The Floodway Community Marketplace

10/29/2024

My Lawsuit Against the City of Petaluma and the Value of an Objective and Informed City Council -

Yesterday, my attorney gave formal notice to the City of Petaluma of our intention to file a lawsuit for their violation of my rights pursuant to the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment and Article I, section 19, of the California Constitution.

What started as a simple zero-development project that would make the best possible and clearly permitted use of a blighted property at the gateway to northern Petaluma turned into an absolute nightmare because of the M-Group's refusal to process my use permit application. Once they said no, the Planning Commission and City Council majorities refused to consider the facts and laws as they are written or to hold the M-Group accountable for their wrongdoings.

The City of Petaluma - on behalf of the outsourced for-profit M-Group - took my land and my livelihood. What the City will never take from me is my drive, determination, and pursuit of justice. What happened to me and my family should never happen to another person.

I cannot stress enough the importance of the upcoming City Council election and the impact it could have on all future small business and property owners in Petaluma.

Brian Barnacle and Blake Hooper both played a key role in the taking of my land when they refused to consider the facts and laws as they are written but instead chose to blindly side with the M-Group. Brian's excuse for not supporting my rights was that he couldn't believe that an ADA compliant toilet could be mobile, and Blake insisted that the exact timing of my property purchase in 2022 had some relevance to zoning laws written in 1973, which it doesn't. I could never support Brian or Blake in any representative role they might pursue because they have already proven their character and abilities to me.

I am a strong supporter of Lance Kuehne (district 6), Alex DeCarli (district 5), and JJ Jay (district 4) because they all have the strength of character to do what's right for our community. They are all experienced small business owners, longtime contributing members to our community, and people willing to do their own homework on every issue. I trust them and that is not something I say lightly, given my experience to date with the City of Petaluma.

Please know that your vote truly does matter!

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10/26/2024

City Council candidates Lance, Alex, and JJ will also improve conditions for all small business owners, especially those who have been forced to wait years for the simplest of permits to be approved by the outsourced M-Group!

10/22/2024

If you are a voter in Petaluma, please know that your vote for city council this year is critical to the future of all small businesses here!

Whether you own a business, dream of owning a business, or just support the existing businesses that make our city so unique, please vote for the candidates that support small business:

Lance Kuehne (district 6), Alex DeCarli (district 5), and JJ Jay (district 4). They are all experienced small business owners and people who believe strongly that the community should have a say in how our city is run.

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10/17/2024

M-Group Favoritism for Mayor's Business -

According to the M-Group, food trucks are very complicated and confusing (they're not), and therefore require a conditional use permit. That translates to thousands of dollars in unnecessary reviews of things already approved by the state (certification of your vehicle) and county (certification of health and safety training and practices).

But Henhouse Brewing didn't need a permit of any kind to park food trucks on their lot. I did a public records request for all lots with permits specific to food trucks and it is not one of the few lots with permission. And the reason is simple. Henhouse is owned by mayor Kevin McDonnell's son and Kevin is a shareholder of that business, per his own campaign disclosures.

A friend of ours recently opened a restaurant here, and I asked them how they managed to get a permit so quickly from the M-Group when other restaurants are waiting two or three years for their permits. They had a connection to somebody very high up in a department that is NOT the planning department, a phone call was made to the head of planning, and... voila, a permit was issued!

This is not how the permit process is supposed to work. We need to bring our planning department back inhouse so everybody has an equal chance of running a successful business in Petaluma.
M-Group Favoritism for Mayor's Business -

According to the M-Group, food trucks are very complicated and confusing (they're not), and therefore require a conditional use permit. That translates to thousands of dollars in unnecessary reviews of things already approved by the state (certification of your vehicle) and county (certification of health and safety training and practices).

But Henhouse Brewing didn't need a permit of any kind to park food trucks on their lot. I did a public records request for all lots with permits specific to food trucks and it is not one of the few lots with permission. And the reason is simple. Henhouse is owned by mayor Kevin McDonnell's son and Kevin is a shareholder of that business, per his own campaign disclosures.

