01
Open, responsive government
Proactive communication and real transparency, so residents hear about decisions before they are made rather than after.
Candidate · Tiburon Town Council · Nov. 3, 2026
Faris JafarSteady hands, open books, and a plan built for every generation.
A dad of three young kids, a Del Mar neighbor, and an investment manager who spends his working life as a fiduciary — running for Town Council to bring that same duty of care to how Tiburon plans, spends, and listens.
Faris Jafar · Del Mar, Tiburon
“We cannot afford to procrastinate.”
— Faris Jafar, Marin Independent Journal, Aug. 30, 2026
The commitments
Eight commitments, in plain language.
These come from his candidate statement filed with the Town of Tiburon. A council seat is one vote of five, so each one is written as work he will push for and questions he will ask — not as a promise he could keep alone.
02
Finish the financial audits
Audited statements and strong reserves are what make informed decisions possible. Tiburon is working through a multi-year audit backlog; finishing it is a floor, not an achievement.
03
New revenue, reinvested
Direct new revenue into better services and infrastructure while looking for room to give residents tax relief.
04
Less friction for homeowners
Remove costly, outdated process hurdles that stand between homeowners and the investments they want to make in their own property.
05
Coordinate with our school district
The town and the Reed Union School District serve the same families and hold much of our combined public assets. Coordination stretches both budgets further.
06
Traffic, safety, emergency planning
Smart traffic management plus serious safety and evacuation planning — the preparedness a peninsula with limited exits actually needs.
07
Parks, trails and open space
Invest in the parks, trails and shoreline that make Tiburon what it is — and maintain them so they stay that way.
08
Planning for every generation
Planning that contemplates the whole arc of a resident's life, so young families and longtime residents stay connected instead of aging out or priced out.
Housing
Community-centric housing, planned on our terms.
Tiburon has to show the state it can accommodate 639 new residences by 2031, including 396 very-low-to-moderate-income units, under its regional housing needs allocation (The Ark). Meanwhile the town's population has fallen roughly 4% over the last decade and school enrollment by about 30%. Those two facts are usually argued against each other. He thinks they are the same conversation.
What he'd push for on housing
- Thoughtful, bespoke housing policy that leans on accessory dwelling units alongside new housing formats, rather than defaulting to contentious high-rise development.
- Explore preferential access for the teachers, police officers, firefighters and public works employees who serve Tiburon but cannot afford to live here.
- Work with the Reed Union School District on how its excess land might serve both housing and school needs.
- Treat housing as a way to reunite families across generations and to give local businesses the customers and workers they need.
- Be honest that state law limits how much any town council can say no — and use the room we do have deliberately.
Where he stands, in detail
The long version — no clicking required.
Positions are only useful if you can check the reasoning behind them. Each topic below states what is verifiably happening in Tiburon right now, with sources, and then what Faris would push for.
01
Town finances and the audit backlog
In August 2026 the council voted to spend up to $250,000 on outside accountants to clear a three-year backlog of unfinished financial audits — work not expected to bring the town current until the middle of 2027 at the earliest (The Ark; the contract was reported at $195,000 by the Marin IJ before the council raised the ceiling). The town has also begun issuing monthly financial reports (The Ark).
Those are steps in the right direction. Reading financial statements is his day job, and a town should not need a special contract to know where it stands.
What he'd push for
- A published catch-up timeline with real dates, and a public status update every month until the backlog is cleared.
- Monthly reporting written in plain English — what came in, what went out, what changed against budget — not just a packet of exhibits.
- A standing practice of not approving major spending without current numbers in front of the council.
- Multi-year reserve and liability targets stated openly, including pension and OPEB obligations, so tradeoffs are visible before they are urgent.
- A post-mortem on how a three-year backlog happened, so the fix is structural rather than a one-time contract.
02
Housing that Tiburon writes itself
The state's housing department broadly rejected Tiburon's 2023–2031 housing element, itemizing nearly three dozen deficiencies and pressing the town to be more specific about how it would actually produce units, particularly affordable ones. Tiburon must identify sites for at least 639 units and ensure zoning and programs realistically encourage them; failing certification exposes the town to the builder's remedy and litigation (The Ark).
His argument in the Marin IJ is that delay does not protect Tiburon — it hands the outcome to rushed decisions or to parties outside the community.
