Sonoma’s Public Works Director comes full circle 

Sonoma’s Public Works Director, Mike Berger, has been on the job almost four months. Having spent the first 23 years of his life living right here, it’s a bit of coming full circle for Mike, and in his words, “I love it.”

Although he and his family continue to live in the City of Napa, Mike has great affection for this town, and after being the Operations Manager in Napa for the past seven years, is excited by the responsibility and opportunity to oversee an entire department. He’s never without his notebook, the type you’d typically see in schools, with a black and white cover and pages of blue-lined paper, on which he makes notes. Nearly filled, his “To Do” list currently has 50 items on it, but that’s not the half of it.

The city’s Public Works Department currently includes 24 full- and part-time positions, and the city is currently hiring to fill two full-time spots. The Department’s responsibilities include the obvious ones of maintaining Sonoma’s streets, drinking water, cemeteries, and parks, but much more in addition. An obvious example is the new pedestrian and bicycle bridge being constructed over Fryer Creek. Mike’s civil engineering background is key to that successful project, which will be completed in a matter of weeks.

“I’m a producer,” Mike offers, “I get stuff done.” It’s this attitude that Mike brings to the diversity of issues and challenges we face in Sonoma, such as traffic planning and management, identifying capital improvement projects, and coordinating with police and fire during emergencies like fires. 

When it comes to streets and traffic, Mike is pleased to have reinvigorated Sonoma’s Traffic Safety Committee. He’s currently dealing with safety issues at the intersection of 5th Street East and Napa Street and addressing the concerns of residents on Clay Street who are frustrated by the overflow of Train Town parking into their neighborhood. Overall, however, his concern is safety; accordingly, attention is being paid to new striping, speed bumps, and speed platforms – “traffic calming,” says Mike. He’s also interested in biking safety and increasing the continuity of the city’s bikeways. “We’re looking at where and how we can fill the gaps,” he notes.

The Capital Improvement Plan also needs to be resuscitated, after Covid caused cuts and a backlog of projects. “It’s a matter of establishing long-term plans and priorities,” he explains. The Chase Street Bridge is an example. Federal money will pay for the project, and Mike is working to get the bridge back on the CalTrans calendar. Another project, replacing the defunct heating and cooling system at the Depot Museum, is on his list, and he wants to get it done before winter. In all this, he relies on his staff. “I have to create the environment for their success,” he explains.

When it comes to maintaining Sonoma’s parks, cemeteries, and bike paths, Mike admits he’s still learning. For example, although trinkets and mementos are not allowed to be placed on the gravestones in the Vets Cemetery, friends and family do so anyway and complain when they’ve been moved due to lawn maintenance. “We’re working with the situation, which became an issue when one of our workers was out for a while.” Mike continues, “He knew how to move items and put them back. He’s returned to work, and the complaints have stopped.”

Mike explains that proper maintenance requires identifying assets, the management they require and creating an inventory. The city’s assets include all of its built structures and the land on which they are located. He’s hoping to replace the spread-sheet system currently in place with a database-driven, GIS-type, asset management system. Once the assets are identified, then it’s a matter of creating a system to efficiently manage “service requests, work orders, and a preventive maintenance schedule,” Mike notes. “Keeping it simple” is his goal.

When emergencies arise – floods, fires, earthquakes or wind events – the Public Works Department coordinates its activity with the activated Emergency Operations Center. “The key to this is pre-planning,” Mike says, which includes communicating with the National Weather Service, having meetings in anticipation of events with police and fire department personnel, planning work shifts, and making preparations. “Our personnel extend from the public counter at City Hall all the way up to engineering and operations; everyone’s involved,” he explains.

Returning to Sonoma for work has provided Mike with the opportunity to run into old friends and schoolmates, which happened recently at the City Party as he reconnected with folks he hadn’t seen in years. 

At 57 years of age, after high-level corporate and municipal positions, Mike feels this job in Sonoma will likely be his final career post. “I’m a problem-solver, and in Public Works you get nothing but problems. That said, I love what I do.”