Marin Women's Hall of Fame

Patty Garbarino

by Marilyn Longinotti Geary  
In conjunction with the Writer's Center of Marin

   `“Che’ bella bambina” family members and friends must have exclaimed as they gathered around to admire new baby Patricia. “What a beautiful baby girl!” As they huddled around the little bundle of new life, they wished for this tiny baby girl all the best: a long, happy and healthy life of caring for husband and family.  It was the Fifties, and typically the men worked out in the world and their women tended the children at home.

        How could they have guessed that fate had very different plans for Patty? Who could imagine that Patty would grow up to become an influential business leader, the first woman President of the California Refuse Removal Council, and a dynamic community organizer?  Yet Patty’s achievements are deeply rooted in the family ties that sustain her.  These family ties are so strong that relatives traveled to California from faraway Italy to honor Patty at her induction into the Marin Women’s Hall of Fame. The room was packed with proud members of La Famiglia Garbarino, all paying homage to their little girl who had grown up to break the gender barrier in the waste industry and to make lasting positive changes in that industry and in her community.

         Patty’s grandfather, father and uncles have also thrived in the demanding worlds of business and industry. Her father, Joe Garbarino Jr. and his cousin, Joe Garbarino Sr., through foresight and sharp business acumen, transformed a scavenger business that started from a single old pickup track in 1948 to an internationally renowned leader in the waste management industry in the year 2000. But Patty’s grandmother, Rosa Garbarino, was also no stranger to the world of business. She had run a boarding house in North Beach, and her tough physical and emotional fiber bound together her family through wars, economic depression and the hardships of immigration.

         Rosa Garbarino, or Rosie, as the family called her, was born in San Francisco in 1903. Shortly after the San Francisco Earthquake, Rosie returned with her family to their native village of Cogoleto near Genoa in Liguria. During World War I, Rosie worked in her cousin’s macelleria, his butcher shop. The times were hard and dangerous, even for a teenager like Rosie. Each night Rosie would haul whole goats and quartered sides of beef up to a room above the butcher shop to hide them from the Germans so she could keep her family fed. Through such trials, Rosie grew familiar with her fears and learned to overcome them.  In her late twenties, Rosie returned to the United States. She landed at Ellis Island and found her way back to North Beach, where she met and married Gianni Garbarino, a young man from a neighboring village in Italy. In 1930 she opened a boarding house to serve Italian immigrants in North Beach.

         Patty recalls that even when times were lean, Rosie generously gave to those less fortunate than herself. She sent back to her village in Cogoleto large packages filled with sacks of flour and sugar, and used clothes bundled up in old sheets.  If someone gave Rosie a used dress, she would make a blouse and skirt from the material, Patty remembers, “so that two people could benefit from it rather than just one.”  Rosie never stopped thinking of how she could help the family and friends that stayed back home in Italy.

        Senora Garbarino gave gifts to her family also. She often cooked for her loved ones and served them heaping plates of ravioli, pollo and risotto.  She could somehow create scrumptious meals for the whole family when the cupboards were nearly bare. Perhaps the best gift Rosie gave to her family, Patty reflects, was her example of strength, persistence, and courage. She faced challenges head on. Rosie had only three weeks formal schooling in her entire life, yet she taught herself to read and write in both English and Italian.

        Young Patty liked to accompany Rosie on trips up to the farm of Rosie’s brother in Oregon. From Rosie, Patty learned what could be done in this world with hard work, determination, and bravery. Patty cherishes a special broach, one of the few pieces of jewelry Rosie owned. This broach had landed in the trash because its back had fallen off. Patty’s grandfather found it, and Patty salvaged it to wear close to her heart as a memory of her grandmother. She wears it on special occasions, and especially whenever she is photographed, to remind herself of Rosie’s enormous courage and strength.

