Santa Rosa mayor backtracks on Saturday remarks about her racial experience on the City Council

Santa Rosa Mayor Natalie Rogers on Tuesday walked back her comments from this weekend about racial bias and mistreatment she said she has endured as mayor, saying they weren’t reflective of her colleagues or her time on the City Council.

Rogers said her comments reflected her experience in the community and that they did not refer to her experience at City Hall.

It was a stunning reversal from recorded public remarks Saturday where she leveled raw accusations at political colleagues, saying she had been “undermined, disrespected, not allowed the opportunity to speak until decisions have been made” on the council.

Her comments Tuesday came in a prepared statement in City Council chambers where the seven-member panel met for the first time since Rogers’ original remarks on Saturday.

“Regrettably the essence of my message was not conveyed to its fullest extent,” she said. “I want to be clear my work here at the city is positive and I enjoy being the mayor and working together with my colleagues in the community to make the city an amazing place to call home.

“The discrimination that I referenced during my speech was not connected to the city but an experience that I had while in the community,” she said.

She said comments made as part of a 20-minute keynote speech during the 45th annual Black History Month event organized by Petaluma Blacks for Community Development were intended to bring awareness to subtle verbal attacks and actions known as microaggressions, and how community members can work to better support each other, “not point fingers.”

Rogers was elected to the City Council in 2020 and chosen as mayor in a contentious Dec. 13 vote over two other council members. She is Santa Rosa’s first Black mayor.

She said on Saturday that she had been ignored by colleagues at events and told her directives wouldn’t be followed.

“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,” she said.

Rogers didn’t specify in her speech who had wronged her, and she didn’t detail other instances where council colleagues, staff or community leaders mistreated or sidelined her.

Asked to elaborate Saturday, Rogers commented only briefly to The Press Democrat as she left the event.

“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,” she said.

She was unavailable for an on-the-record interview Monday, and was not immediately available Tuesday.

Her remarks came as part of a broader speech about being Black in the U.S.

Rogers said Black people still face racism in employment and housing and have been taught that they have to put in extra work to achieve the same outcomes as their white counterparts and she said Sonoma County wasn’t immune to discrimination.

“Discrimination is real, and it is real in Sonoma County,” she said to applause, recounting a recent visit to a local furniture store with her husband when she said they were ignored by sales staff who then attended to a pair of white shoppers.

Her remarks sent a ripple through Sonoma County, where numerous current and former elected leaders of color said her experience reflected their own.

"That is my truth. And that's why I said it,“ she said to The Press Democrat on Saturday. ”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."

During Tuesday’s meeting, however, Rogers said her experience on the council had been positive and she enjoyed working with her colleagues.

Rogers said she has since spoken about her experience with her fellow council members, who acknowledged her feelings, and the conversations “yielded a greater understanding and a commitment” to address biases and create a more inclusive organization and community.

It was unclear exactly when and how those conversations with fellow council members had occurred. No item about Rogers’ remarks or council relations was listed on Tuesday’s agenda.

The state’s open meetings law forbids a majority of an elected body from discussing public business in private, even if those talks involve individual conversations.

After Rogers spoke on Tuesday, she received a standing ovation from many of those in attendance. The crowd included leaders of Black community organizations honored for uplifting Black voices as part of a Black History Month proclamation Rogers read at the start of the meeting.

Moments later, Council member Chris Rogers, the immediate past mayor, read a statement on behalf of the City Council, thanking the mayor for her remarks. He said conversations about race, gender and politics are difficult but necessary.

The council vowed to listen to the mayor’s concerns, support her and work to better educate themselves and acknowledge and address microaggressions and biases if the city is to be successful.

Staff Writer Colin Atagi contributed to this story.

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