What he'd push for
- Lean hard on accessory dwelling units and gentler housing formats before anything that reads as a high-rise.
- Explore local-worker access for teachers, first responders and public works staff, within what fair-housing law permits.
- Open, good-faith coordination with the Reed Union School District about its excess land rather than negotiation by press release.
- Treat declining population and 30% lower school enrollment as a planning input, not a talking point.
- Compliance strategy that keeps decisions local and defensible, so the town is never negotiating from inside a lawsuit.
03
Tiburon Boulevard, traffic and getting off the peninsula
The town commissioned a transportation and infrastructure study focused on Tiburon Boulevard, aiming to reduce delay, ease congestion and improve safety (Town of Tiburon). In May 2026 the council unanimously adopted a pilot of adaptive "smart" signals at the Trestle Glen bottleneck, plus an approach to contractor trucks clogging the peninsula at rush hour (The Ark).
What he'd push for
- Measure the signal pilot honestly against before-and-after travel times, publish the data, and expand only what works.
- Attack the unglamorous variables: construction and delivery truck timing, school-hour patterns, and event-day surges.
- Treat evacuation as a distinct problem from congestion — a peninsula with one main artery needs a credible plan residents have actually seen.
- Safer walking and biking routes to Reed and Del Mar schools, so fewer trips need a car in the first place.
- Use Tiburon's seat at regional transportation tables to argue for ferry and transit service that reduces peak car trips.
04
Town and school district, out of their silos
He has said the town and the Reed Union School District together “command a significant portion, on a combined basis, of municipal taxes and resources and assets to serve the Tiburon community,” and that residents describe the two operating in silos — odd, given they serve the same families (The Ark). He sits on the district's Budget Advisory Committee, so he comes to this with working knowledge of the numbers.
What he'd push for
- A standing joint session between the council and the school board with a real agenda, not a courtesy appearance.
- Shared facilities and joint-use agreements for fields, parking and meeting space instead of duplicate spending.
- Aligned capital planning so paving, drainage and safety projects around schools are sequenced together.
- One shared enrollment and demographic outlook both bodies plan against.
- Clarity that coordination is partnership — the council cannot direct an independently elected school board, and should not pretend otherwise.
05
Parks, trails and the shoreline
Parks and amenities are a shared priority across this year's field, with several candidates emphasizing new park features (The Ark). His emphasis is on lifecycle cost and maintenance discipline.
What he'd push for
- Decide what the town can afford to keep beautiful for twenty years before adding something it cannot sustain.
- A published maintenance backlog for parks, trails and shoreline assets, with funding attached.
- Sequence improvements by how many residents actually use them, measured rather than assumed.
- Protect shoreline access and views as the non-negotiable public asset they are.
06
How he'd communicate as a councilmember
Proactive rather than reactive. None of this requires a budget line — it requires deciding that residents are owed the same clarity a client is owed.
What he'd push for
- Publish the tradeoffs before the vote, not the justification after it.
- Explain a “no” as carefully as a “yes,” including what would have changed the answer.
- Plain summaries after each meeting: what the council decided, what it costs, what happens next.
- Answer email. Say when you don't know yet, then follow up.
- Be judged on measurable follow-through — audits completed, projects delivered on budget, response times.
The job
Five council members, one vote each. The honest scope.
Campaigns tend to promise things the office cannot deliver. Tiburon has a council/manager form of government, so it is worth being clear about what you are actually electing.
A policy body, not a staff
The council sets policy and priorities; the town manager it appoints runs day-to-day operations and departments (Town of Tiburon).
Five seats, staggered terms
Five members are elected at large to staggered four-year terms. Three seats are on this November's ballot for terms running to 2030 (Town of Tiburon).
The mayor's job rotates
The council appoints one of its own members as mayor each December; it is an honorary role that rotates annually (Town of Tiburon).
State law sets real limits
Housing element requirements, CEQA and regional allocations come from Sacramento. A council chooses how to comply thoughtfully; it cannot opt out.
Schools are a separate government
The Reed Union School District has its own elected board and budget. The council can partner and coordinate — it cannot direct the district.
Progress is measurable
Audits completed, response times, projects delivered on budget, meetings people can actually follow. Those are the numbers worth being judged on.
