Dianna MacDonald, running unopposed for Santa Rosa’s District 3 council seat, weighs in on key city issues

Santa Rosa City Council appointee Dianna MacDonald, who is running unopposed to retain her seat in District 3, addressed key city issues in a Press Democrat questionnaire ahead of the Nov. 8 general election.

MacDonald, who was appointed in February to fill the seat vacated by Jack Tibbetts, seeks to fill the remaining two years of his term in the eastern district, home to nearly 25,700 residents in Rincon Valley, the Skyhawk neighborhood and Oakmont.

The 49-year-old is a fourth generation Sonoma County resident and grew up in Santa Rosa. A former president of the California State PTA, she is vice president of her family’s heating and cooling business.

Hers is one of four seats on the seven-member Santa Rosa council up for grabs in November. Voters will also choose a representative to replace John Sawyer in District 2 and Tom Schwedhelm in District 6 and elect someone in the hotly contested four-way race to represent District 4.

Altogether, nine people are vying for the four seats. The Press Democrat sent questionnaires Sept. 30 to the full field, seeking answers on a range of citywide and district-based issues.

The questionnaires, organized by district, are publishing this week in print and online, pressdemocrat.com/election2022.

Responses have been edited for length and clarity.

To see which district you live in, go here.

Housing construction and affordability

The state has made a push to force local governments to facilitate development of housing, especially affordable housing, to meet higher quotas. What role do you think city government plays in developing housing and, if elected, what specifically would you seek or support to spur construction and reach housing goals?

MacDonald: In order for developers to want to work with the city, we need to streamline the process for creating affordable housing projects. When delays happen in our process, it deters developers from wanting to work with the city on future projects. I support infill housing and mix-use housing. I am in favor of housing that has access to neighborhood shopping centers. Looking at annexation within the Urban Growth Boundary, I also want to support neighborhoods that need city services. I recently met with two members from the Housing Authority, whom are working on funding for landlords to remodel their current dilapidated buildings, so that buildings can be up to code, safe for families and community members to live in, and rent kept static. We need to also ensure that affordable housing projects are being scattered around the city and not just in one area.

Homelessness

Data from February’s point in time homeless count showed overall homelessness in Sonoma County grew by 5% and a dramatic 43% increase in chronic homelessness. What additional steps does the city need to take to reduce the number of people experiencing homelessness and get those people more help? How do you balance meeting needs of unhoused residents with concerns from residents and businesses about camping and safety?

MacDonald: Homelessness impacts our quality of life, our businesses, the health and safety of our community members, and the environment. Focus on support for mental health and substance abuse and support services for those that are faced with these circumstances. The InResponse Mental Health Support Team is an example of prioritizing our budget to meet the needs of our community members that are struggling with homelessness. We have reduced the reliance on our police force to handle mental health calls and have sent a more appropriate, skilled mental health professional to deal with non-violent mental health calls. We have been monitoring encampments and removing them when they are reported. The Housing First Strategy includes several services: emergency shelters, day services, rental assistance and safe parking. We are also working to ensure that the city works with local partners to increase housing particularly for community members who have suffered domestic abuse and have small children to care for. We have folks on the streets living in unimaginable circumstances, veterans and families who have housing insecurity or are one pay-check away from losing their home. This is about transforming and addressing the root causes of homelessness and then backing programs that are researched based with our dollars.

City spending

Though the current fiscal year 2022 budget was boosted by robust tax revenue projections and one-time funding, city officials estimate more than a $1 million deficit in future years as some of those one-time funds dry up and the city sees sharp increases in salaries and benefits, among other costs. What areas of the budget would you look at to firm up the city’s financial footing? Where is the city overspending and are there areas that are underfunded?

MacDonald: Fiscal stability is something I have a keen sense of awareness about. I have been part of three major fiscal institutions: private business, government, and nonprofit finance. This year the city has passed a balanced budget. One major investment the council has made is in a 115 Trust account to offset our pension liabilities. We have invested $10 million in this account to start to address this problem. Planning for the long term is a major part of governmental fiscal responsibilities – ensuring pension liabilities and long-term assets are maintained. We need to move to a two-year budget cycle to help with long term strategic planning. One area we need to make sure we are investing in is our infrastructure; the city has a lot of deferred maintenance that actually costs the city and taxpayers more in the end. Keeping an eye on what we need to pay employees to retain and recruit them and hiring enough people to help run the city is critical. Prioritizing what is important to the community and making sure that fiscal decisions we make now will be good for future generations is a philosophy that I bring with me to the council position.

