FAIRFAX TOWN COUNCIL MEETING
STAFF REPORT
1 AGENDA ITEM #6.b
MEETING DATE December 3, 2025
PREPARED FOR Mayor and Town Council
PREPARED BY Christine Foster, Deputy Town Clerk
SUBJECT Receive report on Councilmembers’ assignments, committees, and activities in November 2025.
RECOMMENDATION
Receive Councilmember activities report.
DISCUSSION
Every month, each Councilmember provides a list of the meetings they attended in the preceding month on behalf of the Town, for inclusion in this report. Under the agenda section entitled “Council Reports and Comments” Councilmembers may choose to highlight one of those meetings.
Mayor Blash
* Council members meet individually with the Town Manager to discuss questions and updates. If a council member is not meeting with the Town Manager, that is by choice. 10/29: Coffee Hour with the Mayor. Approximately eight community members met with me, Town Manager Abrams, Finance Director Michael Vivrette, and Deputy Town Clerk/Administrative Analyst Owens. The conversation focused mostly on budget questions. 10/29: Citizen’s Disaster Committee Meeting. Discussed the pros and cons of participating in Ember Stomp rather than conducting a local drill. While Fairfax residents made up a disproportionate number of Ember Stomp attendees (about 20% of attendees despite being only 6 or 7% of the county’s population), only about 1% of Fairfax residents attended. In addition, only 49% of Fairfax adults are signed up for Alert Marin, which would give them evacuation warnings. The Committee was leaning more towards a local drill next year. The group also discussed the upcoming November 5 presentation on evacuation plans.
11/04: Met with Town Manager. * Discussed upcoming meeting. 11/05: Town Council Meeting: Presentation honoring Police Chief Tabaranza, presentation on Fire Safety and Evacuation, presentation on PG&E Power Outage statistics. Updated Fire, WUI, and Building Codes. Adopted a resolution compiling and updating park rules. 11/10: Met with Town Manager. * Discussed pedestrian safety issues, format of Town Council meetings, and various other residents’ concerns.
11/11: Veteran’s Day Event: Attended an event recognizing Marin’s veterans at Marin Civic Center.
Major issues identified included the fact that younger veterans and others are not accessing services for veterans as much as prior generations. Event highlighted the work that many organizations are doing to keep the community of veterans together and provide services. 11/12: Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee Meeting. Introduced the consultants that will work with the group on data collection. Discussed Maptionairre community survey, public outreach events, selecting participants for stakeholder interviews, and an upcoming walk audit and potentially a bike audit.
11/14: Coffee Hour with the Mayor. Town Manager Abrams, Deputy Town Clerk/Administrative Analyst Owens and I met with five local residents to discuss questions about how items got on the agenda, how mayor and vice mayor are selected, how we could strengthen our PARC staffing and support the Chamber of Commerce in creating more recreational and community-building activities. 2 11/15: FOSC Speaker Event—Stewardship of Our Natural Spaces. Attended Fairfax Open Space Committee speaker panel with emphasis on habitat restoration for the Wall Property. 11/16: BPAC Walk Audit. Participated in the Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee Walk Audit of Fairfax downtown area. We walked for about two hours documenting our findings along the way.
Observations included the lack of a defined pedestrian route to and from the library, an improvement in curb cuts but still considerable inconsistency in the quality of the curb cuts, areas where pedestrian crossings could be improved, the presence or absence of street plantings, the poor state of the sidewalk in some places, the decrepit state of the bike kiosk at Lansdale, and much more. 11/18: discussed housing issues and alternatives with community member. 11/18: discussed Ross Ambulance station lease issue with two individuals. 11/18: Met with Town Manager. Discussed upcoming TC meeting, SSP, and Open Space Element, and other issues.
11/19: Met with Chamber of Commerce Representatives. Discussed recent events hosted by the Chamber, the Chamber’s need for resources to continue services to the community, how the business community and other stakeholders can interact with the new Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee, how the Town can collaborate on the Civic Corps / IMPACT Pass partnership for youth (https://www.fairfaxopenforbusiness.com/impact-pass), and questions about permit streamlining for businesses.
11/20: Transportation Authority of Marin Board Meeting. Annual Performance Evaluation of Executive Director Anne Richards (closed session), discussion of draft Plan Bay Area Update 2050, alternative fuels program update.
11/21: Special Town Council Meeting in Closed Session
11/25: Met with Town Manager. (TBD)
Vice Mayor Hellman
Nov 5 Fairfax regular town council meeting
Nov 10 Meeting with Town Manager
Nov 11 County of Marin Veterans Day event
Nov 12 Ross Valley Fire Board meeting
Nov 13 Fairfax Chamber of Commerce meeting
Nov 16 Fairfax “BPAC” Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Council walking tour of downtown.
Nov 18 Fairfax Climate Action Committee meeting
Nov 19 - Central Marin Community Health Fair at Fairfax San Anselmo Children’s Center Nov 20 - “Mood of America” film screening hosted by San Anselmo Racial Equity Committee Nov 21 - Meeting with Town Manager
Nov 21 - Fairfax special Closed meeting - Conference with Legal counsel– anticipated litigation Government Code §54956.9 (d)(2) & (e)(1)
Councilmember Coler
1. Nov 4, 12, 18, 25 – Met with Town Manager on various Council matters.
2. Nov 3 – MCE Clean Energy Executive Committee meeting – Ex. Com. conducted performance evaluation and compensation discussion for MCE’s CEO. After 3 ½ hours discussion, majority consensus agreed upon a 4% merit increase (based on criteria established by a Board committee), bringing the total compensation (base pay) to $568,828.
