Candidate for
Member, Town Council; Town of Moraga

What I stand for

My Church is the bedrock on which my family stands. My faith in God and my commitment to my family underscore the service I have rendered to our country in times of war and of peace. My faith and my commitment are my motive forces for wanting to serve you on the Town Council of Moraga.

My daughter, Mariette, is in 5th grade at Camino Pablo while my son, Reiner, is in 7th grade at Joaquin Moraga. My niece, Casey Weingarten, is also a 7th grade student at JM while her brother, Noah, is a Junior at Campolindo. These four children are my family's links to the future. I am therefore committed to find ways and means to help our School District's governing board in their continuing effort to give our children an education to rival that of private schools.

The environment is of primary concern to me. It is important that we view the environment as an ecological whole rather than a collection of dissociated parts. Through that prism we will understand why we should not cut trees with careless abandon, why we should not kill animals for the sake or thrill of killing, why mountains and forests should be kept as pristine as possible and why careful study and consideration should be the order of the day before they are touched. All development proposals must rise or fall on the standard articulated in the General Plan. As stewards of our environment, we must act like cautious expansionists, interested as much in protecting what we have as in extending our horizons. Towards this end you and I will move together.

I am no stranger to the War on Drugs given my law enforcement, military and intelligence backgrounds. Vigilance on this front, backstopped by an aggressive anti-drug campaign in our schools is clearly the order of the day.

On the local economic front, the byword should be "Why Not Moraga?" The average annual household income in Moraga is approximately $160,000. That translates to a 900 million-dollar market!! It is unclear to me why we cannot attract retailers enough to go after a piece of this 900 million-dollar action! I have turned around underperforming companies in the past and, with your help, I intend to use what skills I have to turn around the performance of our town on this score for the benefit of our town and our schools.

Why I wish to serve...

"I hope that my achievements in life shall be these -- that I will have fought for what was right and fair, that I will have risked for that which mattered and that I will have given help to those who were in need; that I will have left the earth a better place for what I've done and who I've been." -- C. Hoppe