How long have you lived in Piedmont?
29 years.
What do you do for work, either in or out of your home?
I’m a licensed architect and manage the local office of a real estate advisory services company.
Have you worked or volunteered in the Piedmont community (or elsewhere) previously? If so, in what capacity(ies)?
Like many of my neighbors, I have worked and volunteered in the schools, for Non-Profits, and in City Government including the following:
- Piedmont City Council (4 years, current position)
- Parks Commission Council Liason
- Recreation Commission Council Liason
- Piedmont Civic Center Facility Renovation Sub Committee
- Police and Fire Pension Board Member
- Pool Bond Oversight Committee Council Liason
- Piedmont Planning Commission (7 years)
- Chair, Piedmont Planning Commission
- Piedmont Design Guidelines Committee
- Measure A1 Advisory Committee
- Seismic Safety Advisory Committee for the Piedmont Public Schools
- Piedmont Community Service Crew / Rebuild Together Oakland Team Leader (15 years)
What motivated you to run for office?
I enjoy serving our town, working alongside my City Council colleagues, and our talented city staff. My main motivation is to continue putting my experience to work for Piedmont.
Piedmont has an inspiring and contagious culture of volunteering that keeps our city running. I see this firsthand each year during Council interviews for City Committees and Commissions, where subject matter experts and community leaders eagerly step up to give back. This is a process that can become a bit competitive. So much so, that one applicant jokingly called it a “contact sport.” I am very proud to serve a community with that level of support.
What are your qualifications to be on the City Council? Any special skills or experience the voters should know about?
My four years of experience serving on Council and my seven years serving on the Planning Commission have prepared me for another term on Council – if voters agree. As a practicing architect with over thirty years of experience leading Bay Area teams, I bring a collaborative problem-solving approach to the Council. I leverage my professional background and civic experience to deliver practical solutions for Piedmont.
During my seven years on the Planning Commission, I worked with the team that completed a comprehensive update to our city’s Design Guidelines. This document provides design guardrails to responsibly manage growth and has prepared me to address housing policy issues that come before council. The Design Guidelines actively shape how we preserve our neighborhood integrity today while we continue to stay ahead of state mandates and code changes.
What do you see as the most challenging issues currently facing the city?
My priority remains to deliver on the essential services that make Piedmont a great town: Safety, fiscal health, and infrastructure. All these priorities are becoming more challenging to deliver as costs increase while our revenue base continues to be tied heavily to the real estate market without the benefits of commercial tax revenue. As a council member and with my professional experience in managing building projects, I am focused on providing our first responders with the tools they need, protecting our taxpayer dollars, and improving our infrastructure efficiently through sound financial planning.
What will be your top priority if elected?
Fiscal Responsibility. We will be challenged to deliver on any other priority without it. I’ve managed the finances of my own small business and the budgets for large corporate capital projects, but I’m not a financial expert, which is why our town is fortunate to have a resource like the Budget Advisory and Financial Planning Committee to perform yearly reviews of our city’s financial health. And based on the committee’s recommendation, our council needs to continue to:
- Manage expenses and protect reserves. Our expenses are projected to grow at 6%, while our revenue is projected to grow at 1.3%
- Establish Sustainable Capital Funding. This is a driver of the need for a long overdue transfer tax increase.
- Proactively Manage Long-Term Liabilities and Risks: Prepare for pension expenses and the narrowing margin between real estate sales prices and assessed valuations.
Do you see yourself being especially involved in any particular city issue or program, whether or not it’s your top priority?
If re-elected, I will continue being especially involved in Housing issues, Moraga Canon Specific Plan (MCSP) and navigating State Housing Mandates. We are approaching an important milestone of the MCSP with the Request for Qualifications currently out on the street and reviewing any potential agreement that may come before City Council for review.
As a licensed architect, with seven years on the Planning Commission, and four years on City Council, I understand the technical and financial challenges as well as site-specific challenges of development in Piedmont. I have worked with Council and our community through a multi-year process of workshops, reviews, and revisions to define our obligation to meet state housing requirements while making sure city-owned land serves Piedmont’s broader community needs. I will evaluate any proposed partner against the RFQ criteria, the Specific Plan, our fiscal realities, and community commitments.
Talk about any leadership roles you’ve held and what you learned from them.
Each of my leadership roles has shaped how I will continue to serve Piedmont if re-elected:
- City Council Member & Planning Commission Chair: (11 years) Taught me the values of being prepared, active listening, and finding common ground among differing viewpoints.
- Small Business Owner (18 Years): Taught me that success relies on building trusted relationships and consistently delivering high-quality work.
- Rebuilding Together Non-Profit: Leading Piedmont High School students for over a decade to rebuild homes for East Bay seniors showed me firsthand the impact of community service and gives me confidence in our next generation of leaders.
Share an example of your decision-making style.
My decision-making style is practical, thorough, and collaborative. As a City Council member, I do my homework: studying staff reports, listening carefully to community input, and weighing long-term impacts before making a call.
I took this same grounded approach on the Planning Commission, where decisions directly affect residents’ most significant investment: their homes. For example, when reviewing what I considered a large, but straightforward maintenance project, I realized it shouldn’t actually require a planning review. I proposed removing it from our agenda, refunding the homeowner’s application fee, and recommending it go straight to building approval.
