There are two years left on Parsons’ term. If she decides to run to retain her seat in two years, she will be running the same time Councilman Reggie Moore’s seat is up for election - November 2010.

There were several rounds of winnowing the 14 applicants. Each round consisted of one question asked by each council member and then a vote was taken. Arne Simonsen and Gary Agopian both applied and voted out early, both were only supported by Mayor Davis and Councilman Brian Kalinowski.

When it got down to four applicants - Vincent Manuel, Manny Soliz, Martha Parsons, Jason Miller - Moore moved to appoint Martha Parsons, with Kalinowski, Mary Rocha, and Moore voting for Parsons and Davis voting against.

See an interesting and animated discussion at the Times.

Planning Commission appointments deserve the utmost public scrutiny; especially with billions of dollars at stake from development opportunities including the Concord Naval Weapons property and infill projects in and around an expanded Redevelopment District and Downtown Concord that will create thousands of homes, jobs, and potential tax revenue.

Unfortunately, the public knows very little about the process or the applicants including their economic or political interests. And the public can only guess about the unseen backers—the usual suspects—who provide not a little arm twisting of council members to make sure their man gets the job that may hasten some project’s approval by Council.

And let’s not forget that the Planning Commission’s got juice, and once established as a player, such an appointment is a safe sinecure from which to solidify connections and rev up for a run for a council seat.

For instance, this bunch of applicants includes Robert Hoag, a retired Account Manager for IBM and recent unsuccessful applicant for the recent vacant city council seat the CNWS Community Advisory Committee (ed. mistake). Harmon West, is a five year member of Concord’s Community Services Commission who has run twice for City Council unsuccessfully. Along with some other candidates, there is also Ron Leone, who works for Antioch School District, and serves as a director on the Mt Diablo Hospital Board.

Interestingly, in the past city council election, Leone’s unsuccessful campaign benefitted from an (apx) $22,000 donation in the form of a mailer sponsored by an independent expenditure funded by the East Bay Business Coalition.

So is this a fair fight or what? Do you believe this is an open and honest application process? Or is it so corrupt it’s not even worth talking about? Should a sitting council member who has received campaign donations from the East Bay Business Coalition recuse themselves from such a vote? What can be done to make Planning Commission appointments more transparent and invite more public input than what we have now? Hell…should there even be a Planning Commission the way it’s organized now?

In addition to the usual statements of Economic Interest, perhaps the City could require and make available to the public, applicant statements concerning past campaign contributions they have received. And, in addition to regular filings required by the State of California, City Council members could voluntarily republish for distribution on the City website their own campaign contribution list with name of donor, date, and amount of donation.

This way the public might have a chance to connect the dots, figure out what’s what, and raise a ruckus sooner than later after the fix is in.

I have been a Concord resident, father of two children and volunteer in city government for the entire 25 years we have lived in Concord. I have served as the Chair of the Planning Commission and the Design Review Board. I have also served as the Concord representative to the Transportation Citizen Advisory Committee and member of the Mobile Home Rent Review Board.

My work career consisted of Project Management and site supervision of commercial, public, medical and religious buildings with budgets to $12,000,000.00. These projects were located from South San Jose to Vacaville and gave me access to learn about good and bad development, as well as good and bad government in the Bay Area.

I will bring a strong business management and supervisory background to the Council if I am appointed. My experience, which is very different from that of the existing Council members, would bring a fresh, balanced perspective to the Council. I have no issues which will preclude me from voting on the reuse of the Naval Weapons Station or any other issues facing Concord.

My wife, Denise, and I grew up in the Ygnacio Valley and have lived in Concord for 18 years raising our children.

I have a BA in Government from CSU, Sacramento. Currently I work on economic development and redevelopment matters for the City of Antioch.

I have twice run for Council. In the 10 years since my last campaign I have stayed active in local issues – serving the last 7 years on the Planning Commission.

One of my proudest accomplishments on the Commission came in April 2006 when I insisted that the 13,000 homes designated in the General Plan Update for the Weapons Station be removed so the Re-use process could move forward with a clean slate.

