Candidate for
Council Member; City of San Clemente

I'm a native of Orange County. My Mother was a High School English teacher. My Father was an orphan who had an 8th grade education. He died of lung cancer when I was young. I was raised by my Mom in Garden Grove.

I'm a graduate of UC Irvine with Bachelor degrees in Spanish and Biology. I have a law degree (J.D.) from Franklin Pierce Law Center, Concord, New Hampshire. I'm married and have a cool step-daughter starting her Senior year at SCHS. And many of you have already met the star of the family, Foxy, my 7.4 lb. dog that rides in the basket of my mountain bike.

I served two years on the San Clemente Planning Commission from 2008-10, being appointed by a 4-1 vote on my first application. During my term on the Planning Commission, I always made decisions grounded in the law, never bowing to political pressure to favor one project over another. In that way, my hallmark was always fairness and consistency.

During the last year, I founded PEDal, the San Clemente Non-motorized Transportation Committee. PEDal's volunteers were responsible for hundreds of hours of volunteer time gathering data for our town's first bicycle and pedestrian count. That data helped the City Council unanimously begin the authorship of our first ever Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan last Spring.

I am a founding member of Save San Clemente Open Space, a non-profit group of San Clemente residents dedicated to preserving Open Space. Our efforts led to huge victories at the polls when nearly 70% of San Clemente residents voted to defeat Measure C (nullified rezoning Open Space to build more condos) and pass Measure V (the City cannot rezone open space greater than 1 acre without voter approval).

I am also a founding member of Vision San Clemente, a non-profit group of San Clemente residents who lead the charge in gathering signatures for the North Beach Referendum this Summer of 2010. Now that the signatures are verified, the voters will be able to decide if City-owned North Beach should be sold to a developer.

The past academic school year, I spent many hours tutoring local Latino youth in math, science, and reading. Many dream of becoming doctors, teachers, scientists, or police officers. The most important lesson I shared was that they all have the ability to achieve their dreams if they're willing to work hard. But I don't know if I taught as much as I learned from them. For sure, that experience was one of the most rewarding of my life.