Madolyn Agrimonti – the exit interview
By Sarah Ford —
Having served for eight years on the Sonoma City Council, Madolyn Agrimonti decided not to run for reelection in 2022. Instead, she is shifting her focus to some new endeavors. She is also continuing her volunteer involvement with specific organizations and causes she is passionate about.
For example, Agrimonti has been on the board of Sonoma SPLASH since its inception and was gratified to see the recent collaboration between SPLASH and the school district after the original site for a community pool, on El Verano Avenue, fell through. The new partnership has resulted in the recent completion of two pools on the high school campus. One is a large lap pool, where water polo and swim team members can now enjoy home meets. The other is a smaller pool for swim classes. The new pools, and two locker rooms – one for the public, one for students – were unveiled in the fall of 2022.
Agrimonti will continue her involvement in Care Partners, a nonprofit organization for older people who need extra help, and she has joined the board of Sonoma Overnight Support (SOS).
Reflecting on her tenure on the City Council, Agrimonti highlighted some of the accomplishments she is most proud of, as well as some of her frustrations while trying to achieve certain goals. “It’s hard to get big things done here. I’ve done big things where I came from,” she said, referring to her 12- year tenure on the City Council in Daly City. In that role she was instrumental in the creation of a Boys and Girls Club and a public library.
In 2004, Agrimonti and her husband moved to Sonoma. She served on the Hospital Board from 2008 until 2012, and was elected to the Sonoma City Council in 2014. In 2015 she joined the Woman’s Club, becoming its President in 2017.
One accomplishment she spearheaded in Sonoma was getting the name of the room where the City Council meets changed to City Council Chambers, from the more generic Community Meeting Room. “You would have thought I was saying, ‘Let’s change the name of the City of Sonoma,’” she said, with her characteristic wry sense of humor. “Making change here is not easy.”
Another successful effort Agrimonti takes pride in is a stop sign she worked to get installed at the corner of Patten Street and Second Street East – it took two years of effort. The sign breaks up a long stretch of road through a residential neighborhood, where drivers were often speeding. “I was told by a former police chief that nobody even stops at stop signs,” she said. “That’s the stuff I faced.”
Getting gas leaf blowers banned was a significant accomplishment that Agrimonti helped facilitate. She said that there were a lot of hostile opponents, who predicted that “everyone would go broke,” and said that “leaf blowers would cost thousands of dollars.” When Sonoma voters approved the measure banning gas blowers, the dire predictions were shown to be inaccurate. Sadly, Agrimonti said, the recent departure of the City’s Code Enforcement Officer has been followed by an uptick in the use of gas blowers, and enforcement of the ban on gas leaf blowers is spotty.
At one point in her tenure, Agrimonti sought to address a problem many residents and visitors had complained about. When the gingko trees on the east side of the plaza drop their fruit, it creates a foul-smelling mess. There was “a big war about the gingko trees,” Agrimonti said. “In the end, nothing was done” to remove and replace the trees.
“I’m really OK when people don’t want what I want. I think it’s important for people to feel their opinions are valued.” She feels the job of a City Council member is simple: “Just serve the people.”
