Top right: the plaque honoring Fagiani placed on her regular seat. Other photos: the Napa City Council chambers. community and spoke on our behalf. She challenged the city council say. People who didn’t know her would snicker at this old grey-haired on their decisions and encouraged them to think deeper. She was not woman dressed in old woman clothes as she would gather her papers always shown the respect she deserved by the council. On more than and walk up to the podium. The snickering would stop as she began one occasion, the mayor would tell her that her time to speak was up. to specifically question the elaborate details of planning department Muriel would leisurely take her time to complete her thought before documents, builder plans, RUL issues, and policy guidelines. respectfully bowing out. I remember a few occasions when she was Muriel did not look for attention or want accolades. I tried to treated unfairly, but this seemingly did not faze her. Nor did I ever feel give her one, the Napa County Green Awards, for her advocacy and that anyone ever had to come to her defense. She was well equipped to commitment to the public good. She did not want an award. She did defend herself, as she defended the City that she loved. not want recognition. She just waved her hand and said that there Most people know Muriel for the story regarding the murder of were more deserving people. She always had a nice smile for me when her sister, Nicola, at their bar on Main Street in 1974. Muriel refused we met. Sometimes she would ask me to sit down next to her, and to open the bar again until the crime was solved. Coincidentally, as begin to ask me my thoughts on a subject or tell me her concerns. she came to the end of her life and was thinking about selling Muriel deserves to be recognized by our community and by our City OPEN the building, a seventy-two-year-old man sitting in a Colorado for the work that she did on our behalf. Whether we agreed with her MAP prison was charged with the murder. The closed building positions is not the issue. She stood up, week after week, year after HERE was irritating for many in the City, its dusty windows and year, and took the civic platform to speak on our behalf. The question padlocked door a reminder of a terrible past and a determined now is who will step up to take her place as a civic leader, to question woman who stood resolutely behind her principles. the financial decision making of our city staff and city council, to For the community, we will always remember her for her inquire about what is in the public interest and what the role of history of advocacy. There were times, after a public discussion government should be in our day-to-day life. Perhaps it will not be on some issue, when the Council would pause before closing public who but how many people are required to fill her shoes. We are much comment and the Mayor would ask Muriel if she had anything to better off in Napa because of Muriel Fagiani.
NVLife_SeptOct_2012
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