Tim Rood announces he will run for City Council
Dear Piedmonter,
You’ve heard from me in the past about civic issues facing Piedmont – most notably, the $2.5 million in taxpayer funds that the City spent to cover cost overruns on the Piedmont Hills utility undergrounding project, as well as issues related to safety, recreation, long-term facility planning, and open, transparent government.
I’m writing today to share some exciting news: I’m running for City Council.
Having been an active, involved resident of Piedmont for years, I’ve realized more and more that the expertise I have would be helpful on the City Council to protect and enhance Piedmont as a high quality city. As a professional city planner with decades of experience working with communities all over the country, I understand the importance of sound financial planning and a robust public process.
I believe securing the City’s long-term financial viability is key to sustaining the services and quality we enjoy.
Over the coming months, I’ll be talking with a lot of Piedmonters and visiting with community groups. I look forward to sharing ideas about how to keep Piedmont a great place to live.
Please take a few moments to visit my website, www.TimRood2012.com, where you can learn more about my views on city government and to let me know what’s important to you. I want to hear what your concerns are and what you think is working well. You can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter.
If you find that your views and mine coincide, if you want to keep Piedmont a great place to live, and if you think I have the qualities to make that happen, I’d be honored if you joined my campaign.
There are many ways to get involved, from simply signing up as a supporter, to requesting a yard sign, hosting a meeting, or making a financial contribution. Just go to www.TimRood2012.com and click on “Get Involved” to get started.
And of course, please forward this email to anyone you know who may be interested.
Thanks,
-Tim
Personal Statement – Tim Rood for City Council
After living in Oakland and San Francisco for twelve years, my wife Muffy and I moved our young family to Piedmont in 2002. We were attracted to Piedmont by the high quality public schools, the convenient location, and the attractive, safe and walkable environment. We have found Piedmont to be a great place to raise our family. Our son Henry and daughter Sylvie have participated in baseball, soccer, tennis and the fine music programs at Wildwood and PMS. The fact that they can walk to school or a friend’s house, and that I can bike or take the bus to my office in downtown Oakland, also helps us meet our environmental goals as a one-car family. We enjoy walking our dog Moby in the Piedmont hills, and playing trumpet in the Piedmont Community Band in the Fourth of July parade is one of the highlights of my summer.
Not long after we moved to Piedmont, I was asked to join the board of the Piedmont Swim Club. As an architect and city planner, I was interested in helping with the long-range planning for the pool. Particularly after I was elected president of the board in 2007, the relationships I built with other board members and organizations deepened my desire to be an even more active member of the Piedmont community. Unfortunately, the Swim Club was unable to come to a long-term agreement with the Council to continue the public-private partnership. I’m glad we now have a public pool and that it’s more affordable than ever for swimmers, but I want to see the City take the necessary steps to maintain the aging facility and ensure adequate funding into the future.
In my professional work as a city planner, I’ve worked with city staff, boards and commissions and citizens in over 35 communities to tackle tough long-range planning issues. For example, I led the multi-disciplinary consultant team that prepared the downtown revitalization plan that Martinez adopted in 2006. There, we found common ground among Smart Growth advocates, preservationists and neighbors fearful of displacement. In Healdsburg, we’ve found consensus on a vision for a redeveloping industrial area, changes to major streets and freeway ramps, and two new full-sized, thoroughly modeled roundabouts at the entrance to town. The open, transparent processes I’ve led allowed citizens to work through these difficult issues together and create plans in which the whole community can take pride.
Because my professional work involves frequent appearances before Councils, boards and commissions, and because of the time involved in my volunteer work for the Swim Club and school committees, I initially assumed that Piedmont’s government was in the capable hands of knowledgeable and qualified citizens and focused my energies elsewhere. But I got a wake up call in 2009 and 2010. Like many Piedmonters, I was appalled to find that the City had mismanaged a utility undergrounding project so badly that over $2 million in public funds was required to cover cost overruns. I encouraged everyone I knew to speak out about the need for appropriate risk management and more careful stewardship of public funds. I’m concerned that two years later, the Council still hasn’t taken action to address these issues.
Earlier this year, I was approached about running for Council by a group of Piedmont residents with long histories of involvement in civic affairs. After discussing the fiscal and public process issues facing Piedmont, I grew concerned about the work needed to get City finances on a sustainable footing. Without concerted action by the Council, Piedmont is on a course to greater and greater deficits that threaten essential public services, even as the tax burden on families has continued to grow. This concerns me as a taxpayer, a citizen and a parent.
I’m running for Council because I care about Piedmont as a great place to live and raise a family, and I want to protect our community’s future. I care deeply about public involvement, which along with environmental sustainability is the focus of my professional practice. Having led over a hundred community workshops myself, I have seen the difference that an open, inclusive and transparent public process can make. With all the difficult issues facing Piedmont, I believe that I have the skills and energy to be a leader on the Council and help our community protect our future – together.
Tim Rood, Candidate for City Council
(The above announcements were provided by the candidate. The Piedmont Civic Association does not endorse nor oppose candidates.)
