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| Katie Rice, Marin County Supervisor |
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| Kate Sears, Marin County Supervisor |
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| Steve Kinsey, Marin County Supervisor |
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| Judy Arnold, Marin County Supervisor |
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| Brian Crawford, Marin County Community Development Director and Matthew Hymel, County Executive in foreground. |
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| Brent Ainsworth, Marin County Communications Consultant, photographed dissidents in the audience. |
Report from the August 18, 2014 Marin County Board of Supervisor's meeting
by Peter Hensel
At the sups meeting, before Marin Community Development Director Brian Crawford
gave his presentation, at least two of the sups---Katie Rice and Judy Arnold---seemed
to take some pleasure in rankling high density foes sitting in the back of the
chambers.
"I see a lot of familiar faces and a familiar color--red," noted
Rice. She said she was glad we were taking an interest in the proceedings and
the issues but chided us to make our comments "fact-based". Her tone
was outwardly pleasant but the import held a lecturing, schoolmarm-ish edge.
Judy Arnold went one better on Rice. She said, from the rostrum, that the sups
have been receiving lots of email which echoed the message of Community Venture
Partners. (CVP is a new grassroots activist group with some land use expertise
and legal clout, boasting stellar environmental attorney Ed Yates as one of its
members).
Arnold opined that Community Ventures Partners seems to be little more than
"a recycled version of Citizen Marin". She then proceeded to read
aloud---and into the record---a letter written by an unnamed citizen that urged the supervisors to go forward post
haste with an uber ambitious housing element plan that would sanction building
in Marin's unincorporated areas as much as four times the number of units
mandated by the state, which is 185.
She euphemistically referred to that massive cushion as a "
buffer"---which theoretically would facilitate prompt state certification
of the Marin County Housing Element.
The other sups, Katie Sears and Steve Kinsey, sat listening impassively. They
didn't volunteer any opinions diverging from those of Rice and Arnold. Kinsey
especially seem to be preoccupied with a personal sheaf or papers on the
rostrum countertop.
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| Steve Kinsey, typically does not look up from his papers to acknowledge the audience during meetings. |
It was only after this intro, followed by Crawford's fifteen minute
presentation lauding the merits of the HE plan, that the high density
foes---some wearing red, some not---were invited to form a line and each given
three minutes to speak from the floor.
The facial expressions of the sups changed at that point, from confident to
mildly ill at ease. Could it be that real listening is not their strong suit?
Activist Stephen Nestel of Save Marinwood went first.
"Mr. Kinsey, this (visioned) high density building (along and near the 101
corridor) would not be in your backyard, would it?" Kinsey, who lives in
West Marin, did not reply.
Ms. Rice," Nestel continued, "this high density building would
not be in your backyard, now, would it?.."
Silence from the rostrum.
And so on down the line.
Supervisor Susan Adams was spared Nestel's scrutiny because she was absent on
20th. Adams, of course, was voted out of office last spring. In the same
election, incumbent Judy Arnold only very narrowly survived a challenge from
upstart Toni Shroyer.
But that didn't stop Arnold from throwing out her public dig at Pat Ravasio and
Corte Madera Council as the public hearing portion of the meeting ended and the
activists headed for the door.
One might ask, if Arnold disses Corte Madera Council (and she does) why does she now
support upzoning in unincorporated Marin that would potentially allow building
four times the number of units now rising on the ill-fated WinCup property?
![[Illustration]](http://www.mainlesson.com/books/winter/aesop/zpage077.gif)
