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Name: Ellen Vernazza
Age: 72
Occupation:Â Retired realtor and bookkeeper
Year residing in the district or city: 37
Campaign website:Â ellenfortowncouncil.com
Questions:
1. What makes you the best candidate and what relevant experience do you bring?Â
I believe that I am the best candidate as I want to put the residents first, listen to and address their concerns and questions rather than disregarding them. Having been a realtor for 20 years I listen well and am good at finding answers and negotiating between different viewpoints.
2. What are your top three priorities as a council member?
- Get our finances in order and never allow oversight to fail again.
- Be accessible and listen to and respond to residents’ concerns. They are who I would be representing!Â
- Be a strong advocate for our residents’ safety. Being located in a WUI high fire location and sitting on multiple earthquake faults with limited egress makes high density development highly inappropriate.
3. The town has experienced a high turnover of staff over the last year. How can the council support the efforts to efficiently rebuild a strong town administration?
As the town manager is in charge of hiring, the council needs to be kept up to date regarding the process and make sure that the new employees are trained to the best of their abilities and understand how to work well with and serve our town residents.
4. How can the town develop stronger relationships with its residents and community members?
By listening to them and responding to them.
5. What does the town currently struggle with?
The town is struggling with cohesiveness. The Town Council, the town staff and the town residents need to get back to a healthy relationship where everyone is respected.
6. Financial audits are currently being conducted, but residents have expressed their disapproval for the lack of transparency on the town’s budget. What can be done to get the town’s finances in order for the next fiscal years?
The town’s finances are currently being brought up to date, but it will take until the end of next year to complete the process. We can never let oversight slide again.
7. The Planning Commission and Architectural & Site Control Commission have records of frequently canceling meetings. How can the town make volunteer-based committees more accountable? Should it?
I do think that committees should be accountable. They are making recommendations which affect the council’s decision making which greatly affects the lives of town’s residents.
8. How can the town preserve its small town characteristics? Should it?
Yes, the town should do everything in its power to preserve our small town characteristics. Some people thrive living near Starbucks and think that Portola Valley is in the middle of nowhere. We need to keep our town rural for people who thrive in greener, quieter locations because once it is gone, it is gone for good.
Hells Angels member reaches plea deal in fatal punch case at Shoreline AmphitheatreApril 22, 2026 8:00 am
In 2022, Ellen Vernazza and 7 others sued the Town Council and the Wildfire Preparedness Committee (WPC). As a member of the WPC, I was asked to turn in all my emails and text messages. With such a terrible violation of privacy, 2 WPC members immediately resigned. We subsequently lost 2 more, and the WPC could no longer meet because we didn’t have quorum. It took months for the chair and former mayor Craig Hughes to figure things out so that the WPC could meet again, plus a brave new volunteer joined us out of sympathy for our plight.
I don’t even remember how the WPC managed to host its first Wildfire Preparedness Fair that year during all that chaos and a general fear of the gang of 8 coming after us. That fear continues to keep others from joining the WPC. People tell us, why would they want to join the WPC and get exposed to being sued.
This Town prides itself on its volunteers. Vernazza is proud of her lawsuit against the Town. To me, that just doesn’t align with our Town’s values. I never understood why Ellen Vernazza was suing me. But I don’t think it was about transparency. It was simply a way to target somebody and waste hundreds of thousands of dollars defending our Town’s volunteers. Are those the kind of people we want running our Town?
I support Helen Wolter and Rebecca Flynn to give our Town a chance to succeed.
Sincerely,
-mj lee, volunteer