The collection includes correspondence, reports, memoranda and meeting agendas on a wide variety of issues including redevelopment of the Concord Naval Weapons Station, closing of public hospitals, mental illness and homelessness, fire department staffing, reports of abuse of overtime by County employees, traffic safety, and many local building and development issues. The collection also includes correspondence regarding Fahden’s personal interests and her political campaigns.

In 1976 Nancy Cardinalli Fahden entered the race for Board of Supervisors when the candidate she was supporting had to drop out of the race and suggested that she run in his place. She did so and became the first woman to be elected to the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors, winning 65 percent of the vote in her first-ever venture into politics. She served four terms (16 years), ending in 1992. She was active in controlling refinery pollution, opposed the controversial proposed Marsh Canyon landfill site near Mount Diablo in favor of the Keller Canyon site in Pittsburg, and opposed the proposed annexation of the Franklin Canyon area by the City of Hercules. During her tenure, the waterfront in Martinez became a park thanks in part to her efforts and advocacy. She organized the first public clean-up of the waterfront, where her father had worked as a fisherman when she was a child. Ultimately the waterfront became a park under the management of the East Bay Regional Park District. Fahden retired from the Board of Supervisors and public service in 1992. She died in 2015 at age 92.

30 boxes

Contact the Contra Costa County Historical Society for publication permission.

Collection is open for research.