        Patty learned about refuse removal and waste management from her father, Joe J. Garbarino, Jr., an innovator in the industry. Marin Sanitary Service, Marin Recycling and Marin Resource Recovery, the companies owned and operated by Patty’s family, are leaders in economically efficient and environmentally clean trash removal services. In 1980 they began the nation’s first countywide curbside recycling program. Today they have achieved the highest per capita recycling rate in the entire country, with over 60% recycled.   That figure approaches the recycling rate of the early trash collectors, called scavengers, who collected trash in a horse-drawn wagon and salvaged 75% of what they collected.  I those days, plastics and synthetic packaging hadn't yet threatened to overwhelm our landfills.  Patty's grandfather, Giovanni Garberino, was one of those early pioneers and a founder of the Scavengers Protective Association of San Francisco.

        As a child, Patty lived in North Beach, a neighborhood of Italian-American families. Many of these families knew each other well, some even from their Italian villages of origin. These families had brought with them to America the traditional values of hard work, family and the Church. From those early years Patty learned what it was like to live in a real community, where neighbors knit together the fabric of life and worked together to make that fabric strong and beautiful.  

In 1959 Patty’s family moved to Marin. Her father bought into Marin Sanitary Service and felt that Marin County was a good place to raise children. One of three sisters, Patty loved ballet and spent much time alone reading. As a girl, Patty also loved cooking with her grandmother Rosie. Patty absorbed Rosie’s lessons so well that she later won a Betty Crocker home economics award.  

        At no time in her Patty’s upbringing did her parents suggest Patty might enter the family business. “My father thought I should be a dancer. My mother thought I should be a veterinarian,” Patty recalls, “but utmost was the fact that I should get married. I think above all my parents expected me to do well, to go out into the world, to make a difference, and to earn my own way.”  

        Patty attended San Rafael City Schools: San Pedro Elementary, Davidson Middle School and San Rafael High School. In the early 70’s, while in high school, Patty had the opportunity to help develop an alternative high school. The design of this school, with its college preparatory curriculum, called into question many of the commonly held educational precepts of that time. Three of its teachers made a lasting impression on Patty, who remembers, “Mr. Barahal, who started his career as a stevedore, Mr. Cunningham, who started his career as a priest, and Mr. Beldon, who had the heart of a farmer. They taught me humanities, psychology, and history and gave me invaluable lessons of how to learn and why knowledge was so very important. They taught me how to think and gave me the gift of appreciating how important education is for everyone in our society - how every child must be included when evaluating the benefits of public education.”  

        After high school, Patty attended the University of California at Berkeley. Its large campus of 32,000 students was a sharp contract to Patty’s alternative high school of 150 students. A part-time job introduced Patty to special education, and she decided to devote herself to teaching severely handicapped students. She graduated with a B.A. from Dominican College in 1977.  

        Patty taught 11 years in Marin County as a special education teacher at the Forest Meadows Development Center (1977-82) and at the Marindale School (1982-85).  It’s been said that teachers can learn many things from their students.  Patty says she learned to admire her students’ extraordinary perserverance in the face of immense difficulties.  Seeing the enormous energy and persistence required by her special education students to do a relatively simple task, such as pick up a pencil, Patty learned to greatly appreciate the value of effort.  She also learned to be direct and forthright. She does not have patience for those who don’t try. Patty came to expect the very best efforts in all circumstances from herself and from others. While Patty taught special education classes, she continued her own formal schooling. She earned a Masters Degree in Special Education in 1981 and subsequently three teaching credentials.  

        Patty also nurtured her love for Italy, the country of her father’s family. During her summer vacations, Patty took one month off every year to visit Italy. Not much English was spoken in the homes of her relatives, so during those summers Patty learned to speak fluent Italian. On one such visit, Patty came close to staying in Italy. The funding for her teaching job had run out, and she had taken six months off to visit the country.  She was ready to settle down for a while in Italy and work for a public television broadcasting company, but her life took a very different turn when she discovered that her father needed her back home to help with the family business.  

        Major changes were jolting the waste management industry. It suffered from a very bad reputation, particularly on the East Coast. Regulators from 27 different agencies were monitoring the business. They initiated controls on pollution, toxic waste, and almost every other aspect of the industry. In 1989 the California State Legislature enacted AB939, a law that required all California communities to divert waste sent to landfills by at least 50% by the year 2000. Through events such as popular Earth Day, the public was becoming increasingly aware of environmental issues, but much more needed to be done to educate people on the need for recycling.  

