Barrett joins Harris in Petaluma mayor race

Nine months before Petaluma voters head to the polls to elect their next mayor, the race is starting to take shape. Longtime City Councilwoman Teresa Barrett Monday declared her candidacy for Petaluma’s mayor seat, emerging as the sole challenger against former Councilman Mike Harris, who announced his mayoral ambitions in August, a full 15 months before the election.

The city’s current mayor, David Glass, a progressive politician who was elected in 2003 and retained the seat for 12 out of 16 years, last month announced that he would not seek reelection. The decision opens the door for major shifts in leadership on the council, where three other seats will also be up for election in the coming months.

The race comes at a pivotal moment for Petaluma as the city is faced with an ailing budget, mounting pension costs, millions in deferred infrastructure projects and an acute housing crisis made worse by October’s fires.

Glass, 70, said his decision to step down was motivated in part by a desire to take the politics out of a campaign to pass tax measures to buoy the lagging city’s budget. In an interview with the Argus-Courier, he named Barrett, a fellow progressive, as a qualified successor for his long-held mayoral seat though he has not made a formal endorsement.

Barrett has served on the council since 2007. She planned to run for reelection for her council seat, but her decision to run for mayor was influenced by what she described as a “misguided” city council discussion last month about asking voters to do away with direct elections for mayor.

Barrett criticized the move, which has since been shelved after public outcry and legal noticing restrictions that would have made it impossible to place on a June ballot ahead of the mayor’s race.

A grassroots citizen campaign to encourage Barrett to run for mayor also emerged as she was celebrating her 70th birthday in Colombia.

“The tipping point really was to come back and see so many people saying ‘well, why don’t you?’” she said “I just thought ‘well I know I could do it.’ I do so much in the community already that it certainly wouldn’t be a bigger commitment of my time out in the public. And, I think I bring a certain amount of consistency to running for mayor and I also think I’m pretty much a voice of reason on the council and I want to continue to be that.”

A 39-year Petaluma resident, Barrett holds a master’s degree in economic history from University of California, Los Angeles. She worked as a researcher at RAND Corporation before focusing on raising her two children, now in their 30s.

She has served on various city boards, including the planning commission, the tree advisory committee and the library advisory board as well as numerous other local, regional and educational commitments. She sought a seat on the planning commission in 1998 after noticing a lack of women on the panel. She served on the commission until 2005, when she ran for City Council after noticing that the council was often disregarding the planning commission’s decisions.

“It’s cliché now to say she persisted, but you have to persist and you really do have to keep going and not give it up,” Barrett said of her advocacy for the community and issues such as increasing the tax on hotel and short-term rental stays. “It’s easy to do that if you’re just acting on your principles. You’re not having to think up something because it’s what you believe. It’s not reacting to polling.”

Among other accomplishments, she’s proud of her work on the city’s general plan, efforts to streamline the city’s planning process, work with State Sen. Mike McGuire on a plastic bag ban, and the city’s adoption of a policy to safeguard disadvantaged populations. A self-described progressive, she said she spends much time with the community, helping residents unravel complex issues and advocating for environmental issues.

“Being a progressive means putting the interests of the city ahead of the interests of developers,” the registered Democrat said. “To me, that’s critical.”

She said housing affordability, dredging of the Petaluma River and traffic congestion and related infrastructure will be the main issues facing the city in coming months. If she’s not elected as mayor, Barrett will lose her council seat.

Harris, 47, was first elected to the council in 2002 and served three terms before stepping down after losing a close race for mayor to David Glass in 2014.

“I was just short by 84 votes for mayor in 2014 and that might have been one of the best things that ever happened,” he said. “I’ve done cool things I’ve never had time for before like the Chamber of Commerce Board and the Petaluma Educational Foundation Board. I have extra experience and I’m coming back even stronger.”

A registered independent, he described his political approach as “in the middle,” and he said he votes on issues “based on the information in front” of him.

Harris, who has a BA from Sonoma State University in management, is an executive for a local financial services company. He has served as Petaluma’s representative to the Sonoma County Transportation Authority, as chairman of the Youth Commission, as chairman of the Technology Committee and as chairman of Petaluma’s Transit Committee, among other city boards.

The 24-year Petaluma resident cited the revitalization of the downtown core and subsequent economic development as a major accomplishment. If elected to the mayor’s seat, he plans to focus on housing affordability, traffic, infrastructure issues and economic development.

“I have that positive attitude,” he said. “That, with 12 years of experience on the council coupled with my business experience … makes me a good, well-rounded person to run.”

(Contact Hannah Beausang at hannah.beausang@arguscourier.com.)