Council priorities don’t include seniors

I attended my first Sonoma City Council meeting (Monday) night. It was quite interesting.

There was a presentation by Vintage House on the agenda. For those who do not know, Vintage House serves as the senior center in the City of Sonoma and provides many services to the senior population here. The city currently gives Vintage House 5% of their operating budget which is less than 50,000. Apparently the city wants to reduce that amount and to require the funding to be used for specific programs. Many other cities in the county pay the full cost of their senior centers so I do not understand why Sonoma wants to (cut) the current 5%.

Later in the agenda was a request from the planning director for $100,000 for pre-development work on a 49-unit affordable housing project at 20269 Broadway. This project is contentious, not due to the fact that it is affordable housing, but due to its density, proposed 3-story height and lack of adequate parking. No units in this project are set aside for seniors. The Council voted unanimously provide the developer the money even though if this project does not go through the money will not be recovered.

It’s not so nice to know that the council’s priorities do not see to be with seniors. One good thing came of my attendance; I will know which names to avoid when they next appear on my ballot.

Roda Lee Myers, Sonoma