Introduction

[Pat.Eklund, Mayor and EPA employee <peklund@cmc.net>]

Hi, my name is Pat Eklund.  I am an EPA employee since 1977 and an elected official since 1995.  I currently am serving as Mayor of the City of Novato which is 30 miles north of San Francisco.  Our current population is about 50,000.  We have experienced a base closure (Hamilton Army AirField) in Novato and just purchased most of the base for $8.3 million.  There is one area (old gas station site) which we did not take ownership because of the continuing MTBE contamination.  We are hoping the Navy cleans it up so we can take ownership some day.

I am excited about participating in this dialogue and hope my experiences with federal, state and local governments will be helpful to the dialogue.