- Hi, I'm Joanne Webster, President and CEO of the North Bay Leadership Council.

We're so proud to support NorCal Public Media's candidate town hall forums, bringing candidates and people of all ages together for an important civic conversation.

The North Bay Leadership Council is a collective voice of employers who advocate for sound public policy, demonstrate and grow leadership within the region, and collectively work for more resilient, prosperous, and equitable future.

NBLC is proud to support NorCal Public Media's candidate town hall forums and support civic engagement across our region.

- I'm Donna Roper, president of the League of Women Voters of Sonoma County.

The league is proud to partner with NorCal Public Media on these candidate town hall forums as part of our commitment to informed and active participation in our democracy.

Candidate forums give voters an opportunity to hear directly from those seeking public office, learn where they stand on issues affecting our communities, and make informed decisions at the ballot box.

We're especially pleased to see local youth helping shape this conversation by submitting the questions and issues that matter to them.

Thank you for taking part in this important civic conversation.

- Welcome to NorCal Public Media's Youth Town Hall Candidate Forum for Sonoma County Supervisor District two.

Tonight's program is a forum, not a debate.

The questions were submitted by local youth and community members and selected to reflect the issues they want their next supervisor to address.

Each candidate will have two minutes to respond to each question.

The moderators may ask a brief follow up when clarification would be helpful.

When we do, each candidate will receive the same opportunity and will have one minute to respond.

We'll alternate which candidate answers first throughout the program.

Our timekeeper will help keep the conversation moving and ensure that each candidate receives equal time.

We ask the candidates to direct their responses to the moderators rather than to one another.

Thank you to our candidates for participating and to the young people and community members who contributed their questions.

Before we begin, each candidate will have the opportunity to make a two-minute opening statement.

And Ms.

Pond, we'll start with you.

- Well, thank you for having me here.

My name is Joanna Pon, and I've lived in Petaluma for 21 years with my husband and our four children.

I'm a proud alumnus of Sonoma State University where I earned a bachelor's degree in psychology, a master's degree in counseling, and a PPS credential in school counseling.

And I recently had the rewarding experience of being able to teach a class in the graduate level program of the counseling program at Sonoma State.

I've been an elected official for eight years.

I was elected to the Petaluma City School Board in 2018 during a very contested election.

And on the school board, I served in the leadership role of board president for three years during what I would call the hardest three years in education, which was during the COVID pandemic.

The budget that I oversee on the board eclipses that of several of our small cities across our county.

We have a workforce of over 800 employees and we oversee close to a million square feet of facilities.

I currently work in a management role at the Sonoma County Office of Education as the department head of the Foster and Homeless Youth Education Services.

In this role, I generate and administer state, federal, and local funding working across various jurisdictions, including departments within the county of Sonoma.

In these various roles, I've created and upheld policies to serve the needs of our students, families, and our community.

And I consistently advocate on the state and federal levels for policy change to meet the needs of our students and local educational systems.

And I've been recognized twice on the state level for exemplifying best practices and effective governmentship and boardsmanship.

And I'm running because I've seen firsthand the challenges that people in our community face.

Throughout D2, we need a leader who will advocate for the needs of this beautiful, unique community and who is committed to upholding all that makes our county special.

And given my management, educational and budgetary and policy background, I believe I'm the right candidate to be your next county supervisor.

Thank you.

- Thank you for that.

Ms.

Lemus.

- Thank you.

So first of all, I'd like to thank young people for this wonderful town hall.

You are the future of our county, and I'm so glad you're interested in what happens here.

You are experiencing the pressures, what you see locally and at a greater scale, the country and the world.

I'm Sonia Lemus, the mayor of Cotati, and I'm grateful to be here.

And I appreciate everyone who will be taking the time to listen, learn, and be a part of this important conversation.

[Spanish] I've been a public servant and community leader from the time I was 14 years old, and I had my own bilingual radio program.

I've spent 30 plus years at the County Sonoma working with vulnerable communities and ended my career in human resources as a bilingual public information officer during the fires and pandemic.

I believe deeply in the power of local leadership to shape the everyday lives of our community.

I've also been a planning commissioner and city councilwoman.

We have many challenges ahead from housing affordability, mental health, public safety, education, our infrastructure and economic opportunities.

And I look forward to ensuring that our community remains inclusive, resilient, and forward-looking.

It takes all of us working together to create a community we are proud of.

Leadership should be accessible, accountable, and grounded in the real experiences of our full community.

That is why I'm honored to have earned the endorsement of nearly the entire board of supervisors, countless city council members, as well as organizations representing firefighters, law enforcement, and our farms.

- Okay, thank you for that.

So let's start with a question regarding surveillance.

The county is increasingly using surveillance technologies.

What will you do as a supervisor to address the benefits, risks, and controversies surrounding our rapidly evolving governmental surveillance technologies landscape?

We'll start with you, Ms.

Pond.

- Okay.

Yeah, this is a very timely and relevant issue.

I know that the people are speaking and have lots of concerns about this issue, and our law enforcement are listening and trying to figure out what's best for the community overall.

But in light of all of the privacy concerns, the mass amounts of surveillance, the ties to ICE enforcement, as well as all of the concerns about the unauthorized access to our data, as well as storage concerns, I mean, a lot of people are concerned about data centers.

