Ross Valley’s veteran supervisor and allies reflect on her tenure

Katie Rice, the longtime Marin County supervisor and aide representing the Ross Valley, is wrapping up her 20-year Civic Center career amid a round of praise from friends and supporters.

“My cynical side sees these types of events as a lot of statements that are exaggerations, and they fall on both sides, the positive and on the negative,” Rice said during her last Board of Supervisors meeting on Dec. 17. “But this is just such an interesting moment in a person’s life when you reflect back on quite a bit of time.”

Rice, 65, was an administrative aide to former Supervisor Hal Brown when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Gov. Jerry Brown appointed Rice to the board in 2011, and her predecessor died the following year.

Rice went on to win election in 2012 and reelection in 2016 and 2020.

“I was here when Katie came on board as an aide to supervisor Hal Brown,” said Susanna Clark, who also worked as a supervisor’s aide. “When he was sick, she was always there for him helping to keep things going here at the county. It was a tough job.”

“When she was appointed as supervisor I was so afraid that she might change as a person,” Clark said. “But she hasn’t changed. She’s remained her true self.”

Nona Dennis, a Marin Conservation League board member, said Rice channeled Brown’s pragmatism, directness, authenticity and empathy. Dennis also thanked Rice’s mother, Pamela Lloyd, herself a longtime environmental activist.

“The apple does not fall far from the tree,” Dennis said.

Eli Gelardin, the former chief executive officer of the Marin Center for Independent Living, said, “I just really appreciate the work you’ve done to elevate access and inclusion in our community.”

Pat Langley, a founding member of the Marin Organizing Committee, said, “I especially want to say thank you for advocating for Marin’s unhoused.”

Langley highlighted Rice’s support for the county’s “housing first” program, which provides supportive housing for the most vulnerable of homeless residents; for Project Homekey, which leveraged state money to buy buildings for conversion into housing for homeless people; and for rental assistance funds during the darkest days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Langley recalled watching Rice “for more hours than I want to count as you listened to people’s fears” about the housing programs in their neighborhoods.

Sarah Jones, director of the Marin County Community Development Agency, said, “We have appreciated your wisdom and your support through many, many projects, including, but certainly not limited to, the housing element.”

County planners have drawn complaints from some critics as they have moved to speedily conform to state mandates to accommodate thousands of new residences, some in areas of high fire risk and environmental sensitivity.

“What’s so important about her approach is that it’s both realistic and it’s aspirational,” Jones said. “She understands what we’re facing and she strives to do what’s right. She’s demanding in all the right ways.”

District Attorney Lori Frugoli recalled a weekend workshop she attended with Rice soon after she was elected as the county’s top prosecutor.

“It was a workshop for some elected leaders on how to be mindful and inclusive in our beliefs and our words and our actions,” Frugoli said. “I was so honored to be in that room with you and see how you think and hear your thoughts.”

In 2021, Rice championed the idea of giving Marin residents the opportunity to disavow racially restrictive covenants that might exist in the deeds of their homes. The deeds of an unknown number of Marin homes contain such covenants, which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled were unenforceable in 1948.

Rice said at the time that she had been shocked to discover that the deed of her Sleepy Hollow home contained a restrictive covenant.

“Of course, that language was illegal,” she said at the time, “but it really makes you stop and think.”

Rice declined to seek reelection in November and endorsed San Anselmo Councilman Brian Colbert. He won the election, setting himself up to become the county’s first African American supervisor.

Rice’s term ends, and Colbert’s begins, at noon on Monday.

Rice has said she spoke with Colbert about her wish to endorse him prior to announcing her retirement plans in 2023.

“Frankly, knowing that he was willing to run for supervisor was part of my decisionmaking process,” Rice said then.

Rice said it was important to her that her successor not only be capable, but share her “community values.”

Colbert didn’t speak at the meeting, but several others thanked Rice for mentoring them.

“When I became a council member out in the wild west of Fairfax, I always came to Katie,” said Renee Goddard. “I’d be like, wait, how does this work? Like any good mentor, she would let you discover on your own.”

Felicia Agrelius, who won election to the Marin County Board of Education at the age of 25, said, “I was thinking back to 2020 when I was recently elected and how much I needed a mentor. I really found that in you.”

Todd Lando, president of the board of Fire Safe Marin and a battalion chief with the Central Marin Fire Department, called Rice “a leader, a colleague, a mentor and a friend.”

“Under Katie’s guidance and steadfast advocacy, Fire Safe Marin has grown into the most widely recognized and respected voice for wildfire prevention in the United States,” Lando said.

In her final remarks, Rice said “there’s nothing that this county has accomplished that wasn’t accomplished by a whole bunch of people.”

“In the end, we all know that nothing happens in our personal lives or our professional lives that is all about one person,” she said. “It’s always about many people working together.”