BY: Alison Wilson
November 2021
Daly City Colma Chamber of Commerce Felicia Leong, CEO, Rebecca Husted, president, and Alison Wilson, media, had the opportunity to meet and speak with Bay Relations owner Adrienne Tissier at the Boulevard Café in Daly City. The conversation ranged from her past to contributions she made to the DCC Chamber as president, the City of Daly City, as mayor and councilwoman, and San Mateo County, serving as president and county supervisor.
We learned that Adrienne was born in San Francisco and raised in Daly City. A few years after graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Economics from UC, Berkeley, she joined the land use consulting business, Bay Relations. Today she is owner and president, continuing to live in Daly City with her husband, Marshall. Adrienne is family oriented, a dedicated public servant, and successful small business owner, who is passionate about creating economic vitality for the community and businesses. We asked Adrienne how she met her husband. She replied, “it’s important to live and enjoy life as best you can doing the things that make you happy. “While serving as San Mateo County Supervisor, I enjoyed walking outside afterwork. One day I was walking with a friend in San Carlos after work and she insisted that we visit her sister who worked in San Carlos. Little did I know, it was a set up. Her sister wanted to introduce me to someone she thought would be a good match and that was the day I met my future husband. Totally unexpected.”
In 1989 Adrienne became involved with the community when her dear friend U.S. Representative Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, tapped her to assist with a project for housing the homeless in Daly City. She said, yes, and did not look back. We spoke to her about her service to Shelter Network, (now LifeMoves) as director and securing a new homeless shelter in Daly City. This involvement with shelter network sparked an interest in getting more involved with the community and led to an interest in running for the Daly City City Council where she served Daly City from 1996 to 2004 as a city council member for two terms and as mayor twice. In 2004 she ran and was elected to serve the county as supervisor for District 5 San Mateo County Board of Supervisors. Adrienne said, “I believe in using creativity to come up with ideas on how to best serve the community. I love putting the pieces of a puzzle together, but I wasn’t so sure public service was my strength, I didn’t know if I’d like it,” she said. “But if you work to keep the politics out of it, as best you can, and focus on policy and putting the pieces of the puzzle together, it’s enjoyable and very rewarding.”
Adrienne achieved many of her goals of making life better for others included (1) promoting our North County Youth to be involved in the County by serving on the County Youth Commission; (2) helping pave the way for Caltrain electrification; (3) assisted in creating an older driver safety program with the CHP; (4) promoted criminal justice reform while advocating for construction and completion of a new jail in Redwood City, and (5) envisioned and created the first every pharmaceutical disposal program in California earning her the California State Governor's Environmental and Economic Leadership Award (GEELA). This is California's highest environmental honor.
The conversation then turned to today where we spoke about Bay Relations. Bay Relations is a strategic communications and land use company that provides direction and assistance with the land use process for real estate development. Projects include the BART extension to the airport, Duggan’s Serra Mortuary reception area for the celebration of life expansion, the Westlake Shopping Center housing development and numerous residential developments such as Point Pacific and Village in the Park.
Fun Fact: Adrienne is and has always been a firm supporter of the Daly City Colma Chamber of Commerce. In 1999, while serving as Mayor of Daly City she led a trade mission to the Philippines with members of the Daly City Colma Chamber of Commerce.
Please contact Adrienne Tissier and say hi, ask her a question, and tell her how much we all appreciate her public service to the community. Contact her by e-mail atissier@aol.com. |
