With about 50 years of combined civic experience, Maryann Derwin, John Richards and Craig Hughes shared emotional goodbyes during a Dec. 14 Portola Valley Town Council meeting.

Community members described Derwin, who served on the council for 17 years, as the "bleeding heart" and "independent spirit" of the council. They also spoke about how she advocated for the town regionally and learned best practices from other towns in San Mateo County, unlike any council member before her.

Derwin said she gained perspective working on regional bodies like the Library JPA board and the HEART Housing Board of Directors. She noted that when she listened to officials from larger cities, where the neighborhood streets are crammed with cars, it's hard to argue that those same cities, just because they are located along transit, should build more housing because a town of 4,500 people in 9 square miles is "built out."

"I have always contended, and still do, that fulfilling state mandates and adapting to climate change does not equal a death sentence to those principles that have protected all that we cherish about our town: the creeks and the western hills, the coyotes and the turkeys, the wind through the oaks," she said. "An engaged army of volunteers. Reverence for the past and for those pioneers who cut the trails and held the first Town Council meetings and developed guidelines we have followed for decades."

Richards moved to Portola Valley when he was 4 years old and attended elementary school in the Old Schoolhouse before graduating from Woodside High School. Aalfs described him as the "closest we have to a native council member," who was the quietest of the group, but mades his views known and cares deeply about the town.

Richards has been volunteering for Portola Valley for around 24 years and served on the council for 13 years. He said that it was a leap outside of his comfort zone initially to join the council, but it has been a "rewarding and wonderful experience."

He said he is proud of his part in helping to ban gas-powered leaf blowers in town.

Spending time on the council helps you develop "considerably thicker skin than you started out with," Richards added.

Hughes, a startup founder who lost his bid for reelection this fall after nine years on the council, was complimented for his "analytical mind." Before joining the Town Council, he spent almost five years serving on the town's Architecture and Site Control Commission.

Hughes elicited a laugh from those in Council Chambers when he said that there were 4.1 gigabytes of council agenda packets compiled while he served on the council.

"I like complex technical challenges," he said. He noted that he enjoyed working through "tricky" financial challenges and helped pay down about $1 million in the town's pension liabilities.

He began to tear up as he described his pride in helping form Peninsula Clean Energy (PCE), "which is going to have impacts not just in town but worldwide," he said. PCE is a community choice energy program that San Mateo County formed in February 2016.

"The work that we did there creating CCA (Community Choice Aggregation) and moving Portola Valley to green energy is going to have a profound effect today and going forward," he said about the program allowing cities and counties to buy or generate electricity for residents and businesses within their communities. "... None of these were things I did by myself. I was very happy to have been given the chance to participate and help direct some of this work."

New council members take their seats

At the same meeting, the council swore in its newly elected council members: Planning Commissioners Judith Hasko and Craig Taylor, along with retired family physician Mary Hufty.

Hasko was elected with 29.6% of the vote, according to certified election results. Taylor received 21.5% of the vote and Hufty, 18.1%.

As ballots were counted in the days following the Nov. 8 election, it was neck-and-neck between Hughes and Hufty, but Hufty ultimately pulled ahead of Hughes by 39 votes.

Watch a video of the meeting here.