Sausalito Segregators II: Banished by Black Pride
“Suddenly it felt like I was at a klan rally,” my source confides in me.
He’s a Marin City local who has been an instrumental advocate in local matters since 2014, when he began attending local meetings for the school boards and city councils. He reached out to me anonymously after the first Sausalito Segregators article was published, to add his story.
He’s speaking about the 2016 Sausalito Marin City School Board election, when there were two seats open on the board. Willow Creek Academy founder Bill Ziegler was running with Caroline Van Alst, and they held a candidates night at the Sausalito Cruising Club.
That was when Ziegler, according to my source, gave a speech about how “Black kids cannot learn or succeed at the level white kids can.” He argued that there was a basic biological makeup that made Black kids unable to succeed, and referred to Marin City as “drug-ridden”.
No one in the crowd of Willow Creek Academy families disagreed with him, until my source tried to speak out on behalf of the Black kids and his fellow Black people. That was when a couple of Willow Creek parents, including Alex Cantin, told him to shut up.
“It was like it was coordinated,” my source said. “I spoke calmly and clearly and argued with Bill, and these two white folks popped up at the same time and told me to sit down and shut up because they’d heard enough from me already. I looked around and thought, am I in a klan rally?”
Given the behavior of Willow Creek Academy and Sausalito leaders, a klan rally would hardly be a surprise anymore.
Later Willow Creek and school board meetings included more white supremacist delusions, with the same leaders and families showing up to speak about “white accomplishments”. Jen Conway, another Willow Creek parent who has tried to run for city school board and lost twice now, defended Ziegler on a number of occasions to the same anonymous source. Conway claimed that Ziegler was not really racist, and it wasn’t racist to say white people are genetically superior.
Bill Ziegler, along with Kimber Management owner and Sausalito Rotary Club President Bruce Huff, had founded the Sausalito charter school Willow Creek Academy in 2000 on similar premises of white supremacy according to their interviews on the United States of Anxiety podcast. After its founding, the charter school leaders and parents also stacked the Sausalito City Council and Sausalito Marin City School Board with their own members, who siphoned an estimated $1–2 million from the public school to their own charter.
The Sausalito City school board was found guilty of knowingly and willingly segregating Sausalito’s schools just a little over a year ago. The reaction from those found guilty was and still is to cover up their crimes, delay desegregation, and continue running for public office.
Then mayor Susan Cleveland-Knowles, along with the entire 2019 Sausalito City Council including Joe Burns of Vanguard Properties, Joan Cox, Tom Reilly, and city clerk Heidi Scoble, filed an amicus brief (a legal show of support) for the charter school. To put it in plain terms, the City of Sausalito was legally pro-segregation under Cleveland-Knowles’ leadership, and yet she still brazenly sits on Sausalito City Council.
The Marin Civil Grand Jury, a rotating volunteer group of nearly exclusively white lawyers, also knew about the threat of segregation in Sausalito’s schools since at least 2012. Johanna VanderMolen, one of the segregators named, sat on the grand jury between 2013–2014, while the gutting of Bayside MLK was taking place. VanderMolen recently resigned from the Willow Creek Academy school board, saying that she had “no regrets”, and WCA President Weinsheimer and Vice President Smit both said they’d miss her educational expertise.
Ronald M. Arlas of the 2018–2019 Marin Civil Grand Jury and Deputy County Counsel Renee Giacomini-Brewer attempted to subpoena private correspondence between interim SMCSD superintendent Terena Mares and the Attorney General, once the AG’s investigation into segregation had begun. Mares’ attorneys cited this as a breach of authority on the Grand Jury’s part that was conducted “solely for the personal edification of certain grand jury members”.
Deputy County Counsel Renee Giacomini-Brewer is related to the original founding family of the Buck Family Fund and the Marin Agricultural Land Trust, the Giacomini’s of West Marin.
