Fall Election Guide: Q & A With City Council Candidate Michael Healy

Bio:
Attorney; First elected to City Council in 1998. Council representative to Sonoma County Water Agency and Petaluma representative on Sonoma County Transportation Authority 2000-2006. Former president of Petaluma Democratic Club and member of Democratic State Central Committee.

Age: 54

Why I’m Running:
“I’ve been doing this for 12 years and if people have been paying attention, they know where I stand on things. I’d like the opportunity to continue serving the community and make progress on some other things. As an emeritus director of the Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) and Transportation Authority, I have the relationships to be able to work on those issues without formally being on those bodies.”

Top Three Issues:
-Getting our budget in order
-Improving city’s business climate
-Preserving quality of life issues

On Ongoing Budget Cuts:
“There have been a lot of employee reductions and the budget we have now is not sustainable. There are things that are being done--like having zero dollars in the vehicle replacement fund--that can’t continue. Even with Deer Creek and Regency projects, it’s not enough and it doesn’t solve the problem of our budget. The money from those developments has already been spoken for.”

“Moving forward, it’s going to be smaller things, like reducing our impact fees (which will soon be discussed at City Council) that will go a long way to improving the city’s business climate. I think that will go a long way toward improving our reputation as a place companies want to do business.”

On Creating a More Business-Friendly Climate:
“You have to make it clear that City Hall believes in its General Plan and Zoning Ordinance and if someone proposes something that is consistent with the zoning, they should expect to get an approval as opposed to that just being a starting point for an argument, which has been our reputation in the past.”

On Building Rainier:
“I think we are on the cusp of being able to achieve Rainier and I want to make sure it happens...that’s why I asked for the oversight committee assignment because I want to make sure the city is as aggressive as possible on that project...New development will pay for it and we will have pretty substantial contributions from Deer Creek and Regency to the traffic mitigation account and if we combine it with redevelopment funds, we can probably start to build it in phases.”

On Improving the Condition of City Streets:
“That’s why I supported the sales tax initiative and my thinking was that at least half of those revenues would be dedicated to streets. The good thing is that Petaluma Friends of Recreation initiative won't have competition, but I really believed the sales ballot could have improved our streets."

Want to see more Q&As with candidates running in the municipal election? Check out http://petaluma.patch.com/topics/fall-election-guide