By Tobias Young

This is an interview with mayoral candidate John Hanania that took place in person on Tuesday, Oct. 6.

Unlike district-based elections for City Council, the mayoral election is for a citywide post. Candidates (and voters) can reside anywhere in Petaluma.

Petaluma Voice reached out to each of the three mayoral candidates for a one-on-one interview. Those who agreed to the interview and a follow-up photo session were asked the same set of 19 questions, plus one open-answer question, and one or two personal questions, all of which they heard for the first time during the interview. The questions had time limits, requiring answers in a maximum of one to three minutes.

For each candidate, we are publishing their answers in full. Responses have been lightly edited for readability.

As part of the interview process, each candidate was asked to fill out a questionnaire, also lightly edited for readability.

Questionnaire

Name: Hanna (aka John) Hanania

Age: 63

Career

I have been in the automotive industry for 45 years. I have worked for independent shops, dealerships, and own my own shop since 2015 – Cotati Performance Imports. 

How long have you lived in Petaluma?

I am going on 37 years living in Petaluma.

Related current and past experience?

I have served on the board of Petaluma Community Access and Healthy Community Consortium.

Would you care to describe your immediate family? Spouse, kids?

I have a wife, Cynthia, and a son who is 37 years old.

Contact information

Phone (707) 766-4754

Email: Hanania4petaluma@gmail.com

Website: https://www.hanania4petaluma.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/John-Hanania-for-Mayor-of-Petaluma-100084475467092

Where were you born, raised, where did you go to school, what towns have you lived in, and how were you drawn to Petaluma?

I grew up in Bethlehem, Palestine, and I came to the United States in 1978 with my mother and my younger sister. I moved to Hempstead, New York. I didn't like it, because if you see your car getting broken into you run the other way. So I came to San Francisco, and then I went to LA. I didn't like it, with the smog and the traffic, so I moved back to San Francisco. I lived in North Beach and that was wonderful.

Then I met my ex-wife and she's like, ‘No, I was born in San Rafael, I live in San Rafael,’ so I moved to San Rafael and I used to come to Petaluma a lot, so when we got divorced I came to Petaluma and I've been in Petaluma since the beginning of 1990, if not late ‘89, and I lived on Adobe Road. Then I bought my house on Marian Way, and I lived there for ten years. Then I had the house I'm in.

I moved in, I bought it in July and I worked on it for two months, I re-did everything and I moved in on 9/11. And in fact, if you remember, they did the no-fly zone without logging in, and an instructor got out of Petaluma without logging in. They sent two F-16s from Travis Air Force. I was climbing the ladder to the peak of my roof on the top of my garage to put the American flag and … I was shaking like this. Man, it was insane. I was holding on for dear life.

Why do you think you're qualified to represent the citizens of Petaluma?

Well, since I've been here in Petaluma, I have been attending city council meetings for over 36 years. I have under my belt more time inside that city council chamber than all the current city council members put together.

And I'm very well aware of Petaluma. I'm aware of what Petaluma needs. I'm also well aware of what's been happening with Petaluma, and so I'm very well rounded of what Petaluma needs and where which direction we need to go.

And so that's one, but the most important thing is Petaluma is gonna be facing a deficit in two years and that needs to be fixed. And so I do believe I'm a very strong candidate to bring that to the table.

What do you think the biggest issues are facing Petaluma and how will you address them?

Well, the biggest issue facing Petaluma, there's no transparency.

And one of the biggest things is the streets. The streets are horrible, horrible, horrible. And the measure U sales tax passed, but that money is not used for the streets. And we need to set a certain percentage aside from the measure U that's gonna go toward the street.

We need to bring the people together. The people right now are not being heard at the city council. You get one minute, okay, most of the time, or you get two minutes under the agenda item, which is supposed to be three minutes, and you need to bring all the city council members together because there's measures decided among the two sides. You have the Hatfield on one side, you have the McCoy, and they've been fighting for power. And the best thing to do, you need to bring everybody to the table to do what is best for Petaluma, for the community, and not to have special interests involved.

And we need to bring some businesses. We need a little more housing. So those are the things that need to happen.

What do you think can be done to support small businesses in town?

The first thing is we need to work with the city in order to minimize the fees for small businesses.

And downtown is starving, starving for parking. The biggest problem you need to fix is parking because people who come downtown there's no parking. And one of the issues with parking is there's also no parking for the disabled.

And so you need to work with the city to work with the small businesses to improve the small businesses because a lot of businesses leave town because they cannot afford to stay here. So you need to work – the city themselves, they need to work with the merchants – and they need to see what they could do to minimize the fees for the businesses to help them to stay here, but mainly they need to create more parking. So if I want to come down here and shop I wanna be able to park. Not a lot of people want to go to a four-story parking lot and walk, you know. And thank God they built the other parking lot next to the fire department. But that's still not enough.