The Willow Creek Academy board is still led by Kurt Weinsheimer of Sojern, Marijke Smit of MKThink, Jim Henry of the Sausalito Yacht Club, Cynthia Nimmo of Womens Funding Network, Lexi Mussallem of Maple Mussallem LLP, and Emily Cox of San Jose State University.
Emily Cox, the head of school for Willow Creek, recently quit the desegregation taskforce due to “personal reasons”. Jeff Knowles quit the Willow Creek Academy school board, and Josh Barrow stepped down from his position as Sausalito Marin City School District trustee. Barrow’s seat is now up for election, and Jen Conway is reportedly vying for it.
Some Marin City residents have mentioned the possibility of filing a restraining order against all those involved in the segregation of schools, which may prove necessary given the segregator’s refusal to admit wrongdoing.
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To understand the broader picture of what led to Marin’s segregation, we have to look at the real estate market and the statistics on property value, in regards to neighborhood ethnicities. “Put simply, the market penalizes integration: The higher the percentage of blacks in the neighborhood, the less the home is worth,” writes tax law attorney and author Dorothy Brown. Her new book, The Whiteness of Wealth, offers insight into the racial inequities built into America’s tax laws and how we as Black and white Americans can change the laws to favor equity.
It’s a topic local educator and activist Amber Allen Pierson has highlighted for years — collectively, Marin County has enough legal expertise and financial power to make significant changes to tax and real estate laws. Instead, the powers of Marin have worked only to make Marin City a hostile, dilapidated environment for all its Black residents.
Now, with the finalization of the SMART train route to the Larkspur ferry, the entire north bay is about to be swallowed up by tech money (or we were, before Covid), stretching from the south bay all the way to Cloverdale, north of Santa Rosa. The properties of Marin City are therefore highly valuable for would-be developers and realtors, and the residents generally don’t have the capital to fight back. According to real estate and tax law, the developers can make more money in the long run if there are no Black residents anywhere.
With this in mind, the powers that be in Marin have systematically gutted Marin City in every respect. They have let the shopping center stand empty, the section 8 housing fall into disrepair, closed the recreation center (once the heart of the Marin City community), and siphoned all funding from the public school in Marin City to the charter school in Sausalito.
Many of the Willow Creek and southern Marin leaders have overlapping interests in real estate, and the Willow Creek Academy stood to gain a lot with the removal of all Black families from Marin City. Kurt Weinshiemer and Jim Henry attended meetings with the developers who plan to tear down the section 8 housing of Marin City, as representatives of Willow Creek.
The developers, Michaels Development Group of New Jersey, have a long track record of displacing people from poor communities and turning public housing into unaffordable units. Marin City’s public housing complex, called Golden Gate Village, is on the national historic registry and was built by the same architect who designed the Civic Center.
The developers’ assessment of livability and repair costs have now been flagged as clearly fraudulent, yet the Board of Supervisors approved the developers plans without question. The latter claimed the Michael’s Development Group’s report was an accurate assessment of safety and cost, and claim still that the residents will be allowed to move back in after the public housing is demolished and rebuilt. The county plan is to add 75 new units to Marin City, where the displaced families from Golden Gate Village will supposedly live until the repairs are finished.
County whistleblower Bernadette Stuart claimed otherwise; she says the plan was always to leave the buildings in disrepair, remove the Black residents, and demolish the public housing in favor of developments none of the former residents could afford. The inclusion of more units in Marin City, where they only have one entrance and exit by freeway, has also been cited as a huge fire hazard by many county residents.
During the most recent Board of Supervisors housing commission, local real estate developer Nolan Zail also spoke and said the Michaels Development report could have been seen as fraudulent even with “kindergarten level oversight”, with an obviously erroneous $30 million added to the cost estimate of repairing Golden Gate Village. More speakers pointed out the dangers of adding more units to a neighborhood that has only one exit and one entrance, and directly quoted county worker Tom Lai who called Marin City the “last place” any developer or county official should choose for more units.
