First Black mayor of Santa Rosa says she is undermined on council because of her race

Santa Rosa Mayor Natalie Rogers told an audience at a Black History Month event Saturday that she has been stymied and mistreated by political colleagues because of her race.

“On the City Council, I have been undermined, disrespected, not allowed the opportunity to speak until decisions have been made,” said Rogers, who is the city’s first Black mayor.

“As mayor, I have been told that people are not going to fulfill certain roles or duties that are assigned to them because I, myself, am the mayor, that they will not follow the directives that they were given, but then request that I do something for them as if I need to gain their favor,” she said.

“I have even attended functions and not have my own colleagues acknowledge or speak to me. I was informed I should have considered these consequences — consequences — before I agreed to become mayor.”

Rogers made her comments to about 150 people midway through a 20-minute keynote speech she gave at the 45th annual Black History Month event organized by Petaluma Blacks for Community Development.

The event’s theme was, “From Enslavement to the Path of Freedom: The Power of Black Resistance.”

Rogers said it was not an easy decision to share her experience, but she did so to push back against what she has been facing.

“Discrimination is real, and it is real in Sonoma County,” she said to applause.

“But these are my truths. I have cried. I have laughed to keep from crying, and I have felt unsupported at times. I vowed not to let what was going on behind closed doors out into the public, because that is not the perception that you want people to have of your organization. I decided to tell you all my truth because being silent allows the behaviors to continue.”

She continued: “Allowing microaggressions to happen and turning a blind eye is not working. Becoming angry, whether it is inward facing or outward facing, is not working. I have been labeled the angry Black woman because I am passionate and express that when discussing an issue. I don't have the luxury of my counterparts to talk with my hands, or raise my voice or simply stray from the expected behaviors. These luxuries are given to others. They're just not given to me.”

Rogers found widespread support from the audience, and people clustered around her after the program to shake her hand and discuss her comments.

“I’m surprised she said it; I’m not surprised it happened, she’s not the first one,” said Faith Ross, president of Petaluma Blacks for Community Development.

She was referring to three Black women who left top public sector jobs in Sonoma County in the past two years, two of them citing patterns of racial bias and mistreatment.

“It’s time that something happened to stop this,” Ross said.

Santa Rosa Council members called for comment Saturday night did not immediately return those calls.

Rogers was selected as mayor in December by her colleagues on a 4-3 vote after three previous votes failed to generate majorities for the two council members who had been considered front-runners for the post, Victoria Fleming and MacDonald.

On Saturday, Rogers would comment only briefly to The Press Democrat as she left the event, which was held at the New Life Christian Fellowship Church in Petaluma.

She said: “I said that I'm going to not be silent anymore because it's not working, right? Because then it just continues. The microaggressions continue, the behaviors continue.”

Asked what she foresaw as a next step, Rogers, a marriage and family therapist, said: “That is my truth. And that's why I said it. And to say that, yes, you can have a title, you can have letters behind your name, you can have a whole lot of stuff. But it doesn't make you exempt from the things that are going on. And it's not just going on in Texas. It's not just going on in Florida. It's going on right here in Sonoma County.”

During her speech, she recounted a recent visit to a local furniture store with her husband when they were ignored by sales staff who then attended to a pair of white shoppers.

Her comments struck a chord for many in the audience.

“I think that Natalie Rogers sharing about her experiences as mother, as a therapist, as the mayor of Santa Rosa … was very powerful, how she framed the microaggressions,” said Celeste Austin, who attended the event.

“And that example is so poignant of going into a store and being ignored, because every Black person in Sonoma County, I may be stretching it, but I don't think so, has experienced that — where you're invisible or you're ignored. And when they have done that, knowing the power position she's in, it didn't matter, did it? Because of her skin color.”

Claims of racial bias and microaggressions have fueled several recent high-profile departures from Sonoma County government offices and positions.

Arlene Junior, a Black woman who was the top administrator of Sonoma County Superior Court, resigned abruptly in May. In November, she sued the state court system and Sonoma County’s presiding judge, alleging she faced workplace discrimination because of her race and was pushed out for reporting improper and racist behavior by court employees.

In October 2021, the executive director of Sonoma County’s Economic Development Board, Sheba Person-Whitley, who is Black, stepped down, citing a pattern of racial bias and mistrust.

Another Black woman, Barbie Robinson, resigned as director of the county’s Department of Health Services in summer 2021 to take a higher profile county government position in Houston.

A Black man initially tapped as Robinson’s favored replacement, Derrick Neal, said concerns about how minority department heads in Sonoma County are treated influenced his decision to back out of the recruitment process.

In her comments after the Saturday night event, Rogers said: “If we want to change … we need to acknowledge that these are the truths. This is how people, this is how they're treated. This is what we go through when you're someone of color. And for me, just to keep sweeping it under the rug is not fair for me. It's not fair for the children that come after me. And it's not fair for other people of color, and it's not fair for our allies.

“So, no, I'm not just going to be like, OK, do our fight for us. I'm not doing that anymore. I'm going to stand right there and I'm going to say, this is my truth. As hard as it was to get up there and say that — that was not comfortable — that's my truth.”

You can reach Staff Writer Jeremy Hay at 707-387-2960 or jeremy.hay@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jeremyhay