A Conversation with Joanna Paun: The Petaluma City Schools Board of Education Member Running for District 2 Supervisor

Joanna Paun has been on the Petaluma City Schools Board of Education since 2018, three of those years as president, and she coordinates education services for foster and homeless youth at the Sonoma County Office of Education. On November 3, she is on the ballot for Sonoma County Supervisor in District 2, the seat David Rabbitt has held for sixteen years and is now leaving. She finished first in a four-way primary in June and is in a runoff with Cotati mayor Sylvia Lemus. District 2 covers Petaluma, Cotati, Penngrove, Two Rock, Bloomfield, part of Rohnert Park, and the dairy country around them, which spans about 102,000 people. It is the only supervisorial district in the county that contains no part of Santa Rosa. This week she came by the Porches office for an early morning coffee and a chat, and what follows is that conversation, lightly edited for clarity. Sylvia Lemus has agreed to sit down with us as well, and we will publish that conversation here when we have it.

@Joanna P has lived in Petaluma for twenty years and has four kids. She grew up in Mill Valley, raised by a single mother alongside two older brothers.

You have given years to the school board. Is this a jump you always pictured making?

"This is a jump I did not ever envision making. We were trying to find someone to run for two years. There was a group of us." She had someone in mind two years ago and told him he was the next supervisor. He said no, and so did everyone else they tried. "The conversation changed from, no, I'm not going to run, but if you run, I'll support you." She did not want to run. She was going to finish out the school board term and focus on her job, her kids, and her sleep. Then Supervisor Lynda Hopkins asked her to lunch and, instead of a general catch-up, told her she should be the one. "And more and more people came to me, and they just said, we need new leadership. We need someone to run against this four-term incumbent. And so I said, okay, I'll step up."

She filed at the end of December, expecting to run against Rabbitt. He announced in March, on the last day to file, that he would not run again.

Looking at the supervisor role, what are your top priorities?

"I like to use our seniors, the people over the age of sixty, as an umbrella, because I really believe in intersectionality. Take care of one group and everyone else benefits. Seniors over the age of sixty are our fastest-growing population of homeless people."

She wants mobile home park protections countywide, more health resources, attention to food insecurity, and county retirees on fixed incomes. She calls it the other end of the problem she has spent eight years on. "It really is like a bookend."

You shared that you and your volunteers have knocked thirteen thousand doors so far. What are people telling you?

"Number one is ICE. Every election in Petaluma has an emerging issue. This time it has been ICE." She describes the same pattern at door after door. She hands over her walk card, gives her name, says she is running for county supervisor, and before she can get any further the person standing there asks her how she feels about ICE. "Over and over again. People do not want cooperation with ICE here."

"After that is affordability. There are people literally crying at the doors because they can't afford their life. Going to the food bank for the first time. And again, these are our elders, and they're saying, I can barely help myself, or my kids or my grandkids." Third, she says, is the ballot itself, whether one sent by mail will arrive where it is supposed to.

Someone in District 2 has not made up their mind yet. How do you sell them on giving you their vote?

"People in South County really want someone who's willing to fight for them at the county level. Of the five supervisors, four of them represent at least part of Santa Rosa. District two is the only one that does not touch any part of Santa Rosa. So it's really imperative that we have someone who understands Petaluma, Penngrove, Cotati, Rohnert Park." She adds that she is the only candidate left in the race opposed to county cooperation with ICE.

She also makes an argument about scale. She says Petaluma City Schools has about seventy-five hundred students across eighteen sites, a million square feet of facilities and a budget north of a hundred million dollars, which she points out is a larger operation than some of the cities in the district. "As we look at potential budget cuts at the county level, I have been through various rounds of really hard budget decisions, and trying to do them in a way that keeps us fiscally afloat while preserving as many resources as possible for students."

Agriculture is a big piece of this district. How are you reaching that community?

"I've actually had some good conversations with the ag community, a lot of the small family farmers. And not really seeing them as a monolith. The whole ag community is not the same. We have lots of different parts of the ag community, and I've been invited to speak with groups of them and hear their concerns."

She connects it to her work with families who rely on the food bank. The lines at the Redwood Empire Food Bank get longer every week, and on the other end are growers who farm as a second job because they cannot sell enough of what they grow. She wants the food banks and the growers working together. "I think that there's a way that we can bring everyone in."

Petaluma is the largest city you would represent, just under sixty thousand people. How do you get on with the city council?

"Really well." She lists the work. When she heard the city was going to cut a staff position that had been helping with homeless students, she made public comment, and they found the money to keep it another year. She has worked on traffic safety with council members and two police chiefs, starting after her own children were hit by a car five years ago at an intersection she says people had complained about for a decade, and later on Safe Routes to School across the district.

Thank you, Joanna, for coming by to speak with us.

Joanna shared that she has four forums on her calendar, the first on September 22, and more scheduled throughout October. They are a chance to hear both Joanna Paun and Sylvia Lemus answer questions from the people they want to represent. Ballots go out in early October, and election day is November 3. If you want the job description before you fill yours out, we wrote one up here: What does a county supervisor actually do?

