I would like to first introduce myself to you all as your new City Manager. I am honored to serve you. Our team recently sent a media release to alert our community of a mandatory large scale vegetation safety project by PG&E in our community. Our intent of the media release is to keep you all up to date and to provide our residents with an opportunity to communicate and share any concerns with PG&E.
I want you to know your City Council and staff are deeply engaged with PG&E. We will protect the safety and preservation of our community to the highest level. Some of you have referenced the lessons learned of past projects and those lessons weigh heavy with our leadership team. We will hold PG&E to our core values while weighing the safety of our community and the preservation of our cherished Redwood and Heritage trees.
As this being the first week on the job I am quickly catching up with staff and reviewing the project scope. Specifically, the evaluation of those trees that are scheduled for removal and those scheduled to be pruned back. I want to ensure you that we will represent the best interests of Mill Valley and work directly with PG&E leadership on any decision-making related to work scheduled for our parks. We will do what it takes to make sure any tree removal within our parks is necessary, and that work is done with care and respect. We are going to request that PG&E release and share their specific plans with our community so that we can all understand what trees are being considered and monitor their work.
We will continue to provide follow-up information as we work together with PG&E to ensure this project is performed to our expectations, while understanding safety will take precedence.
I hope you find this information helpful, and I look forward to meeting you all soon.
Regards,
Todd
Todd Cusimano
City Manager
City of Mill Valley