With more than 50 business owners and managers seated before him in the Mill Valley Community Center on June 17, and with an array of media outlets ready to report on the impact of Pacific Gas and Electric’s so-called public safety power shutoffs on those businesses, Dave Jeffries, a public safety consultant and retired Novato Police captain, looked to lighten the tension in the room with a light-hearted quip.

“This presentation is such a downer, I’ll never be welcomed back,” he joked.

The workshop, organized by the Mill Valley Fire Department and the Mill Valley Chamber, focused on PG&E’s plan to dramatically increase the use of one of its major wildfire prevention plans during the upcoming fire season: so-called Public Safety Power Shutoffs, when the utility giant will turn off power lines during weather deemed dangerously dry and windy in order to reduce the risk of wildfire, specifically in neighborhoods identified as at risk.

"(PG&E's) goal is to not be blamed for another fire," Jeffries said. "They do not want to take the blame for another fire."

PG&E's strategy will require significant planning by Mill Valley’s business owners, Jeffries and MVFD Chief Tom Welch told those in attendance. A subsequent workshop is set for June 24 at Del Mar School in Tiburon at 10am.

“We’re all used to these short one-, two- or three-hour power shutoffs, but this is a different thing that we’re going to be dealing with,” Jeffries said, noting that while he consults with public safety agencies, he does not work for or have any professional relationship with PG&E.

“The idea is that, based on certain conditions, they’re going to proactively de-energize their system – turn off the power. You’ll be without electricity, but those lines won’t be starting fires. If we shut down power, we can minimize the number of fires and save lives. But there are clearly complications in this for all of us.”

Factors Dictating Power Shutoffs
Jeffries said no single factor will dictate those decisions. National Weather Service alerts on red flag warnings, low humidity levels, sustained winds and gusts, the moisture content of the vegetation nearby and “real-time observations by PG&E’s wildfire operations center and field observations of PG&E crews” will all come into play in deciding to shut down power.

Those decisions will be made specific to different tiers of fire danger based on location. As you can see on the map above (click here or on the map itself for an interactive version of it), most of Mill Valley’s commercial districts, particularly Miller and East Blithedale avenues, as well as Tam Junction and Strawberry, are not within Tier 2 or Tier 3, which are designated as elevated and extreme, respectively.

“We’re hoping they’re small areas,” Jeffries said. “But there is potential that some very large areas maybe entire counties will be de-energized.”

PG&E has committed to issuing alerts at least 48 hours prior to a power shutoff, with subsequent alerts following 24 hours out, just prior to shutoff, during the outage and upon restoration of power. Those alerts will go to all customers within the affected areas via phone, text and email and via partners like City of Mill Valley and the Mill Valley Chamber via social media, website and emails. There are also a number of free emergency notification systems like Alert Marin and Nixle that anyone can sign up for to be updated about shutoffs and related emergency conditions.

Jeffries made a major point toward the end of the workshop: that before PG&E restores power to an affected area, PG&E crews will need to visually inspect all affected infrastructure within that affected area.

“A lot of us could handle 12-24 hours but none of us have probably planned for four, five or six days without power," he said.

Jeffries also made an important distinction for those within Tier 1: if your electricity comes to your business via a Tier 2 or 3 area, you may still have your power shut off. “If that spigot of electricity gets turned off, the power lines coming to your area could get shut off as well," he said. "PG&E has told some people that entire counties could be de-energized – they have to watch their whole system.”

Plan Ahead
Jeffries recommended answering a multi-tiered question about your business as soon as possible: How does electricity support your business/operations, specifically on lighting, cooling, computers, point of sale, telephones, refrigeration, security systems, gas pumps, ATMs and more. Secondly, how will community impacts on resources like traffic lights, cell towers, street lights impact your business?

“I suggest you walk through your business and see how much of these systems will be affected,” he said. “Walk through your day-to-day processes. Push data backups regularly and especially in advance of a shutoff. If you’re emergency plan is two steps: one, pick up the phone and two, call 911 – that is not a plan.”

