Evan Kubota withdraws from Windsor council race, 2 contenders left

Evan K. Kubota has withdrawn from the race for Windsor Town Council and is backing former opponent Michael Wall.

Announcing his decision in a Monday Facebook post, Kubota said he supports Wall because they both oppose the proposed civic center project, as well as Windsor’s exclusive negotiating agreement with the project’s developer Robert Green.

He added that he backed out because he wanted to avoid splitting the “anti-Green Co.” votes in the April 12 special election.

“It’s better for the town to have a single candidate representing the anti-Green Co. campaign,” Kubota said Wednesday night in a phone interview. “I can’t say if (Wall) was a stronger candidate, but I have confidence in his abilities.”

He noted that Wall ran in 2016 for Town Council on an anti-civic center platform and has name recognition. “

Windsor’s proposed civic center project, which would be built on the Town Green, currently includes a hotel and conference center, luxury residential units, a new town hall, police station and library. The design is expected to change if the plan progresses.

The winner of the April special election will have to run for re-election when that seat’s term expires in December.

The vacancy was created last June when then-Councilman Sam Salmon was appointed at-large mayor.

Salmon was appointed mayor following the May resignation of then-Mayor Dominic Foppoli, who is the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation after a group of women accused him of multiple instances of sexual assault, harassment and misconduct.

Foppoli has denied any wrongdoing.

Town officials said Kubota’s name will remain on the ballot and voting guide, since they have already been printed.

Kubota did not rule out a possible future run for office.

“I consider myself a potential candidate for the future and I expect to be active and involved in the community,” he said.

He added that questions about his past as a Marin County Sheriff’s deputy who was fired after a controversial 2013 shooting involving a traffic stop, then reinstated to a Sheriff’s Office clerical position, had nothing to do with his decision to withdraw from the election.

“I knew it would come up,” he said. “Some people didn’t understand the intricacies of the case. The significant charges were dismissed and I was in good standing when I left after five years to go into private security.”

He raised about $2,600 during his campaign, contributions from friends and family, which he said he would return.

Kubota also used his Facebook announcement to take a jab at the other candidate still in the race, Stephanie Ahmad. She is a senior attorney for an international law firm and a Windsor Unified School District board trustee.

“My primary concern at this point will be to educate the voters of Stephanie Ahmad’s dangerous support of the extension of the (exclusive negotiating agreement),” he wrote in his post. “Her attempts to portray her position as moderate are not appropriate for such an important decision and do not provide the transparency that the voters and residents deserve in a council member.

“I look forward to actively supporting Mike Wall and his team through these next few weeks and collaborating with him in the future on the issues facing Windsor,” Kubota wrote.

Ahmad said she found it “concerning” that Kubota used “demonizing ... or fear-based language” about her in his Facebook statement.

“My feeling about any race is that if someone is elected by the majority of the voters, that’s what people want,” she said. “I think that’s foundational to our system of government. My opponent and my former opponent are not too dangerous to be elected. I think the language ... is reflective of the division now in our society.”

She said she has been researching the civic center proposal and agreement and she’s “neither a yes or a no. I see the (exclusive negotiating agreement) as at a halfway point; some people see it as approval of the project. I think we all (candidates) want the town to stay kind of family oriented. There’s a lot more to the civic center development plan than the hotel and the exclusive negotiating agreement). We have to look at these other components.”

Wall, a health consultant who could not be reached for comment, said in a previous interview that “it’s a one-topic election, and that topic is the proposed hotel and civic center. I am running because I oppose the project on the Town Green. I don’t think it’s an appropriate project.”

You can reach Staff Writer Kathleen Coates at kathleen.coates@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5209.