I really think that the core question for me is how do we balance all of the stated benefits of the technology with concerns over our privacy, transparency, data security, and limiting our government surveillance?

And is Flock really helping our law enforcement solve that many more major crimes, and what would they have done without Flock in those instances?

Recently, the ACLU settled a lawsuit in Sonoma County that was about an overreach of surveillance and code enforcement.

And I think about all of the best intentions and it really hasn't panned out to what the people have wanted to be, or even what they initially were told it was going to be.

We see different jurisdictions in Petaluma, Rohnert Park, all of the places that make up District two, including Pengrove, and they have different numbers of cameras and they are exploring different methods of enforcement, and it'd be great if we had a county-wide enforcement option as well.

We also have to look at where these cameras are placed.

Some of them are placed in areas where there's higher... Thank you for the time, where there's higher concentrations of our marginalized communities.

And so we also have to look about the equity issues of where they're being used and why.

- The benefits are that it does solve crime.

A recent example is in Sonoma.

There was a person that was killed recently, and because of automatic license plate readers, they were able to find some of the people that were involved in that and charge one of the individuals.

So it does solve crime, we find that it does, but at the same time, we have to weigh that with privacy protections, and that's an issue.

So privacy protections, we have to make regulations to make sure that people are protected.

What we also know is that law enforcement uses the information, but there's also information that's that, like for example, commercial businesses and HOAs also have these same flock type cameras.

And so we have to look at the whole system and see what makes sense for us as far as policy and regulation.

One of the things one of the things that we've done in Catadi is we've assigned this issue over to our police advisory committee so that they can review it and bring recommendations to our city council because this is an important topic as we've heard that City of Santa Rosa had just had a forum recently on this.

And like I said, it's going on across the nation, even up and, up and down the state.

So we have to look at regulations and policy to protect privacy at the same time.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you for that.

- This next question goes to you, Sylvia.

There are over 83,000 immigrants who live in Sonoma County and they're very deeply woven into our community's social fabric.

So if you will, please discuss your position on the county's current policy regarding immigration.

- Okay.

So this one's very personal to me, being a child of an immigrant, my grandparents are also immigrants.

So it's really important for me to have the right policy in place and that we protect our vulnerable communities.

So we at the, the county has an order that they established in April and, and it finalized it in, in late April.

So what we need to do is, is continue to provide protections to the immigration immigrant community.

So they have set aside 1.5 million to provide to Secure Families Collaborative that's working with a lot of the immigrant serving organizations.

So I support continuing to support immigrant serving organizations and protections.

So I find that we're basically our sanctuary except for certain situations, but I think that we need to continue to work to protect our communities.

One of the things that I'm seeing is that people are afraid to leave their fa - their homes, children are afraid at their homes, and families are.

So we have to do everything we can to protect immigration.

And also working with ICE, the ICE Detention Centers.

When I was growing up, La Migra was like the boogeyman.

And so we talked a lot about La Migra, but the ICE of today is not the immigration and La Migra of yesteryear.

So I am against ICE and detention centers and what they're doing.

So I believe that we have to continue to protect immigrants in our community.

- So in December of 2024, we had a lot of people come to our school board really concerned about the results of the most recent election and people scared that they were going to be targeted by ICE.

And so our school board took a proactive approach in December of 2024, and we created a safe haven policy designating all of our campuses as safe havens for students and families.

And we directed our district staff to not solicit or collect any information or documentation about anyone's citizenship or immigration status and that people may not provide assistance with immigration enforcement on any of our school campuses.

We heard from the community, from teachers, from staff, from students, from parents, local organizations about a lot of anxiety and fear around immigration.

And so I do not believe that our county should be sharing information with ICE.

We need to limit that local cooperation and ask them to use their own resources.

They are heavily resourced.

They do not need to use our county's resources for this.

The taxpayer money that's going to responding to these ICE inquiries could be used towards something else.

We know that people are disappearing without due process.

Just a few days ago, someone else was shot in Austin, Texas, an unarmed person, and ICE is ripping our families and our communities apart and people have a right to be concerned about our county's continued collaboration with ICE.

We want the residents of this county to trust law enforcement and ICE has broken that trust.

Families here deserve to live without fear about simply leaving their homes because of potential deportation.

- Okay.

Thank you for that answer.

So Joanna, this next one to you.

What will you do to prepare district two for wildfires, extreme heat, drought, flooding with the El Nino, and other effects of climate change?

- Yeah.

So we know that there has been recently declared a state of emergency by Governor Newsom because of the upcoming El Nino, and we know that the Tubbs Fire really exposed a lot of our systemic vulnerabilities to a potential disaster.

And because of that, there were a lot of things that were implemented so that we could be at the forefront instead of at the back end of this issue, should it come again, God forbid, but we do know it's coming.

I really appreciate the idea of the resilience hubs that have been set up throughout our county.

And it sounds like our government understands that they can't always reach everyone, but it's important for us to have these hubs.

I'm thinking of in Petaluma, we have daily acts, we have cool Petaluma, and it's basically neighbors looking out for neighbors.

They're also focused on neighborhood centers, our local schools and our homes, making sure that they are resilient and that they're ready for the next potential disaster.

