Former Rohnert Park council colleagues face off to represent northwest district

A battle between two former council colleagues vying to represent northwest Rohnert Park has turned the District 5 City Council race into the most contentious of three city races on the Nov. 8 ballot.

Incumbent Susan Hollingsworth Adams is seeking a second term and running to retain her seat against Joe Callinan, a longtime council member and former mayor who lost his bid for reelection in 2020.

Both candidates have name recognition, experience serving in an elected role and family ties to the area dating back to before Rohnert Park became a city in 1962.

They’re running primarily self-funded campaigns and marketing themselves to voters as homegrown candidates who have raised families in Rohnert Park. Both are business owners and have pledged their commitment to making the city a better place to live.

The race could come down to a key issue: Homelessness.

The City Council has faced mounting pressure from residents and businesses to take more forceful action to address rising homelessness and in particular a large camp on Roberts Lake Road.

Callinan hopes to ride the wave of discontent back into office, touting his preference of a “tough love approach” — doing more to police drug use and prioritize enforcement of city laws designed to bar camping in some areas and loitering, among other measures.

“It’s black and white — homelessness is a situation,” he said. “(Hollingsworth Adams) feels we can help everybody and I feel that you can only help the ones that want help. And that pretty much sums it up.”

But Hollingsworth Adams said the crisis developed on Callinan’s watch, including a dozen years on the council before his ouster. He turned a blind eye to it when he was in office, she said.

She defended the city’s work to clear dozens of encampments and house 120 people in the last few years.

“We can take a compassionate approach without allowing inappropriate behavior and that’s what the city is doing,” she said.

The former political allies have traded jabs over the issue and other citywide and district-based topics as debates play out on social media among their supporters and residents of District 5.

Home to about 8,700 people, it spans north of Enterprise Drive between the western city limits to County Club Drive in the east.

The race is being watched as a potential bellwether for Rohnert Park because of the city’s dramatic electoral shift in 2020, when voters favored a younger and more diverse makeup on the council, elevating candidates who campaigned on social issues including police accountability and climate change — a departure from the conservative politics that long dominated Rohnert Park.

In addition to District 5, voters will also elect someone to fill a two-year term in District 1, taking in parts of central Rohnert Park, and elect a representative in the city’s growing southeast corner in District 2. Altogether, seven candidates are vying for the three seats.

The outcomes could again shift the balance of political power on the five-member council, with voters either reaffirming their support for the progressive council that came into power just two years ago or pivoting in favor of more conservative centrist representatives like those who have long held power in Sonoma County’s third largest city.

Divergent approaches to homelessness

As Hollingsworth Adams knocked on doors in the city’s F section on Wednesday, resident Lynette Rutkowski said her family’s biggest concern is how the city plans to address homelessness and the “eyesore” at Roberts Lake.

The city-sanctioned camp, first established in February at a park-and-ride just east of Highway 101, has grown to about 110 tents and is believed to be the largest of its kind in Sonoma County. The city announced Oct. 12 it planned to reduce the size of the camp, moving some residents to new supportive housing units opening on Labath Avenue and reorganizing remaining residents into a smaller managed camp with beefed up security and round-the-clock services.

Rutkowski said while she is empathetic to the needs of unsheltered residents, she worries the problem is worsening.

Hollingsworth Adams said the city has made strides to reduce the number of encampments and connect people with resources, committing more than $4 million to homeless services since 2019, working with the state to secure funding for housing and increasing police presence around camps to address resident concerns.

While she doesn’t necessarily agree with housing people at the park-and-ride, having people in one central location has made it easier to connect them with services and housing while cleaning other areas of the city, she said.

The city is working to better manage the camp, address trash, health concerns and safety hazards through updated camping ordinances the council recently approved. The city is also working to open a health and human services hub where nonprofits can offer social services to both unsheltered individuals and other city residents, she said.

Going forward, the city must tap into county and state funds to provide additional resources. She pointed to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s CARE Court as one tool that could help the city better deal with people with mental health or substance use issues or people who are resistant to services, she said.

“This is probably the most difficult issue we’ve tackled,” Hollingsworth Adams said.

