Victoria Fleming, Dianna MacDonald emerge as two top contenders for next Santa Rosa mayor

The Santa Rosa City Council will appoint from among its members a new mayor on Tuesday, and at least two incumbents have emerged as favorites for the post.

With all votes tallied in the Nov. 8 election, the next seven-member council will take shape as the two newest members, Jeff Okrepkie and Mark Stapp, are sworn in at Tuesday’s meeting.

Then the council will turn to picking a new mayor to serve through 2024 and a vice mayor to serve a one-year term.

The two front-runners seen as vying to succeed outgoing Mayor Chris Rogers are Victoria Fleming, who was reelected in a hard-fought four-way race to represent northeast Santa Rosa in District 4, and Dianna MacDonald, who ran unopposed to fill the remainder of a two-year term in the eastern District 3, where she was first appointed in February.

Fleming said she would be honored to be nominated. She brings four years of council experience and institutional knowledge to a relatively green council, with Rogers the lone other incumbent with more than two years on the council.

“I’d be incredibly honored to not only have the confidence of voters of District 4 in two very challenging elections, but the confidence of my colleagues as well,” she said.

MacDonald touted her prior school board experience and leadership of the state PTA as part of the track record that would help her serve in the post. It would be a “huge badge of honor” if she were nominated, she said.

“I have a lot of passion and energy for the job and addressing needs both within the organization and the community and it would be an honor to serve in a leadership role,” she said.

Natalie Rogers has also been eyed for the leadership post. Though she’s interested in serving as mayor, if she isn’t nominated, she plans to support whoever is chosen and hopes that person leads with the city and community’s best interest, she said.

The mayor’s role is mostly symbolic under the city’s weak-mayor form of government, but the appointee gets to set the agenda and acts as the city’s de facto spokesperson. They are also paid more — $26,640 a year, compared to $17,760 for other council members.

The next mayor will lead the city as Santa Rosa continues to address critical housing needs and homelessness, seeks to revitalize downtown and weathers a potential recession amid projected shortfalls in future budget years.

The selection process could pit what has been a mostly unified council against each other and a split vote could set up an early challenge for whoever ultimately gets majority support. It would also depart from a pattern of unanimous decisions in 2018 and 2020.

“If it is contentious, the challenge will be how do we make sure that regardless of the outcome we’re working as a team and it doesn’t breed resentment,” said Mayor Rogers, whose council term is up in 2024. “Typically we all work cohesively and agree on the issues we need to solve even though sometimes we’re divided on how to get there, and my expectation is we would continue to do so regardless of who has the gavel going forward.”

The mayor is chosen every two years after new council members are inducted.

As the outgoing mayor, Rogers will preside over the vote and call for nominations for a new mayor, which must be seconded by another member and accepted by the nominee before the council votes on the nomination.

If two or more people are nominated, the mayor will be elected by process of elimination until a nominee receives a majority vote.

Rogers, who was appointed mayor in 2020, and Tom Schwedhelm, selected in 2018, received unanimous support, but historically it has been a contentious selection process, Rogers said.

The three mayoral appointments prior to 2018 were decided by split council votes.

The current council has come together on issues from fire recovery to renewal of Measure H, the city’s public safety tax, and starting the term with a split vote could act as a setback, said Nick Caston, a local political consultant.

Caston and Rogers agreed it could put pressure on whoever wins the post to mend relationships and get the council back on the same page.

Though mayor’s role is largely ceremonial, Caston said it’s important that person has a good working relationship with colleagues so that the council as a whole can continue advancing its priorities.

“The risk of a head-to-head clash, especially one that ends up on a 4-3 vote, is that it creates a tenor of divisiveness for the entire term and it puts a significant amount of pressure on whoever gets the four votes to lead a divided council and work on repairing it,” Caston said.

Chris Rogers said of the two front runners, one has more time on the council and the other is seen as having a broader support base.

Fleming was first elected in 2018 and brings institutional knowledge to the job as well as what she called “a deep commitment to process, which is something I have had the good fortune to learn from my more experienced colleagues the last four years.”

With Rogers’ term as mayor complete and longtime Council members John Sawyer and Schwedhelm retiring, the incoming council will be relatively young.

Aside from Chris Rogers, who was first elected in 2016, the other six members have nine years of experience among them.

Experience will be important as the city faces a potential recession and tackles other pressing issues, Fleming said.

MacDonald, whose District 3 spans the city’s eastern hills to Oakmont, said her experience at the school level shouldn’t be discounted.

She helped address financial struggles at the PTA and she can call on that experience in this role. Her outside experience can also help her look at innovative ways to tackling issues, she said.

Rogers said these decisions are often less about politics and more about personality and he encouraged his colleagues to think of what’s best for the city as they cast their votes.

“The best advice that I can give to my new colleagues that are coming in is that you’re there to serve your constituents and do what’s in the best interest of the city,” he said. “They should really look at how to move forward in a harmonious way.”

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