For Santa Rosa Councilman Jack Tibbetts, day job at helm of nonprofit complicates elected office

The proposal had been in the works at City Hall for several years - mandatory inspections for rental housing across Santa Rosa, meant to root out squalid conditions endured by tenants and rein in landlords who allow their properties to deteriorate.

It had at least three votes Tuesday on the seven-member City Council. But the potential swing vote, Councilman Jack Tibbetts, was absent from the meeting and the initiative nearly four years in the making died, deadlocked in a 3-3 vote.

It was the latest vote among more than 160 that Tibbetts has missed or sat out in what is now his fourth year on the council, according to city records. Only one other incumbent, Ernesto Olivares, missed or sat out as many votes over that period, the records show.

Tibbetts said he had been called away Tuesday to fill in as a shuttle driver for the sanctioned Sonoma County homeless camp now overseen by the nonprofit he leads.

He acknowledged that his absence probably swung the fate of the proposed program - and said he likely would have voted for it. The inspection program stemmed from revelations of widespread dingy and unhealthy rental housing that had fallen through the cracks of the city's code enforcement system, a problem highlighted in a series of Press Democrat stories that ran in January 2016.

In the wake of Tuesday's outcome at City Hall, Tibbetts said the onus of finding an alternative to the failed proposal would now fall on him.

“Guess whose burden that's going to be to figure that out over the next six, seven months?” Tibbetts said Friday in an interview. “That's going to be me.”

The defeat of the rental inspection program cheered real estate interests and landlords who decried it as unnecessary government intervention. But the outcome discouraged Ronit Rubinoff, executive director of Legal Aid of Sonoma County. Her organization works each year with hundreds of tenants, many of whom are afraid to complain about housing standards for fear of being evicted, she said, underscoring the need for mandatory inspections.

“We're really, really disappointed about what happened on Tuesday night,” she said.

Tibbetts' latest council absence raises new questions about his increasingly competing roles as an elected public official and his paid job since 2016 as executive director of St. Vincent de Paul Society of Sonoma County, a faith-based nonprofit with a focus on housing and homelessness.

From early 2017 to late 2019, he missed, abstained or recused himself from 160 votes, or 16% percent of the votes before the council during that period, according to city records. Records for 2020 were not available this week.

The only other incumbent to miss as many votes in the same period was Olivares, a longtime councilman and retired Santa Rosa police lieutenant who also missed 160, according to city records.

Julie Combs, who resigned from the City Council in November, missed 172 votes in the same three-year span, according to the records.

She stepped down under pressure after she and her husband purchased a second home in Ecuador, where the couple have been living part time.

Olivares was her sharpest council critic leading up to her resignation, questioning her ability to represent city constituents while living abroad. Responding to an email asking him to explain holes in his own voting record, Olivares invited a Press Democrat reporter to “conduct better research related to meeting attendance.”

“I don't track other council members' attendance, but my calendar shows that I missed 6 regular or special council meetings in 2019,” Olivares said. “My inquiry into Ms. Combs absence was related to her moving out of the country.”

Tibbetts noted that his number of abstentions was higher because he sat out some votes related to homelessness that were bundled together with other routine, uncontentious city business.

“That's really underrepresenting my actual votes,” he said, adding that he was trying to be mindful about conflicts of interest to avoid problems.

“You never want to have a council or a council member mired in legal trouble,” he said

But of the 160 votes he sat out or missed, only 51 were abstentions or recusals, generally stemming from concerns about potential conflicts of interest.

City Attorney Sue Gallagher has written at least four letters to the state Fair Political Practices Commission since 2017 seeking guidance about potential conflicts of interest for Tibbetts, equating to more inquiries for Tibbetts than about any other council member. Each time, Tibbetts was not prohibited from acting as a result of his personal or professional interests, according to the commission's letters in response.

The recently married 29-year-old has sought to juggle his obligations as an elected official with his nonprofit work since he joined the council in late 2016. As he gears up to run for a second term this year, that balancing act has become more complicated as St. Vincent de Paul has taken on a higher profile in Santa Rosa's housing and homelessness work.

