Incumbent Paul Dohring has defeated challenger and fellow city council member Billy Summers to retain his position as the mayor of St. Helena for another two years.
With 76.7% of the total potential vote counted by Monday afternoon, Dohring led with 69% of the vote, while Summers had 31%. The final certified count will be released Dec. 3.
In a statement issued Tuesday morning, Dohring listed the priority areas for his next term: managing city costs, prioritizing drinking water quality, investing in infrastructure, advancing wildfire preparedness and creating more workforce housing.
“Thank you for believing in me,” he wrote, “and giving me this opportunity to serve.”
Dohring was first elected mayor for a two-year term in 2022, after being on the City Council for eight years. His opponent, Billy Summers, won his first four-year term on the City Council in 2022.
The St. Helena City Council also had two seats up for grabs this election and three new candidates, none of whom have prior experience as elected officials.
With 76.7% of the total potential vote counted, Michelle Deasy had 38%, Aaron Barak had 36.65% and Hector Marroquin was at 25.34%.
“I’m thrilled with the results,” said Deasy, “and very honored to have received those votes. I'm just preparing myself to work hard and listen hard and make good decisions.”
St. Helena, home to around 5,000 people, has a five-member City Council that is elected at-large.
A land use and real estate attorney and a longtime Napa Valley resident, 63-year-old Dohring describes himself as an “old-school” politician with public service as one of his core values.
In 2022, Dohring beat fellow council member Eric Hall by 132 votes to become mayor. Now, he wants to see the work he and the rest of the City Council put in over the last two years pay off.
Over the last few years, the council has been working toward eight set goals — including strengthening the city’s fiscal resilience, improving infrastructure and pursuing water security, he said in his campaign.
But maintaining economic sustainability while continuing to provide the services demanded by the community is difficult, he said, and has led to the budget issues the city’s currently facing.
In the run-up to the election, he said there’s a need to rebuild trust in the community and not overpromise.
His opponent Summers, 50, was a music producer, cinematographer and former professional snowboarder. He has been a St. Helena resident for about 15 years. He also co-founded The Herbivore cannabis dispensary in Napa.
Summers’ campaign was largely focused on a need for more transparency. To help improve transparency — and counterbalance what he sees as the council’s overreliance on city staff — he advocated for the creation of a citizen-led financial oversight committee and a water and wastewater committee.
In the past, Summers served on the city’s parks and recreation commission.
Aaron Barak, 52, has lived in St. Helena since 2018. Currently the chief technology officer for Solano County, he previously worked for Silicon Valley Bank.
His major campaign planks included working toward greater fiscal responsibility and tackling the city’s water problems.
For the first, he proposed greater operational efficiency and an elaborate means of “sharing the burden” to raise millions in additional funding. This included a parcel tax to fund the library, 0.25% increments for the city’s sales and business license taxes and a 1% local increase in Transient Occupancy Tax assessed on hotel rooms, among other things.
On the city’s water issues, Barak said in his campaign that he’d like the city to join a countywide water agency to help reduce costs.
Michelle Deasy, 52, has been a resident of St. Helena since 2019.
Executive director of QA Commons, a nonprofit that works to prepare students for workforce employment, she is big on attracting jobs and industries to the city that are “future-focused” and provide youth opportunities for upward mobility.
For her, the city’s budget deficit and water quality, cost and sustainability are the most pressing problems that need to be tackled. In addition, she feels the city needs to be thinking about its declining population.
Along with co-founding the St. Helena Striders walking group and volunteer coaching local youth sports, she currently serves as president of the city’s library board and previously served on the city’s parks and recreation commission.
Hector Marroquin, 49, is a St. Helena native who graduated from St. Helena High School. He’s currently president of the St. Helena Masonic Temple Association nonprofit, and has a working background in food and wine, as well as real estate finance.
His election planks included improving the city’s financial stability, supporting local businesses and families and building affordable housing in the city.
You can reach Tarini Mehta at 707-521-5337 or [email protected]. On X (Twitter) @MehtaTarini.