How do you plan to work with the city's agricultural roots and support ag, and ag related businesses in town?

Well there's not much going on in town for the ag. I mean there's some outside the city in the unincorporated area, you know, and so you need to work with them and you cannot have ag without water and water is a problem. And the water issue was yesterday at the city council meeting, you know. So you need to work with them, and you need to make it easier for them to sell their merchandise locally, you know. And I think they make it tough for the farmers market. There's only two, and I suggested for them to have it open inside the fairground. That will help the people to try to grow stuff and try to bring it down to the fairground or farmers market.

But you need to work with them and supply 'em with water because if you don't have water, you're not gonna have anything. But also, you know, we bring a lot of stuff from the outside. Why? Why aren't we using what we have here? So that's what we need to do. We need to support local. I don't think the local is getting enough support.

To follow up on that, how would you support them?

How would I support them? I will see what – I meet with them. I will see what it needs, what they need. I try to understand better the dynamic that they're going through. And the best way to do that, you have to turn all the wagons facing each other and trying to understand them. You cannot cut 'em out or just say I'll get back to you or pay this and I'll get back to you and it's just so you have to understand.

How do you intend to collaborate with people with different ideas, political affiliations, classes, races, and genders?

I look at everybody the same. You know, it doesn't matter what gender you are, what class you are, I look and treat everybody the same. So each person you have to meet with them and understand what they're talking about, what their needs (are), and you have to meet them at a level to where you understand them and they understand you. It's not all about one way. You cannot accomplish anything when it's only one way or it's my way or the highway. So you need to understand the issue and you need to try to bring everybody, especially at the city council level, together.

If you understand the people and you understand their issue and you can fix something, and that's what I'll be willing to do, you know, to try to understand what the issue is, and do the research for what needs to be done. But not like okay, give me a call or send me an email, because 90% of the time that does not work. You need to meet with the person and understand, but you have to treat everybody equally.

How would you have approached the animal shelter services plan?

Okay, now you're talking about currently or all that's been going on?

However you want to answer it.

Okay. So what's been going on, there's a lot of allegations with the former director, okay, and  what I've said to them and to the people and the city council and everybody, that you need to have all the documents in front of you and you need to find out what went wrong. And if there is any wrongdoing, then you need to hold those people accountable. And if it was done and ignored, you really need to hold them accountable. But if there is something that was done and you can fix the problem and learn from it, then you need to learn from it. That's that.

But I can also tell you, I will hold everybody accountable. That's me. And for the record, for the record, I had my own son arrested by Petaluma PD when he did something wrong because I want him to be held accountable. And when he did not show up to court, I found out where he was and I had him picked up. So if I could do that to my own son, I will hold anybody else accountable.

The current situation is way overpaid with the budget. But as you know, everything's going sky high. You cannot operate with what before was operating with $500,000. So you need to figure out where that money is gonna come from, or you need to relinquish the animal services to the county.

Okay, we have a few seconds left on this question. Some people might think (that’s a difficult decision) to have your own son arrested. What did he do and why'd you do it?

You know, I don't remember exactly what he did, but it was something wrong and I'm the type of person, you know, you need to hold yourself accountable. And even if I do something wrong, I want to be held accountable. That's my belief, you know. I've always been transparent and I always have throughout the 36 years I've always wanted to hold the staff at City of Petaluma and the city elected officials accountable.

What is your stance on the future of the Petaluma fairgrounds?

The Petaluma fairground is part of the history of Petaluma and the fairground was purchased with a bond I believe in 1911, and it's supposed to be park-like and it should remain park-like. So the fairground over three years ago, when Kevin McDonnell became the mayor, I asked in the city council chamber, we need a master plan and Mr. McDonnell agreed, but until today we don't have a master plan. So the Petaluma fairground should remain for the community. And the speedway should also remain, because the speedway has been part of the history of Petaluma for – as far as – it used to be a horse track. And it's been, I think 60 years, 60 or 30 years, it's been a racetrack for cars. It's a history of Petaluma that needs to be preserved.

What is your stance on the condition of the roads?

Petaluma has one of the worst roads there is, and I think one of the things they keep telling people, that some streets need upgrades, like water pipes, PG&E, and that's why they haven't because they don't want to double pay. But there's a lot of streets in Petaluma that don't need the upgrade, and I don't understand why they're not being paved. And the Measure U sales tax money is not going to that. I promise you, and I pledge to one thing: I will be out there with the crew fixing potholes. If I have to do it every single day, I will do that. But Petaluma has the worst streets in, I believe, nine Bay Area (counties), and that needs to be fixed. We can't just make promises to the community and not deliver. They're so far behind on their promises to fix the street. So we need to fix the streets.

