Lisel Blash (Fairfax Town Council At-large, California, candidate 2025)
Lisel Blash (Nonpartisan) is running or ran for election to Fairfax Town Council At-large in California.[1]
Elections
2025
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Lisel Blash completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Blash's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I am the current mayor of Fairfax. I have lived in this community for 13 years, volunteering for local boards and committees. I currently work as a health workforce researcher at the University of California, San Francisco.
I ran on the following goals, and they remain top priorities for me:
• Create a multi-faceted community-driven model for keeping Fairfax affordable for working families, older adults, and essential workers while protecting our small-town footprint.
• Seek out innovative projects and funding opportunities to keep our town safe from the threat of drought, wildfire, and flooding.
• Explore new solutions for our downtown sidewalks and streets.
• Improving and enhancing our staffing capacity while maintaining a healthy budget
• Solicit diverse perspectives, foster civility, and help our community reach consensus around difficult issues.
The latter is perhaps the most important. Fairfax is a small community with limited resources. We need to depend on one another to make things work. The recall campaign has caused incredible damage to our social fabric. If we can’t find a civil way to solve policy disputes in our own communities, what hope do we have of healing our nation?
- Simply put, this recall is a power grab--a backdoor attempt at a council majority that recall proponents were unable to obtain in the last election – a majority they believe they are owed. Their agenda is dangerous for Fairfax’s future, jeopardizing our budget, leadership stability and staff morale. Fairfax is in good shape with a balanced budget, healthy reserve, and clean audits. We have staffed up our police and fire departments to enhance public safety, and have made progress on initiatives to renovate our fire station, fix a number of bridges, and repave and improve Park Road in order to improve storm drain capacity.
- Recall proponents want the Town to fight the state of California on housing mandates, putting the Town at considerable financial and legal risk. Our budget could be compromised by massive legal fees running in the millions of dollars, jeopardizing our healthy budget, public safety services, and road funding. In addition, their risky strategy could open Fairfax up to unlimited development. If our Housing Element is decertified by the State of California, it could invoke "Builder's Remedy"--allowing developers almost free reign to develop what they want with no Town oversight. No community in California has been successful in avoiding state housing mandates.
- Recall proponents fought the passage of a road bond to address Fairfax’s crumbling infrastructure. Ironically, they are blaming two relatively new council members for decades of neglect--the very council members who tried to pass a road bond to address the problem. , Recall proponents provide no actionable alternative. Proponents of the recall have stated they want to replace town staff, ignoring a public-sector labor shortage that makes recruitment and retention challenging, particularly considering Fairfax’s reputation for contentious public discourse. They’ve impugned the integrity of our police and fire departments while showing a reckless disregard for state and federal laws. Their actions would create a dangerous power vacuum.
Sustainability, active transportation, housing affordability, public engagement and transparency, placemaking
Equanimity, ability to listen to and synthesize information from different viewpoints, effective communication skills, willingness to put in the background work on policy proposals to truly understand all the potential benefits and pitfalls, evenhandedness
Marin County Democratic Party, the Sierra Club, North Bay Labor Council, 350 Marin.org, Equality California (EQCA), Marin Professional Firefighters, Congressman Jared Huffman, State Senate President Mike McGuire, every member of the Marin County Board of Supervisors, Fairfax Council Member Barbara Coler, Former Fairfax Mayors David Weinsoff, Bruce Ackerman, Chance Cutrano, and Mary Ann Maggiore; Fairfax Planning Commissioners and former commissioners Norma Fragoso, John Bela, Philip Feffer, Mimi Newton, Stephen Shaiken; Susan Pascal-Beran, Chair Fairfax Open Space Committee, Linda Kenton, Town Clerk, Town of Fairfax, Janet Garvin, Former Treasurer, Town of Fairfax, Jody Timms, Chair, Fairfax Climate Action Committee, and many more.
Support for low-income senior housing in our community, the acquisition of a large parcel of open space for our community.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
External links
[1] ↑ Submitted to Ballotpedia's candidate survey in 2025.