So I would want to make sure that we equip them with the resources that they need ahead of this impending disaster.

- So Department of Emergency Management currently has different plans for disasters, so I would encourage them to continue to work with the districts to make sure that we have the right plans for fires, for earthquakes, for different types of emergencies and floods.

So during my county service, I did work the fires and the floods.

So I've done both of that through the Emergency Operations Center.

At the same time, the resiliency centers are really important throughout the schools.

There's one in Santa Rosa, Southwest Santa Rosa at the Child Parent Institute, and I also understand that the Petaluma Fairgrounds will have a resiliency center.

So it's really important that we support that and fund them and make sure that the community knows that these resiliency centers are available for them during emergencies.

We saw during the 2017 and 2019 fires that a lot of people did not know where to go.

So a lot of, especially our immigrant population, went to the ocean because they were afraid to go into our shelters and local assistance centers.

But we learned from that and we develop different systems so that the all community is involved and protected during emergencies.

So I would like to work with our emergency management and the cities and make sure we develop resilience centers throughout the county.

- Okay, thank you.

- Thank you.

Sylvia, we'll go to you again for this next question.

So in Sonoma County, over 45% of our renters experience severe rent burden where they're spending more than half of their income on housing.

What renter protections, homelessness prevention, housing preservation and affordability policies would you like to see implemented on a countywide level?

- So right now what we need to do is, is create overlays like to protect, like for example, in Cotati we present, protect seniors at the mobile home parks.

So we currently are working with Petaluma and Cotati and some other cities to protect our seniors.

So it's really important to kind of work with our community and other cities together on a regional basis to protect our, our existing, especially affordable housing that we have.

Right now what we have too is an issue where I'm on a homeless coalition board and we just learned that we're going to have about 200 units that we're going to lose because we're going to be losing $4 million in permanent supportive housing.

So this week we'll be looking at applications to see how we can kind of prepare to counter that, and that's through HUD and at the federal level that we're going to be losing some of that money.

So we'll be working on that and we have to make sure that we, because like we, like you said, I think you mentioned that 45% are paying more than 50% of their rent in rent.

So we have to make sure that we protect people.

- I would love to see more done in the area of rent stabilization and tenant protections, especially for our seniors and for folks that live in our mobile home park communities.

I do support tenants addressing unlawful evictions, promoting safe and stable housing for low income folks.

I know what it's like to be rent burdened.

I grew up in Section eight housing and having just that stable place to live, safe, stable, secure is just so important for so many people here in our county right now.

I would also want to encourage landlords to address and repair the issues in the places that they're renting.

I look at Rohnert Park right here in district two as a great example, Labath Landing, a 60 unit interim housing community.

It has provided so much stability in the outcomes after people leave Lebath Landing eclipses that of what's being done countywide when people leave the interim housing.

And that was an effort of the city, the county, and the state.

And what they did is really exciting to address homelessness here in Rohnert Park.

And then even further, they just broke ground on the old Best Western to provide 70 senior housing units because we know that our seniors over the age of 60 is our fastest growing population of people experiencing homelessness.

So if we could just follow the example of Rohnert Park, they provided this interim housing and then they're also providing housing for our city, sorry, for our seniors.

There is no reason that that cannot be duplicated across district two and potentially the county and then further the state.

And I look at what we were able to do in my department at SCOE.

We were able to increase school stability rates.

We were able to increase graduation rates, increase academic achievements by listening to the school districts, listening to the community and putting the money towards supporting our students.

- Okay.

Thank you for that answer.

The next question again for you, Joanna.

In 2024, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors passed disaster-triggered countywide eviction moratorium during a declared county emergency.

What would you do in your position to ensure a just recovery, meaning housing, work, language access or recovery efforts for communities during disasters or emergencies in Sonoma County?

- Yeah.

So I look at HR1 and what we're facing budgetarily and all of the effect that's going to have across our whole county, if not our state.

And so I think prioritizing and supporting emergency programs, not just housing but food programs, rent moratoriums, everything that we can do to support people and keep people stabilized during that, it feels like the state has left the counties with the responsibility of caring for our people.

And so we do have responsibility to care for the folks here during times of economic disruption as well as in times of climate disasters as per the previous question.

And so I think prioritizing resources for our most vulnerable communities first is really important and then ensuring that the funds reach the people that it's intended to reach.

I think a lot of times we talk to people after the fact when we're going through all of these processes, but our community organizations, they're on the front lines, they're talking with people.

I think of the United Way, Positive Images, Home First, a lot of folks that can see these things coming before the folks at the top tier and just making sure that they're involved in these conversations.

- So right now the county has a strategic plan where they have five pillars and it's a five-year plan, which ends in 2026.

So one of them is the pillar of healthy and safe communities.

And so under that, we do have just recovery, language and cultural, especially during emergencies.

And so I would want us as a county to re-look at that and see if there's any changes that we need to do to support vulnerable communities.

So one of the things that it talks about is having quality and equitable housing, public safety services, as well as health and human services for all.

So that means supporting our health and human services so that they're ready in case of an emergency under this pillar that the county's already established.

So I would like to look at that.