        Patty saw an opportunity to make a difference. She returned to Marin and officially began working part-time for her father in public relations. Part-time quickly turned into twelve hour days, as Patty delved into learning the business. It didn’t take long before Patty on more responsibilities. In 1987, she began serving as Human Resources, Public Policy and Recycling Program Coordinator  for the  Marin Recycling and Resource Recovery Association.  In 1990, she became Vice President of Compliance and Public Policy of the Marin Sanitary Service, the company that disposes of garbage from San Rafael and four other local communities. With its affiliate, Marin Recycling, Marin Sanitary Service collects more than 300,000 tons of garbage annually and recycles more than half of it. Six days a week, residential, and commercial garbage trucks bring their non-recyclable loads to a transfer station where they are weighed and the data recorded. The Garbarino’s make this information available to the Marin County Hazardous & Solid Waste Joint Powers Authority to comply with AB939--the law requiring a 50% diversion rate from the landfill by the year 2000. Patty was instrumental in developing the program for Hazardous Waste Collection at Marin Recycling and became the Program Coordinator for implementation of AB939.

         The Garbarino’s had anticipated regulation on landfill diversion. In 1987, Patty’s father had convinced his partners to build a facility to sort through solid waste and to extract materials that could be recycled. They built the Marin Resource Recovery Center, an enclosed area the size of about three football fields. The facility accepts all types of non-hazardous solid waste, including yard waste, dirt, rock, concrete, demolition debris, appliances and other debris.  

        The Marin Resource Recovery Center is a highly efficient operation, but not without a sense of humor. On any particular day at the Marin Resource Recovery Center, vehicles line up to enter the enclosed area to drop off refuse. Along the path to the entrance, vehicle drivers are greeted by figurines of all shapes and sizes. Nicked by time, then tossed away, these treasures now welcome visitors to the Center. Tiny bunnies nestle in the grass along with a smiling bear, rotund pigs, an owl, ducks, deer, a squirrel, a sleepy burro, several frogs and a pink flamingo. A Roman woman, her toga flowing, holds up a flower to the heavens. A big Buddha sits in peaceful meditation while two knights in armor lean on their lances and a dancer from Thailand curves her fingers to silent rhythms. A thick-maned lion looks out over the grass while two cupids frolic beside him. These playful creatures hint at the creativity and resourcefulness that are keys to the Garbarino’s success in the waste industry.  

        The Garbarino’s also set up Marin Recycling, which buys back recyclables and provides a Household Hazardous Waste public drop off. Each month, Marin Recycling processes nearly 3,000 tons of recyclables using state of the art equipment. Marin Recycling also runs the Environmental Classroom, an educational resource for teachers and classes. It offers field trips and classroom learning activities for students and residents of all ages. Thousands of visitors have learned about recycling at the Environmental Classroom. Both the tours and teaching lessons are offered  free of charge to residents and schools in the jurisdictions serviced by Marin Sanitary Service.  

        Patty’s work has reached beyond the waste industry in Marin. She has represented her family’s business at the California Refuse Removal Council, a trade group composed of about 130 private garbage hauling companies. This group is an outgrowth of an organization founded by Patty’s grandfather, Giovanni Garbarino, under the name of the Scavengers Protective Association. Patty became the voice of the small independent waste collector at hearings in Sacramento.  

        Patty’s ability to work with this waste industry group was no minor feat. The industry was one of the toughest around. Here’s what one observer says of Patty’s accomplishments: “Patty dares to be one of the guttsiest women I have ever met. Petite Patty routinely walks into a room full of the toughest, meanest men in the garbage hauling business and politely tells them exactly what she thinks. She challenged a movement by them to violate antitrust laws, and she won. This group, the California Refuse Removal Council, did not even allow her to eat with them when she first joined, because no women were allowed in their lunchroom. She went and played Bingo while they had their lunch meeting.”  

        After years of relentless perseverance, Patty managed to earn the respect of the California Refuse Removal Council’s membership. Patty didn’t win this approval by being sweet and demure. She spoke her mind and says she would think less of herself if she didn’t speak up. For the year 2000, she was elected the group’s first woman president. Patty has successfully opened the way for women in an historically male run business. “I don’t think of myself as female first when I am working,’” says Patty.  “I am a business person most of all.” Patty can’t imagine avoiding a career because of gender discrimination. She hopes her nieces will also go into the waste reduction business, even though she sees that the industry is not any more integrated now than when she first started in the business.  