♦️♦️♦️

Joanna Paun is on Porches, so leave a question in the comments or send her a Porchmail. My conversation with Sylvia Lemus can be found here.

Joanna Paun has been on the Petaluma City Schools Board of Education since 2018, three of those years as president, and she coordinates education services for foster and homeless youth at the Sonoma County Office of Education. On November 3, she is on the ballot for Sonoma County Supervisor in District 2, the seat David Rabbitt has held for sixteen years and is now leaving. She finished first in a four-way primary in June and is in a runoff with Cotati mayor Sylvia Lemus. District 2 covers Petaluma, Cotati, Penngrove, Two Rock, Bloomfield, part of Rohnert Park, and the dairy country around them, which spans about 102,000 people. It is the only supervisorial district in the county that contains no part of Santa Rosa. This week she came by the Porches office for an early morning coffee and a chat, and what follows is that conversation, lightly edited for clarity. Sylvia Lemus has agreed to sit down with us as well, and we will publish that conversation here when we have it. @Joanna P has lived in Petaluma for twenty years and has four kids. She grew up in Mill Valley, raised by a single mother alongside two older brothers. You have given years to the school board. Is this a jump you always pictured making? "This is a jump I did not ever envision making. We were trying to find someone to run for two years. There was a group of us." She had someone in mind two years ago and told him he was the next supervisor. He said no, and so did everyone else they tried. "The conversation changed from, no, I'm not going to run, but if you run, I'll support you." She did not want to run. She was going to finish out the school board term and focus on her job, her kids, and her sleep. Then Supervisor Lynda Hopkins asked her to lunch and, instead of a general catch-up, told her she should be the one. "And more and more people came to me, and they just said, we need new leadership. We need someone to run against this four-term incumbent. And so I said, okay, I'll step up." She filed at the end of December, expecting to run against Rabbitt. He announced in March, on the last day to file, that he would not run again. Looking at the supervisor role, what are your top priorities? "I like to use our seniors, the people over the age of sixty, as an umbrella, because I really believe in intersectionality. Take care of one group and everyone else benefits. Seniors over the age of sixty are our fastest-growing population of homeless people." She wants mobile home park protections countywide, more health resources, attention to food insecurity, and county retirees on fixed incomes. She calls it the other end of the problem she has spent eight years on. "It really is like a bookend." You shared that you and your volunteers have knocked thirteen thousand doors so far. What are people telling you? "Number one is ICE. Every election in Petaluma has an emerging issue. This time it has been ICE." She describes the same pattern at door after door. She hands over her walk card, gives her name, says she is running for county supervisor, and before she can get any further the person standing there asks her how she feels about ICE. "Over and over again. People do not want cooperation with ICE here." "After that is affordability. There are people literally crying at the doors because they can't afford their life. Going to the food bank for the first time. And again, these are our elders, and they're saying, I can barely help myself, or my kids or my grandkids." Third, she says, is the ballot itself, whether one sent by mail will arrive where it is supposed to. Someone in District 2 has not made up their mind yet. How do you sell them on giving you their vote? "People in South County really want someone who's willing to fight for them at the county level. Of the five supervisors, four of them represent at least part of Santa Rosa. District two is the only one that does not touch any part of Santa Rosa. So it's really imperative that we have someone who understands Petaluma, Penngrove, Cotati, Rohnert Park." She adds that she is the only candidate left in the race opposed to county cooperation with ICE. She also makes an argument about scale. She says Petaluma City Schools has about seventy-five hundred students across eighteen sites, a million square feet of facilities and a budget north of a hundred million dollars, which she points out is a larger operation than some of the cities in the district. "As we look at potential budget cuts at the county level, I have been through various rounds of really hard budget decisions, and trying to do them in a way that keeps us fiscally afloat while preserving as many resources as possible for students." Agriculture is a big piece of this district. How are you reaching that community? "I've actually had some good conversations with the ag community, a lot of the small family farmers. And not really seeing them as a monolith. The whole ag community is not the same. We have lots of different parts of the ag community, and I've been invited to speak with groups of them and hear their concerns." She connects it to her work with families who rely on the food bank. The lines at the Redwood Empire Food Bank get longer every week, and on the other end are growers who farm as a second job because they cannot sell enough of what they grow. She wants the food banks and the growers working together. "I think that there's a way that we can bring everyone in." Petaluma is the largest city you would represent, just under sixty thousand people. How do you get on with the city council? "Really well." She lists the work. When she heard the city was going to cut a staff position that had been helping with homeless students, she made public comment, and they found the money to keep it another year. She has worked on traffic safety with council members and two police chiefs, starting after her own children were hit by a car five years ago at an intersection she says people had complained about for a decade, and later on Safe Routes to School across the district. Thank you, Joanna, for coming by to speak with us. Joanna shared that she has four forums on her calendar, the first on September 22, and more scheduled throughout October. They are a chance to hear both Joanna Paun and Sylvia Lemus answer questions from the people they want to represent. Ballots go out in early October, and election day is November 3. If you want the job description before you fill yours out, we wrote one up here: What does a county supervisor actually do? ♦️♦️♦️ Joanna Paun is on Porches, so leave a question in the comments or send her a Porchmail. My conversation with Sylvia Lemus can be found here.