From: Michele Farley
To: CityCouncilListPublic
Subject: [EXTERNAL] full pay and water conservation
Date: Tuesday, May 24, 2022 6:56:08 AM
I support full pay for council members.
This current system limits our choices to only people who can afford to basically volunteer their time.
Ridiculous!
Sunday’s PD article by Guy Kovner draws attention to the critical state of our farmers yet Santa Rosa
continues to follow an out of date policy allowing for green lawns and the use of freshwater for
new swimming pools!
We do not need the Governor to lead us into
responsible choices! Santa Rosa is a
leading City!
Please make water
conservation a priority!
Look forward to a response.
Michele Farley
Santa Rosa,
From: Greater Cherry Neighborhood Association
To: CityCouncilListPublic
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Ranked Choice Voting; Charter amendments Date: Tuesday, May 24, 2022 5:59:36 PM
In addition to the comments I made during public comments:
- I didn't realize that district elections were in play. I hope it isn't placed in jeopardy.
The presentation regarding ranked choice voting was missing a financial impact assessment for the money saved through this process.
Avoiding the costs of runoff elections, combined
with the benefit for potentially increasing the attention of the voter - It's a mystery why the council has not increased their modest salary as structured with the charter currently. Was it not important?
- Term limits for Council Members to two 2-year terms.
- Please listen to the need for verifiable facts to be used when making policy decisions.
We'll double down on analyzing the current charter, since it seems to have many deficiencies and ambiguities.
Thank you for your service,
Eric Fraser
From: Andrew Smith
To: CityCouncilListPublic; CMOffice
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Santa Rosa grapples with how much more to pay council members, who earn less than officials in other counties
Date: Wednesday, May 25, 2022 12:31:40 PM
https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/santa-rosa-grapples-with-how- much-more-to-pay-council-members-who-earn-les/
City Council Members and City Manager,
A few issues not on the voting ballot for November.
ONE: why the need to keep 7 city council persons and not 5 city council persons? Sonoma County has 5 supervisors with each representing almost 100,000 residents per district. The 7 number was the result of an increase I was told about 10 years ago but correct me if I am wrong. So 5 city council persons would represent about 36,000 residents per district. 7 equals 25,700 per district.
TWO: no term limits of 2 terms in a row and maybe allowing someone to come back after the 2 term limit.
THREE: On using the increase in salary to increase diversity. That was the basis for going for moving to district elections. How did that work out? The city council has one Latino just like before with Ernesto Olivares who was on the city council either 2 or 3 terms. There have been African Americans on the city council in the past. Lee Pierce was on the city council and may have been mayor. I met him recently at a citywide meeting on future housing for Santa Rosa.
Santa Rosa has had many women on the city council and not too long ago had at least three at one time. Susan Gorin was on the city council and mayor and became a Sonoma County Supervisor as her political stepping stone.
Right now Santa Rosa is struggling to not have a deficit spending for its yearly budget. How do you justify increasing salaries at least without decreasing the number of city council persons?
Glad this is being put to a public vote.
Andrew Smith
Santa Rosa