I voted yes to bring our Sewer Master Plan into the 21st century, with a long-overdue update that would give staff a greatly enhanced understanding of the state of our underground infrastructure, and allow them to monitor and maintain the sewer system much more accurately and efficiently going forward. Sewer infrastructure is not a particularly exciting topic, but it's very important; in addition to posing the risk of sewer backups into homes, businesses, and yards, a poorly

This one was a tough pill to swallow. Under the Trump Administration, the FCC—considered by many to be a "captured agency" under the undue sway of the telecom industry—issued a series of draconian rulings stripping cities of almost all discretion in regulating 5G (or "small cell") infrastructure in their jurisdiction. The mandates were a crushing blow to local control that saw Corte Madera lose virtually all say over whether or how to approve telecom companies' applications t

I voted yes to finance approximately 70-80% of the Town Hall Remodel project, rather than expend cash from our reserves to complete the project. This ratio of cash to financing on the project was driven by the goal of setting our annual payments on the project at about $450,000, equal to the lowest monthly payment we'd need to make if we abandoned Town Hall and leased office space elsewhere, which was one of the alternate strategies we evaluated. As such, we are able to renov

This is another big step forward for Corte Madera's fiscal responsibility. Like almost every public agency in California, Corte Madera faces a massive pension obligation debt—ours is to the tune of about $21.4 million. Until now, the payments on that debt required by CalPERS have varied wildly, making it difficult to predict future expenditures accurately. To make matters worse, CalPERS' investment of that money often underperforms their projections, leaving cities scrambling

The state of California seems to love nothing more than moving its elections, and this year they're back at it again—for the second or third time since I've been on the Town Council. Because Corte Madera's elections are tied to state elections, every time the state moves their elections, we have to move ours as well. The downside is we are going through this song and dance once again, but the upside is that, with this latest change, we are finally landing on an election sched

Fiscal responsibility was one of the core values I campaigned on when I ran for Town Council in 2018, and codifying an official reserve policy—requiring the Town to keep a rainy day fund—was a key part of my platform. Tonight, I couldn't be more proud to vote yes on adopting that policy. We took another big step forward for good governance by adopting a policy requiring the Town keep an operating reserve fund of 20% (equal to about 2.5 months worth of operating budget, and do