Planning panel member named to City Council

San Rafael officials have appointed Eli Hill, a city planning commissioner, to fill a vacant seat on the City Council.

The council selected Hill from a pool of 13 applicants and voted unanimously Tuesday to appoint him.

“I am so humbled,” Hill said. “I hope to do our community the best that I can.”

Hill was appointed to the Planning Commission in September and has been a member of the Fire Commission since October 2019. He will give up both seats.

City officials “will be opening a recruitment for those vacancies soon,” said City Clerk Lindsay Lara.

Hill was sworn in Tuesday to complete the remainder of a term that ends in November 2022. Kate Colin was elected to that term in November 2017, but left the seat vacant after she was elected mayor in November.

Because Colin was elected to her seat on the council before San Rafael switched to district-based elections, applications for the vacancy were accepted from residents who live anywhere inside city limits. But Colin and the three councilwomen said they would give priority to applicants living in District 2, because when the term expires, the seat must be filled by a resident who lives there.

Hill was one of eight applicants from District 2, which includes the downtown, Bret Harte, Gerstle Park, Sun Valley and West End neighborhoods.

Colin said selecting an appointee was “one of the toughest decisions I have to make.”

She said was looking for a candidate with a strong understanding of San Rafael’s issues and said that Hill is “really well versed as to what’s facing us.”

Vice Mayor Maribeth Bushey said that of all the applicants, Hill was “the most qualified of the very qualified group that we have.”

“Previous city service or awareness of city issues and some of the history of city issues is critical to being an immediately effective council member,” Bushey said.

Hill, a 43-year-old Chinese American who grew up in San Francisco, moved to San Rafael in 2018. He has worked since 2014 as senior director for a San Francisco consulting firm.

“I have a family here in San Rafael and that means so much to me,” he said. “So much of what drives me is making sure our world is verdant for our current and next generation.”

In his application, Hill said his top priorities for the city include increasing affordable housing, improving the technology used by police and fire personnel, providing housing for the homeless and making San Rafael an easier place to move around.