A friend of ours recently opened a restaurant here, and I asked them how they managed to get a permit so quickly from the M-Group when other restaurants are waiting two or three years for their permits. They had a connection to somebody very high up in a department that is NOT the planning department, a phone call was made to the head of planning, and... voila, a permit was issued!

This is not how the permit process is supposed to work. We need to bring our planning department back inhouse so everybody has an equal chance of running a successful business in Petaluma.

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10/15/2024

Taxpayer Cost of Outsourcing to the M-Group

While the downtown overlay and out-of-place hotel is the clear hot topic of this city council election cycle, the root of that problem is the outsourced for-profit M-Group that puts its own profit above the best interests of our community. They continue to push for an overlay and hotel that the majority of our community does not want, while also giving little or no priority to our small business owners, forcing some to wait several years for a simple permit. Small businesses are the backbone of our economy and should be given equal respect and priority in the planning process.

After the June 2023 Sonoma Grand Jury report was released in which the relationship between the city and M-Group were investigated, the city council majority insisted that we save money by outsourcing, because we don't pay for their healthcare or retirement. In reality, we absolutely pay for their healthcare and retirement - and a hefty profit to the owners - because it's all included in their hourly bill rate. The city council majority has since stopped pushing that lie because the community wasn't buying it.

M-Group owner Heather Hines has been running her for-profit company out of an office at City Hall for years. In public hearings, she continues to introduce herself as "city staff", which is a clear lie. The city has been giving her free office space to run her business and we taxpayers are footing that tab.

The M-Group has no plans to address the parking issue with the proposed downtown hotel, so now we are seeing "free" transportation options popping up. All of these "free" transit options seem to be in lieu of proper planning which should include sufficient parking and traffic controls for something like a new downtown hotel. This is just another example of how the EKN is not "picking up the tab" as promised by the city and M-Group, but the cost is instead being shifted to the taxpayers.

If the overlay and hotel are forced through despite great opposition from the community, the citizens will sue the city to put a stop to it. The community group Petaluma Historic Advocates has taken the lead on that important lawsuit. When this does turn into a lawsuit, the M-Group doesn't have to worry about any legal fees, because the city attorney's office will step in to defend them, again at taxpayer expense.

The true cost of outsourcing to the M-Group includes much more than their inflated hourly bill rate, as it includes opportunity costs and the negative impact on our economy with the disparate treatment of small businesses, free office space to run a for-profit company out of City Hall, and legal expenses.

If we fire the M-Group and bring our planning department back inhouse, we will have civil servants who are loyal to the community instead of their own profits, we will level the playing field for all businesses, it will reduce the number of lawsuits filed against the city, and our tax dollars can be put to good use instead of enriching a for-profit business.

The candidates who are opposed to the downtown overlay AND want to bring our planning department back inhouse are Lance Kuehne (district 6), Alex DeCarli (district 5), and JJ Jay (district 4).

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10/11/2024

City Council and the Future of Small Business in Petaluma - this was my "coming soon" sign at The Floodway Community Marketplace at the northern gateway to downtown Petaluma. I offered to cover my own signs with Lance Kuehne's campaign signs because, as I explained to Lance, I don't see a future for any small business in Petaluma if we don't vote in the right people this November.

What my family and I have endured over the last 2+ years trying to obtain a simple use permit for what is clearly a permitted use on my lot shouldn't happen to anybody else. To lose your land and livelihood because the outsourced for-profit M-Group is allowed to pick and choose which permit applications to process is totally unacceptable and a huge risk to our future economy, tourism, and personal livelihoods.

I am not the only small business owner to be harmed by the M-Group and the blind support of the M-Group from our city council majority. I am just as outraged for the pizzeria that was forced to change its business model to survive a three year wait on a permit to fire up their own pizza oven, the restaurant owner who took over a turnkey operation only to pay commercial rent while waiting two years for a simple permit, and the downtown properties that have been intentionally "blighted" by denying those property owners the permits they need to improve and rent out their lots.

