Politics & Government

City Promotes Barnes to Public Works Director

Longtime engineer, who has led city efforts to build Steps, Lanes and Paths and overhaul an aging sewer system, had been serving in interim capacity since the retirement of Wayne Bush.

Jill Barnes is an interim no more.

Mill Valley City Manager Jim McCann said Thursday that Barnes, who has served as the city’s Interim Pubic Works Director since the January, has been promoted to the position permanently.

Barnes, who also serves as City Engineer, oversees the Department of Public Works, including street and sewer capital repairs and maintenance, storm drain and creek pollution prevention, traffic engineering, and City facilities and fleet maintenance.

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"Jill is a talented engineer with a terrific work ethic,” McCann said in a statement. “She is intelligent and tremendously responsive to community ideas and requests. I have found her enthusiasm and dedication to problem solving very refreshing and am pleased that she will lead our Department of Public Works.”

Barnes takes over the department at a time when the city needs to upgrade some of its infrastructure. The City Council to pay for a . Barnes said that money also helps that had been delayed because city officials didn’t want to have to tear up repaired streets to make subsequent sewer system upgrades.

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“This is an exciting time for us as we implement projects that will positively affect the community’s quality of life and natural surroundings,” said Ms. Barnes.

Barnes has worked for the city for 13 years, starting as associate engineer and moving up to senior engineer in 1999. She previously worked for the City of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and the Hyperion Wastewater Treatment Plant in El Segundo. She graduated from the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona with a BS in Civil Engineering.

In addition to the sewer and street repairs, Barnes has led the city’s expansion of the Steps, Lanes and Paths program, including the of it. She coordinated the renewal of the city’s Municipal Service Tax and the initiation of Road Impact Fees, which generates revenue for alternative transit projects like bike paths.

Barnes lives in Corte Madera with her husband, , and their three children.


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