I want to thank my colleagues on the Planning Commission for unanimously supporting my application for this vacancy. For more information please visit my website at www.guybjerke.typepad.com. Thanks.

Guy Bjerke
guybjerke@comcast.net
689-5502

My wife Maria and I have lived in Concord for 29 years. We’ve raised our three children in Concord. I’ve demonstrated my leadership as an elected official by serving for four-terms as Director of the Mt. Diablo Hospital Board. As director for 16 years on the hospital board, I kept my pledge to save millions of dollars through prudent fiscal management while delivering exceptional services, and keeping our Mt, Diablo Hospital vibrant and our Emergency Room open. I was chairman of the board for the John Muir Health System, which is a billion dollar Private Corporation with 6,000 employees. I was chairman of the John Muir/ Mt. Diablo Community Health Fund board that gave $1,000,000 in grants annually to unmet health c are needs in our community. I was the Teacher of the Year in the San Ramon School District. I am currently the Director of Student Support Services in the Antioch School District. As the director of a large school district’s Student Support Services and former high school administrator, I worked hand-to-hand with law enforcement. I firmly believe in prevention, intervention, and enforcement. I have traveled with the Concord police in the monument corridor. My oldest son worked for the Concord Police Department. Consistent enforcement of city codes and keeping our neighborhoods safe and attractive is essential for our quality of life in Concord. Last year my daughter’s boyfriend was viciously attacked in Concord. And although violent crimes have only risen marginally, we must reverse this trend. When you analyze the FBI statistics, it becomes clear that the more sworn officers a city has, the less violent crimes occur in a city. I will support the hiring of more police officers.

I will continue the efforts to keep Concord a safe and appealing place for all sorts of businesses and employers. We need to continue to encourage businesses in town that provides our residents with plenty of places to shop, and the high-paying corporate employer that will support our standard of living. Concord should continue to develop a vibrant and thriving downtown. (A downtown that rivals those of our neighboring communities.) Combining restaurants, retail shops, and cultural interests that will make downtown Concord a destination with a broad spectrum of appeal. We need to continue to maintain our city’s strongest per-capita sales tax base in the county. I support the expansion of events such as the farmer’s market, summer concerts, and other downtown events that make our city a fun and unique place to live. I also support the redevelopment and the revitalization of the Monument Corridor. This should become a cultural highlight of our city.

I also serve on the city’s Design Review Board. I understand the issues in Concord; in the last city council election I walked door-to-door receiving 10,000 votes. I am able to make the tough decisions. As the last city council’s election runner-up by a razor-thin margin, I have the most legitimate claim on the vacant seat created by the untimely and tragic death of Michael Chavez. My views on the Concord Naval Weapons Station development mirror Michael Chavez. Like Michael Chavez, I would like to stop the over-development of this area. I will preserve plenty of open-space and our natural resources. Permanently protecting our hillsides from over-development. I will only support a reuse plan that enhances our overall community with a combination of developing additional parks, recreation, baseball, soccer fields, trails and plenty of open space, and an intelligent use of the land around the North Concord BART station that will not have an adverse impact on the surrounding neighbors. We need open-space buffer zones to insulate our older established neighborhoods. I also do not want to have the quality and the character of our neighborhoods destroyed by added traffic, increased crime, crowded schools, and strains on other city services. Reducing traffic, supporting the transportation infrastructure and public transportation is a high priority for me. With the Naval Weapons Station development this provides us with many challenges but through this development plan we need to find the finance mechanisms to fund long-needed traffic improvements in our city. The city council should establish a dynamic plan to alleviating both our current and potential traffic problems. We need to manage traffic in a sensible way to keep our people moving in our main streets, but not speeding through our neighborhoods. Concord has been, and is a great place to raise our children; however it won’t remain that way if traffic congestion prevents us from getting in, around, and out of town. I will continue to encourage community involvement through the reuse process. And I believe that any development plan on the Naval Weapons Station should be placed before the voter’s approval.

