Recognizing the Departure of the Honorable Carole Groom From the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors

Floor Speech

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Ms. SPEIER. Madam Speaker, I rise to recognize my good friend and colleague Carole Groom as she departs the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors after 13 years of service. The people of San Mateo County are losing a champion of children, healthcare, economic justice, and the environment.

Carole began her public service career on the City of San Mateo's public works and planning commissions. She was appointed to the city council in 2000 and won election to a full four-year term in 2001. She twice served as Mayor. Carole and her colleagues skillfully guided the Bay Meadows development through public reviews and controversy, and the result is a spectacular 83 acres of mixed-use development adjacent to a major rail station. It hosts 1,250 residential units and 1.25 million square feet of office space. She also supported the overlapping Rail Corridor Specific Plan that covered the area from Hillsdale Boulevard to the old Kmart site. That plan produced hundreds of new housing units, retail and office buildings at the old Kmart shopping center, serving as a regional example to emulate. As an avid booster of downtown San Mateo, she coined the saying, ``If you can't find it in San Mateo, you don't need it.'' This remains an unofficial slogan of the city.

Carole was appointed to the Board of Supervisors in 2009 and formed the first board with women in the majority. She won a full four-year term in 2010. These were the darkest days of the housing recession. In her first comments as a member, she noted that she wanted to continue her work on the county's budget deficit and universal health coverage. Carole's priorities also included protecting parks and open space.

In 2009, she launched ``Active San Mateo County'' which convened an annual Fall conference exploring health and wellbeing, and that planned an annual countywide event, ``Streets Alive! Parks Alive!'' The county's parks and recreation directors recognized her with their ``Champion of the Community'' award in 2012.

Perhaps Carole's signature effort to boost economic justice in San Mateo County came through an innovative program known as ``The Big Lift.'' It was a big lift to consider a countywide program to increase the percentage of third graders reading at grade level from 58 percent to 80 percent, but Carole, her board colleagues and the county's superintendent of education took on the task. Key interventions included access to preschool, inspiring summer experiences, reducing chronic absenteeism, and increasing family engagement from preschool to third grade. The pandemic struck a blow to this noble effort, but it continues and undoubtedly paid off for thousands of children from 2013 to 2020 when classes were greatly disrupted.

Peninsula Clean Energy was the brainchild of Supervisors Pine and Groom. This countywide energy aggregator buys clean, renewable energy on the market and sells it to most businesses and households at 5 percent below the rates of our local utility. We all search for ways to reduce the cost of living and to improve the environment. The two Supervisors found a remarkable way to do both, and today the agency has expanded its offerings to include grants for purchases of energy efficient appliances.

Carole has deep roots in the health care system, having served as Vice President of Mills Peninsula Hospital for 18 years. She presently serves on the Board of Directors of the San Mateo County Hospital Board, the governing body for the San Mateo Medical Center. The hospital is a gem, and Carole Groom, as a skillful board member, is one of the finest jewelers in our community.

In addition to her work on the Board of Supervisors, she serves as a member of the California Coastal Commission, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, and on the board of our local transit agency, Samtrans. If it thrives on our coast, Carole protects it. If it pollutes the air, Carole opposes it. If it glides on big axels down the El Camino Real and gives essential mobility to the disabled, our working poor and the elderly, Carole celebrates it.

Madam Speaker, we now say goodbye to a woman who everyone welcomes with joy when she walks into a room. We know that her heart was focused on policies that were fair and that protected the most vulnerable. It is said that on a clear day you can see forever. Carole saw the good in people, and her vision built a better life for millions over more than twenty years that she served our community and state. The woman who promoted reading to promote justice is now retiring. San Mateo County owes Supervisor Carole Groom its eternal appreciation. While she will be out of the limelight, Carole will remain in the hearts of all of us.

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