Message from Healdsburg Mayor Evelyn Mitchell

Let me start by saying how relieved I am 2020 is behind us! It has been a year none of us will ever forget! My becoming Mayor midway through 2020 was under unique and challenging circumstances. I knew our council needed strong leadership after our previous Mayor stepped down as a result of the racial equity issues in the community. We were facing major health issues related to COVID-19, businesses were shut down, city revenues dropped significantly, fires continued to threaten our town…what else could we have to face? I felt ready to take this leadership role.

Previously I served as the President of the Board for the Sonoma County Humane Society and helped guide them through a number of pretty major issues. I knew this would be a challenge, but one I wanted. At the Humane Society our guidepost was always the question, “What is best for the animals?” Once I got on the Council, my new guidepost was “What is best for Healdsburg?” My best friend had a beautiful pen engraved with this question and gave it to me to celebrate my being elected to Council.

Despite all the turmoil surrounding us, our Council was able to come together and we appointed Osvaldo Jimenez to complete Leah Gold’s term. Ozzy’s experience and background made him the obvious choice. I truly didn’t know what to expect as we moved forward as a new team and I was a bit nervous. But the team quickly developed a shared respect and work well together. Every council member has a different style when approaching the issues and this provides us the opportunity to hear differing points of view when deliberating, making us an even stronger council. Throughout all of this, we heard a lot from the community about their perspective on what needed to happen. We listened. Communication and community engagement is so important to the process. Get rid of WebEx. Get Zoom!

Video: Healdsburg (CA) council member Osvaldo Jimenez urges all registered voters to vote in the Nov. 3, 2020, Presidential Election, and provides information on how to submit California's Vote-by-Mail ballots. (In spanish)

During this same time, our city manager resigned. This was a tough transition for me, having worked with David Mickaelian my entire time on the Council. We had developed a great working relationship and I counted on his knowledge and guidance on sticky issues. But David had the foresight to get Dave Kiff on his team and the choice for Council to appoint him Interim City Manager was clear. Dave Kiff is an experienced city manager and his steady hand has helped guide the council as the pandemic worsened and the community and businesses suffered.

I am so proud the Council appointed me another term as Mayor. I look forward to working with our new and very diverse council. My goals for 2021 are not as broad as they might otherwise be without the pandemic and economic fallout from it. We need to focus on recovery. We need to help get the vaccines out and remind everyone how important it is to get vaccinated. Our businesses need help to get back on their feet. Our children and families need to get back to school. Our senior population needs to reunite with family and friends. We need to keep working diligently on housing and homelessness. We need to continue to address climate change through innovation in our programs and policies. We need to address the racial equity issue as a community. And that community, our community, needs to see each other again, live and in person. We have a lot on our plate, but I feel optimistic and hopeful we will succeed.

I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year. Good riddance to 2020! Be safe and take care of yourself, family and friends.