San Anselmo honors community organizer Kurt Reese with mayoral proclamation amid mixed public comments

Mayor Eileen Burke presented a proclamation at the Dec. 10 San Anselmo Town Council meeting honoring Kurt Reese for what the proclamation called "extraordinary commitment to the residents of San Anselmo." The proclamation, read aloud by Burke, cited Reese’s volunteer hours and public engagement on housing affordability and rent-control discussions.

Reese, who the proclamation identified as a longtime resident and town employee, accepted the recognition and framed it as part of a broader movement. "We were climbing up and up we were climbing uphill against difficult demographics ... Corporate Landlords and wealthy real estate interests spent nearly $400,000," he said, summarizing the scale of outside spending he said helped defeat rent-control measures in the region. He added that Marin’s rental market is among the nation’s most expensive and said working people must organize to press for change.

Council members and residents praised Reese’s civic work. Councilmember Steve Berto said Reese is "not only an amazing employee for the town ... but you're also a really active and engaged resident of our town." Peter Getz of the Democratic Socialists of America and several other speakers thanked Reese for his leadership on the rent-control campaign.

At the same time, multiple public commenters used the proclamation time to raise accountability questions about endorsements and library programming. A speaker identified as Eva/April urged the council to be more transparent about endorsements of incoming councilmember Yoav Schlessinger and referenced Schlessinger’s past relationship with APAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee), saying the endorsement "was made without acknowledging either of the two issues" and that "we need some transparency on Schlesinger." Another online commenter said the library presentation on Middle East history had been shut down in a way they described as an attack on the First Amendment.

Mayor Burke and council members allowed those comments during the public-comment portion that followed the proclamation; no formal actions, statements or policy changes addressing the endorsement or the library presentation were taken at the meeting. The proclamation remains a formal record of the council’s recognition; the council will follow up with standard notifications to volunteers and award recipients.

The council moved on after public remarks to other agenda items, including the consent calendar and committee appointments.