Candidate for
Member, City Council; City of Burlingame

Terry Nagel is a veteran journalist who has used her investigative skills to tackle community problems and her media expertise to help local groups get coverage in the media.

Her most recent victory was winning better power service from Pacific Gas & Electric for the residents of Burlingame. After citizens suffered repeated and prolonged power failures last winter, she formed a citizens' action group called Burlingamers Unwilling to Live with Blackouts (BULB) and set up two Town Hall Meetings that allowed hundreds of residents to register their complaints with both PG&E and the California Public Utilities Commission, which regulates PG&E.

BULB has been meeting regularly with PG&E all year. The group has succeeded in persuading PG&E to spend more than $1 million on improvements to circuits in Burlingame and has helped numerous residents win refunds for damages suffered during blackouts.

Nagel also organized residents in 1996 and succeeded in getting three "monster houses" downsized in Burlingame. Her efforts led to the city's adoption of design review guidelines that have been the model for other cities.

She started her career as a travel writer and editor and went on to become a staff writer and editor for the original San Mateo Times, where she covered 10 local cities, eight school districts and county government. She later worked as an editor at the San Francisco Chronicle, as assistant managing editor of Forbes ASAP magazine, and as managing editor of GreatSchools.net, a nonprofit Web site offering free education information for parents.

She also founded and managed two online travel forums for Expedia.com and ran a home business in Burlingame, an out-of-print book search firm, for 18 years.

In May 2003, she completed an intensive five-month community leadership program with Coro Northern California. She currently works as an editor and communications consultant for the Skoll Foundation, a nonprofit foundation that helps underprivileged communities around the world become self-sufficient.

A resident and homeowner in Burlingame for 25 years, Nagel is married and has three children. Her involvement in local schools spans two decades and includes serving as PTA president of Lincoln School, as a member of the PTA Council and as head of numerous committees. Her many honors include an Honorary Life Membership in PTA and the John Swett Award, the state's highest education writing award.

She also has been extremely active in the community. She was a board member for CALL Primrose Center, which helps the needy, and has been a volunteer with Music at Kohl Mansion, the San Mateo Arboretum Society, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, and many other organizations. She currently is serving as president of Burlingamers Unwilling to Live with Blackouts, as chair of the Communications Committee at Burlingame High School and as head of the BHS Music Boosters' annual Holiday Open House fundraiser.