Barrett championing progressive mantle in Petaluma’s mayoral race

The three-term councilwoman is advocating for better enforcement of Petaluma’s river and bike plans, even if it results in slower growth.|

This is not Teresa Barrett’s first time running for office, but it is the most personal. The three-term Petaluma City Councilwoman decided to forgo reelection this year to instead seek the separately elected mayor’s seat being vacated by retiring Mayor David Glass.

She said that her mayoral campaign relies heavily on her personality.

“Running for mayor is a totally different animal. People only get one vote,” said Barrett, 70. “It’s all about you.”

Having spent 12 years on the council, many voters are already familiar with her stance on key issues. Barrett has embraced the “progressive” mantle, championing environmental causes and pressing developers for more community benefits, even if it results in slower growth.

She said she was proud of working on the city’s 2008 General Plan, which outlines how Petaluma should develop, but she said that a majority of elected leaders haven’t adhered to the blueprint.

“We haven’t fulfilled our General Plan,” she said. “We’ve turned our back to the river. We haven’t kept the bike plan moving forward. I’ve been in the minority.”

Cannabis policy is another area Barrett found herself in the minority. She supports cannabis dispensaries, but the council has outlawed the businesses in favor of cannabis delivery services. She said she would like to revisit the dispensary ban, with an eye on capturing more sales tax revenue.

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 the Rand Corporation before focusing on raising her two children. She has served on various city boards, including the planning commission and the tree advisory committee.

She sees housing affordability as a key issue, and she supported increasing fees developers pay to encourage more affordable housing. She supports looking at some form of rent control and just cause eviction policy, especially if it was embraced statewide.

Barrett voted against approving the environmental document for the Rainier crosstown connector. She says she supports building the road, but only once the city has a funding plan in place.

“The question is how do we finance it. That is critical,” she said. “We have to have the money in hand before we start it. We can’t pay as we go.”

Though she did not support Petaluma’s last effort to pass a sales tax in 2014, a one-cent sales tax measure she called too much without a defined spending plan, she recognizes the need for additional revenue. She said the city’s budget is woefully lean, and she is in favor of some sort of measure within the next two years.

“There’s got to be some kind of revenue measure,” she said. “There needs to be a lot of public discussion. We just have to be very honest. People don’t realize how close to the bone we are as a city.”

Barrett said she would like to see the Sonoma-Marin Fair stay at the fairgrounds, perhaps on a smaller footprint with the rest of the land generating revenue for the city.

While the mayor only has one of seven votes on the city council, Barrett sees Petaluma as exceptional for having a directly elected mayor. She lamented an attempt earlier this year by several council members to do away with mayoral elections and instead let the city council choose the mayor from among council members, like most other cities in the region.

It was the key issue that drove her into the mayoral race in the first place.

“I really didn’t like the end-run in trying to change the way the mayor is elected,” she said. “I think it was politically tone deaf. Being mayor really does matter to people.”

(Contact Matt Brown at matt.brown@arguscourier.com.)

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