Candidate Interview Q/A

By Dean Orr

from the Lamorinda Weekly Newspaper, Andrea Firth

I believe my professional background in architecture and my experience as the Chair of the Planning Commission will give me a unique perspective as a Council member. I make a point of listening to all viewpoints and trying to bring the community together to make decisions about how our city will look and feel. I am excited to share my experience and leadership as the council faces many planning issues in coming years including proposed changes to our downtown, and the building of the Wilder and Pulte projects.

I also look forward to representing the voice of a family with young children still in our schools. My family is involved at Wagner Ranch Elementary on many volunteer levels. Our schools are a huge asset of our community and I will work hard to make sure that the School Board and Council support each other in every effort to maintain their excellent quality.

What do you feel are the most important issues facing Orinda?

Our deteriorating roads and aging infrastructure continue to be key issues facing Orinda. As well, we must maintain our prudent fiscal reserves and continue to carefully address budget shortfalls.

I believe the most challenging issue facing Orinda is gaining greater community involvement and building consensus among residents. We must find ways to engage and actively listen to residents. I look forward to the development of our city website, the city twitter service, email lists and other media in order to make the government process accessible to everyone.

Crumbling roads--two failed bond measures, the charter city and real estate transfer tax tabled--how should the City address this $100 million plus problem?

In the short-term we must continue prioritizing road repairs for our limited budgets. In addition I will work with my colleagues on the Council and with our city staff to seek alternative funding sources where available. We must continue to look at alternate strategies for selecting road repair projects, the sequencing of the work, and bundling of projects to take the best advantage of the construction bid process and stretch our dollars.

Again we must continue to listen to the community to understand their willingness to support a bond or other revenue measure as a fix. When the economy permits, I will work tirelessly to educate our community on the need, the repair plan, and to gain support to succeed in securing funds to repair our roads.

How do you feel about the development process in Orinda and what, if any, change is needed?

The most important part of our process--and I embrace it--is to preserve the wonderful outdoor spaces and small town feel of Orinda while at the same time providing opportunities to bring more services, and restaurants, to serve our residents. We all moved to Orinda because it is a wonderful, natural, family-oriented community, but we would like to have more goods and services available and to make purchases locally.

In my two terms as a planning commissioner the planning process has become much more efficient and straightforward, resulting in more streamlined, balanced and thoughtful development opportunities for the city.

We must continue to review and evaluate our development process, to help applicants and homeowners build and renovate their homes and properties to contribute to the quality of our environment. In addition it is imperative that we make every effort to protect and preserve our open spaces and the natural beauty of our community. We should encourage infill construction projects and existing home renovations to meet this goal.

I also will encourage our Council and department staff to find ways to support sustainable building practices and alternative energy installations. We should highlight these projects and give special attention to applicants willing to go beyond the minimum standards of construction. As the new 2010 California Green Building code is implemented next January, we must be prepared to help applicants understand and implement these new state mandated codes.

"Downtown revitalization"--what, if anything, should be done in the commercial districts, how should it happen, and where do you stand on increasing the building height above 35 feet?

I support the full involvement of all residents as we carefully consider changes to our downtown. We must balance the need for a thriving area which can meet the needs of our residents--and no one is happy with empty storefronts--with the historic desire of Orindans to enjoy a natural environment where the hills and trees are the predominant features.

I want to hear the public debate on the downtown issues, but it is important for us as a community to consider the location of some residential use in the downtown, and to collectively discuss what the design limitations should be to accomplish our goals to both maintain our natural environment and to bring services and restaurants to our downtown.

I look forward to additional public workshops so that we as a community can have a further dialogue about our very important downtown areas.

What do you think of the financial health of the city of Orinda and what, if anything, needs to be done going forward?

Our financial health at the moment is stable. I believe we must be fiscally conservative as we review and approve future budgets as State and Federal funding continues to be short and in some cases eliminated. It is also imperative that we continue to do our part to make sure what funding we do receive from the State can be maintained. For example, we must continue to keep our Housing Element up-to-date as this document is linked to specific State funding sources such as Measure C, a vital source of road repair funding.

What is your position on banning or limiting the use of leaf blowers in Orinda?

I do not support an outright ban on the use of leaf blowers in Orinda. It is not clear that the majority of Orinda residents support such a measure at this time. I will continue to listen to the public and try to further understand the issues at hand. I think this discussion is a great opportunity for residents to meet their neighbors and discuss the concerns brought on by the use of leaf blowers.

Provide a vision statement for the City Council, i.e., what would you like to see the Council accomplish in the next four years and/or what should be the Council's priorities?

Vision is the key word, as it is important that the community develop a collective and collaborative vision for the downtown, and I will then work with my colleagues on the Council to implement that vision.

We must address our failed roads and seek every funding opportunity to obtain revenue--including grant money, bonds and partnering with the other involved agencies-like EBMUD, PG&E and the Central Sanitary Agencies--to find funds to fix our roads. We must also work closely with our school districts to support safe routes to schools and to collaborate on recreational opportunities--and healthy choices--for our children and teens.

So that more citizens can be involved in public issues, we must enhance our outreach to the community and enhance city communications by increasing our e-mail, emergency notification, and electronic messaging capability.

In these difficult economic times, we need to work together in a spirit of cooperation with other local agencies, the schools, utitlities, and the fire district, in order to stretch our local taxpayer dollars and to make sure that our tax dollars stay at home and are not seized by the state. As a council member, I will work hard together with other local elected officials to keep tax revenue available for use in our local community