Candidates vying to replace retiring Sonoma County Supervisor Valerie Brown are off to a relatively slow start in the fundraising race. Gina Cuclis topped the list of five candidates in the contest for the 1st District supervisorial seat, which takes in Sonoma Valley, the city of Sonoma and parts of eastern Santa Rosa.

Keith Rhinehart, a former United Parcel Service supervisor and local substitute teacher, has entered the race for Sonoma County’s 1st District supervisorial seat. One of his primary campaign goals: to stop the county from outsourcing services.

Santa Rosa granted a third temporary contract extension to the Community Media Center of the North Bay on Tuesday to allow more time to resolve a difficult negotiation process. The center operates the city TV public access channels and tapes City Council and school board meetings. It faces layoffs without more income, said Executive Director Dan Villalva.

The Santa Rosa City Council has relieved the owner of Santa Rosa Plaza of a requirement to study ways of improving pedestrian access through the downtown mall. A divided council agreed late Tuesday night with its planning director and city attorney that it had been inappropriate for the city Design Review Board to make mall owner Simon Property Group do the study. Was it the right call?

Water and sewer rates will go up about 3 percent per year for the next two years after the Santa Rosa City Council reluctantly approved the latest in a decade-long series of rate increases. By 2013, the typical home in Santa Rosa will be paying 116 percent more for water and sewer service than a decade earlier.

In the wake of the eviction of Occupy Santa Rosa demonstrators camping at City Hall without a permit, the group is trying to learn from its mistakes, focus on upcoming protests and decide where to reestablish their encampment. Some see Santa Rosa Junior College or Sonoma State University as natural options for future protests. Others are trying to sort out the events. What lessons should the group take away from the five-week protest?

Santa Rosa will spend an additional $400,000 studying a controversial bridge over Highway 101 for bicycles and pedestrians. It will be years before the city can attract the funding needed to construct the bridge. Should the city build it?

Occupy Santa Rosa’s encampment on the lawn of City Hall will be allowed to stay for now after the City Council agreed to grant protesters camping permits following a dramatic and emotional emergency meeting Thursday. The ordinance goes into effect immediately and makes it possible for individuals to obtain 15-day camping permits that come with a long list of conditions. Did the City Council make the right call?

Occupy Santa Rosa protesters camping at City Hall say they are cleaning up their act and will abide by all the conditions proposed for their camp by city officials. The group hopes to get back into the good graces of the City Council after several council members chastised protesters for allowing their encampment to become a public health and safety hazard. Should the city now allow the camp to remain?

State Sen. Noreen Evans officially ruled out a run for the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors on Monday, saying she is happy in her current post and has much work to do in Sacramento. The move immediately provides a clearer path for the four declared candidates, and could especially benefit Santa Rosa Councilwoman Susan Gorin, a close political ally of Evans.