Twelve years owning a business in Sonoma County

City Hall could use a good business mind and auto technician.

I have worked in Bay Area automotive repair businesses for over 40 years. My background includes serving as Shop Steward while working for a Petaluma dealership. I have now owned my own general automotive repair shop in this county for twelve years. My customers are teachers, nurses, contractors and retirees. I have spent hundreds of hours talking with them about the issues they face, and when costs squeeze them I hear about it long before City Hall does.

• Wherever possible we need to cut red tape for businesses to start and grow, and bring good paying jobs to our local economy.

• Payroll, rent, insurance and inspections are daily facts in my life. I know what a permit delay or a new fee does to a small business.

• The city should be easy to deal with: one point of contact, published turnaround times, and a fee schedule a person can read.

Thirty-six years of public advocacy

I have consistently participated in City Council and committee meetings for over thirty-six years, engaging with and shaping city priorities and policy with a focus on true democratic representation and responsible spending. I have watched the same problems debated and different solutions get promised, studied, shelved, and promised again.

• I have been engaged in these community conversations longer than most city employees or elected officials, so I can start on day one knowing the history of the issues facing Petaluma.

• I have also seen which policy solutions and public processes actually work and which do not. Knowing why the last three attempts failed is how you make the fourth one work.

• As mayor, the buck stops with me. If mistakes are made we will not hide from them — we will meaningfully course correct and make sure they do not happen again.

Service to Petaluma

I have served on the Boards of Petaluma Community Access and Healthy Community Consortium. Over these many years, I have helped our unsheltered residents and will continue to do so. Being of service to Petaluma is an important part of my life.

From Palestine to Petaluma

I grew up in Bethlehem, where people of different faiths and backgrounds live on the same street and have to find a way forward together. I came to this country at age sixteen without English, lived in the Bay Area including San Francisco, worked three jobs, and learned the language on the fly. I purchased my first home at age eighteen. My upbringing and experiences have left me with gratitude for my many opportunities.

• I have spent a lifetime finding common ground between people who started far apart. I can sit down with people who disagree, or who have competing goals, and find the next step.

• I will always listen to someone and take their position seriously even when I do not agree with it.

• Consensus and true community-led decision-making come from ongoing, open dialogue between residents and city leaders.

Promoting public safety

Our residents deserve a community that is safe with fair treatment for all as well as being well prepared for emergencies. My wife, Cynthia, is an administrative aide in the police department of a neighboring city. I have sat on both sides of that table — with residents who want accountability, and with the people who take the calls at two in the morning. Cynthia has never worked for the City of Petaluma, so no contract this Council votes on touches our household.

• Accountability is pro-officer: the officers doing the job right are hurt most when a bad outcome goes unexamined.

• Support means resources — staffing, training and equipment.

• The erosion of residents’ privacy through Flock and other surveillance technologies belongs at the center of our conversation about what police resources fit our city and our values.

What I did about downtown

When a zoning overlay threatened the height and density limits that protect our historic downtown, I went out and collected five hundred signatures myself. That grassroots effort helped protect the district and moved the proposed Appellation hotel from an outsized six stories to a four-story design that fits the rules we already have.