Downtown and economic development

Some businesses are still struggling to bounce back from pandemic impacts and are now face staffing shortages and rising cost of goods. There are many shuttered storefronts downtown. How would you improve the health of downtown and what do you envision for the future of the area?

MacDonald: We are currently working on making decisions about the support, growth and future of downtown Santa Rosa. A long-term strategic plan that includes housing, businesses and easy access to businesses and transportation will be key to helping us grow a more thriving economy in the downtown corridor and support small, current and future businesses in the downtown. Council needs to have the full picture of our business plan, housing plans and talk to our local businesses to hear their ideas as well. This has been something we have been working on for years but we are finally ready to make decisions. My goal is to make sure it is strategic and that we have the least amount of disturbance to our businesses while we support housing in the downtown area. We also have a small business support program that helps small businesses bring awareness of historically under-invested areas, with an emphasis placed on the downtown area. We have grants for general façade improvements that include, paint, signage, landscaping, lighting, etc. We also can connect businesses with public art projects at no cost to the business to create awareness of what their business offers.

Public safety

The Santa Rosa Police Department has reported an uptick in violent crime in Santa Rosa and continues to see issues with ghost guns and sideshows. It comes as the city seeks to renew a quarter-cent tax that helps fund public safety and violence prevention programs. Do you support the continuation of the quarter-cent tax that helps fund public safety and violence prevention programs (Measure H) and what initiatives would you like to see to address public safety needs in the community?

MacDonald: Yes, I support Measure H.I am honored to be endorsed by the Santa Rosa Police Officers Association. Public safety is a top priority and support for our local law enforcement by ensuring they have proper staffing and equipment to deal with issues as they arise is paramount. I support additional resources, support for professional development and building relationships with law enforcement so they feel confident that the City Council is supporting them in their jobs and roles to protect our community. I also support continuing education for our sworn officers, to help bolster the resources and knowledge they have to deal with an evolving environment in community policing. The sideshows, confiscation of ghost guns and reduction of violent crimes are being actively addressed by law enforcement. My job as a council member is to support staff so they can implement the proper and safest procedures for all of our community. My goal is to be present and aware, and someone that community members can contact when there are issues of safety and emergencies.

Council member pay

The issue of council pay could go before voters in 2024 after a resident-led committee proposed amending the City Charter to tie pay to the area median income. The proposal would give council members and the mayor a roughly sevenfold raise. Would you support raising pay? Why or why not?

MacDonald: Yes, I support an increase in council pay. I support a pay range that is either low or very low median income pay for a family of three or what the city pays their lowest paid employees. Personally, I didn’t know council received pay or benefits when I applied so I was thrilled to get the $800 plus benefits. This can be an equity issue and it can impact who is able to run for council because of the massive amount of time it takes to do the job right. The city still does not have enough staff to do all of our programs and projects in our priorities, and my concern is that a large increase to council pay would impact both staffing and projects. I would rather go without than cut programs or staff because of council pay. I could see us increasing what we can legally do, which is increase it to about double since we have had no increases for 20 years. This would increase our current pay from the general fund from $72,000.00 (for all seven of us) to $144,000.00 (for all seven), which is still a manageable amount.

Community engagement

How you plan to engage residents, particularly an increasingly diverse constituency, and involve them in the decision-making process?

MacDonald: Our City website needs to be updated, my goal and something I have said publicly is that it also needs to be user friendly for our Spanish speaking community members. While we offer all of our meeting agendas in Spanish we still do not receive questions or communication that I am aware of in Spanish during our meetings. This tells me we need to do more outreach to make sure our Spanish monolingual, as well as ESL community members, feel safe and confident to reach out to us. I had the opportunity to have my future daughter-in-law live with me for the last couple of years and she is fully bilingual. While she doesn’t live in my house any longer, I do have her available to help if someone from the community wanted to speak to me. Additionally, I need to translate my website in Spanish like I have done in the past. I was thrilled that our ballot statements will now be translated in Spanish as well, something I have always paid to have done but now is automatic.

Fire recovery and resiliency

How can the city work to continue making the community safer from catastrophic wildfires and build resiliency for future emergencies?

