Tom Schwedhelm

Candidate for Sonoma County Supervisorial District 4

Tom Schwedhelm was born in Oakland in 1960 and grew up in Pleasant Hill and Novato, graduating from Novato High School in 1978. He earned an associate's degree in criminal justice from Santa Rosa Junior College, a bachelor's degree in business management from St. Mary's College of California, and a master's degree in psychology with an organizational-development focus from Sonoma State University. He joined the Santa Rosa Police Department in 1983 and spent 31 years there, working patrol, investigations (including violent crimes and family-violence cases), and command roles; he was also a Use of Force instructor, a member of the department's Special Response (SWAT) team, and for 17 years an adjunct defensive-tactics instructor at Santa Rosa Junior College's public safety training center, and he founded the Adopt-a-Cop program at Monroe Elementary School. He was named Santa Rosa's first in-house police chief in 63 years and served as chief from 2009 to 2013, during which he restored department morale, avoided layoffs during the Great Recession through a hiring freeze, and managed the city's response to Occupy Wall Street protests. He was elected to the Santa Rosa City Council in 2014, served two terms, was vice mayor in 2015, and was mayor from December 2018 to December 2020, a period that included overseeing rebuilding in his own Coffey Park neighborhood after the 2017 Tubbs Fire. He chaired the Sonoma County Continuum of Care (now the Sonoma County Homeless Coalition) and the Santa Rosa Plain Groundwater Sustainability Agency, helped start the Santa Rosa Homeless Coalition, and supported creation of the city's inResponse mental-health/paramedic outreach team. After leaving the council in 2022, he ran a consulting business, TZS Consulting, advising nonprofits, and has done periodic consulting work for Regional Government Services.

On housing, Schwedhelm wants to expand affordable housing in appropriate locations, extend first-time-homebuyer assistance to working families beyond the current Section 8 focus, and concentrate new development in infill areas to prevent sprawl. On homelessness, drawing on his time chairing the Continuum of Care, he backs a regional 'housing first' strategy meant to end rather than manage homelessness, wants to restrict encampments near homes and schools, compel participation in CARE Court, and avoid policies that just shift homeless residents between neighborhoods. On behavioral health, he wants comprehensive mental-health services in schools and results-oriented spending of county behavioral-health dollars, including Measure O funds. On roads and infrastructure, he wants to invest Measure DD transportation-tax revenue in rural road repairs, protect the county's discretionary road-funding share, and complete the SMART rail line and a 70-mile countywide bike-path network. On public safety, he emphasizes community-oriented policing, vegetation-management partnerships to reduce wildfire risk, and clear emergency-communication systems. On water, as chair of the Santa Rosa Plain Groundwater Sustainability Agency he prioritizes groundwater preservation, supports expanding Lake Mendocino's storage capacity, and opposes removing the Potter Valley Project dams without a comprehensive replacement plan. On the environment, he wants to keep agricultural land productive, sustain climate policies while managing electricity costs, and limit development outside city boundaries. On senior services, he focuses on emergency preparedness and fraud prevention for older residents, promotes elder-fraud education, and supports funding the Alexander Valley Health Care Center. On immigration, he says he wants the county to remain safe for all residents while opposing unlawful detentions and creating safeguards against federal enforcement operations.

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