“Small Family Farms” -
The Dynastic Wealth and Political Power of the Marin Ranching Families
This letter was originally drafted as a response to Jolynn McClelland’s Marin IJ “Marin Voice” submission (“Point Reyes dairy stewardship protects agricultural heritage”, April 2) in which she refers to her and neighboring operations on the Point Reyes National Seashore as “small family farms.”
Ranchers like Jolynn McClelland have been enormously successful molding our view of the small family farmer. We see images of dairymen and women in muddy goulashes having completed their chores before the sun rises over rolling hills of dried grasses. There is a simplicity to their character and gratitude in their demeanor that seems to say, while the falling prices of organic milk is a constant worry, the land will provide for our humble family.
However, McClelland’s story exemplifies a more disturbing trend in Marin. Contrary to the image portrayed, McClelland is not a small family farmer, but rather the direct heir to what might be the two most powerful and prominent families in Marin history – the Dolcini family and the Mendoza family.
The patriarch of the Dolcini family is Charles Martin, so “extremely affluent” that he is referred to as the “Capitalist of Tomales” in documents preserved in the Anne T. Kent California Room at the Marin County Free Library.[1] Martin was President of the Petaluma National Bank and the Marin County Bank in San Rafael, and he was director of the Hill Bank of Petaluma, the Bank of Sebastopol, and the Banca Svizzera Americana.[2] Martin’s heirs constitute the largest landowning family in Marin County, possessing over 14,200 acres in Marin County alone.[3] To put the size of these land holdings into perspective, this family’s estate is larger than the total land size of Fairfax, San Anselmo, Ross, Kentfield, Larkspur, Corte Madera, Mill Valley, and Tiburon combined.
Along with this enormous land wealth, the Dolcini family occupies a privileged position within influential organizations that control taxpayer monies; the Marin Agricultural Land Trust (”MALT”) provides a pertinent example. Two members of the Dolcini family were among those who executed MALT’s Articles of Incorporation, and both sat on the inaugural MALT Board. Since MALT’s foundation, every year, at least one member of the Dolcini family has sat on the MALT Board and/or the MALT Advisory Committee. MALT has purchased nine easements for a total of over $10.5 million from members of this family,[4] and since the passage of Measure A, the family has acquired two new ranches - totaling over 850 acres[5] - using Marin County taxpayer money.[6](As a reminder, it was a MALT’s purchase of an easement over a Dolcini ranch that brought the recent allegations of corruption. See: “Conflicts of interest afflict MALT”, Oct. 28, 2020)
It therefore belies credulity that McClelland’s operation is a “small family farm.”
However, McClelland’s dynastic wealth and political connections do not end at her mother’s side of the family. As she mentions in her article, she is also the granddaughter of Joseph Mendoza, who sold A, B, and L ranches on the Point Reyes National Seashore to the government in 1971 for $8,000,000, (over $53 million adjusted). With a portion of those funds, over the following two years, Mendoza purchased two new ranches in Marin outside the Seashore – a 1,631 acres ranch presently owned by McClelland’s mother, Linda (Lafranchi) Mendoza (purchased on July 20, 1972), and an another 787-acres owned by McClelland’s first cousins, Karen and John Taylor (purchased on July 12, 1973. In 2018, MALT purchased an easement over the latter ranch for $3,594,000, using $1,817,950 in Marin Measure A taxpayer money. This was the highest value ever paid by MALT for an easement on a ranch of this kind. The entire transaction was completed while two of McClelland’s cousins (including John Taylor who owns the ranch) sat on the MALT Board. Also with the proceeds from the 1971 sale to the NPS, Mendoza purchased an entire block in the commercial area of Point Reyes Station (purchased on July 2, 1973).
