Todd Lands elected mayor of Cloverdale amid council dissension

Todd Lands, a former Sonoma County deputy sheriff who owns his own construction company, has been elected Cloverdale mayor, ending a divisive eight months during which Marta Cruz was mayor.

Lands, 44, a Cloverdale native and former Cloverdale Unified school board member, said he was “pleasantly surprised” that he was elected mayor during Wednesday night’s City Council meeting.

“It feels good to be mayor, and I’m looking forward to ... a solution-based year for everyone in Cloverdale,” he said.

A “solution-based year” in Lands’ mind is “finding solutions through our committees, which means less talk and more action.”

Lands said he had a good relationship with Cruz, and would like to create a more cohesive and collaborative group.

The meeting Wednesday night started with Cruz seeking nominations for both mayor and vice mayor. When it appeared that the majority favored voting on each office separately, she nominated Lands for mayor, which was supported 4-1, with Councilwoman Melanie Bagby voting no.

Cruz then nominated Bagby for vice mayor and Bagby declined. Wolter was then nominated by Councilman Joe Palla for vice mayor, and the vote was 3-2, with Bagby and Cruz voting no.

Bagby said later that she declined the nomination for vice mayor, even though she believed it was her turn, because she could tell that the way the nominating process was going, that others on the council besides Cruz did not want her to serve.

“I knew I wasn’t going to get a second and I wasn’t going to second (my nomination) myself,” she said.

Technically, the nod for mayor could have gone to Cruz, since she had served in the top job for only eight months. She stepped in when Mayor Jason Turner resigned from the position after four months for business reasons. She not only became mayor but also chair of the Sonoma County Mayors Association.

“I decided not to put my name in the basket because I didn’t want to engage with (council members) Palla or Wolter,” Cruz said later.

Her term ends Jan. 12, and she has a year left on her term, as do Wolter and Palla.

Bagby said some on the council “wanted her (Cruz) out of there. They can’t handle that there is a brown non-native English speaker who is a woman on that council.

“The powers that be wanted Todd to be mayor,” Bagby said. She said that it was “pretty obvious” that council members Palla, Wolter and Lands spoke before the meeting about the vote, which would be a violation of the Brown Act, the state’s open public meeting law.

Lands denied the accusation.

“We did not speak ahead of time,” he said, adding, “I do not want to comment on the vicious comment that she (Bagby) made.”

Attempts to reach Palla and Wolter were unsuccessful.

After voting on the council reorganization was completed, each of the council members thanked Cruz for all her hard work, despite their differing opinions, as did City Manager David Kelly.

“It’s been a pleasure working with you,” said Palla. “It’s been great because we don’t think the same. Together we’ve done a lot in a short amount of time.”

“I’ve been working hard since day one, and I will continue to do so,” said Cruz, adding later that she had hit the ground running to work toward solving such issues as homelessness and food insecurity.

Bagby said what she found “most offensive was that the other council members tried to claim that they had been supportive (of Cruz) when they were so unwelcoming and condescending and mean-spirited at every turn.” She pointed out that Cruz received the most votes when she was elected.

She said she didn’t believe Lands was up to the task of being mayor because he lacks regional perspective and a regional viewpoint. Bagby was mayor in 2019. She said she and Cruz served on the majority of regional boards.

Cruz said she’d hoped Lands and Bagby would serve together as a team, since their terms won’t be up until 2024.

As for Lands, he said, “My focus is not left or right, it’s for all of Cloverdale.”

He added that there are “differences of opinion without flexibility” and “an unwillingness to work with one another” currently on the council.

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

Editor’s note: Story corrected to say that Todd Lands is a former Cloverdale Unified School District board member.