Damon Connolly has been a capable and effective leader who is thoughtful, dedicated, and focused on achieving important policy victories that improve the lives of the people he represents.Damon has been fighting for the North Bay for 18 years, as a Marin County Supervisor, Vice-Mayor of San Rafael, School Board President, and California Deputy Attorney General.As Supervisor, he protected open spaces while increasing the availability of affordable housing; set Marin County on a path toward 100% renewable energy while keeping the County’s fiscal house in order; and spearheaded responses to homelessness while expanding access to public transit and infrastructure for bicyclists and pedestrians.
Damon Connolly has been a fearless and effective environmental champion throughout his entire 18-year career in public service. He has always understood that the urgency of the climate crisis requires bold and unwavering leadership, and that’s the kind of Assemblymember he’ll be.
Damon authored San Rafael’s Climate Change Action Plan when he was Vice Mayor (the first adopted in Marin County), updated Marin County’s Climate Change Action Plan, co-founded Marin Clean Energy (MCE), and helped start Sonoma Clean Power.
To live in Marin and Sonoma counties is to love the outdoors. That’s why throughout his public service career, Damon Connolly has always prioritized the preservation of open space and improvements to our trails and bike paths.
here’s arguably no concern that represents a more existential threat to the North Bay than wildfire risk. As climate change continues to make us more vulnerable, we’ve all come to dread “wildfire season”, knowing how many communities it puts at risk.
As a County Supervisor, Damon Connolly has worked closely with Marin County Fire and Marin County Parks and Open Space to develop effective wildfire prevention and preparedness strategies, including budget support for more fire crews. In 2020, Damon helped lead the campaign to pass Measure C, establishing the Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority. This program will significantly improve the county’s wildfire response, including more investment in vegetation management, wildfire detection, evacuation programs, and public fire safety education.
Damon Connolly understands that housing is one of the most important issues facing our state. Throughout his career, Damon has prioritized an expansion of affordable housing while protecting the rights of tenants and breaking down the barriers to home ownership. Notably, during the pandemic, Damon voted to prevent displacement through an eviction moratorium for tenants, which helped stem the pain until the state intervened with financial payments, preventing what could have been a huge rise in homelessness in our community.
Throughout California and the North Bay, far too many people are struggling to secure housing, and it’s led to a sharp rise in our unhoused population. An issue that is national in its scope is too often left to local governments to address, and the outcome isn’t satisfactory for anyone.
As California turns the corner on COVID-19, the next phase of our response needs to take center stage: our economic recovery.
Federal CARES dollars have helped prevent drastic cuts to government services, but far too many of our small businesses are still struggling and many are months behind rent. As a County Supervisor, Damon voted for an emergency relief program to help our small businesses, ultimately raising $1.2 million in grants countywide that were distributed to small businesses. The state can and must do more to incentivize repayment plans that help small businesses stay open.
Damon Connolly believes health care is a human right, and he will be a fearless advocate for universal health care in the State Assembly.
He supports CalCare, expanding Medicaid eligibility to all lower income California residents, additional subsidies to make healthcare more affordable on the Covered California state exchange, price transparency in health care billing, and prescription drug price controls.
When it comes to ensuring a reliable transportation network in our community, Damon Connolly walks the walk (and rides the bus). For two months out of the year, Damon goes car-free to test the resilience and reliability of public transportation in the North Bay, and these experiences guide his work as Marin County’s representative on the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), the Bay Area’s regional transportation agency.
As our next Assemblymember, Damon will continue this focus on seamless mobility. The idea is simple: transit needs to be affordable, connected, reliable, and easy to use.
Promoting social justice and racial and gender equity have been a core tenet of Damon Connolly throughout his life and career as a public official. Meaningful change means doing away with policies and practices that are unjust or allow for complacency in the face of injustice.
As a Marin County Supervisor, Damon has placed equity front and center in his decision making. Every policy item before the county must include an equity impact analysis, and millions are being allocated every year to equity initiatives.
With Roe v. Wade overturned by a reactionary Supreme Court, California is rising to the occasion. Damon Connolly was the first candidate in the 12th Assembly District to champion the establishment of an abortion sanctuary in the state to protect patients and people who offer or facilitate abortion services.
Damon proudly supports Prop 1, on the ballot this November, which would amend the State Constitution to affirm that reproductive health decisions are protected as a constitutional right.
Marin and Sonoma counties are home to some of the most desirable agricultural land in California, and the North Bay’s many family farmers and vintners deserve a voice in Sacramento who will fight to preserve their way of life.
We need to take a more responsible and transparent approach in handling Marin County’s finances. I believe there are three components to addressing the County's ongoing fiscal issues. The first is to cut wasteful spending and to fund programs that address community needs. The second is to implement policies that grow our local economy and create good paying jobs. A growing economy means increased revenue to fund critical services. The third is to support targeted revenue increases that help meet needs for vital public services including libraries, paramedics and parks.
My belief is that Marin County spends too much on consultants and contract services. I do not believe county services should be “contracted out” unless there is a compelling reason. Where we can, we should utilize existing expertise within the County to do the vast majority of the work. This will result in greater efficiency and transparency.
While I believe that the County should continue to fund worthy projects and community organizations, I oppose the Community Services Fund (or “slush fund”). Such grants should be taken up as part of the ordinary budget process
I share the concern of many District 1 residents that at least 70% of new development under the County Housing Element in the unincorporated portion of Marin is slated for District 1. Development decisions need to be made based on local Marin values, not on top-down mandates.
There is no question we need a range of housing opportunities in our community and for people to have a chance to live closer to where they work. But the ABAG-driven approach, which came to fruition while my opponent was Vice President of ABAG, is not a good fit for Marin.