What is your stance on housing affordability in town?

The problem: we don't have enough affordable housing, low-income housing when they're building. Okay. We need more. But as you know, everything is going sky-high where people can't even afford to live in California.

Everything in the expense went so far, except the salary. It didn't increase for the workers. And a lot of people, what you could see, is a lot of people living with their parents because they cannot afford to go out and rent on their own. So that needs to be fixed.

But also you have when a person does some investment, you know, and he has to cover his investment, he cannot be in the negative when he wants to rent a unit out. But we need more units like ADUs and we can build, on certain lots, we can build two, three, or four small houses instead of having one big house, where you can have some people who can afford to live in a house.

What is your stance on parking in the city?

Parking is really, really bad. We don't have enough parking, especially downtown. Are you also talking about the whole wide city? Well, parking's been an issue for a long time. And what I've suggested to the city a long time ago, since you know I dealt with you at, what, 20-some years ago with parking? 

I think the city needs to find themselves a very nice piece of land, and perhaps purchase it and  have security and to cover their costs, charge – maybe perhaps reduce parking from motorhomes, RVs, boat, trailers, and that will reduce the parking (problem), you know. The city declined, but we don't have anywhere around here for large vehicles to be stored.

What is your stance on Flock surveillance cameras and the Automated License Plate Readers?

ALPRs. Okay. They actually use them for a very good tool, to find out what's going on. Flock camera: it's not being used correctly. I do believe there is another system, Axon, that is being  looked at. Whether it's Flock camera or Axon, if it's used for the right purpose I will support it. For example, one of my small stickers on my license plate was stolen, and Rohnert Park couldn't help me. Petaluma, you know, they were able to read and find out when it was stolen because of that camera. So if it's used for the right purpose, yes, but for the wrong purpose and have certain information go somewhere else, I'm against it.

What is your stance on immigration and enforcement operations?

I think everybody has a right to immigrate to the United States and build a life, and build a career, and have a family. The enforcement is really too aggressive. I can speak to my own experience, I was arrested 45 years ago by the immigration. They took me to Santa Rita Jail overnight, they brought me back to Sansom headquarters in San Francisco, the judge realized I am here legally, and they released me. But also, I can tell you, without immigrants California will not survive, and I think what they need to do is give them work permits so they can be treated like everybody else. They can get medical, they can pay taxes, they can get drivers licenses, and they can leave the country and come back legally to do the work, because we need the workforce. We absolutely need the workforce. But also, they have to be treated equally to everybody else.

What do you know about ongoing concerns at mobile home parks?

Well, the mobile home park is really a very bad situation. I feel for the landlord, and I feel for the tenants. They both have rights. But some of the tenants, they bought their mobile home to live in and they were living based on what they have for income. So the mobile home park sold, so now the landlord needs to cover his cost and he's doing it in the negative. And the residents, they cannot cover what's been asked of them because when they moved in they based it on what they have (for) income.

But the problem needs to be fixed and what you need to do is you need to get everybody together. Going through court back and forth, back and forth is never gonna fix the problem.

But it's this very serious problem.

What is your stance on data centers?

I’m against it. Data centers, absolutely the wrong place for Petaluma. Requires a lot of water, a lot of noise, and we don’t need it in Petaluma, absolutely. A lot of people in different cities are against data centers.

What is your stance on the city's campaign against climate change and how can a mayor influence those issues?

Well, you need, for climate change, you need to watch for the sea level rise. And map the property owners’ houses, and you are going to make sure you don't build on the floodplain. And that's how you protect the climate change, because you also have the El Niño coming.

Do you support investing in safer bicycle and pedestrian routes?

One hundred percent. I 100% support that. I think people need to feel safe whether they're on their bike or they're walking. And when you have nice weather people want to be outside and so you have to feel safe and the worst one we have right now and we need to do something about it, it's Corona overcrossing, and that's really horrible. I mean you can't walk, you can't use your bike, there's nothing. So that needs to be fixed. But also Petaluma streets need to be fixed to accommodate drivers, bicyclists, pedestrians, and to make sure they're all safe.

What is your biggest concern about the budget as it stands?

The budget is really a problem, and the city, the way it's going, I think they're gonna be bankrupt in a year or two. So you need to look at all your expenses. I think the city is spending more money than they should. For example, I believe it was one million dollars for rental cars. So you need to look at that.

Then you need to look at every department where you can fix, where you can minimize your expense. But I can also tell you one thing for sure, there will be no cut at all when it comes to safety. So that means there's no cut in the police and fire, but you need to see where you're gonna fix every department and still operate the city. And that's what needs to be happening here. But also, for example, you have three employees at the city manager's office at $1 million a year plus their benefits. So you need to see what's gonna happen, but you also need to bring people into Petaluma to shop in Petaluma in order to generate some money for the city. You know? So it's a very big project that needs to be done. And you cannot do it by yourself. You need everybody together, working with you. You need a better relationship between the city staff and the elected officials. 

