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After a back-and-forth discussion that some people called a show of theatrics, the Sebastopol City Council ultimately selected Patrick Slayter as mayor and Neysa Hinton as vice mayor at the Dec. 7 Sebastopol City Council meeting. 

UPDATE: Cloverdale police have identified a suspect in the robbery. More information can be found here. 

A rally organized by those who decry vaccine mandates and the City of Healdsburg’s vaccine requirement for attending in-person city council meetings was held at the steps of City Hall on Dec. 6.

Anyone thinking of logging on to Zoom for the Dec. 7 Sebastopol City Council meeting is in for a variety of items up for discussion and vote — the selection of the next mayor and vice mayor, inking an agreement for Sonoma Applied Village Services (SAVS) to run an RV park village and an update about the $1.2 million lifted from the city’s budget in a cyber fraud situation.

The Sebastopol City Council unanimously approved a new location for a temporary RV village at 845 Gravenstein Highway North during its special meeting Nov. 30.

Despite going late into the night after a long agenda and a raucous start to the meeting, in the annual reshuffling of the council seats, the Healdsburg City Council selected Vice Mayor Ozzy Jimenez as the new mayor of Healdsburg following a unanimous vote and a nomination by Mayor Evelyn Mitchell. Councilmember Ariel Kelley will serve as the city’s vice mayor.

As the coronavirus pandemic shows no signs of ending, California is still recovering from the most damaging recession since the Great Depression. By October, California had regained only about two-thirds of the 2.7 million jobs lost in the early months of the pandemic.

For some Healdsburg residents it is an unspoken truth people seek work at Healdsburg’s downtown Plaza. But others might be unaware of the daily career fair happening in the Plaza’s four corners.

For a few weeks, Corazón Healdsburg CEO Glaydon de Freitas has been worried for his staff and clients regarding questioning around Corazón’s mission and values. Public comments have been made criticizing the nonprofit’s pro-vaccination stance. De Freitas said emails have been sent to the organization and people have shown up at the Corazón office because of the same reason.

With the snip of a red ribbon with a pair of giant scissors in August 2016, it was preordained what the first sentence of Healdsburg’s Mel Amato’s obituary would contain, whenever that time would come. Amato was the man who almost singlehandedly saved Healdsburg’s Memorial Bridge from demolition by Caltrans, deploying all of his engineering prowess to repudiate a cadre of Caltrans engineers and prove the historic landmark was worthy of preservation. The Ohio native lived his last two decades in Healdsburg contributing to many community and local historical causes. He died on Nov. 16 at the age of 86.