Affordable housing should not be equated with high-density housing, and we need to look at other approaches such as converting more existing housing into affordable housing. Moreover, the SMART train was approved by voters as a transit solution, not as a means of fostering high-density housing.
Under my leadership, the City of San Rafael has been successful at encouraging affordable housing. San Rafael has relied on inclusionary zoning to ensure that any new development includes at least 20% affordable housing. In San Rafael, we’ve been pushing strongly for opportunities to convert existing housing into affordable housing, as well as to utilize second units. Infill housing near downtown and transit has been particularly successful. I believe that mixed-use opportunities, renovations and conversions, and utilization of commercial spaces potentially for housing also holds promise.
Regarding Play Bay Area, I do not approach it from an ideological perspective but rather from the standpoint of whether it makes sense for our local communities. I voted against the Priority Development Area in the Civic Center Area because the high-density designation did not make sense for our community. I led efforts with the community to come up with a station area plan that adds better circulation, bicycle and pedestrian opportunities and smaller mixed use.
Marin County can do much more to generate local clean energy. My vision for Marin is that we make significant strides in reducing our carbon footprint by utilizing our rooftops, parking lots and structures, and other creative collaborations as San Rafael has done.
I have a unique perspective on this issue in that I am both Chair of Marin Clean Energy (MCE) and Chair of San Rafael’s Sustainability Committee. In both roles, I have made increasing local clean energy production a priority.
Under my leadership on the San Rafael City Council, San Rafael has taken a number of steps to create opportunities for local power generation. The city approved the San Rafael Airport solar project, which is the first of its kind project under MCE’s Feed-In Tariff Program.
San Rafael is spearheading the creation of Solar SEED, which will incentivize participating municipal jurisdictions in Marin, Sonoma and Napa Counties to place solar on their buildings and parking structures.
San Rafael has led efforts to install electric vehicle charging stations in its public parking garages. Now I am pushing for San Rafael city operations to upgrade to Deep Green, 100% renewable energy.
San Rafael residents have been at the forefront of creating neighborhood collaboratives for solar on rooftops, and MCE has incentivized such efforts through the Net Energy Metering program, which provides credits for excess solar power produced on roofs.
MCE just launched the Sol Shares program, which will enable residents who aren’t able to install solar on their own roofs to participate in purchasing power from a local project at cost.
I believe we need to work together to do more at the County level to ensure that the retirement system for our public employees is sustainable for the future. I place tremendous value on the contributions public employees make to our County and I appreciate my strong relationship with the labor community. I have been very focused on this issue as a San Rafael City Councilmember and I will bring those perspectives to my work as Supervisor.
According to a recent Grand Jury report, the County of Marin has a significant problem with unfunded liabilities for its retiree health care program. We need to stabilize the County retiree health care system and make it sustainable for the long term. In contrast, San Rafael’s reforms to retiree healthcare liabilities were singled out by the Grand Jury as a model.
I’m concerned that the County has relied on $104 million in pension obligation bonds. This is similar to borrowing against your credit card, sticking the money in your checking account, and then boasting about your balance.
San Rafael was the first city in Marin to achieve substantial pension reforms through its collective bargaining process. Since I’ve been on the Council, San Rafael adopted a two-tiered pension system for new hires, including moving from 2.7% at 55 to 2% at 55 for non-safety workers, moving to a 3 year averaging, and reduced cost of living percentage. We’re also at a point where other jurisdictions are being encouraged to move, including 3% at 55 for safety personnel and higher employee shares into their benefit plans. We are also ensuring that year-over-year pension and retiree health obligations are being met out of the existing budget.
As your Supervisor, I would look at additional ideas such as capping higher pay-outs and curbing the practice double-dipping where employees receive both a pension from prior work and a current salary.
I do not believe that Counties should increase taxes and fees to fund or offset pension liabilities, nor should they defer necessary maintenance to fund pensions. A case in point is how we have handled the issue in San Rafael.
My colleagues and I made our positions clear recently when we advocated for the passage of Measure E in San Rafael in November 2013. Concerns were voiced by some members of the public about whether raising the sales tax would simply create revenue that would be used to fund or offset pension liabilities. In response, we made a promise to the public that those increased revenues would not be used for that purpose, but rather would be used for critical City needs like public safety infrastructure.
One of my top priorities has been to live up to my campaign promise of “working to make sure that Marin residents have access to transportation that is convenient and dependable, with the goal of reducing congestion and greenhouse gas emissions.”
As a frequent public transit user, I’ve implemented the #RideWithDamon program where I go 30 days straight without driving a car in order to determine what is and isn’t working in our systems. This approach gives me a better hands-on understanding of the ways decisions I make as a transportation leader impact rider experience.
As Marin’s representative on the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, I’ve strongly and effectively advocated for our share of regional, state and federal funding.
Marin stands to gain nearly $8 million per year for local road maintenance and repair through SB 1, coupled with over $50 million in county General Fund monies that we’ve dedicated to improving our roads.
I successfully fought to have key congestion relief projects included in Regional Measure 3, which will go before Bay Area voters in 2018, including:
I’ve advocated for completion of the third lane on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge during commute hours to ease congestion – a project that has now been opened and is showing strong results.
To support the successful implementation of SMART, I’ve been a leader in pushing for solutions to the “first and last mile” issue of getting people to and from their homes and places of business to SMART and other regional transit systems.
In addition, I’ve supported expanding and improving local transit routes during my term, and I’ve also advocated for increased school transit and safe routes to schools.
Ultimately, Marin County needs a strong advocate for active transportation programs to provide safe and convenient infrastructure for bicycles and pedestrians. That’s why I’ve made it a top priority to complete the multi-use path through Central San Rafael which is a critical piece toward fulfilling the vision of a North South Greenway covering the length of Marin