And like I said, the lessons that we learned in 2017 fires is that we had to do a better job of working with different cultures and communities and language and providing assistance.

And we have done that since 2017 and 2021, the pillars that we started.

The county has really worked on really making sure that our local assistance centers are culturally appropriate, that even that they serve food that's culturally appropriate for the communities and that they provide resources in English and Spanish and any other languages.

So that's really important to continue that work.

And I would be looking at working with the county to make sure that we strengthen those pillars, especially around healthy and safe communities.

- Okay.

Thank you for that answer.

- Sylvia, next question to you again.

Can you please discuss your views on the role of Sonoma County's Independent Office of Law Enforcement Review and Outreach and the continued implementation of Measure P?

- Okay.

So I was an original member of the CAYA Task Force, the Committee of Local Law Enforcement Task Force that happened when Andy Lopez was killed in 2013.

So I spent like two years, two and a half years on that task force creating different recommendations and we formed the oversight model, which became IOLERO.

So I'm a supporter of IOLERO.

I voted for Measure P. It passed with like 67%, which is overwhelming.

And there was some legal challenges along the way, which the court has recently settled.

So it's been, it's settled and I fully support the implementation of Measure P. It sounds like that one of the sticking points was whistleblower complaints, but my understanding from reports is that that has been resolved as far as that they'll be able to work together IOLRO and the Sheriff's Office.

So I do support Measure P fully and the work that IOLERO is doing.

I also had gone to NACL, which is a National Association of Civil, Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement with a lot of practitioners in San Diego.

So I'm very knowledgeable on IOLERO and oversight and I'm a supporter of, of it.

And I know that Measure P will be, and I will support that it's implemented to the full extent.

- Yeah.

So really Measure P, IOLERO, what it comes down to is transparency and accountability and fostering trust from the community.

And we should all want that.

And I do not believe that any changes should be made to Measure P unless the original stakeholders ask for it, CLEAN, NAACP, MBOP, et cetera, all of the folks that were originally involved with IOLERO and Measure P, because people really care about transparency in law enforcement.

I mean, look at what's happening with ICE right now.

And really the mission of that is to strengthen the relationship between the sheriff's office and the community.

Measure P passed with two thirds of the vote.

And so I do not believe that our board of supervisors should be able just to rewrite it.

This is the will of the voters and people deserve to have the will of the voters upheld.

And also Measure P, again, less liability for the county.

All of the money that was put into fighting this, fighting something that the voters overwhelmingly supported could have been put to other things.

I mean, $400,000 and potentially more.

I've heard that that is actually a low number.

And I was part, I was really happy to be a part of Petaluma's ad hoc and advisory committee in 2021 after the Black Lives Matter reckoning that our country had.

And out of that, we were able to give some recommendations and to look at local race relations in terms of community safety and our immigrant communities, our communities of color and other marginalized communities.

And so really Measure P is about, again, the relationship between the public and the sheriff's office and making sure that it's improved, it's accountable, and that it receives the community's trust.

- Okay.

Thank you.

Next question back to you.

When county resources are limited, what services and programs would you prioritize in the budget and why, - Joanna?

Yeah.

I've been asked this question a few times and I like the approach that the current board took about protecting essential services while also preparing for the major challenges and changes that we're up against.

I appreciate the funding to help residents maintain their access to healthcare, food assistance programs, while also making sure that we are maintaining our roads and our bridges and other transportation options as well.

I believe that we need to focus on people.

If people are not taken care of, we can't do anything else.

And so again, I appreciate their approach to that.

We can't replace every federal dollar that's lost, but we can protect our most critical services.

I mean, again, back to the question you asked about climate, I mean, we really need to protect those resources and making sure that the funds that we have are making the biggest differences.

But I also would want to look at outcome.

So really looking at outcome-based budgeting with true equity benchmarks.

And instead of funding programs that we've always funded, like, okay, we've always historically funded these things, look at is this the right place to put our funds?

Are we getting the outcomes that we want and then potentially pivot?

So I think again, in times like this of potential economic downturn, we need to look at supporting our emergency programs.

We need to make sure that we're providing resources for our most vulnerable communities and ensuring that the funding reaches our trusted local providers.

- Well, I think that resident core services need to be preserved, and that includes health.

We're seeing that we're going to get some cuts around health, so the county is actively right now preparing for that, working with healthcare centers and increasing eligibility workers so that they can keep people on Medi-Cal and SNAP benefits.

And also that includes mental health.

So working with our healthcare centers and the county and also our healthcare systems to make sure that mental health is covered, food stability and also public safety and housing preservation and protection is really important as core services.

In addition to that, I believe that we need to have local economic development, so we need to continue to make sure that we're supporting entrepreneurs and small businesses and housing is really important.

Infrastructure also is really important and we're doing a good job.

We have a short-term and a long-term plan for our roads, and so we have to continue working and intentionally funding roads to make sure that we have our roads and that our water systems are maintained and that housing is in the right places.

In addition to that, also it's important to continue to maintain the protection of our open spaces, our ag and our parks.

- Okay.

Thank you very much.

- Sylvia, again, question to you, speaking about the livability and environment of Sonoma County, what are some of the steps you would like to take to create more career opportunities and ensure that local wages keep pace with the rising cost of living?

