Mill Valley council hopefuls face key budget, staff issues

Feb. 2--The Mill Valley City Council election on March 3 features two incumbents plus four candidates trying to win seats for the first time.

Five of the candidates are competing for three four-year seats. Vice Mayor Sashi McEntee, first elected in 2015, is seeking a second term. The other candidates are Urban Carmel, chair of the Planning Commission; Kirk Knauer, former member of the Parks and Recreation Commission; Tricia Ossa, chair of the Emergency Preparedness Commission; and Max Perrey, another member of the emergency commission.

Mayor Jim Wickham is running unopposed to finish the term of Jessica Jackson, who stepped down with two years remaining.

Council member Stephanie Moulton-Peters is not seeking reelection. She is running for the Marin County Board of Supervisors.

McEntee, 46, said the turnover on the council -- coupled with the retirement of City Manager Jim McCann -- makes continuity that much more important.

"There will be a couple of new council members and a new city manager," she said, "and then two years later, there'll be another two new members. It's going be really important to keep stability there."

Wickham said he mainly chose to run again to help whomever is elected to the council select a new city manager.

"It's like a head of household or head of a school board or a corporation," he said. "In Mill Valley specifically, whoever we appoint to that position really is going to be the face of our community on our day-to-day operations."

All the candidates agreed that hiring a city manager who is qualified is critical, but an overarching concern is how the city will pay pension costs projected to jump from $4 million to $8 million.

Carmel, 56, said the city cannot rely on raising taxes and must come up with creative ways to attract private grants, donations, sponsorships and partnerships.

"There is a backlash," he said. "People are saturated on taxes and there probably are some ways that we can increase taxes marginally, but it's primarily going to have to come from being very smart with how we spend money, how we allocate resources and how we deal with our resources in ways that we haven't before."

Carmel said the consolidation of the fire and police departments could create room in the budget, but the challenge lies in being able to provide the same quality of service.

Knauer, 52, also said taxes should be a last resort and whoever is elected to the council will have to make tough decisions.

"This will require the community and council to work together to make decisions that might impact other services," he said. "It's a work in progress but the forecast is pensions are skyrocketing."

Ossa, 50, said there has to be a lot of creative thinking to pay for this because CalPERS costs are increasing but the city's revenue is not.

"Mill Valley has the lowest sales tax in Marin," she said. "I think raising sales tax by one-quarter percent could raise $1.5 to $1.7 million. That's just an estimate."

Perrey, 28, said if the issue is not solved it will have deep repercussions for the city.

"We owe it not only to the taxpayers, but to the current workers and the future workers of the city of Mill Valley because the reality is if the city goes bankrupt, those who are hurt the most are the workers for the city," he said. "And, you know, we need to make sure that we're looking after them and looking after the taxpayers and making sure that we're fiscally solvent."

McEntee said an example of finding additional revenue could be shutting down the library two days a week.

"Not everything's going to be palatable to the community," she said. "And we need to have a community conversation about that. It's going to be a long series of conversations with different groups, and that's something that I care a lot about and want to help facilitate."

------

Council candidates

Urban Carmel

Age: 56

Occupation: Managing director for the Lewis Carmel Group

Education: Bachelor's degree in economics and business administration from the University of Pennsylvania

Experience: Chair of the Planning Commission; former president of the Union Bank of Switzerland in Indonesia; former director of the Hamon Investment Group in Hong Kong; former president of the Mill Valley Library Foundation.

Kirk Knauer

Age: 57

Occupation: Account director and consultant

Education: Bachelor's degree in business administration and international studies from Trinity University; master's degree from Thunderbird School of Global Management

Experience: Former director for Berlitz Corp.; two terms on the Parks and Recreation Commission; former legislative aide to Marin County Supervisor Katie Rice.

Sashi McEntee

Age: 46

Education: Bachelor's degree in English and journalism, University of Missouri-Kansas City

Occupation: Marketing and business development for Infinity Video Systems

Experience: Incumbent council member; Emergency Preparedness Commission member; delegate for Association of Bay Area Governments; liaison for the Mill Valley School District; representative on the MCE and Marin Telecommunications Agency boards.

Tricia Ossa

Age: 50

Occupation: E-commerce manager at CamelBak

Education: Bachelor's degree in business from the University of Colorado

Experience: Chair of the Emergency Preparedness Commission; chair of the Community Emergency Response Team Steering Committee; former manager of digital operation at Guideboat Co.; former product manager with Roost.

Max Perrey

Age: 28

Occupation: Sales lead for HAUS+, a building and construction consulting firm

Education: Bachelor's degree in legal studies and politics from the University of California, Santa Cruz; master's degree from the London School of Economics

Experience: Emergency Preparedness Commission; Community Emergency Response Team; co-chair of Sustainable Mill Valley; former chief of staff at Community Action Marin; former chair of the Marin Group of the Sierra Club.

Jim Wickham

Age:62

Occupation: Senior public safety specialist for Pacific Gas & Electric Co.

Education: Bachelor's degree in business administration from Saint Mary's College; associate's degree in criminal justice from the College of Marin

Experience: Retired Mill Valley Police Department captain; chair of the Richardson's Bay Regional Agency; former police chief of Nevada City; FBI National Academy graduate.

___

(c)2020 The Marin Independent Journal (Novato, Calif.)

Visit The Marin Independent Journal (Novato, Calif.) at www.marinij.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.