Tiburon Town Council hopefuls talk key issues at Ark forum
The four candidates running for Tiburon Town Council shared their views on housing, traffic, parks, diversity efforts and more at an Oct. 8 forum sponsored by The Ark and moderated by the League of Women Voters of Marin.
A standing-room only crowd of more than 50 people packed council chambers to hear from incumbents Isaac Nikfar and Holli Thier and their Nov. 5 election challengers, Chuck Hornbrook and Andrew Thompson.
Get complete local election coverage at thearknewspaper.com/election2024.
Hornbrook, 57, is a part-time sales and operations adviser to renewable-energy companies and serves as chair of the town’s Parks, Open Space and Trails Commission. He lives in Hill Haven with his wife, Lisa, and son, Griffin.
In his opening statement, Hornbrook said he would bring dedication and commitment to the role if elected.
“When I see something that needs to be addressed in our community, I identify it, I look it up, I seek options and I solve the problem,” Hornbrook said. “That’s who I am.”
Nikfar, 45, works in sales for Adobe and has served on the council since August 2023, when he won a two-way race in a special election to replace Noah Griffin.
He touted his experience on the council and as a former parks commissioner, pointing to his work in helping to create the town’s parks master plan for its 70-acre parks and open-space system, which is expected to be reviewed and approved by the council in November. He also said he wanted to preserve Tiburon’s “unique character,” reduce traffic, protect the environment and keep the town fiscally sound.
“I was elected by the residents of Tiburon last fall to improve Tiburon and get things done,” Nikfar said. “I’ve started that work, and I hope that, over the past year, I’ve earned your vote again.”
Thier, 59, is an attorney who runs a construction-management and public-relations firm and serves as Tiburon’s vice mayor. She was appointed to an interim council seat in 2017, won an election later that year to serve until November 2020 and was then reappointed to a four-year term after no challengers emerged.
She pointed to her accomplishments on the council and said she’s running “to finish the job,” citing her longtime advocacy for acquiring the sanitation ponds near McKegney Green from the Richardson Bay Sanitary District, a purchase completed in April, and for supporting Marin County’s purchase of the 110-acre Martha Co. property and adding it to the Old St. Hilary Open Space Preserve, as well as her efforts to help ban pesticides in Tiburon.
“I don’t see the Tiburon of the world as it exists,” Thier said. “I see what it could be, so I see endless possibilities for improving the lives of our residents.”
Thompson, 62, is the vice president of a commercial real-estate company. He served on the Town Council from 1992 to 2003, taking two turns as mayor, but did not run for reelection after unsuccessfully running for the Marin Board of Supervisors in 2004.
He cited growing up in Tiburon and his family’s involvement in civic affairs as benefits that no other candidate could claim, and said he felt the Town Council needed his unique experience, adding he has the selflessness, collegiality, skills and time to be an effective councilmember. He said he loves to make a difference in town.
“I see where they’re making mistakes, and I know I can do it better,” Thompson said.
Candidates assess town’s housing needs
Candidates were asked to share their perspectives on a recent Marin Superior Court ruling that requires the town to remove a 9.6-acre site at 4576 Paradise Drive from its state-approved 2023-2031 housing plan.
According to the judge on the case, Tiburon violated state environmental laws when it failed to analyze the impact of up to 118 new housing units on the property.
Tiburon’s certified housing element had 692 units, more than the 639 required by the state, but removing the Paradise Drive site would reduce the count to 599 units. If the town wants to keep the site in the housing element, it’ll have to do a full environmental-impact report.
The shortfall in housing units has raised concern that the town would fall out of compliance with the state and become subject to the builder’s remedy, in which the general plan and zoning don’t apply and certain affordable-housing projects must be approved by right. However, unless a court specifically rules a housing element is out of compliance, state law gives the Housing and Community Development Department leeway to work with Tiburon and allow it to remain in compliance as it works on a solution.
