photo credit: Sonoma County; SRCS
Incumbent Chris Coursey (left) and challenger Omar Medina.

Three seats on the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors are up for election on the March 5 primary election; ballots are landing in mailboxes this week across the county.

Two of the races are competitive: Districts 1 and 3. District 1 supervisor Susan Gorin is retiring, so there are two candidates running for that seat. Lynda Hopkins in District 5 is running unopposed.

The third district encompasses much of Santa Rosa and Rohnert Park. It’s current represented by Chris Coursey.

Challenging him is Oman Medina and Wednesday night the local chapter of the League of Women Voters hosted a forum with the two candidates.

If you thought civil politics is a thing of the past, think again. The League of Women Voters forum was 90 minutes of respectful, thoughtful dialogue on a range of issues Sonoma County voters care about. The two candidates politely took turns, answering questions and several times supporting and building upon one another's ideas.

Here's an excerpt from the two candidates opening statements:

MEDINA:  Good evening everyone, buenas tardes a todos. Thank you to the League of Women Voters for hosting this forum. My name is Omar Medina, and I currently serve as the president of San Rosa City School's Board of Education, entering my second term. As the child of immigrant parents from Michoacán,Mexico who settled in Santa Rosa in 1989, I have called the third district my home for 35 years now. I've witnessed its evolution firsthand, now encompassing both Roseland and Moreland neighborhoods. This district is rich and diverse, with over 30% of its residents speaking Spanish at home. I strongly believe in the principles of democracy and representation. Effective governance requires that all voices are heard and valued. Unfortunately, the current board of supervisors does not adequately reflect the demographics and perspectives of our district. And as a bicultural and bilingual Spanish speaker, I'm committed to ensuring that every voice in our community is represented at the table.

COURSEY: Good evening, everyone, buenas tardes a todos. I am Chris Corsey and I'm the third district supervisor representing portions of the cities of Santa Rosa and Rohnert Park and the unincorporated neighborhoods of south and southwest Santa Rosa, including Moreland and Bellevue. Three years ago, I took my oath of office in the depths of the pandemic. I went to work to ensure that crucial resources reached our most vulnerable neighborhoods. We established testing and vaccine clinics, disseminated vital information in 12 languages and initiated a moratorium on evictions, a measure that I'm currently working to make permanent in Sonoma County. I've always placed a primary focus on the needs of the most vulnerable people in our community.

KRCB: Here's moderator, Pamela Stevens asking another pertinent local question.

STEVENS: Would you support banning outdoor cannabis cultivation outright, or at least from all areas where residents are impacted?

COURSEY: No, I would not support banning banning it outright. This is a legal product now. It's an agricultural product, and, you know, if we're goin to grow it all indoors, then that has climate implications. Going back to the last question as far as neighborhood compatibility, I think that that is something that we need to look at and we are, we've been involved with an environmental impact report process countywide. That's looking at how to mitigate impacts and really how to put some lines around certain neighborhoods where outdoor growing does not belong.

STEVENS: Okay. Thank you. Omar, we'll turn to you for your response to this one.

MEDINA: Thank you. Yeah, definitely. I would not prohibit outdoor growing.  It's solar growing, right? I, I think it's important that we allow that to continue to happen. Of course, considerations for neighborhoods because the odors could be very foul if you don't like it. So we need to make sure that we have some sort of regulation around that. But I think we need to allow it to continue. I think that there's a lot that we needed to do with cannabis. I think there's a lot of inequity in terms of people just getting into the industry that's really creating this underground market, right? We've legalized it and we need to make sure that folks are selling and distributing within the system so it's monitored and effective. But there's a lot of barriers to getting into the industry that we need to like look at. I was at a recent meeting in Healdsburg where it seemed like so many people just applied to get permits, and they had to invest so much money... just getting the permit that it seemed like you'd really have to be rich just to participate in that.

KRCB:  The candidates answered questions on housing infrastructure like sidewalks, how they would tackle improving downtown Santa Rosa workforce development and much more. You can watch the full forum via the League of Women Voters YouTube channel.

INITIAL STORY POSTED FEBRUARY 6, 2024

Incumbent Sonoma County supervisor Chris Coursey is set to face off against Omar Medina in a candidate forum on February 7.

Medina is the chair of the Santa Rosa Schools Board of Trustees and is challenging Coursey for the District 3 seat on the county board of supervisors. That race appears on the March 5^th primary ballot, now arriving in mailboxes across the county.

The forum is being hosted by the Sonoma County chapter of the League of Women Voters.

Once a reporter at the Press Democrat, Coursey served on Santa Rosa's city council and rose to the mayoralty. That was before ousting a former romantic partner, Shirlee Zane, from her seat, to join the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors in 2020.

Medina, whose parents immigrated to the US, became involved in local politics as an activist before winning election to the board of trustees of Santa Rosa City Schools in 2018. He's now president of the board.

The evening's 90-minute online forum begins at 6:30 p.m. You can find a link on the website of the Sonoma County League of Women Voters....or click here.