What are some past council accomplishments that you think are well done?

I do believe the Lafferty Ranch, which took forever but it was accomplished. And I also believe the downtown Theatre District, which was a very big accomplishment, and it brought up a lot of businesses, and those are very good accomplishments from former city council members and former mayors, also.

How do you intend to support local fire and police departments?

Well, for one, we have the new safety center that's being built and so you need to work with them in order to keep 'em here, because a lot of people are leaving here because it's better environment, better work atmosphere, and better salary. So in order to keep them here you need to have a better situation for them, and have a better work environment. And I don't know if you recall because the work environment was so bad the city was sued by a female firefighter and I believe it was almost $2 million. So we need to support them every possible way because a human life is very important.

You led the recall effort against Janice Cader Thompson, and you were unsuccessful. What regrets do you have, if any, and what have you learned from that?

Well, what I learned from that is, you need to be better prepared for that. That's one. I do not regret it one bit. ...But what I learned from it is to make sure you don't do it very close to a reelection, okay, or an election at all, because even if she was thrown out, she can submit her papers soon after. So that's what I learned from that, is make sure your timing is right...

If you want to follow up, you have a few seconds left to answer this question. What was it that really sparked you deciding to do the recall?

The outburst that she had April 21 in 2025, which made it all over the news and I was dead center on that episode. Okay. I was at the city council meeting.

You had some small claims cases filed against you, and there was a restraining order (not upheld) issue in your past. Can you tell me more about those and explain what you've learned from those and any explanations you have for them.

Okay. One was a car sold to someone I had a very good relationship with, as a friend, for over 30 years and the vehicle was not paid in full and I had made several attempts to collect the money and it was not paid so the car was repossessed. So it went to small claim court and it was dismissed.

The second small claims court, it was over a dog fight that took place at Tractor Supply, where I was leaving Tractor Supply with my two dogs and a lady was coming in with her dog. The dogs came nose to nose and her dog attacked my dog, and when they did the investigation they came to a determination it was a mutual fight, and both dogs had some damages and I did not go after the lady but she filed a small claim and it was dismissed.

And the restraining order, I have a restraining order against a gentleman by the name of Peter Tscherneff and that's good for five years. It was Dec. 5, 2023, until Dec. 5, 2028. He was also arrested inside the city council chamber because he violated that. (Ed. Note: Tscherneff has been described in news accounts as a bright and difficult man, with a history of protest, disruption, and arrest, including 16 Sonoma County cases on record.)

But also there are two other restraining orders. (Ed. note: Both were filed in Sonoma County.)

One of them, the lady with the vehicle, tried to obtain a restraining order against me and she wasn't even getting a temporary restraining order. (Ed. note: The judge denied it, according to court records.)

(The other restraining order was) a young young lady I helped, she tried to file a (civil harassment) restraining order against me because she tried to get back together with Tscherneff, and she rents a house where I have a storage unit (where Tscherneff was barred because of his restraining order). She was trying to prevent me from going there, but she wasn't able to get a restraining order. (Ed. note: The civil harassment restraining order was granted based on the woman's testimony, and dismissed when the parties appeared before a judge to provide evidence.)

Is there anything else that you'd like to mention that hasn't been asked of you yet?

The one thing you haven't asked is why we have empty lots in Petaluma. I don't understand why the city hasn't worked with some development to develop these lots. For example, we have the lot that's going from Washington to D Street, which is three parcels. And we have a lot of other lots in the city that need to be developed. But how to develop them? And you need low-income housing with those developments. And they talk about the hotel. They could have put the hotel right there, it's a big lot. So some of the things you haven't mentioned is the empty lots. Why are they empty? So that needs to be addressed.

This is an open-ended question. You can say whatever you want.

A lot of people don't know that I'm always helping people. I have done so much donating to Petaluma People Services Center, anybody can confirm, where I used to take a truckload of donations to help other people.

And there's times, during the fire, I purchased endless items that were needed when people were at the fairground: underwear, socks, toothpaste, toothbrushes, towels. I help people all the time, but I don't look for attention. I do it out of my heart. I help people on the street, you know, who are broken down somewhere. I help people by fixing their cars who don't have money to pay for it since I own a repair shop. But I don't talk about any of the stuff that I do because I'm not looking for any attention. A lot of people don't know that at all about me. There's times where people's cars break down and you know, across the bridge or in Oakland, where I have taken my trailer, paid for the gas to get their car back to my shop, and fix it for free. You know, so those are the things people don't know about me.

Tobias Young is an editor and reporter at Petaluma Voice. He can be reached at tyoung@petalumavoice.org.