I graduated from El Cerrito High School in 1979 and earned a BS in Radio, Television, and Film from Cal State Long Beach in 1983. I have lived in the same El Cerrito neighborhood since 2001. My partner Glen and I have been together for thirty years. I am retired, which means the Council job gets my full attention.

Before running for elected office, I chaired El Cerrito's Human Relations Commission because I believe in supporting our local arts and culture and promoting tolerance and mutual respect between everyone. Voters later sent me to the City Council in 2014, again in 2018, and again in 2022. I have never lost an election.

I am the statewide President of Cal Cities, the League of California Cities, which speaks for California's cities at the Capitol. I use that seat to push for what El Cerrito needs: money for our streets, our housing, and our emergency services, and the right of a small city to decide its own future. I also serve on the Contra Costa Local Agency Formation Commission and on the Bay Area Air District, where I work on air quality rules that affect the people who live along our freeway and our rail line. I chaired the Contra Costa Mayors Conference, which is where the county's cities work out what they will ask for together.