However, McClelland’s political ties run deeper than simply agricultural organizations. A 2015 “Press Democrat” article describing McClelland’s father, Joey Mendoza, states, “A Republican dairyman, Mendoza managed to forge a lasting relationship with Democratic U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer from her days as a Marin County supervisor. Similarly, he served as a bridge builder for the farming community with environmentalists, elected Marin County leaders and parks officials at the Point Reyes National Seashore …”[7]
“B” Ranch and “L” Ranch are presently leased by McClelland’s mother, Linda Mendoza, and “A” Ranch, “E” Ranch, and part of “D” Ranch are presently leased by McClelland’s cousin, Betty Nunes (thank you for your Sept. 8 report on their "dump site").
McClelland’s generational wealth and political connections are not unique to her story, but rather the norm for west Marin ranching dynasties.
Consider Robert Giacomini who leases “Gallagher Ranch” in the GGNRA while privately owning 714 acres in Marin. He is a relative of former Marin County Supervisor Gary Giacomini, the present Deputy County Counsel Renee (Giacomini) Brower, and the present Marin County Supervisor, Dennis Rodoni (who is a Giacomini on his mother’s side). Along with Robert Giacomini’s extensive land holdings and his familial ties to political players, his family’s well-recognized company “Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese” is lucrative and rapidly expanding (“Point Reyes cheesemakers poised for growth in Petaluma”, July 20, 2018). His is not a “small family farm”, but rather an old-family, politically connected, financially lucrative enterprise. MALT purchased an easement on his ranch in 2005 while his daughter, Lynn Giacomini Stray, sat on the MALT Board.
Or consider sisters Darlene Giacomini and Dolores Evans. While Darlene is married into the aforementioned Giacomini family, these sisters are originally from the prominent Grossi family. The direct descendants of Domenico Grossi lease half of the PRNS ranches, eight of sixteen - "C" Ranch, parts of "D" Ranch, "F" Ranch, "H" Ranch, "K" Ranch, "M" Ranch, D. Rogers Ranch and “AT&T” Ranch – while owning real property in Marin proper totaling over 6,600 acres. Domenico’s son (the sisters’ father), Alfred, sold “H Ranch” to the NPS in 1971 for $909,800 (over $6 million adjusted), and using the proceeds from the sale, the following year, purchased the 988-acre “Evans-Giacomini Ranch” in Marin. In 2017, the sisters sold an easement over this ranch to MALT for $3,285,000 using $1,662,024 of Marin taxpayer Measure A funds. The application to MALT was approved while Dolores Evans’s daughter, Julie Evans Rossotti, sat on the MALT Board. Furthermore, att the September 12, 2017 Board of Supervisors meeting approving the Measure A grant, Supervisor Dennis Rodoni - as noted, a member of the Giacomini family – instead of recusing himself from the Board discussion, boldly introduced the motion and voted in favor of the Measure A grant.
Or consider Peter Martinelli (not a lessee of PRNS ranches, but an example of the ranching families’ political power). He owns a 239-acre farm in Bolinas. In 2014, MALT purchased an easement on his land for $5,600,000. This was by far the highest price per acre of any ranch MALT has purchased in its 40-year existence. In fact, it was nearly four times as high as the next highest acquisition. While MALT’s press release describes Martinelli’s operation as a “family farm,” Martinelli is heir to the deepest of Marin County political power. Martinelli’s great-grandfather, Ennio Batista Martinelli, was Marin County’s District Attorney before becoming State Senator. Martinelli’s great-grandmother, Genevieve, was the first female prosecutor in the history of the Marin County District Attorney's office. Martinelli’s grandfather, Jordan, was a Marin County Superior Court Judge, and his cousin, Attilio, was the Marin County Supervisor for the 4th district.
Finally, consider the McDonald/Lucchesi family, presently being investigated by the California Coastal Commission and the National Park Service for illegally bulldozing a sensitive riparian area at "Home Ranch" on the Point Reyes National Seashore. McDonald leases “N” Ranch and “Home” Ranch on our Seashore, while privately owning a 1,420-acre ranch in Marin outside the Park. This private estate is almost the size the entire town of Fairfax (which is 1,427 acres), yet he is somehow allowed to lease our public Seashore.
