Candidate for
County Supervisor; County of San Luis Obispo; District 2

I have been a resident of Los Osos since 1978. My hometown is Detroit, Michigan. I have been married to Patricia Soulliere Ochylski since 1973. We have two daughters, Kimberly, who is employed by the Pew Charitable Trust in Washington, D.C., and Megan, who is a student at Sonoma State University majoring in Biology and who was a college softball athlete.

I received my B.A. in Political Science from the University of Michigan in 1970; and my Masters in Landscape Architecture in 1973.

My first employment was a Landscape Architect/Planner. After a few years, I entered the teaching profession as an Assistant Professor at Purdue University. I moved to California when I was recruited to fill a similar position at Cal Poly. After receiving tenure, I decided to resume my career as a Landscape Architect/Planner and founded my own firm, LANDPLANS, which provided Landscape Architectural and Planning Services for both the private and public sectors.

As my practice morphed from providing basic design services to providing project representation and interfacing with governmental agencies and interested stakeholders, I decided to pursue a law degree to enable me to handle the increasing complexity of governmental regulations and environmental issues. After passing the bar, I formed my own law firm specializing in land use planning and environmental law. This mixture of educational, planning and legal backgrounds provides me with a unique perspective that allows me to identify creative comprehensive solutions to a variety of problems.