Election, transportation top Petaluma stories of 2016
National and global events, dominated by the U.S. presidential election, combined to make 2016 a monumental year. In Petaluma, the local election had less of an impact, but certainly became one of the top stories of the year.
The severe drought that captured headlines for four years finally ended in 2016 as significant rainfall soaked the region. Even more significantly, Petaluma’s flood wall project, finally completed at the beginning of the year, did its job and no major flooding was reported.
Operations at Petaluma Valley Hospital, the city’s lone acute care facility, went through a rocky 2016, leaving the future uncertain in the new year. Longtime hospital operator St. Joseph Health abruptly pulled out of talks to continue running the facility, as local health care officials scrambled to find a successor.
Major transportation projects advanced, were delayed or were scrapped entirely. As funding was discovered to continue widening Highway 101 south of Petaluma, the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit system pushed its start date into next year. Meanwhile, a local sales tax measure to finally pave Petaluma’s crumbling streets was tabled due to lack of support.
Local attitudes toward cannabis saw a major shift in 2016 as California voters passed a proposition to legalize recreational marijuana. Petaluma leaders continued to craft the city’s policy toward the drug, a process that is expected to last into next year.
Tragedy also marked 2016. A car crash on Petaluma Boulevard North claimed the lives of two young girls, while a fire along the freeway tore through an east side neighborhood and destroyed several properties.
Businesses and restaurants in Petaluma opened, closed or expanded. G&G Market, a beloved local grocer, sold to Safeway. Brewsters Beer Garden made its debut in 2016, further cementing Petaluma as a hotbed for craft beer.
Local election
The Petaluma City Council election seemed tame compared with the divisive presidential race that raged through the fall. The local election was nearly canceled due to lack of a challenger, until Bill Wolpert stepped up at the last minute to run against incumbents Mike Healy, Kathy Miller and Gabe Kearney.
A planning commissioner and architect, Wolpert ran on a platform of walkable development and environmentalism and drew strong support from Petaluma’s self-identified progressives. The race drew only a fraction of the campaign donations of past elections, and the rancor was kept at a minimum.
Mayor David Glass, a Wolpert supporter, advocated for casting only one of the alloted three votes for Wolpert. The strategy nearly paid off as Wolpert, seeking his first elected office, came 275 votes short of unseating one of the three seasoned politicians. Healy, the top vote getter, won his sixth term on the council. Miller came in second winning her second term, and Kearney finished in third in his second election.
Voters in the Petaluma City Schools District elected two newcomers to the school board. Frank Lynch, a longtime principal and school administrator, was the top vote getter, while Ellen Webster, a high school teacher, claimed the second spot. Mary Johnson, an appointed incumbent, came in third.
In the Old Adobe School District, newcomers Jon Lenz and Heather Burton won seats on the board ahead of Marilyn Cohoe.
Shifting attitudes on pot
Also on the 2016 ballot, California voters approved Prop. 64, which legalized recreational marijuana. It was one of several cannabis ballot initiatives approved across the country, representing a loosening of attitudes around the drug that remains illegal federally.
Locally, city and county leaders worked to craft policy and position their municipalities for the eventual sale of recreational marijuana, with brick-and-mortar businesses expected to operate by 2018.
Petaluma officials, while preserving a prohibition on medical marijuana dispensaries in the city, have taken a wait-and-see approach to recreational sales. Meanwhile, Sonoma County supervisors passed sweeping rules on the cultivation and sale of medical marijuana, which is expected to lay the framework for the recreational industry, and called a March 2017 election to impose a county marijuana tax.
Progress, delay in transportation
The local ballot was also marked by what was not included. Petaluma officials worked for much of the year to craft a ballot measure that would have imposed a citywide sales tax specifically to fix Petaluma’s crumbing streets.
The effort came two years after voters turned down Measure Q, which leaders billed as a sales tax for street repair, but was written as a general purpose tax. This year, city council members pushed for a specific tax for streets, which requires a higher two-thirds threshold to pass.
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