Sherman R. Frederick
Novato Advance
The new year brings monumental change in Novato’s political leadership. I’ll take a scorecard to figure it out. Here is brought to you the town’s historic newspaper, the Novato Advance.
(The Advance celebrated its 100th year of continued service to Novato, but who’s counting.)
The story begins last summer with longtime County Supervisor Judy Arnold calling it a day on her political career. She gracefully exited the scene, setting off a chain reaction on the town’s political landscape.
Arnold represented the Novato area for 16 years and counted the progress of the “Novato Narrows” on the 101 between Novato and Petaluma as one of her many key accomplishments during her term.
Arnold lost her husband, Bruce, last year. At the age of 82, she told supporters that it was time to turn the page.
That left the door open for an up and coming Novato boy to make the jump from city politics to big time county politics.
ERIC LUCAN
Eric Lucan, a native Novatoan and a graduate of Novato High School, was elected to the Novato City Council in 2011. He served as mayor in 2014, 2019 and 2022.
Lucan beat out all challengers for the coveted District 5 seat, telling voters that he not only has the “right experience” for the job, but also a “passion to serve.” He counted his business experience in managing large budgets as a difference maker.
He was elected by a wide margin.
Meanwhile, in city politics, another longtime politician, Denise Athas, announced her retirement. So at the end of 2022, Novato had two large pairs of shoes to fill. It lost its mayor to higher office, and it faced the task of filling a key leader in Athas’s District 2 seat.
RACHEL FARAC
That set up a fierce competition between Rachel Farac, a former Novato Planning Commissioner, and local businessman Andy Podshadley. But it was Farac who jumped out to an early lead on election night and never looked back.
Farac grew up in San Rafael and said public service was a family-held value. Her father and brother are firefighters; her grandmother was a teacher, one grandfather was a mounted police officer, and the other was a union plumber.
She is the Hub West Deputy Lead at Michael Baker/Resilience Action Partners, overseeing the FEMA-Community Engagement and Risk Community contract focused on flood mitigation. Rachel manages the strategy, projects, and resourcing needs of the western United States.
In organizing the city’s leadership positions on the council, two relatively new councilmembers assumed the top positions.
NEW MAYOR
Susan Warnick, 37, was selected mayor for 2023. She was first elected in 2019 and had been active in city issues for years, including the Planning Commission, the Novato North Little League and the Cub Scouts. She is a founding member of two local groups, the San Marin Compatible Housing Coalition and Novato Forward.
In her first few years on the council she began to flex her leadership muscles, sometimes agreeing with the majority and sometimes pushing back.
NEW MAYOR PRO TEM
Also ascending to a leadership position in the reconfigured Council was Mark Milberg.
He was first appointed to the Council in August of 2022 when the council member for his district resigned citing stress from the elected job. He has yet to win an election and is up for re-election in 2024.
Like Mayor Warnick he is known to push back with consensus votes and has become a voice others listen to when it comes to fiscal matters.
Milberg has a BS in Human Development from UC Davis, a MS in Social Welfare from UC Berkeley and an MBA from San Francisco State University.
He works at Ultragenyx, a local biotech company and is currently the company’s current Senior Director of Clinical Outsourcing.
THE GRAND DAME
Through all of that, one seat remained constant – Pat Eklund’s. She’s the uncontested grand dame of Novato politics and is often featured in the Novato Advance both in political issues of the day and in historical articles compiled by the Novato Historical Guild.
Eklund is a 39-year resident. She is perhaps the most knowledgeable person in Novato on the city’s budget and is not embarrassed to tell her colleagues that during a fiscal argument.
She serves on the Board for the Cities, Counties and Schools Partnership – a joint effort between the League of California Cities, California State Association of Counties, and California School Boards Association where she served as President twice. Pat also serves on the Environmental Quality Policy Committee for the League of California Cities, Executive Board for the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) where she represents the 11 cities throughout Marin County; she also serves on ABAG’s Regional Planning Committee and Administrative Committee.
Eklund also serves on the Major Crimes Task Force for Marin representing the 10 member cities; Board Member of the Hamilton Restoration Advisory Board; Rotarian; neighborhood leader and active community volunteer for local activities such as Career Days in local schools, Native Sons of the Golden West 4th grade essay contest, and Read Across America at Olive Elementary School. She is also a member of the Novato Historical Guild, Sierra Club, Marin Conservation League, and an honorary member of the Indian Valley Artists.
She has served as mayor in 1996-97, 1999-2000, 2003-2004, 2007-2008, 2012-2013, 2015-2016 and 2020-20.
LATE BREAKING
At their regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 14, the Novato City Council unanimously voted to appoint Tim O’Connor as a City Councilmember to fill the current District 3 seat until Dec. 2024. He replaced Eric Lucan who moved up to the county board of supervisors.
O’Connor has served on the City’s Finance Advisory Commission since 2016, and prior to his appointment to Council served as Chair of the commission. O’Connor currently works as the Director of Finance and Business Services in the Office of the Chancellor at UC Berkeley. Originally from Ireland, O’Connor graduated from Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology with a BA in Business & Marketing. O’Connor has dedicated years of volunteer time to the Meadow Park HOA in Hamilton, Bahia HOA and various service committees throughout Novato.
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