I’ll be 67 this year. I was born here in California, went to elementary school in New York City, went to Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley and attended George Washington University in the early seventies. I was planning on joining the foreign service so I decided to major in Political science during my freshman year. As happens with many people though, I ended up changing my major to Geology with competing minors in Fine Arts and Religion. If I were to do it over I would probably have pursed a major in Science, Technology, and Public Policy.
During the nineties, I ended up working for several New York City design and advertising firms, whose clients were the leading titans of the time like Microsoft, Apple, Novell, MasterCard, and Adobe. It was during this time that my wife, Nicole, and I met on Valentine’s Day at an art gallery. We were married on Halloween 6 years later.
By the time my daughter Sophia was born in 2001, I was doing technology services on my own, with about 40 clients in a variety of individual, business, and production settings domestically and internationally. My clients included teachers at the NY High School of Art and Design, the Modern Language Association, restaurant owners, theatrical agents, actors, hotels, design agencies, artists, gallery owners, photographers, archtitects, and journalists. This multidisciplinary background has given me a solid, “on-the-ground” understanding of the needs that people and businesses have to meet.
I believe that this varied background experience will be very useful in the role of Council Member on the Calistoga City Council. “Politics-as-usual” methods will not be useful for the future challenges that our community will encounter. This multidisciplinary background has given me a solid, practical understanding of the needs that people and businesses have to meet.
I believe that this varied background will be very useful in the role of Council Member on the Calistoga City Council.
Yes, this is my first time running for public office. What would I bring to the table, should you elect me to for the office of Councilmember of Calistoga’s City Council? I firmly believe in our Democratic Republic based on the U.S. Constitution and its role in our society. More so than any other idea put forth in the 18th century, the U.S. constitution successfully created a framework that addressed an age-old questions at the time: Can a system of government be created where the citizens could govern themselves? Self-government implies consensus, and any city council member should make that their number one goal. At the same time if the citizenry’s consensus is based on erroneous data, the council member’s duty is to educate the citizenry about why that opinion is no longer accurate and to point towards a more constructive answers.