A little while ago, I attended a Marin County Council of Mayors and Councilmembers meeting to listen to a presentation given by Ken Kirkey, ABAG Director of Planning. Kirkey gave an update on the One Bay Area plan and the latest Regional Housing Needs Allocation. He was supposed to answer questions that councilmembers had submitted prior to the meeting but neglected to answer many of them. Residents were also given the opportunity to ask questions. In response, Kirkey oftentimes gave rote answers that had little to do with the actual questions, stated that the question(s) were outside ABAG’s …

The Novato Planning Commission met April 16 and April 30, successfully affirming its role in city governance and deeming the city administrative offices consistent with the city's general plan. It also concluded that the general plan includes the downtown specific plan, added as an amendment not just by mention in the specific plan document but by formal action of the council, attested to in the amendments list of the general plan. Why is this important? In the increasing complexity of our regulatory and planning environment, our city planners and managers are taking huge amounts of …

Many residents in northwest Novato will have to decide on June 5 whether they want Diane Furst or Steve Kinsey for their District 4 representative on the Marin County Board of Supervisors. When I was walking door to door in the Vistas, out of 31 households not one knew that their neighborhood had been switched from Judy Arnold's District 5 to Steve Kinsey's District 4 by redistricting last year. Many Novatoans west of Simmons and Wilson avenues have been switched. Although not too many people in Novato are talking about the District 4 Board of Supervisors race yet, the Sierra Club and the …

Editor's note: Sue Hunt LeMay handles membership outreach and development for the Novato Blue Ribbon Coalition for Youth. She lost a son in a 2005 alcohol-related crash on Indian Valley Road in Novato. Novato High student Brienna Polk-Perez is to be applauded for initiating the events that led to Tilly’s pulling its “Get Tanked” window display in Novato and nationwide last week. This is truly an example of how one person can make a difference, a huge positive difference. Hearing of original the window display, I was angry. It was appalling to me that a national chain marketing to our youth …

These are uncertain times. But if there’s one thing I’m sure of, it’s that no one decides to live in the Bay Area because it's "One Bay Area." If anything, we’re the poster child (and the butt of endless jokes) for diversity of people, ideas and "place." But lately, we’re inundated with guilt-giving Op-Ed pieces extolling the virtues of central planning and a dystopian vision called the One Bay Area Plan. It’s wrapped in politically correct phrases like “affordable housing” and “reducing greenhouse gases” and comprised of a truckload of contradictory laws, terms and agencies like SB375, AB32…

By Aaron Fix As you may know, labor negotiations have broken down between Novato Unified School District and the Novato Federation of Teachers, and we are at impasse. The last NFT-NUSD contract expired in 2009. During this time, many Novato teachers have been experiencing significant pay cuts due to the fact that NUSD has refused to shoulder any of the burden of our skyrocketing health care costs. In the meantime, NUSD and NFT have agreed on a group of nine unified school districts (Alameda City, Davis Joint, Milpitas, Morgan Hill, Newark, Cotati-Rohnert Park, Pittsburg, San Leandro and …

I will not be able to attend tonight's City Council Meeting in order to provide my public comment in person. I am emailing with the hope that my question can be answered and my concern be considered in any upcoming discussion/decisions regarding the City Office project. I have cc'd representatives from the IJ and the Patch so that if in their coverage of tonight's meeting they mention anything about public comment on the City Office agenda item, they will also be aware of the following comments.          At the January Citizens Finance Committee meeting that the Asst City Manager noted that …

The Marin IJ's Will Jason wrote an article about Michael Frank's February 7th "State of the City" address warning residents of two things:  first, that the city has a structural budget deficit of $2.5 million dollars and second, that "rumors & misinformation" spread on the internet are contributing to a lack of trust in public officials.  The first issue has been apparent for some time. In recent years the city has reduced its work force by more than half, Governor Brown has closed all redevelopment agencies (RDA) resulting in tax dollars being diverted back to the state, and the ongoing …

When the Novato City Council members voted 4-1 in December to adopt the environmental impact report for the Hanna Ranch multiuse commercial development near Vintage Oaks shopping center, they basically gave away the floating easement to the developer, Urban One. Susan Stompe of the Marin Conservation League was right. The floating easement was just handed over to the developer without any community discussion or a public hearing. When Councilmember Pat Eklund repeatedly asked City Manager Michael Frank, who had made the decision, he declined to comment. The floating easement was the city’s …

Eighteen years ago, one year after the death of my 18-year-old son Frankie Poulos in a crossover collision on Highway 37, I submitted my first "Remember Frankie" letter to the Marin IJ editorial page.  It is this a mother’s annual tribute. I was at a social event a few months after Frankie’s death. A woman there asked, “Have you identified the gift in his death?” “What??” I said, “I am light years from gift!” I remember thinking: what an insensitive clueless woman. It is not a gift. People often refer to the death of a child as a “parent's worst nightmare.” My husband says it best when he …

