiced confidence that the former police chief was well-qualified for the new responsibility.

“He’s a high-quality person who’s been around the city of Santa Rosa for a long time,” Sobel said.

The Santa Rosa City Council now includes four at-large representatives and three members elected from specific districts. Sobel said he would be keeping an eye on whether the new council would exhibit more protectionist traits, though he and others expressed doubt that Schwedhelm would only look out for northwest Santa Rosa.

“I can’t think that (Schwedhelm) would start representing his district to the exclusion of everybody else,” Sobel said.

Herb Williams, a veteran political consultant who ran Schwedhelm’s campaign, said he considered Schwedhelm to be “a man of process” who would ensure stability in city government as mayor.

“He believes in following protocols, and if the staff knows that they should know what to expect, because they should be doing the same thing,” Williams said.

Coursey plans to stay involved

Coursey, 64, called being mayor of Santa Rosa the best job he’s ever had.

He particularly cherished talking to kids and answering their questions among the opportunities that came with the job. He plans to stay involved in public life, though he’s not sure how, and noted that his political path might have been different if Santa Rosa mayors were directly elected and if they could serve consecutive terms.

“I’m not tired and I’m not burned out,” Coursey said. “If I could have run for mayor, I probably would have.”

Calling Daniel Boone ...

Coursey called the reunification of Old Courthouse Square and the annexation of Roseland into Santa Rosa two of the biggest highlights of his four years in office while emphasizing he didn’t see himself as responsible for either accomplishment. Both stuck out to him as long-overdue projects that had been proposed but never completed.

Discussions about Santa Rosa’s growth have changed, Coursey said, as the question of whether Santa Rosa should become a larger city seems to have been replaced by what kind of growth the city should host.

Coursey said the city had done its part to pave the way for large-scale residential construction downtown but needed a “Daniel Boone” - some pioneer who could develop a larger apartment complex in a part of town without a successful model to replicate.

Coursey was cautiously upbeat about the Santa Rosa’s comeback from the 2017 Tubbs fire, which killed 22 people and destroyed more than 3,000 Santa Rosa homes.

He credited city planning staffers for their efforts and said the rebuilding progress to date has surpassed his expectations, noting that efforts are currently underway to rebuild nearly half of the homes lost in the fire.

“I worry about the other half,” he said, noting that high rebuilding costs, insurance uncertainty and a desire to move on may have left about 1,500 homeowners in limbo or caused them to leave Santa Rosa.

“Those are the people I worry about when I worry about this.”

You can reach Staff Writer Will Schmitt at 707-521-5207 or will.schmitt@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @wsreports.