The conduct of City Council members is a blend of law and convention. Laws define the actions that council members cannot take while holding public office, and the requirements they must meet in order to take and hold office. Convention, the established norms of behavior... Continue
Editorials
The recent Farmers Market kerfuffle, not to mention the Presidential election, inclines us to observe the vagaries of social behavior, and the recurrent tendency to look back to the past as the Golden Age of "good ole days," worth replicating and re-establishing. To be sure,... Continue
Dear Editor—I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.” Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?
-- Virginia O’Hanlon Virginia -- Your little friends... Continue
The recent Farmers Market kerfuffle, not to mention the Presidential election, inclines us to observe the vagaries of social behavior, and the recurrent tendency to look back to the past as the Golden Age of "good ole days," worth replicating and re-establishing. To be sure,... Continue
In a pre-election editorial we took the position that Measure U -- the half-cent sales tax extension -- should be rejected, yet it passed with a whopping 70-percent plus majority. Clearly, our concerns were not the concerns of Sonoma's voters, namely that the City had... Continue
The presidential election has come and gone. Like many of you, we are relieved that it's over. As elections go, this national election has been an anxiety-producing episode that's been more embarrassing than exhilarating. Now we wait for history to be written, as it always... Continue
When development occurs in Sonoma it generally happens one of two ways: opaque or transparent. Opaque is the result of a project being so out-of-step with community sentiment that public objection is loud and frequent, sometimes to the level of ballot initiatives or lawsuits. The... Continue
The Sun recommends a NO vote on Measure U, the extension of the half-cent sales tax within the City of Sonoma. Understanding why requires a review of how Sonoma managed to arrive at its latest financial difficulty. The story begins in 1994, when an audit of... Continue
Measure U is the Sonoma City Council’s attempt to extend the 2012 “temporary” sales tax increase commonly known as Measure J. In 2012, the Council asked voters for the temporary sales tax increase to help weather the recession as well as adjust to the loss... Continue
Deciding which two candidates to endorse for City Council this year was difficult. Everyone running, incumbents Laurie Gallian and David Cook, and candidates Amy Harrington and Jack Wagner, are all fine people who care about this community. We've submitted questions to all of them, and... Continue