CGF: Legislative Advocates

Advocates

Staff

Victories & Defeats

FAQ

Committee for Green Foothills' Legislative Advocates are dedicated to protecting open space in San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties. Our advocates are CGF's spokespeople on the front lines of local open space protection. They work tirelessly to protect our natural resources, preserve agricultural lands, and promote environmentally sound, sustainable development through sound land-use planning.

Advocates Brian Schmidt and Lennie Roberts advocate for policies and plans that protect the environment throughout Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties and they work closely with — and often germinate — community-based environmental activist groups.

A former fellow at the nonprofit public interest law firm Earthjustice, Brian Schmidt has been the Committee's Santa Clara County Legislative Advocate since spring of 2003.

Schmidt is working closely with other environmental groups to help identify County-wide priorities for open space protection, safeguard the County's eastern foothills from ridgetop development, and monitor compliance with Stanford's General Use Permit, a document the Committee for Green Foothills helped forge. He is also the primary author of the CGF blog, launched in 2004

A graduate of Stanford Law School and Georgetown University, Brian has worked with the Natural Resources Defense Council and the land use law firm Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger. He is experienced with the National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, and the California Environmental Quality Act.

Brian leads the Conservation Council, a group working to protect natural resources on the Peninsula and South Bay. He also chairs the Santa Clara Valley Water District's Environmental Advisory Committee, as well as serving on the Santa Clara Community Resource Group and Fish and Game Commission, and volunteers on the Board of the Santa Clara Valley League of Conservation Voters.

For over 30 years, Lennie Roberts has been the voice of Committee for Green Foothills in San Mateo County. One of the Bay Area’s most respected environmental leaders, Roberts has led CGF in a number of critical open space battles on the San Mateo Coast and along Skyline. She is a vigilant and attentive watchdog of the County Board of Supervisors, and helped found the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District in 1972.

Roberts has received a number of honors and awards, including the Carla Bard Award from the Planning and Conservation League, Conservationist of the Year from the Peninsula Conservation Center, the Josephine Duveneck Award from the Loma Prieta Chapter of the Sierra Club, and Greenbelt Alliance's Greenbelt Champion Award for her work to preserve the San Mateo County coastside. She was elected to the San Mateo County Women's Hall of Fame in 2003, and has been honored as a Coastal Champion on the 25th Anniversary of the California Coastal Act. In 2009 she was named the San Francisco Bay Area's Cox Conserves Hero, which noted her thousands of hours of volunteer work towards coastal protection. She holds a B.A. in Art from Stanford University.

Lennie continues to work for protection of our irreplaceable natural resources and open space lands, from the farm fields and scenic vistas of the San Mateo coastside, to the forests of the Skyline area and along the shores of San Francisco Bay.