City Council's Favorite Pundit Looks Toward 90

Herb Golenpaul won’t be reading this article.

Though Golenpaul, who turns 90 today, has the technical know-how of a much younger man, he’s dug in his heels when it comes to the Internet.

“Somebody has put me on ‘Faceplate,’” said Golenpaul, referring to a Facebook group created by fans of his political tirades. “I’m still trying to figure out who.”

After nearly a decade of religiously attending the six-hour marathon meetings of the Sonoma City Council — staying long after most residents have called it quits, vacating for their beds and a live video stream — Golenpaul is still surprised and largely unaware his comments on every topic has earned him a small-town celebrity status.

Watch a video montage of Golenpaul's council comments, at right.

“He speaks his mind on almost every item on the agenda and does so in the spirit of his own point of view,” said Sonoma City Councilman Ken Brown. “The council collectively loves him for it.”

Golenpaul started attending meetings shortly after he moved to Sonoma in 2002 — downsizing from a home in Larkspur to a trailer in Sonoma he shares with his wife, Tessa, 79.

First stop, city council meetings: “I thought it was good to know what was going on,” he said  “Then I just kept going.”

He’s only missed a handful of council meetings in the last eight years (less, one might point out, than many elected officials), only skipping when an more pressing issue, usually pertaining to seniors or veterans, pops up on another agenda. 

Though he says he has nothing against Sonoma’s governing body (“I think they do an excellent job.”) Golenpaul has strong opinions anything to hit the council agenda:

• : “The leaf blower doesn’t just blow the leaves, it blows the dust and dirt and I suffer form hay fever.”
• : “I buy gas; my gas money goes to the federal government. How much do the bicycle people pay? Nothing.”
• : “He’s done everything the council wanted.  Why would they give it to someone else? We bought corn across the street from the other lady and it was very expensive. “
• On Government Salaries: I’m on social security; we don’t get any kind of raise. If you’re a retired veteran, you don’t get any raise. They’re just doing their job, why should they get a raise?

“I’m just a little old country boy from Brooklyn,” says Golenpaul, born in the borough in 1921. He studied electrical engineering at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute before departing for a career in the armed forces as signal core inspector. 

He developed radar counter measures as a first lieutenant in World War II, was promoted up the ranks to major and won three air medals as a pilot during the Korean war.

He got out, only to be called back as a pilot during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

 “I flew six 25-hour missions in B52 with atomic weapons loaded on board. If Kennedy had declared war we’d have gone on to bomb the soviets,” Herb said.

He left for good shortly after. “I figured two wars was enough for me," he said," finding work building radar detection machines, before a triple bypass and heart attack drove him to retirement in 1981.

Golenpaul started a family with a first wife -- now spanning three generations -- two daughters, one in Hawaii and one in Antioch, Calif., a son who lives in Antioch, three grandchildren and one great granddaughter, Sabrina, 9.

He met his current wife on a business trip in Marin in 1975.

“The motel had a piano bar and I love piano bar and I love singing so I went,” Golenpaul said. “These two lovely ladies came in and sat at the back of the piano bar and then one of them — not my wife the other one — came up to sing at the bar, so I went up to my wife and we talked. And then we went up to Denny’s and talked all night.”

“The next night I went to the company and I said to the guys, ‘I think I met the gal that I’m going to marry.’”

Then he lost his job.

“They closed down the factory. I was really low. I didn’t have a wife, I didn’t have a job, I didn’t have a bank account,” Golenpaul said. “I told Tessa that I’d lost my job she said, ‘all right, why don’t you come up here.’”

Fitzgerald drove to Orange County, where Golenpaul was living at the time, with a minivan and moved him to her Larkspur home.

The couple married six years later, on the same day as Diana and Charles.

Fitzgerald takes his political fervor in stride. “I think some people, they’re just social and they get out there and it doesn’t matter how old they are – they’re going to find something to keep them occupied,” she said. “Herb’s like that. And when it comes down to it, this is a man that brings me tea in bed every day of my life.”

“He’s a lovely man.”

He squeezes this pastoral home life out of an increasingly busy schedule. Golenpaul was appointed to Sonoma’s Traffic Safety Commission last month, he's active in the senior advocacy group On Lok and after 26 years in the Coast Guard Auxiliary, he still runs patrols.

“I believe he represents parts of our community that aren’t always there to ask the questions,” said Sonoma Mayor Laurie Gallian.

“Some of my best moments with Herb have been when I’ve walked into city hall and he’s sitting there looking at the binder with the agenda – usually a day or two before the council meeting – and he’s trying to get information about what the items are,” she said.

"I’m an A-type personally so I just do it," Golenpaul said. "Once my foot is in my whole body is in, I just can’t do things piecemeal."

In his eyes it's all part of the classic American pastime — a life of quiet benevolence.

Most bristle at bureaucracy; Golenpaul's put in 44 years of government service (18 in the Air Force and 26 in the Coast Guard). while most wilt during hour six of a city meeting, Golenpaul "finds it exciting." Many advise 'forget about the small stuff,' yet Golenpaul calls nit-picky nature "a recipe for happiness."

“It’s been a hell of a life," he said.