The Golden Gate Village Resident Council luckily has its own plan to green the building and provide a path to ownership. Their plan, which could lead to financial and generational equity, has been routinely dismissed and insulted by the Board of Supervisors. The outcry from the concerned public will hopefully change the county leader’s attitudes; already the contract with Michaels has lapsed, and the Board can now choose to simply not renew it. The Resident Council’s plan is now one of the many locally led and supported endeavors the county and those who have been found guilty of segregation can fund as a way of making amends to the Black residents of Marin.
The County Supervisors who approved the Michaels Development Group plan were Kate Rice, Damon Connolly, Dennis Rodoni, Judy Arnold, and Kate Sears. Sears just retired, but she and her aid Leslie Alden have been directly responsible for ignoring the pleas of Golden Gate Village and Marin City residents for years. Segregators and Willow Creek investors Bill Ziegler, Susan Cleveland-Knowles, Joe Burns, Joan Cox, Doug & Mickie Lloyd, current Board of Supervisors member for the Sausalito district Stephanie Moulton-Peters, Margi Cellucci & Tracy Wilks-White of Bayview Realty, all donated heavily to Supervisor Kate Sears’ campaigns.
The Marin Independent Journal, the publication most of the older generations read and believe to be unbiased, has covered the Golden Gate Village and Willow Creek Academy issues for years. Their articles, however, have always been written from a pro-development, pro-segregation, and pro-cop perspective.
To date, concerned Marin County residents have requested more than a few county-wide investigations and audits into the housing issues.
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The worst of the financial crimes in Marin County, however, might come from the local charities.
Back in 1975, a wealthy Marinite named Beryl Buck created the Buck Family Fund, and stated in no uncertain terms that the money was specifically for the needy of Marin County. It was stolen immediately after her passing by a canny group of lawyers and West Marin ranchers, including Gary Giacomini and former county counsel Douglas Maloney, both now deceased, and current Marin Community Foundation President and CEO Dr. Thomas Peters. With the funds from Beryl, these long-time local politicians began the Marin Community Foundation and then the Marin Agricultural Land Trust. Gary Giacomini’s son Andrew is now chair of the Buck Family Fund, and sits on the Marin Agricultural Land Trust.
Between the fund’s founding and now, the Marin Community Foundation and Buck Family Fund have given out over $1 billion in grants and loans. They have been top tier donors to the Willow Creek Academy, and even sent them a warning letter in 2013 that they would lose funding if they didn’t at least appear equitable towards the Marin City students. The organizations have only started to help Marin City just this year, with a small education grant to the Sausalito Marin City School District.
The Marin Agricultural Land Trust, founded by Gary Giacomini along with Jim Grossi, also deceased, Phyllis Faber, and Ellen Straus, has always been run by the founder’s family members. The land trust, which has received taxpayers’ Measure A funds and donations from the Marin Community Foundation, is now being investigated for conflicts of interest and misuse of taxpayer funds .
Marin County Supervisor Dennis Rodoni sat on the MALT board at the time of the allegations, with former District Supervisor President Steve Kinsey. According to Pacific Sun journalist Peter Byrne, “Burke, Williams & Sorensen LLP [the law firm of former Sausalito City Council member Joan Cox] alleges that public records obtained from Marin county government reveal that MALT board members have improperly influenced the awarding of easement contracts to themselves.”
This withholding of charity is a wide-spread problem, with many of the same people responsible for segregation (ex, the Huff’s and Knowles’s) giving back small amounts here and there to Marin City non-profits. The relationship between the “charitable” segregators and Marin City has become one like a domestic abuse situation, in which one spouse is the breadwinner and the other is subjected to their every whim. Under threat of having even the small amounts of money taken away, the Marin City residents have been bullied into silence and complacency.
Like an abuser, the collective of wealthy segregators lies, passes blame, denies, and pretends that they would provide equity if it weren’t for [fill in the blank excuse].
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This brings us to the way forward.
These articles were only partially about naming the segregators who have shamelessly propagated white supremacy and financial abuse of those in need.