Mitigation
“What can you do to prevent or minimize impacts – generators, batteries, solar, wind/water turbine – moving or adjusting operations,” Jeffries said. “Once you have a plan in place, test it and your equipment. Train your staff. Coordinate with partners and vendors. And once you have that plan in place, don’t trust it – test it. And have your staff walk through that plan – they may understand pieces of your plan better than you do.”

“We want you to think about what no power for seven days means for your business and, most importantly, what can you do now to mitigate those issues you anticipate happening,” Welch added.

Former Mill Valley Mayor Garry Lion, who sits on the board of the Marin Economic Forum and the Marin Disaster & Citizens Corps Council, told attendees that the City had obtained grant funding to revive the M'BER program, which in 2012 helped 22 local businesses deemed essential for post-disaster recovery efforts come up with a customized emergency plan template.

Lion said the updated version of the program will help select businesses – likely those spanning food service, medical supplies, pet supplies, lodging and building services – go through that process. 

The 411: Mill Valley Fire Department & Mill Valley Chamber hosted a workshop for Mill Valley businesses on PG&E’s so-called Public Safety Power Shutoffs at the Mill Valley Community Center. An additional workshop is set for June 24 at Del Mar School in Tiburon at 10am.

For additional resources about public safety power shut-offs, check out this fact sheet on prepareforpower.com.

Regulators have signed off on one of Pacific Gas and Electric’s state-mandated plans to dramatically increase the use of one of its major wildfire prevention plans during the upcoming fire season: so-called Public Safety Power Shutoffs, when the utility giant will turn off power lines during weather deemed dangerously dry and windy in order to reduce the risk of wildfire, specifically in neighborhoods identified as at risk.

PG&E says its goal is to provide customers with 48-hour notice of a planned shutoff and follow up that notice with updates. But its strategy will require significant planning by Mill Valley’s business owners, says Mill Valley Fire Department Chief Tom Welch. To that end, MVFD is hosting a workshop for business owners on Monday, June 17 at 10am at the Mill Valley Community Center.

“Bad weather could be a 12 to 24-hour window, and it would take us 3-5 days to get the power back on in many cases,” Welch says. “This workshop will focus on what that means to you and your business and do you have a good continuity of operations plan. We want to make sure that everyone understand what this means to you and your business.”

“We want you to think about what no power for seven days means for your business and, most importantly, what can you do now to mitigate those issues you anticipate happening,” Welch adds.

PG&E has posted tips for residents here, offering suggestions to plan for emergencies such as the need to keep medications cold, knowing how to manually open your electric garage door or having flashlights or lanterns and fresh batteries readily available.

Business owners in Mill Valley and throughout Marin know this better than anyone: one of the biggest challenges you face is hiring, driven largely by the lack of affordable housing and the long commutes for prospective employees.

In an exciting partnership with the City of Mill Valley, we're co-hosting a Mill Valley Job Fair, the first MV-centric job fair in ages, at the MV Community Center (180 Camino Alto), with easy access and plenty of free parking. The event is Tuesday, April 23, 3:30-6:30pm. 

To date, more than 20 local businesses have signed up to be at the Job Fair, including Whole Foods Market, Good Earth Natural Foods, Tutor Corps, Body Kinetics Health Club, Dave Fromer Soccer, Viva El Espanol, The Redwoods, BrightStar Care of Marin, Sol Food, The Cantina, Equator Coffees, Urban Remedy, Bank of Marin, Homestead Valley Community Center, Redwood Credit Union, Piazza D'Angelo, Peet's Coffee, Grilly's, Orange Theory Fitness, Wells Fargo Bank and more. ​

The 411: The Mill Valley Job Fair is Tuesday, April 23, 3:30-6:30pm, at the MV Community Center, 180 Camino Alto. 