Nikfar said he disagreed with including the Paradise Drive site but abstained from the council’s vote on including it — which took place the same night he was sworn in — because “there were a lot of closed-session meetings that I wasn’t a part of.” He said he supported using accessory dwelling units instead to help close the housing gap, as they spread growth throughout town.
“It’s a more sustainable way that’s less likely to tax our services and roads, of which we only have one going in and out of town,” Nikfar said. “And I believe that sets us up in a stronger position for the future, and I think we can handle those 93 units … over the next eight years.”
Thier said she supports affordable and workforce housing in Tiburon and that she was focused on preventing the builder’s remedy from going into effect. Thier said she is also a big proponent of accessory units and that she wanted the town to market them.
Hornbrook disagreed on the Paradise site’s inclusion in the housing element, but he said the Town Council’s 2023 rejection of greater density downtown, which had been recommended by the Planning Commission, was a mistake. He said it would put people closer to transit, services and local jobs, noting some 90% of people who work in town are commuters. Hornbrook said he and his wife bought their home because of its proximity to the ferry, which connects to downtown San Francisco.
“It’s the reason why a lot of people moved here,” he said. “And there’s an ability to do that and keep the traffic here.”
But he said traffic concerns needed to be addressed, and Tiburon needed to collaborate with Belvedere, as a bulk of that city’s mandated 160 units are near Tiburon Boulevard.
While Hornbrook said accessory dwelling units were potentially a good idea, he said the town “can’t put all our eggs in the (accessory dwelling unit) basket” and expressed support for developing workforce housing above Reed Elementary School.
Thompson called the housing situation “an utter disaster” as it is “destroying one of the most important things of being a town, which is local control of our land-use planning.” He disagreed with Tiburon being a transit hub — which also needs to be fought, he said — and that while Tiburon does need to show what it can do to build housing, “we’re never going to get to these numbers.”
Tiburon was deemed a qualifying transit hub because of its ferry terminal, which connects to bus service in Route 219, has a housing development within a quarter mile at Point Tiburon and Corinthian Island and connects directly to a destination transit station — the San Francisco Ferry Building — within 30 minutes. The town has already appealed with the Association of Bay Area Governments and failed.
Thompson said the reality of the situation was that Tiburon was not going to comply with state mandates, and that the town needed to reach out to cities in similar situations across California to “use our political and economic muscle and get the legislation changed.”
Nikfar, however, said that attempting to fight the state mandates was futile, given that nearly every city has lost its case against the state in court, run up “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in legal fees and risked opening themselves to the builder’s remedy.
“This is something that the town and the town attorneys have advised against because you’re just opening yourself up to costly litigation,” Nikfar said.
Candidates were also asked how they would engage with downtown landlords, such as the Belvedere Land Co. and A&C Ventures, which does business as ACV Argo Tiburon LP, to build housing downtown, as the state Housing and Community Development Department will review how many building permits have been issued by the middle of housing-element cycles. Any municipality that doesn’t meet those goals will be subject to penalties similar to the builder’s remedy.
Thompson said accomplishing that downtown would result in Mar West Street neighbors suing because of view-blockage concerns, and he said some landlords have told him they don’t want to build due to potential traffic.
“We can put it into the housing element as it is, but it’s just going to get bogged down in quagmire,” Thompson said, adding that a better option is “really coordinating with the entire county and finding really good solutions and then making new deals with the state.”
He did express support for building senior housing downtown, where the top floor could be high density, the middle floor could have assisted-living integrated and the ground floor could have memory-care facilities.
“All residents who don’t have to leave their community but now have the services without stairs right downtown,” he said, adding that he’s proposed the idea to a couple of landlords who weren’t interested.
Hornbrook said he wanted to approach it as a sales issue, saying he thinks the current council isn’t working with downtown landowners to facilitate development to set goals and timelines.
Nikfar disputed that, however, saying he’s met with ACV Argo Tiburon and Laleh Zelinsky, owner of Zelinsky Properties, and that major Tiburon landowners say building downtown is expensive.