3. Nov 5 – Town Council mtg.
4. Nov 6 – Marin Wildfire (MWPA) Executive Committee meeting. Discussed process for EO performance evaluation with Labor Negotiator. Open Session had minutes and EO report.
5. Nov 12 – Ross Valley Fire Board meeting – The Board: accepted the FY 24/25 Audit Report; received presentations on: the Defensible Space Program (Alliance) - total number of inspections 3 for Fairfax this year was 3,262 (1,652 were initial inspections and 1,563 were re-inspections).
51.90% of residents opened their report within 15 days. In August 2025, RVFD, using the Towns’ MWPA funds, hired its 1st Wildfire Preparedness Coordinator to help manage and prioritize Wildfire Mitigation efforts – Nicole Marcucci; Special Districts by Marin LAFCO EO; approved a Revised the Publicly Available Pay Schedule; reappointed San Anselmo Town Manager Donery as the EO of the Ross Valley Fire Department. The Board received a presentation by Jason Fried, EO of Marin LAFCO on special districts. Other: two new firefighter/paramedics start next week, addt’l recruitment for 2 more will be in January; RSFD Toy Drive started, drop off all toys at any of the three RV Fire Stations by Dec 15. Highlight of call out report – FF and paramedics responded to a cardiac arrest in San Anselmo, used AED 4x, patient was transported to the hospital and is now recovering. No meeting will be held in Dec.
6. Nov 20 – Marin Wildfire (MWPA) Board meeting – mtg canceled in Nov, next mtg Dec.
7. Nov 20 - MCE Clean Energy Board meeting – The Board received presentations on:
Marketing/Communications (Fairfax has the highest Deep Green signups at 13.2%, the average for MCE entities is about 8.2% - 100 HH were enrolled with the Fairfax DG incentive in 3 months!); FY 25/26 Energy Pro Forma update; and a Customer Programs update The Board: reappointed Maira Strauss, CFO as Treasurer; approved an updated Records Retention Policy. Discussion was held on placement of Finance Functions for Board governance (held after report submitted). Chair Scales Preston announced MCE would be having an independent assessment done of Board governance and staff organization – since MCE has passed its 15-year anniversary this is an appropriate time to conduct this work.
8. Marin County Council of Mayors & Councilmembers (MCCMC) monthly meeting – no mtg in Nov or Dec.
9. Community Media Center of Marin Board meeting – no meeting due to holidays, Board all-day retreat is Dec 6. Board retreat planning mtg held 11/21.
10. Nov 11 Special Town Council Meeting in Closed Session
11. Nov 24 – Marin County Council of Mayors & Councilmembers (MCCMC) Legislative Committee – no meeting in Nov or Dec, legislature is on recess. MCCMC LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE SCOPE OF ADVOCACY: Fiscal Protection: protect city revenues from state. Local Control: support legislation that enhances local control of resources to provide services while supporting regional co-operation.
Oppose unfunded mandates and preemption of local authority and control of land use.
Transportation Investment: promote stable transportation finance structure for state and local government. Multimodal, enhancing livable communities Housing/Land use: protect local government land use authority. Oppose punitive housing legislation, and legislation that restricts or reduces local discretion on land use decisions. Other legislation can be recommended to MCCMC at a regular meeting. Coler requested and was approved to follow all wildfire bills as they fit within land use/housing and local control.
12. Age Friendly Fairfax – no meetings in Nov or Dec.
Councilmember Egger
Fairfax Open Space Committee Council Rep. - Saturday, November 15, 2025. I attended the FOSC's Fundraiser at the Women's Club. Guest speakers presented Fire prevention/reduction alternatives available to Fairfax for control of invasive plant species and other vegetation management opportunities for the Wall property.
4 Ross Valley Flood Zone #9 meeting on November 18, 2025 at the Marin Civic Center. The mitigation project has started in the lower stretches of Corte Madera Creek. Staff advised very few salmonids were seen when that portion of the Creek was dewatered for the work to start. I asked if they were removing the Wooden Fish Ladder below the Ross Post Office that blocks fish passage. Staff advised no. I asked when would the blockage be removed and the answer was we're not sure, maybe not even next year.
I stated voters will probably reject an extension of the RVFZ#9 tax should it go to a ballot and asked what their exit plan was.
Staff advised about there would be an amount of revenue from Larkspur, Corte Madera and a portion of unincorporated Ross Valley that are still being taxed about $400,000 a year under a different taxing plan.
Staff advised that the San Anselmo CLOMR and SAFRR Project along with CEQA Comments was in process.
I commented that the Advisory Board does not have a real role other than holding meetings to allow the public to make comments.
Staff advised that the County had contracted with WRA to do monitoring of steelhead, Chinook and maybe a wayward Coho. I said that Fairfax had hired WRA and they spent three years monitoring San Anselmo Creek between the Meadow Way and Canyon Road Bridges and did not find any salmonids.
Councilmember Ghiringhelli
Not received in time for publication.