MacDonald: I am really proud to be endorsed by the Local 1401, Santa Rosa Firefighters. Santa Rosa has been devastated by wildfires in 2017 and in 2020. My family and I nearly lost our home in 2020 when the Glass Fire came to our backdoor. I too have been part of the stressful evacuation that took place in 2020 and the panic and stress of leaving our home that night. Support for our Fire Department is a top priority for me. Ensuring our firefighters have the most up-to-date equipment and technology will be a critical component to keeping us all safe. The Santa Rosa Fire Department has been working with our community to help prevent and prepare for the threat of future wildfires. We must all work together to ensure we are creating a more defensible and resilient community. The Council just approved our budget for the next year. We have added two more firefighters and additional law enforcement. We also have updated how we replace and purchase new fire trucks and equipment. The city has a plan in place to ensure we have the budget to support what they need to keep us all safe.

City infrastructure

The city faces millions of dollars in deferred maintenance of public facilities, roads and other city infrastructure. How would you address infrastructure needs, particularly that of road conditions which residents have pointed to as a top priority?

MacDonald: I am committed to supporting our core services and investing in our infrastructure. Maintaining and investing in our roads, city assets and infrastructure and implementing a better system of tracking our projects and appropriating our budget to meet the needs of not only deferred maintenance but also maintain acquired assets is necessary for communication to our community as well as to City Council. We must continue to invest in roads and city assets including city owned buildings or the cost of the repairs that are needed will continue to rise and the cost to taxpayers will be astronomical. We know this is currently an issue we must address. Maintaining our parks and open spaces for our community to be able to enjoy is a critical part of having a healthy lifestyle. Our parks and where we live is unique with all that we have to offer, it is what makes Santa Rosa a beautiful place to live, to travel to and to have memorable events at. I am also the city council liaison to the BPU, which has put me in a good position to learn and provide input on our city’s vast infrastructure projects and issues.

Transportation

Does the city have the transportation infrastructure in place for residents to get to where they need to go and what improvements can be made?

MacDonald: One of the challenges we are facing is lack of staffing for our busing and transportation system. We have been actively working on this so we can keep our bus routes in place for community members. We have several different things we will need to invest in to make the city more user friendly for public transportation and use of bike and pedestrian routes. As we repair our roads, bike and pedestrian pathways need to be incorporated in the design and infrastructure to encourage use of different modes of transportation. Some exciting news is that the city received our first two electric buses and two additional electric buses are on their way. As we lead the way in electrifying our public transit, the city will continue to need to invest in the infrastructure to support charging stations throughout the city.

Future of Los Guilicos site

When Sonoma County officials established the managed homeless camp at the Los Guilicos campus two years ago the idea was for the site to be a temporary solution. Do you support keeping the site active permanently and how will you work with the county to address any resident concerns?

MacDonald: I have not heard of any concerns from our local residents in District 3 about Los Guilicos. I would work directly with Supervisor Susan Gorin and the County Supervisors to address any concerns brought to me by our community members in the area. Since it is a county site, I would want to have the data and hear from our community members, the residents of Los Guilicos, Oakmont, and surrounding businesses on how the site is working. I would also want to make sure the site is able to address the needs of the residents and ensure they have access to services and that the safety and support for community members is being considered prior to making it a future permanent site.

Development and growth

How do you propose to balance development and growth in eastern Santa Rosa with fire safety?

MacDonald: I have first-hand experience on the impact that housing has created in my own family. As beginning teachers, my oldest son and his wife had to move out of the area so they could afford to buy their first home. We are losing our next generation of workforce because we are in dire need to provide additional housing. The fires devastated thousands of homes but even prior to that we needed housing. We need to focus on infill housing and transit-oriented projects near public transit. The downtown core is a prime area for development. Part of the city’s new housing plan will also continue to look at plans throughout Santa Rosa that have housing developments near local shops and grocery stores so that you can eat and shop at your neighborhood stores without needed to drive across town. This model will further our work on reducing our carbon footprint when communities can walk, ride their bikes or drive short distances to get the services they need. Building in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) is high risk and careful consideration needs to be taken in these areas to ensure proper evacuation and exit routes are put in place for the public safety. Caltrans ownership/right of way of Highway 12 makes some changes difficult or nearly impossible, but I will work hard to collaborate with Caltrans and our state elected delegation to promote solutions that might involve multi-agency collaborations.

You can reach Staff Writer Paulina Pineda at 707-521-5268 or paulina.pineda@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @paulinapineda22.