Our Issues

Fairness & Accountability

“Serving as your city councilman, I’ve used my 30 years of CPA experience to help balance our city budget in tough economic times. I’ve fought hard to support local businesses that create jobs, fully fund parks, recreation centers, senior and youth services – while ensuring our tax dollars are used as intended, especially on gang prevention.

“I’ve always listened to residents first. It’s how I choose to govern. Listed below are some of the top issues I hear again and again from residents, along with my thoughts on each.

“If you don’t see your local issue or concern below that needs addressing, please email me at gary@garywysocky.com. Thank you. ”

- Santa Rosa Councilman Gary Wysocky

Balanced budgets that serve the whole city

“Balanced Budgets” should be just that, balanced towards our whole city’s needs. Of course public safety always ranks high in our spending, but that doesn’t mean it should cannibalize the rest of our budget. I am committed to funding park maintenance, pools in the summer, senior and youth programs, efforts that help local businesses grow and lead to jobs, and the list goes on and on. I am disappointed that the council majority has shown no inclination to “put our fiscal house in order” to prepare for the day when Measure P expires. Instead, one member suggested we ask the voters for a permanent extension of this temporary tax, even before we’ve collected one year’s receipts from this measure. This inaction is unacceptable.

As a CPA, I have the skills to dig into the fine print and find savings and value for taxpayers that others simply are not trained to find. As a neighborhood leader, I’ve worked with fellow residents to achieve a shared vision and improve our local quality of life. It is this attention to detail, management of limited resources and focus on the big picture that I bring to every budget discussion.

Ensuring our tax dollars are used as intended

I’m proud to have earned accolades in Press Democrat editorials for my work to ensure Measure P funds are used as intended – to help pay for the quality of life we’ve come to expect in Santa Rosa. The “P” never stood for “pensions,” as I’ve had to remind some of my colleagues. Acting as a fiscal hawk on Measure P funds is just one piece of this part of my job.

I have repeatedly been the leading voice and vote to oppose taxes and fee hikes, including water rate hikes, sewage rate hikes, city staff contract extensions, and pensions of all kinds. I’ve also demanded measurable results from our Measure O funds, along with structural changes to that program to save taxpayers money.

Demanding better crime prevention, especially against gang violence

It shocks me when our current Mayor says things like “Everyone knows gang violence is getting better.” Unlike our Mayor, I see gang violence and crime prevention as one of our biggest problems still to tackle.

Unfortunately, our City’s gang prevention statistics – the metrics we use to judge whether our efforts are improving the situation or not – we were told had to be scrapped and replaced. We’ve spent millions of dollars into these efforts, but we recently learned from our Police Chief that the old statistics we were given as part of Measure O efforts cannot be trusted. The City is still trying to figure out what happened during this time – incidentally, when our current Mayor was in charge of gang prevention as a Santa Rosa Police Lieutenant. We can all agree that we want to prevent gang violence. I will work with the new program coordinator to achieve these goals and have them be accountable with accurate statistics to the taxpayers who fund these programs.