It is also worthwhile to mention that organizations like the Marin Resource Conservation District, the Marin County Farm Bureau and obviously MALT are grossly conflicted when it comes to the issue of ranching on the Seashore. Nearly half of MALT’s founding board of directors (5 of 11) and approximately one-quarter of MALT’s present board (4 of 19) are related, through blood or marriage, to the families who lease ranches on our National Seashore. Similarly, nearly two-thirds of the Marin County Farm Bureau’s 2020 board of directors (9 of 14) are related, through blood or marriage, to the PRNS ranchers; three board members are themselves lessees. Finally, over half the members of the present board of the Marin RCD (3 of 5) and both of the recently retired board members are related, through blood or marriage, to the PRNS ranchers. All three of these organizations, I might add, submitted comments to the NPS on the PRNS GMPA Draft Environmental Impact Statement - #7,257, #7,359 and #7,265, respectively; there was no disclosure in those letters that continued ranching on the Seashore would financially benefit members of their own family. I mention these three organizations because in response to the nearly 7,000 comments received by the NPS, making up 91% of the responses that opposed Alternative B, an article was run in the Light entitled “Ranchers find allies in conservationists“ in which Ms. Guth writes, “The vast majority of commenters asked the park to shutter ranching operations, but others threw their weight behind agriculture, including local organizations dedicated to preserving natural resources in Marin.” Thus, these few families, through their control of powerful organizations, countered and undermined the expressed wishes of the public. This is undemocratic.
I think it is important to this discussion that we understand who the players are. McClelland and other dynastic ranching families are not isolated, small family farmers, and they have cultivated this image to conceal their enormous wealth and political power. The four families described above (excluding the Martinelli family) lease 12 of the 16 ranches on PRNS (75%) and an additional three ranches in the GGNRA. It may be worth mentioning that the heirs to Dominco Grossi, Charles Martin, Merv McDonald, Joseph Mendoza and Waldo Giacomini presently own well over 28,000 acres in Marin County alone.
The Dynastic Wealth and Political Power of the Marin Ranching Families
This letter was originally drafted as a response to Jolynn McClelland’s Marin IJ “Marin Voice” submission (“Point Reyes dairy stewardship protects agricultural heritage”, April 2) in which she refers to her and neighboring operations on the Point Reyes National Seashore as “small family farms.”
Ranchers like Jolynn McClelland have been enormously successful molding our view of the small family farmer. We see images of dairymen and women in muddy goulashes having completed their chores before the sun rises over rolling hills of dried grasses. There is a simplicity to their character and gratitude in their demeanor that seems to say, while the falling prices of organic milk is a constant worry, the land will provide for our humble family.
However, McClelland’s story exemplifies a more disturbing trend in Marin. Contrary to the image portrayed, McClelland is not a small family farmer, but rather the direct heir to what might be the two most powerful and prominent families in Marin history – the Dolcini family and the Mendoza family.
The patriarch of the Dolcini family is Charles Martin, so “extremely affluent” that he is referred to as the “Capitalist of Tomales” in documents preserved in the Anne T. Kent California Room at the Marin County Free Library.[1] Martin was President of the Petaluma National Bank and the Marin County Bank in San Rafael, and he was director of the Hill Bank of Petaluma, the Bank of Sebastopol, and the Banca Svizzera Americana.[2] Martin’s heirs constitute the largest landowning family in Marin County, possessing over 14,200 acres in Marin County alone.[3] To put the size of these land holdings into perspective, this family’s estate is larger than the total land size of Fairfax, San Anselmo, Ross, Kentfield, Larkspur, Corte Madera, Mill Valley, and Tiburon combined.
