Mike Reilly, former Sonoma County supervisor and California coastal commissioner, dies

Retired Sonoma County supervisor Mike Reilly, for decades a genial yet resolute champion of the people who inhabit a great swath of the lower Russian River watershed - and of the land itself - died Thursday. The longtime Forestville resident was 75.

Politically liberal, Reilly worked in human services before he won election to a vacant seat on the Board of Supervisors in 1996. Through three four-year terms, many of the issues nearest his heart involved equal treatment of under-served residents and vigilant stewardship of natural spaces along the Sonoma Coast and elsewhere in the county.

Reilly’s passion for conservation led to him serving 12 years on the state Coastal Commission, for two years as its chairman, and on the board of the California Coastal Conservancy.

“He was a fierce defender of the coast and its resources,” said former county Supervisor Tim Smith.

Smith, a 20-year veteran of the board who lives in Santa Rosa, said Reilly distinguished himself also by the open and respectful way he treated even his political adversaries, and by how thoroughly he researched the issues that came before him.

“Everybody liked working with Mike,” Smith said. “He was smart, did his homework, came prepared all the time.”

And, said the former central-county supervisor, it was unmistakable how much Reilly cared for the county’s Fifth District, which takes in western Sonoma County.

“He was sort of the mayor of west county,” Smith said.

The current vice mayor of Sebastopol, Una Glass, witnessed Reilly work through the more than two years that she served as his district aide and the many more years that they were colleagues on the board of the conservation group Coastwalk California. Reilly was still the chairman of Coastwalk when he died.

“What I can say about Mike is that he read his packet,” Glass said. As a county supervisor and a coastal commissioner, she said, Reilly wasn’t at all one to ask staff members to tell him what to think but instead he pored over research and data, and made up his own mind.

Glass reflected further, “He was kind of your classic Irish politician.” She said Reilly was renowned for his common, friendly touch and for treating everyone well, but standing tough for his convictions.

“He was just unpretentious,” Glass said, “an unpretentious person who cared a lot about making the right thing happen.” And, she added, he had no qualms about accepting the money needed to make such things happen.

Glass remembers Reilly saying more than once, “We’re going to take money from the devil and do the work of angels.”

Several admirers of Reilly said that disagreeing with others didn’t keep him from treating them kindly - perhaps while trying to bring them around to his view of the right action.

Former 16-year north county supervisor Paul Kelley of Healdsburg said of Reilly, “Though he and I probably had different political views, we became friends and accomplished much on the board.”

When the west county’s current supervisor, Lynda Hopkins of Sebastopol, ran for the board, Reilly endorsed her opponent, Noreen Evans. But Hopkins treasures the times, following her victory, that Reilly had a beer with her and let her pick his brain.

“He was such a good human,” she said, “and a joy to be around.”

Reilly’s wife, Judi, said this was one of the many things she loved about him: “He was a master at getting people together.”

Mike Reilly was born in San Mateo on May 27, 1944. His inclination for leadership and caring emerged early on:

He served as senior class president at Hayward High and as student body president at Chabot College. As a young man his distress at the misery he witnessed on East Bay streets led him to co-found and direct Project Eden, which brought drug counseling and other services to youth in crisis.

Reilly also served two years in the Army. In 1977, when he was 33, he moved to Sonoma County and took a job with the county’s drug and alcohol program.

He met future four-term west county Supervisor Ernie Carpenter when the two of them volunteered for the River Switchboard. The grassroots human services agency evolved into West County Community Services.

Reilly “was always involved with the community out there,” Carpenter said. “He never lost his concern for other people.”

In 1981, Reilly launched his political career as an aide to North Coast Assembly member Dan Hauser. After four years he joined West County Community Services as its executive director.

His public service also included terms on the Forestville and West County High School board.

In 1995, Carpenter announced he would not seek a fifth term as Fifth District supervisor. Reilly threw his hat in the ring, and won.

His wife remembers that the first time he told her he wanted to be a supervisor, she had no idea what it was he wanted to supervise.

The two of them, both ardent golfers, had met in 1991 at the Northwoods course near Monte Rio. Judi Walker managed it at the time.

“He pursued me for three months and I finally I said, ‘Yes, I will go out with you.’?” She said that was one of the best things she ever did.

For their wedding early in 1997, the supervisor had to take a quick break from his work responding to a major Russian River flood.

The couple traveled a great deal, often to Coastal Commission meetings up and down the state. As they headed off, one or the other would say, “We’re on another Michael and Judi adventure.”

During and after his 12-year run as a supervisor and coastal commissioner, Mike Reilly was key to endeavors by the Board of Supervisors to improve services to the Roseland district that’s now within the city of Santa Rosa, and to protect the Sonoma Coast from development and from gas and oil exploration.

Among the open-space projects that bear Reilly’s fingerprints are the 5,630-?acre Jenner Headlands Preserve and the West County Trail.

In recent months, said friend and former aide Glass, “His body was not working so well any more, but he was still engaged in issues.

“He was always thinking about what is a good idea, and what isn’t.”

The medical issues that challenged Reilly included a recent diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS, known also Lou Gehrig’s disease.

“He knew he didn’t have that long,” said friend and fellow ex-west county Supervisor Carpenter. He said the last two times he visited, Reilly wanted to talk about others he cared about and not about himself.

Reilly’s family was with him when he died Thursday afternoon at Kaiser Permanente hospital in Santa Rosa.

“The last thing he said to me,” his wife recalled, “was, ‘Hey, sweetie, we had a great ride.’?”

She responded to him, “We’re off on another Michael and Judy adventure.”

With that, she said, “He smiled and, as much as he could, he squeezed my hand.”

In addition to his wife in Forestville, Mike Reilly is survived by his brother, Terry Reilly of Vacaville; by his daughters, Kimberly Tilton of Santa Rosa, Sheri Mannion of Ukiah and Kelly Schot of San Francisco, two grandchildren and numerous nieces, nephews, grand-nieces and grand-nephews.

You can reach Staff Writer Chris Smith at 707-521-5211.