Update from Kate
FULL SPEED AHEAD IN 2020
Please Share Widely:
The Board of Supervisors held its first meeting of the new year on January 14. I am proud of all that we accomplished in 2019 and was honored to be President of the Board. At our meeting, I had the pleasure of "passing the gavel" to my colleague, Supervisor Katie Rice of District 2. All of us Supervisors are looking forward to 2020 being a year of even more hard work and great progress on the issues that are near and dear to the Marin community.
There were three themes that dominated our work in 2019 and will continue to be my focus in 2020: Climate Change, Equity, and Emergency Preparedness.
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The recent fires in Australia and devastating impact on people, wildlife, and the environment underscores concerns about emergency preparedness and climate change impacts that have been at the forefront of our attention as a result of the North Bay fires and the PG&E Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) events.
The power shutoffs in particular brought new lessons for us to learn – about the need for proactive preparation and the vulnerability of residents throughout our communities – and urged us to increase collaboration, breaking down barriers between communities and strengthening the ties between all of us regardless of age, ethnicity, income, or social status.
These lessons came to us in the context of emergency preparedness but are also critical to the work we are doing to promote equity and address climate change.
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As we move forward in 2020 we will do everything we can to hold PG&E and cell phone providers accountable for greater resiliency for vital life and safety services, and also work to strengthen the County's infrastructure and emergency preparedness.
Emergency preparedness is not the only item on our agenda in 2020. We will continue to push forward Drawdown: Marin, developing and seeking funding for projects and expanding public and agency engagement to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We will also be updating the County’s Climate Action Plan to align with Drawdown goals.
And we will continue to advance our BayWAVE sea level rise adaptation planning efforts, with special attention to transportation networks and emergency response and recovery from flooding.
Above: King Tides in November 2019 impede access on the Mill Valley-Sausalito Multiuse Pathway (MUP)
We will keep an unwavering eye on equity in 2020: engaging underserved communities to ensure they have greater access to County services and meaningful employment opportunities; seizing all opportunities to invest in affordable housing; encouraging courageous conversations about bias and habits of mind and action that drive us apart; and working to make Marin County a place that is welcoming for everyone.
And we will support our employees by increasing recruitment and retention efforts to reduce vacancies within County departments, and continuing to enhance employee engagement and opportunities for growth.
Hopefully we can have some fun, too!
2019 was a year of music at our Board meetings and many of you may remember one of our performers, the very talented saxophone player Richard Howell. Richard often performs a song titled “We Are All Connected”, which has as a repeating refrain:
“We are all connected so we must treat each other right.” “We are all connected so we must treat each other right.”
I can’t think of a better refrain to keep in mind as we move forward through 2020. All the best to you in the year ahead, and please keep in touch.
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