It is with pleasure and enthusiasm that I write to endorse Nancy Beninati for Piedmont City Council.
I have lived in Piedmont for almost 50 years, my wife and I first moving to Arbor Drive in 1979 soon after we were married, opting for better schools, a community with the “feel” of the Midwest where we both were born and raised, and less fog than we knew we would experience in San Francisco. During the following 25 years we raised two sons, who both received excellent educations in the Piedmont schools and are now enjoying successful careers on the east and west coast, respectively.
My wife and I both love living in Piedmont, choosing to stay after our boys left high school in contrast to many of our friends and acquaintances who sold their homes and moved out of Piedmont when their own children left the family nest. We did so because we value the beauty, safety and friendliness of Piedmont, characteristics that we would expect any member of City Council for whom we might vote would strive to preserve.
Speaking just for myself now, during the nearly five decades that I have lived in Piedmont I have gotten to know and become friends with many members of City Council. In addition, during those same decades I have served on various local boards, including the School Board, the Ed Foundation Board, the Boy Scout Board and the League of Women Voters Board. I also have been Co-Chair of several Bond and Parcel Tax Campaigns as well as served on the Oversight Committee for the Bond Campaign that financed the most recent major Piedmont High School construction project as well as the Citizen’s Anti-Crime Task Force that functioned during the early 1980s.
The point of the above recitation is simply to suggest that after all this experience with various Piedmont organizations, plus my decades observing the actions of City Council, including what works and does not work in Piedmont specifically, I believe that I have some insight into what it takes to be a successful member of any governing board, and especially what it takes to serve effectively on the Piedmont City Council.
With that in mind, I can state categorically that I believe Nancy Beninati has the qualities and experience needed to be a highly successful City Council member. Not only has she been a long-term resident of and raised a family in Piedmont, hence understands what is special about our community and what needs to be protected going forward as she ponders the many decisions that City Council will inevitably face in coming years; she also has served on various local governing boards (Rec. Commission, Civil Service Commission, League of Women Voters) and has volunteered in numerous activities associated with the Piedmont schools, thus has demonstrated an ability to work well with others and a willingness to give back to her community in many different ways.
Beyond that Nancy has decades of experience in the CA Department of Justice, including as Supervising Deputy Attorney General, is a lecturer at UC Berkeley, and has worked with the Piedmont Police Department on racial and identity profiling matters. Finally, to add frosting to the cake, she also is a licensed CA real estate broker, meaning she understands the implications of the CA-imposed housing mandates with which Piedmont is contending and about which City Council will have much to say in the years to come.
Bottom line: if you, like me, seek City Council members who are competent, collegial and committed to their community and its values, you can’t do much better than voting for Nancy Beninati for Piedmont City Council.