Accomplishments

As a City Council member, most of what one can get done is accomplished in collaboration with others - other council members, other organizations, the county, state, etc. That said, here are things Erin has played a leadership role in getting accomplished.

Fire Safety, & Resilience

• Created Fire Safety Advisory Board whose recommendations will soon be reviewed and implemented
• Added annual FREE YARD WASTE disposal
• Created Adopt a Sliver program to clean up and maintain small plots of city property
• As mayor worked with PGE, the county, and others to harden the power lines coming into Nevada City so that the lights can go back on quickly during PSPS and other outages.

Water

• As Mayor of Nevada City led the county in adopting conservation measures to mitigate drought
• Continuing work on making 4 existing city-owned wells safe and usable to add more water supply to our existing sources
• Working on formalizing our relationship with NID to ensure our access to water

Promoting strong local businesses

• As mayor, created the “Safe Business” logo program for businesses complying with state mandates
• As mayor, supported use of sidewalks, and parking spaces, by shops and restaurants to help them get through the pandemic.
• On-going work with Planning Commission and permit seekers to streamline approval process while maintaining historical character, and making Nevada City a more friendly place to start a business
• Supported The National Exchange Hotel to re-open.

Cannabis (outside of the historic downtown area)

• Spearheaded efforts to approve Elevation’s expansion into recreational sales, which have proven to be a boon to the city’s finances
• Supporting cannabis manufacturing, and seeking less restrictive fees.

Improved City Finances

• Led efforts to replace and add new city staff to make city finances more transparent, and understandable to our citizens
• Approval of cannabis sales now adds substantially to Nevada City revenues
• Increase of parking meter rates from a quarter to half a dollar per hour bringing in needed funds for city operations
• Successfully co-led Measure M to provide a dedicated source of funding for infrastructure including repairs and improvements to water delivery.

Social Justice & Respect

• Working with Nisenan and City Council to restore a parcel of land to the Nisenan People
• Got June declared Gay Pride month in Nevada City permanently
• Fully supports the efforts of Council Members Fernandez and Peterson working towards a Community Policing model.

• Commissioner of LAFCO since 2018
• Member of California League of Cities, and their Rural Caucus which advocates for small cities throughout California
• Attended multiple trainings for Council members
• Council liaison to Chamber of Commerce
• Council liaison to Economic Resources Council
• Council liaison to Waste Management