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The following letters and other commentary express only the personal opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Piedmont Civic Association.
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September 8, 2020
Dear Friends and Neighbors,
Over the last decade, I have had the privilege of working with Hilary Cooper on Parent Club Boards, the Giving Campaign, and Citywide parcel tax initiatives. Her impact has been significant and she is exceptionally well qualified to serve as a PUSD Board of Education Member. Today, I would like to look beyond her resume and share the leadership qualities that make her an ideal candidate.
Hilary’s Leadership
Hilary’s Vision for our schools is innovative and practical. As an educator, she sees opportunities for student engagement, fundraising, curriculum, and professional development. She is financially savvy and knows how to allocate resources where it makes a difference.
Hilary communicates by listening first then speaking. She asks great questions to collaborate with diverse perspectives and facilitate inclusive action. As a result, her curiosity gives constituents the opportunity to be involved in the decision-making process and support outcomes.
Hilary is passionate about her commitment to our schools and her enthusiasm is contagious. She is the first to “roll up her sleeves” to get things done and when she reaches out to engage others…. I always say YES!
Please join me and say YES to Hilary’s campaign. Engage in the conversation about PUSD efforts for school safety, innovative teaching and learning modalities, state funding/budget allocations, co-curricular programs, and academic excellence. Check out her website to see how you can get involved at hilaryforschoolboard.com.
In closing, I am a PHS alum and our children have benefited from Piedmont schools. We need to ensure the future of our schools for many generations to come and Hilary Cooper has the vision, communication skills, and passion to make it happen.
Go Highlanders!
Mary Alice McNeil
As a City Council Member for the last four years, I have made it my priority to balance fiscal responsibility with a commitment to improving Piedmont’s aging infrastructure and enhancing public services. We are a small city with limited resources and staff, and it is essential that we budget conservatively and address past unfunded liabilities, including our streets and sidewalks, parks, and recreation facilities. Essential long-term investments will ensure a beautiful, sustainable city for our kids and grandkids. I also continue to emphasize more immediate priorities such as wildfire prevention, disaster preparedness, community health and public safety.
As a Council Member, I leverage my deep community connections to engage and promote diverse perspectives, develop mutually beneficial solutions, and increase equity and inclusiveness. I am actively involved with many community organizations to hear their perspectives and support their efforts including PUSD School Board, Piedmont Connect, League of Women Voters, Piedmont Appreciating Diversity Committee, Parent Clubs, Piedmont Community Service Crew, Appreciating Diversity Film Series, Piedmont Parent Network, Piedmont Racial Equity Campaign, and others.
My husband and I moved to Piedmont 17 years ago from San Francisco when we had two sons, Jackson age 2.5 and Salem, 6 mos. Our daughter Shelby was born in Piedmont shortly thereafter. Like many Piedmonters, we were drawn to Piedmont for the quality public education and beautiful city. I quickly became involved in our schools once my oldest started kindergarten. My three kids all attend(ed) Piedmont public schools and I make it my mission as a Council Member to be a strong partner for our schools in every way possible.
I earned an MBA from the University of Chicago and a BS from the University of Illinois. As a business professional, I had strategic and financial responsibility for large consumer products businesses and was an IT management consultant. I am honored to put my experience, work ethic, and dedication to work on the Piedmont City Council.
Jennifer Cavenaugh, Candidate for Piedmont City Council.
Cory Smegal School Board Candidate
Click below to read the list of endorsers for Cory Smegal’s re-election to the Piedmont School Board.
For the past four years, I have served on the Piedmont Board of Education and am currently Vice-President. I am running for a second term because I believe that experience is important, and I care deeply about the schools and the well-being of our students and staff. Recognizing that California continues to underfund public education, I led PUSD advocacy efforts in Sacramento for additional state funding. Locally, I fought for Measures G&H to guarantee Piedmont’s continued fiscal solvency. I am proud of my role in bringing a new STEAM building and theater to PHS. I also convinced the district to refinance a PUSD facilities bond which will save Piedmont taxpayers $25M over the life of the bond. As board correspondent for the past two years, I have been committed to enhancing communication and increasing community outreach. I am proud of the board’s efforts to prioritize student mental health and to promote equity and anti-racism. But there is still more to be done.
The COVID-related challenges the school district is facing are unprecedented. The needs of our students, families, faculty, and staff have never been greater. At this time, we must all come together to support our schools. We must do everything we can to prioritize the needs of our students. If re-elected, I will continue to advocate for fiscal solvency, mental and physical health, clear communication, and excellence in education.
Personally, I have an MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. My husband grew up in Piedmont (PHS ‘85). We moved to town 16 years ago with our daughter, Anna (PHS ‘19), our son, Tommy (PHS ‘21). I am active in the Piedmont Parents Network, Scouts and Boosters, and in my free time I enjoy playing golf and meeting up with friends at a distance in the dog park.