Along with this enormous land wealth, the Dolcini family occupies a privileged position within influential organizations that control taxpayer monies; the Marin Agricultural Land Trust (”MALT”) provides a pertinent example. Two members of the Dolcini family were among those who executed MALT’s Articles of Incorporation, and both sat on the inaugural MALT Board. Since MALT’s foundation, every year, at least one member of the Dolcini family has sat on the MALT Board and/or the MALT Advisory Committee. MALT has purchased nine easements for a total of over $10.5 million from members of this family,[4] and since the passage of Measure A, the family has acquired two new ranches - totaling over 850 acres[5] - using Marin County taxpayer money.[6](As a reminder, it was a MALT’s purchase of an easement over a Dolcini ranch that brought the recent allegations of corruption. See: “Conflicts of interest afflict MALT”, Oct. 28, 2020)
It therefore belies credulity that McClelland’s operation is a “small family farm.”
However, McClelland’s dynastic wealth and political connections do not end at her mother’s side of the family. As she mentions in her article, she is also the granddaughter of Joseph Mendoza, who sold A, B, and L ranches on the Point Reyes National Seashore to the government in 1971 for $8,000,000, (over $53 million adjusted). With a portion of those funds, over the following two years, Mendoza purchased two new ranches in Marin outside the Seashore – a 1,631 acres ranch presently owned by McClelland’s mother, Linda (Lafranchi) Mendoza (purchased on July 20, 1972), and an another 787-acres owned by McClelland’s first cousins, Karen and John Taylor (purchased on July 12, 1973. In 2018, MALT purchased an easement over the latter ranch for $3,594,000, using $1,817,950 in Marin Measure A taxpayer money. This was the highest value ever paid by MALT for an easement on a ranch of this kind. The entire transaction was completed while two of McClelland’s cousins (including John Taylor who owns the ranch) sat on the MALT Board. Also with the proceeds from the 1971 sale to the NPS, Mendoza purchased an entire block in the commercial area of Point Reyes Station (purchased on July 2, 1973).
However, McClelland’s political ties run deeper than simply agricultural organizations. A 2015 “Press Democrat” article describing McClelland’s father, Joey Mendoza, states, “A Republican dairyman, Mendoza managed to forge a lasting relationship with Democratic U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer from her days as a Marin County supervisor. Similarly, he served as a bridge builder for the farming community with environmentalists, elected Marin County leaders and parks officials at the Point Reyes National Seashore …”[7]
“B” Ranch and “L” Ranch are presently leased by McClelland’s mother, Linda Mendoza, and “A” Ranch, “E” Ranch, and part of “D” Ranch are presently leased by McClelland’s cousin, Betty Nunes (thank you for your Sept. 8 report on their "dump site").
McClelland’s generational wealth and political connections are not unique to her story, but rather the norm for west Marin ranching dynasties.
Consider Robert Giacomini who leases “Gallagher Ranch” in the GGNRA while privately owning 714 acres in Marin. He is a relative of former Marin County Supervisor Gary Giacomini, the present Deputy County Counsel Renee (Giacomini) Brower, and the present Marin County Supervisor, Dennis Rodoni (who is a Giacomini on his mother’s side). Along with Robert Giacomini’s extensive land holdings and his familial ties to political players, his family’s well-recognized company “Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese” is lucrative and rapidly expanding (“Point Reyes cheesemakers poised for growth in Petaluma”, July 20, 2018). His is not a “small family farm”, but rather an old-family, politically connected, financially lucrative enterprise. MALT purchased an easement on his ranch in 2005 while his daughter, Lynn Giacomini Stray, sat on the MALT Board.
Or consider sisters Darlene Giacomini and Dolores Evans. While Darlene is married into the aforementioned Giacomini family, these sisters are originally from the prominent Grossi family. The direct descendants of Domenico Grossi lease half of the PRNS ranches, eight of sixteen - "C" Ranch, parts of "D" Ranch, "F" Ranch, "H" Ranch, "K" Ranch, "M" Ranch, D. Rogers Ranch and “AT&T” Ranch – while owning real property in Marin proper totaling over 6,600 acres. Domenico’s son (the sisters’ father), Alfred, sold “H Ranch” to the NPS in 1971 for $909,800 (over $6 million adjusted), and using the proceeds from the sale, the following year, purchased the 988-acre “Evans-Giacomini Ranch” in Marin. In 2017, the sisters sold an easement over this ranch to MALT for $3,285,000 using $1,662,024 of Marin taxpayer Measure A funds. The application to MALT was approved while Dolores Evans’s daughter, Julie Evans Rossotti, sat on the MALT Board. Furthermore, att the September 12, 2017 Board of Supervisors meeting approving the Measure A grant, Supervisor Dennis Rodoni - as noted, a member of the Giacomini family – instead of recusing himself from the Board discussion, boldly introduced the motion and voted in favor of the Measure A grant.