To the Novato City Council: Having just read the conclusion of the California Supreme Court to uphold the decision by Governor Brown to dismantle redevelopment agencies (RDA) throughout California as well as ruling it illegal to continue to fund them in any manner, it is my hope that the current council will immediately stop any efforts to build a downtown office complex, that they will repay the bond debt created to fund this project and that they will instead purchase an existing class B office building to house city workers.  Throughout 2011 the council has been approached by many …

Manager Rosemarie Fernandex of the San Francisco Postal District, which includes all of Marin, offers this opinion piece. As Congress considers legislation to reform the business model of the Postal Service, it must confront a basic choice: to permit the Postal Service to function more as a business does, or constrain it from doing so. With greater business model flexibility, the Postal Service can return to profitability and financial stability. A flexible business model would speed product and pricing decisions, enable a five-day per week delivery schedule, and permit the realignment of …

One great thing about the city of Novato's website is that interested citizens can see video's of their City Council in action. Plus, every once in a while, a lot happens in a small amount of time. For example, a recent agenda item on the Hanna Ranch mixed use development  went off with the choreographed precision that council members Denise Athas, Eric Lucan and Jeanne MacLeamy intended when they wrote up their comment cards before the meeting. I strongly encourage Patch readers to look at the video, the discussion started at about 8:30 p.m.There were 15 speeches by citizens and 14 of those …

By Rev. Daniel Christian I like Christmas. It is one of my most favorite times of the year. I like all the sentimentality and familiarity that is associated with the season. But all too often we are taken over by singing chipmunks, dancing snowmen and frenzied shopping, and this leaves us asking or crying for a more meaningful and lasting Christmas experience. Like Charlie Brown, we all desire Christmas to have greater transformational meaning in our life. We long for more than expanded waistlines and January credit card bills. Christmas as a spiritual experience is about opening our lives to…

Happy Holidays! As I begin my final year of representing the North Bay in the Assembly, I want to share with you one of the things about this district that energizes and inspires me: our local business pioneers who are not only providing jobs and contributing to our economic recovery, but are also incorporating environmental stewardship and social responsibility into their businesses. Since taking office in December 2006, I've recognized 60 such businesses with my monthly "Sustainable North Bay Award." Below are profiles of my 2011 award winners — a remarkable group of entrepreneurs whose …

The infiltration of the Novato scene by influences from the outside is smothering local identity, local enterprise and local government.  The computer and telecommunications revolutions have made it possible for huge organizations to direct local activities remotely and that is exactly what they are doing. Just because they can, it does not follow that they should. Political parties, business associations, unions, philanthropic, environmental, religious and special-interest organizations all have built local networks to support their national and global aims. The same has happened at state …

The end of the campaign season ushers in this season of Thanksgiving and an opportunity to acknowledge our gratitude for the many blessings around us. We can be grateful for our birthright to vote and grateful for those who participate in our wonderful community. I would personally like to extend my gratitude for the enthusiastic support of my volunteers and to my co-candidates — and the folks they represent — for bringing so many issues and perspectives to the forefront of our collective conversations.  I am so appreciative and grateful to have been entrusted to serve another term on the …

(Editor's note: Mark Miller is first vice president of the local chapter of the classified staff labor union for the Novato Unified School District. He's also been a parent in the district and works at San Marin High School.) By Mark MillerOver the past 10 years, upwards of 20 classified positions in the Novato Unified School District have been eliminated or frozen with the reduction in hours in some existing positions. In that time, the demands and expectation on us have increased exponentially. As we provide the necessary support to every aspect of this district’s operation, the daily …

When the phrase "workforce housing" comes up, I find myself wishing that there were a dictionary handy with a built-in credibility monitor. For example, the concept of police officers living close to their work, by living in rent-assisted housing, is often brought up as a justification for high-density "workforce housing," when in reality, no policeman known to me (I have the closest of friends in that profession) would give any serious consideration to living in such a high-density situation.Similarly, when I hear about some huge number of motor trips into Marin each day, coupled with the …

Our community has been warmed in recent weeks by fiery dialog over the Marin County Supervisors’ decision to implement a federally-spun forced housing plan in the name of achieving better racial balance. This fire was kindled by Marin Independent Journal political columnist Dick Spotswood, who suggested that the county should not have taken more than $2 million for the housing bureaucracy in the first place and thereby avoided the federal involvement. Since then, Supervisor Judy Arnold, who represents most of Novato, has weighed in with columns supporting the supervisors’ actions, and a …