Fairfax mayor addresses issues with recall effort

As one of the Fairfax Town Council members targeted by a recall effort, I consider Sean Fitzgerald’s recent Marin Voice (“Recall Blash, Hellman because Fairfax deserves better,” April 21) to be misleading.

Fitzgerald complains about the enforcement costs for Fairfax’s anti-camping law. Yet, in numerous letters to the Town Council and posts Aon social media, he voiced strong support. Those costs now include the escalating expense of defending it in federal court. Fitzgerald continues to urge the council to defy the courts and remove the encampment, ignoring legal risks.

Fitzgerald also claims Vice Mayor Stephanie Hellman and I are solely responsible for the School Street Plaza project. Because I moved to approve the zoning necessary to complete our housing element plan for the state’s mandate, he calls it “Blash’s zoning proposal.” But individual council members do not draft zoning laws.

I moved to approve the ordinance recommended to us by town staff and consultants, Hellman seconded it and the entire council voted in favor. Like every Marin municipality, Fairfax must comply with California housing laws or face serious legal and financial consequences, including fines, litigation, loss of transportation funding and potential receivership.

Some proponents claim that the recall will “stop the seven-story building.” This is false. Developers have submitted a pre-application for this project, which complies with the law created by Senate Bill 330, and will soon submit a formal application under a new streamlined process.

Regardless of who sits on the council, local officials cannot deny or condition the project based on subjective factors like aesthetics or neighborhood opposition if it meets objective standards.

Is this really what the recall process was intended for — punishing elected officials for following laws? We should all be concerned about this dangerous tactic, which could trigger a wave of retaliatory recalls across the county and beyond.

— Mayor Lisel Blash, Fairfax

Mutual respect at prep track meet impressive

I attended the recent track meet in San Anselmo with high school teams from Redwood, Tamalpais and Archie Williams. The event was covered in two articles published in the IJ Sports section on May 1: “Boys track: Tam athletes, Redwood throwers highlight showdown” and “Girls track: Redwood’s Bayon, Archie Williams’ Stieg setting title pace.”

The event was exceptionally well organized, but most impressive was the atmosphere of camaraderie. The kids were competing intensely, fairly and with mutual respect. They cheered for teammates and even other teams when someone’s effort and/or accomplishment was admired. Some of this mutual respect was revealed in the IJ articles.

I think the coaches and staff members deserve credit for setting the positive tone and clear expectations. The kids, their parents and this neighbor certainly enjoyed this community competition.

— Philip Hicks, San Anselmo

Don’t let our leaders ‘muzzle the intelligent’

Our country faces a perilous future. As we move forward, we should all remember the quote attributed to 20th century British logician and philosopher Bertrand Russell about how a fascist leader can take power: “First, they fascinate the fools. Then they muzzle the intelligent.”

— Sally Seymour, Larkspur

Former supervisor calls for park deal transparency

As a retired member of the Marin County Board of Supervisors, I have been watching the secret agreements between federal officials, environmental groups and the Nature Conservancy in disbelief. This decision has ultimately changed the course of ranching in West Marin. I think we are the poorer for it.

Now, many ranchers are leaving and some of their workers have no place to go.

I am especially sad because I remember my first job with Marin County as an aide to then-Supervisor Gary Giacomini. The first thing Giacomini asked me was to find water for animals on our ranches during a bad drought. It was the beginning of a long and fruitful friendship between the ranchers, their families and the county supervisors.

I don’t think that Giacomini would ever have let this happen in secret. I served as a supervisor in Marin for 16 years (before retiring three years ago). If I had learned of this during that time, I would have done the only thing that works in our great country — I would have gone to the people.

I would have called them, sent letters and gone to meetings. I would never have told them, suddenly, that something had been taken away. They would have heard about it every step of the way. People should demand transparency.

I think that, if people do this right now, those who want to stay in elected positions will demand to see everything that was hidden.

They should release the discussions for the public to review.

I urge you to watch attorney Andrew Giacomini’s California Insider interview at bit.ly/3Gw80Xp. He tells it like it is; he is his father’s son.

— Judy Arnold, Novato

Elk population in Point Reyes will explode

A recent episode of the TV show “Nova” aired on PBS documented the destruction elk are wreaking on Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. It focused on what was a thriving riparian wetland habitat, where beavers were making a healthy recovery from the brink of extinction. A stream ran through the marshy meadows with willow trees lining the banks (beavers rely on willows to build their dams that manage water flows).

Elk also eat willows and, being significantly larger than beavers with significantly larger appetites, they decimated them. With no beaver dams to hold water, the marshy area dried up. The beaver population declined and vanished.

The show made me concerned that ill-informed people behind the push to eliminate well-managed ranching in Point Reyes National Seashore will soon find that elk are very hard on the land. With no apex predators to manage their numbers, growing herds will overgraze their way across fields and meadows. And, yes, I suspect they will likely poop in the creeks. Perhaps wolves should be brought in to cull the herds naturally.

Over the past several years, ranchers have increasingly limited cattle access to creeks, mitigated their impact on the land and kept sustainable local food coming to our tables. To slash these ranches from the park is foolhardy. The devastating loss of homes and jobs for the agricultural workers and their families will have a severe impact on businesses and schools in the West Marin community. Too bad this havoc was unleashed behind closed doors and nondisclosure agreements.

— Elaine Reichert, Santa Venetia

MMWD should look to dredge silt from reservoirs

Now that the Marin Municipal Water District has approximately doubled the water bills for many residents by slashing the units that make a tier (as well as raising rates), it is finally getting around to doing something to ensure there will be water to brush our teeth (“Marin Municipal Water District outlines $328M in capital investments,” April 27).

I’m heartened to see some emphasis on improving storage capacity but wonder why there isn’t a plan to dig out eroded silt from the reservoirs on Mount Tamalpais. I recall that this was done decades ago and I’m pretty sure capacity has diminished considerably in the years since.

Digging out all of the reservoirs should be the first step, followed by the pipeline from Sonoma County, which only benefits us after that county’s reservoirs are full.

All other ideas should come next, with desalination at the bottom of the list because of significant environmental concerns and the exorbitant cost to build and operate such a facility.

— Diane Lynch, Tiburon