The two candidates vying to be the next district 4 supervisor met in Point Reyes Station last Wednesday for one of their final debates before the Nov. 8 election. Over a 100 people gathered inside the Dance Palace Community Center to hear Novato dairyman Dominic Grossi and Olema contractor Dennis Rodoni compare their opinions and plans for action on the various issues facing West Marin.
The debate was moderated by KWMR community-affairs coordinator Katie Eberle and the Light’s Samantha Kimmey, who each asked questions ranging from services and support for ranchers to improving infrastructure for handling the tourist influx to diverting funds to pay for youth services.
One of the first questions of the evening concerned Mr. Grossi’s dairy, which has for years been targeted by the North Marin Water District, where Mr. Rodoni has served as a board director for over two decades, as a source of contamination of Stafford Lake in Novato.
Mr. Rodoni said that although the issue been going on for the entirety of his term, it has become a “heightened issue.” He referenced a 2015 water district report that named the dairy as one of the major contributors of nutrients in the water.
In his rebuttal, Mr. Grossi emphasized that his farm has never violated water quality rules, submits reports on time and has met all requirements to keep the water as clean as possible. He also said the authors of the report, SRT Consultants, never once contacted his dairy, and that he learned about it from a reporter with the Marin Independent-Journal.
“I thought it was extremely inappropriate for a board of directors to approve a report that was completely false,” Mr. Grossi said, citing the report’s recommendation that he implement best management practices that in fact are already in place.
Mr. Rodoni pushed back, saying the report was discussed at public meetings and Mr. Grossi’s dairy was clearly labeled. “The report was around for a long time, to my understanding, and I’ll check with staff that this report was shared with the Grossi dairy,” Mr. Rodoni said. “There were multiple meetings this year about spreading manure and about that report. That’s my information from my staff and I believe them.”
Shaking his head in disagreement, Mr. Grossi continued to defend his dairy. “Maybe you should talk to your staff a little bit better, considering it’s your staff, apparently,” he said. “They never told me about it. This may have been noticed in pubic newspapers but we never saw it. You would think that if you were actually doing a report about a specific ranch anywhere, whoever that consulting firm is should make a phone call and actually come down and talk with us.”
Later on, the candidates were asked how they would interface with ranch workers and ensure that they are safe and valued. Mr. Grossi said he didn’t think there’s “very good outreach right now” from the county to the workers, and said the county should work with both workers and farmers to improve housing.
In his response, Mr. Rodoni brought up his support for the farmworker overtime bill, saying, “They work long days and long hours and paying them overtime is just reasonable.”
Mr. Grossi clarified his position on the bill and said he didn’t immediately support it because he had concerns. “One, what would happen to workers if they had their hours cut; even with the minimum wage increasing, if they get their hours cut they might not be able to survive on that,” he said.
Mr. Rodoni replied, “I think, Dominic, you actually said, ‘I would vote against the farmworkers bill’ in the I.J. and then that same week in the Point Reyes Light you said you ‘weren’t sure’ and then in a subsequent statement you said you would vote for farmworkers’ rights but ‘not that bill.’ So I’m not sure what your position was.”
When the candidates were asked how they’d improve infrastructure to handle tourism, one of Mr. Grossi’s examples was parking in downtown Bolinas.
“Whether they find some sort of out-of-the-way area for people to park and then bus them down to get to the beaches, I think that’s something that community needs to work out; if they want to create their own parking district, that becomes a possibility to me as well.”
Mr. Rodoni spent part of his response commenting on ideas around bussing people to the national seashore and advised caution. “We have to be careful about the bus idea because of what’s happened in Muir Woods,” he said. “Many of you know the roads here are not conducive to the big busses.”
At a county Human Rights Commission meeting a few months ago, an attendee noted that there are no county-funded youth services on the coast and asked the candidates if they’d be willing to divert funds to sponsor such services. Mr. Grossi called for bringing a Boys & Girls Club into West Marin and then referenced an educational program in Sonama called La Luz, which works closely with the Latino community to learn English and celebrate multicultural richness.
“That’s something we should look into: creating a program like that and that’s something I would be steadfastly working trying to bring to this community,” he said. “Finding baseball fields—or soccer fields, rather, because you can do more than just one thing. With a baseball field, you basically can only play baseball.”
Highlighting his support of Measure A, Mr. Rodoni said we don’t fund our schools well enough. He recalled his previous career as a teacher, which he said he had to stop because he couldn’t afford to live on the salary.
“We have a lot of challenges here and I would be very in support of any youth program, like I am in support of Strong Start Marin for the preschool children,” he said. “Investing in your children is the best investment you can make and they’re our future, our future parents, future workers, future supervisors and all sorts of things.”
Before the closing statements, the debate’s organizer, Mark Switzer of Point Reyes Station, bluntly asked the candidates to further emphasize how they differentiate from one another.
Mr. Rodoni reiterated how he has been a firm supporter of the farmworker overtime bill and alluded to his endorsements.
“I know endorsements are not always the most important thing but I have a few that I think are really important because they lead to what my values are and what my values will be as supervisor,” he said, naming Marin Professional Firefighters, Planned Parenthood and the Sierra Club. “I think they lead to values that are very important in this race because as a lifelong Democrat, I believe values do matter. I believe values that I have do align better with West Marin.”
In response, Mr. Grossi brought up the closing of Drakes Bay Oyster Company and how he wanted to keep it open, while Mr. Rodoni wanted it to close. He then addressed Mr. Rodoni’s comment on values.
“He talks about values to make it sound as if they’re better than me because I’m not a lifelong, born Democrat,” said Mr. Grossi, who is currently registered as “decline to state.” “I just want to say that I’m very proud of some of the Democrats that have endorsed me, lifelong Democrats like Mark Levine, Steve Kinsey, Judy Arnold, Gary Giacomini—there’s a lot of rich history and very well-respected people there.”
(Mr. Giacomini told the Light he registered as a Republican for “three or four terms” as supervisor, then switched later in his career.)
Mr. Grossi also brought up mudslinging. “I think it’s been unfortunate that my opponent has slandered me with the use of his friends and letters to the newspapers,” he said. He called allegations that he wanted to develop West Marin “untrue” and said that the mudslinging takes away from discussing important issues.
(Mr. Rodoni’s campaign released a mailer this week denouncing Mr. Grossi’s “zero government experience and zero record of protecting our environment” and his Republican Party affiliation. It concludes, “Say NO to Dominic Grossi. Marin deserves better.”)
Mr. Grossi said that he had not once during the campaign said anything negative about his opponent. “There have been opportunities and I’m thinking about it right now, I want to say certain things that he has said to certain people,” he said. “I know this is Dennis’s home and most of you are very close to Dennis and I respect that. So I won’t mention certain things that have been done. But at the same time I want to make sure people understand, I want this to be a clean race.”
A recording of the debate is available at KWMR.org.