The first public meeting of the Healdsburg City Council in seven weeks will be held on Monday, Aug. 4. The July break has become traditional in Healdsburg, but the city’s departments—Planning & Building, Parks & Recreation, Public Works and others—did not cease operations.
The council did meet once during that period, in closed session on June 30, when it considered and approved joining multiple other jurisdictions in a class action lawsuit against federal departments that require compliance with the White House’s anti-diversity, equity and inclusion agenda in order to keep receiving federal funds.
More regular council action and discussion and action can be expected next Monday on topics including a review of the local preference for affordable housing projects, a presentation on the city’s pavement condition—possibly linked to the recent community meeting on prioritizing infrastructure projects—and an operation update of the city-owned Villa Chanticleer.
Later in the summer the city is expected to take on modifications to the parklets program for downtown businesses, contract renewal for the Chamber of Commerce and a review of the Badger Park redevelopment.
Mayor Evelyn Mitchell reviewed the prospective agenda and contributed her perspective on the coming months. “We continue to watch federal funding issues carefully. So far, the elimination of the FEMA program funding our aquifer storage and recovery wells is the only instance of lost funding, but further issues with grants are possible.”
She also pointed out that several key projects near completion in the coming months, including the Foley Family Community Pavilion (which may host several Farmers’ Markets before the end of the year, if all goes well); continued progress on March Avenue repaving and pedestrian improvements, which should go out to bid later this year and go into construction early in 2026; renovations and upgrades to Victory Apartments, a city-owned housing development for previously homeless individuals on East Street; and further “fit and finish” tasks of the city’s Fire Station No. 2 on North Healdsburg Ave (near Enso Village) to make it ready for upstaffing during the ongoing fire season.
“The City Council has a goal this year to continue strengthening our fire preparedness efforts, including site inspections and continued fuels mitigation,” Mitchell said.
“I see the next six months as an important time to make progress and hit milestones on major, multi-year capital improvement projects,” said City Manager Jeff Kay. He included in his list street design and improvements on Grove Street, Mill Street and North Healdsburg Avenue; infrastructure planning for the Ward Street neighborhood; and design and construction at both Laura Fish Somersal and Badger parks.
By state law, agendas for all city meetings must be published 72 hours before each meeting, though the city clerk’s office usually publishes the agenda on Wednesday or Thursday before a Monday meeting. However the city is transferring to a new agenda management software, so publication should be quicker. Agenda links are available at healdsburg.gov/543/Agendas-Minutes.
Other public meetings of the city’s major commissions—the Planning Commission, the Parks & Recreation Commission, the Senior Citizens’ Advisory Commission and the Arts & Culture Commission—are similarly noticed. Most of those commissions continued meeting in the previous seven weeks, if they had business to attend to.
Monday’s City Council meeting will begin at 6pm in Council chambers, located at the south end of the City Hall complex at 401 Grove St., at the corner of North Street. Public comment is allowed for in-person attendees only, though the meeting is viewable live (and in archive) from facebook.com/cityofhealdsburg or healdsburg.gov/zoom.
