FAIRFAX TOWN COUNCIL MEETING
STAFF REPORT
MEETING DATE June 3, 2026
PREPARED FOR Mayor and Town Council
PREPARED BY Christine Foster, Assistant to the Town manager/Deputy Town Clerk SUBJECT Receive report on Councilmembers’ assignments, committees, and activities in May 2026.
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 Hellman
May 4: Weekly touchpoint with town manager Heather Abrams May 5: Station 21 Renovation project weekly zoom
May 6: May regular Fairfax Town Council meeting
May 7: Met with Bike Share Drop Mobility and Tarrell Kullaway, ED of MCBC regarding a June MCCMC presentation.
May 9: Met with Dir Public Works Kristin Arnold and town arborist Ray Moritz about site for Memorial Garden outside the Women’s Club (inside the fence). Discussed native plant opportunities like rhodendrun occidentale. Subsequently met with Councilmember Blash and Mr. Moritz on May 10.
May 11: Weekly touchpoint with town manager Heather Abrams May 11 Conducted panel interview for MCCMC (Marin County Council of Mayors & Councilmembers) Secretary Treasurer
May 12: Conducted panel interview for MCCMC (Marin County Council of Mayors & Councilmembers) Secretary Treasurer
May 13: Re MCCMC (Marin County Council of Mayors & Councilmembers). Met with Vice Mayor Gabe Paulson and City Manager Dan Schwarcz related to the upcoming hire, the potential go forward fiscal agency model for MCCMC.
May 13: Ross Valley Fire Board meeting.
May 15: Hosted Coffee with the Mayor at Mario’s Fairfax. 6 people attended.
May 15: May 12: Conducted panel interview for MCCMC (Marin County Council of Mayors & Councilmembers) Secretary Treasurer
May 18: Weekly touchpoint with town manager Heather Abrams. Among several topics discussed June May 18: Agenda setting meeting with Vice Mayor Egger, and Town Staff Week of May 18:
• communicated a few time with Marin Water board director Ranjiv Khush to provide feedback from small businesses located on Bolinas, the potholing on May 22 which eliminated parking and affected sales on a typical busy holiday weekend. And noted the missing detailed project plan committed to in the March 4th presentation to the council. Received detailed project plan on May 27 for council presentation on June 3rd.
• Checked references prior to making verbal offering MCCMC candidate
May 19: Station 21 Renovation project weekly zoom - firefighters to move into temporary living quarters at the Community Center this week.
May 19: MCCMC (Marin County Council of Mayors & Councilmembers) Secretary Treasurer hiring wrap up call - discussion on final candidate selection with subcommittee members: Vice Mayor Gabe Paulson, Councilmember Pat Eckert, Vice Mayor Stephen Burke. Subsequently I made the verbal offer to Christine Parini who accepted and will the position effective May 27.
May 20 Presented to 11th/12th graders at AWHS Ms. Nelson’s class about local government, fiscal planning, and other public sector related items.
May 21: Met with Fmr Fairfax Mayor Bruce Ackerman and potential solution provider for Fairfax Municipal Migrogrid effort. Next steps are for staff to continue to meet and discuss, consult MCE. Targeting August for a council presentation.
May 21: Watched Planning Commission meeting.
May 27: MCCMC monthly meeting - attended via zoom due to travel.
Week of May 25-29: out of town
Vice Mayor Egger
Vice Mayor Frank Egger is the Town Council's Representative to the Fairfax Open Space Committee and the Ross Valley Flood Control Zone #9 Advisory Board.
Ross Valley Flood Zone 9 Public Forum was Wed. May 20, 2026, 6:30 at the Marin Art & Garden Center in Ross: At the April RVFZ#9 Advisory Board meeting, the County Staff had recommended putting any further construction projects in Corte Madera Creek & her tributaries on hold pending two Community Forums.
I had a conflict with another Countywide meeting on April 2nd but I did attend the 2nd forum on May 20th.
An online survey had been completed. Residents were concerned that the RVFCZ9 had spent well over $50 million dollars, maybe up to $80 million on Consultant's recommendations, but did not have much to show for it. Digging out resting spots for Salmon in the Concrete Channel, Removing the Fish Ladder below the Ross Post Office and raising some channel walls were some of the issues never completed, I gave a little history on my childhood of fishing local streams in the 1940's & catching Coho Salmon and steelhead and of speaking with old-time local fishers like Lou Vacarro, Pete Arrigoni & Hal Lazzeni who used to catch Chinook Salmon in the Creek in Ross. Kids in the Cascades fished all the time in San Anselmo Creek. And, over the years there have been fish rescues that caught hundreds of steelhead fry and moved them downstream where the creek did not dry up. I said the Steel Fish ladders have never worked and need to be replaced and the Ross Fish Ladder needs to be removed as it blocks salmon passage. The County should use the Healdsburg Memorial Beach solution to fish passage and place huge boulders across the whole creek bed and form a natural boulder dam that allows salmon to pass over during spawning season.
