Ryan, Hornbrook and Defever lead five-way Tiburon council race

Jack Ryan, Chuck Hornbrook and Kathleen Defever will win the three Tiburon Town Council seats on the ballot, The Ark projects, after early election-night returns put them ahead of Faris Jafar and Alice Fredericks in the five-way race.

Preliminary results as of 8:25 p.m. Nov. 3 showed Ryan leading the race with 1,177 votes, on 54.3% of ballots counted, followed by Hornbrook with 1,116 votes, on 51.5%, and Defever with 995 votes, on 45.9%. Jafar trailed with 747 votes, on 34.5%, and Fredericks had 642 votes, on 29.6%.

Because each voter could choose up to three candidates, the shares add up to more than 100%.

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Jafar and Fredericks both conceded election night.

The top three finishers will serve four-year terms until November 2030.

The results are unofficial. Mailed ballots postmarked by Election Day could arrive as late as Nov. 10 and still be counted, and Marin County has until Dec. 3 to certify the results.

Ryan, the incumbent who first won a seat in a 2020 special election and a full term in 2022, said he was humbled by Tiburon voters’ choice in making him the leading vote-getter and looked forward to the new term.

“We’re going to have at least one new councilmember, and I’m excited to work with the new council in the new year,” he added.

Hornbrook, a Parks, Open Space & Trails Commission member who ran unsuccessfully in 2024, said he looked forward to addressing issues he heard on the campaign trail, estimating he knocked on some 900 doors.

He said he was excited to be “getting to work and helping deliver what the people of Tiburon want to get done.”

Defever, a Planning Commission member who ran unsuccessfully for the council in 2020 and 2021, said she had just seen the results when The Ark contacted her and was thrilled. The results were “something I’ve been looking forward to,” she said.

“I’m excited to have the voters’ support, and I cannot wait to get to work and get some of the issues I’ve heard about on the campaign trail addressed,” Ryan said.

Jafar said he would help where he could.

“I think Tiburon’s decided pretty decisively who they wanted, and I’m excited to work with everybody on all the initiatives we talked about during the campaign,” Jafar said. “To the extent that I can help with the policy initiatives we talked during the campaign, I’m happy to lend a hand.”

Fredericks, the longest-serving councilmember in Tiburon’s history, said she would now consider her next volunteer options.

“I would like to congratulate the people who now sit on the council,” Fredericks said. “It’s going to be very exciting.”

Ryan, Hornbrook and Defever will serve on a council facing calls for more financial transparency after delayed year-end audits and a budgeting process that did not include up-to-date actual spending figures from the prior year, including for the current fiscal year 2026-2027. All five candidates backed an independent finance committee like Belvedere’s.

Those financial concerns extend to new revenue sources. Town Manager Greg Chanis told councilmembers May 20 that Tiburon must explore how to pay for park improvements, upgrades to the Public Works Department’s corporation yard, a longstanding project, and improvements identified in the town’s traffic study, adopted in May.

Housing remains a central issue. The state Department of Housing and Community Development can review Tiburon’s housing element at midcycle as soon as summer 2027, examining whether the town is following through on the housing programs it has committed to.

Tiburon was allocated 639 units as part of its 2023-2031 housing element cycle. Although the town needs only to identify where the units can be built, falling short in the review could trigger consequences.

Town officials previously indicated the most severe consequences would make the town ineligible for state funding, expose it to sanctions from the state Attorney General’s Office and activate the “builder’s remedy,” under which developers could build regardless of local zoning restrictions.

At the center of the housing discussion is a 127-unit plan for three downtown Tiburon sites owned by A&C Ventures. The company announced the plan Oct. 22; its 127 units would cover nearly 20% of the town’s housing allocation.

Hornbrook, a vocal advocate for more fiscal transparency, has pledged to bring the creation of a finance committee to a council vote within his first 90 days in office. On town revenue, he wants to examine how the town spends its money and cut costs where needed before considering a bond measure or sales-tax increase.

On housing, Hornbrook supports talking with other agencies, such as the Reed Union School District, to explore workforce-housing solutions. He said the town should work with the state mandates as written because challenging them can result in even less local control.

Ryan also supports an independent finance committee to help the council analyze town revenues and expenditures and plan ahead. He said the town should communicate its finances better, and he has said the word “transparency” in a government context results in “an inference or an implication that something’s being hidden.”

Ryan said he wanted to plan the town’s long-term spending before deciding how to raise money, but he said raising the town’s sales tax by half a cent is an option to close gaps for projects. On housing, Ryan has said A&C Ventures’ efforts could have the biggest effect on how the town thinks about its housing element.

Defever also supports more financial transparency and said councilmembers should listen to residents who ask for more information. She said she wanted to examine the town budget more closely to figure out how Tiburon could add revenue sources, but she has said there are ways Tiburon can cut its spending, such as on litigation, before exploring new revenue.

Defever has criticized state housing mandates, describing their implementation as “one size fits all.” She previously said that while the town must follow state law, Tiburon should also “try to come up with some alternative strategies to maintain Tiburon for the beautiful attributes that it has.”

Reach Tiburon reporter Francisco Martinez at 415-944-4634.