Candidate for
Board Member; Menlo Park Fire Protection District

I was born in San Francisco and have lived in the Fire District for over 30 years. I spent three summers during college as a US Forest Service Smokejumper based in Redding, CA. After graduation from Harvard I served for six years as an Air Force officer with assignments in the Middle East, Africa, Vietnam, the Advanced Research Projects Agency and the White House. I then spent the next 20 years in the academic and corporate world and the last 20 in pro bono public service. Jane has long been a highly successful scientist and corporate executive having served as COO of ALZA, CEO of Aerogen and on numerous corporate Boards including Intel, from which she retired last year as Chairman of the Intel Board, and McKesson. Jane and I raised our son Jonathan here and he is a graduate of Encinal and Menlo Atherton High School. After going to Harvard, Jonathan joined the U.S. Foreign Service and has represented our country in a number of Middle Eastern countries and at the UN. This is our home and Jane and I are dedicated to and involved with the community. I come from a long time California family that has always been deeply involved in public service. That family instilled in me that the great things of a community are not free + they are brought about by sacrifice, service and hard work. That is why I am running again for the Fire Board. I want to work with you to preserve our values so that our Fire District can remain one of the very best in the nation.

My previous 9 years as a Director of the Fire District were both challenging and rewarding and I believe that I made a difference. During my service we moved forward with the replacement of Station 2 in East Palo Alto to provide the expanded capacity needed by the growing population in East Palo Alto. We added one of the tallest and strongest communications towers in the Bay Area in order to ensure reliable communications even in the event of a big earthquake. Our unique Urban Search and Rescue Task Force responded to the 9-11 events in NYC and to many other natural disasters since then + all with strong support from the Fire Board. We adopted one of the best sprinkler ordinances in the Bay Area and we adopted the best practices in terms of transparency, public input and citizen review of pending labor agreements.

It's no secret that the firefighter's union and I have sometimes butted heads over the years but even they stated: " In your tenure you have been noticeably involved with our US&R Team, our CERT program, the implementation of an improved District Sprinkler Ordinance and have served on standing committees of the District Board. Your leadership in these areas as well as your candidness regarding the Educational Revenue Augmentation Fund (ERAF) has guided the District with professionalism, conviction and clarity through rough times."

We need effective leadership that will guide your Fire District in the challenging times that we face with increased demands for emergency services and constrained revenues. If elected I will maintain the Fire District's long tradition of balanced budgets without any special taxes, I will work hard to reach a long overdue negotiated agreement with the firefighters' union and I will push to find ways to further improve our fire and emergency medical response time in the face of increasing traffic congestion. To accomplish this I will need your help. We must ensure the Fire District is open, transparent, and accountable only to the citizens of the Fire District. The challenges we face cannot be solved by one person alone and to be most effective I need to have colleagues on the Fire Board who are both professional and committed to serving the citizens. Therefore, I ask not only that you support me but that you also support Chuck Bernstein and Rex Ianson. I have my platform and plan of action but I want to hear from you and gather your input and ideas. Together we can preserve and improve our Fire District.