Sincerely,

Ron Leone
925-680-1776

According to the City of Concord website “Persons who have submitted applications for the vacancy on the Concord City Council should be prepared to answer questions…on the following topics: 1.Near and Long-range Perspective for the Community; 2.Quality of Life Challenges and Opportunities; 3.Community Leadership and Interpersonal Skills; 4.Fiscal Health and Resource Issues.” Each applicant will have the opportunity to answer first, with one minute, ahead of the other applicants who can also respond to the question. Applicants will also be given one minute each for introductory and closing statements.

Edi Birsan, Alla Ave; Guy Bjerke, Oak Knoll Dr; Keith Brown, Kenwall Rd; Robert Bruce, Laverne Way; Charles Carpenter, Florida Dr; Vikki Chavez, Alray; David Current, Olive Dr; Robert Hoag, Rhoda Way; David Kahler, St Francis Dr; Robert Kosloff; Robert Larkin, Falbrook Rd; Ronald Leone, Lynwood Dr; Ursula Luna-Reynold, Polk St; Michael Pelosi, Whitman Rd; Wiliam Seaver, Polk St; Chris Tang, Jacqueline Way; Susa Walls, Rosehedge Ct; La Shawn Wells, Pennsylvania Blvd; Harmon West, Carelton Dr.

So just like Helen Allen, don’t you dare argue with my record, ’cause I know a thing or two about the use of Society Garlic in median strips, the ten shades of mauve appropriate as contrast colors for window-casing treatments, and what questions to ask prospective Council applicants to see if, like me, they have what it takes to serve the people of Concord.

Now that Concord’s City Council is set to interview applicants for the vacant Council position, I offer my own Top Ten interview questions for the candidates:

10. Since you may be the only Councilmember to have any significant experience in the private sector, will you promise now to get out of the way of the lifers who know what they’re doing and not run for reelection in 2010?

9. Since you will not have been elected as you serve out the rest of the term, will you object if Council bypasses you when your turn comes up to be Mayor? This way Councilmember Allen can be Mayor for the 6th and final time and be the first two-year Mayor Concord has had for more than a decade.

8. If you were to serve as Mayor, what will be your pet project for the year? Mayor Bonilla touted Literacy; I’m not sure what happened to his “Green Initiative” but I just love tugging my leash to qualify for Mayor Peterson’s 100-Mile Club; and Lord knows what Vice-Mayor Shinn will cook up for 2008; so fess up now… what special axe will you grind as Mayor?

7. Do you solemnly swear that, without any sleepover shennanigans or defacing the address on your cable bill, you will actually reside in Concord? And if you do happen to relocate to say, Sacramento, will you promise to pay for a “Concord Voters Appreciation Night” at a Sacramento Kings game at Arco Arena?

6. Should Concord continue its strategy of ceding the Monument Corridor to the Monument Community Partnership in the hope that LAFCO will reincorporate the area as a sovereign third-world country?

5. Do you have a Community Cable-Car transit system proposal to help people who buy new housing downtown to shop in Concord without getting into their cars?

4. Would you agree to bring together all of the ownership interests at Park ‘n Shop to create a mixed-use, commercial-residential development on that property that isn’t an eyesore, without threatening eminent domain?

3. Speaking of eminent domain, will you fight to make the deliberations of City Council more transparent and free staff’s reliance upon the self-serving and idiotic political agendas, policy chimeras, and ludicrous talking points of regional planning and “professional” municipal organizations, and as your first act as Councilmember, move that the City of Concord withdraw its membership and ask for the City’s money back (retroactive) from ABAG and the California League of Cities?

2. And as your second act as Councilmember, would you agree to fight to the death to restore “non-City” social service funding to pre 2005-2006 FY budget levels when the City “liberated” $100,000 from the Community Services Commission that forced massive program cutbacks in the community?

1. Finally. When speaking of plans for the Concord Naval Weapons Station, will you please refrain from sounding like a dope by describing every single proposed project as “world-class!”