The segregators needed naming because they were and are hiding their identities with counter-suits and have shown not one sign of true remorse. Their archaic beliefs of genetic supremacy based on outdated pseudoscience and the widely accepted public education narrative of European technological advancements. The segregators’ reach extends county-wide, and they have the financial support not only of each other locally, but also their extended families and business interests across the nation.
These articles have always been about detailing the need for reparations to be paid to Marin City, and all of Marin’s Black residents, and insisting that those directly responsible for the neglect and segregation pay those reparations.
Based on the aforementioned racist laws, reparations are what’s needed to move ahead and form true equity; until we have similar financial power in this capitalist nation, we cannot even begin to discuss equality. Reparations, or the redistribution of wealth to Black people to offset generational wealth inequality, do not have to come from a new tax law or government approval. Reparations can start now on a citizen level, neighbor to neighbor, but only with the stipulation that there can be no expectation of anything in return. Wealthy benefactors who have an interest in correcting society’s wrongs must now give heavily with no oversight.
With so much of “the way things work” thrown out the window during Covid, there’s a golden opportunity to reimagine everything from schooling to policing. The calls from locals to respect and honor the Black residents of Marin by funding equality have always been present, but they have gotten much louder thanks to Zoom making public meetings accessible to more people. That, on top of shelter in place and the Black Lives Matter education we all received after the George Floyd protests, mean that there is no longer an excuse for withholding reparations from Marin’s Black residents.
Marin County is safe and wealthy enough to be a perfect testing ground for unique and creative solutions to all these societal ills and divisions.
It is on us, the white and privileged residents of Marin County, to fund an equitable future. This is how we earn forgiveness. It will take many years and millions of dollars in tangible reparations, but we can be a beacon of hope to this entire nation if we commit to proving Black Lives Matter.
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The people listed below have either directly segregated Sausalito and Marin, have donated to the campaigns of those who segregated, have known about the fraudulent nature of the Michaels developer’s reports, and/or withheld public funds from Marin’s neediest residents. Many of these individuals sit on overlapping boards. Their deliberate abuse of Black children over the last two decades, based on beliefs of white supremacy, mean that they owe the steepest reparation bill of any Marin residents. It is time for all those involved to publicly divest, apologize for their misled wrong-doings, and make amends, especially after January’s coordinated attack on the capitol and democratic process from far-right white supremacist in power.
Willow Creek Academy
Bill Ziegler, Willow Creek Academy founder and former school board member, with Arques Charitable Education Trust and Seiler Epstein Ziegler and Applegate LLC
Bruce Huff, Willow Creek Academy co-founder and Sausalito Rotary Club President, with Kimber Management
Kim Huff, Sausalito Women’s Club President, Marin Community Foundation trust overseer
Max Huff, part owner of Kimber Management and donor to Willow Creek Academy
Doug & Mickie Lloyd, large Willow Creek Academy donors with Inheritance Funding Co.
Jim Henry, Willow Creek Academy treasurer
Peter & Shelby van Meter with Menk & Associates, Sausalito Beautiful
Kurt and Eva Weinsheimer with A Day in May Graphic Design Studio (their family members who donated heavily to Willow Creek are Willaim Weinsheimer with Strauss & Malk LLP and Robert Weinsheimer with Swedish Medical Group)
Marijke Smit with MKThink
Josh Barrow with Game Taco Inc. and Bayside Partners, Inc.
Jim Henry with the Sausalito Yacht Club
Jeff Knowles, now resigned WCA board member, with Coblentz, Patch et al
Caroline Van Alst, SMCSD Board Member and partner with Hemming & Morse Forensic & Financial Consultants
Steve Moore, Caroline van Alst’s husband, Friends of Willow Creek director with Ross Valley Sanitary District General Manager
Thomas & Susan Newmeyer, former SMCSD board member with Jacobs & Co.
