Healdsburg Mayor Resigns Amid Backlash Over Police Reform, Racism

HEALDSBURG, CA — The mayor of the city of Healdsburg announced Tuesday that she is stepping down, and that she hopes a person of color steps up to fill her shoes.

The resignation of Mayor Leah Gold from her seat on the Healdsburg City Council is effective June 30, the city of Healdsburg confirmed.

An online petition calling for Gold's resignation had garnered more than 1,800 supporters as of Tuesday. Healdsburg resident Jessica Pilling wrote on the Change.org petition that she disapproved of Gold's response to a fellow city council member's suggestion to schedule a discussion about the use of force within the city's police department.

According to the minutes from the June 1 Healdsburg City Council meeting, Councilman Joe Naujokas said he'd been receiving feedback from constituents about the events in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He asked his fellow council members if they were open to scheduling a discussion for a future council meeting to talk about the use of force within the Healdsburg Police Department and what kind of training the city's police officers receive.

In a video recording of the meeting, which was held via Zoom, Naujokas is heard saying, "We as leaders of our community owe it to our constituents to have a deeper conversation about this topic."

When Naujokas asked the council their thoughts on such a discussion, Gold spoke first.

"My reaction to that is we don't have that particular problem in Healdsburg because we have a very good police chief who is on top of these issues and, you know, trains his staff in appropriate conflict-resolution methods," Gold said. "To me it's like a solution looking for a problem so until we actually have that problem in our community, I don't see that that's a place where I'd particularly want to put our time and energy."

Councilman David Hagele suggested saving their comments and questions about the issue for the police chief's annual update to the council.

Naujokas suggested accelerating that update to have it sooner, but did not receive consensus from the council.

"Following a brief discussion, there was not Council consensus to move forward with the discussion as proposed by Councilmember Naujokas," according to the meeting minutes.

Gold's response prompted Pilling to start an online petition calling for the mayor to resign.

"Healdsburg Mayor Leah Gold said at the Healdsburg City Council meeting this week, she doesn't think that talking about racism or police use of force is worthy of putting on the agenda," Pilling wrote on Change.org. "She said these issues are not a problem in Healdsburg and that our local police force has zero issues with use of force, racial bias or anything of the sort."

In a statement posted to Facebook Tuesday by the city of Healdsburg, city officials confirmed Gold's resignation and said, in part:

"Serving as a councilmember can be both fulfilling and challenging, and we are living in a period of great change not just in Healdsburg, but around the world. We thank Mayor Gold for her many years of faithful service and council guidance, and we wish her all the best."

The city's post also included the following statement from Gold:

"The murder of George Floyd has shone a bright light on America’s systemic racism, and particularly on how some police officers routinely treat BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) people with bias, abuse, and violence. There is tremendous momentum for substantive change, and I welcome it. I fully support the Black Lives Matter movement and am eager to consider and adopt policies that advance its goals.

"I signed the Mayor’s Pledge (https://www.obama.org/mayor-pledge/) to investigate and reform police use-of-force policies, and I’ve been proceeding with those four steps. Our current policies and the anti-bias training our officers receive are posted on the City’s website (https://www.ci.healdsburg.ca.us/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=449) and on social media channels. At our June 15 Council meeting, the Police Chief provided a detailed report and offered an innovative plan to fill two open police officer positions with licensed clinical social workers, which was greeted with great enthusiasm by all members of the Council.

"But there are broader issues to be addressed. I’ve been listening to accounts of racism experienced in Healdsburg by our BIPOC residents. People of color face bias and discrimination daily in small and large ways, and often do not feel heard by their government and representatives. We clearly need to work on creating a more inclusive environment in Healdsburg. It is often lamented that although Latinx residents and other people of color comprise over 30% of our population, they are not represented on City Council. I would like to help change that.

"As a Council member, I have consistently championed issues that make a real difference to less-privileged Healdsburg residents, such as building and preserving affordable housing, preventing evictions and mandating relocation compensation when evictions do occur, supporting our local nonprofit Corazon in their outreach and assistance to Latinx residents, building a police force that is more bilingual/bicultural, and supporting Reach for Home and St. Paul’s Church in their efforts to aid the unsheltered and prevent residents from falling into homelessness.

"Although I feel positively about my contributions and have many loyal supporters, I’m certain there are also many BIPOC members of our community who could serve our city well. As I’ve considered how I can help Healdsburg advance in racial justice during this critical juncture, I believe that one of the ways I can contribute is by creating a space for a person of color to join the City Council.

"I have decided to step down from the Council. It is my assumption that the Council will choose to allow the electorate to decide who will complete the final two years of my term, by adding it to the ballot on the General Election November 3. It is my hope that one or more BIPOC resident will step forward as a candidate. It would be as a Councilmember, not as Mayor, as my mayoral term expires in December.

"To become a candidate for City Council, file nomination papers at City Hall with 25 signatures of Healdsburg voters who support you and pay a filing fee to County of Sonoma. The filing period is July 13 - August 12. If you are interested in learning more about the role and duties of a Councilmember, please reach out to me, Vice Mayor Evelyn Mitchell, or any other member of the City Council.

"We seem to be living through a rare period of history where we have momentum to make significant gains towards justice and equality in the United States. I believe that if more diverse leadership is one of the things we accomplish in this moment, it will be an important step forward for our city.— Sincerely, Leah Gold Mayor, City of Healdsburg"

Gold has been involved in the Healdsburg community since 1993 when she helped organize an effort for a new playground. She also led a citizens' committee in the 1990s that crafted Healdsburg’s pioneering Urban Growth Boundary Initiative. Gold was first elected to the Healdsburg City Council in 2000. Her current term expires in December.

In response to the local controversy, Miss Sonoma County 2014 Skylaer Palacios, who is a person of color and a Healdsburg resident, told a local newspaper that hearing what the mayor "had to say or not say about the situation was completely distressing to me."

"There have been so many things that have happened to me, and I'm not going to go into every single one because I could write a book at this point about the racism in Healdsburg, so to just use your white privilege to look over the situation is disgusting to me," Palacios told The Healdsburg Tribune. "If you cannot listen to your constituents, if you cannot try to have some kind of understanding, then you should not be leading."