- Okay.

So the county is the largest employer is at 4,300 more or less employees.

And so the majority of my time at the county I spent in HR.

And so I worked with hiring and also recruiting.

And so I did a lot of career training with young people.

So I went into high schools and colleges and worked on career training with them, doing presentations.

So it's really important to continue doing that from the county's perspective, as well as also there's next generation trades, there's a career technical education and and different trade apprenticeship programs.

So we need to continue to work and with them to make sure that we have good paying jobs for a community with benefits.

And a lot of our, like I said, the trades apprenticeship programs lead into really good jobs that have benefits through the labor organizations.

So at the same time, we have to encourage students to explore and prepare for their career paths, and we have to do everything that we can from the county perspective to work with that.

And you had mentioned climate as well.

Did you mention climate in that?

- You're welcome to address that too if that might be Avenue of job creation in your opinion.

- So there's a lot of opportunities.

I serve on Sonoma Clean Power and we're trying to build a geothermal zone.

And so that will bring along a lot of careers also with new type of energy.

And so I think there's other opportunities locally in that area too.

- Yeah.

I would want to see a strategy that's focused on housing development, workforce development, and business diversification.

In terms of housing, we need transit orientated housing options.

We all know that the housing crisis is really the top priority for sustained growth in our community.

We see people price out of the housing market, so we have to create more affordable housing here in this county.

Working with our industry partners, with our local school systems, with Sonoma State, with Santa Rosa Junior College, apprenticeship, vocational training, as well as really supporting our small businesses, making sure that those bottlenecks are removed and people are going through the permitting process when they're trying to open a new business.

I think also about Measure I and our human infrastructure.

Now that there is a renewed focus on early childcare and early education, this can be an economic driver because it allows parents to reenter the workforce sooner, knowing that they have more available and affordable childcare options in the county that are afforded to them because of Measure I.

- Okay.

Thank you.

So this next question, what is being done regarding groundwater sustainability and preventing over pumping?

So groundwater, - Joanna.

We are really lucky to have Sonoma Water here, one of the best water agencies, arguably in the state or the country.

And water is really a critical issue here in Sonoma County.

Our groundwater sustainability agency is also truly important as well to make sure that the people who depend on if they're getting well water, tap water, make sure that we have enough water hookups and that people still have access to safe, reliable, clean water.

I also appreciate the conservation efforts that we're able to conserve so much water while also still delivering water to the 600,000 people that live here in Sonoma County.

We also need to address our aging infrastructure.

We have aging pipes, we have aging storage facilities.

And recently I heard someone from the water agency say that we also have an aging workforce.

They called it a silver tsunami.

And so as we're seeing more people retire, I think about my mom, my mom lives here in district two.

People are retiring.

We need to make sure that more people are coming in that can support these different industries, including our water agencies.

And this is a responsibility that I take really seriously and I am committed to maintaining our wonderful water system here in Sonoma County.

- So I serve as an alternate to the water advisory committee with Sonoma Water and other electeds and other water districts.

So currently what we're working on is making sure that we have the infrastructure in place for water moving forward.

We're slowly working on projects to replace aging infrastructure.

At the same time, I also have attended and have been part of the Petaluma Watershed Zone 2A to work on some of the flooding issues that we're dealing with in the second district, Pengrove and part of Petaluma floods.

And so we are looking at building more deeper retention ponds in Petaluma to make sure we capture some of that water so that it doesn't flood the area as much.

But as far as some of the groundwater sustainability, we are looking at maybe monitoring.

We are monitoring it to make sure that we have healthy water reserves.

In Petaluma water basin is healthy.

Santa Rosa and Sonoma, maybe there may be some issues there that we have to look at, but the Petaluma Water Basin is healthy.

We do have the possibility of recharging, so bringing water and charging the aquifers under the water, but that's not something we've done in Petaluma, but that's something that we have also.

There's also something else that we're thinking of and it's been discussed at the state level is monitoring wells so that we can, not really to charge rate payers, not to charge people, but to monitor the health of the water underground water.

So that's something we're also working on as well.

So it's important to keep track of that.

And I'm, I'm proud to serve on the water advisory committee and follow everything that's going on.

Also, continue to get water from the water diversion.

You know, we talk a lot about Potter Valley and the eel.

So it's important that we continue to get the water diversion, whether the dam stays up or comes down, do we continue to receive the water?

It's important for the Russian River and a lot of the people along the river and also even here in South County and onto the Marin Water District as well.

- Okay.

Thank you very much.

Okay, - Thank you.

Sylvia, again to you.

So the Sonoma County Transit Agency recently inaugurated a new bus route taking Sonoma Marin area rail transit riders to the city of Sonoma.

So when it comes to public transportation in Sonoma County, are there ways that you'd like to see it continue improving so that folks who rely on it, folks who are working class, folks who are students are able to have reliable and dependable forms of transportation available to them?

- Yes.

And I'm proud.

I was proud to take the inaugural ride.

It was 40X is the name of the, the bus route.

So I was in Sonoma at 7:00 in the morning and a lot of us got on the bus and it took us to the downtown Petaluma Smart Station.

And from there, some people went on to San Francisco and some people went to Santa Rosa and went to other locations.

