Welcome to the City of Sonoma web page. A few sections of the website that may be of particular interest are listed below:
CITY OF SONOMA SALES TAX MEASURE - MEASURE "J":
At its meeting of March 5, 2012, the City Council placed a local City of Sonoma sales tax to the ballot for the June 5, 2012 election. The measure is intended to support local City services such as road maintenance, public safety and quality of life issues, following the loss of City of Sonoma annual redevelopment funding due to the State Supreme Court decision dissolving redevelopment agencies and reallocating former redevelopment monies away from cities to other taxing agencies.
The ballot question before the voters reads as follows:
"To preserve the safety, public services and quality of life of Sonoma, and provide funding for essential services such as police, fire and emergency medical services, street and road maintenance and repairs, flood prevention, park and open space maintenance, graffiti abatement and other general community services, shall an ordinance be adopted temporarily increasing the City sales tax by one-half of one percent for a term of 5 years, with all funds to be spent locally?”
MEASURE J INFORMATION
Measure J--Frequently Asked Questions
Report of Budget Impact of Loss of Redevelopment
Report on Fiscal Emergency
Sonoma Tourism Improvement District. At the City Council meeting of April 2, 2012, the City Council adopted a Resolution of Intention to form a Tourism Improvement District for a period of three years. The purposes of the Sonoma Tourism Improvement District (STID) include creating a funding mechanism for enhanced marketing of Sonoma as an overnight destination with the intent of increasing occupancy rates, the number of visitors to Sonoma and their length of stay. This could also have beneficial effects on retail establishments and should ultimately have a positive impact on the amount of Transient Occupancy Tax and Sales Tax received by the City of Sonoma. Details of the purposes of the STID are included in a Management District Plan.
The City Council public hearing on the STID is to be held on June 18, 2012, for the purpose of allowing public testimony and Council action regarding the proposed new assessment of 2% on all overnight stays in the City of Sonoma lodging establishments (hotels, bed and breakfast inns and vacation rentals). Click here to view the May 7, 2012 presentation. For more information, contact City Manager Linda Kelly at 938-3681.
Permit Streamlining Survey. The City of Sonoma's working group on permit streamlining is gathering feedback from businesses that have gone through the City's permitting processes in recent years. The goal is to use this information to continue to improve the process where possible. An online survey is being utlized to collect input from business owners with a location within city limits. Commercial property owners and building industry professionals who have gone through the City's permit process in the past few years are also invited to participate. The survey takes about ten minutes to complete and is available here.
On-line Payment now available for water bills: On-line BillPay makes it easy for you to manage your City of Sonoma utility bills. You can view utility bills online, see utility bill and payment history, and make one-time or automatic payments from your credit or debit card or checking or savings account. Customers are encouraged to sign up now for this exciting new program. All sign-ups must be done through the City's website from your personal or business computer. City Hall will not have on-line access to sign-ups or your personal credit card information. Click here to try it: https://www.onlinebiller.com/sonomacity/