Candidate for
Council Member; City of San Rafael

My political philosophy is an interesting hybrid. I believe in a compassionate government but also fiscal responsibility. I believe we need to solve San Rafael's problems in the present rather than kick them down the road to the next generation. As a person in business management for more than 25 years, I believe in having a budget and then living within that budget.

But above all, I am a pragmatist. I am okay with spending big, and for helping those of us in need, but not for symbolic gestures that merely make us look good. Government needs to be results-oriented. Our proposed solutions must also make sense for the eco-system in which we live, respecting the fact that we cannot order up additional rainfall. And that brings me to a few specific local issues...

High Density Housing

ABAG's proposal is out of place in quiet Marin County. The state wrongly designated Marin to be an urban county yet designated Sonoma...with twice our population...as suburban. The ABAG housing densities would change the character of our county and our community. Five stories is too tall. Building a Northgate City on top of the mall and strip malls is clearly a bad idea.

We need our affordable housing to be consistent with the size of our suburban town, and reserved for San Rafael's neediest families and seniors. The present proposal for "workforce housing" is out of line, and an insult to our neighbors in need. Once the workforce lives here, nothing stops them from commuting to San Francisco for better pay. Nothing stops those who moved into those workers' old homes from then coming here for jobs. If this happens, we accomplished nothing. Tax exemptions for low income housing are well intended, but the city council approved plans that would import so many new students we would need to build two more schools. There is no plan to fund these schools, pay for new teachers, or to keep pace with our current education quality.

Jobs

My first act as a councilmember will be to seek the appointment of a Blue Ribbon Panel to seek out venture capitalists to find out what it would take to develop the SMART Civic Center Station area into a tech hub. The conversation should also include tech leaders in the South Bay and social media leaders south of Market. We have a great opportunity to create good paying jobs this way. We offer a great location, educated workers, and a new transit hub.

SMART

As long as SMART does not connect to the Larkspur ferry, it is a train to nowhere. Running diesel trains only every 30 minutes, SMART does not seem smart. If we had known the original 70 mile route would be slashed to only 38 miles, I doubt we would have approved it. San Rafael must not commit to any new projects that depend on SMART being successful in order to work, at least until such time that SMART can demonstrate viability.

Plan Bay Area

The housing and transit plan developed for the BART and Caltrain counties does not make sense in Marin. San Rafael should try to build consensus among Marin towns...and possibly Sonoma and Napa counties...to leave ABAG and form an Association of North Bay Governments. That way we could develop solutions that actually have a chance to achieve their goals where we lack critical train service into San Francisco, and control our own state funding instead of depending on an Oakland-based government to give us our fair share. Housing projects that bypass CEQA environmental review will NEVER have my support.