West Marin voters will encounter several new faces at the local level on their November ballots, as many terms expire on school boards and special districts and some incumbents step aside. The filing deadline for new candidates came and went last month, so voters can now begin assessing their Election Day choices.
Some local races won’t appear on the ballot because they are uncontested. On the Marin Resource Conservation District board, Inverness resident Jerry Meral will assume Bob Giacomini’s seat when he steps down, becoming the first new board member in five years. Sally Gale, the board’s president, will remain in her seat. The R.C.D.’s constituency is small, with only about 3,000 voters mostly on agricultural lands and in the villages around Tomales Bay, but the agency helms restoration work across thousands of acres.
R.C.D. directors must be Marin landowners, and the district has been criticized for providing restoration grants to ranchers on its board. Mr. Meral is a career conservationist who formerly served as deputy director of the California Department of Water Resources and is a board member of the Environmental Action Committee of West Marin. As a homeowner with no ties to agriculture, he said his presence on the board could help assuage conflict-of-interest concerns. “I’ll never apply for a grant or be a beneficiary of one,” he said. “That would be a good way to show that we have a broader constituency, and it allows me to make a pitch for the R.C.D. without looking in any way self-serving.”
The Lagunitas School District election won’t appear on the ballot either. Steve Rebscher and James Sanders are running unopposed for re-election to the board. Aaron Michelson, a music promotion manager and parent of two Lagunitas students, ran unopposed and will take over Amos Klausner’s board seat. Mr. Michelson moved to Woodacre in 2017 and began to follow school board meetings more closely during the pandemic. When the dismissal of Montessori teacher Jill Conroy sparked anger and confusion among parents, he was impressed by the board’s patient response. This year, he helped circulate a survey to gauge parent opinion on merging the school’s Open and Montessori programs. “I want to learn and represent the stakeholders. The people who have kids in the school right now, who have needs and questions. I don’t have a specific agenda,” Mr. Michelson told the Light.
Beneath the statewide and federal races on their November ballot, Bolinas-Stinson Union School District constituents will be choosing among four candidates for three seats, with director Jennie Pfeiffer departing. Longtime board members Nate Siedman and Arianne Dar are running for re-election. Doug Lee, a civil engineer and professional bassist, and Jacob Tonski, an artist and art professor, are the new contenders.
Mr. Lee is married to Nuria Lee, Bolinas-Stinson’s art program director, and they have two daughters at the school. He said he wants to see a strengthened music program and look at more options for teacher housing in the community. “Bolinas is one of the greatest public schools in the nation,” he said. “I’m passionate about the school.”
Mr. Tonski, who has lived in Bolinas for two years, already serves on the site council. He has two kids at the school and decided to run to help fill the need. “I think the school is in a great place,” he told the Light. “This is an opportunity not for transformation, but for maintenance and incremental improvement.”
At Shoreline Unified School District, incumbents Tim Kehoe and Heidi Koenig are competing with newcomer Buddy Faure for two available board seats representing Area 1, which includes Point Reyes Station and Inverness. The top two vote-getters will jointly represent the area.
Mr. Kehoe, a third-generation Point Reyes dairyman, has represented the area for more than 20 years and sees himself as a “voice for agriculture” on the board. He told the Light he wants to be a part of the Farm to School program currently in the works at Shoreline.
Ms. Koenig, an Inverness Park resident who served on the Dance Palace and Inverness Yacht Club boards, is running for her second four-year term. She told the Light she wants to remain on the board long enough to build up helpful institutional knowledge, especially as the district emerges from the pandemic, which dominated her previous term.
Mr. Faure, a 20-year-old musician who grew up in Inverness, joined the board of the San Geronimo Valley Community Center last year after volunteering at its food bank. He attended West Marin School and Marin School of the Arts, and he wants to see improved music programs and nature-based learning at Shoreline. He said he’d be more open to new ideas than some of the district’s longtime board members. “I think it’s important to get new faces in positions where they’re important,” he told the Light. “We have an opportunity to communicate that we care.”
A few seats on utility district boards are also contested. Genie McNaughton and Andrew Green are vying for departing director Lyndon Comstock’s seat on the Bolinas Community Public Utility District board. Ms. McNaughton, who has lived in Bolinas off and on for nearly 50 years, is a retired biologist who worked for the United States Environmental Protection Agency. She previously served on the BCPUD board from 1989 to 1997, focusing on operations and the town’s new water treatment system. “We’ve always been water-short,” she said. “I believe BCPUD could help people learn to live within the environmental constraints better.”
Mr. Alexander Green, an architect and designer, has lived in Bolinas for five years and serves as secretary of the Bolinas Community Land Trust board. He sits on an advisory committee recently convened to plan a new office space for BCPUD that could also accommodate B.C.L.T., the Bolinas Hearsay News and, potentially, workforce housing. Mr. Alexander Green said his experience as an architect with county permits and regulations is valuable, as are his perspectives as a 39-year-old newer member of the community. “It’s important for my generation to sit at the table, be part of the conversation and carry the torch from the existing board,” he told the Light.
Jack Kenney and Ranjiv Khush are competing to oust Marin Water incumbent Larry Bragman, who is seeking re-election for the seat that represents the San Geronimo Valley and Fairfax. Before he was a director, Mr. Bragman joined former Fairfax mayor Frank Egger’s 2009 lawsuit against Marin Water in an effort to block a trial desalination plant at the foot of the Richmond Bridge. Desalination has since been shelved, but Mr. Egger alone sued again last year when, in the face of a dire water shortage, the district prepared to move ahead with a Richmond Bridge water pipeline.