Or consider Peter Martinelli (not a lessee of PRNS ranches, but an example of the ranching families’ political power). He owns a 239-acre farm in Bolinas. In 2014, MALT purchased an easement on his land for $5,600,000. This was by far the highest price per acre of any ranch MALT has purchased in its 40-year existence. In fact, it was nearly four times as high as the next highest acquisition. While MALT’s press release describes Martinelli’s operation as a “family farm,” Martinelli is heir to the deepest of Marin County political power. Martinelli’s great-grandfather, Ennio Batista Martinelli, was Marin County’s District Attorney before becoming State Senator. Martinelli’s great-grandmother, Genevieve, was the first female prosecutor in the history of the Marin County District Attorney's office. Martinelli’s grandfather, Jordan, was a Marin County Superior Court Judge, and his cousin, Attilio, was the Marin County Supervisor for the 4th district.
Finally, consider the McDonald/Lucchesi family, presently being investigated by the California Coastal Commission and the National Park Service for illegally bulldozing a sensitive riparian area at "Home Ranch" on the Point Reyes National Seashore. McDonald leases “N” Ranch and “Home” Ranch on our Seashore, while privately owning a 1,420-acre ranch in Marin outside the Park. This private estate is almost the size the entire town of Fairfax (which is 1,427 acres), yet he is somehow allowed to lease our public Seashore.
It is also worthwhile to mention that organizations like the Marin Resource Conservation District, the Marin County Farm Bureau and obviously MALT are grossly conflicted when it comes to the issue of ranching on the Seashore. Nearly half of MALT’s founding board of directors (5 of 11) and approximately one-quarter of MALT’s present board (4 of 19) are related, through blood or marriage, to the families who lease ranches on our National Seashore. Similarly, nearly two-thirds of the Marin County Farm Bureau’s 2020 board of directors (9 of 14) are related, through blood or marriage, to the PRNS ranchers; three board members are themselves lessees. Finally, over half the members of the present board of the Marin RCD (3 of 5) and both of the recently retired board members are related, through blood or marriage, to the PRNS ranchers. All three of these organizations, I might add, submitted comments to the NPS on the PRNS GMPA Draft Environmental Impact Statement - #7,257, #7,359 and #7,265, respectively; there was no disclosure in those letters that continued ranching on the Seashore would financially benefit members of their own family. I mention these three organizations because in response to the nearly 7,000 comments received by the NPS, making up 91% of the responses that opposed Alternative B, an article was run in the Light entitled “Ranchers find allies in conservationists“ in which Ms. Guth writes, “The vast majority of commenters asked the park to shutter ranching operations, but others threw their weight behind agriculture, including local organizations dedicated to preserving natural resources in Marin.” Thus, these few families, through their control of powerful organizations, countered and undermined the expressed wishes of the public. This is undemocratic.
I think it is important to this discussion that we understand who the players are. McClelland and other dynastic ranching families are not isolated, small family farmers, and they have cultivated this image to conceal their enormous wealth and political power. The four families described above (excluding the Martinelli family) lease 12 of the 16 ranches on PRNS (75%) and an additional three ranches in the GGNRA. It may be worth mentioning that the heirs to Dominco Grossi, Charles Martin, Merv McDonald, Joseph Mendoza and Waldo Giacomini presently own well over 28,000 acres in Marin County alone.
