The Issues That Matter

That means creating a culture of open debate and transparency, listening to the full range of public opinion, and then doing the harder work of bringing those perspectives together into an actionable path forward. It means recognizing the real tradeoffs between what we want, what we can provide, and what we can sustainably generate. And through it all, protecting what makes St. Helena authentic and recognizable. Ultimately, it means having the determination to lead us there.

I am fortunate to have come to know St. Helena as the parent of three children who thrived in our public schools, a local business owner, youth soccer coach, Scout volunteer, president of Our Town St. Helena, Planning Commissioner (Vice Chair), member of the Infrastructure Task Force and Water Board, and contributor to our General Plan and Zoning Code.

Great places are built and preserved through a shared vision, strong partnerships, and a commitment to future generations. Together, we can shape St. Helena's future while protecting what makes our community extraordinary.

It is a legacy worth protecting and a firm foundation from which we can continue to evolve.

Housing, transportation, economic development, parks, infrastructure, public investment, and new development should be guided in ways that leave St. Helena stronger, more connected, and more resilient, while remaining distinctly itself.

Planning must begin with the unique fabric, history, landscape, culture, and people of St. Helena, not with generic development models. Our vineyards, neighborhoods, downtown, public spaces, and Green Fingers form an enduring community structure that should guide how we grow.

This is how St. Helena can choose to grow: with clear direction, inspiration, confidence rather than fear, ambition rather than resignation, and stewardship rather than surrender.

St. Helena is the product of generations of investment and care, its vineyards, neighborhoods, downtown, parks, tree-lined streets, and open landscapes. Our responsibility is not to preserve the city in place or resist change, but to guide change in a way that strengthens the qualities that make St. Helena remarkable.

Growth should leave St. Helena stronger than it was before. That is the standard of stewardship.

We should celebrate conservation and recognize that using less water is part of good stewardship, but also understand that declining consumption affects enterprise revenues while aging infrastructure still requires responsible maintenance, repair, and replacement; when that work is habitually deferred, smaller, predictable costs become more expensive crises.

I believe we need to re-examine the practice of allocating salaries and other General Fund costs to the water enterprise. When costs are moved between funds, it can obscure the true cost of providing water and make it harder for the public and policymakers to understand the City’s actual fiscal health. This is not simply an accounting issue. It is a fundamental question about how we believe government should work: costs should be transparent, responsibility should be clear, and the financial structure of government should allow the community to understand what it is actually paying for.

We must urgently prioritize identifying and isolating the sources of our water quality problems, determining the appropriate solutions, and then doing the work required to fix them. We can conserve water, responsibly manage our infrastructure, and plan for a growing community, but only if we are willing to understand the whole system and steward it.

We already have substantial data and work to build upon. The SHAPE Committee and the Infrastructure Task Force produced valuable information and recommendations that can help inform more powerful solutions. The question is whether we can provide the leadership necessary to turn that information into action.

We should look at our civic properties not simply as buildings and parcels that the City owns, but as community assets with the potential to serve multiple purposes and generate long-term value. That means asking difficult but necessary questions: What should the City own? What is it prepared to adequately care for and at what cost? What should it operate? What could be repurposed? What could be shared? What should be saved and kept in reserve and what is the consequence of that? And where can thoughtful public-private partnerships help us achieve what the City cannot accomplish alone?

We need a clear strategy for our civic properties, one that recognizes both their public purpose and their economic potential. With the right leadership, we can leverage these assets to strengthen our community, address our infrastructure needs, and sustainably thrive well into the future.

Housing is our responsibility.

Instead of accepting our place in a race to the bottom, we should race for the top. We can make a different choice by rising to the challenge and developing a plan that meets or surpasses State mandates, creating the housing St. Helena actually needs while safeguarding the essence of our community and enabling St. Helena to thrive within a California that remains coveted, treasured, authentic, and recognizable. Build what we understand that we need without gutting our civic soul.

That means creating real opportunities for people who need housing, not simply creating loopholes for speculation, extraction, or profit, that produce housing without meeting community needs. It requires the City to become an informed partner in that solution.

It requires vision, creativity, and a strategic housing plan. It also requires the willingness and leadership to put it to work.

People come here — and people stay here — because they share our deep appreciation for St. Helena and the extraordinary landscape that surrounds us. Our businesses depend upon both locals and visitors.

We should build a healthy relationship with hospitality. We can fiercely protect what makes St. Helena special while also responsibly sharing what we have. In doing so, we can embrace an abundant economic resource that we have too often failed to fully recognize. You can be a fiercely local town and also a cherished destination.

I believe that reluctance has, in part, resulted from our failure to articulate a shared vision: what we are protecting, why we are protecting it, how we intend to protect it, and what we are prepared to share, and how.

Defining and declaring that vision, and identifying the appropriate partnerships we are willing to forge, is a fundamental building block for making progress. Stewardship does not mean closing ourselves off from the resources around us. It means understanding their value, managing them wisely, and ensuring that the benefits they can generate help sustain the community we value.

What follows is a working draft—not a finished proposal or a prescription. It is an invitation to conversation and debate about whether there is a cleaner, clearer, and more productive way to organize our Municipal Code and guide the future of St. Helena.

The goal is simple: better rules, better process, and a code that works for the community it serves.

The qualities that brought pioneering growers, entrepreneurs, and creatives here remain powerful forces today. That legacy is a gift, and a responsibility.

We should stop telling ourselves a story of scarcity, conflict, and inevitable decline. We need to develop a thicker skin as a community, to embrace open debate, conflicting points of view, and even disagreement without treating them as negatives or aspects that need suppression. We should be willing to air our grievances, acknowledge our mistakes and missteps, and then do the harder work of bringing differing perspectives together into shared priorities and workable solutions. Good leadership does not require everyone to agree; it requires the discipline to weigh competing interests, make the tradeoffs clear, articulate a compelling vision, communicate it, and find a workable path forward.

This is a splendid part of the world, and we should be proud that people want to visit, create here, work here, invest here, and call it home, whether for a lifetime, part of the year, or a few days. Tourism, hospitality, and people from elsewhere have long been part of St. Helena's history and are an important part of its economic and cultural life. We should first support and strengthen the businesses and institutions already rooted here.

We should also recognize that local-serving, by itself, is not an economic strategy. Local businesses thrive when they can serve both residents and visitors. We are fortunate to have both, and we should create an environment in which they can support one another. That means rebuilding a healthy relationship between the City and the Chamber of Commerce and fully supporting the institutions and nonprofits that contribute so much to our community.

We can welcome those who take wonder in St. Helena while fiercely protecting the qualities that make this place worth wondering at in the first place.