Two of the most gorgeous retail spaces in Mill Valley hosted an EMV After Hours event on March 20, serving up delicious Mediterranean food and tasty wine and drinks to dozens of members and friends on a delighting spring evening. Thanks to all who came out, to everyone who helped make it happen and to Julia and Floyd Albee of Prevalent Projects and Sahap Borak and his entire team at Roja Rugs for having us into their spaces and for being such gracious hosts! 

GO HERE FOR GARY FERBER'S PHOTOS OF THE EVENING!!

Citing the need to upgrade aging pipes and equipment and keep up with inflation, the Marin Municipal Water District is proposing a four-year rate increase starting in July as well as a new fee that would add another $163.50 or more to the average customer’s property tax bill each year.

MMWD's board is set to vote on the rate and fee increases at its May 14 meeting, preceded by a public workshop on Thursday, April 25 at the Mill Valley Community Center (6-8pm). The board is expected to discuss the rate and fee hikes at its next meeting, set for March 19 at 7:30pm at its offices at 220 Nellen Ave., Corte Madera, CA 94925.

Customers' additional annual fees, which will be levied on their property tax bill, will be determined by the size of their water meter, as district officials say a larger meter has the capacity for significantly higher water demand than a smaller meter. Most customers in Mill Valley a 5/8-inch meter and and thus will incur a first-year fee of $163.50 (which can be increased by the MMWD board by up to 4 percent each year after that).

Fifty-two percent of non-residential (mostly businesses) in Mill Valley have a 5/8-inch meter, according to MMWD data, and another 23 percent have a 1-inch meter, for which those customers would pay a $409 fee in the first year.

The district is planning at least $208 million in capital improvements in the next decade that would be paid for with the new fee revenue, according to the Marin IJ. The projects funded by the additional revenue include $18 million in seismic upgrades to its three water treatment plants, $27 million in maintaining and replacing storage tanks and $103 million to replace aging pipelines and pump stations, among other investments, according to district officials. About $1 million of fee revenue is proposed to go to fire fuel management and firefighting equipment.

District officials told the Marin IJ that the fees are meant to "shift the district away from borrowing money to pay for infrastructure to a cash-based system instead," resulting "in lower interest payments being passed on to customers, ultimately saving each customer an estimated $90 per year."

In addition to the new fees, the proposed water rate increases are meant to increase by about 4 percent annually to address costs of inflation.

An 2017 IJ editorial pointed out the turbulence of water policy in recent years: "Ratepayers have been whipsawed by the (MMWD)’s mixed messages. While following the district’s push for conservation, by cutting back on their water use ratepayers have reduced the district’s income. That led to last year’s approval of a two-pronged increase that boosted rates 27 percent, including fees for water, service and managing the district’s watershed. Then complying with the state’s emergency order to reduce water use during the drought, the district came back with another round of increases. Ratepayers have been using less water, but paying more for each drop."

The Mill Valley City Council is set to make a final decision on March 4 on how best to configure a section of Miller Avenue, and it's got plenty to consider: parking, safety, emergency access and a quintet of possible choices.

At the conclusion of the 18-month Miller Avenue Streetscape Project in 2017, the City Council decided to create a pilot project around how best to configure the roadway's Parkway section between Millwood and Willow streets, the area between the Mill Valley Lumber Yard and Mill Valley Music and Critterland Pets.

While the Miller Avenue Streetscape Plan, which the Council adopted in 2011, called for two car lanes in each direction through the Parkway, the segment was re-striped to one lane on each side during construction to allow for additional parking in the area. That decision was driven by the significant impact on available parking during construction, and the extra space on the road for bicyclists with one less lane for cars. The one lane pilot project provided 65 parking spaces in the Parkway, counterbalancing the overall loss of 65 parking spaces on Miller as part of the Streetscape project.

In weighing all of the options, City staff is giving the Council five choices for the Parkway configuration, ranging from turning the road back to two lanes in each direction and completely eliminating parking on both sides to keep it exactly as is. Staff's recommendation seeks to split the difference, maintaining one lane of travel on each side but eliminating all of the outbound parking – 37 spaces – gained in the pilot setup.