So it's really great that SMART now has that train, the, the bus coming, connecting from Sonoma.

But I believe we also need it from the West County.

So we do have the SMART train that goes along the 101 corridor, but it's really important for all of our residents in the whole county to have access to it.

So we, we have been working with Mascots, which is the Marin and Sonoma County Transit.

And so they have been working together to find out how to work together and make it more financially feasible to have more routes that make sense between Sonoma and Marin.

So that's something that we've been working on.

It's really important to continue to, to use SMART and look at our transportation systems for students and, and families and parents and seniors that use them to make sure that there's better schedules and better coordination is really important as well.

One day we will have maybe Waymo here.

Right now we do have some ride share, bike ride share in all of the cities.

Cotati was a pilot area in the beginning, but it's really important that we do more coordination with transportation.

And even SMART has some of those electrical connector buses.

So I think there's opportunity to use those as well into other locations.

So we have to do more with public transportation for students and families.

- While that one bus route was added, there were also bus routes taken away at the same time.

So on the weekends, the buses aren't running along that same corridor for people who need transportation most.

And it is estimated that between 30 to potentially up to 40% of people in our county do not have access to reliable transportation.

So it's nice that we are, you know, in a way focused on tourism in that way, you know, bringing people from Petaluma to Sonoma, but what about the people that need transportation on a daily basis to get to where they need to go?

Not everyone works a nine to five, not everyone works Monday through Friday.

Some people work on weekends and they rely on that transportation option.

So I would want to see that transportation be restored to the people that need it the most.

Also, we need to focus transportation on mobility and congestion relief.

It's not just about the trains or the buses, but also the road safety, pedestrian safety.

You know, my kids were injured when they were hit by a car in a crosswalk and this was a crosswalk that had been complained about for years and it took them getting hit.

Other children had had near misses for it to finally get fixed.

So we will never get people out of their cars and relieve some of that congestion as long as we don't have safe streets and as long as we continue delaying on certain road repairs.

So again, it's not just about roads or transit connections, bicycle and pedestrian safety.

It's about all of that combined.

- Thank you.

- Okay.

And Joanna, how would you as a supervisor improve access to affordable mental health services, particularly for young people?

- Yeah, so my background is in school counseling.

Before I went to Sonoma County Office of Education, I was a school counselor for eight years.

So I saw firsthand the limited mental health options for children in our community.

Also, I'm seeing the limited options of culturally relevant mental health care providers.

So I want us to focus.

And again, as we are looking at building up our infrastructure of affordable housing and workforce housing, I want us at the same time to be attracting and retaining all types of workers, including mental healthcare workers that can really reach the people that need it most.

I'm really glad that CAPE is going to be coming into the Petaluma City school system.

We are one of the very few school systems that did not have CAPE and now that is happening this year.

And that's something that a county supervisor can do is work and look at what's needed on the local landscape.

If the supervisor knows that children in Petaluma don't have the same access to healthcare as maybe children in other jurisdictions, then that's something that they can partner with the city on, Healthy Petaluma and different organizations to make happen.

District two is the only district that does not touch a part of Santa Rosa.

So Santa Rosa has the other four districts really advocating for them.

And here in District two, we need someone who's focused on Petaluma, Penngrove, Cotati, Rohnert Park, Bloomfield, T Rock, all of those areas.

And so I would also want to make sure that we continue to invest in the SAFE team.

It has a high utilization, a high demand.

I know as a school counselor, when I would have to, unfortunately 5150 a student, I'd have to call 911 and I would ask, do you have a mobile crisis response person to send?

And usually they did not, but now that is the norm to send someone from the SAFE team out to help stabilize that student and get them the help that they need.

Thank you.

- Okay.

So the CAPE program, which is Crisis Assessment Prevention Education is a great program that the county has, but Petaluma schools and Rohnert Park schools were not a part of it.

They opted out at the time, but I think I would be able to find the funding for it to make sure that those schools are also covered under the program.

So one of the things that I have been doing also is working with healthcare centers to make sure that they also have mental health support.

And I know that Providence has a mobile mental health where they go out to communities and they don't charge, but they help people with mental health support.

Also, the county has two vans, Open Doors, where they bring mental health, they have health services, human services, different county support, and they go out into different areas of community to bring those services.

So it's really important to have that.

The open doors vans that the county has, a CAPE and also SAFE, which we have in Cotati and Rohnert Park and Petaluma also has SAFE, which is a specialized assistance for everyone.

And they provide mental health services and support for our homeless and our youth and other members of the community.

So it's really important that we work on that and I will do that as a supervisor.

- Okay.

Thank you.

- So Sylvia, this is a youth town hall.

So how would you as a supervisor like to give Sonoma County's youth more meaningful voice in the decisions made by the board?

- Yes.

So I am a founding board member of Los Cien organization and Los Cien started a new program called Bridge Program where they work with young people and people that want to be involved in, in, on boards and commissions and get involved in the community.

So it's a, it's a really good program.

And so I think we need more programs like that for youth and so that they can learn how to be board members and serve on commissions and participate in county government at different levels.

So the county has 80 boards and commissions and people, as a board supervisor, I can appoint people to some of those boards and commissions.