Sam H. Harrison, Harrison Holdings LP
Margi Cellucci & Tracy Wilks-White, Bayview Realty
Emily Cox, head of school and principle, San Jose State University Department of Teacher Education lecturer
Johanna & Rob VanderMolen, WCA board members, Marin Civil Grand Jury
Cynthia & Stacy Nimmo, WCA board with Womens Funding Network and Apple, respectively
Tara Seekins, former head of school and principle
Jen Conway, parent
Clark Warden, board member
Alex & Heather Kinnebrew on the foundation board, with Waggi
Diane and Jeff Bernstein, charter school teachers with Coblentz.patch
Casey & Alicia Leach, foundation board members with Southern Marin Youth Football
Alexandra Mussallem, Secretary
Sarah Alward with Glassdoor
Ed Fotsch with Gemini Health
Teri Lang with Sausalito Picture Framing and Tivoli Décor
Mary Austin with Blanner & Baker
Cheryl Popp with Book Passage
Tobias Tomgyist with Advent
Vida Vendela
Joan Corrigan with Marin Conservation League
Heidi Wiltsee with YouTube
Jenny and Neil Billig
Ellen Rosenstein
Dale Barnes with Deloitte
Alexandra Cantin, parent council
David McGrane, parent and donor with Ozone Brand and Creative Consulting
Jen Simkalo with RBS Properties
Melanie Merachant with Willis Towers Watson
Robert Smelick with Headland Ventures
Camara Scremin with Decker Bullock
RW & Pamela Abendroth with Reliance Sheet Co.
Sherrie Faber with First California Realty
Cathy Behr
Fortunato Peruccon with Marin Drywall President
Jeff Haskell with NorthMarq Capital
Martina Quinn with MQContent
Ivan & Orlene Glover
Lloyd & Connie Latch
Flynn McDonald
Christiana Scarpino with Sausalito Imports
Mary Massey
Fred Seegal, Vice Chair of Cowen Inc
Jerry & Tiffany Spolter, with Gerald G Spolter, Esq
Timothy Cook, chief executive officer of Apple
Orlando Lobo, former Willow Creek Academy President
City of Sausalito
Susan Cleveland-Knowles, Sausalito City Council member and former mayor, with the San Francisco City Attorney’s Transportation Team and General Council to the SFMTA
Adam Politzer, City Manager (retired)
Marcia Raines, Interim City Manager
Joe Burns, former Sausalito mayor and city council member with Vanguard Properties
Tom Reilly, former Sausalito City Council, Board director of Anomali and Ombud, advisor to Egnyte, DataStax, Confidently, Incorta, Trusona, Netography, OmniSci, Gemini Health
Ray Withy, former Sausalito mayor and city council member, Marin Clean Energy board member
Joan Cox, former Sausalito City Council member, with Burke, Williams & Sorensen, LLP
Vicki Nichols, former Sausalito City Council with Marin Conservation League
Jeff Scharosch, Sausalito Chamber of Commerce, Sausalito Business Advisory Committee, the Marin Economic Forum board of directors, Spinnaker Restaurant General Manager, UCSF adjuct professor
Mike Langford, Sausalito Parks and Recreation Department
Howard Smith Jr., Marin City Community District director
Jill James Hoffman, newly appointed Sausalito Mayor and former city council member with Qorkz Wine
Ian Sobieski, newly elected Sausalito City Council member and donor to Willow Creek Academy, with Band of Angels
Robert Clark, Sausalito Marin City School District Chief Business Officer
Marin County Board of Supervisors
Kate Rice, President
Judy Arnold
Dennis Rodoni, former Marin Agricultural Land Trust board member
Damon Connolly
Kathrin Sears, newly retired Marin County Board of Supervisors District 3,Marin Clean Energy board chair
Leslie Alden, former aid to Kathrin Sears
