Dear Editor:
This is a letter I sent to Fairfax Mayor Coler and Council members Ackerman, Blash, Cutrano and Hellman:
At the March 12, 2024 meeting of the San Anselmo Town Council, it was surprising to hear so many people exclaim, “This is not Fairfax!” It was made very clear, by both citzens and council members, that when it came to conductng town business, Fairfax was the example that nobody wanted to become.
It was the first Town Council meeting I had ever attended in San Anselmo and I was struck by the contrast from what we experience in Fairfax. The vibe was much calmer, there was a sense of mutual respect and everybody had three minutes to speak. In Fairfax, after the scant two minutes of time for public comment we are allowed, we are rudely interrupted by a clanging bell, similar to the sound you hear at the end of a round of prize fightng, and speakers are interrupted wherever they are in their presentation. In San Anselmo they use an inoffensive tone to indicate each speaker’s three minutes of public comment time has concluded. No one is cut off mid-sentence.
Meeting participation via Zoom was easy. In addion to the video, you could follow the meeting with a split screen and see the agenda item being discussed, along with staff and public comment letters individually posted next to the name of the submitter. It’s very professional and makes Fairfax Zoom meetngs look unprofessional and very out of date.
Aside from the meeting particulars, it was the exemplary leadership of Mayor Eileen Burke which I found most impressive. What I realized so clearly was how biased Fairfax Town Council members are. Large segments of the voting, taxpaying population never have representation, advocacy or a seat at the table.
This is the root cause of the town’s distrust of the current Fairfax Town Council. Once, we the people, feel deceived by our representatives, we call into question everything they say or do, and feel the need to verify everything.
At the March 12, 2024 meeting of the San Anselmo Town Council, the topic of rent control was on the agenda, with a deciding vote about whether to proceed with crating an ordinance or to have the outcome decided by a public vote in November. Mayor Burke’s commentary is documented in the article attached below recently published in marinlocalnews.com, marinpost.org and Newsbreak.com.
Mayor Burke believes that the failure of Fairfax’s extra rent stabilization and just cause ordinances is largely due to how they were publicly rolled out by the administration and because they have gone too far from existing state rent control laws. I couldn’t agree more.
In discussions on how to administer a possible future rent control system, San Anselmo sensibly proposed that the job of Hearing Officer could be handled internally by their Planning Director. This contrasts greatly with Fairfax’s decision to charge housing providers in Fairfax $1000 per hearing, paid to an outside consultant hired as a Hearing Officer, for the same service.
I sincerely hope that everyone on this email list finds the timme to read the attached article with Mayor Burkes commentary and watch the video of the March 12th Town Council meeting in San Anselmo. You will see for yourself the truth of what I write about.
A former employee from the Town of Fairfax said to me, “Fairfax needs to live up to its mellow and inclusive reputation.”
With hope,
Teliha Draheim 4/3/24
(To write a letter to the editor to this website, send via email to ShermFrederick@gmail.com)
Leave a Reply