Candidate for
Council Member; City of Sacramento; Council District 3

Steve Cohn was first elected to the Sacramento City Council in 1994. He was re-elected in 1998, 2002, and 2006. He was also elected by his peers as Vice Mayor in 1996 and 2008.

Steve is the Chief Assistant General Counsel for the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, where he has worked since 1992. Steve also served as Assistant General Counsel and Hearing Officer with the California Energy Commission and Volunteer Judge Pro Tem for Small Claims Court. Steve and his wife Catherine Travers, who is a high school teacher, live near McKinley Park in East Sacramento. They have two children, Nicole, a UCLA graduate, and Adam, a Sacramento City College student. Steve has a bachelor's degree from Yale University (1975) and a law degree (magna cum laude) from the University of San Diego (1979). He was a Fulbright Scholar in France in 1975-76, and received a Diplôme from the Université d'Aix-Marseilles.

Steve is a regional leader in promoting smart, sustainable growth, like the mixed use development in the Central City and the 65th Street/Sac State Transit Village, as well as expanding regional transit and train service from the Bay Area to Sacramento and converting the historic Downtown Train Depot into a state-of-the-art high speed train station. His other priorities are improving public safety and flood protection, developing a growing green job sector, expanding the City's arts and cultural attractions such as the Crocker Art Museum, enlarging the region's parks and open spaces, adopting campaign finance reform and energy efficiency and environmental standards, and promoting more efficient and accountable government. Steve is also responsible for starting the annual Pops in the Park summer concert series, installing street lights in our poorest neighborhoods, and renovating every neighborhood park in District 3 with new playgrounds and sports facilities.

Steve is Chair of the Council Audit Committee, Regional Transit Board (through January 2010) and the Sac Regional Arts Financing Authority, and is a board member of the Sac Area Council of Governments, Sac Regional Sanitation District, Sac Transportation Authority, Capitol Corridor (Rail) (former Chair), Sac Metro Air Quality Mgt District, and Sac Human Rights/Fair Housing Board. Steve also served as Chair or member of the regional governing boards for Solid Waste, Cable Television, Water, World Trade, Welfare-to-Work and Public Libraries.

Steve has received numerous civic awards, including the 2007 Urban Land Institute Transit Development Leadership Award, 2002 Bob Holderness Award for Highway 50 Corridor, 2001 Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce's City Elected Official of the Year Award, the 1997 Sierra Club Award for Civic Courage and the 1993 East Sacramento Improvement Association Orchid Award for Community Service.