Fairfax Open Space Committee meeting at the Women's Club, 5/26/26: 14 agenda items; Discussed the Wall property naming & the Federated Indians of the Graton Rancheria Recommendation for LIILE YOMI, the High Place, for the main trail through the Wall property. A Use Plan was discussed that would include dog walkers, hikers and mountain bikers. The Town needs Rules & Regs for future uses and a way to enforce those Rules and Regs. Speeding bikes and dogs off of leash were discussed but no conclusions were reached. They discussed the naming of the Westerly Ridge on the Wall property for Jamie Redford
as he assisted in funding Fairfax Open Space purchases. Diane and Ted Bright will be recognized with signage for their generous donation for the purchase of the Wall Property. Jessica Green will also be recognized for her contribution with signage on the Wall property.
The purchase of the old Jamie Williams property on Sky Ranch Knoll was discussed, San Anselmo has raised over $800,000 so far. Fairfax may add $68,000, $45,000 in remaining 2025-26 budget and $23,000 of raised funds towards the purchase of the 7-acre Williams property that is all in the Fairfax Town Limit portion of Sky Ranch. Susan Pascal Beran has done a great job chairing the FOSC and will step down at the Sept. Meeting. The FOSC will select a new Chair on a rotating basis.
The FOSC will run a booth at the Eco-Fest in the Pavillion at the Fairfax Festival selling FOS hats and Tshirts. The August 19th meeting will be the annual joint FOSC & SAOSC meeting hosted by the San Anselmo Open Space Committee and be held at Memorial Park in San Anselmo at 6:30.
Councilmember Coler
1. May 2 – Marin Wildfire (MWPA) Marin’s Wildfire Preparedness Public Forum – tables (Fire Safe Narin, MWPA, Fire Departments, etc.) and presentation on the CWPP (Community Wildfire Protection Plan) in draft for public comment, and more, on preparedness, risk and actions. It was a completely full house held at the Embassy Suites in San Rafael.
2. May 3 – EV Show hosted by the Fairfax and San Anselmo Climate Action Committees.
3. May 4 – MCE Clean Energy Executive Committee mtg – The Committee approved a recommendation to the full Board that an extension for one year (May 21, 2027) be granted to Royal Bank of Canada and to extend the credit limit from $60M to $80M – this would also allow for an RFP process to potentially procure a new Credit Facility. The Finance Committee also considered the same action on May 8 (note: they unanimously approved the same recommendation on May 8). A Closed Session was held for a Public Employee Performance Evaluation RE: the CEO.
4. May 5, 19 - Meeting with Town Manager on various Council matters.
5. May 6 – Town Council mtg.
6. May 7 –Marin Wildfire (MWPA) Executive Committee meeting – The Committee had a discussion on the 5 Zone proposals for the FY 26/27 workplan (and briefly discussed JPA-wide proposals) to be presented to the full Board on May 21. Mercury Insurance will be working with MWPA on a property in Fairfax and Nicasio (as they have done with Inverness) to consider insuring one or more in each jurisdiction. (Coler specifically asked to include Fairfax and they agreed). Also, CSAA Insurance has recently expressed interest in working with MWPA on similar projects.
7. May 7 – Marin Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) – Chair Coler and Vice Chair Rodoni met with EO Fried to discuss his performance evaluation as completed by the Commissioners in April.
8. May 8 – Marin Wildfire (MWPA) - Celebration of Belle Cole for her decades of wildfire prevention, preparedness and ecological work and for forming our partnership with the ESP (Ecologically Sound Practices) group.
9. May 13 – Ross Valley Fire Board – The Board: approved Resolution 26-03 adopting proposed line-item budget revisions for the Fiscal Year 2025-26 Operating Budget and Reviewed and considered the proposed Fiscal Year 2026-2027 Budget & Five-Year Budget Projection. The final FY 26/27 budget will be reviewed/considered at the June Fire Board mtg. Offers were made on the two FF/Paramedic Positions that were open – one is a lateral and should start June 1, the other is in training and should start about July 1.
