Chance Cutrano

Chance Cutrano was elected to a four-year term on the Fairfax Town Council in 2020. Chance currently serves as the Mayor of Fairfax, CA. Prior to serving on the Fairfax Town Council, Chance was appointed to the Town’s Open Space Committee and the Volunteer Board.

Chance serves as the Town’s representative to the Transportation Authority of Marin (TAM) Board of Commissioners, where he serves on the Administration, Projects and Planning Executive Committee as well as the Alternative Fuel and EV Ad Hoc Committee. In addition to his work on TAM, Chance represents Fairfax on the Ross Valley Fire Department Board of Directors and the Governing Board of the Marin Emergency Radio Authority. Chance is the Town Council’s liaison to the Fairfax Open Space Committee and the Fairfax Community Emergency Preparedness Committee. He was appointed co-Chair of the Marin County Council of Mayors and Councilmembers (MCCMC) Subcommittee on Homelessness. In addition, he is the Town’s alternate voting member on Marin County’s Flood Control and Water Conservation District (Zone 9) Advisory Board, the Ross Valley Paramedic Authority, the Ross Valley Yellow School Bus (JEPA), and the Safe Routes to School Task Force.

As Mayor, Chance serves as the Council’s primary liaison to the Fairfax Chamber of Commerce, the Chair of the Citizens’ Disaster Council and the Finance Committee, and the Town’s voting delegate for the League of California Cities and the Mayors Select Committee of the Marin County Council of Mayors and Councilmembers (MCCMC).

Professionally, Chance works as Director of Programs at the forty-year-old environmental think-and-do-tank, the Resource Renewal Institute (RRI), located here in Fairfax. He leads environmental campaigns and research projects across the United States focused on large landscape conservation and nature-based climate solutions, from the preservation of biodiversity in National Parks and wilderness areas to the restoration of wildlife habitat in agricultural ecosystems. He frequently provides environmental thought leadership at local, statewide, and international conferences. In 2021 Chance was awarded the inaugural “Champion of Promise” award in Food Sustainability from the Silicon Valley non-profit Acterra for his development of RRI’s climate-smart agricultural program, Fish in the Fields. In 2018, Chance was honored with the Sierra Club California’s inaugural Emerging Leader award for outstanding contributions to California conservation and politics by someone under the age of 30.

Outside of work, Chance spends much of his time volunteering for a number of community-based organizations. He is currently Board Chair of the Sierra Club’s San Francisco Bay Chapter. He is also Board Secretary of International Rivers, an organization focused on the protection of free-flowing rivers and the rights of the communities who depend on them.

When he gets a spare minute, Chance enjoys reading, writing poetry, and practicing landscape and conceptual photography in Marin’s open spaces.

Chance holds a Bachelors of Arts in Philosophy and Political Science from Saint Xavier University and a Masters of Public Administration in Sustainable Management from Presidio Graduate School.

Learn more about Councilmember Cutrano

• Coverage about Chance’s interest in local government.
• Coverage about Chance’s accomplishments as Mayor.