The Healdsburg City Council will have a lengthy goal-setting meeting on Friday this week, an annual discussion that assists the body and its members in prioritizing their efforts for the coming year.
The following Monday, April 21, the council will hold its second regular meeting of the month, one which is likely to have its own challenges in light of the April 7 meeting and its revision of the 5-district map for City Council seats.
Goal Setting
An agenda has been released for Friday’s meeting, but as the goal-setting session is a “special meeting” of the City Council, some of the rules will be different. There will be two general public comment sessions, toward the beginning of the meeting and toward the close. No legislation or other binding decisions will be made. A luncheon break is planned.
The meeting will not be broadcast or streamed, but it is open to the public at the Tayman Park Golf Course Club House, 927 S. Fitch Mountain Rd. The meeting begins at 9am, and is expected to last until 3:30pm.
Regular Session
The overriding question about the Monday meeting will be how the transition to district elections plays out. Again, this is a map that divides Healdsburg into five districts, each to elect its own council member, with a mayor’s seat to be rotated among council members instead of voted upon in a city-wide election.
The map agreed upon in the fourth “public hearing” on March 17, Map A, was discarded and replaced by Map D in the April 7 meeting, the fifth and last scheduled public hearing. However the change requires an additional sixth public hearing, which will take place during Monday’s City Council meeting and is scheduled to start at 6:30pm, half an hour after the meeting begins.
Throughout, the city had been attentive to the deadline set by Shenkman & Hughes, the law firm that presented its intention to sue under the California Voting Rights Act. Having committed to the transition on Nov. 16, 2024, the city automatically launched a 60-day period during which it had to take action.
The city applied for and received a 60-day extension, but following the April 7 meeting the city was forced to ask Kevin Shenkman for another 30-day extension, which was granted. The deadline for approval of a district map for Healdsburg is now May 17, 2025, with the first district elections for City Council to be held in the 2026 election cycle.
Other agenda items should be published by April 17 on the city website.
The Healdsburg City Council meets in regular session on Monday, April 21, at 6pm at 401 Grove St. Or view online at facebook.com/cityofhealdsburg or healdsburg.gov/zoom.