So for me, it's important to also have a youth voice on there, similar to like the commission on status of women has a youth program and so does the commission on human rights.

So it's really important that we encourage young people to get involved in our schools and in the community by serving on some of these commissions and the 80 boards and commissions that the county appoints to.

So I would like to do that and also encourage the community through Los Cien and organizations to develop programs so that young people can learn how to be involved in what it takes to be on boards and commissions in the community.

- Joanna, same question to you.

- Yeah.

So as a parent of four kids, ages 14 to 21 I have a lot of active youth voice in my own house and the youth have a lot to say and a lot to teach us.

And I always tell them, you are the biggest voting block that is not using your voice.

Like we need to hear from you in the polling place, in the streets, like face-to-face conversations.

And our school board, we didn't have student board members when I first got on the board, now we have three.

And it has been so valuable to hear their experiences, to hear their point of view.

A lot of times us adults think we know, and then we hear from the kids, we're like, "Oh, that's a different perspective."

So I would want to continue making sure that that student voice is heard, that youth voice.

In my department, I run a couple of advisory boards and we make sure that we have lived experience voice.

So we're hearing directly from students who have experienced homelessness, the foster care system, the juvenile justice system.

And those issues don't just affect the school systems.

Those are countywide issues.

And so I would want to continue to garner those voices to help guide our decisions.

I think we also need to go to the youth.

We can't expect them just to come to us.

We need to go to groups like Los Cien, to Petaluma Blacks for Community Development, We need to go to those different groups that have the youth arm of their organizations and hear what they need.

- Okay.

Thank you.

Again, Joanna, what legislative or policy accomplishments from your time in elective office, elected office, best demonstrate your ability to deliver measurable results?

- Yeah.

So the most recent was when I heard that the city of Petaluma was going to end their services or one of their services with Home First.

And this is someone whose special population was families.

And this is someone that I had worked with not just as a school board member, but also as a program coordinator at the County Office of Ed.

And so I was able to leverage my relationships with people on the Petaluma City Council, speak with them.

And between the city of Petaluma, Petaluma City Schools and Sonoma County Office of Education, we are able to get that job reinstated so that families and students continue to have someone who's serving them as they are on the brink of homelessness where they are homeless so that they can get into housing.

I also am really proud of the climate resolution that we adopted as a school district.

We passed a $230 million bond two years ago and we're using a large portion of that money to make our schools cleaner and greener.

Also championing safe routes to schools.

I talked about my experience as a parent having my children struck by a car, three of my children in a crosswalk and moving that into action to making sure that all of our school sites were looked at in terms of traffic safety and making sure that we made improvements.

As a county supervisor, I know that their elected representative in Penngrove is the county supervisor and they have been asking for improvements there around that school as well.

So I would want to, again, leverage my experience and help them make those improvements.

We also expanded our environmental and climate education.

We have also done things like I talked about, passed the sanctuary policy, passed resolutions against AAPI hate, against antisemitism, in favor of Title VI education for all students.

So there are a lot of initiatives that I've worked on that have had proven results.

- Okay.

Thank you for that answer.

And Sylvia?

- Yes.

I'm really proud that earlier this year we passed the non-collaboration resolution and that's with immigration, federal immigration.

So we passed that earlier this year.

So I'm really proud to pass that.

And that means that ICE cannot use our resources, our staff or our facilities if they come into Cotati.

So that's really important, really important to me and to our city council.

The other thing that we've done is we are the first city to pass transit oriented development and that's for more dense housing around transit hubs like the Smart Station.

So it's a half mile radius where we can have more dense housing and infill projects and we've identified some parcels in that area.

And so we're one of the first cities to do that as well as working on our active transportation plan to get people out there bicycling and walking.

So we've worked on it as a pilot with the County of Sonoma.

We were the only city that started doing that with the county as a pilot.

So we're proud of that and we're working on that to make, close our sidewalk gaps and make the city of Cotati a more livable, walkable community where you can get to different places within 15 minutes.

And so that's our active transportation plan.

The other thing that we've done for housing is we have really worked on objective design standards and ADU processes, plex housing, a lot of housing policies that we've really streamlined to make it easier for developers to come in and build housing with a mix of affordable housing.

So that's something that we've done and I'm really proud that we've done that work too.

- Okay.

Thank you very much.

And Noah's going to ask the last question.

- So Sylvia, as our final question, if you are elected to the board of supervisors at the end of your first term, what are some measurable results that district four residents should be able to look at?

District two.

District two residents, excuse me, be able to look at and determine whether or not you have been successful.

- Okay, great.

So after my first year, I want to know that there has been trust, collaboration, and engagement with the residents of district two, that my office and I are accessible and that we listen to all the stakeholders when making decisions, that the residents feel that the county is incorporating their voices and perspectives into any policies or changes or improvements that we're making to county services and programs, that we're identifying roads in the community involving residents to make sure find solutions through whatever funding or partnerships.

And that the district and the county, they see paths to economic vitality, that we see the economy coming back and businesses are doing better.

And so I believe that that measurement is really important as far as businesses coming back, our sales tax revenues are up, that's a good measurement.

And also that people are seeing visually observing their roads and their parks that are improving.

So those are all measurable ways that I see success in the first year.

- Absolutely.

Joanna, final question to you.