If you’d like to know more about my candidacy or to endorse me, please visit my website, www.voteforcorysmegal.com
Cory Smegal
Going to 100% electricity will stress the State grid further. Except for black swan events like PG&E’s 2010 San Bruno explosion, rolling natural gas outages are unknown. There is a glut of natural gas. Forcing 100% electricity on homes is too much, both from practical and economic perspectives. Electricity is a much more expensive power source than natural gas. Exacerbating this is that Californians pay electric rates 56% higher than the average of other states (source: Center For Jobs and the Economy) on top of our sky high housing costs and nationally second highest gasoline costs. On top of the high costs of the Bay Area, increases are coming as PG&E exits from bankruptcy and will sharply increase rates to comply with court orders to secure its power grid from causing future fires.
The goal of Reach Codes is commonly accepted, of “doing the right thing” by the environment. We all agree with that, however, the Reach Codes are a blanket solution that has many pitfalls and should be rejected in favor of an incentive based system in Piedmont.
Rick Schiller, Piedmont Resident
Today there is a lack of storage facility for electricity generated by renewable energy to enable shifting that energy from the time it is produced during the day to the time it is needed that same day in homes. So potentially an electric heat pump will be fed by electricity generated by a natural gas power plant because of the unavailability of any of the other sources at the time the pump is running. However as a first approximation, the amount of CO2 emitted by the plant is the same as from burning natural gas at the home to generate the same amount of heat. This is because an electric heat pump furnace has a coefficient of performance (COP) of 3 in our Bay Area climate (meaning one watt hour of electrical energy generates three watt hours of heat) and natural gas power plants have an efficiency between 30% and 38% in generating electricity.
A simple way for the City of Piedmont to reduce greenhouse gases (GNG) would be to enforce its existing ordinance that bans gasoline-powered leaf blowers, voluntarily direct city workers to cease using gasoline-powered leaf blowers, and to implement hefty fines for failure to abide. According to the California Air Resource Board (CARB) 1 hour of gas powered leaf blower use is equivalent to 1,100 auto miles. Gasoline powered lawn mowers produce about 25% of the GNG that leaf blowers do.
This approach to reducing GNG is far easier and much less disruptive than the recently proposed City ordinances (aka Reach Codes) to disband natural-gas appliances. And it would greatly reduce Piedmont’s noise pollution as well.
Dai Meagher, Piedmont Resident
Dear Piedmonters,
I appeal to you to join me in lobbying our elected city leaders for an extension of time (beyond August 3rd) for the second reading of the recently proposed Ordinances 750 and 751 (aka the “Reach Codes) for a variety of reasons including:
1) Because the impact of these proposed ordinance affects all of Piedmont’s property owners, I believe it would be very welcomed and appropriate for the city to make a special effort to communicate these proposed ordinances to all Piedmont citizens.
2) It’s my sense that a combination factors (e.g. COVID-19 and the summer season) results in a significant percentage of Piedmonters out of town and unaware of the Piedmont Posts’s July 22nd reporting on the Reach Codes In addition, those that have read the codes may find (as I do) that more time is needed to responsibly reflect upon the proposed ordinance and render productive feedback to our elected city leaders.
The benefits of achieving a broad awareness of the proposed Reach Codes, and the benefits of receiving constructive feedback from citizens and homeowners supports allowing more time before the second reading.
The text of the proposed ordinance can be found here: https://piedmont.ca.gov/common
/pages/DisplayFile.aspx?itemId =16846499 Thank you for your consideration
Dai Meagher, Piedmont Resident
Ms. Bateson, who has served as Executive Director of the ACCFB since 2001, will discuss the Food Bank’s dynamic programs, which include fresh food distribution to the community as well as work toward eliminating the causes of hunger in the East Bay.
During Ms. Bateson’s tenure, the Food Bank has tripled its annual food distribution to 32.5 million pounds. The organization’s success has been recognized numerous times and was awarded Feeding America’s national food bank of the year award in 2016. Notably, under Ms. Bateson’s leadership and bold approach, the ACCFB has ended the distribution of carbonated beverages while increasing its farm fresh produce from 1 million to 20 million pounds annually.
Suzan Bateson was inducted into the Alameda County Women’s Hall of Fame in 2017 and is currently chair of Feeding America’s Western Region. She attended the California College of the Arts and was a participant in the Executive Program for Non-profit Leaders at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business.
This LWVP event will be live-streamed on the LWVP YouTube channel from 4:00-5:00 pm on Tuesday, August 4, 2020. Viewers may submit questions through the YouTube livestream comments, or email to lwvpiedmont@gmail.com. The program will conclude with an invitation and instructions on how to join Team LWVP by donating to the Food Bank. For more information, visit www.lwvpiedmont.org.
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