How long have you lived in Piedmont?
3 years
What you do for work, either in or out of your home?
I work at Google LLC from both the Mountain View and San Francisco offices. I am director of public policy and government affairs, where I oversee a team addressing global technology issues around some of the company’s most celebrated products, including the Chrome browser, the Android mobile operating system, the Google Play app store, and the Pixel smart phone. Some of these products have over 1 billion users and my team interacts with legislators, executive branch officials, and interest groups in scores of countries as well as U.S. states, including California, to explain the company’s policy positions.
Have you worked or volunteered in the Piedmont community (or elsewhere) previously? If so, in what capacity(ies)?
Volunteered to help the Albany-Berkeley Little League baseball fields in ready for use coming out of the pandemic in 2021. Alumni interviewer for my undergraduate college
What motivated you to run for office?
In early August, Piedmont City Council had two open seats and there were only two announced candidates. Our democratic system is built on the foundation of voter choice, including at the municipal level. Trust in our political institutions is at a low point and the political friction in American society is the most fractious in a generation – if not in a century. If “we the people” do not step up to run for elected office, then another brick in the foundation of our system of self-government will crumble. With the encouragement of family, neighbors, and friends, I decided to offer my decades of public service at the national and international level to the voters of our city. All that … and my 7th grader at PMS read about the City Council race and, knowing of my government experience, asked: “Dad, why don’t you run?”
What are your qualifications to be on the City Council? Any special skills or experience the voters should know about?
For three decades, I have had the opportunity to work in government affairs addressing some of the most challenging policy and management issues of the age. During my career, I am most proud of the 17 years that I served in the Federal Government in Washington, DC and overseas — never as a political appointee — working under both Democratic and Republican administrations. It is my firm belief that my experience in the White House, the State Department, and other agencies advising cabinet secretaries and elected representatives on strategy and budget priorities gives me a unique set of tools to address the very real challenges Piedmont faces today. My lifelong commitment to public service started during my undergraduate studies at Brown University and continued through my public policy advanced degree from Johns Hopkins University. I speak and read Mandarin Chinese proficiently and Italian conversationally.
What do you see as the most challenging issues currently facing the city?
This election cycle, I believe the main issue voters are concerned about is public safety. According to Piedmont Police statistics, over the last four years, assaults have increased several-fold and arrests have doubled. Crime in Oakland has increased by double digits across most categories from 2022 to 2023. Piedmont Police have begun to shift resources and engaged an outside consultant to ensure the Department has the staffing to meet these challenges. Tools include investing in additional technical equipment like license plate readers, continuing officer-centered resident outreach, and building on robust relationships with neighboring law enforcement agencies. This thoughtful, measured, fact-based approach to policing – with engaged City Council oversight — will continue to provide the best path forward for Piedmont residents.
What do you see as strengths of the Piedmont community?
Piedmont has a strong sense of community and identity. Whether families have been here for generations or are more recent arrivals, people move and live here for the schools and to enjoy a high quality of life. Underpinning much what makes Piedmont special is the commitment of residents to volunteer time and resources to educational endeavors, civic activities, and sports teams – to step up when the city and their neighbors need them.
What will be your top priority if elected?
Public safety. One of the most cherished benefits of living in Piedmont is the feeling of security getting around the city and in our homes. To live in a place where many kids can – and do – walk to school each morning is a blessing.
Maintaining and enhancing public safety in Piedmont is the most pressing concern for residents. I want to bring my decades of policy experience – including working with Federal law enforcement agencies – to ensure Piedmont remains one of the safest communities in the Bay Area.
Do you see yourself being especially involved in any particular city issue or program, whether or not it’s your top priority?
Budgeting and finance. I am running for Piedmont City Council because I know how governments work from the inside out. I have run a government office with personnel and a budget. As a government affairs consultant, I have pitched outcomes and policy papers. The specifics details of how governments actually operate – funding, contracting, measuring results, benchmarking, making budgetary choices – has been the constant thru line during my entire public policy career.
Talk about any leadership roles you’ve held and what you learned from them.
In my last position in the Federal Government, I was a member of the Senior Executive Service — the government’s highest level of management — with a Congressional Commission. At the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, I headed the trade office during the Obama and Trump administrations, leading an international team during times of intense negotiations with the Chinese government over market access for American companies and, eventually, the imposition of billions of dollars of tariffs at the start of the U.S.-China trade war. What I learned: know your brief, treat everyone with respect, understand your position in the hierarchy, build relationships during good times to mitigate conflict when the bad times arrive.
Over my 30+ year career in government affairs, I’ve worked closely with – and learned from — national political leaders including Secretary Madeleine Albright, Governor Gary Locke, Senator Max Baucus. Lesson: Make the effort to ensure that politics remains the art of the possible.
Share an example of your decision-making style.
Listen to a range of inputs. Build supporters. Decide and commit.
Whether running a government office, designing a budget for a policy campaign, or selecting the best approach for official negotiations, this has been my management and decision-making style. When I established a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) award and fundraiser at an industry association, I recruited member companies to form a steer committee, established a review process, guided the events team, and enlisted participation from a range of media organizations to publicize the good projects of member companies. That inclusive inaugural effort kicked off a decade of annual CSR awards and events.
