top of page

Sam’s Anchor Cafe cited, shuts docks for repairs after disabilities-rights activist's complaint

Writer's picture: Kevin HesselKevin Hessel

Updated: 6 days ago

While ‘Tie up to the pier’ is part of Sam’s Anchor Cafe’s identity, the two docks have been legally closed to public access with metal gates since November 2020 after California Building Code and Americans with Disabilities Act requirements weren’t addressed following an early 2019 remodel, Tiburon officials say. Sam’s had been flouting the closure until October, when a disabilities-rights activist formally complained to the town, prompting an inspection and citation in November and application for repairs in December. Pulling the permit Jan. 30 triggered the requirement that the docks be temporarily closed until the work is complete. (Scurfield Group photo 2022 via PR Newswire)
While ‘Tie up to the pier’ is part of Sam’s Anchor Cafe’s identity, the two docks have been legally closed to public access with metal gates since November 2020 after California Building Code and Americans with Disabilities Act requirements weren’t addressed following an early 2019 remodel, Tiburon officials say. Sam’s had been flouting the closure until October, when a disabilities-rights activist formally complained to the town, prompting an inspection and citation in November and application for repairs in December. Pulling the permit Jan. 30 triggered the requirement that the docks be temporarily closed until the work is complete. (Scurfield Group photo 2022 via PR Newswire)

Update: Sam's representatives commented Feb. 3 in response to the original online-only version of this article posted Jan. 31. It is now updated to reflect the version appearing in the print edition of Feb. 5.


Tiburon officials say the temporary closure of both docks at Sam’s Anchor Cafe is a requirement of a permit issued Jan. 30 for Americans with Disabilities Act repairs lingering since the restaurant’s remodel in 2019.

 

While Sam’s has been defiant of a four-year-old requirement that its gates be locked to prevent public access until the fixes were made, the latest moves were set in motion by a formal complaint from a noted Marin disabilities-rights activist in October, triggering a town inspection and a citation for violations of the original remodel permit and for illegal repair work.

 

However, the first day of the closure, the restaurant posted on its website and Instagram that Tiburon “ordered Sam’s to close both their docks to all boats” without mention of the repairs and on Instagram appeared to blame Mayor Holli Thier, directing those asking the reason for the closure to contact her instead.

 


Sam’s has used its postings to air grievances about Thier before, writing during her November election campaign that she has “consistently acted to the detriment of Sam’s and the town.”

 

Last week’s post sparked additional comments online, along with emails and calls to Town Hall, accusing Thier and the town of being antibusiness, officials said.

 

Town Manager Greg Chanis and Community Development Director Dina Tasini rejected the implication, saying Thier and other councilmembers don’t get involved in permitting, as did Thier, who said she was unaware of the closure “until someone called me out of the blue.”

 

“Sam’s has had many years to make their docks accessible to everyone, including people in wheelchairs,” Thier said. “Sam’s needs to comply with the ADA law and stop blaming everyone else.”

 

Rather, Tasini said Sam’s and project architect Evan Cross were already aware that the docks would need to be closed once the permit was issued and until construction was complete, which will allow the docks to legally reopen for the first time since the remodel.

 

“The reality is they put themselves into this situation,” Tasini said of Sam’s. “We didn’t do anything. (The dock closure) was a condition of approval when they did their renovation, and we said, ‘You have to keep these docks closed until you make this one compliant.’ … I really have been working with them to get them to comply, and somehow it’s our fault. I wish they would change that Instagram post and take some responsibility.”

 

Tasini said her department is working with Cross and expects the repairs, which focus on the maximum slope, gangway positioning and guardrails, to be completed within a month.

 

Sam’s principal Conor Flaherty of Tiburon did not respond to multiple requests for comment before an initial version of this article published online, but he emailed The Ark in response to it early Feb. 3.

 


He rejected assertions that Sam’s violated town requirements, adding that he “cannot speak to the state of mind of the town” regarding the closure and was simply referring residents to Thier because she is mayor.

 

“We are not trying to create a buzz,” Flaherty said.

 

He asserted the remodel work was completed at the time but that the town then raised new issues during normal maintenance afterward, and the restaurant is now addressing them. However, Building Official Doug Haight last week cited the 2019 remodel permit number when saying accessibility improvements “were not fully completed,” that “access points to both boat docks were closed to public use as a condition of” that permit and that the new permit was required to finish the work.

 

Flaherty said Sam’s has now hired a certified access specialist to review the entire restaurant, and it will be making other upgrades “to ensure full compliance with all applicable codes, laws and ordinances.”

 

“Sam’s has been fully cooperative in these processes, and any suggestions to the contrary are simply inaccurate,” Flaherty said. “Sam’s has and will continue to enjoy providing Tiburon and its visitors an extraordinary dining venue and experience.”

 

Sam’s has two docks, with the eastern dock nearest Waters Edge Hotel designated as accessible. It replaced the gangway there during its early 2019 remodel, and the town said that to win its occupancy permit the restaurant would have to ensure the dock was level side to side, within 2% cross slope, to comply with California Building Code and Americans with Disabilities Act rules for safe grade.

