New Commission eyes budget

By Deborah Nelson
November 19, 2008

Santa Rosa’s new commission took their seats Tuesday, after two newly-elected commissioners joined three returning members.

District 1 Commissioner Jim Williamson and District 5 Commissioner Lane Lynchard, who won seats in this year’s elections, were sworn in.

District 3 Commissioner Don Salter, who won re-election in the August primary, was sworn in for a third term. Salter was selected as Commission Chair and District 4 Commissioner Gordon Goodin was selected as Vice-Chair.

Commissioner Bob Cole will continue to serve District 2.

In the coming year, there’s one issue on everybody’s minds.

“Obviously, budget and revenue is going to be a major obstacle for us,” Salter remarked. “We all know what’s going on at the state level. Legislators are talking about having a $1 billion dollar deficit in trying to balance the budget. So that’s going to have an impact on our county. The county kind of goes as the state goes and the state kind of goes as our Congress and our national leaders go.

“I think the biggest thing we have to do is just work together on the budget to be able to keep costs down in order to survive. In our personal lives and our business we’ve had to do that and county government’s going to have to do the same thing,” Williamson said.

“The budget and the economy going forward is going to be a challenge for us,” Lynchard noted. “We have a lot of work to do in that arena and hopefully we can get started right away.”

Officials say they’ll hold workshops in coming weeks and months to obtain public input on future needs and goals.

“We know we’re going to have some challenges with revenue,” Salter said. “The economy is affecting everyone’s life.

“So in that workshop I hope we can work closely with TEAM Santa Rosa…I hope we can do some real good work on our economy and continue to create jobs in this county and stabilize the businesses that we have. I want to make sure that it’s easy to do business in this county as it has been in the past.

“If we need to make some changes that’s what we’re going to do as well. And then obviously, infrastructure.

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