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KENTFIELD CIVIC CENTER

marinij.com

TINKERING BIG County

Student inventors shine at annual Marinovators expo at College of Marin
loads up
on media
staffers
Twelve communication specialists
cost taxpayers $1M plus benefits
By Richard Halstead
rhalstead@marinij.com
@HalsteadRichard on Twitter

In 2003, the county hired its first public in-

Branson School students Charlotte Leane, 15, and Cooper Langner, 16, watch their robot Francis negotiate a maze
Saturday during the Marinovators event at College of Marin in Kentfield.
By Stephanie Weldy
sweldy@marinij.com
@StephanieWeldy1 on Twitter
In front of a group of on-
lookers, a joystick-controlled
robot sailed across concrete
and hanged a gear on a rod.
Later it climbed up a rope.
The contraption was a
project created in six weeks
by students of the 40-mem-
ber Penguin Empire Robot-
ics Team at San Marin High
School.
Members of the group
presented their work Sat-
urday at fourth annual Ma-
rinovators event at College
of Marin in Kentfield. The
event featured more than
100 students showing off ro-
bots, drones and other en-
gineering marvels they as-
sembled.
Its really cool, said Cole
Fehring, 16, a member of
the Penguin Empire Robot-
ics Team. Ive enjoyed com-
ing here. Ive come the last
three or four years and I love
looking at all the interesting
stuff. I hope we can educate
people about robotics and
get people interested in it.
Charlotte Leane, 15, and
Cooper Lagner, 16, both of
Branson School, showed off
a robot they named Francis.
With its sensory whiskers,
the robot was built to navi-
gate its way through a card-
board maze.
The battery-powered ro-
bot was designed to steer
straight until bumping into
an object. When the whis-
kers touch an object, a sig-
nal is sent through metal
prongs to a small computer,
Lagner said. The robot is
told whether to turn left or
right.
You write code that tells
the robot what to do, said
Leane, of Mill Valley. You
formation officer, and he quit after six months.
The county, which had a hiring freeze in ef-
fect, didnt replace him.
At the time, former county supervisor Hal
Brown said, I dont know if there was enough
work for him around here. I would imagine he
was bored stiff.
Today, Marin County employs three media
PHOTOS BY SHERRY LAVARS SPECIAL TO MARIN INDEPENDENT JOURNAL
managers, six media specialists and three me-
dia technicians. Their annual salaries range
from $69,946 to $112,798. The combined sal-
aries total more than $1 million, not includ-
ing benefits.
Laine Hendricks, a media manager for the
county administrators office, said the county
created a new media job classification in
2015, which makes it seem as though it has
added more media workers than it really has.
Seven of the employees who currently have
media jobs were already county employees
with other titles, Hendricks said. They were
performing communications in their respec-
tive departments before the county formalized
the new classification.
Nevertheless, last year the county hired
Hendricks and three other media employees:
a media specialist for the Department of Parks
and Open Space, a media specialist for the
Department of Public Works, and Brent Ain-
White Hill Middle School student Layla Bahmani plays sworth, a media specialist for the county ad-
Katch Em Katy during the Marinovators event. She ministrators office. Ainsworth, a former Marin
created the game with classmates Kelsey Riemer and MEDIA PAGE 2
Maddie Barbee and teacher Lisa Skinner.
download it on an onboard ing. Marinovators allows
computer, which executes her daughter to display her HOUSING
the code and it stores it on work and see what other
there.
Leanes mother Elizabeth
young engineers are doing,
she said. 6-figure earnings
now low income
Leane, 51, said her daugh- I just think its great that
ter has always loved tinker- EXPO PAGE 4

EARTH DAY in Marin and SF

Supporters of science rally around globe
By Seth Borenstein
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON >> The world
saw brain power take a dif-
ferent form Saturday.
From the Washington
Monument to Germanys
Brandenburg Gate and even
to Greenland, scientists,
students and research ad-
vocates rallied on an often
soggy Earth Day, conveying
a global message about sci-
entific freedom without po-
litical interference, the need
for adequate spending for
future breakthroughs and
just the general value of sci-
entific pursuits.
They came in numbers
that were mammoth if not
quite astronomical.
We didnt choose to be
in this battle, but it has
come to the point where we
have to fight because the
stakes are too great, said
Pennsylvania State Univer-
sity climate scientist Mi-
chael Mann, who regularly
clashes with politicians.
In the Bay Area, marches
were planned in San Jose,
San Francisco, Santa Cruz,
Livermore, Walnut Creek
Pacifica, Hay ward and
Berkeley.
President Donald Trump,
in an Earth Day statement
hours after the marches
kicked off, said that rigor-
ous science depends not on
SCIENCE PAGE 4
can now be considered low income.
DOUG STRICKLAND CHATTANOOGA TIMES FREE PRESS
Anne Herdman Royal wears a brain hat during the March for
Science on Saturday in Chattanooga, Tenn. About 1,000
demonstrators marched in the city.
By Annie Sciacca
Bay Area News Group
In the high-priced Bay Area, even some house-
holds that bring in more than six figures a year
Thats according to the U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Development, which recently
released its 2017 income limits a threshold that
determines who can qualify for affordable and
subsidized housing programs such as Section 8
vouchers.
Marin, San Francisco and San Mateo counties
have the highest limits in the Bay Area and
among the highest such numbers in the coun-
try. A family of four with an income of $105,350
per year is considered low income, because that
is 80 percent of the $115,300 median income for
those areas. A $65,800 annual income is consid-
ered very low for a family the same size, and
$39,500 is extremely low.
Other Bay Area counties are not far behind.
In Alameda and Contra Costa counties, $80,400
for a family of four is considered low income,
while in Santa Clara County, $84,750 is the low-
HOUSING PAGE 7

WORLD NATION LIFESTYLES ONLINE

French voting begins Trump planning rally On Moscow mules, See more of the story
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Early voting began overseas The event will coincide with Contrary to at least one Find additional photos, albums
Saturday in Frances most the White House Correspon- opinion, the copper mug that and links to our videos that
nail-biting election in genera- dents Dinner, which the presi- contains the drink is not the can enhance local stories.
tions. PAGE A21 dent is skipping. PAGE A16 mule, says the Barfly. PAGE B1 MARINIJ.COM

INDEX Lottery............ A2 Opinion........... A10 Obituaries...... A18 Ask Amy...........B3 Real estate.......D1 Classifieds.......D4 Volume 156, issue 32 0 40901 29007 0