photo credit: SCTA

It's been a week since Sonoma County's longest-serving supervisor announced he is retiring at the end of his term.

2nd District Supervisor David Rabbitt, represents Petaluma and southern Sonoma County on the Board of Supervisors.

He got his start on the Petaluma city council before winning election to the county level government in 2010, and recently announced he won't be seeking a fifth term on the Board of Supervisors, which extended the candidate filing period since no incumbent will be running.

"I never in a million years ever thought I would run for office," Rabbitt said to KRCB News. "I'm an architect by profession. There's days where I just would love to stare at a blank piece of paper and start drawing away and hope the phone would never ring."

Rabbitt said his wife is retiring, and he feels its the right time for a new face on the board, but said he's still concerned about major projects the county has to face in the years ahead.

"Potter Valley and that whole piece of the picture," Rabbitt noted. "That'll probably go on for another 10 years by the time it's said and done. But there's critical portions of that that I will miss coming to fruition on. "I wish I could continue to work on those kind of matters."

Rabbitt said the future of the county's government center is another concern.

"I think it's time that we make the decision and make an investment to make sure that our employees have...not just decent but actually a nice place to work," Rabbitt said.

Rabbitt said he is proud of his push for balanced fiscal policies, and infrastructure and transportation investments, both locally and regionally he's worked towards during his tenure, including SMART and Sonoma Clean Power.

"Very proud of the work on the Golden Gate Bridge, all electronic tolls, movable median barrier, suicide deterrent net is saving lives," Rabbitt said. "We're moving into a last phase, fourth and final phase of some seismic retrofitting."

According to the Sonoma County Elections Department, four locals have filed to run for the open seat: John E. King, Sylvia Lemus, Shelina Moreda and Joanna Paun.