- I think about the Portrait of Sonoma, which was released in 2021, and it has been an underutilized resource.

That document is a treasure trove of things that we should be looking at as a county, at the deep disparities that exist by race, neighborhood, income, gaps in health, education.

And so I think at the end of my term, I would want to see some of those gaps closed.

It would be maybe Portrait of Sonoma 2030 or 2031, and we can see how we've done.

I would want to see mobile home park protections.

I don't want our mobile home park residents to continue to have to fight on their own for protections.

I would want to see more housing, more workforce housing, housing for young people.

I see so many opportunities for us to create more housing for young folks and for our seniors.

And I would want to see our economy thriving and seeing more small business opportunities.

There was another study recently that showed that a lot of the bottlenecks that are happening are unfortunately to folks of color who are trying to open businesses, but that same study also showed that those were the businesses that once they're in place, do really well.

And so if we can, again, make sure that we have opportunities for everyone, then we all benefit.

So I would want to see some of those equity goals and suggestions be acted upon.

Okay.

- Absolutely.

- Thank you very much.

- Well, I do have a quick follow up to the last question and I'll ask you, Joanna, to just continue on here.

Okay.

Would you like to see the county be able to expand its reach, have greater constituent services with the physical location in district two?

We've seen the purchase of the airport Boulevard area building recently, and the county has been looking with expanding constituent services in Sonoma.

So is that something you'd like to see in D2?

- In D2?

Yeah.

I would love to see some sort of hub down in D2.

As I mentioned before, all of the other district supervisors have a portion of Santa Rosa and Petaluma, Penngrove, Cotati, all of those areas, I would like for us to have something here.

I know that at city hall, there's an office for our local legislatures.

Maybe we can have someone man that.

In our school district, we have office hours, so we have set times so people can come and talk to us directly.

I would love to see that, but I also plan on being at the county office every single day, myself and my staff.

I know a lot of the supervisors work remotely.

I want to be there.

So if you come up to the county office, you know that you can talk to myself or one of my staff.

You should not have to always be remote to try to reach one of us.

- Okay.

So it'll be a same question to you, expansion and constituent services in - DP2.

Yes.

So currently the county does have offices in district two on Redwood Drive and Old Redwood Highway.

There's Health and Human Services has a satellite office there.

So I would like to support that office and maybe expand that office and maybe have a satellite office for myself and my staff there in that area.

So we currently do have a hub in Petaluma, the county does.

So I would like to expand and maybe bring some more services.

Yes.

Thank you.

- Okay.

Thank you.

So before we close, each candidate has the opportunity to make a one minute closing statement.

So let's do that.

Sylvia, will you start?

- Sure.

So I've been a lifelong public servant, community leader, and I am proud to represent the second district.

When I retired from the county, I joined planning commission in Cotati and became a city councilwoman.

So I have all this life experience from city council, planning commission, and the county of Sonoma, plus a lot of the nonprofit where I've learned to work with different communities.

I have supported vulnerable communities from my work with California Human Development, supporting farm workers with George Ortiz.

And I continue to do that work my whole career.

So I look forward to being the next supervisor in District two, and I'm honored to have earned the endorsement of nearly the entire board of supervisors, like I said earlier, Countless City Council members.

And I'm proud to have just received the endorsement from Petaluma Federation of Teachers that represented teachers in all the Petaluma School District.

This is a testament to my being able to collaborate and work with the full community as I have done my entire career.

- Okay.

Thank you for that.

Thank you.

Joanna.

- So right now our county really is in the midst of a pivotal political moment, the enormity of which is not being spoken about enough.

So I'm really glad to have this forum today.

So for the first time in nearly two decades, there are two open seats on the board of supervisors, and we all care about our community.

We're all invested in this community.

However, we also have to reckon with the fact that not everyone is living with the same safety and security as we are.

And so my priorities when I get into office are helping seniors age safely in their communities, building affordable housing, supporting the small family farms that grow our food and help us steward our land, and our county needs to stop collaborating with ICE.

And that's why I'm the candidate who has received the endorsements of unions, environmental groups, elected officials at the local county, state, and the federal level.

I'm proud to have earned the support of the California Democratic Party and the local Democratic clubs throughout Sonoma County, Congressman Huffman, Assembly Members Connolly and Rogers, Supervisor Corsey, organizations like MOMS Demand Action, Sierra Club.

And I was excited to receive 41% of the vote in the primary, and I hope to have your support on November 3rd.

Thank you.

- Okay.

Thank you both very much for that.

That concludes NorCal Public Media's Youth Town Hall candidate forum for Sonoma County Supervisor District two.

Thank you to our candidates for taking part and for speaking directly to the concerns of young people in our community.

We also want to thank the students and community members who submitted tonight's questions.

Your voices, experiences, and ideas are an important part of Sonoma County's future.

Special thanks to the League of Women Voters and the North Bay Leadership Council for their support of this series and their commitment to civic participation in our community.

We hope tonight's conversation has helped you better understand the candidates, their priorities, and how they would approach the decisions facing our county.

Please continue learning about the candidates and the issues, and if you're eligible, make a plan to vote.

On behalf of everyone at NorCal Public Media, thank you for joining us.

Goodnight.

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