The City's environmental analysis has determined that there are no significant impacts associated with the one lane configuration, and its transportation study concluded that, for daily use of Miller Avenue, the one lane configuration has not negatively impacted traffic congestion, safety, travel speeds or cut-through traffic. The City public safety officials have advised that the one lane roadway configuration accommodates emergency and potential evacuation operations, and that the one lane configuration is wide enough to accommodate two streams of traffic in the same direction.

The city's study of parking within the Parkway section concluded that parking in that section is occupied 82 percent during the day and the outbound curbside spaces that would be removed by the recommended option are occupied 73 percent during that time.   

The Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors weighed in on the issue, encouraging the Council to maintain the existing configuration for a variety of reasons, including the potential unintended consequence of driving employee parking into the local neighborhoods and discouraging consumers from coming to lower Miller Avenue and downtown.

"Additionally, we encourage you to consider restricting most of the 37 outbound spots to those with Employee Parking stickers, whose owners we can track if necessary," The Chamber noted in its letter to the Council. "We note that at this time neither the former funeral home/childcare center on Miller nor the restaurant at the Mill Valley Lumber Yard are open.

The 411: For more info on this issue, read the staff report here. Send your comments to cityclerk@cityofmillvalley.org.

Despite ongoing North Bay concerns around issues like workforce housing and long commute concerns, and unhelpful “federal zaniness,” Marin County’s economic outlook looks healthy through 2020.

That’s the word from Dr. Robert Eyler, professor of economics at Sonoma State University and the Marin Economic Forum’s chief economist. Eyler was among the speakers at an MEF event that centered on “Workforce Challenges and the Future of Work,” drawing more than 300 local business leaders to the Embassy Suites Hotel in San Rafael.

“How many of you are looking at your stock market portfolio everyday?” Eyler asked the crowd, urging local business leaders to avoid letting market volatility dictate their business decisions. “Don’t do that. It’s very tough not to get sucked into that vortex, but if you do, you’ll make an emotional decision – think and plan forward.”

Eyler acknowledged that global and national themes, from trade wars and the UK’s Brexit from the European Union to the recent government shutdown and the fight over building a wall across a portion of the southwestern U.S. border, impact Marin and the North Bay from a macroeconomic standpoint.

But with a solid labor market – Marin’s unemployment rate is at a whopping 2.2 percent – the local impact of a recession won’t likely make its way here until 2021, Eyler said. That said, the continued impact of fires in Northern California and throughout the state, as well as the seemingly ubiquitous struggle to create workforce housing and reduce commute times, remain the biggest blow the regional economy must sustain, according to Eyler.

Hiring, from hospitality and food service to life sciences, medical technicians and web developers, remains Marin’s biggest challenge because of the aforementioned housing issues, he added.

Eyler was joined on the dais by a number of people at the forefront of the effort to train and attract the future workforce of the North Bay. “Those communities that figure out the talent pipeline are those that will win and the take the next step forward,” said Bruce Wilson, the executive director of the Workforce Alliance of the North Bay.

Elizabeth Pratt, the dean of the career and technical education and economic workforce development at the College of Marin, said a broad cross section of businesses and institutions are focused on stocking that pipeline.

“To have a thriving workforce, it’s important that all of these programs are working in lockstep,” she said. “We’ve made great strides toward creating more opportunities for our students  and helping your business.”

“Workforce development is not a social service – it is a service to economic development,” Eyler added.

Craig Nelson, board chair of the eponymous hiring and staffing giant, encouraged companies to combat the tight hiring market through a variety of strategies, from improving their employer brands on sites like Glassdoor.com and creating internal referral programs to providing flexible work schedules as needed and, of course, paying competitive wages.

The 411: MORE INFO on the Marin Economic Forum.

NOTE: Speaking of the hiring crunch, the MV Chamber and the City of Mill Valley are co-hosting a Mill Valley Job Fair on Tuesday, April 23, 3:30-6:30pm at the MV Community Center, 180 Camino Alto. Interested in participating as an employer? Email us here.