While these and other small businesses have suffered at the hands of the M-Group and city council majority, the city council majority has bent over backwards to collaborate with the EKN hotel developer to violate existing zoning laws, force an overlay on us that would open other areas to the same zoning violations, failed to vet the hotel developer that we now know is currently in foreclosure and had a bankruptcy just ten years ago, all in an effort to approve a project that the vast majority of the community doesn't want. The city council is supposed to represent us, not the M-Group and big developers.

As the founder of the NorCal Food Truck Association and owner of The Floodway Community Marketplace (a future home for all local mobile vendors), I was shocked to learn in November 2022 that the M-Group had surreptitiously initiated a ban on food trucks within city limits. This ban started as late as 2021 when M-Group owner Heather Hines was serving as the city's Community Development Director and had no city staff oversight. The M-Group has no authority to ban an entire industry, the city council did not know or approve of this ban, and the community had no knowledge or opportunity to prevent it.

The city and M-Group have done a lot of back-pedaling on this ban since I exposed it during my project application process, but here's what they didn't do. They never publicly acknowledged the ban and the M-Group's violation of their contract in doing so, they did not acknowledge or apologize for the harm it caused to so many local mobile vendors, and they never held the M-Group accountable. They swept this serious issue under the rug, just as they did with the June 2023 Sonoma County Grand Jury report that called out other issues with the M-Group.

If you are a small business owner, dream of being a small business owner, or just support and appreciate the economic and cultural value of our existing business owners, please support the candidates who will level the playing field for small businesses in Petaluma. If you vote in any incumbents, especially Brian Barnacle and Blake Hooper who were complicit in the issues I've described, then you are voting for more of the same poor treatment of small businesses and a bleak future for our city.

Please support the group of experienced small business owners, longtime contributors to our community, and those who have been willing to acknowledge and address these issues:

Lance Kuehne (district 6), Alex DeCarli (district 5), and JJ Jay (district 4)

Your vote matters and small businesses are counting on you!

10/10/2024

Petaluma City Council Elections - ballots have been mailed and you might have received yours by now. Petaluma has switched to district elections, meaning you can only run or vote in the district in which you live. Your ballot should answer this question, but if you don't know which district you live in, you can input your address on this map to find out:

https://maps.cityofpetaluma.net/portal/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=0c04ee6e4ea940a88b7247465d481949

There are two clear camps in this city council election cycle: those that support community input on our future vision and those that think they know best and want to decide for us.

The A-Team in this election cycle includes Lance Kuehne (district 6), Alex DeCarli (district 5), and JJ Jay (district 4). These are three experienced small business owners, longtime contributors to our community, and people who ran with the genuine goal of giving back to our community. None of them are beholden to the outsourced for-profit M-Group or any other financial interests that would make me question their true motivations.

Please support these candidates and help us regain control of our local government, prevent the destruction of our historic downtown, ensure equal treatment of small businesses instead of the clear bias toward developers and large corporations, climate change strategies that are properly planned and don't exasperate traffic and parking issues, affordable housing options that don't result in excessive building heights in our historic downtown, bringing our planning department back inhouse, and, most importantly, restoring the community's voice in all of these decisions.

Your vote does matter!

10/06/2024

This is Janice Cader Thompson, the Petaluma City Council representative for District 1, where The Floodway Community Marketplace resides. Janice isn't having a bad day, this is just her personality. I think she's being a bit kinder to this guy than she has ever been to me.

In this video, Janice is yelling at a small business owner for NOT supporting Brian Barnacle, Blake Hooper, and the ridiculous downtown overlay and hotel they are trying to force upon our city. Brian Barnacle, Blake Hooper; and Janice Cader Thompson are also complicit in the hassles that I've endured with my lot. They are not supporters of small business, period.

This is why the November 5 City Council election is so important to all of us! If you are a Petaluma voter, please support small businesses and vote for these candidates:

Lance Kuehne - district 6
Alex DeCarli - district 5
JJ Jay - district 4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F46T2QUBRik

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10/02/2024

As an owner of land in the floodway, I greatly appreciate the effort of Petaluma City Council candidate Lance Kuehne put into this analysis. His vision of a future making the best possible use of that land is inspiring, and his solid grasp of our flood history shows that he is willing to dig in and learn the facts.

