Experience – Narrative

Summary
I have a vast amount of experience as Mayor and on the City Council as well as apart from it, that qualifies me very well to continue serving as your Mayor. I am confident that I have the knowledge, skills and experience to continue leading Morgan Hill and making it an even better place.

Career
After graduating form UC Berkeley in 1966 with a degree in math, I started a 38 year career with IBM. I worked in sales and marketing positions in Sacramento and San Francisco, then transferred to San Jose in 1977 to assume a planning role for storage hardware and software products. I had many roles in my San Jose IBM career, and gained extensive management experience.

Morgan Hill – Early Involvement
My job move to San Jose also brought me to live in Morgan Hill. I finally had enough spare time from job commitments to allow me to get involved locally, coaching youth soccer and assuming a Board position on my neighborhood homeowners association in Holiday Lake Estates. I served three terms as president in the early 1980s.

When we moved to Morgan Hill in 1977, the first growth control Measure E was just being adopted by voters to address the strain that rapid growth was putting on the infrastructure of the community. In the 1980s, I was involved with Citizens for Orderly Development, CORD, who led an initiative process to update Measure E to Measure P, eliminating certain loopholes and clarifying the original measure. My involvement got me interested in general community planning and I set an objective to be appointed to the Planning Commission.

Morgan Hill Planning Commission
I served on the General Plan Update Committee of 1988-1990, and made several applications to the Planning Commission. Finally, on my sixth try in 1991, I was appointed! I spent seven years on the Commission, an experience I thoroughly enjoyed even though it was more work than I had anticipated. The Planning Commission’s dedication and hard work, especially in the Measure P (now C) process, is exemplary.

I was appointed as a Planning Commission representative to the next General Plan Update Committee in 1997 and served on it until I was elected to the City Council in 1998. Then the workload really intensified!

Transition to City Council
I had retired from IBM after 30 years in 1996, and was still working there as a supplemental employee. Fortunately, I had a job that was very flexible, so I was able to meet my Council obligations while also giving IBM the effort they deserved. I re-retired from IBM at the end of 2003, so am no longer employed except as Mayor of Morgan Hill.

When I was elected to the Council in 1998, the City had recently completed a visioning process where our residents strongly endorsed building community facilities for cultural and recreational purposes. In order to finance the building of the facilities, we needed to extend Morgan Hill’s Redevelopment Agency. I successfully led the campaign to secure voter approval for the extension in 1999, my first year on the Council.

City Council Assignments
Serving as Mayor and on the City Council requires also serving on a plethora of other boards, committees, task forces, etc. I’ve been Morgan Hill’s representative on the County Library authority since I was elected, currently in my second appointment as Chair. My strong affiliation with and affection for libraries has also given me other lead roles in the placement, design and financing of our new library, and also in the eventually successful campaigns for the passage of the extension of the County’s library parcel tax.

I chaired the task force that did the update of Measure P to Measure C, as well as the task force that updated our Fire Master Plan. I was Vice Chair of the Downtown Plan Committee and chaired the effort to develop our Economic Development Strategy. I’ve also served on several Water District Advisory Committees, our City/School Liaison Committee and the committee that developed the City’s value-based Ethics Policy.

As a Council member and continuing as Mayor, I support both our Youth Advisory Committee (YAC) and our Library, Culture and Arts Commission in an informal liaison role. I also get involved in many of the great activities the YAC puts on for youth.

I currently serve as Chair of the Council’s Regional Planning and Transportation Committee and I am on the Public Safety and Community Services Committee that has been working diligently the past 18 months to propose ways to upgrade public safety staffing for both police and fire protection.

As Mayor the past two years, my role has expanded. In addition to many, many appearances and speaking opportunities, I am also more involved in setting and overseeing the Council agendas and represent the City in the association of all Santa Clara County cities. The schedule can get quite hectic, but it’s never boring!

In the Community - Beyond the Council
I joined the Morgan Hill Rotary Club in 1995 and served as President in 2003-2004. Always an active Rotarian, I especially enjoy working with youth. I started the Interact Club at Central High School and am still involved there, as well as with other Live Oak and Ann Sobrato Interact clubs and with the annual awarding of Rotary scholarships.

I’ve been active in the Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce, serving on Committees and as an Ambassador to welcome new businesses. I’ve also been involved in planning and putting on many community events. I was a longtime Committee member of IDI who does the annual Fourth of July celebration. Through Jennifer’s involvement in the Morgan Hill Historical Society, which she chairs, I find myself quite involved in their events celebrating Morgan Hill’s history. The 2006 Centennial celebration was really special and fun; I co-chaired the History Trail project, created at the Morgan Hill House on the Villa Mira Monte site.

I went through the Leadership Morgan Hill program in 2002 and thought it was a terrific experience; a great program to groom future community leaders. I joined the Board and served two terms as president. It’s a great program that just gets better every year, accomplishing very visibly the objective of growing tomorrow’s leaders!

I am in my third year as a member of the Board of Directors of the Santa Clara County Housing Trust. This organization has a fantastic track record, far exceed ing the one billion dollar mark in leveraged funding too make housing more affordable in the Santa Clara Valley, after only six years in operation. I am proud to be part of this organization.