One of St. Vincent's more prominent recent projects is the redevelopment of the Gold Coin Motel on Mendocino Avenue into a site with housing and services for dozens of people on the brink of homelessness. Tibbetts had to recuse himself on the council from a local measure related to state legislation affecting the Gold Coin and couldn't attend closed-door meetings related to code enforcement at the dilapidated property. He'd have to step away from the dais again if a Gold Coin redevelopment vote comes up before the City Council.

His organization also was chosen by the county in early January to act as the lead contractor overseeing development and operation of the Los Guilicos Village sanctioned homeless camp in east Santa Rosa. That work put Tibbetts in another awkward position: fielding questions as the head of St. Vincent from concerned neighbors in Oakmont, who are his constituents and will see his name appear on their ballots in November in the city's new district-based election system for City Council.

Tibbetts acknowledged that his impending reelection bid has been on his mind when he does outreach related to the Los Guilicos Village. “I definitely have thought about it when I'm in Oakmont.”

David McCuan, a professor of political science at Sonoma State University and local political observer, said the holes in Tibbetts' voting and attendance record seemed about average for a local politician.

“You can be average, but average for Jack is disappointing, because he's not an average guy,” McCuan said, likening Tibbetts to “a frustrating student: He's smart, he's capable - and we need to see more.”

The son of Penny and Nick Tibbetts, a local political and land-use strategist, the future councilman embarked early on a political path. He was in his third year at UC Berkeley in 2013 when he drafted and tried to raise support for a statewide ballot measure creating a new tax on oil companies.

He later served for a time on the city's Board of Public Utilities. From the outset of his time on the City Council, Tibbetts has sought to position himself in the political center, preserving his influence for contentious issues - like Tuesday's vote on the rental inspection program.

Combs, reached by email, expressed dismay over the failure of the inspection program, noting that landlords and real estate interests had initially been supportive of the proposal as a concession to stave off local rent control. California has since passed annual caps on rent hikes and Santa Rosa has anti-price gouging rules, but Combs noted that the rental inspection program stemmed from a different issue: deterioration of the city's low-income rental housing stock.

The city inspections would have focused on nearly all rental housing across Santa Rosa.

“It's disappointing that the council couldn't provide the proactive health and safety protections our renters need,” Combs said in an emailed statement.

Mayor Tom Schwedhelm and Councilmen John Sawyer and Dick Dowd voted against the rental inspection program. Olivares,Vice Mayor Victoria Fleming and Councilman Chris Rogers voted for it.

The program was set to be funded by fees assessed to landlords. It would have required inspections once every five years at all Santa Rosa rental housing except units 10 years old or younger. Also exempted were single-family homes occupied by owners and homes leased to recipients of federal housing vouchers.

So many of the council's members either are renters or landlords when they studied the program in October that the city needed to invoke the so-called “rule of necessity” and pulled a name of a hat - Councilman Rogers, a renter - to form the minimum meeting amount of four council members.

The state Fair Political Practices Commission determined Monday that participation by Tibbetts and Sawyer, both of whom lease out a room in homes they own, would not have faced legal conflicts of interest in any deliberation or decision on rental inspection.

Tibbetts honed in on the determination as evidence that his position at St. Vincent, despite keeping him from Tuesday's meeting, should not disqualify him from local public elected office.

He said he is committed to holding both roles for now.

“Many times when I feel stifled in government ... I am so grateful for my job,” Tibbetts said in a text message Friday night. “I do hate the conflicts, but if council members got paid $100,000 tomorrow, I don't think I'd give up the work I get to do at St. Vincent.” (The mayor and council members receive annual stipends that amount to $14,400 and $9,600, respectively, plus health benefits.)

“I think if St. Vincent de Paul gets larger and starts taking on more of these larger roles and responsibilities, I think it's going to be more difficult,” Tibbetts said. “It has been on my mind quite a lot.”

You can reach Staff Writer Will Schmitt at 707-521-5207 or will.schmitt@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @wsreports