If you are a voter in Petaluma, please support Lance for Petaluma for City Council District 6!

09/30/2024

I never knew how common these illegal government takings were until it happened to me! The Pacific Legal Foundation is one organization fighting to put a stop to it.

PLF is helping the Pillings fight back against Healdsburg, California's unconstitutional inclusionary housing program.

09/22/2024

9/20/24 City Council Candidate Forum and the M-Group Question -

Thank you to the Petaluma Woman's Club for hosting the candidate forum! It was well attended and great to hear from each candidate on various issues. Ultimately, it reaffirmed my strong support for Lance Kuehne (district 6), Alex DeCarli (district 5), and JJ Jay (district 4).

One of the questions asked that night was, "Would you support [firing the M-Group and] bringing the planning department back inhouse?" Surprisingly, each candidate answered YES, because that is clearly the right answer, but their complete answers varied greatly.

Blake Hooper (district 5) answered YES to the question, but then said we should expect it to take up to 10 years to complete the transition of bringing our planning department back inhouse. 10 years?! We can't afford 10 more years of the M-Group's abuse of power and total disdain for the small businesses struggling to get started here. Our economic and cultural future demands we take action now, not in 10 years after Blake Hooper has had time to serve two terms and do absolutely nothing to fix the problem.

Lance Kuehne, Alex DeCarli, JJ Jay, and Mike Healy all gave real examples of the issues with excessive fees and unnecessary permit delays that have harmed many businesses. Bran Barnacle, Blake Hooper, and Frank Quint all seem to think they know best for all of us and, if we disagree with them, it's because we just aren't smart enough to understand the issues.

Our planning department can be successfully transitioned inhouse in one year. The M-Group contract can be terminated at any time with 30 days notice and without cause. The city can't directly offer employment to any M-Group employees until one full year after the termination of the contract. However, the city can announce its plans to bring our planning department back inhouse, publish job openings for those planning positions to the public, and the M-Group employees can choose to apply without violating the contract.

The top three M-Group management employees - executive officer and owner Heather Hines, and principal planners Andrew Tripple and Tiffany Robbe - should not be allowed to apply for any permanent positions with the city because they are the root of the existing problems. Furthermore, M-Group owner Heather Hines should not be running her for-profit business from an office in City Hall. She should go work out of her own office in Santa Rosa like any other business owner would be required to do.

In short, retain most of the institutional knowledge by hiring the associate and assistant level planners who have been doing the day-to-day work for years. Replace the top three M-Group management employees with experienced civil servants. Replace community development director Brian Oh with an experienced and objective civil servant who wasn't hired during the 2023 Grand Jury investigation to defend the M-Group at all costs. I see those four roles as a very negative and ineffective "leadership team" who caused much more harm than good for our community over the years.

I don't see this as an overly complicated transition, but any City Council candidates that do should not be elected.

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09/09/2024

Petaluma Downtown Overlay Misinformation -

Brian Barnacle and Janice Cader Thompson, both sitting city council members, have been canvassing district 6 on behalf of Brian's attempt at re-election. I've met several district 6 households who said Brian and Janice claimed that if the downtown overlay is not approved, the city will go broke. That is an absolute lie and unnecessary scare tactic.

That vacant hotel lot has been vacant for decades and could be vacant for decades more, and it will never make or break our city. These lies and scare tactics show just how committed Brian and Janice are to the outsourced M-Group and any and all of their bad ideas, their total disrespect for voters who deserve facts and not fairy tales, and their simple inability to be honest.

If Brian and Janice are so concerned about the economic future of our city, they need to start supporting the small businesses that already exist and those trying to launch a business here. On their watch, a pizzeria waited three years for a permit to fire up their pizza oven. Restaurants taking over existing locations that were already approved and operating as restaurants are waiting two years for a simple permit to put the same operation to use under a new business name. The list goes on and on.

