Meet Susan

 

Local Experience and Demonstrated Commitment

Susan Cleveland-Knowles has demonstrated her commitment to the Sausalito community.  A long-time resident, she is the Chair of the Sausalito Planning Commission and has volunteered on both the Housing Element Task Force and the Short Term Rental Task Force.

Susan is raising her children here.  Like many other parents, she has dedicated countless hours to improving our local public school, including service on the Board of the Willow Creek Foundation. Susan also worked with other families, community members and seniors to pass Measure F to improve our parks.  

For nine years, Susan served on the Board of San Francisco Baykeeper (including as its Chair), a nonprofit advocacy group that works to protect water quality in the Bay and its watershed.  

Professional Experience That Counts

Susan has dedicated her professional life to public service, choosing a career in municipal law and policy at the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office.  In eighteen years as a Deputy City Attorney, she has developed special expertise in land use and transportation.  For much of that time, she advised San Francisco’s Planning Commission and Planning Department, Board of Supervisors, and Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development.  She is now the General Counsel to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, a $1.2 billion agency that oversees public transportation and other transportation solutions. In that role, Susan leads a team of attorneys that tackle a wide array of municipal issues.

Susan’s education and experience prior to embarking on her public service career developed her skills as a consensus-builder and problem-solver.   After graduating from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, Susan was among the first Americans to help develop a public interest sector in Eastern Europe after the Berlin Wall came down.  As the on-the-ground representative for several American charitable foundations, she coordinated and fostered nascent environmental groups in Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

After graduating from Stanford Law School, Susan was a two-year fellow at Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger – a boutique law firm specializing in environmental and land use law on behalf of local government agencies and nonprofit organizations.   

Upbringing

Susan grew up in small New England town, where she learned the importance of community involvement.  She admired her mother’s role as the “Town Moderator,” and her father’s 30 years of public service in the New Hampshire State Senate and U.S. Congress, not to mention his additional years of service in World War II and the Korean conflict.  She still treasures the natural beauty of rural New Hampshire.

Susan lives in Sausalito with her husband, Jeff Knowles, a litigator and managing partner at Coblentz Patch Duffy & Bass (and also a local community leader), and their two children.  A resident for 16 years, she is planning on another 40 or 50.

 

 

Susan’s 2017 Campaign

Susan was elected to Sausalito City Council in November 2017. She was elected to fulfill a seat vacated by a retiring councilmember. Here are the issues that were important to the community at the time and the platform that she ran on.

Susan’s 2017 Campaign Welcome Message

Sausalito is rightly renowned as among the most picturesque and charming villages in the world. Its natural beauty, waterfront culture, historic character and close-knit community are central to why we live here. But our small city faces many challenges and choices in the coming years – from balancing the burdens and benefits of tourism to modernizing infrastructure – the issues demand stead, experienced, common-sense leadership.

The choice we make this election could shape the future of our community for years to come. The City Council will address a host of potentially polarizing issues: from updating the town’s General Plan to crafting a sensible policy around short-term rentals such as Airbnb. To find solutions that work for everyone, it will be critical to be open-minded, listen to all points of view, build consensus, and make decisions based on facts and common sense. Susan Cleveland-Knowles is the only candidate whose track record demonstrates her ability to deliver that kind of leadership.

As a committed longtime resident, the current Chair of our Planning Commission, and a volunteer on several local task forces, Susan has hands-on knowledge of our community’s needs, opportunities, and the assets we must protect. Eighteen years as a San Francisco Deputy City Attorney has taught her the power of collaboration, respect, and open-mindedness, while providing crucial municipal government experience, especially in land use and transportation.

As a mother, Susan remains active with other parents, supporting a strong local public education system that fosters creativigy, inclusion and a public service ethic. She worked hard to restore our parks through Measure F because safe, accessible, beautiful public spaces are fundamental to our community. Susan also served on the Board of Baykeeper, an organization dedicated to promoting a clean and health San Francisco Bay.

Let’s elect Susan Cleveland-Knowles to the Sausalito City Council. Together, we can build a future that positively manages change, protects Sausalito’s unique character and ensures that our city government serves the whole community.