Steve Kinsey, former Board of Supervisors President and Marin Agricultural Land Trust director from 1997 to 2016
Renee Giacomini-Brewer, Deputy County Counsel
Marin Housing Authority
Kim Carroll, Marin Housing Authority deputy director, Edible Marin and Wine Country photographer
Rob Simon, Marin Housing Authority
Lewis Jordan, Marin Housing Authority executive director
Amy Chan, Marin Housing Authority chief financial officer
Leelee Thomas, Marin County Housing Planning Manager
Homer Hall, tenant
Other county officials with knowledge of Marin City gentrification plans
Stephanie Moulton-Peters, newly elected Supervisors for District 3, former Mill Valley mayor
Roy Givens, county of Marin finance department
Liz Darby, county of Marin equity officer
Marin Community Foundation and Buck Family Fund Board
Dr. Thomas Peters, President and CEO
Vikki Garrod
Laura Goff
Sid Hartman
John Logan
Saul Macias
Lauren McClelland
Alix Derby Salkin
Mark Buell, MCF Chair with the San Francisco Recreation & Parks Commission
Mitch Cohen, Principal, with Ross Investment Associates, LLC
Saul Peña, VP, with Dodge & Cox
Robert J Reynolds
Roxanne Richards with the YMCA’s of San Mateo, San Francisco, and Marin
Maureen Sedonaen, CEO of Habitat for Humanity of the greater San Francisco area
Daniel Skaff, President and Co-CEO of Beneficial State Bank
Debra Wetherby, CEO and Shareholder of Wetherby Asset Management
Andrew Giacomini, Buck Family Fund Chair and Managing Partner of Hanson Bridgett LLP
Marilee Eckert with the Conservation Corps North Bay
Elsia Galawish, owner of Galawish Consulting Associates and President of the Rotary Club of Mission San Rafael
Miguel Gavaldón
Noah Griffin
Peter Hamilton with Fair Isaac and Company
Brigette Moran with Osher Marin JCC
Jan Reynolds
Steven Schroeder, MD, with UCSF
Marin Agricultural Land Trust
Neil Rudolph, Chair with Symphony Asset Management, LLC
Robert McGee, vice-chair and president of Straus Family Creamery
Diana Giacomini Hagan, treasurer, CFO and co-owner of Pt. Reyes Farmstead Cheese Co.
Andrew Giacomini, Marin Community Foundation chair
Tamara Hicks, secretary, with Toluma Farms
Bill Barboni II, with Marin Pet Hospital
Marcia Barinaga, with Barinaga Ranch and journalist for Science magazine
Barbara Boucke
Sam Dolcini
Ralph Grossi, MALT’s first board chairman
Janine Guillot, CEO of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board
Lynne Lamarca Heinrich, a senior consultant at Marts & Lundy
Tim Kehoe with J Ranch
Paul Martin
Rebecca Patton, Chief Conservation Strategies Officer of The Nature Conservancy
Lisa Poncia with Stemple Creek Ranch
Andrew Riesenfeld with DocuSign
Dave Schrader with Ohana Advisors
Marin Clean Energy Board
Kate Sears, former Board of Supervisors for District 3
Ray Withy, former Sausalito city council member
Tom Butt, Richmond mayor, board vice chair
Bob McCaskill, Tiburon vice-mayor
Elizabeth Patterson, Branson school board member and California Academy of Sciences board chair
Denise Athas, Novato City Council and Sierra Club
Ford Greene, San Anselmo mayor
Barbara Coler, Fairfax town council
Lisa Blackwell, Compass realtor
Edi Birsan
Renata Sos
Shanelle Scales-Preston
Kevin Haroff
Greg Lyman, El Cerrito mayor
Scott Perkins, San Ramon mayor
Rob Schroder, Martinez mayor
Justin Wedel, Walnut Creek mayor
John Gioia, Contra Costa mayor
David Kunhardt, Corte Madera mayor
The Marin Independent Journal
Rob Devincenzi, President and Publisher
Dave Allen, editor
Richard Halstead, writer
Dick Spotswood
Kerri Brenner
Marin Civil Grand Jury
Ronald M. Arlas
Johanna VanderMolen
