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Dear Muir Beach Neighbors,

I bet you are hoping I am about to announce something about the Highway #1 closure, but no such luck (though we are trying to get the ball moving faster). On behalf of the entire Muir Beach CSD Board, I want to update you about staffing issues in our little hamlet.

As most of you know, Bill Hansell resigned at our January regular meeting. His resignation capped a short tenure with Muir Beach, one greatly complicated by the time and distance Bill spent getting to Muir Beach. We thank him for his time and efforts, and wish him well as he moves on to other life endeavors.

As soon as we were informed of his planned departure, we asked the just barely one year old Personnel Committee to work with us on finding a solution to short, medium and long term staffing needs at Muir Beach. The Personnel Committee (John Lavine, Jane McAlevey, Frank Schoenfeld, and board members Lynda Grose and Peter Lambert) got right to work, successfully trouble shooting our long, but also short term staffing needs.

The CSD board empowered the Personnel Committee to move forward with a long-term, national search to fill the role of the District Manager (DM). The Personnel Committee also set out to identify, recruit and recommend for hire an interim District Manager to keep all of Muir Beach moving forward. To the board’s delight, the Personnel Committee developed a target list of existing residents who met a few key criteria: able, competent, and willing to step up for a fixed, four (4) month part time gig.

Over one dozen people were on the committee’s short list for conversations centered on “able, competent, willing,” and they came back with a recommendation which the full board acted on late last week to hire two members of our community, Mary Halley and Vanessa Workman, into a shared “Co Interim District Managers!”

Together, these two highly capable Muir Beach residents will do much more than merely hold down the fort, they will actually get the fort in even better working order! We are really delighted that they’ve agreed to come on board through the end of May while the Personnel Committee gets to work on the search for permanent staff.

In case you haven’t met them at a recent board meeting, neighbor party (or women’s march), we’d like to introduce them to you.

Vanessa Workman joined the Muir Beach community two years ago, along with her husband, Jamie Workman, and their two children (age 8 and 11). They live on Sunset Way, and, Vanessa has a long career in governmental work, particularly involving global developmental aid agencies, hydrology and water policy, and more recently, she’s taken up film making. She’s got a French father and British mother, and, grew up traveling all over the world. Vanessa says her days of living in various African countries or traveling more generally are mostly behind her for now as she (and her husband) are settling into Muir Beach and digging roots.

Mary Halley first moved to Muir Beach in 2011 (after buying a house that needed some work in late 2009). She was born in San Francisco, but her father moved her family to Tahoe when she was young. After a few years, he moved them back, but this time, back to west Marin! Mary has been living mostly up in the Tomales Bay area most of her life, commuting on lovely Highway #1 to her recent home in Muir Beach. Mary, however, like Vanessa, is keen to spend more time in Muir Beach. Mary has been very active with water and sewer issues up the road a bit in Marshall, and looks forward to bringing some of the knowledge she’s gained to our community.

We are really excited about these two four (4) month Interim Co-CSD Managers. They’ve got a ton of immediate work and we are hoping that while everyone welcomes them into this work with warm and open arms, you can refrain from asking them to do anything while they get acclimated. If you’ve got a question or concern, please direct it to one of the five (5) sitting board members and we can work with the staff to address the topic.

Victoria Hamilton-Rivers along with some trusted volunteers worked on Saturday to clean up what has mostly been a storage area filled with MBVFA schwag, staffed by Kathy Sward, so that the CSD board and staff can have a meeting space that doesn’t impede fun and more in our bigger community room! Hats off to Victoria and the volunteers for getting the space cleaned up. And Kathy Sward and all of her materials will stay right where they’ve always been under lock and key as there is enough space now for them to share.

We will have our regular monthly meeting one week from tomorrow, on Wednesday February 3 rd . Feel free to come check out the meeting and meet the new Interim Co-District Managers. We plan to stay in touch as we move forward with weekly updates.

Sincerely,

Gary,

For the Board