In a Historic First, Napa County Elects All-Female Board

In its 172-year history, only seven women have served on the Napa County Board of Supervisors. The first, Virginia “Ginny” Simms, was elected in 1972, half a century after women gained the right to vote in the United States.

But come next January, all five seats on the board will be filled by women, a historic first for Napa — and the Bay Area. Napa, a largely rural county with a population of about 134,000, is only the second county in California to elect an all-female board. Los Angeles County, a megalopolis of 9.8 million people, was the first to do so in 2020.

With final results certified, Amber Manfree, Liz Alessio and incumbent Belia Ramos will join Supervisors Joelle Gallagher and Anne Cottrell. “It’s exciting to be part of a historic moment,” Ramos said. “The people voted in who they believed were the most qualified and capable candidates, and they all happened to be women.”

In Napa, a place where rolling green hills and orchards that produce world-famous wine dominate the landscape, the Board of Supervisors holds significant influence. Millions of dollars in social programs, wildfire preparation and the rules that the powerful wine industry must follow, all are under the purview of the board. And this year’s electoral results may represent a shift, not just in the demographics of those in power, but in the way that politics in Napa are done.

A diverse board

Within hours of polls closing, one supervisor-elect was moving toward a swift victory. Napa City Councilmember Liz Alessio was already 50 points ahead of her opponent, retired educator Doris Gentry, in the race for the District 2 seat on the board. Gentry told KQED that same night she would be calling Alessio to congratulate her.

During the campaign, Alessio built an impressive coalition, netting the endorsement of every sitting mayor in the county within a month of announcing her candidacy. Improving access to health care in the county — specifically access to mental health and substance abuse care — was a central issue in her campaign. Alessio drew on her more than 20 years of experience in the health sector, including time at Queen of the Valley Medical Center, the largest hospital in the county.

She wants to strengthen the county’s Health & Human Services office and believes the county can better respond to substance abuse issues by bringing together “all stakeholders here in Napa County, from the ER at our hospital to the nonprofits to county direct services.”

Alessio’s background in public health sets her apart from past board members, many of whom came from business or agriculture. In fact, all five women on the newly elected board bring very different types of expertise. No one represents that more than Amber Manfree, a science writer with a geography doctorate from UC Davis. She defeated her opponent, former Napa City Councilmember Pete Mott, by about 520 votes in the race for the District 4 seat.

“I’m bringing science to this role,” she said. “This is such a lovely community. And it takes a lot of really thoughtful management to make sure that it stays lovely — a lot of skills in mapmaking, spatial analysis as well as having done lots of reading on policy and climate.”

She chuckles and adds that earlier in her life, she never imagined she would run for office. “Napa has done the impossible in a lot of ways. They have elected an introvert as a supervisor,” she said, “I like nothing more than to be analyzing data or making a map to communicate something to an audience.”

But Manfree was anything but an introvert during the campaign, leading dozens of volunteers each weekend to knock on doors in Napa City. She also led hikes to connect with voters and even hosted a workshop on how to grow edible mushrooms.

One of her goals, she said, has been to get folks in her district to feel hopeful about local politics again. She wants the board to establish an ethics commission to hold county officials accountable for any potential conflicts of interest and improve trust in local government.

In March, the Press Democrat first reported that the FBI searched a home owned by outgoing Supervisor Alfredo Pedroza, who made history in 2016 as the youngest person to serve on the board. Federal agents are currently conducting a county-wide investigation, with multiple wineries, the Napa County Farm Bureau and the Upper Valley Waste Management Agency all receiving subpoenas. The U.S. Department of Justice has not released the reason for the investigation.

Planning Napa’s future

The incoming board will have a lot on its plate: finding a way to finance wildfire protection services in the long-term, working with cities to meet the state’s housing goals and perhaps the biggest item on the agenda, updating the county’s General Plan, which will guide future land development priorities.

The General Plan was last updated in 2008 by a completely different board for what could be described as a completely different Napa before the devastating wildfires in 2017 and 2020, severe drought conditions in the 2010s, and an explosion in demand for affordable housing.

“This is what’s going to set the trajectory for our county for the next 30 years,” Supervisor Ramos said. Next year, she will be the longest-serving member on the board after defeating American Canyon City Councilmember Mariam Aboudamous, who was backed by powerful industry groups like Napa County Farm Bureau and Winegrowers of Napa County.

All five women have been clear: Preserving Napa’s agricultural land is a priority. Building new housing — including the affordable housing desperately needed by the county’s working class — will most likely take place within Napa’s few cities.

Supervisor Joelle Gallagher, who has served on the board since 2023, said she wants to approach the General Plan update through a health and equity lens. “We focus on a lot of important issues to families already here in Napa County,” she said, “but I think that when women are given that responsibility to make policies, you tend to think about things that have been difficult for women, kids and families, and those become pretty high priorities.”

For reproductive justice advocates, the new board represents an opportunity to strengthen access to abortion care in Napa since Roe v. Wade was overturned. “Because this is no longer under the control of the federal government, it’s really going to be up to local jurisdictions to get creative with the way that they expand services in their communities,” said Christian García, vice president of government relations with Planned Parenthood Northern California.

Planned Parenthood Northern California manages a health center in the city of Napa, which reopened in 2023 in a new location, partly because the previous location was the target of protests and elaborate misinformation efforts by anti-abortion activists. But despite the new location, García said the health center is still facing protesters, who seem more aggressive and disruptive.

“The more collaboration that we can have with the Board of Supervisors, the Sheriff’s Department … to really ensure that patients coming in, that staff working at these health centers are not being fear-mongered by these protesters,” he said, “that will be essential.”

‘I’m filled with hope every day’

For Susannah Delano, what’s happening in Napa is part of a transformation in local politics. Delano leads Close the Gap California, an advocacy group that seeks to elect more women to office. She previously worked with SEIU 2015 and Planned Parenthood Northern California, where she became familiar with the power dynamics across Napa.

“Napa politics really have been a boys club — and a white boys club in particular — for most of recent history,” she said. But she adds that having five women on the board, each with such different backgrounds, represents how much women-led organizing has grown in the Bay Area and throughout California.

The county boards of Santa Clara, Marin and Solano already have a plurality of female supervisors. And more than 40% of the state Legislature is made up of women.

“I’m filled with hope every day,” Delano said. “What I see when I look at the numbers is just an enormous sea change of women from all different racial backgrounds and strong LGBTQ representation, who are going to change the face of California politics for decades to come.”

How greater representation will translate into policy in Napa County will be decided by the incoming board. And each of the five has a role to play.

“Being supervisor is not like being a mayor, where you go do one thing on your own,” said Supervisor Anne Cottrell, who represents District 3. “The way that the Supervisors get things done is through group action. … These are team decisions.”