Thier reiterated that the town is already working with landlords — though she cited business opportunities rather than housing in saying she has encouraged A&C Ventures to bring a new candy store back to The Candy Store on Main Street site that closed in April and a movie theater back when the Tiburon Playhouse closed in 2020. The town’s housing element has identified the same theater site and adjacent buildings as being able to handle eight new units.
She said in addition to developers, there are entities outside of Tiburon that can help with meeting goals.
Transportation, traffic are key issues
Candidates considered how they would improve public-transportation options to San Francisco and to the rest of Marin County, given that surveys related to the town’s general-plan update showed residents wanted to see an increase in the service.
Hornbrook, who volunteers for the Golden Gate Ferry’s public-input committee, said he’s currently advising the company on ways to increase ferry usage, such as moving start times to 8:10 a.m. to accommodate parents dropping kids off for school. He said he’s recommending a 2 p.m. ferry that leaves San Francisco and arrives in Tiburon in time for parents to pick their kids up from school, as well as a late-night Marin service that includes stops in Sausalito, Tiburon and Larkspur for those attending sporting or cultural events in San Francisco. Direct late-night ferry and water-taxi service between Tiburon and San Francisco has repeatedly failed due to lack of demand.
Nikfar said ridership was drastically impacted by the pandemic and that Golden Gate Ferry is still ramping up service. He said working with the agency is a must, though he said progress with increasing presence is “a slow roll, and we can’t just sort of put a Band-Aid on it.”
“It’s continuing to put the pressure on Golden Gate Ferry to ask for more routes, lining it up with school times,” Nikfar said. “We did this before COVID, we’re doing this now. This is just a natural progression.”
Thier, who serves on the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District board — which includes bus and ferry service — said she is in the process of developing a Tiburon-specific survey to figure out what ferry times work best for residents.
“Anytime you change the ferry by a little bit, one group complains, another one complains, and we’ve decided we’re going to get it right,” she said.
She said another way to reduce traffic is her idea for an all-electric, open-air “Tiburon Trolley” that would have a terminus in Strawberry, run along Tiburon Boulevard and supplement Marin Transit’s Route 219 while connecting Tiburon to other public-transportation agencies. She said funding could come from state- and federal-grant programs and has also suggested using any available money from Proposition 4, a $10-billion bond measure on the November ballot that goes toward providing safe water supplies, wildfire prevention and includes $850 million toward clean-energy infrastructure.
Thompson said suggestions for ferry service every two hours was unrealistic and agreed with Nikfar that ferry ridership has sharply declined since the pandemic. He said half of San Francisco buildings are vacant and “nobody’s going to work” in person anymore.
Candidates were also asked how they would reduce school traffic, though some candidates took the opportunity to address wider traffic issues.
Nikfar said he supports the Yellow Bus Program and said bus passes for kids in the Reed Union School District should be fully subsidized by both Tiburon and Belvedere. He also said the bike trains that were more prominent pre-pandemic should be reimplemented.
“We’ve got to have people that are willing to make responsible choices around getting to and from school,” he said. “Bikes are a great way.”
He said the town’s commissioned traffic study, which will look at Tiburon Boulevard from Blackfield Drive to Beach Road, Trestle Glen Boulevard between Tiburon Boulevard and Paradise Drive and Paradise Drive between Main Street and Trestle Glen Boulevard, is important to improving traffic and his goal of having people get from downtown Tiburon to Highway 101 in 15 minutes. He also said it’s important to utilize technology, partner with Caltrans and build sustainably in addressing traffic issues.
Thier, who represents the town on the board that oversees the Yellow Bus Challenge, said in addition to her idea of a trolley, she’d like to look into limiting how many cars can park as part of a construction project in a neighborhood. She also said she was working with Caltrans to introduce smart traffic signals along Tiburon Boulevard and on better signal timing overall.
Thompson said he also supports the Yellow Bus Challenge, but he said some stops need to be moved off Tiburon Boulevard and onto side streets “because they completely block traffic” and said the punctuality and scheduling of the school-bus system needs to improve.
