We are profoundly dismayed by Mayor Sashi McEntee’s statement at the Mill Valley City Council meeting on 6/1/20 in response to a question about what our city can do to show that black lives matter which was dismissed as “It is our council policy that we do not take action on issues that are not of immediate local importance.”

This was not a one-time or atypical statement by Ms. McEntee. Rather, it is a part of a pattern of prior statements and actions in which she has opposed the City Council taking any positions on regional, state and national issues, which she characterizes as a distraction from narrowly defined City Council duties. She is wrong in two ways.

First, in taking this position, Ms. McEntee fails those she represents who expect their leaders to bring Mill Valley community values and concerns to higher levels of government. Many other city councils weigh in on policy issues on behalf of their communities. The Council should be looking for ways our community might be able to exert some influence and impact outside our city instead of insisting upon wearing blinders to the critical issues of our time. This could include passing resolutions and submitting letters to other decision makers.

Second, this extremely narrow definition of what is “local” is incorrect on its face. It is absurd to characterize the issues raised by the ongoing anti-racism protests around the country as “non-local” in any sense. Through innumerable personal testaments we know that active discrimination still happens every day in Mill Valley. The diversity of our community continues to be handicapped by virtually no new affordable housing. What’s more, the Mayor oversees an actual police department so she must continually address issues of police policy and practice.

Lastly, we are disappointed by the silence and lack of action by the City Council as a whole. A majority of the City Council’s five members have repeatedly failed to stand up for our community’s values and must now act to redress these failings.

The following critical items need to appear in the June 15 Mill Valley City Council meeting agenda or as soon as possible thereafter:

1. We call on the Mill Valley City Council and Mayor McEntee to immediately and directly reverse the vague and poorly defined “longstanding policy” of blocking discussion and action on critical issues that do not conform to their “local” definitions. As evidenced by Mayor McEntee’s statement on 6/1/20, this restrictive policy has long been used by the mayor and other Mill Valley City City Council members to summarily dismiss legitimate community concerns. This policy must include the option for community contributions to the debate on critical policy issues, resulting in strong City Council resolutions.

2. Once the current policy that arbitrarily limits City Council topics of concern is reversed, the City Council must immediately take up the specific issues around the Black Lives Movement and current city policies. The City Council needs to pass a strong general resolution supporting Black Lives Matter, opposing police violence, and showing support of people of color in Mill Valley and all of Marin County who still suffer from discrimination.

3. The City Council must express solidarity with and appreciation for the many hundreds of Mill Valley residents speaking out and protesting peacefully since George Floyd's murder.

4. The City Council must formulate policies to support Marin City, our immediate neighbor, with whom we share a high school and many other connections. They want and deserve our concrete support. The Council should establish a task force along with Marin City stakeholders and report on what Mill Valley can do to support Marin City.

5. The City Council must report on relevant policies, oversight and training practices of the Mill Valley Police Department and how the eight best practices of #8cantwait (https://8cantwait.org/) have been instituted.

6. A task force must be established now to examine how Mill Valley itself can do more to promote equity and racial justice in our town, such as supporting affordable housing, municipal and private workforce diversity, and education policy.

7. The Mill Valley City Council must hold a dedicated virtual town hall to respond to these issues and the demands detailed above.

In summary, based on the mayor’s overwhelming breach of trust with her constituents, we demand that she demonstrates real, urgent and substantive action to move these demands forward. Her June 3rd statement is a positive gesture, but in order to meet community expectations, we must see meaningful actions. If the community does not see material progress on these demands in the next two weeks, we will conclude unequivocally that Sashi McEntee’s values and governing priorities do not align with those of the overwhelming majority of her constituents. We will demand her resignation from the Mayoral position as well as from the City Council.