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Urban Carmel
Why I'm running for the Mill Valley City Council - Urban Carmel
I am one of the five candidates seeking election to the Mill Valley City Council. I want to introduce myself to you and talk with you about why I've decided to run. The primary election is on March 3 and those of you who vote absentee will be receiving your ballots soon.
This is a highly consequential election.
Two long serving council members have retired. Moreover, the next City Council will select a new City Manager for the first time in a decade. In short, we need to elect candidates with long-term experience working in our community.
In the past 20 years, I have been highly involved in our community and have led many efforts to make our town better:
- As the current Chair of the Mill Valley Planning Commission, I have protected our small town character while supporting affordable housing and implementing environmental building practices.
- In 2009, I restarted Mill Valley’s Library Foundation, served as President twice and created a multi-million dollar endowment that solved budgetary challenges.
- As a six-year School Site Council member and President, I promoted community service for our youth.
- I was given the prestigious President’s Award after seven years as a soccer commissioner and a decade as a head coach.
- I am the current Co-Chair of a committee protecting the historic West Point Inn.
Professionally, I have 35 years of business and finance experience. I was a senior consultant with McKinsey & Company in the US, Australia and Europe before moving to Hong Kong and then Indonesia to become the President of the Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS). I hold a degree in finance and economics from the Wharton School at Penn. I believe the Council will greatly benefit from my experience when confronting the financial challenges of the future.
Endorsements
I am endorsed by 19 former Mill Valley mayors, including Andy Berman, Stephanie Moulton-Peters and Dennis Fisco. I am also endorsed by the Marin Democratic Party and the Marin Firefighters Association.
My wife, Lisa, and I moved here in 1999 with our two small children. They both attended Kindergarten at Old Mill School and graduated from Tam High. In between, they played soccer, baseball and softball and each ran the Dipsea with me every year for a decade. My son became an Eagle Scout.
A green campaign
I am the only candidate running a green campaign. I am not sending mailers to all 6,000 Mill Valley homes and I am not putting up hundreds of plastic lawn signs. This is all landfill and it is time to make elections in Mill Valley environmentally sustainable.
You might have started see some on my signs around town; they are hand painted on recycled wood given to me by Renee Goddard who ran a green campaign in her winning bid for Fairfax Town Council last November. After the election, my signs will be recycled again for the next candidate running for office in Mill Valley. This is how change starts.
I will be writing more about my views on local issues in the coming weeks.
In the meantime, you can learn more about me here: https://urbancarmel.com/