        Patty expanded her influence beyond the family business and industry groups to support Marin County’s efforts to manage environmental waste issues. She became the Advisory committee member for Marin County for Waste Management Advisory Committee 1987-1993, Source Reduction and Recycling Sub-Committee (1987-1993), and Hazardous Materials Management Sub-Committee (1987-1993). She has also become a Board Member of the Marin Conservation League and a speaker at the Association of Bay Area Government Conference. Patty’s influence has extended beyond her county and beyond California.  She was also appointed to the National Waste Recyclers Council for the years 1989-1993 and has spoken at the National Solid Waste Management’s Annual Conference.  

        Blasting through the thick wall of discrimination in the waste industry is an incredible accomplishment, but Patty also has to her credit remarkable achievements through her community service and fundraising efforts for the public schools.  She served as a leader on the Board of the San Rafael Public Education Foundation in its early years and made an outstanding contribution to that organization’s efforts to raise funds for the public schools in the greater San Rafael area.  

        In the mid-90’s, San Rafael schools direly needed funds to provide a quality education to their students.  Patty served as chair of three KidsCount campaigns. These campaigns were a joint effort by the Dixie, San Rafael High School and San Rafael Elementary School Districts to pass a parcel assessment for school funding. Patty organized and energized over 400 volunteers and more than 1200 endorsements for the tax. For three years she worked tirelessly on the campaign.  

        Says a fellow campaign worker, “the largest obstacle Patty faced was securing a supermajority vote (66.6%) for the San Rafael Elementary Schools parcel tax at a time when racist attitudes prevailed, and mean spirited campaigns were waged to defeat this tax. The night we lost the first campaign, Patty wept before a crowd of disheartened parents. She carried the pain of the children of all colors, and she pledged to us all the she would never give up. She didn’t. And she energized that crowd to go to battle again. This was despite incapacitating pain due to a gall bladder, which she had removed the next week.” The following year, with Patty as campaign chair again, the parcel tax passed, and San Rafael Elementary School District got its much needed financing.  

        There may be no better example of Patty’s remarkable strength and determination than this campaign incident. Under tremendous stress and physical pain, Patty delayed critical surgery to shepherd the campaign through the election. And in the midst of her physical hurt and the emotional pain of losing the battle, Patty still remained committed to the cause and rallied the group to try again.  At this time, Patty was serving as President of the San Rafael Chamber of Commerce. Through the Chamber, Patty was able to increase the campaigns’ contributions from local businesses. Over $50,000 was raised, in large measure due to Patty’s connections with business leaders. Patty’s service with the Chamber of Commerce helped her understand how to foster community through business.  “I came out of the field of  education and learned about business from the Chamber of Commerce,” says Patty. In 1993, she served as chair of the Chamber’s Board of Directors.

        Patty’s leadership breathed new life into the school community. After the first parcel tax campaign failed for the San Rafael Elementary Schools, Patty joined several other community leaders in founding KidsVoice (now called Better Schools Now). KidsVoice, a lobby for the consumers of public schools, became the vehicle for raising the education issues in Sacramento. Patty’s leadership helped to launch this organization, which eventually grew statewide. Working with the San Rafael public schools, Patty helped raise public awareness of the need for funds to support quality education. She spoke at PTA meetings, Rotary Clubs, Neighborhood Associations and Chamber of Commerce luncheons to influence the public to vote for quality schools. Patty understood that to change people’s thinking about the San Rafael schools, she needed to help change their  prejudices about the many immigrant children those schools serve. Patty has continued to shape public opinion about the extraordinary hardships the schools face and has became a positive force for teaching tolerance in the Marin community.  

        Patty’s work for schoolchildren has gone beyond fundraising. She has been committed to helping young people learn to find their way from school to work. She knows that an education is useless without employment opportunities, so she championed a vision to link young people to career opportunities in the community. As the chairperson of the San Rafael Chamber of Commerce Education Committee, she developed the San Rafael School-to-Career programs, which has served a model for all of Marin County. High school students throughout the county have gained valuable experiences through internships and job shadowing because of Patty’s work to develop this program.  

