Candidate for
Council Member; City of Cathedral City

The Early Years + Shelley grew up in Rochester, New York, the second son of two working parents. His father owned and operated a jewelry store opposite the Kodak Color print building and his mother was bookkeeper for the store and helped with sales. He was a somewhat quiet and shy child who focused on reading books and his schoolwork. He led the life of a normal kid growing up in the 1950's in a quiet neighborhood in Rochester, but with "duck and cover" civil defense drills in schools in preparation for a nuclear attack.

Education + He graduated from high school just under the top 10% of his class and continued his education at the University of Rochester. Starting his education with a focus on intensive science courses, he decided to broaden his education after his first year and obtained his bachelor's degree in Psychology with a minor in History. He put himself through college as a member of the Teamsters, working for Sealtest and Borden's Ice Cream companies during the summer months. During his undergraduate college years he was a resident assistant in the dormitories and was hired by the Dean of Students as a student assistant to work on a research project. This experience focused his career goals on the importance of education, helping an individual learn how to learn + to listen, to analyze, to think, to write and to speak and as a result he decided to continue his education in the this area at the University of Rochester in the Masters in Education (M.Ed.) program for Higher Education Administration.

Launching a career + After finishing his coursework for his M.Ed. he was hired at a Community College in New York State as their Director of Residence Life. He was the first professional student personnel staff person the institution hired for the position so he spent the next two years establishing policies and procedures, developing training programs for the student staff while managing all the operational aspects of the residence halls. Fed up with the winters in upstate New York, he started interviewing for positions in the Boston area, hired by Brandeis University to open and manage their new 125,000 square foot student center, which was under construction at the time. This was his first experience working with architects, engineers and contractors on managing a construction project. This process became a criterion for the rest of his career for positions that allowed him to handle such projects. After leaving Brandeis for a few years to work at Boston University, managing their orientation programs, he was asked to return to Brandeis as their Director of Residence Life and University Housing.

Making it all work + Because of Shelley's budgetary and management abilities and his skills at working well with all members of the community, he was promoted a number of times over a 6 year period. His duties, being responsible for coordinating administrative functions lead to a promotion as Budget Director for the institution. He was soon appointed Associate Vice President for Finance and Administration and finally Vice President for Administration, a position he held for almost 14 years. During those years, he was responsible for nearly all of the non-academic operations of the University (Dining, Catering, Campus Police and Public Safety, Facilities Management and Operations, Telecommunications, Purchasing, Events Management, Mail Services and Copying, etc) including Campus Planning, and all major construction and renovation projects. His daily life ranged from: working with students and student groups; making presentations to the Board of Trustees; recommending capital reinvestment expenditures; providing due diligence materials for large bond issues; and evaluating ways to control administrative costs.

For the past 12 years of his career, Shelley was in charge of campus planning and facilities management and operations for Babson College, which has been ranked the number one entrepreneurial business college in the country for the past 17 years. This experience gave him a great deal of insight into what it takes to start a new business and how to support the creativity and efforts of those with ideas for new ventures. In addition to his daily responsibilities, he assumed the role of the campus sustainability officer and, working with his staff and the rest of the senior officers and campus departments, dramatically improved the campus by reducing it's carbon footprint by over 40% in just 6 years. As a result, when he retired from Babson, the College created the Kaplan Sustainability Award and will be giving out the first award this fall.

At the same time, wanting to give back to his community, Shelley joined the Board of Directors of Rogerson Communities, a non-profit organization founded in 1864 dedicated to providing housing for low and moderate-income elderly. The organization provides housing and adult-day care facilities for over 1,500 individuals in 15 facilities. During his 14 year tenure on the Board, Shelley was Treasurer for six years and Chair of the Board for two years.

The decision to run + Having bought a home in Cathedral City in 2008 to permanently escape the cold and snow of New England, he also wanted to continue to offer his skills and experience in ways that could help benefit his new home town. He applied for and was appointed to the Coachella Valley Mosquito and Vector Control Board and then to the Cathedral City Planning Commission. He became more and more familiar with the issues the city has been facing, including: 1)undeveloped open lots and large plots of land razed and vacant, awaiting development. 2) a tenuous financial situation due to the economic downturn of 2008. 3) the State's elimination of the Redevelopment Authority. Shelley realized that he could best help the city by running for City Council. He is firmly committed to getting the city moving forward again. He feels he can work well with the new Mayor and Council members to cooperatively encourage development. He knows it will not be easy, and that it will take time + this situation did not occur overnight + but he has the intelligence, the experience, and low-key perseverance to help the council make the right decisions for Cathedral City, so we can realize the phrase above the dais in the City Council Chamber "Moving Cathedral City Forward."