The general welfare and the common good

An open letter to the City Council: It is now eight months since you have been in office and it’s time to ask yourselves what you’ve accomplished?

This is not about how many policy decisions you’ve made about land-use issues, or the myriad business policy and city-functioning decisions, generally handled by staff, or the window-dressing functionary activities designed to look like things are happening. I’m talking about: What have you done to address the welfare of the residents of Sonoma?

That’s a government’s job, isn’t it? Part of the role of government – the welfare of the people. It’s not just a federal mandate. It’s part and parcel what government is for, no? It’s a cornerstone piece of what the founding of the Constitution is about, “… providing for the general welfare…” and all that.

In particular: What have you done to address the economic plight – poverty wages – of so many who work in your city? What have you done about getting more affordable housing for the people who work in Sonoma? What have you done to bring new businesses into Sonoma that will pay good wages and employ the young women and men we’re ostensibly educating here? What have you done to make sure that no child goes to bed hungry in your city or without a place to call home? There are homeless people in this city. What are you doing to improve their conditions?

These are big problems, you might answer, these are major issues. How do you expect us, a small town, to solve them?

My answer is it doesn’t matter how big or widespread the problems are. You were elected here in this town, this place, and these problems are here ands now. You were hired to deal with them. If you don’t know how or you think it’s too much for you to handle then perhaps you need to reconsider why you took the job in the first place.

Elected political leaders are not elected simply to manage the day-to-day business and policy affairs of city government; that is what city managers and planners and their staff are hired to do. Of course you need to oversee and direct them because as the peoples’ representatives that’s one of your functions. But that’s only a part of your duties and your charge. Equally important is the welfare of Sonoma’s people, its residents, and in my view its workers who spend 8-12 hours a day here, including teachers, police and fire, healthcare workers, retail store and hospitality workers, i.e., all who work here and contribute to the businesses and the residents and even the visitors that comprise this town and keep it viable.

There’s that hoary word again – welfare – and if it’s meaning to you is elusive, let’s get down to cases.

Everyone knows we (in this country) are in a period where the disparity in income and the gap between haves and have-nots is greater than ever before in our history. Everyone knows by now that wages have been stagnant across the workforce, the bedrock of this country, for more than 30-years, while at the same time the wealth of a very small percentage at the top has expanded to obscene degrees. Everyone knows this to be true and because it’s now so widely known there has been a growing movement to increase the wages of the lowest paid so that they can survive economically, have the necessities of life that make it worthwhile, and live with dignity and hope for the future welfare of their families. It’s as simple and as basic as that.

This is so obvious it feels foolish even having to say it, but it seems necessary because this basic matter of fairness, of equity, of the moral, ethical right not to live in poverty has been ignored by you and left unaddressed despite your predecessors expressing the need to come to grips with it. It’s doubly obvious because the rest of the country has recognized the economic dire straits of the workforce and is acting to improve those Dickensian conditions.

Inextricably tied into the matter of fair, just and equitable wages, which after all only covers the bare basic necessities, is the matter of housing. Here too everyone knows how this is so out of balance and out of reach here in this county and city. And yet the City Council has ignored suggestions made to them by the Sun newspaper (twice!) enumerating actual ways City government can raise revenue for affordable housing and actually put some plans into action, Good intentions + poor execution = no new affordable housing.

Ways to improve crippling wage conditions and lack of affordable housing are not endemic to Sonoma, but addressing these issues and finding solutions for them are being done elsewhere – plenty of information out there – and ignoring them is not acceptable; it’s a dereliction of your duty as elected representatives. It doesn’t even require inventing new ways of working on these crucial matters, examples abound, but it does involve doing something.

Once again a reminder of what those who constructed this form of government proclaimed, “…providing for the general welfare of the common good.”

Which brings up another matter where this Council has been AWOL, the apparent bullying of gays in our High School. Yes, it’s primarily the school’s responsibility, but as our elected leaders you must engage this issue and lead the community in dealing with it. These are our children and when some of them perpetrate hatred and discrimination toward some group or an individual the community at large must stand up and say it will not be tolerated. Never! Your job is to lead this community in speaking out against any injustice of this kind.

Another matter: What is the Council doing to influence and aid the business community and its representative office, the Chamber of Commerce, in encouraging new businesses with higher scales of pay into Sonoma? We have plenty of low-paying jobs here, but where are the higher-paying jobs with paths to careers for those we’re educating? Our High School has a program for a direction toward college in its curriculum, but where are the jobs for these young people when they graduate? Where are they going to work, and doing what? And please tell us where they’re going o live on the prevailing wages paid around here?

There are other things that fall within the purview of local governments, but what’s put forth here are the overriding and I’d say bedrock issues that those who choose to be in government must attend to. So far there’s no indication that this City Council is either aware of its role in government or worse, just doesn’t care. I want to think it’s the former and there’s still time to get to work and take on the job of improving the lives for the general welfare of the common good.