By Jennifer Sawhney

Petaluma Voice reached out to each of the Petaluma City Council candidates for a one-on-one interview. They were all asked the same set of 17 questions, which they heard for the first time during the interview. Interviews took place between Thursday, Oct. 1, and Saturday, Oct. 3. Candidates had one, two, or three minutes to answer each question, and they could choose not to use the entire allotted time. 

For each candidate, we are publishing their answers to five key questions below. Responses have been lightly edited for readability. Readers who want to take a deeper dive and see candidates’ responses to questions about other issues facing Petaluma voters can find the full interview transcripts here.

Each candidate also answered a questionnaire. Their responses have been lightly edited for readability.

Questionnaire

First and last name: Brent Newell

Age: 56

Occupation(s)/where do you work: Environmental Attorney at the Law Office of Brent J. Newell, 245 Kentucky Street, Suite A4, Petaluma.

How long have you lived in the district you intend to represent? I have lived in District 2 since March 2005 or more than 21 years.

How long have you lived in Petaluma? I lived in Petaluma for approximately 2 years from 1979-1981, then in Sonoma County between Petaluma and Sebastopol until 1988 when I moved out to go to college. I moved back to Petaluma in 2002 and have been here since.

Past committee, commission, board experience: General Plan Advisory Committee 2023-2024; Planning Commission 2024-present.

Would you care to describe your immediate family? Spouse, kids? My wife Beckie and I have two adult children who are 22 and 24 years old.

What is the best way for constituents to reach you? brent@brentforpetaluma.com

Links to social media pages, campaign site: Instagram https://www.instagram.com/brentforpetaluma/; Facebook https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61593920605878; campaign website is https://brentforpetaluma.com/.

Filings

Funds raised: Through Sept. 19, Newell has raised over $3,200 in monetary contributions toward his campaign, with more than $2,400 in outstanding debts. His campaign has a cash balance of $3,100. (Note: the latest campaign filing period spans July 1 to Sept. 19, 2026)

Treasurer: Andrew Packard

Principal officer: Elece Hempel (Transparency note: Elece Hempel has taken a leave of absence as the board chair of Petaluma Voice until after the election. We first reported on it here.)

Notable endorsements: Sonoma County Conservation Action, North Bay Labor Council AFL-CIO, Petaluma Federation of Teachers, Sonoma County Democratic Party, The Press Democrat.

Financial filings: https://netfile.com/public/pet/campaign/filingsByCandidate/217437791-Newell,%20Brent

Why are you qualified to represent the residents of Petaluma on city council? (2 minutes)

Well, I believe I'm qualified to represent the residents of this neighborhood because I've lived here for more than 20 years. So my lived experience is the same over the short, medium, and long term for my neighbors, as my neighbors. And as I have lived that, as an environmental attorney, which gives me a unique lens in serving my neighbors on the City Council because I've, in my 26 plus years of being a lawyer, I've represented clients in court, in the legislature, in Congress, before agencies, before counties. I've applied facts and law to make policy. I've written bills in the legislature. I've written bills in Congress. So I know how to make policy. So given the combination of my lived experience and my skills and talent as an environmental attorney, I can take the direction from the community based on the community's priorities. And that gives me this sort of three-legged stool of being an exceptionally qualified candidate to serve my neighbors.

What do you believe are the biggest issues here in town and how do you intend to address them? (3 minutes)

I think a better way to frame that and the way that I'm approaching this race is what are the three biggest issues for the residents, for the neighbors in my neighborhood, in our community? Because I don't want to come into this race and approach my role if elected on the city council with, ‘Here's what I think the three most important things are.’ And then ask my neighbors to vote for me. I want to go to my neighbors and have conversations and ask them ‘What are your priorities? What are the things that concern you? What are the things that bring you joy in our neighborhood?’ And I want to take all of that information that I'm gathering and make that the three priorities that I want to effectuate. And in those conversations, you know, I came with one priority being self-evident and undisputed, that we have an affordable home shortage in Petaluma, that we need to provide more affordable homes for working families, for young adults, and for seniors. And when I have conversations with my neighbors, 99.9% of them have agreed on that point. As far as the other two, we're getting an incredible amount of information, some that has surprised me, some that has not surprised me at all. We're hearing a lot about a concern with inadequate transportation infrastructure, whether it's the ability to get across town through the Washington Street, Corona, or Caufield choke points over Highway 101, or inadequate bus service, or inadequate bike paths. The residents of District 2, my neighborhood, face a number of transportation infrastructure challenges. We're also hearing a lot about the joys that people have in wanting to walk and access neighborhood restaurants and businesses, but not having that opportunity in our neighborhood because our neighborhood lacks a neighborhood gathering place. The best we have is one shopping center. We have one shopping center in District 2 that has Chunky’s. It has Acme Burger. And for a lot of people, it's really difficult to walk there, to access that in a way other than by car. So those are some of the things that we're hearing in our conversations.

