Sonoma City Council paves way for donor bricks

The City of Sonoma’s reluctance to allow “donor bricks” on city property was not written in stone.

That much was evident at the end of the Sonoma City Council meeting on Oct. 21, when city officials walked back on earlier denunciations of so-called donor bricks, the small pavers permanently inscribed with names of those who donated as part of fundraising effort to build a memorial at Depot Park in honor of 19th century Chinese laborers.

Despite its prior qualms about donor names etched on city-owned property, the council voted 3-1-1 – with Councilmember Rachel Hundley against and Councilmember David Cook absent – to allow the brick fundraising effort to move forward, but with a revised design for the placement of the bricks.

The memorial, planned in the style of a Chinese gazebo, or “ting,” was first proposed by the Sonoma-Penglai Sister Cities Committee in 2014 and approved the following year by the city at an estimated budget of $125,000 for construction and ongoing maintenance to be paid for by the nonprofit Sister Cities group.

The project’s chief source of funds, say committee members, has been through promising donors of $1,000 or more that they “can become part of Sonoma history” with their names “permanently inscribed” on a brick surrounding the pavilion, as described by a call-for-donations form created by the nonprofit.

While plans for the ting’s fundraising were submitted to city officials in 2015, they didn’t clearly communicate that donor-inscribed bricks would be used to compose a short pathway leading to the gazebo.

But, according to city staff, “At various points in the plan review process, the plans began to have reference to donor bricks, which were not approved.”

Not only did the appearance of donor-recognition bricks raise red flags with city staff, multiple city council members also protested the idea of individual names being permanently stamped on public property.

At its Aug. 18 meeting, the city council voted 4-1, with Councilmember David Cook in the minority, to disallow the bricks and form a two-member council subcommittee to work with the Sister Cities members to find an alternative method of donor recognition.

But the Sonoma-Penglai committee members argued that having to refund all donations of $1,000 or more raised through the promise of the recognition bricks would all but kill the project. At the time, according to committee chairperson Peggy Phelan, 36 donors had been promised brick pavers, varying in size between 4-by-8 inches and 8-by-8 inches, and accounting for at least $50,000 in funds raised toward the project.

According to an online readers poll conducted by the Index-Tribune in September, 80 percent of respondents either approved the use of donor bricks in general or, specifically, for the Ting Memorial project.

At the Oct. 21 meeting, the council subcommittee members Logan Harvey and Madolyn Agrimonti proposed a compromise: the city would allow the Sister Cities’ donor brick program to continue, but to situate the bricks more modestly in the design – instead of as a path leading to the gazebo, the pavers would encircle the structure.

Harvey said the new design allows the gazebo to remain the focal point of the memorial, as opposed to a path filled with name-inscribed bricks.

“Also, symbolically, (we would) have these names protecting the ting as a protective layer,” Harvey said, noting that a gazebo that had been at the park years earlier was frequently a target of vandalism.

While Mayor Amy Harrington said she would prefer “not to have donor names in this manner,” she described the new design as “an OK compromise” and gave it her support.

Added Harrington: “Forward going, we must have a public policy not to accept donor bricks.”

Only Hundley remained entirely cemented to her anti-brick view. “I will not be supporting the bricks,” said Hundley. “But I respect the compromise.”

Email Jason at jason.walsh@sonomanews.com.