The Real San Rafael 2013 Voting Guide

Background - San Rafael is at a Critical Point

It's now clear that we have two major situations occurring in San Rafael that we can only effectively deal with via elections. 

1) The Pensions Mess

I have no idea why the IJ or Patch have seemingly under-reported this crisis.  San Rafael has the worst pensions crisis of any city in the entire Bay Area - with 25c of every dollar in city taxes going to serve pensions. This is an unmitigated disaster. It signals financial irresponsibility and a kick the can down the road attitude by incumbents and the old guard.  We see Police and Fire unions - major benefactors of these finances - endorsing Maribeth Bushey-Lang and Kate Colin.

This is dangerous - as we look at campaign finances we see the "overt" political funding reported in the IJ, and we can see:

Kate Colin                    $55,352
Maribeth Bushey-Lang $42,311
Greg Brockbank           $34,585
Randy Warren             $15,368

Bushey-Lang and Colin are the old guard's chosen candidates. Both come preened from the planning commission with former mayor Boro and current mayor Phillips supporting them. Support from the Chamber of Commerce has resulted in their signage being very strong resulting in support on name recognition alone rather than an understanding of deeply concerning issues.

But what's not apparent are the more "covert" donations. 

a) The Police and Fire unions have been sending out their own flyers promoting Bushey-Lang and Colin, likely at a cost of $5,000 or more for each flyer. But these are not disclosed in the above election donation figures. The unions would want candidates in place sympathetic to them in wage negotiations and dealing with pensions.

b) The Democratic party "slush fund". I understand that Democratic Party Chair Paul Cohen has a "slush fund" that can be diverted and used where needed to help candidates. I've no idea if this has been used to support Bushey Lang but consider that Paul Cohen is Bushey-Lang's campaign advisor.

2) Creeping High Density Urbanization

What's now become very evident is that vocal minorities have been able to gain major influence over decision making. I support sustainability, but Sustainable San Rafael would seem to have its own "sustainability" recipe. Groups like Sustainable San Rafael, transit advocates, housing advocates and housing advocates "in disguise" such as the League of Women Voters have gained the ear and a disproportionate amount of representation and influence.

While many voters (like I used to be) lead busy lives an trust our elected representatives, checking the "incumbent" box like automatons, these actions are taken advantage of and compounding the situation.

To Mayor Phillips credit I was glad to see Scott Urquhart placed on a committee for Economic Development and Affordable Housing addressing a major imbalance and ensuring the community finally has a voice.

But what Marin faces is a continued lobbying - not just by these groups,  but others in the wings with much more significant funding. Marin Community Foundation for instance has a strategic war chest of over $1.6m just to advocate for affordable (seems to imply high density) housing specifically in San Rafael, San Anselmo and unincorporated Marin. They have funds of over $1bn at their disposal to fund development should their advocacy succeed.

Plan Bay Area - the Development Feeding Frenzy Has Begun

The fact that Marin is "up for sale" is starting to become much more apparent. Now that Plan Bay has passed a veritable feeding frenzy of developers and their financial backers is occurring as demonstrated by the "Multifamily Bay Area Forum", a $399 per attendee event on November 15th.

How to make money by developing multifamily housing (read high density) is covered for Marin in a session entitled "Emerging Trends in San Francisco and the North Bay".  I sure would love to be a fly on the wall there.

Developer's Marketing Spin May be Working

Developers and urbanists in San Francisco are using spin to advocate for high density housing that would place a wall of development across the waterfront using key marketing hooks such as:
- increases affordable housing (although much of the housing is market rate)
- opens up the waterfront (even though to any informed observer it does the opposite)

What's concerning here is that this spin recipe is now being perfected. Gradually developers and their supporters are wearing us down, refining their message, continuing the pressure and feeding us the lines we want to hear until they succeed.

How Can My Vote Make a Difference in the San Rafael Election? - Vote for Warren, and Maybe Colin

The message Marinites need to be sending at this critical juncture is that our county is not up for sale. More of the same is not OK. The strongest way to do this is to put on the council a reformer, committed to fighting the pension crisis, without donations from those involved in the issues (Police and fire unions) and who genuinely opposes high density housing. If you must use your second vote, and please consider this as any second vote may help displace Randy Warren, then you may also consider Kate Colin. Although heavily supported by the old guard she has proven not only receptive to community input, she has cast her vote to oppose densifying North San Rafael.

What's the Alternative? Bushey-Lang and Brockbank

Maribeth Bushey-Lang - I am deeply concerned about this individual succeeding in securing a seat. This is likely as she has sizable financial backing, the credibility of serving for 14 years on the planning commission and her position as a Public Utilities Commission judge.

Bushey Lang has flip flopped on making north San Rafael a "Priority Development Area". Her latest position is that she supports it. This is highly dangerous for those who support slow growth such as myself as in 3 years the council will be revisiting making North San Rafael a Priority Development Area.  With Bushey-Lang in place we face a much greater likelihood of seeing multiple Wornum Drive "Corte Mazilla" monsters appearing all around Civic Center SMART station , compounding traffic issues and putting even more pressure on taxes when we need instead to be solving financial issues compounded by the pension crisis.

Greg Brockbank has also spoken out in opposition to the community majority. In August 2012 he dismissed hundreds of community members who turned out at the council meeting, after only just discovering their neighborhood had been targeted for urbanization, as johnny-come-latelys who should be ignored.  He seemingly ignored that there was a lack of effective outreach, and the process that was followed was highly questionable. More recently he stood with Marin Grassroots which declared a state of emergency in Marin due to the incivility of opponents to urbanization. Again he seemed to ignore that processes were infuriating, often concealing urbanization attempts or selectively ignoring community input. Is this the kind of representative we want?

Brockbank is a board member of Sustainable San Rafael. An organization that has played a significant role on advisory committees pushing for high density. Brockbank's fellow director Jimmy "Fishbob" Geraghty has used bully tactics - calling me everything from a racist to a wife beater in an aim to intimidate and silence anyone opposing Sustainable San Rafael's goals of densification based on flawed logic in the pursuit of fighting climate change.  Meanwhile fellow sustainable Bill Carney dismisses any opposition as "spreading myths" despite his own organization's "Facts page" doing anything but referencing facts.

Bottom Line

If Bushey-Lang or Brockbank succeed in securing seats on the San Rafael City Council then San Rafael is going to be in a dangerous situation. The old guard has been sent a signal that "more of the same is just fine". Resistance to urbanization will be diminished and we can potentially look forward to increased taxes as many hundreds of largely tax exempt residents, many from outside Marin, are invited to live in San Rafael in high density housing. Our traffic will get considerably worse (we will be told the new residents will use SMART).

However if Warren can get a seat on the San Rafael city council this will send shockwaves - shockwaves to the powers that be that the rules have changed, San Rafael is not up for sale, candidates opposing high density will secure many votes...

It will also send a signal to the supervisors that they need to reconsider their positions on the Housing Element and may need to really start listening 

Let's send a strong signal - Marin is not for sale, we need to confront the pension crisis and more Wornum Drives are not OK.