Politics & Government

Candidate Spotlight: Patricia "Pat" Eklund

Getting to Know the Candidates is a special section focusing on candidates for City Council, NUSD school board and fire district. Look for a new profile each day and be sure to tell us what issues matter most to you!

Retired from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency where she held numerous positions including senior policy manager, chief for underground storage tanks, director of office of ground water. Began career at U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Novato resident since 1974

Why I’m Running:

I am running for city council to protect the best parts about living in Novato and make them even better. I’ve always been in love with our wonderful quality of life, a strong sense of community and small town character.

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These are challenging times, and Novato needs leaders who have proven they can make tough decisions. As Mayor and Councilmember in Novato, I have worked hard to improve public safety, protect our environment, grow our economy while maintaining our small town character and charm and revitalize our downtown.

Top 3 Issues:

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Quality of life:

I want to maintain our small town character and the unique character of our neighborhoods and parks. By building on the growing industries such as biotech, video games and other high tech industries that have made Novato their home, we can enhance endeavors to get higher paying jobs so we can work where we live. We’re making progress on a variety of issues. I know we’re not done yet – and, with your help, I’ll continue to work side-by-side with you to make Novato even better.

Funding for services:

Novato has more needs for service than funds. Our share of the property tax is 7 percent, meaning Novato receives 7 cents for every dollar of property tax. (The rest goes to schools, fire protection district, sanitation and water districts.) This is far less than most of the 488 cities in CA and when there is a downtown in the economy, our 1 percent of the sales tax doesn’t produce historic levels, creating a challenge to provide needed services.

Over the past five years, we reduced our workforce by 25 percent, decreased employee compensation and benefits; and, consolidated and eliminated City services. We’ve also implemented electronic bid documents saving $40,000/year, installed solar units on three city buildings and converted half of our streetlights to LED saving on our electrical and maintenance costs, using technology to streamline government operations including online permitting and having one database for planning and public works, and constructing city offices saving over $100,000 in rent.

To continue reducing expenditures, I have suggested increasing the supervisor-to-staff ratio, aggressively applying for grants, and exploring sharing resources and facilities (e.g. corporation yards) with our other government partners. I have advocated for establishing a Revenue Stabilization Fund. By saving revenues when they exceed projections, this would be our rainy day fund that would supplement our Emergency Fund used for emergencies – earthquake, fire or flood -- that requires immediate funds for community response.

Environment:

We need to continue our environmental efforts…by completing the retrofitting of our streetlights to LED fixtures, expanding installation of electric vehicle charging stations – elements of our Climate Change Action Plan -- and continuing our successful recycling programs for all materials including medical wastes, fluorescent tubes, oil, batteries, and household hazardous and electronic wastes.

Do you support renewing Measure F?

No. Measure F is about filling the gaps to vital city services, not marketing. In 2010, we were trying to get support from the community to backfill the lower sales taxes and property taxes. The city could use other money, such as from general fund, for marketing efforts. Also, we need to consider offering companies tax incentives if we want them to move to Novato.

Are you in favor zoning changes in Bel Marin Keys and other parts of town to allow new businesses to move in?

Novato has many historical structures not being used and in jeopardy; and, funds for maintaining and/or improving our infrastructure (streets, retaining walls, storm drainage system, etc...) are inadequate. Currently, we are looking at public/private partnerships for several of the historical structures in Hamilton; and, hopefully will begin discussions on the Community House and the historic houses along Sherman Avenue in 2014 in concert with the updated General Plan. With respect to our infrastructure needs, we are having those discussions as we finalize our fiscal and organizational sustainability plan. 

Has the city done enough to reduce pension liabilities and what else would you like to see done?

We’ve been diligently addressing our unfunded pension and retiree healthcare liabilities. Novato’s pension plans are conservative compared to other cities and we only provide the legally mandated minimum healthcare contribution. We’ve also instituted new tier for new employees and paid pension obligation bonds to reduce our ongoing cost. We’ve done as much as we ca and now need to wait until other nearby cities catch up to us. If we go beyond what other cities are doing, we’re not going to be able to recruit employees to our city and maintain the ones we have.

Want to see more about who's running in November? Check out other candidate profiles at these links.

Candidate Spotlight: Denise Athas

Candidate Spotlight: Steve Jordan

Candidate Spotlight: Eleanor Sluis


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