About Terry

Terrence “Terry” Sanders is a Santa Rosa Planning Commissioner, retired Firefighter/EMT/Paramedic, fire survivor, former small business owner, husband, father, musician, and longtime resident of Santa Rosa’s 4th District.

A native of San Francisco, Terry met his wife, Debra, (J.D./Ed.D.), amongst friends while trading stories about world travel. Debra has spent her entire career in education, serving as a teacher, Assistant Principal and Principal before moving to help our most vulnerable youth as a foster and homeless youth education services coordinator. She now works as an attorney representing local school districts.

In 2006, wanting to leave the Bay Area’s urban core for a quieter place to start a family, Terry and Debra drove to Santa Rosa for the first time and immediately fell in love with the city’s character, sense of community and incredible natural beauty in and around the city. They knew this was the place where they wanted to plant roots and raise their family, and have called Santa Rosa’s 4th District ‘home’ ever since.

Terry and Debra began raising their young family upon moving to Santa Rosa. Their oldest son, Isaac, was born in 2006 and is currently attending Tulane University in New Orleans. Their younger son, Paxton, succumbed to illness in 2010 as a young boy, which was a difficult yet profound experience for Terry and his wife. Despite dealing with the most difficult experience of their lives, Terry and Debra felt blessed by the outpouring of support for their family from friends and strangers alike – showing Terry how profound the power of community is here in Santa Rosa. In a 2017 San Francisco Chronicle article, Terry noted “the community is tight. It’s really tight…I came from San Francisco, and didn’t know my neighbors in the city. Here, you know your neighbors, and you know they’ve got your back.”

In 2017, Terry’s home and entire neighborhood was destroyed by the Tubbs Fire. Despite losing family photographs, a collection of guitars and other irreplaceable, sentimental items, Terry visited Fountaingrove’s Fire Station 5 that night to engage with firefighters before the fire station burned down. He was a regular visitor at the local Command Center, using his background in firefighting and paramedic work to provide updates to his fellow residents despite being an evacuee and fire survivor himself, giving him an introduction to the importance of community engagement – some fire survivors even called Terry a “hero” based on his regular and frequent updates in the days following October 8-9, 2017.

Though Terry and his wife chose not to rebuild their former home, they continue to reside in Santa Rosa’s 4th City Council District, moving into the home of the late Helen Rudee, Sonoma County’s first female Supervisor.

Following his retirement after serving for 23 years as a firefighter, EMT, and paramedic, Terry has been as busy as ever over the last four years. As a community and nonprofit leader, Terry has served in the following capacities:

• Santa Rosa Planning Commissioner

• Chair of the Luther Burbank Rose Parade

• Vice Chair of the Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital Community Board

• Board President for the California Theater

• Board Member for the Santa Rosa Fire Foundation

• Board Member for Santa Rosa’s Wednesday Night Market

• Member of the Waterways Advisory Committee

• Member of the Sonoma County Law Enforcement Chaplaincy, which provides support and emotional care to first responders

• (and all around nice dude!)

Terry has worked tirelessly for Santa Rosa over the last four years, and is committed to investing his time, energy, and enthusiasm to make Santa Rosa an even better place to live, work, and play. He hopes to bring our entire community together to address our most pressing issues as a member of the Santa Rosa City Council.

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In his personal time, Terry enjoys spending time with friends and family while devoting himself to a lifelong passion: music. As the lead singer, songwriter and guitarist for the blues band The Dylan Black Project (named the Top Blues Band by the North Bay Bohemian in 2017 and 2018), Terry also performs at public events and venues throughout Sonoma County.