        Patty’s accomplishments cover a broad range of community service: leadership positions on the Marin County Planning Commission, the Marin Ballet Board, President of Marin Association of Retarded Citizen’s Board of Directors, and the Rafael Theatre Renovation Board. She has served as a citizen member of Marin Independent Journals’ Editorial Board, and she chaired Marin’s United Way campaign in 1993.

        Despite the wide range of her community involvement,  Patty does not take her commitments lightly.  When she joined the Marin County Planning Commission, Patty spent countless hours climbing a steep learning curve to understand planning issues facing the Commission. She became recognized for her in-depth knowledge and attention to detail, and eventually was made Chair of the Commission. At Dominican College, Patty helped spearhead the College’s campaign to renovate and expand its campus, building the College into an important cultural asset to the Marin community. In 1996, she was designated one the Dominican College’s top ten alumni.  

        How has Patty managed to accomplish so much in so many areas? When asked this question, Patty credits first of all the value of teamwork and her ability to assess and select team members who work together like the different parts of a well-oiled engine.  She also credits hard work. She advises young women that  “to succeed, you must work 120% harder than the others.” Patty also attributes her leadership abilities to the support she was given by gender-blind teachers from all walks of life who encouraged her to believe in herself and to use her abilities to make a difference. She strongly believes that self-confidence is the key to achievement and that we as a community all reap the benefits of an education that nurtures each and every individual’s potential and self-esteem. That passionate belief is central to her proudest achievement, the leadership she has provided to support the San Rafael public schools.  

        Patty has also learned to have thick skin and to use the negative things that come her way for positive results. She recalls being told once that Italians don’t make good leaders. This is the type of comment that gets Patty fired up to prove otherwise. Through her dealings in the waste industry, she became exposed to the rougher side of life. She consistently told herself, “Sempre avanti,” which means “always go forward.” She encouraged herself to forge ahead no matter what the obstacles. She felt she could somehow work around them. Patty also finds it useful to know when to stop. When there’s really little that can be done about something, she tells herself “c’e poco de fare” -  almost nothing can be done, so there’s no point in dwelling on it. Patty’s ability to sense when to charge forward and when to hold back is undoubtedly key to her success as a leader.  

        Patty has dedicated her Marin Women’s Hall of Fame award to her father, whose legacy she is honored to inherit. He is the brightest self-made man she knows, and she has spent much of her career marketing his work. Patty’s mother is of Scandinavian descent. Patty says that her mother and father have very different temperaments, but she feels that it’s made for a nice balance in the family. Patty’s mother was a strict disciplinarian and made sure Patty understood her rules and expectations. Patty also credits her mother with teaching her compassion for all living things. She recalls that when she was a child an oil spill devastated wildlife in the area.  Patty’s mother pulled her from school, and together they spent several days cleaning oil-soaked birds. Patty has not forgotten those days and her mother’s love of nature and of life.  

        Patty’s achievements have come at great personal sacrifice. During her younger days, Patty worked exhaustingly long hours, with little time to spare for dating and a social life. She was working far too hard to think of marriage and a family. When later in life, at age 45, she found her life mate and married, Patty’s childbearing years were behind her.   What does Patty wish for the future? In twenty years, she would like to see robust markets for recycled materials and a more sustainable environment, where recycling pays for itself. She hopes that people will think like the Native Americans, with a feeling of care and respect for what the earth gives them. She hopes that everyone will have the attitude,  “I’ll leave this place better off than I found it.”  

        For herself, Patty would also like to spend more time with family and friends. She would like to connect with her friends more regularly and to entertain them more frequently in her home. She dreams of finding a little village in Italy where, with her loved ones, she may take slow  strolls down ancient pathways and sit on the edge of a sun-soaked piazza surrounded by sounds of her favorite language.  There, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, she’d like a little garden where she can nurture her plants as well as her heart and mind. Whatever she does, wherever she goes, we know that Patty will leave the place better than she found it. Patty’s friends, family, and those of us who have admired Patty’s many accomplishments, wish her all the best in the years to come - “tante belle cose.”