Sonoma County voters will consider increasing the local sales tax to fund wildfire response and preparedness and will guide the makeup of the county’s governing board in the primary election on March 5.
The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors will have three seats available on the ballot this election cycle. Voters will also decide on Measure H, a half-cent sales tax that would be in effect until voters remove it in a future election. The measure would raise an estimated $60,000,000 annually, according to the county counsel’s analysis.
The money would be directed to a fund dedicated to wildfire prevention, preparedness, emergency response and vegetation management. The funds would be divided among 31 different agencies, with most set aside for the county’s independent fire districts.
If approved by more than 50 percent of voters, the increased tax would take effect Oct. 1.
Contenders for the supervisor seats
In the supervisor races, District 5 incumbent Lynda Hopkins is running unopposed. The district includes the county’s coastline, Sebastopol, the lower Russian River and portions of Santa Rosa.
Susan Gorin, the incumbent District 1 representative, is not seeking reelection, and two Sonoma County natives, Rebecca Hermosillo and Jonathan Mathieu, will vie for her seat. The district runs from San Pablo Bay north to Porter Creek, and from the eastern county line to just east of Santa Rosa and Rohnert Park and includes the city of Sonoma.
Hermosillo is the senior district representative for U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena. She has been endorsed by Thompson, along with all the current county supervisors, the Sonoma County Democratic Party, La Voz Bilingual Newspaper, and others.
Mathieu is a retired fire captain and building contractor, according to his campaign’s website. Issues he would focus on if elected include water stability, fire prevention, agriculture and tourism. His campaign does not cite any public endorsements.
In the District 3 race, incumbent Chris Coursey will face challenger Omar Medina, a member of the Santa Rosa City Schools Board of Trustees. The district includes the cities of Santa Rosa and Rohnert Park.
Coursey was first elected in March 2020, just as the pandemic hit the county. His campaign website lists his successes as the expansion of shelter options for unhoused residents, new building codes that encourage electrification, and approving $39 million from the American Rescue Plan Act for 27 projects in the county.
If elected, Medina pledged to focus on issues related to language justice, which the American Bar Association describes as an emerging legal framework based on an individual’s fundamental right to communicate in the language of their preference.
Medina also favors pushing for more affordable housing, tenants’ rights, and road infrastructure, according to his campaign website.
The last day to register to vote in the primary is Feb. 20.