Mostly, the town made famous for its allergy to town limit signs would like to be left alone.
Glassdoor is shattering expectations.Business is booming at the Sausalito-based employment intelligence company. Glassdoor offers its members job listings and inside access including salary schedules and interview questions for different employers. Members also gain access to CEO ratings. About 1,500 employers use Glassdoor to recruit new employees.
The company is making big moves, looking to add 50 employees by the end of the year (currently it has about 255 employees). Company revenues have grown by 135 percent over the last three years and Glassdoor has seen a significant rise in employers joining up.
Glassdoor is taking advantage of its good fortune by promoting its mobile app, as job seekers and employers are turning to apps as an efficient method to communicate.
The long shot
The Best Western Corte Madera Inn would like to renovate its hotel adjacent to the Town Center Mall off Highway 10, essentially stripping the Best Western flag and adding 77 rooms to the 108-room hotel. The plan is to tear down the existing restaurant, the Best Lil’Porkhouse, fill in a small adjacent pond and build a SpringHill Suites by Marriott, while renovating the existing hotel under the Residence Inn brand.
There were several incarnations of restaurants in the space, including Peppermill, a spinoff of Peppermill hotel and casino in Reno. That eatery included a lounge featuring the lava pit of love, a gas fire pit that screamed ’70s Las Vegas. Other restaurants included Max’s Café and the La Plancha Mexican Grill.
In the past, Reneson Hotels, the family-owned company that owns the hotel as well as the Novato Oaks in Marin, and properties in Auburn, Arcata, Napa and Daly City, tried to fill in the pond. But those efforts were thwarted by locals who said the pond had too much value as a destination for waterfowl.
The project is a ways off as a draft environmental impact report has to be done and the town council would need to approve a general plan amendment before it could move forward. But the governmental process is the least of Reneson’s worries. Corte Madera residents are still livid over approval of the Tamal Vista apartment development, a 180-unit project with 5,000 square feet of retail that’s projected by many to be a traffic disaster. The scale of the project has upset many residents and it is only about three blocks from the hotel.
Timing is everything.
The police blotter
Bijian Madjlessi, the Strawberry developer indicted on federal charges of wire fraud, bank fraud, conspiracy and money laundering tied to the failure of Sonoma Valley Bank in 2010, was found dead at the bottom of an embankment off Shoreline Highway in West Marin.
Madjilessi was arrested April 9 of this year and released on bail. The crash came a little less than a week before he was set to appear in federal court. He had pled not guilty. He also had a trial pending in Marin superior court over insurance fraud charges stemming from a fire in a Reno condo complex.
Next door to Strawberry in Tiburon, Behrooz Sarafraz settled charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission over allegations that he failed to register with the securities regulator while engaged in selling oil and gas investments.
The SEC maintains that Sarafraz located investors for TVC Opus I Drilling Program LP and Tri-Valley Corp. and made $16.4 million in sales commissions. According to a filing with the SEC, Sarafraz is getting out from under by paying $22.4 million and agreeing to never do it again. The federal court in San Francisco still needs to sign off on the deal. And Sarafraz agreed to the settlement without admitting to or denying the allegations.
Your Marin moment
Bolinas is sitting on pins and needles waiting to see if Coastal Living magazine picks the hamlet as its 2014 Happiest Coastal Community. The magazine describes Bolinas as “Sun-drenched, quiet, and decidedly offbeat, this refuge of hippie, surf and political counterculture is just 13 miles north of San Francisco, but is surprisingly tucked away.”
Bolinas could also be described as curmudgeonly, distant and aloof. Don’t get me wrong, I love Bolinas, but the last thing the denziens of this fine town want is to be branded with the moniker of happiest coastal community. Mostly, the town made famous for its allergy to town limit signs would like to be left alone.
The voting ended in March. The magazine will announce the winner in the July/August issue.