In the case of my 100% mobile, zero development, outdoor community marketplace, Janice claimed that if I parked my own food truck on the vacant parking lot that I own, it would double the insurance rates of the mobile homeowners down the road. Absolute rubbish! Brian Barnacle followed suit and refused to support my project because he couldn't believe that an ADA compliant toilet could be mobile. In doing so, Brian and Janice didn't just harm me, my family, and my business, but every mobile vendor that would have benefited from having a high visibility, affordably priced place to showcase their small business and thrive. I tried my best to support the local economy and my small business neighbors, but Brian and Janice chose the M-Group over our economic future.

If Brian and Janice knock on your door, I hope you will be prepared to call them out on these lies. I hope you will feel absolutely sure of your choice before offering to put a campaign sign in your yard. A vote for Brian Barnacle is a vote for extending the M-Group contract and all of the harm that will come with their ongoing unchecked power over our city.

Heather Kratt

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09/06/2024

A 6-story hotel crammed onto 1/3 of an acre in our historic downtown presents "less than significant" impact. Meanwhile, my 100% mobile, zero development, outdoor community marketplace on a more spacious vacant 2/3-acre lot on the outskirts of town is, according to the M-Group and its loyal city council and planning commissioners, an assault on the community. This is the clear disparate treatment that the city has supported for years and will continue to support if we keep electing the same people onto our city council who will continue to ignore this clear corruption. NO on Brian Barnacle and Blake Hooper. YES, YES, YES on Lance Kuehne and Alex DeCarli!

09/03/2024

Please support Lance for Petaluma in District 6!

Preserve Petaluma's Unique CharacterJoin Lance in creating a sustainable, safe, inclusive and more beautiful Petaluma.Join The Campaign Main GoalsEnhancing our Quality of Life through thoughtful design, environmental and historic preservation, and community input.View Main Goals Green SpacesPreserve...

08/29/2024

I'm nearly three years into my fight for the legal right of the use of my land. Janice Cader Thompson is my alleged City Council representative. Here's her latest input on my fight.

08/20/2024

Petaluma City Council Elections - please VOTE!

I will never take a City Council election for granted again. In the past, I assumed some people run because they are passionate about their community, others run because they want the perks that come with the role, but it all balances out and we mostly end up with fair representation. I was wrong and very naive to think it was that simple, because a weak City Council and city leadership can absolutely destroy a city.

In April 2022, I purchased a vacant, blighted lot at the northern gateway to downtown Petaluma with the goal of creating an outdoor marketplace that gives mobile vendors a place to thrive and the community a welcoming place to gather. This was my longtime dream, my passion, my retirement plan. And then I submitted a use permit application to the city of Petaluma.

Everything went to hell almost immediately. I've posted a lot about my issues with the city, but briefly, my project is a clear permitted use on that lot, I unintentionally outed the outsourced for-profit M-Group on their silent ban on food trucks by initiating the project, I've been dismissed and insulted by the city manager, mayor, city council members, city attorney, community development director, etc. I remain stunned by the totally unprofessional, anti-small business, vindictive, power tripping behavior of the city as a whole, but especially with the power they've granted to this outsourced planning firm. I've been through two useless appeals and have been billed roughly $35,000 to date for the alleged work the M-Group did to fight me on a simple permit.

I'm not alone in having my dreams dashed (or delayed) by the city of Petaluma. Another business owner who has a passion for pizza waited three years to get permission to fire up his pizza oven. Three years. He adjusted his business model to survive the wait, selling other baked goods. Another restaurant took over a space that was already permitted and operating as a restaurant. The approval process should have been a slam dunk. That restaurant waited two years for a permit, all the while paying commercial rent on the space. That is a huge financial hit that will deter most people from even trying to start a business here. The same happened to another restaurant that just opened downtown, waiting two years while paying rent, for a simple permit. The list goes on and on and includes many homeowner complaints too.

All City Council candidates will tell you that they are concerned about empty store fronts, the economy, creating more local jobs. But if they aren't talking about the elephant in the room - the outsourced for-profit M-Group planners that have no vested interest in our local small businesses and our economic future - then they will be totally ineffective, the problems will persist and likely even worsen.

I don't take political endorsements lightly. If I didn't feel absolutely confident about a candidate's potential, I would simply not support anybody in that district.

