Former Marin County supervisor, environmentalist Gary Giacomini dies at 77

Gary Giacomini, a longtime Marin County supervisor who fought to preserve the county’s farmlands and saved the rail line that will soon carry North Bay commuter trains, died Friday night at his home in San Geronimo Valley. He was 77.

Giacomini served for 24 years as a supervisor and sat on 25 other state and regional boards and commissions.

An attorney and noted environmentalist, he was among a group of Marin officials who initiated the move to gain public ownership of the Southern Pacific Railroad right-of-way from Marin to Eureka in the early 1980s.

They lobbied Rep. Douglas Bosco, then the North Coast’s Democratic congressman, to include funding for the deal in a federal highway appropriations bill, paving the way for Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit’s future use of the tracks, where service from north Santa Rosa to downtown San Rafael is scheduled to start next year.

If not for that action, Southern Pacific would have sold off the rail line in pieces and there would be no rail alternative to Highway 101 traffic, said Bosco, a Santa Rosa attorney who is a co-owner of Northwestern Pacific, the exclusive freight operator on the same track.

Bosco got to know Giacomini years earlier, when the supervisor was his employer and Bosco was head of Marin County’s human relations department.

Giacomini was the “agent of change” in the movement to preserve West Marin open space and sustain agriculture, pursuing environmental goals with his gift for “natural diplomacy,” said Bosco, general counsel for Sonoma Media Investments, which owns The Press Democrat.

“Gary was 100 percent authentic and very honest,” he said. “He got along well with a wide spectrum of people.”

A 1,500-acre open space preserve in the San Geronimo area was named for Giacomini, whose election to the Board of Supervisors in 1972 led to scrapping a plan for 5,000 homes, shopping centers and a freeway through the area.

Giacomini’s advice was sought by generations of North Bay office-holders, Bosco said. He also enjoyed fried chicken lunches at the Washoe House, a historic restaurant on Stony Point Road north of Petaluma.

Tim Smith, a Sonoma County supervisor for ?20 years whose tenure overlapped with Giacomini’s on the Marin board, said his longtime friend was “one of those people you really hate to be losing … an absolute gentleman with a great sense of humor.”

During his 10 years on the California Coastal Commission, Giacomini was a “fierce defender of the coast,” Smith said. The commission, founded in 1972, was a product of the environmental campaign that thwarted PG&E’s planned nuclear power plant at Bodega Bay.

Giacomini, who grew up in Marin, launched his political career by winning a Lagunitas school board seat in 1968. When he retired from the Board of Supervisors in 1996, he was the longest-serving county supervisor in California history.

He was a member and president of the Golden Gate Bridge District for ?20 years.

A Marin Magazine story in 2007 named him one of the 13 most influential people in county history, a list that included retiring California Sen. Barbara Boxer and filmmaker George Lucas.

Giacomini is survived by his wife, Linda, of San Geronimo; two sons, Andrew and Antony Giacomini, both of San Geronimo; a sister, Roberta Powers, of Larkspur; and five grandchildren.

Services are pending.

You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 707-521-5457. On Twitter @guykovner.