Tiburon resident reflects on sudden end to Presidio Trust appointment

Lenore “Leni” Eccles has lived on the Tiburon Peninsula for nearly four decades, serving on nonprofit boards, leading the Belvedere Community Foundation and, since 2021, as a trustee of the Presidio Trust, the federal agency that manages San Francisco’s 1,500-acre Presidio national park site.

On April 8, that last role ended with an email.

President Donald Trump dismissed the trust’s six presidentially appointed board members that day, removing all appointees of former President Joe Biden — Eccles among them. In an interview, she said she was saddened but not surprised.

“I was very sad, I have to say, because it’s been incredible,” she said. “We anticipated when there was a new president elected that there would be different trustees put on. … We were all very sad because we really loved our work and we loved (CEO) Jean Fraser and the staff, but that’s the provision and that’s the way it’s supposed to happen.”

The trust’s seven-member board includes six presidential appointees and the U.S. secretary of the interior as an ex officio member. No replacements for the dismissed trustees have been announced, and the board is currently unable to take formal action due to lack of quorum.

Officials at the trust sought to project continuity. Spokesperson Lisa Petrie said the park and agency “will continue to run normally.” Fraser, who has announced plans to step down at the end of the year, will remain in her role until new board members are in place; the search for her successor has been paused.

A White House official said Trump “will soon replace” the dismissed trustees with people “more aligned with his vision.”

What that vision looks like — for an agency the president has targeted for potential elimination — remains unclear.

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