It was a tale of two evenings: On Wednesday, Jan. 16, inside the Sweetwater Music Hall, dozens of Mill Valley Chamber members and friends gathered for the debut of EMV After Hours in one of Mill Valley's most gorgeous spaces to catch up after the holidays, talk about the exciting year ahead, meet some friends and potential colleagues and celebrate the vital institution that is the Sweetwater. Delicious food was eaten, tasty beverages were consumed, fantastic raffle prizes were doled out and laughter abounded.
Once it ended, however, attendees were reminded of the colossal storm we'd forgotten about as we enjoyed this fine evening. As we walked out into the night, the swirling rain and howling winds that had sent trees crashing to the ground all over town, much of which was without power, got our attention. Thanks to all of you who came out despite the weather, and most importantly, to Madison Flach, Gordon Drysdale and their excellent team for hosting such a fantastic event!!

CHECK OUT GARY FERBER'S PHOTOS OF THE EVENING HERE!

Noticed the bright pink and blue markings all over the roadways in downtown Mill Valley?

They're a harbinger of big infrastructure upgrades to come over the next two years. The City of Mill Valley currently has $4.3 million dedicated to upgrading sewer systems, sidewalks, roads, and utility infrastructure downtown, an area that spans part of East Blithedale and West Blithedale avenues, Corte Madera Avenue, Throckmorton Avenue, Sunnyside Avenue, Bernard Street, and Miller Avenue.

The multi-colored markings on the sidewalks and streets are part of an effort to develop the base map for the downtown project, providing proper elevation of the streets, sidewalks and other features, according to project engineer Michael Hanlon. Poster told the Council that so many of the downtown features – streets, sidewalks, crosswalks – varied significantly in terms of height, thus making an effort to bring them all in line with one another both necessary but also complex.

The project also calls for safety, bicycle-pedestrian improvements and accessibility upgrades that could range from a shortening of long crosswalks at intersections like Miller Ave. at Throckmorton Ave. up to a "potential reconfiguration" of downtown streets, particularly around Lytton Square, according to City officials. 

A law passed in 2014 to help achieve California’s aggressive recycling and greenhouse gas emission goals moves into its next phase of implementation on January 1, 2019.  

In October 2014, Governor Jerry Brown signed AB 1826 Chesbro, requiring businesses to compost their organic (biodegradable) waste on and after April 1, 2016, depending on the amount of waste they generate per week. Organic waste is food waste, green waste, landscape and pruning waste, nonhazardous wood waste, and food-soiled paper waste that is mixed in with food waste. The law phases in the mandatory recycling of commercial organics over time, and therefore an increasingly greater proportion of the commercial sector has been required to comply in each year since its passage.
 
Beginning January 1, 2019, all commercial businesses and public entities that generate 4-cubic yards of trash per week must recycle their organic waste to comply with new mandatory commercial organics recycling established under California Assembly Bill 1826 (AB 1826). These new state regulations apply to schools, stores, restaurants, businesses, and for-profit or nonprofit organizations located in California. New regulations also require multifamily properties with 5 or more units to have green waste service.

Businesses can meet these requirements by:

• Separating organic waste from other waste as part of trash collection. (See Mill Valley Refuse Service website link for organic waste collection services).
• Recycling organic waste on site, or self-haul organic waste off site for recycling.
• Subscribing to an organic waste recycling service that may include mixed waste processing that specifically recycles organic waste. (See Zero Waste website link below).

The City of Mill Valley is working to educate our local businesses on new state regulations, and will be visiting local businesses in the New Year to provide assistance. Contact Danielle Staude, Senior Planner at dstaude@cityofmillvalley.org for more info.
    
The City of Mill Valley has reduced its Greenhouse Gas emissions associated with waste generation by 26% since 2005. The new organics composting regulations will also work toward the City’s Zero Waste goal, wherein all materials are recycled, reused or repurposed.

You can learn more about commercial organics programs through Zero Waste Marin and Mill Valley Refuse Service's website.