This is who I am supporting for Petaluma City Council and why:

Lance Kuehne, District 6 - I know Lance from years of conversations on nextdoor. He's a smart, level-headed, ethical, experienced small business owner with a great understanding of city issues and a willingness to address them. Lance is an excellent candidate and would be a strong, effective, much needed voice of reason on our City Council. You can read more about Lance here: https://www.lance4petaluma.com/

Alexander DeCarli, District 5 - The DeCarli family has a long legacy of supporting small businesses in Petaluma. They own one of the few downtown restaurant properties with its own off-street parking. The M-Group has denied them permits for years, claiming their parking is insufficient, when it's actually much more than most restaurants have to offer. That property sits in the proposed downtown overlay (ripe for the taking by a rich developer), and some council members have tried to bully the family into selling the property. Alexander won't be bullied into selling the property, and I have incredible respect for that. He's also been very active in saving our fairgrounds, protecting local farms, and other community issues.

Jeffrey "JJ" Jay, District 4 - JJ is an experienced small business owner with strong community ties and understanding of the current issues in our city government. Having operated his own brewery in Petaluma, he's dealt with the planning and economic development departments and recognizes the needs for improvement. JJ has some interesting experiences and I think he'd bring some much-needed experience and vision to our City Council. He's a solid candidate and has my full support. You can read more about JJ here: http://www.jjjay4petaluma.com/

I hope you will take the time to read more about these candidates, reach out and ask questions about the things that matter to you, and, most importantly, VOTE in November! Thank you!

Heather Kratt

Campaign site for JJ Jay for Petaluma City Council, District 4

08/15/2024

PETALUMA W**D ABATEMENT & RETALIATION

The w**d abatement deadline is set each year by the Petaluma Fire Marshal, Jessica Power. The deadline this year was May 31.

On April 9 at 8:59am, Vice Mayor John Shribbs sent an email to city manager Peggy Flynn, community development director Brian Oh, and city attorney Eric Danly, suggesting a path to get past the ongoing retaliation from those city employees on behalf of the outsourced M-Group planners and to obtain our use permit to open our business. In that email, John mentioned that there are w**ds on the lot that I had agreed to take care of. Within three hours, Brian Oh and Eric Danly ordered the code enforcement officer that reports to Brian out to my lot to cite me for those w**ds, even though the deadline is May 31. The time stamp on the pictures he included in his report was April 9 12:09pm. This was clear retaliation from Brian and Eric, as retaliation is all they have ever been willing to contribute to this project over the last few years.

In April, Brian Oh and Eric Danly somehow convinced Fire Marshal Jessica Power to claim that fire trucks can't park on the road near my lot, can't drive on a dirt or gravel lot, and insist that nothing can be done on our land beyond 150 feet from the road. She chose to involve herself and the Fire Department in this ongoing retaliation and the illegal taking of my land. I have repeatedly asked Fire Marshal Jessica Power to explain her concerns directly to me, but she has ignored those requests for months.

On July 8, I received a mailed letter from the Fire Marshal giving me until July 15 to mow my lot again. The letter was dated June 26 and postmarked five days later on July 1 during a holiday week. The notice was intentionally mailed late and included a tight deadline that simply could not be met.

On August 1, I received an invoice from the Fire Marshal in the amount of $1,300. $1300 to mow a 0.62 acre lot that had already been mowed. It costs me $250 to mow the lot on my own, just to show the clear level of fraud. I tried to dispute the charge given the lack of proper notice, failure to disclose the extreme cost of w**d abatement, and the retaliation that forced me to have to mow my lot more than once. I received a very terse, unprofessional response from Fire Marshal Jessica Power.

For many years, the M-Group and its lackeys have been known to be corrupt, vindictive, and anti-small business, so nothing much surprises me from them anymore. But I must admit that I am shocked and disappointed that the Petaluma Fire Department chose to involve itself in this ongoing retaliation and the illegal taking of my land. The Fire Department has absolutely nothing to gain by treating residents, property owners, and small businesses in this poor manner.

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