10. May 19 – Countywide Priority Setting meeting (HUD monies for housing, capitol and public services projects – this round will not include public service as they were already allocated for two years last year). The Committee reviewed/revised & approved recommendations (to be submitted to the Board of Supervisors for final approval in June). The Committee also approved recommendations for State
Permanent Local Housing Allocations which will also be considered by the BOS in June. The total amount of funds for HUD funds: CDBG is $1.6M and Home is $751K – very limited funding for Novato, San Rafael and the “County other” (the rest of the County).
11. May 21 - Marin Wildfire (MWPA) Board meeting & premeeting (May 20)- The Board approved:
authorization of the Executive Officer to re-release a request for qualifications (RFQ) seeking contractors to provide home hardening services under master services agreements in support of Marin Wildfire’s grant-funded EmberReady (formerly, “Zone Zero in a Box”) Program (the work includes tasks such as vent installation and minor improvements to gates and other access points, and does not include structural construction such as building or repairing structures or other larger-scale construction projects) – all work will be conducted under the MCF grant funding; a professional services agreement for financial services with the Town of San Anselmo for $104,080/year with a 3% annual cost of living adjustment (represents a savings of $70,000/year over prior agreement with Southern Marin Fire); adoption of a Resolution affirming the At-Will status of all Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority (Marin Wildfire) employees; rollover funds for FY 2025/26 and the Revised FY 2025/26 Budget (Note: figures are estimated and unaudited) - the FY26 Budget increases the Authority's General Fund balance by $3,079,655; FY25 General Fund Administrative surplus of $119,841 plus Core Project Rollover of $2,959,814; authorization of the EO to sign vegetation mgt task orders to extend the terms to 12/31/26 and add monies for the Greater Novato Shaded and the Greater Ross Valley Shaded fuel breaks; transfer of $205K funds by Southern Marin Fire to other SMFD projects. The Board received: Fire Safe Marin monthly report – of note of the 26 Firewise Communities in Central Marin (inc. Fairfax) only 3 are engaged, this trend is true for most of the 90 FW communities in Marin -in the next FY FSM will be seeking to reengage FW communities; workplan update inc. (among other things) - chipper program is starting its 2nd round of chipping since the season began in early April; to date, the program has completed 959 successful pickups and removed 3,477 cubic yards of vegetation from residential properties. During preseason signups for 2026, the program saw a 19% increase in reservations over 2025. The program will continue chipping in each of the 5 Marin Wildfire Zones through November. The primary items for the Board were: adoption of the FY 26/27 MWPA Workplan with a Resolution; and adoption of the FY 26/27 draft Budget with a Resolution. Some highlights from the FY 26/27 workplan: $2.86M for resident grants (home hardening and defensible space); $1.35M for chipper days; $1.25M for public education and outreach – other foci will be on clearing evacuation routes and Alerts; shaded fuel breaks; proposals include auditory alert systems, online evacuation management systems, evacuation studies, and continued support for modeling that supports this ongoing risk assessment, and much more. Fairfax gets about $117K each for local and d-space funds. For Central Marin Zone (FX is part of this) key CORE projects will include about $1M for the Greater Ross Valley Shaded Fuel Break, about $200K for Evacuation Route clearing and more.
12. May 21 – MCE Clean Energy Board mtg – The Board: approved addition of some Board members to Committees; appointed Justine Parmalee, Vice President of Internal Operations to serve as MCE Secretary; approved an extension for one year be granted to Royal Bank of Canada and to extend the credit limit from $60M to $80M – this would also allow for an RFP process to potentially procure a new Credit Facility. The Board received an update on the Governance Assessment response to the RFP by the 4-member Board Directors leading the effort – 16 firms responded, winnowed to 4 (looking at firms who can also do an organizational assessment); the Directors will bring a proposed contract with the selected firm to the Board on June 16, 2026. A Closed Session was held for a Public Employee Performance Evaluation RE: the CEO.