Callinan, however, said the city needs a more aggressive approach. If elected, he would seek to prioritize enforcement of anti-camping laws and overnight parking restrictions and support more stringent requirements for people wishing to stay in the managed camp. Drug use would be penalized and people would have to seek services to stay, he said.

“It’s time that somebody says, ‘Hey, enough is enough, we’re going to enact a little tough love on you. If you want help, we’ll give you help, if not, we’re going to ask you to move on,’” he said.

Earlier that morning, Callinan pointed to large encampments and cardboard structures that line Hinebaugh Creek as he drove through the district.

He said the city’s inaction has led the unsheltered population in the city to explode. There’s an estimated 250 people experiencing homelessness in Rohnert Park, according to a February point-in-time count.

Callinan said he’s heard from concerned residents who live near the creek, parks and the Roberts Lake camp. They complain of the impacts on their businesses and lives, he said.

The issue is what pushed him to seek office again, he said.

Callinan has been vocal in public comments at council meetings that he didn’t support the construction of Labath Landing and said building a shelter-like facility would attract more homeless people. He said in a September 2021 meeting that when he was on council the city “chased these homeless out of here.”

The current council, he said, was pandering to homeless people.

Callinan criticized the city for the extent of its pandemic-era spending on homeless services — though many of the enforcement steps he proposed would likely increase public spending on homelessness, especially at the city’s Department of Public Safety.

He said other needs are being ignored, such as city infrastructure, parks and roads. He also questioned the timing of the city’s decision to reduce capacity at the Roberts Lake camp weeks before the election when the city has had a year to address the issue.

But Hollingsworth Adams said Callinan’s critiques come with few, if any, workable responses for the city.

She called her political rival a “no-solution candidate” and said he was more content criticizing the work than offering constructive proposals.

“This problem took years to build up and this is going to take time to address,” she said. “These people are here, they’ve been here and now we’re trying to find a solution.”

Bellwether race for Rohnert Park?

Callinan, who served on the council from 2008 to 2020, lost his bid for election to the city’s third district against Gerard Giudice in 2020 but redistricting earlier this year triggered by the latest census count saw district boundaries redrawn to keep sections of the city together, leading Callinan to end up in District 5.

Callinan said while voters in 2020 wanted change and voted him out, he thinks the pendulum is again swinging in the other direction.

“People wanted change in 2020 and they got it and now a lot of them are saying, ‘Wow, we don’t want that,’” he said.

He said he’d like to see more conservative candidates elected to the other seats as well, endorsing Dave Soldavini in District 1 and Tom Levin in District 2.

Callinan’s signs line the streets in the D section, where both he and Hollingsworth Adams live.

But he knows signs don’t win elections.

“Votes do,” he said.

Brian Sobel, political analyst and former Petaluma City Council member, said public safety and homelessness are top of mind for voters and will be a deciding factor in the election. Voters want to gauge whether candidates understand their concerns and what they’re feeling as residents and business owners, Sobel said.

Sobel said the race won’t come down to a question of experience or competency but how the two candidates will tackle homelessness and public safety needs.

“There isn’t a lot to distinguish them and by and large they’re saying the same things,” he said. “It’s really just a question of whether the voters want to tighten things up to the extent that Callinan is asking for or the degree that Adams is asking for.”

A strong on-the-ground campaign and meeting with voters in-person will be vital to winning, he said.

While nationwide, political observers see many voter blocs questioning whether the progressive politics that rose in response to the Trump presidency and Black Lives Matter movement are still viable, Sobel didn’t think the heavily Democratic local electorate would see a drastic change.

Residents in Rohnert Park are still looking for additional progress on police oversight and accountability and more work on climate change and social issues. They could support another progressive slate of candidates this year, he said.

“I don’t know whether they’re ready to kill that experiment,” he said.

As Election Day nears, Hollingsworth Adams said she plans to continue reaching out to voters, walking the district and sending mailers.

“I have thoroughly enjoyed serving the last four years and I’d be honored if voters considered giving me another four,” Hollingsworth Adams said. “Voters see progress happening on very important issues and I don’t believe they’re going to turn back the clock.”

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