He also suggested possibly limiting when construction workers can leave the peninsula, saying he suggested the idea in the ’90s where no crew could leave until the afternoon rush hour ends.
Hornbrook, who sits on the Reed district’s Safe Routes to School task force, said he wanted to examine ways to incentivize Reed Elementary School parents to carpool, noting that while 66% of Del Mar Middle School students walk, bike or take the bus to school, only 43% of Reed school students do the same. He also proposed carpools for construction workers coming into town.
Hopefuls questioned on diversity, police stops
All four councilmembers said they felt Tiburon was making the inroads it needed to improve diversity in town, but none directly addressed a question about policing policies, in which data shows detentions in Tiburon — and the racial discrepancies in those stops — have increased since data collection began in 2020 despite crime falling locally, regionally and nationally.
Crime in Tiburon hit a record low in 2023 for the third consecutive year according to FBI statistics dating to 1985, and it’s roughly a quarter of the 1986 high. Generally, crime everywhere returned to pre-pandemic levels about 2022 and is again trending down.
Analysis from the San Francisco Chronicle shows while Black people were 2.3 times more likely to be detained than white people statewide in 2023, Black people were 9.2 times more likely to be detained than white people in Tiburon across 633 police stops. And for the first half of 2024, Tiburon’s website data shows that police are 10.3 times more likely to stop Black people and 5.3 times more likely to stop Hispanic people than white people. Tiburon’s 2023 discrepancies are greater than those in demographically similar neighbors Mill Valley and Central Marin.
Further enhancing those discrepancies, Tiburon officers are also on pace to stop and detain nearly 900 people this year, a high since data collection began.
Thier said the town has looked at police stops, what is happening and how to improve procedures through community policing and anti-bias training, but she didn’t elaborate further. She instead focused her answer on Tiburon’s efforts to promote diversity in government and in community activities.
Thier chairs the Diversity Inclusion Task Force, which was formed in 2021 as part of the town’s response to the August 2020 incident in which two Tiburon police officers, with a Belvedere officer standing by, falsely told the Black owners of downtown clothing boutique Yema that they were legally required to prove their identities and explain why they were inside the store after hours. The incident verbally escalated as owner Yema Khalif accurately argued he wasn’t required to do so.
The exchange, at the height of the summer’s Black Lives Matter protests, was captured on video, went viral online and divided the community, prompting one Tiburon officer involved to resign and the police chief to retire. Tiburon settled a legal claim for $150,000 and some police-reform concessions, while a federal suit against Belvedere has been dismissed but state allegations remain in Marin courts.
She called the task force “the most successful diversity-inclusion task force here in Marin County” and noted Tiburon had a diversity element in its overall general plan.
Thompson said the incident at Yema never should have happened because all police officers should know downtown merchants. He noted community building is a key part of his campaign platform, calling it “how you really break down prejudice, barriers and everything else,” but he also didn’t address whether he was concerned about racial disparities in police detentions and whether he would seek to address them.
Nikfar also did not address the disparities. He said he met with all downtown businesses upon being elected and gave them his personal contact info so they could reach out to him if there were any issues, and he also said the Diversity Inclusion Task Force was doing commendable work. He said current Police Chief Michelle Jean was doing an excellent job, and he said he wanted to invest in newer technology for public safety.
Nikfar also said the cultural events organized by the task force help bring multicultural understanding.
“I think we all want to be treated with respect, no matter what walk of life you come with, you come from,” Nikfar said. “And I think learning more about each other’s background helps us get there, so I’m happy about what we’re doing, and I look forward to continuing that.”
Hornbrook agreed with Thompson that police officers “should have known everybody in our community” and said that while he needed to review the police-stop data cited, discrepancies in who gets stopped boils down to government accountability. He said councilmembers, the Diversity Inclusion Task Force and the Police Department should know the statistics and be proactive, not reactive, in addressing issues.
