Point Reyes Light - November 26, 2003
BPUD's retiring Kayfetz gets kudos from past foes
By Ivan Gale
Bolinas Public Utility District Director Paul Kayfetz, who for 30 years has waged an unflagging war against development and tourism in town, last week sat on the utility board for the last time. Before the meeting friends honored him during a gathering in Bolinas Rod and Boat Club.
At the December BPUD meeting, Don Smith, who beat another newcomer, Joel Braverman in the Nov. 4 election, will take Kayfetz’s seat on the board.
Adversaries attend party
Although there was no ceremony in recognition of Kayfetz during the BPUD meeting, at the private gathering beforehand friends – and even political foes – celebrated his decades of service to the town.
"Somebody wiser than I said the measure of a man is the quality of his enemies," Kayfetz told The Light Tuesday. "By that standard, I didn’t measure up very well. Most of the people in the past who were considered my enemies were in the room celebrating with me."
Nearly 100 people attended, and Kayfetz afterward joked that many of them said "wonderful, flattering, untrue things about me."
Among his reflections, he said, was that he learned "no matter how much politicians and the community tries to control its own destiny, you can only do so much....
"In the end things are going to go the way they go. A lot of people made comments thanking me for in various ways, shaping and slowing down what might have been – and acknowledging what is [currently] happening may not be what people want. It’s just what happens."
Martha Stewart rapped
Joking about the future of Bolinas, Kayfetz said he wasn’t "sure I wanted to be around when Martha Stewart gets out of jail [and moves to Bolinas]." (Stewart is due to face trial early next year for securities fraud.)
Conjuring up a vision of a heliport on the Francisco Mesa to limousines wending through hordes of surfers changing into wetsuits outside the postoffice, to bikini-clad waitresses on roller skates serving seal burgers on Wharf Road, Kayfetz poked fun at the people and pressures he faced as a BPUD director.
Claims of hypocrisy
Kayfetz meanwhile has for years been able to survive claims of hypocrisy when he criticized others for what he himself was doing.
While a vocal defender of the water moratorium, which for more than 30 years has blocked homebuilding on the Big Mesa, Kayfetz was found to have been one of the heaviest users of water in Bolinas in the mid-1980s.
BPUD justified the moratorium on grounds that water supplies were inadequate to handle more residential hookups. Kayfetz justified his heavy consumption on grounds the water was being used to irrigate plants that prevented erosion which threatened his home.
While Kayfetz has recently fought to turn in Coast Cafe owner Liebenstein to the county for unpermitted work on his restaurant, Kayfetz and other cliffside landowners were in 1997 investigated for building structures on his property without the proper permits. At the time Kayfetz accused the county of losing its approval records, while the county said Kayfetz definitely did not obtain final approvals.
And while he has worked to protect Bolinas from too many visitors from over the hill, he has been accused of having his primary residence in Mill Valley. Kayfetz says he still lives parttime on the Bolinas Mesa.
Achievements
His achievements, however, are undeniable. Few people know as much as he about county land-use ordinances, coast commission regulations, and state and federal environmental law.
Armed with this knowledge, he has taken on and helped stalemate such adversaries as the Army Corps of Engineers, numerous large-scale developers, and a host of state agencies.
His biggest success, he told The Light, was the 10-year legal battle with the Pacific Legal Foundation, which challenged the town’s water moratorium.
BPUD ultimately prevailed, but not until after the case was heard in the state Supreme Court and more than once in the US Supreme Court, he said.
Had the utility district failed in its fight, Kayfetz added with characteristic hyperbole, it would have led to a "200-unit condominium hotel out on the end of Mesa Road."
Among the other BPUD successes Kayfetz worked on were construction of the town’s sewage-treatment plant, water reservoirs and pipelines.
Onetime adversary’s kudos
Louise Pepper of Bolinas Real Estate, who in the past often disagreed openly with Kayfetz, attended the goodbye gathering and said she considers Kayfetz a long-time friend.
Said Pepper, "Working in a public office and spending as many years as he did is a difficult thing for people to do, and he did it religiously. He never missed a meeting and was always there fighting for Bolinas’ agenda."
Don Deane, owner of The Coastal Post and Smiley’s Schooner Saloon, also attended the celebration despite past differences with Kayfetz.
"We had all kinds of battles in the late 70s and 80s," Deane said, but added, "I’ve come to admire Paul Kayfetz and the work that he’s done in Bolinas in terms of ‘keeping the faith.’ so to speak.
"He’s not always the most pleasant person as an adversary, and he is pretty fearless when it comes to doing battle. Fearless, and close to merciless."
Kayfetz told The Light he will now focus on raising his three children and continue his work as a photographer, specializing in recreating traffic accidents for legal cases. It’s a job that takes him all over the country every week, he said on Tuesday via cellphone from Los Angeles, where he was working at an accident site.
Will he sit in on any BPUD meetings? "Nope," Kayfetz replied. "Been there, done that."