13. May 26 - Marin County Council of Mayors & Councilmembers (MCCMC) Legislative Committee (now being held at the Larkspur Library with zoom available for the public). The Committee voted to send letters re: SB 2296, Pappan – support (provides an addt’l 6 months for housing elements drafting); AB 2433, Alvarez – oppose unless amended (adds 2 addt’l density bonuses, don’t have to comply with ODDS & no specific required # of affordable units); SB 866, Blakespear – oppose (requires small cites who don’t get HHAP funding to collect multitudes of data re: homeless in their jurisdiction and include in the housing element); SB 1117, Cervantes – oppose (existing law does not allow impact fees for ADUs
750 sq. ft. or less, this bill ONLY allows charging impact fees on the sq. footage amount over 750 sq. ft.); AB 1821, Pacheco – support (changes PRA requests from 10 calendar days response to 10 business days); SB 1159, Cabaldon (AI bill – requires that AI systems, e.g., bots, could not be persons, public under several State Laws (e.g., Brown Act, PRA, etc.)); AB 2033, Papan – support (allows job order contracting for more routine work for cities as a pilot w/$3M cap on awards and single job $750K cap); SB 922, Laird – support (limits prohibition on charges by local agencies for uses of streets or highways – they are not taxes, permit fees or other charges currently prohibited); AB 2346, Wilson & SB 1167, Blakespear – support both (limits on e bikes and e motos & AB 2346 also requires sellers/distributors specific disclosures at point of sale).
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.
14. May 27 – Ad Hoc MCE Committee mtg.
15. May 27 - Marin County Council of Mayors & Councilmembers (MCCMC) monthly meeting (held at Homeward Bound in Novato)– Along with business items there were two presentations: Paul Fordham – Homeward Bound Marin; Panel Discussion on Supporting and Serving our Older Adult Communities:
Strategies to Address Older Adult Homelessness (panelists were: Angie Perone, Professor of Social Welfare at UC Berkeley and Director of the Center for the Advanced Study of Aging Services; Meredith Parnell, Chief Program Officer, St. Vincent De Paul Society of Marin; and Luke Barnesmoore, Director of Strategy for Front Porch Community Services).
16. May 28 - Marin County Commission on Aging – annual meeting and celebration for District (Coler was invited participant as advocate for age friendly– held at the Marin Art & Garden Center.
17. May 28 – Community Media Center of Marin Board mtg– mtg held after report submitted.
18. May 29 - Age Friendly Fairfax mtg – no mtg held in May.
Councilmember Blash
1. 05/05: Met with Town Manager.
2. 05/06: Participated in Fairfax Bike to School Day. Accompanied children and parents on their way to school in the morning with escort from our police and fire departments.
3. 05/06: Discussed Giant Sequioa Tree in Doc Edgar Park with a resident.
4. 05/06: Town Council Meeting. Reviewed updated draft budget. Discussed BPAC survey results.
Voted to accept the updated Transportation Authority of Marin Measure A Expenditure Plan.
5. 05/07: Attended an event at the Marin Museum of Bicycling and Mountain Bike Hall of Fame honoring Gwen Froh and Wendi Kallins for their years of service to Safe Routes to School. SRTS was founded in Fairfax by Wendi Kallins and Deb Hubsmith and became a nationwide movement.
6. 05/14: Participated in Bike to Work Day. I rode my bicycle to the Larkspur Ferry as part of my commute and met with TAM staff and elected officials at the Energizer Station near Larkspur Ferry. Bike to Work Day is an annual event held on the third Friday in May to encourage commuters to leave their cars at home and try cycling to work.
7. 05/14: Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee Meeting. Received a presentation on the General Plan and Circulation Element. Discussed community engagement efforts going forward.
Received presentations from BPAC members on their ideas on how to categorize projects and programs. Discussed list of consultant-recommended projects for prioritization.
8. 05/17: Fairfax Fundraisers Attended.
a. Fairfax Festival Fundraiser at Public House.
b. Fundraiser for Janabai Owens, Town employee, who is undergoing cancer treatment.
9. 05/19: Met with Town Manager.
10. 05/26: Met with Town Manager.
11. 05/27: MCCMC Meeting. This meeting featured presentations by Paul Fordham of Homeward Bound of Marin (the County’s largest provider of shelter and supportive housing) and a panel discussion on Supporting and Serving our Older Adult Communities: Strategies to Address Older Adult Homelessness.
05/28: TAM Board Meeting. Accepted Safe Route to Schools Program Evaluation and Summary Report, Voted on Highway 101 interchange improvements, Discussed Marin County Mobility Hub Plan and received update on MTC’s Transit-Oriented Community Policy, Discuss update on TAM Sea Level Rise Design Principles. Closed Session on anticipated litigation. *Recognition of Fairfax Resident Gwen Froh and SGV resident Wendi Kallins for their leadership Safe Routes to School, a program that started in Fairfax and became a nationwide movement.
Councilmember Ghiringhelli
Not received in time for publication.