Support Local businesses in Santa Rosa

By Keith Rhinehart

Many impediments exist to starting, building or bringing a business to Santa Rosa. We must work together to eliminate these obstacles.

On the other side, we cannot afford a more liberal Council, either, by electing two more members that will most likely encourage and vote for a $15 "Living Wage," like the County is positioning itself to do. Public Employee Union SEIU 1021 is behind the Living Wage Coalition's effort because it will deliver 3,800 new union members to their local, at $15 per hour, costing the County millions more annually in wages, benefits and pensions for a group that was never intended to hold "regular" County jobs. This practice will then infect our Cities and private businesses, making it much harder to start, grow or attract businesses to our City.

As the council continues to say yes to police pay and pensions and poorly planned efforts to reunify Courthouse Square, our Recreation and Parks Dept. has lost 39 of its 53 Full time employees. We cannot attract or grow local businesses when families do not want to live here. A perfect recipe for continued economic disaster.

We also need to house our chronically homeless in vacated buildings like the County Hospital on Chanate Road, or the Sonoma Developmental Center, so they may live with some level of dignity and reduce dependence on Police & Paramedic services, stop polluting our waterways and sleeping in the doorways of our local businesses, discouraging patrons. Many of these Citizens are Veterans, and we must still recognize and respect their service to our Nation.