Tiburon, Belvedere, Strawberry voters are weighing eight local contests, four local measures
Five candidates for three Tiburon Town Council seats and four for three Reed Union School District board seats head the peninsula’s Nov. 3 local ballot, which also carries six other contested races and four local measures, including Reed Union’s $115 million bond.
Marin County elections officials began mailing ballots Oct. 5, and in-person voting is underway at the Marin County Civic Center. A vote center and an exterior drop box open Oct. 31 at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Tiburon, and the 24-hour drop box at Belvedere City Hall is already open. Both drop boxes close at 8 p.m. Election Day, Nov. 3, when every vote center is open 7 a.m.-8 p.m.
Not every race is on every ballot, and each section notes which voters decide it. The Ark’s full stories on most of these races and measures are at thearknewspaper.com/election2026. The state and federal contests ran in the Oct. 7 edition.
Election 2026: Read complete coverage at thearknewspaper.com/election2026
Tiburon Town Council: Five for three seats
Town council, Tiburon voters
Mayor Jon Welner isn’t seeking reelection, so at least one newcomer will join the council. Councilmember Alice Fredericks, on the council since 2001 and a five-time mayor, is seeking a seventh term. Councilmember Jack Ryan, a retired derivatives trading manager first elected in a 2020 special election and mayor in 2023, is seeking a second full term. The challengers are Planning Commissioner Kathleen Defever, an attorney who lost council bids in 2020 and 2021; Chuck Hornbrook, a member of the Parks, Open Space & Trails Commission who ran fourth in 2024; and Faris Jafar, founder of the wealth-management firm Jafar Management and a member of the Reed district’s budget advisory committee.
Ryan favors a second outbound lane on Tiburon Boulevard, though he calls it a long shot, and leans toward a half-cent sales tax to fund a 10-year spending plan. Fredericks is open to a parcel tax, bond or sales tax while keeping the town debt-free. Defever wants to cut litigation spending before seeking new revenue. Jafar would charge nonresidents for parking and encourage more accessory dwelling units. Hornbrook favors quick, low-cost traffic fixes and a mix of public and private money for parks. All five said they were open to a public hearing on the town’s Flock license-plate cameras. Defever, the most critical, wants a search-warrant requirement.
Strawberry Recreation District: Four for three four-year seats
Special district, Strawberry voters
Board Chair Peter Teese, a sales director for U.S. News & World Report on the board since 2010; Sohrab Saghezchi, a dentist who owns Mill Valley Dental and was appointed in 2022; and Sarah Waterfield, a corporate strategy executive elected unopposed in 2024, face David Morgenthaler, a sales professional who spent nearly five years at Salesforce. Teese wants to finish the Strawberry Park playground and add an outdoor performance space near the recreation center. Saghezchi stresses transparency and the playground. Morgenthaler wants more teen, after-school, language and music programs. Waterfield has not publicly campaigned and declined to be interviewed.
Strawberry Recreation District: Two-year seat
Special district, Strawberry voters
Doug Twillman, a finance professional the board appointed in September 2025 after Cale Nichols moved out of state, faces Aliza Hawkins, a former Rakuten Advertising account specialist and certified counselor. Twillman wants a reliable cost estimate before the playground is built. Hawkins wants to draw residents of all ages into district programs and raise awareness of what it offers.
Reed Union School District: Four for three seats
School district, Tiburon and Belvedere voters
Board member Afsaneh Zolfaghari isn’t seeking a third term, so at least one newcomer will join the board. Board President Shelby Pasarell Tsai, an attorney seeking a second term, and Mike Ghaffary, appointed in February to fill Sherry Wangenheim’s seat, face Krupa Antani, a former public-school teacher with three children in the district, and Lina Godfrey, a Tiburon disability-access advocate on the town’s Diversity Inclusion Task Force. Pasarell Tsai and Godfrey stress academic rigor for every student. Ghaffary wants classroom-technology guidelines and long-term fiscal stability, and Antani wants to test whether the district’s intervention spending is producing results.
Tamalpais Union High School District: Seven for three seats
School district, all voters
Board President Cynthia Roenisch of Corte Madera, an AP English teacher at Alameda High School and former litigator, is seeking reelection. Kevin Saavedra of San Anselmo resigned from the board Oct. 9, a day after a judge granted a district parent a three-year civil harassment restraining order against him. His name stays on the ballot, but he has stopped campaigning and says he won’t serve if elected. If he wins, the board would have 60 days to appoint someone or call a special election. Board member Emily Uhlhorn isn’t running. At a board meeting this month, parents faulted Roenisch for not publicly disciplining Saavedra, and at least one called on her to resign. She said she won’t.
The five challengers, all from Mill Valley, are former board President Leslie Harlander, a retired civil engineer; Joy Scully Koo, an engineer with an MBA; Maria Sandoval, a Spanish teacher on the Marin County Free Library Commission; Brian Sutherland, an appellate and constitutional lawyer; and Valerie Wynn, who practiced law at the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office before teaching social studies at Archie Williams High School. At the League of Women Voters’ Sept. 28 forum, which Sandoval skipped, most challengers said the board must rebuild trust. Roenisch said experience matters as budgets tighten, and Sutherland warned that costs are outpacing revenue.
