Candidate for
Council Member; City of Mill Valley

My name is Maureen Parton. Mill Valley is my home. My husband Jim and I have lived here 22 years. We have 2 children, Jane 17 and Nate 14.

I have spent 14 years at the County of Marin as an Aide to Supervisor Charles McGlashan and Annette Rose working to improve quality of life in unincorporated Mill Valley ~ much like the City Council does here.

I know people and institutions and they know me and my integrity.

I have experience and know how to get things done.

I helped start the successful Muir Woods Shuttle, which this summer alone took 25,000 passenger trips off Shoreline Highway, restoring better weekend quality of life for our Tam Valley neighbors.

In my work at the county I also helped create:

• traffic relief
• safe bike lanes
• pedestrian crossings,
• better transit,
• open space and
• senior and family affordable housing.

In 4 years as a volunteer on the Mill Valley Planning Commission, I have

• preserved community character,
• promoted green building,
• advocated for flood protection and
• protected our watershed, creeks and habitat.

I came to public service with a law degree from the University of San Francisco School of Law and 4 years in law practice with a civil litigation firm in San Francisco, a year in freelance appellate work and a year with the California Medical Association.

While at the University of San Francisco, I worked as a Judicial Extern for Justice Allen E. Broussard of the California Supreme Court. Kind and brilliant, Justice Broussard inspired concern for people who were without economic power, often incarcerated and without legal representation. Justice Broussard worked long hours, devoting himself to the minutia and rigor of the legal review process and helped me see the beauty of finding one's passionate commitment to a cause.

I am a graduate of Georgetown University, which I attended with my twin sister Kathleen. She and I are the middle children of seven + 5 girls and 2 boys. My father, now deceased, was a doctor who specialized in medical education. My mother, still thriving at 82, gave up a nursing career to raise her 7 children.

Here are 4 things I will do:

1. I will create a bold vision for transit with shuttles and better bus service.

2. I will bring forward a successful community-supported plan for Miller that helps us get beautiful design, more greenery and a lovely community gathering spot, if property owners wish to make changes over time .

• It will help keep our current merchants by getting more people walking the street to support them.
• This is not a wholesale redevelopment project that aims to make a mall of Lower Miller. It only affects those individual properties that come in over the 20 year life of the plan with a hope to do something new.
• The term "opportunity site" is a planner's term that tries to anticipate what property owners may likely come forward during the life of the plan with changes. This is simply a way to gauge what kind of cumulative effects might come up. It is not a city land grab or a mandate for property owners.
• It will not mandate a look-alike "Main Street USA" design or a wall of buildings along Miller.
• The design guidelines of a plan for Miller Avenue will keep our Mill Valley soul in place and support our small town look and feel by:
• promoting green building,
• energy efficiency and
• varied architecture in scale with each other, the surrounding neighborhood and the pedestrian.
• A plan that guides development and shapes it ~ if and when it comes up over the next 30 years ~ will help us keep the Mill Valley we love.
• We deserve a walkable, bikable street and a neighborhood for people who want to live smaller, use transit and own fewer cars.

4. I will help MV be the model + green and sustainable with an energy and carbon reduction policy.

I would like to use my experience to connect Mill Valley up to resources outside our city and in the region. I can help Mill Valley be nimble and quick to adopt best practices and gather the technical assistance and funding that we need to get the job done.

Come to my website at http://www.maureenparton.com to learn more about me.

I am Maureen Parton and I would be grateful for your vote on November 6th.