Hornbrook also said there needs to be wider outreach on diversity efforts, saying that while it’s “awesome” the task force has the events it organizes for the community, “those should just be mainlined with all the other activities we have as a town, so things aren’t kept separate as a different group.”
“It’s that integration of all the different cultures that we have here,” he said.
Parks a priority for all
All candidates said they were committed to improving the town’s park system under the guidance of the master plan for the 70 acres of parks and open space, including the Richardson Bay Lineal Park system, which spans from Blackie’s Pasture to South of the Knoll Park and encompasses all the Old Rail Trail and adjacent green space.
Hornbrook said the parks commission had created subcommittees to explore some of the improvements proposed in the master plan, such as a community pool, pickleball courts and kayak launches, as well as to start looking into “low-hanging fruit” like addressing maintenance issues and small improvements at smaller parks, such as Cypress Hollow, Bel Aire and Belveron Mini-Park.
He said one potential improvement could be converting the decommissioned sanitation ponds near McKegney Green into an adult-use field for a volleyball or bocce ball court, though he said he wanted improvements to be low impact and not make the park “a destination area.”
Nikfar stressed that the parks plan provides a framework that relies on collaboration with residents.
“It’s less us telling you what we’re going to do,” he said. “It’s more hearing from you, listening to you and then being able to gather that and put together a prioritized list.”
He said the Town Council wanted to get the master plan approved and figure out what projects can be started “in the next 12 months.”
Thier agreed with Nikfar about the parks master plan serving as a guide, though she spoke out against having subcommittees because “this whole process needs to be a transparent process where the public is let in.” She recommended the Town Council and parks commission hold a joint meeting where residents can provide feedback.
“It will be the community that decides, not a small group of people outside the public view,” she said.
Thompson reiterated past criticisms of the master-planning process, saying that while it “was very well intended,” he felt Tiburon spent too much on consultants, as the town could have done the work itself by meeting with residents and then spent the money used on consultants for actual improvements.
The candidates were also asked during a separate Reed Heights-Tiburon Knolls neighborhood community forum Sept. 26 about how they would prevent out-of-neighborhood drivers, such as those taking their kids to soccer practice, from parking their cars on Stewart and Virginia drives.
Nikfar said “an easy fix” is to have a larger lot at Blackie’s Pasture, while Thier’s recommendation was to ask groups that use the field, like the Tiburon Peninsula Soccer Club, to park in designated spaces versus using neighborhood streets. She added that she thought the Stewart Drive crosswalk between the neighborhood and McKegney Green and the rest of the Richardson Bay lineal parks was an unsafe walkway for children.
Thompson said he would recommend having official signage that limits or prohibits parking based on certain times of the day, but he added that parking woes come with living in the neighborhood and near Stewart and Virginia drives “instead of at the very end of some cul-de-sac.”
Hornbrook said he had parked on the streets while a soccer coach, adding that it’s “the reality of being in a small town living next to McKegney Green.” He also supported parking restrictions in the neighborhood and adding more parking at Blackie’s Pasture, which he said would also benefit those visiting Blackie’s from outside the peninsula on the weekends.
Combating climate change and prepping for disasters
In responding to a question about climate change, all candidates expressed support for electrification.
Nikfar said solar panels and batteries being installed on downtown Tiburon buildings as part of the Angel Island-Tiburon Ferry Co.’s fleet-electrification process is something that needs to be examined at a wider level to keep businesses operating during power outages, and he also expressed support for exploring ways to have a locally run utility company, such as Silicon Valley Power in Santa Clara.
Thier cited reducing greenhouse-gas emissions as a continued priority and touted the town’s participation in the voluntary Beacon program, which provides guidance, training and support to help municipalities implement and document sustainability best practices.
Thompson said he was the catalyst in the ’90s for having solar-panel installation become a ministerial approval process within town instead of requiring it to go before the Design Review Board.