Background · Why he's running
“If you can, why not help?”
— Faris Jafar, The Ark
His parents fled Iraq during Saddam Hussein's rise to power and the Iran-Iraq War, spent time in London, and eventually settled in the United States. That history left him with a specific conviction: a good life owes a lot to luck and to the people around you, and if you got some of that luck, you owe something back.
He and his wife Christina are raising three kids here — ages 6, 4 and 2. He wants them, and the neighbors who have been here for decades, to have excellent schools, real parks, safe streets, dependable public services, and a town government that runs well enough to be boring.
This is his first run for elected office. He'd rather say that plainly than dress it up. What he brings instead is a career spent reading financial statements closely, asking uncomfortable questions early, and finding the arrangement that leaves every party better off than the fight would have.
Read the local coverage of the race: The Ark's five-candidate profile and its candidates-at-a-glance guide.
About Faris
A fiduciary by trade, a neighbor by choice.
He founded Jafar Management, a wealth-management firm, in 2018 and serves as its chief investment officer. Before that he spent his career at investment and private-equity firms including Blackstone, KKR, Point72, Millennium and Citadel. The through-line of that work is the reason he is running: as a fiduciary, you put other people's interests ahead of your own, you show your math, and you are accountable for results someone else can measure.
He was born and raised in metro Detroit and graduated from Indiana University Bloomington with degrees in finance, international studies, Spanish and psychology. His family has lived in Tiburon's Del Mar neighborhood since 2022. Their two older kids attend Reed Elementary, where he volunteers as a class parent. He serves on the Reed Union School District's Budget Advisory Committee, and he and Christina support the Foundation for Reed Schools. Earlier this year he applied for an appointment to the school board; the board chose another applicant, and he is still glad he raised his hand.
“It's understanding all of the interests of our stakeholders and identifying ways to unlock untapped value and potential to make everybody's outcomes better.”
Faris Jafar, in The Ark
Home in Tiburon
Three kids, one town, a very full calendar.
Christina and Faris are raising a 6-, 4- and 2-year-old here, with the two older kids at Reed Elementary. Most of what he knows about how Tiburon actually works, he learned in a car line, on a trail, or at a birthday party in a park.
Family photography is the campaign's own. Tiburon photography is licensed stock imagery from Adobe Stock. No AI-generated images of the town or of people appear anywhere on this site.
How to vote
Tuesday, November 3, 2026.
Five candidates are running for three seats: incumbents Alice Fredericks and Jack Ryan, and challengers Kathleen Defever, Chuck Hornbrook and Faris Jafar (The Ark). You may vote for up to three. However you fill out your ballot, please fill it out.
Register
Check or update your registration with the Marin County Elections Department, the official election authority for this race.
Vote by mail
Every active registered California voter is mailed a ballot. Watch your mailbox in October and return it early if you can.
Vote in person
Polling place, vote-center and drop-box locations are published by Marin County Elections ahead of Election Day.
Get in touch
Tell him what he's missing.
He would genuinely rather hear a concern now than read about it later. Email him directly, or connect on LinkedIn. Invitations to a block get-together are welcome — he'll come.
Ways to help
Start with a conversation.
The single most useful thing anyone can do is get a few neighbors in a room. Faris is happy to join — a living room, a back yard, a coffee, whatever is easiest.
- Host a conversation with your neighbors and invite him. Three people or thirty — he'll come, listen, and answer whatever gets asked.
- Talk to three people who don't usually vote in local elections.
- Share the site in your neighborhood or parents' group.
Or send a note
A message from a neighbor carries more weight than anything a campaign can print. Here's a draft — edit it to sound like you, then send it to a few people on the peninsula.
Hi — quick local note. There are three seats open on the Tiburon Town Council on Nov. 3, and I've been paying attention to Faris Jafar. He's a Del Mar neighbor, a Reed parent, and he sits on the school district's budget advisory committee. His focus is the stuff that actually affects us: finishing the town's overdue financial audits, handling the state housing requirements with a plan Tiburon writes itself, real traffic and evacuation planning on Tiburon Boulevard, and getting the town and the school district to coordinate instead of working in silos. His site lays out where he stands, with sources: https://faris4tiburon.com Worth five minutes before you fill out your ballot. Vote for up to three.
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