Marin County Board of Education: Area 5
County office, all voters
Marilyn Nemzer, of Tiburon’s Del Mar neighborhood, a former teacher and counselor who founded The Book Exchange, has represented the peninsula on the board since 2001 and is seeking a seventh term. Avery Lieberman, a 31-year Tiburon resident and former assistant professor of dentistry, has pledged to decline county-paid health insurance and says Nemzer received about $411,000 in premiums from 2007 through 2025, a figure she disputes. Lieberman has drawn criticism for April Facebook posts, including a shared message calling refugees in Europe “invaders who want to Islamize Europe.” He says he didn’t mean all Muslims.
Southern Marin Fire Protection District: Seven for four seats
Special district, Strawberry and northern Tiburon voters
Four incumbents are running: Kurt Chun of Homestead Valley, a retired Berkeley fire captain on the board since 1991; Thomas Perazzo of Sausalito, the board’s secretary, a director since 2012 and a retired safety and risk management consultant; Peter Fleming of Strawberry, a Google user-research director who joined the board in 2016; and Cristine Soto DeBerry, a nonprofit executive, former board president and former chief of staff to the San Francisco district attorney, who was appointed in 2019. They face three newcomers: Eric Steinhofer, a Tam Valley energy consultant who has worked at Pacific Gas and Electric Co.; Amy Svendberg of Tam Valley, managing partner of Sausalito restaurants Poggio and Copita; and Thomas Clark, a retiree.
The incumbents point to wildfire prevention and fiscal discipline. DeBerry cites the district’s free chipper days and its inspection of every home near open space, and Chun pledges to build resilience “without continually asking residents for additional taxes.” Steinhofer says the board lacks utility expertise and wants public-private partnerships to cut fire risk. Svendberg wants a long-term financial plan and support for new Fire Chief Heather Marques. Clark filed no statement.
Richardson Bay Sanitary District: Four for three seats
Special district, northern Tiburon and Strawberry voters
Three incumbents face Strawberry’s John Turnacliff, owner of Golden Gate Equipment Finance and chair of the Marin County Republican Central Committee. They are board President Peter McIntosh of Strawberry, a co-founder of water-leak sensor maker EnviroSmarts; Tiburon Fire Capt. Mark Fitzgerald, son of Ark contract bookkeeper Marion Fitzgerald; and Patrick Walravens of Tiburon, a managing director and equity research analyst at Citizens Capital Markets & Advisory. The incumbents oppose consolidating the district with its neighbors. In July the board rejected a civil grand jury report urging special districts to explore consolidation. Turnacliff says he’s open to studying it. Sewer charges, $826 a year per equivalent dwelling unit, haven’t risen since fiscal 2020-21.
Unopposed
Belvedere Councilmembers Peter Mark and Jane Cooper face no opponents for second terms. Incumbents also drew no challengers on the Tiburon Fire Protection District board, where Joy Ho, Rick Jones and Cheryl Woodford are running; the Sanitary District No. 5 of Marin board, with Catharine Benediktsson and Tod Moody; and the Mill Valley School District board, with Natalie Katz, Sharon Nakatani and Yunhee Yoo.
Measure CC: Hospital parcel tax
Healthcare district special tax, all voters
A yes vote would tax buildings 14 cents per square foot for 30 years, about $280 a year for a 2,000-square-foot house, to raise an estimated $12.4 million a year for the Marin Healthcare District. The money could go only to intensive care, trauma and emergency capacity, seismic safety, patient rooms, operating rooms and imaging, medical staffing, and mental health and addiction services, not district or hospital administrators’ pay. It qualified by petition, so it needs a simple majority. Rep. Jared Huffman and the League of Women Voters of Marin County signed the argument for it. Clay Hess, a public health physician running for the district board, filed the only argument against it.
Measure O: Reed schools bond
School bond, Tiburon and Belvedere voters
A yes vote would let the Reed Union School District borrow $115 million for repairs and upgrades at Reed and Bel Aire elementary schools and Del Mar Middle School, from roofs, plumbing and mold removal to air conditioning, accessibility and playgrounds. Property owners would pay up to $30 per $100,000 of assessed value through fiscal 2060-61, raising about $6.2 million a year. Principal and interest are estimated at $213 million. The bond needs 55% and requires a citizens’ oversight committee and annual audits. Pasarell Tsai wrote the argument for it, joined by signers including Cooper and Ryan, both councilmembers seeking reelection. No argument against it was filed.
Measure P: Childcare parcel tax
County special tax, all voters
A yes vote would tax buildings 5 cents per square foot for 15 years, about $100 a year for a 2,000-square-foot house, to raise an estimated $12.5 million a year for childcare subsidies for low- and middle-income families, provider pay and facilities. Supervisors could raise the rate each year with inflation. It qualified by petition, so it needs a simple majority. All five supervisors and Fredericks back it. Turnacliff, the Richardson Bay Sanitary candidate, signed the argument against it, and a Coalition of Sensible Taxpayers board member signed the rebuttal.
Measure Z: Paradise Cay dredging tax
Special tax, Paradise Cay voters
A yes vote would renew the special tax that pays for dredging Paradise Cay’s waterways and entry channels for 10 more years, at $2,200 per lot starting July 1, 2027, rising 3% a year. The current tax expires June 30, 2027, and its maximum rate is $250 lower. It would raise an estimated $272,800 a year, roughly what 124 of the 130 lots in County Service Area No. 29 would pay at the new rate, the county district covering Paradise Cay’s canal-access lots. It needs two-thirds approval. No argument for or against it was filed.
Reach Kevin Hessel at 415-435-2652.