By Teliha Draheim
In the tranquil town of Fairfax, California, a community grappled with a contentious issue that threatened the future of the Fairfax San Anselmo Children’s Center (FSACC). At the heart of this narrative is Ryan O’Neil, a dedicated community leader whose commitment to finding common ground and fostering communication among stakeholders proved pivotal in resolving the existential crisis that loomed over the Center.
O’Neil’s journey towards resolving this complex issue began with a deep-seated belief in the importance of community service and collaboration. As former Fairfax Planning Commissioner and Town Council member, and a founding member of the Fairfax Open Space Committee, O’Neil gained insight into the town’s dynamics and residents’ concerns, understanding the value of diverse perspectives in leadership roles.
When O’Neil ran for the Fairfax Town Council, it was because he observed a lack of listening and responsiveness from the existing council members. “You need different opinions in leadership roles in order to make sure that all voices are heard and counted and represented,” O’Neil emphasized. “To bring the different angles out into the open and to daylight the different ideas and perspectives is the magic of how I believe good democracy and good community works.”
When Stephanie Hellman, a high school acquaintance, expressed interest in running for Fairfax Town Council, O’Neil initially supported her. However, over time, he felt she wasn’t representing the community’s interests effectively. Specifically, her decisions didn’t align with the broader constituency, and she seemed more focused on her own views rather than being a voice for the people who elected her. “I believe she shut off and silenced those votes and really just decided that she was going to take a higher path because she was more intelligent than they were, or smarter in her own mind, which is totally fine, but that’s not why people vote for you. They vote for you to have their voice.”
As the most senior, tenured Trustee of the Ross Valley School Board (RVSB), Ryan O’Neil was very aware of the complexity of the situation facing the Fairfax San Anselmo Children’s Center. “We had had a very long and community involved issue with the Children’s Center, where they were getting subsidized rent on our property because they have a wonderful program that takes care of under-served children, but the facility was becoming very unsafe and we were facing some strict liabilities as a district to have them on a site we knew was dangerous.”
When Hellman became a paid consultant for FSACC, advocating for their interests while serving on the Fairfax Town Council, it raised concerns for O’Neil, who believed that elected officials should prioritize the community’s welfare over special interests. Hellman had to recuse herself from every vote that came into the Fairfax Town Council regarding the Children’s Center because she was a paid consultant for that entity.
“The Brown Act does not allow you to do the people’s business privately. You need to do the people’s business in public”, stated O’Neil. “I found it rare for an elected leader, who’s supposed to serve by the very work that they do, to get paid to be a special interest activist for a group of people within the population they serve. When you volunteer, you volunteer to serve, you don’t volunteer to get paid to do the work as a consultant.”
According to O’Neil, Hellman’s involvement as a consultant to FSACC was adversarial. “It’s my experience, that if you do not agree with Stephanie’s opinions, she seems to put you on the other side as an adversary. And that’s really not what leadership needs to do. We have to listen and we can understand, that an adversarial position does not mean we are an adversary. It just means that we have a difference on this opinion, on this issue. But on tomorrow’s issue, we might align.”
The situation escalated as negotiations between FSACC and the RVSB reached an impasse. The Board, facing liabilities and safety concerns, voted to evict the Children’s Center. This restored the Ross Valley School District’s immunity, reducing the risk for the entire Ross Valley School District’s business structure. The State would view the Children’s Center as being in the process of resolving the issue and not evict them.
O’Neil, who was running for Marin County Supervisor at the time, saw an opportunity for resolution. He reached out to Andrew Giacomini, a new member of the Children Center’s team, and initiated a dialogue that would ultimately lead to a breakthrough.
He explains, “The next day I called Andrew said, okay, now that we’ve got our immunity back, how are we going to help these kids? How are we going to help these families? They need a solution.
Mr. Giacomini came on at the end of the line because the new Children Center’s Board of Directors was not getting anywhere. They were calling us names. They were trying to engage us in ways that were more antagonistic and weren’t really team building to find solutions while stonewalling the information we’re asking for. And that had really turned off the rest of the Ross Valley School Board.”
In a letter published by the Marin Independent Journal in February 2024, Mr. Giacomini wrote:
“The deal fell apart late last year and there were hard feelings, with people oftentimes saying unfortunate things about positions taken by others. Trust was all but gone.
I reached out to various Ross Valley School District trustees to try to find common ground. None of them would talk to me. Then O’Neil called and told me he had time to listen. He has many legitimate concerns about the site and the center’s ability to operate it. We talked about creative ways to move forward. We listened to each other and we identified a path we both felt would work for all concerned.
O’Neil continued to consider creative solutions, even while speaking with many district residents who are not in favor of rekindling negotiations with the center.
We need leaders willing to roll up their sleeves and solve problems for the community, even when it requires them to take significant political risks. O’Neil is just such a leader.”
Through their efforts, a deal was brokered wherein a non-profit organization, formed by Andrew Giacomini, would purchase the property from the Ross Valley School district for $2 million. This would allow the Children’s Center to continue operating while addressing safety concerns and liabilities. The agreement includes a reversion policy, which would return the property to the Ross Valley School District, if the site was needed. O’Neil emphasized the need for additional funding for safety upgrades, to ensure the continued safety of the children, underscoring his commitment to both fiscal responsibility and community welfare.
The key to their success was focusing on delivering a solution that benefitted the most people. O’Neil reflected, “I was really proud of my team, my whole team, for stepping back to a table that all four of them had already walked away from and said, hey, let’s look at this one more time. And we were able to get some consensus and make something happen, which was amazing”.
Through their combined efforts, the team scored a win for the Children’s Center to stay on the property, a win for the families of children that needed a home, a win for the district to return funding to families and teachers through the property sale, and a win for the entire community working together through collaboration.
O’Neil continued, “The whole goal is to find the win, win, win in anything, in any deal. That’s the goal where everybody feels happy with what they got and everybody had to give up a little something to get there. And we had done it. We had solved one of the biggest, most controversial issues in our town in a long time.”
(To submit items of community perspective and interest, please contact Sherman Frederick at shermfrederick@gmail.com.)
I really appreciated hearing a little more about how this all came about. I know Ms. Draheim personally and I like her writing style and the fact that she covers a real variety of issues. Glad to have Marinscope papers around.
In a polarized community, it takes no less than a heroic effort such as this to reach beyond division, egos and personalities. Kudos to Ryan and thanks for an inspiring article.
Great interview wtih Ryan O’Neil. So nice to hear how Ryan and Andrew (Giacominii) seeked each other out, thought outside the box and came up with a creative solution with RVSD allowing the FFSACC to continue to operating. It’s too bad, however, that Hellman, who is a PAID consultant for the FFSACC, (WHO IS PAIRING HER FEE?), lead the Children’s Center Board to become confrontational towards RVSD. This type of behavior by Hellman only made it more difficult to work out a solution. Thankfully we have real leaders, like Ryan and Andrew, who are smart and worked out a deal with the school district. Thanks Ryan and Andrew for all your efforts!
What a pile of bullcrap. Mr Oneill had over two years to demonstrate a “win-win” attitude and was beseeched to find alternative paths – with mediation, alternative legal advice. he could have picked up the phone at any moment to call his “good friend” Giacomini. He was the most susceptible board member because of his political ambitions. He responded to a phone call instigated by people who knew he would be motivated by his own blind and vision-less ambition. He had ample time to demonstrate his commitment to finding a positive path forward years before traumatizing the Center’s families and trashing its staff.