What could be done to support small businesses in town? (3 minutes)

The city already has a small business liaison who works with and tries to recruit businesses to come to Petaluma. And that is a great service. We can certainly improve that to support small businesses because starting a small business is a tremendous challenge. I know because I started my own law practice four years ago in learning the things that I needed to do to start that business. In addition, actually doing the work is very daunting and having a coach or someone to support that would be really important. Now I want to acknowledge that starting a law practice is a lot easier than starting a business that brews beer or manufactures something important or starting a restaurant. And once you start hiring employees, because I don't have employees, that adds layers of complexity. So making it easier and supporting small businesses is something that the city can continue to do. As far as my role in the Planning Commission, where I've served for about 2 1/2 years now, I think, you know, we're working right now on easing the permitting burdens that a small business would have to endure in order to get started. And sometimes those permitting obligations can really slow you down and time is money. So, you know, the city can do more to make it easier to start that business without getting a so-called conditional use permit, especially if it's a non-controversial permit. So I'll give you an example. Right now, a movie theater would need a permit. And if that movie theater wanted to sell beer, it would need another permit. Why does a movie theater need a permit? It's not like it's a toxic waste dump. You know, why do we need public notice and comment and all these extra layers and hurdles for a movie theater? And serving beer in a movie theater is not like operating a full service bar. It's not like you have, you know, the Buckhorn inside of a theater. You know, you've got, and I got nothing against the Buckhorn at all, right? But you know, having a beer is not a big deal with a thing of popcorn.

What are your main concerns about our city budget as it stands right now? (2 minutes)

Well, my main concern about our budget is that the city's not getting enough tax revenue from new businesses and businesses getting developed from a lack of or, I should say, a surplus of vacant and unused land in our downtown area, that could be developed and we could increase our tax base and our revenue for the city's services. So I think we have a side, a problem with one side of our books, which is we're not bringing in as much revenue as a city of our size and stature could bring in. People love Petaluma. We have people come into our downtown. We have tourists. We have people who want to live here but can't afford to live here. So if we take action to build more affordable home choices for people near the SMART station downtown, near the station, the north SMART station, that's more tax base for the city. That's more people living here, spending money in the city, generating sales tax revenue. That's how our economy works in the city. And what's exciting about this new general plan that just got adopted is it allows that to move forward. It's a matter now of let's implement the general plan and generate more business opportunities, more home ownership opportunities for people. The other part on the spending side, my core value, is that we spend what we need to spend to maintain our personnel, our human capital, that we retain our police officers when they're experienced, that we retain our city staff when they're experienced. 

Anything else you'd like to address that you would like people to know about you and your campaign? (3 minutes)

Sure. You know, just two days ago, The Press Democrat endorsed me. And, you know, that endorsement adds a lot of great momentum for our campaign. And, you know, it joins other endorsements that I've received. My opponent and I are both Democrats, but I'm endorsed by the Democratic Party. It's very rare for the Democratic Party to not endorse an incumbent. And that says a lot about an incumbent's performance. It says a lot about me. Five out of the seven city council members have endorsed me, including all three that are on the east side. Karen Nau, Frank Quint, and Janice Cader Thompson have all endorsed me. And again, that says a lot about the incumbent. And it says a lot about me. You know, the editorial column from the Press Democrat describes my opponent as an environmentalist, and it describes me as an environmental lawyer. But that doesn't mean that we're both environmentalists or that we're both, you know, we both have the same views on things. I want to give some examples. During a meeting in October of 2024, John Shribbs announced that as a climate action measure, he wanted a FedEx distribution center built at the Petaluma Airport on 12 acres. He talked about diesel trucks serving this distribution center and a fleet of electric bikes delivering packages from the distribution center. Of course, having a distribution center at an airport means you have more FedEx flights coming in and out of the airport. And the District 2 neighborhood is underneath the flight path for planes taking off. I think it is a terrible idea to have a distribution center. I represent clients who oppose distribution centers because of the amount of air pollution that diesel trucks generate. He's also told me personally that he wants to build an Amazon distribution center in Petaluma or adjacent to Petaluma. And I'm just scratching my head because that makes no sense for Petaluma as a community. We do not need distribution centers and more diesel truck traffic in Petaluma. You know, John Shribbs is a well-intentioned and a good guy. But I've got over 20 years of environmental experience as a lawyer, as a professional. That's why the Measure J, No on J campaign asked me to be on the debate team with Mike Weber to debate the Yes on J people. They didn't ask John Shribbs to do the debate. They asked me. So I've got the skills and talent to do this job.

Find the full interview transcript here.

Jennifer Sawhney is a reporter and co-founder of Petaluma Voice. She can be reached at jsawhney@petalumavoice.org.

Tobias Young, Nate Seltenrich, and Crissy Pascual contributed to this report.