A four-person race for two seats on the Sausalito City Council was tight as of election night.
Incumbent Jill James Hoffman held 31% of the vote, just 166 votes over Nastassya Saad’s 821. Following close behind was councilmember Joan Cox with 711 votes or 22%. Newcomer Adrian Brinton trailed closely with 21% of the votes.
Candidates offered different approaches to preserving the character of the city’s waterfront, managing growth and maintaining a climate-resilient infrastructure.
Those issues were part of the debate surrounding the city’s Measure X, also called the Arts, Industrial & Maritime Preservation and Improvement Initiative. The citizen initiative would loosen development restrictions in the city’s historic Marinship industrial district and give the City Council greater authority over future land-use and zoning changes.
Hoffman, an attorney and retired Navy captain, has served on the council since 2014. She opposed Measure X.
Saad also opposed the measure. She served nearly a decade on the city’s Historic Preservation and Planning commissions, which she chaired for the past two years.
Cox, a former municipal attorney, has served on the council since 2016 and was mayor in 2018 and 2025. She previously served on the city’s Planning Commission from 2008 to 2016. Cox said the measure would increase development density without the master planning, community engagement and environmental review she believes are necessary.
Brinton, a retired technology executive who said he helped draft Measure X, said the initiative was the city’s first shot in 40 years to create jobs, fix dilapidated empty buildings and provide capital for adaptation to sea-level rise, which has increased the frequency of flooding in the district.