Although my colleagues were initially surprised by the proposal, after some thoughtful discussion, we all agreed and moved forward.
What project have you worked on that you are especially proud of?
I was proud to stand with my colleagues on City Council, and our fire and police chiefs to cut the ribbon on our new 911 Emergency Dispatch Center earlier this year. Completed on-time; on-budget and partially funded through Federal Grants, this critical facility will enhance community safety by maintaining rapid response times and allow our operators to work more efficiently. This project was a top priority of our Police Chief at the time and was constructed in an active police station while our staff continued delivering their high level of service to our community. This project is a successful example of how we should execute future capital projects in town.
City Council members must navigate a wide range of community opinions and demands. How will you handle those pressures?
By staying accessible, calm, and open-minded. People speak up in Piedmont because they care deeply about Piedmont. I welcome differing viewpoints and aim to base decisions on facts, community needs, and long-term sustainability.
What should the city’s priorities be when it comes to upgrading city infrastructure?
We live in a beautiful, historic town. Unfortunately, our infrastructure is also historic and requires proactive maintenance, repair and replacement to keep Piedmont functioning at a high level. Three infrastructure priorities stand at the top of the list:
- Pavement Management: Our staff does a great job piecing together funding from multiple State, and County revenue sources to fund road maintenance, but the increased cost of construction far outpaces the revenue. As a result, our Pavement Condition Index Score has been slowly slipping – we need to add to this budget bucket because every dollar spent on maintenance, saves up to 10 dollars in future replacement costs.
- Sewers and Storm Drains: We are ahead of our neighboring cities in complying with the Federally required sanitary sewer repair / replacement, but we still have 30% of the project to complete. We need to stay on track, secure the State revolving funding, and prioritize cleaning and preparing our storm system to handle the coming El Nino storms.
- Aging Buildings: The total cost to upgrade our city facilities far exceeds the City’s current funding capacity. I agree with the Budget Advisory Committee that ongoing planning, prioritization, and quantification of these projects remain vital due to their high costs and long implementation lead times.
The adoption of public surveillance technology such as Flock cameras has expanded in use across the country and has sparked community backlash in many localities, including here in the Bay Area. Some neighboring cities and counties have limited or removed Flock access, while others have continued to use or added Flock technology to their policing infrastructure. What are your views on Piedmont’s use of policing technology, including Flock?
I support the use of cameras and ALPR technology and think of this issue in three parts:
- Safety and civil liberties: Cameras and license plate reader technology help keep our town safe, but safeguarding resident privacy remains non-negotiable.
- Transparency: The Piedmont Police Department is the first law enforcement agency in the nation to launch an ALPR Transparency Portal. This resource tracks data, usage and list all external agencies who have access. The public can access here: https://transparency.flocksafety.com/piedmont-ca-pd
- Strict guardrails: Our system does not use facial recognition; data is encrypted, automatically deleted on a strict 30-day rolling timeline, and is owned 100% by the city. While we have guardrails in place, we need to be diligent in updating our practice and policies to remain transparent and keep the public’s trust.
Piedmont is required by the state to meet new affordable housing goals, and the Moraga Canyon project is moving forward. What will you do to ensure that any development of that site includes a focus on pedestrian and traffic safety?
I heard from many Piedmont residents throughout the public engagement process that safety must be integrated into the design from day one. I will advocate that any agreement considered must include traffic impact studies, plans for traffic improvements and pedestrian safety; wildfire-resilient design and safe emergency evacuation routes conforming with the requirements in the Moraga Canyon Specific Plan before any final plans move forward.
Piedmont has recently received an award for its sustainability accomplishments and goals. The new all-electric pool is a testament to that progress. What would you do to further Piedmont’s Climate Action Plan?
I would offer more carrots and less sticks to keep our focus on practical local steps such as encouraging building electrification and getting the word out to residents to access available sustainability incentives.
Water conservation goals are also part of our Climate Action Plan, and our Sustainable Parks Management Plan identified Piedmont Park’s irrigation system as inefficient and in need of modernization. This is a low hanging “sustainable” fruit that should be funded in our next budget cycle. This practical move will save on our water bill while keeping our jewel of a park in the center of town
looking good.
Piedmont leaders have grappled in recent years with the city’s racist past, most notably by commissioning a memorial to the Dearing family, who were the city’s first Black residents and who were forced from their home in 1924. Is a memorial enough?
Artist and Landscape Architect, Walter Hood’s design for the Dearing Portal is an important and very meaningful step, but honoring our shared history is an ongoing effort. Real progress means continuing to build an inclusive community, staying open to ongoing dialogue, and making sure our town is welcoming to everyone.
Just for fun: What’s your favorite spot or feature of the city? (ie, a walking path, park bench, view spot, building, etc.?)
I think many people in Piedmont have their go-to walking route and I’m no different. I like walking the historic urban stairs that were built to connect residents to the Key System. The Blair Stairs are my favorite walking workout.
Do you have a website to share with voters?
www.vote4tomramsey.com