 

The restaurant didn’t perform the work, instead accepting an alternative that both docks be permanently closed to the public with metal gates and “No Access” signs to make them a nonpublic area not subject to access laws until the dock was repaired. Tasini said the town allowed Sam’s to take food down to boaters but, as of a November 2020 inspection, the public has not been allowed on either dock or gangway, as at least one must be accessible for either of them to be open. The occupancy permit was issued later, in January 2021, and Tasini finaled the project that March.

 


However, while Sam’s has allowed the docks to remain open in violation of that permit ever since — The Ark observed a boater using the eastern dock and gate to access the patio as recently as Jan. 29 — Chanis and Tasini have said Tiburon does not conduct additional code-compliance inspections unless it needs to investigate a citizen complaint for enforcement.

 

In response to a California Public Records Act request, The Ark on Jan. 31 obtained a series of late-October 2024 emails from Richard Skaff, the executive director of Designing Accessible Communities and a member of the California Department of Justice’s Disability Rights Working Group.

 

Skaff became paraplegic in 1978 after falling from a tree he was trimming and, ever since, he’s been a disability-rights activist working to get governments and private businesses to voluntarily comply with access laws. He was the first president and executive director of the Marin Center for Independent Living; a Corte Madera Town Council member and mayor; was San Francisco’s first chief building inspector and Americans with Disabilities Act coordinator, opening the Mayor’s Office on Disability; and he sat on several of the federal access board’s advisory committees.

 

In an Oct. 22 email to Chanis and Building Official Doug Haight, copied to the California Department of Justice, Skaff filed a formal complaint about Sam’s, alleging violations including the “the two noncomplying gangways and new floats that were recently installed, the men’s room toilet stall height of the grab bars” and that the bathroom door required greater-than-allowed force to open, among other complaints.

 

Haight confirmed by email that he conducted a compliance inspection on Nov. 7 and that Sam’s was cited for the open gates to the gangways and docks in violation of the post-remodel occupancy permit, as well as for related repair work conducted without a permit.

 

He said the inspection also confirmed that gaps of at least a half inch were present in the decking — another lingering compliance concern from the 2019 remodel — which poses a hazard for tripping and wheelchair casters. Haight said he advised Sam’s to hire a certified access specialist for a full inspection and recommendations for corrections but that a permit to repair the deck wouldn’t be required if no materials were replaced.

 


Sam’s filed the construction application for dock repairs a month later, on Dec. 12, and it was approved by the town the next day with the closure requirement, triggered when Sam’s pulled the permit Jan. 30.

 

The same compliance issues are at the root of an ongoing wrongful-termination lawsuit against the town and, originally, “civil conspiracy” claims that included Sam’s and Flaherty.

 

Former Building Official Clay Salzman was the inspector who ordered Sam’s to repair the deck gaps and level the dock back in July 2019.

 

According to court filings and other documents obtained by The Ark, when Salzman first inspected Sam’s in November 2020, he found neither repairs were made. Salzman was then placed on COVID quarantine leave, during which time the town conducted another inspection and made the decision to allow chains to close off the docks and approved wood slats filling the gaps.

 

When Salzman returned, records show, he performed two unscheduled inspections, the second with a disabilities-access lawyer, and says he found the gap shims removed and the chains unlocked, with boaters actively using the docks to access the patio. He then notified Tasini by email that he refused to approve the permit unless repairs were made as he originally requested. At the same time, Flaherty complained to the town about the unscheduled visits, emails show.

 

The town suspended Salzman, reportedly in part for hiring the lawyer without authorization and for not scheduling the inspections, though Salzman asserts in his lawsuit that both the COVID leave and the suspension were to sideline him and push through fixes that Sam’s could easily remove.

 


While Salzman was suspended, the town contracted a certified specialist to examine the deck gaps and chains — but not the docks — for disabilities-access compliance. On Dec. 16, 2020, her inspection letter says, she ordered the gaps be repaired once again and for the chains to be replaced with locked metal gates with “No Access” signs. Another contract building official then signed off on the occupancy permit in January 2021, the day before Salz­man returned from suspension.

 

Salzman was later terminated in December 2021, filed an administrative claim against the town in June 2022 and the wrongful-termination lawsuit in November 2023. 

 

Sam’s was dropped from the suit on Oct. 25, 2024, according to the restaurant’s attorney, just days after Skaff’s access complaint and ahead of a Dec. 20 amended lawsuit from Salzman that also drops the conspiracy allegations.


Reach Executive Editor Kevin Hessel at editor@thearknewspaper.com. Reach Tiburon reporter Francisco Martinez at 415-944-4634.

Comment on this article on Nextdoor.

3,021 views
Recent stories

Support The Ark’s commitment to high-impact community journalism.

The Ark, twice named the nation's best small community weekly, is dedicated to delivering investigative, accountability journalism with a mission to increase civic engagement and participation by providing the knowledge that can help sculpt the community and change lives. Your support makes this possible.

In addition to subscribing to The Ark for weekly home delivery, please consider making a contribution to support independent local journalism. For more information, contact Publisher & Advertising Director Henriette Corn at hcorn@thearknewspaper.com or 415-435-1190.​

bottom of page