What project have you worked on that you are especially proud of?
As a public service, I conceived of a podcast of interviewing former U.S. officials and produced over two dozen episodes. I arranged for a university to host the series (Georgetown University), secured funding, ordered equipment, orchestrated in-person interviews, hosted the discussion, and then edited in post-production to have each podcast episode contain a narrative arc. (This was in the pre-pandemic days when the podcast art form was still in a much earlier stage of gestation.) Five years later, I remain proud of the series which presented a thoughtful discussion about a serious policy challenge. Have a listen: https://uschinadialogue.georgetown.edu/series/u-s-china-dialogue-podcast
City Council members must navigate a wide range of community opinions and demands. How will you handle those pressures?
Running for City Council has been a wonderful opportunity to hear from a wide range of residents about their priorities and how they envision the future of Piedmont.
Over my career, I’ve been fortunate to have worked for Democratic and Republic administrations, including at the White House of Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. As a career government official, for example, I have had to maintain a non-partisan approach during briefings senior congressional leaders from both parties, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA). Having lived and worked in Washington, D.C. for nearly two decades at the heart of politics and policymaking and at a U.S. Embassy overseas representing American – not partisan – interests, I believe I will be able to use those diplomatic skills to listen to a variety of community inputs and explain the decisions of the City Council to residents in a fair, unbiased manor.
What should the city’s priorities be when it comes to upgrading city infrastructure?
A key component of city services is building, renovating, and completing civic infrastructure to serve Piedmont residents. Finishing the community pool without further delay or expense is the most visible of these efforts. Maintaining roads and ensuring parks meet the needs of residents are another element. A more future-forward project is the need to upgrade the city’s antiquated public safety facilities. Constructing a facility to put 21st century technology in the hands of the city dispatchers provides a once-in-a-generation opportunity to re-imagine responsiveness to residents and – potentially – to build a multi-use facility to further civic engagement in the heart of the city.
What are your views on public safety?
Although I believe public safety remains the top concerns of residents this election, civilian oversight of the Piedmont Police Department will continue to be a key component of role of the City Council. Residents need to be consulted for any new major policing effort or technology. Piedmont is a city surrounded by a large municipality, enmeshed in a densely-populated area of Northern California. Piedmont Police Department’s strong relationship with Oakland Police Department and the Alameda County Sheriff– along with our Fire Department’s ties with neighboring cities – will, over the long run, help keep residents safer during uncertain times.
Piedmont is required by the state to meet new affordable housing goals. What is your view on the approach the city has taken so far to comply with the law?
The lack of affordable housing is a huge challenge at the national level, for the State of California, and for cities and counties across the Bay Area. Piedmont needs to do its part. The Moraga Canyon Specific Plan is a reasonable effort to bring more housing to the region using undeveloped areas of the city. The plan has gone thru extensive public consultations, adjustments, and drafts to reflect the opinions of a diverse set of stakeholders. In addition, in line with state mandates, the city is examining options for coming into compliance with rules about parcel division which could modestly increase the number of plots available for single homes.
Piedmont has recently received an award for its sustainability accomplishments and goals. What would you do to further Piedmont’s Climate Action Plan?
The current Climate Action Plan, issued in 2018, breaks down areas of energy use with the goal of limiting greenhouse gases by 40% in 2030 towards an 80% reduction by 2050. The outlines opportunities across intensive energy uses from transportation to home use and encourages expanding renewable electricity sources to reduce the carbon footprint of city residents and municipal services. Piedmont can continue to be a climate change model for other municipalities to follow – evidenced by the inaugural 2024 Sustainability Awards. Another great example: the decision to have the new community pool heated and run entirely by electric power has shown how Piedmont can be a leader when upgrading civic infrastructure. With passenger vehicles making up 40% of greenhouse gas emissions, the city should continue to examine how to build on walk/bike options as well as encourage a wider adoption of EVs.
What do you think about current recreational opportunities in Piedmont, and do you have other ideas for adding, subtracting or changing programs?
Piedmont has limited park and recreation space which is in high demand from residents for organized sports, afterschool activities, and residents’ use. Fortunately, the renovation and return of Witter Field into use this year has eased burden on other fields. The breadth of programs offered by Piedmont Rec remains one of the great attractions of the city, meeting the needs of some of the youngest residents via schoolmates/minimates to line dancing for older adults and seniors. And we should all be appreciate for the active civic groups and foundations that play a critical role in maintaining and upgrading some facilities as part of a public-private partnership with the city. Everyone in Piedmont is super excited for the reopening of the community pool and the ramp up of aquatic programs that will come along with that milestone.
Do you have a website to share with voters? If so, please add URL below.
https://www.greenforpiedmont.com/
Is there anything else you’d like to share with voters about your candidacy?
How humbling and exciting it is to be part of the ongoing two-centuries long experiment of American democracy — to potentially represent the residents of Piedmont on the City Council.
A huge thank you to friends and neighbors who have supported and encouraged my candidacy.
Please reach out via the website or at green4piedmont@gmail.com with your thoughts and opinions on how to best serve all the residents in our city.
Finally, to the editors of Piedmont Exedra: my appreciation for the service your website gives to the community and for the opportunity to connect with voters.