Revolution in the Fairfax air

Lew Tremaine/The View from The Hill

Revolution is  indeed in the air and residents who are fed up with the current Town Council are proceeding with a recall effort against a yet to be defined number of council members. This entails finding replacement candidates. Several residents have expressed interest in running, and, a meeting I was unable to attend, took place on Nov. 30.

The point of the meeting was to gather interested replacement candidates for a sit down with former council members to get their questions answered about what is involved in being a council member. What follows is what I would have said, had I been able to attend.

THE CAMPAIGN

Each replacement candidate will go head to head with one of the recalled candidates. The replacement candidates will have to run an independent election campaign. There is paperwork that will need to be filed with the Town Clerk and financial disclosures that will need to be filed periodically. Even after gaining office. During the campaign, the candidate will have to designate a treasurer.

The keys to gaining office are fundraising and getting one’s face in front of the voters. The best way to get one’s face in front of the voters is to personally walk the neighborhoods of the town and knock on doors.  For a small fee, the Marin County Elections office can provide a list of registered voters within the town, so the candidate can hard target voting households. Personally, I just knocked on every door. Even if the person I met with wasn’t a voter, they knew voters and might say something good about me to their voting acquaintances. But that is a personal choice based on the amount of effort one wants to put into the campaign.

It will be important to create some sort of printed leave-behind. This is where the fund-raising comes in. Printing  costs money. I was always able to create my own brochures. If you don’t have those skills, there are plenty of folks in the community who do. That too can cost money, although if the candidate is lucky, they might find an artistic supporter who will volunteer their services. Keep the talking points brief and stick to them in all communications with voters. In other words, select your messages carefully and don’t allow yourself to wander.

I spent anywhere between $1,100 and $2,800 on my campaigns. Not surprisingly, the more I spent, the better I did. I used the least expensive printing methods I could find and never used a campaign consultant. That cut costs, but meant more personal time spent on the campaign.

Today, the price is much higher. I’ve seen people spend upwards of $25,000 on a campaign for Fairfax Town Council. Especially if they coupled walking with a printed leave-behind with a town-wide mail piece. Not a bad idea. The recalled council members will no doubt be using  a campaign consultant. Following suit is worth consideration.

ACTUALLY SERVING

Once in office, well, one has to do the work. That can look a lot of different ways. At a minimum, one has to read the entire agenda packets and prepare for the meetings of which there may be several within a given month. There may be site inspections for planning appeals. 

My approach, which I do not recommend, was to dive in head first. Being on the council was my full time job, on top of my more than full time regular job. At one point I served on six county and regional boards and committees on top of my council duties and my job. As a result, I developed a severe anxiety disorder. I ended up in the emergency room at Kaiser after having a panic attack at Fairfax Market. I was referred to a Kaiser psychiatrist who, after hearing my various activities, looked at me like I was an idiot and said, “Gee I wonder what the problem could be?”

Like I said, I don’t recommend my approach.

Mike Ghiringhelli, who used to tell me (quite accurately) that I was a control freak, took a more sane approach.

He was always prepared for the meetings and represented  the town on the Ross Valley Fire Board, He took a more “board of directors” style. He kept himself in check and being on the council was not a full time job for him.

Depending on one’s approach, being a council member can take as much as 40 hours a week, or as little as 5. If one is not willing to devote at least 5 hours a week, don’t bother.

The other key element to serving on the council, or any elected office for that matter, is maintaining patience with the public and fellow council members. A good council member listens patiently to all points of view. Sure, after reading the agenda packet, everyone walks into the meetings with preconceived notions. That’s human nature. But a good council member is a good, patient listener. There are valid points of view you might not have considered, and might alter preconceptions.

In short, if one has patience, diligence, and a love of community. and an open mind, this job is for you. Anyone who falls into that category should give it a shot. It can be a richly rewarding experience. Not monetarily. Council members receive $300 a month and some boards pay a small amount. In other words, there is no living to be made there.

There are those who say that being on the Town Council is a thankless job. Sometimes it feels that way. I would, however, disagree. Even 12 years after leaving the council, I still have folks  come up  to me on the street and thank me. 

So, if inclined… go for it.

(Lew Tremaine is a Fairfax resident and a former elected member of the Town Council.)