Hornbrook said transportation is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in town and said he wants to increase carpooling and bicycling, as well as continuing to electrify Tiburon’s fleet, which he said the town is doing a great job on already. He said he would also like to see solar panels on the Belvedere-Tiburon Library’s roof, which he’s been seeking for years, and overall electrification in Tiburon-owned buildings.
Thier said education is pivotal for disaster preparedness, while Thompson said his Tiburon Together initiative would create “an extensive network of communication beyond what we have today,” noting that the town needs to plan for every scenario in the event of disaster.
Hornbrook said the town should organize a disaster-simulation event to identify where gaps might exist ahead of an actual natural disaster, as well as for having neighborhood initiatives such as Resilient Neighborhoods, which focuses on greenhouse-gas reduction but also covers disaster preparation, and Firewise USA.
“There’s models that exist out there,” Hornbrook said.
Nikfar said his neighborhood has done disaster preparedness well, pointing to local block captain programs in Del Mar, as well as getting the community together to know each other and prepare collectively.
Local police and fire officials have for years resisted hosting organized disaster drills or identifying neighborhood routes, saying that escape routes might change based on the emergency. Launched in 2022, the next community-wide Get Ready 94920 disaster-preparedness day is Oct. 19 — but the event asks individuals and families to identify their own routes and take one to Zelinsky Park for a safety fair.
When asked about capital-improvement project priorities and overarching goals, Thompson said he wanted to have decisions made out in the public. He said temporary small-scale improvements, like volleyball courts, can offer the public tangible and visible evidence of what’s being worked on.
Hornbrook said he wanted to prioritize improving the Public Works Department’s corporation yard behind Reed Elementary, noting it’s 85 years old and that it will be an important building in the event of a disaster. It was identified in 2003 as a collapse risk in an earthquake.
“The town has slowly rebuilt the funds for that, but we need to spend the money on that immediately,” he said. “It’s not sexy, but it’s necessary.”
He also expressed support for working on easy fixes or amenities included in the parks plan, like a volleyball court.
Thier said she wanted to fund her proposed trolley and said she supported improving water access through a standup paddleboard and kayak launch, which residents have identified as a top recreational priority. She also expressed support for installing fiber-optic cables along Tiburon Boulevard during Caltrans’ 2026 preventive maintenance project.
Nikfar said he wanted to continue improving roads in Tiburon, along with improving parks as another easy fix, saying that if renovating playgrounds needed to be done, he’s in favor of it. He also expressed support for funding public-safety and policing technology to stop property crime from happening in town. There were 64 total property crimes in Tiburon in 2023, a record low for the third consecutive year and less than a third of the 1986 high of 220.
To revitalize and improve downtown Tiburon, Thier said she wants to have more Friday Nights on Main street festivals and downtown events while also working with local businesses, landlords and the Chamber of Commerce to bring more shoppers downtown.
“It really takes a community strategy to ensure that our residents are buying Tiburon and shopping local and eating here,” she said.
Nikfar said he supported more family-friendly events or other at-large events, like the Tiburon Wine Festival and Diwali, in town and adding some recreation improvements downtown to increase time spent in the area.
Thompson also said that he wanted to have more family-friendly and kid-friendly businesses in downtown Tiburon, as well as figure out ways to bring people downtown, like building a bocce ball court on the site of the former Shark’s Deli restaurant.
“These stores, they die all winter to just hope they make it back in summer,” Thompson said. “So we have to change the dynamic.”
Hornbrook said he supports creating events to bring people downtown, such as Thursday night musicians performing at Fountain Plaza, as well as speeding up permitting processes downtown. He pointed to the five years it took for Sam’s Anchor Cafe to get a permit for its coming takeout establishment, The Hold, saying that if he’s starting a new business, “I’m going to want to know, like, when can I get it up? ’Cause my landlord’s going to start charging me rent immediately.”
Hornbrook also wants to see more Friday Nights on Main events downtown.
Reach Tiburon reporter Francisco Martinez at 415-944-4634. DONATE to support local journalism, or SUBSCRIBE NOW for home delivery and access to the digital replica.
Comment on this article on Nextdoor.